Against River, who was athletic but knew nothing about fighting, her moves were enough.
River was pushed away and Honey snarled at him. “Stop that! Sheesh!”
She only shortly rubbed her wrists before reaching out for the wardrobe again. It began making a loud creak as she moved to topple it.
River’s head turned empty. His usually neat thoughts broke apart like glass shattering on the ground.
There was no way-
Couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t!
He couldn’t allow that
no no no
she would break it
she would break this puzzle he couldnt repeat it again this one was over
even though he would have s̷o̷l̴v̸e̵d̷ it in time
he wouldntsee thee̴n̶d̴
i̸t̵w̶o̵u̸l̷d̸b̸e̶h̴e̸r̸f̵a̶u̴l̶t̸
Fruits tumbled to the ground as their bowl was tipped. They made dull sounds as they fell, not loud enough to alert Honey, who was groaning under the weight of the wardrobe.
Surprisingly, the sound of the impact was dull as well.
As a whole, the impact felt less resistant than River would have expected. It felt like smashing a watermelon in, although there was a distinct cracking along with it.
Honey slumped to the ground like a doll with its strings cut.
It was very quiet. It was kind of peaceful and serene.
River looked down at her body in silence. His chest was heaving even though he had done nothing to warrant heavy exhaustion. His eyes were wide and his pupils dilated.
His puzzle.
Honey did not move.
The beautiful red dripped down to the ground, seeping into the wooden floor and through the gaps. Some of it was dripping down the heavy bowl in River’s hands.
He blindly placed it back on the table and continued looking down.
The injury was very dark. Was fresh blood so dark?
River blinked. The red was gone, leaving nothing but black and white. Maybe that was why it was so dark. Maybe it would be in colour, too. He didn’t know.
The door opened but River did not move any further. A quiet “Oh” alerted him to the familiar voice of Aspen, whose almost soundless steps brought him right next to the corpse.
Squatting down, he rolled Honey around. Her eyes were wide with surprise and completely void of any life.
“What did she do to you for you to snap? I didn’t expect that”, Aspen commented in a highly relaxed tone and poked her forehead with mild interest. “Jumped you?”
“She was going to break the solution”, River whispered. “In the final moments, she… She would have destroyed all of this… The puzzle...”
“Oh I see. Well, no worries. People don’t die in reality from being killed here, looks like they have the same chance of actually dying as usual. Not your fault, anyway.” Aspen spoke the words with an almost gentle smile.
River didn’t look guilty, he only looked confused. As if it was unexpected that this had happened but not as if he regretted it in any way.
“Come, let’s go see the finale. It’s your hard work. You don’t want to miss seeing the puzzle be solved, right?” Aspen stood up, stretched his legs and carefully tried to turn River around by the shoulders.
The easterner did not jolt back from his touch as usual but slowly returned back to reality. By the time he was in the doorway, Aspen’s hands were pulled back.
River looked outside, then broke into a hurried jog. Not long.
He didn’t know where Crisis and Rhythm were running around, but every important Actor had assembled here.
The second son gripped the aunt’s hand in the last moment and pulled her back from the entrance. Under his command, a few confused servants scrambled to close the gate. The aunt did not resist but quietly lowered her head.
The second son spoke.
His wife cried out.
Sobbing, she ran over to her sister and held her. Motionless, the taller woman allowed everything to happen, only stroking away her little sister’s tears once in a while. Finally, the woman leaned on her older sister and simply sobbed quietly, her hands curled around her arms.
The court was eerily quiet. Slowly it began to dissolve, turning into little stars that were hovering up into the sky.
The scene disintegrated completely before River’s eyes, leaving only him and Aspen in a completely white space that contained only a single black door.
A shudder went through both of them when the world around them turned to white. It wasn’t blinding in any way, more comforting. A sense of satisfaction and peace was all around them, soothing like a warm hug.
River’s lips tugged upwards.
Aaah.
Perfect.
A giggle broke out, one of pure satisfaction. He wanted to cry from the pure joy of seeing his solution unfold in front of him in real time, up to the moment of its perfect ending. The culprit was caught, the case… The puzzle solved.
Someone clapped.
A second pair joined the clapping, not in tune with the first one.
Despite the giddy lightheadedness, River turned to face the source of the sound.
In front of him was a paper-version of himself. A flat surface without any depth, moving like animated. The smile too broad, the movements too unnatural.
Next to it stood a paper-Aspen, clapping along just the same but with a not quite as overly broad smile.
Both paper figures had their eyes cut out, the whiteness of the area behind them shining through. When their mouths opened, the whiteness shone through, as well.
【I won, I won!】 Paper-River laughed weirdly.
【Today’s bet is ours, it seems, but we haven’t won the game yet. Unexpectedly, this went well! Amazing! You’ve done great!】 Paper-Aspen agreed and nodded its head.
The real Aspen walked over, dangerously quiet, and pulled at the paper-River’s arm. The paper crumbled under his fingers.
“What are you?”, Aspen whispered with narrowed eyes.
【Gamblers】, paper-River giggled childishly. 【Successful gamblers! Winning gamblers! Look, I bet right, no? I’m amazing! Amazing, amazing!】
His counterpart went along with it. It nodded continuously. 【Good bet, good bet indeed. Let’s bet the same next time.】
【What should we do if we win?】
【That’s still a way to go.】
【Say, how about a reward? Should we reward them?】 Paper-River watched Aspen rip his arm off and tear it to pieces. The real River did not move at all during the whole time.
He stared at the unknown existences, listening closely to their weird words and jumping intonation.
【Isn’t this enough?】 Paper-Aspen pointed at the black door. 【Today’s immunity, no?】
【A personal reward. Look, he even stitched the code on his arm, such an obedient one! I want to give him a reward. What’s a good one for something like them?】 The figure used its remnant arm to pull up Aspen’s left arm and show the mark on it.
Aspen struggled heavily, but it became apparent that if the piece of paper didn’t will it, he could neither destroy it nor free himself. He was just short of hanging in the air, standing on the tips of his toes.
Unsettled noises broke out of Aspen’s throat as his struggle increased and became frantic. River felt his blood run cold at the absolutely unnatural sight. Everything about it was wrong. He didn’t want to see it. “Let… Let him go!”
【Oh, sure.】
Aspen fell to the ground and crawled back, his face dripping with sweat. He was shivering but rather than scared, he looked like a cornered beast ready to pounce.
【Ah, I’ve thought of something. I’ll tell you in a moment, alright?】
【Yes, yes! Tell me!】 Paper-River jumped up and down like a kid, its face breaking open from its too wide smile, almost ripping off everything from above its upper jaw. The expression was weird enough in itself, but even weirder with River’s face.
【Until soon, you two. Let’s play again later.】 Paper-Aspen waved and went up in flames. A spark jumped over to his counterpart, who likewise began to burn under its happy and excited shouts.
Stunned silly, only River and Aspen remained in the near empty space.
Minutes passed in which neither of them moved, their brains still registering what had happened. The goosebumps on River’s arms refused to settle - there had been no hostility, but the abnormality of those things was frightening. For the first time, he had seen something that truly “wasn’t human”.
“What the fuck”, Aspen forced out breathlessly once his heart had settled a bit.
“Were they… the creators of this game?” River spoke to himself, looking at the ground where they had burned away.
“You think?” Aspen hesitated. He didn’t want to remember the feeling of powerlessness when confronted with them. “Honestly, I always thought that this place was made by people. Humans like experimenting, so this is something I’d have thought they do…”
“That wasn’t human”, River agreed.
His original thoughts hadn’t been that far from Aspen’s. After all, a few decades ago, no one thought that they’d be able to use a device to talk to someone far away.
A few hundreds of years ago, no one thought they’d be able to have a thing that moves around without a living being powering it.
Years and years ago, no one thought.
It was natural to not believe that something is possible until you’ve seen it.
Simply because he couldn’t think of a way for a human to stage such an amazing thing did not make it impossible.
But if these two were involved in this game, he didn’t think that they were human.
For once, it wasn’t based on logic.
It was instinct.
“We’d better get that reward they are talking about. Say, is that our exit? I don’t see those other guys anywhere. Are they dead?”
Regaining his calm, Aspen brushed off his clothes and checked out the door. The paleness of his face and the drops of sweat still running down his bobbing throat betrayed his unsettled mood, but his body language showed nothing of it and River wasn’t going to call him out.
River joined him in looking over the door until Aspen shrugged and pulled it open.
“Nothing gained from being careful. Let’s see each other again!”
He waved at River, then let himself fall backwards through the door and vanished into the nothingness.
River took a few moments in which he did not move, before he stepped out of the dream as well.
