Loop 3 Chapter 10

An Uneventful Trip to the Hospital?

Jacob stood blankly in front of the closed door. He shook his head and tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked. His face twitched with confusion.

"H-hey!" He shook the door, but it refused to open. It was almost as if Alice had locked it from the outside. "Open the door!"

He could hear nothing from the other side. His breath was a ragged drum as he spun around and studied the unfamiliar room. There was a colorful bed covered in a rainbow assortment of blankets and pillows. The walls were cluttered with random movie posters and cheap watercolor paintings. An overflowing dresser hugged a quiet corner of the room. He thought he could see what looked like a costume spilling out of one drawer.

"Hello?!" Jacob turned back to the door, but the white slab of wood remained unyielding. He was shaking the knob like a madman before he came to his senses.

This was a bad situation... but he had a phone.

Jacob's hands were trembling as he snatched the black box from his pocket. His eyes darted nervously around the unfamiliar room. He was not even sure whose room this was.

"Come on..." Jacob muttered as he fiddled with the phone. It would not turn on no matter how many times he poked and prodded its buttons.

He turned around and slammed his fist several more times against the door. He was soon rewarded with several footsteps and then a familiar voice.

“What are you doing in there?” Alice asked as sweetly as a bag of sugar.

“Let me out!” Jacob shouted. He banged his fist against the door again and heard the wood creak. “Unlock this door!”

“Unlock…?” Alice filled the hallway outside with laughter. “The door just gets stuck sometimes. Give it a good shake!”

Jacob’s heart was heavy in his chest as he grabbed the doorknob and violently shook the door. He struggled to turn the locked knob… but then something slipped free. The door whipped open with ease.

“Maybe sleep isn’t what you need,” Alice said, her face flush with barely restrained laughter. "Want me to take you to a doctor or something?"

A spasm of fear clutched at Jacob's chest, and he shook his head instinctively. He had no idea why her question summoned such panic, but he knew with an iron certainty that he did not want to visit the hospital.

Alice burst into laughter. She brushed aside a lone strand of black hair from her face.

“If that's the case, why don't we play some Seek and Destroy? You don't seem to be in a sleeping mood."

Without another word, the black-haired beauty disappeared down the hallway and out of sight.

Jacob simply stood at the doorway, his thoughts slow and confused. The door had been… stuck? Some paranoid part of his thoughts found that hard to believe, but the truth lay quite literally open before him.

He stepped into the hallway with the furtive angst of a runaway child. A confused fear lay over his senses as he looked up and down the hallway. Something felt… off, and it was more than just his carefree roommate.

“Roommate…?” Jacob frowned and shook his head. Alice was his roommate’s sister. The short-haired beauty from earlier had stormed off with tears in her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

Alice’s voice rang out from beyond the kitchen.

“Hurry up! I’m turning the Xbox on!”

A cold dread lurked in his belly as he stalked towards her voice. He found her lounging on the colorful couch. She had one of the dusty Xbox controllers in her hand and was staring intently at the large television mounted across the wall.

“Sit!” Alice said, patting a spot on the sofa beside her. “Sit, sit, sit! We should have done this from the start.”

Jacob glanced over to the front door and gulped. A part of him wanted nothing more than to rush for the exit, to feel the sun on his skin, and to escape this woman’s company.

“You look like a dog ready to bolt,” Alice said, hiding a laugh behind a willowy hand. “Come on. I think this’ll help with your memory loss.”

“Playing a game...?” Jacob glanced over at the wide television screen. Several tanks were… dancing across it? The unfamiliar game looked old enough to have come from his childhood.

“Look at you tut-tutting away Seek and Destroy!” Alice’s pale cheeks puffed up with cartoon frustration. “I’ll have you know I Googled the heck out of amnesia! It isn’t that big a deal. Most of the time it goes away after a couple of hours.”

Jacob did not know much about amnesia, but he found her carefree attitude less than reassuring.

“And besides! We play this game all the time,” Alice continued. “Maybe it’ll jog your memory.”

That sounded far more reassuring, however. Something to jumpstart his memory. Hadn’t that been the reason he had gone into the bedroom in the first place? To look for clues?

With reluctance clear across his face, Jacob sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. Alice stuck out her tongue and scooted closer to him. Jacob could not help but notice a heady aroma radiating off her body. He wondered if it was perfume. It was not… entirely disagreeable.

“We’d spend hours and hours together on this couch, Jacob,” Alice said, and his eyes widened as she placed a snow-white hand on his leg. “Hours. And hours.”

A nervous laugh escaped from his lips. This woman was supposed to be his roommate's sister. While he could not be sure, it had seemed like Jacob and the short-haired woman were more than just friends. Why was her sister hitting on him?

“Oh!”

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief as Alice removed her hand. She jumped up off the couch, and the controller bounced into Jacob's waiting lap.

“You must be hungry,” Alice said, and she stalked towards the kitchen.

“I… I’m really not,” Jacob said, suddenly exhausted by the whirlwind of Alice’s personality. He looked down at the Xbox controller, but it brought back no memories.

“Nonsense!” Alice said from halfway across the room. “I’ll make you something nice. Just sit there and play a little. See if you can’t remember how bad you are at the game!”

She turned the corner and disappeared into the kitchen.

“What is with this day…?” Jacob muttered softly as he picked up the controller. His hands felt large and clumsy as he fiddled with the different joysticks.

But Seek and Destroy. The game was old and unmemorable. He clicked through a menu blankly, not remembering anything and not feeling optimistic that he would. He must have accidentally started a new game because a cutscene began to play. Muscle memory had him search for the Start button to skip it, but beyond that… nothing.

“Make lunch...?”

Jacob frowned as several explosions sounded from the television. Alice had said she was going to make lunch… but he had looked through the pantries earlier. They had all been empty.

As if summoned by the thought, a faint sizzling sounded from the kitchen. Jacob’s thoughts jumped to the two mystery lumps he had seen bagged in the refrigerator. Had they been some kind of leftovers?

Ignoring the many explosions on the television, Jacob stood up and walked towards the kitchen. He was not entirely sure why he was so curious, but-

Alice’s head popped into view, and Jacob jumped.

“Non, non!” Alice said in mock chastisement. “You need to sit down and play some vidya! Let me worry about lunch. Just sit back and try to remember!”

The sizzling grew in volume as Alice disappeared back into the kitchen. He stood awkwardly in the middle of the room for several breaths before he shook his head and returned to the sofa. Why was he so worried about what she was cooking?

Somehow his character was still alive. And for some reason his character was a tank… or inside a tank? Alice had said they played this game often, but he had no memory of it.

He forced himself to play the game for a couple of minutes, but it all felt like a waste of time. By the time the kitchen fell silent, Jacob had tossed the controller aside.

“Luuuunch is served!” Alice called from the kitchen. There was a clatter of silverware and then a brief silence.

The black-haired beauty appeared with a steaming plate between her hands. From where Jacob was sitting, he could not see what was on it. It did not smell particularly appetizing.

“I cut it up into itsy-bitsy pieces for you,” Alice said with a wide grin. “I’m like a mother hen looking out for her chick.”

The black-haired beauty plopped down on the couch… right on top of Jacob’s lap.

“H-hey!” His cheeks flushed from the closeness of the woman. He almost did not notice what was on the plate. Almost.

 “Don’t be such a stick in the mud,” Alice giggled as she swirled the plate under his nose. “Doesn’t that smell gooood?”

It was meat. A few bits were charred black, but the rest of it looked grey with disease. A film of what could have either been blood or grease soaked the small square lumps.

“Th-thanks…” Jacob said awkwardly as Alice continued to straddle his lap. The smell of her was rich in his nostrils, and he had to fight to keep his Little Friend from waking up. “Is it… What is it...?”

Alice smiled brightly in answer and plucked one of the charred pieces of meat off the plate.

“Open up!” she said as she brought the sliver towards his face.

Jacob frowned and turned away. What was wrong with this woman?

“I’m not hungry,” Jacob said, but Alice simply shook her head and laughed.

“Come on! Say ahhhhhhh.”

“I’m- “ Jacob began, but Alice stuffed the piece of meat into his open mouth before he could say another word.

He instinctively tried to spit it out, but Alice's hand remained clamped tight across his face. The horrid taste of whatever she had made slowly filled his mouth.

“Bottoms up!” Alice said, her smile delirious, and Jacob was forced to swallow the rancid morsel.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” Jacob huffed as Alice removed her hand. He tried to push the woman away, but she remained glued to his flesh. She filled the room around them with malicious laughter, practically beside herself with elation.

“Doesn’t she taste awful?” Alice asked between a choking laugh. “The absolute worst! You should have seen… should have seen your face!”

“That wasn’t funny!” Jacob raged. Was this some kind of prank? And what did Alice mean by she?

“The only thing this meat is good for is turning into poop!” Alice said, bursting into a fresh cackle. “Come on! Try another piece!”

He glowered at the beauty straddling his lap. Was she drunk? On drugs? He was starting to miss the woman's sister. His supposed roommate had seemed a little more level-headed.

“Come ooooon,” Alice said with an ear-to-ear grin. “Don’t be such a picky eater. This is all that’s on today's menu.”

“Then ask your sister to bring home some takeout,” Jacob said grumpily. He was in no mood for whatever game this was.

Alice’s laughter died abruptly.

“What did you say...?”

Jacob could not breathe. His face was wet with blood as it slowly dripped from his nose and mouth. A small pool of red wet formed in Alice’s lap.

“Oh. Her. Why do you still rê̸̥̆m̴̫̺̆̽̓͐e̷͓̮̞̽ṁ̷̘̿̀̚b̸͔͛̕̚e̷͖̓̾̒r h̴e̴͖̲̜̚r…”

And then Jacob blinked.

“Oopsies!” Alice said with a radiant smile. With her normal smile. With the only smile she ever wore. “Looks like I made an itsy-bitsy mistake!”

Jacob’s mind was not working properly. Something had broken, and he was not sure what. Both his thoughts and his body were numb with death.

“Wooooow,” Alice said, swaying back and forth atop his lap. “I messed up. I really messed up. How did I miss that? Is it because I’m stupid? Am I just a big dummy? An unforgivable dumbo wumbo? Wooooow.”

Jacob should have reacted, but his mind was still broken. He could not even feel Alice as she ground her hips against his crotch. Everything was broken.

“And why would I ever want a piece of t̵h̴̠̃͋̿͝a̶͎̹̜͑̌͗͠t ẅ̴́h̷̖̿̉̒̓ö̸̳̀̂̚r̵̞̰̓̃̚ͅe inside him?” Alice was laughing, but there was no laughter. “That was so stupid. That was so irredeemably stupid. You made him dirty. You made him unclean. But you can still fix this.”

She smashed the plate against the floor, and it shattered into a hundred thousand little pieces. Great globs of meat fell onto the floor and dissolved into bubbling puddles of violent ichor.

"I can make him clean again," Alice said, and she pried open Jacob's mouth with both of her hands. Jacob was only dimly aware that his mouth did not normally open this wide.

She reached into his mouth with her third arm, but it was not an arm. Something slid down his throat and tickled his innards. Jacob's intestines bulged to accommodate the intruder as something dug deeper and deeper into the prison of his flesh.

"Aha!" Alice's face was a delightful mask as something wrapped around the weight of his stomach. "I found it!"

Jacob could not think. He could scarcely even feel. But as Alice began to pull something out from his body, the world around him revolted in a flash of red and white specks. Time seemed to skip, and he found himself collapsed on the floor, a red puddle leaking from his lips.

Alice was kneeling in front of him. He could see underneath her long black dress. He was not sure what he was looking at.

"I'm reaaally sorry about all this!" Alice said with an embarrassed grin. "I made a small oopsie-whoopsie this time, but we can try again."

Alice's willowy hand disappeared and was replaced with the animal violence of a claw.

"We can try as many times as it takes."

Snaggle_Tooth

I want to thank you all for reading! I also want to thank those who left comments! Thank you, Pyro! Thank you, LoB! Thank you, Lost! Your comments filled me with motivation!