“What? What!? Wha, wha, wha, what!?”
That, and about twenty-seven other forms of the word, came out of my mouth as I hurried out of bed and into the Secret Room. The insides were familiar, as usual, and so was the southern shelf.
As I entered, the figure of the Ghost waited for me. I turned to it as I walked in and stared at the woman for about three seconds before declaring.
“Fuck you! My appendix does more than you do!”
Then, raising my hand towards the edge of the southern shelf, I closed my eyes to imagine a more controlled burn. Just the little bit of the shelf that would allow me to access the cube was enough. I didn’t want to deal with all the ash like last time.
But whether it was my lack of focus or my focused anger, I don’t know. The fire never came. The attack that did come out was in full force, and burst through the entire wooden bookshelf before I could even finish my imagination. Wood, paper, and leather flew everywhere; one of the splinters just barely missing my eye.
“Or, well…that works too.”
Ignoring the shocked, wide-open mouth of the Ghost, I got my eyes on the Cube and its magenta lighting. Hand out and pressed, I waited.
“Contact made. Laura Mason, again. What do you want?”
“What do I want?” I groaned. “Ok, first of all, that’s very rude. I am the one helping you out, so maybe it’s about time you started taking that seriously. And secondly, what the fuck just happened!? It was the second day, not the third. How could you begin the loop when the time isn’t right?”
“It’s not about the time, Laura. I thought I explained to you that you loop when you die. Did you not pay attention to what you did? You were going to die in the next few seconds, and so the Cube decided to loop. Is that so difficult to understand? Also, will you pl-”
“Die? Really? How, even? I was on the Third Floor, and I was going to break the mold on the door of the Luxury Suite with Bella. I got a cat. That was awesome. What part of that made the Cube feel like I was going to die!?”
“Alright. Let me finish myself before you speak up again. Did you get that?”
“Ew, no. Never put it like that again.” I sighed. “How about you finish your sentence, or finish what you wanted to say? Don’t say…that. Please. Ugh.”
“Laura.” The woman on the other side sighed, too. “I am so done with you already. Fine. Let me finish my sentences. I am new to English, and I’m trying my best. Our translation technology is not perfect, so we might make some mistakes. I might finish myself once in a while.”
“Ok, just stop. You’re doing it on purpose.”
“Yeah? Well, how about the part where you totally just broke the rule where you’re not supposed to swear? These are official recordings. They might be presented in court someday to prove that we need more funding for this project. Do you want the Cube to disappear, Laura? Because if we don’t submit these audio files, it will!”
I shook my head, frowning. “Look, do what you want. I’ll do what I want. Let’s just keep the Cube out of it. Also, whatever happened to all that corporate speak, huh? What the hell happened to that?”
“You’re pissing on me, Laur-”
“NO!” I did not even know that my throat was capable of making sounds like that until it was already done. Even the Ghost might have been surprised if she had still been there. “No more metaphors, similes, quotes, idioms, or whatever the fuck. That’s an order. That’s a primary rule set by this collaborator of yours. Do you understand that? Just say I’m making you ang-”
“Well, Laura!” The voice that came back carried in it a hint of some crying, for some reason. “I was sleeping. Just two minutes ago, I was peacefully having a nap and waiting for the Cube to reset, because the Cube takes three or so hours to put things back together. But then the three hours were gone before I knew it, you woke up, and I haven’t had a good sleep in almost a week! So, shut up if I am not the master of the same language as you…”
I filed that information away as important. Even if the alien and I were having a bit of a shouting match, I was still getting intel. The Cube took three whole hours to process the reset, apparently. What happened for me instantaneously actually took time out here.
“Either way, you can admit that you didn’t need to say what you did. That phrasing is a bit-”
“I’ll say it if you also say something. How about you admit that you don’t need to be so rude all the time, and swear all the time, when I have been clear about the fact that it is not allowed? Do you want to be thrown into the Box again!?”
Being completely honest, I kind of did. I did want to be thrown into the Box, just so that I could see that view once more. Just like my music phase, I had also had an astronaut phase, as every kid did. My fascination with space had not yet vanished completely, and even this stupid alien could not make it go away.
Right now, however, I had more pressing concerns.
“Let’s just forget all that. Why did it loop? Also, what do I call you? I can’t keep calling you ‘alien’, can I?”
She calmed down on the other side, too. “You can call me Editor, if you so wish. It’s our society’s equivalent of ‘scientist’, for you. As for the loop, I explained already. You died. What exactly do you want to know beyond that? Ask, and I’ll try to answer.”
Editor. Their version of ‘scientist’. That didn’t make much sense to me. I was, however, standing in a medieval inn floating in space and talking to an alien. There was a lot that would not normally make sense here.
“Editor, I want to know why I died. Can you do that? Can you tell me what went wrong?”
She puffed with satisfaction. “Alright. To put it as simply as possible, neither of you was ready. Based on the readings I have, both of your attacks were far too volatile and would have caused the entire inn to be ripped apart. In your case, it is because you’re not good enough. In her case, it is because she was not focusing on making it a refined attack.”
Bella had mentioned a while ago that my attack was not perfect. It was uncontrolled, wild, raw. In comparison, I myself had seen what a more trained Magician could do with Unraveling Magic. It was beautiful. Bella was that Magician. She was the one who knew how to make it work well. So, why did she not go through with that this time around?
“Was it because she didn’t really want to do it?” I asked, dejected. There was no other answer, after all.
“That might be a good way to put it. Now, it is kind of my job to sit here and watch over you, so I do pay attention to what is going on. In my expert opinion, she obviously did not want to do it. I’m sure you realize that as well, right?”
“It did feel a little rushed and out of place, sure. But, to be honest, why would I not want to rush to the ending? I want to go home, Editor. I like these people, and it’s incredible that I get to help them as well. But I still want to go home. That’s what I want to do. Can you blame me?”
“Laura,” The Editor switched to a calmer, more understanding tone. “I’ve been here for six years. I am twenty-four years old. Ever since I could do this job, I’ve been on a space station in the middle of nowhere, staring at this building. Trust me when I say that I understand what you mean. But if you don’t do this right, then you will keep dying. There is no time to be hasty.”
“There is all the time in the world, though.”
“For you, maybe. The person who worked here before me was here for seventeen years. All that time just to see absolutely no progress. Do you know why he left?”
“Got bored?”
“He died, Laura. Passed away due to his age, so they needed a replacement. My boredom doesn’t matter. I signed up to work in space, so this is what I get! It’s as simple as that. And now, until I have some terribly good reason to leave, like dying…I am stuck here. And I am not looping. My body is not being reset to ensure I don’t age. Every day that you all stay stuck in there, I die. Do you understand that?”
I did. As much as I didn’t want to, I did. The hatred in me did not take long to vanish. The more I got to know about this whole fucked-up situation, the worse it got. We were stuck inside the inn, while this poor girl was stuck outside it. I did not know her name, I did not know what she looked like, I did not know what her life was like before this.
All I knew was that I controlled her life now. More dumb mistakes and hasty decisions like the one I had just made, and she would be stuck here for longer. I would go back to the exact moment I had vanished, maybe. But her? She might not even get the luxury of going back. No matter who she was, that hurt.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t need your apologies. I need you.” She replied. “This part will not be included in the official recordings for obvious reasons. You will be safe. Could I include it, get our funding cut, and then go back home? Sure. But six years is a long time, Laura. I don’t want to see all of you die either. So, please try your best.”
“You got it.” I gulped, ready to take my hand off the Cube. But then, an idea struck me. One that didn’t have much use, but one that would make me happy nonetheless. “Hey, if this is not part of the recording, does that mean I can swear now?”
“No, it doesn’t.” She sounded like she was rubbing her forehead out of frustration already. “Really doesn’t. Don’t do it. I don’t like it.”
“Fuck you.”
“Alright, into the Box you go.”
Blip. Darkness. Glass.
I fell into the box from before. The one made for intergalactic criminals. Looking down at the inn, I moaned with wonder. There it was, still floating in the dark expanses of space. Far away, the stars glistened with a charming, welcoming joy. It was sublime.
“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen…”
“That’s…what?”
“What galaxy is this? What system?”
“You’re just having fun, aren’t you? This is a prison. Act like a prisoner.”
I yawned, then broke out into a monotone speech. “Wah, oh no, I have been captured. I swear I didn’t do it. Oh no! Now, what galaxy is this?”
“You’re going back into the inn, Laura.”
“No! Please, just a lit-”
Blink. Darkness. Inn.
Here we were again, in the Secret Room. This girl really had a very short fuse, didn’t she?
“Do your best, my new friend.” The Editor adopted the monotone this time around. “I will be going back to sleep.”
“Whatever.”
I took my hand off the Cube and looked back at the Innkeeper’s Room. There was so much work to do. There were so many things to consider to ensure that we didn’t loop again. Every new one of those was probably a heart attack for the Editor, especially given how excited she must have been to finally see some progress.
Out of the Secret Room, then into the Innkeeper’s Room, I grabbed this small black ribbon of sorts from the bedposts. Then, getting out of there too, I walked to the washroom and freshened up. The ribbon went on my hair, tying it into a bun before I walked out to deal with the rest.
I needed to have a bath, but not before doing something important.
Using my attacks, cooking, and just moving around in general. I had noticed something after all this time. The slight annoyance of it had slowly built up over time, and it had finally reached its boiling point now. I was going to be here for some time, and that was a fact. The resolve to do this as quickly as possible still existed, but looping again and again would be an inevitability.
So, until all of this came to an end, I needed to be able to move properly.
Walking to the Kitchen, where the happy staff couple were cooking up breakfast, I called out to the one I needed.
“Carol?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you good at stitching and working with clothes and such?”