Casey found the tool box at the bottom of the supplies closet. After rummaging for a while, she found the screwdriver and placed it in her inventory. Then, thinking about it a little further, she tossed all the tools into her inventory.

It was better than having to backtrack again. But when she reached out to open the door, there was a tingling, numbing sensation and she retracted her hand.

She stared in horror as the innocuous looking doorknob twisted and turned into a demon, the key hole its mouth and round knob into a bloodshot eye. Before she could do anything else, the demon lunged at her.

She backed away in a hurry until she felt the wall against her back. Her forehead and back were beaded in sweat as she looked at the demon floating drunkenly towards her. And then, Garm leapt off her shoulder and landed between her and the other demon.

The little Doberman-like demon had started to grow, the round, black eyes became pointed and evil looking without the irises. Its snout lengthened and pointed fangs appeared, even while its mouth was closed. Garm’s body continued to grow and he was soon taller than Casey. A single horn appeared on his forehead and spikes on the end of his whip-like tail.

Garm gave a snarl and a mouth full of teeth and slobber intimidated the demonic doorknob.

Before Casey could figure out what was going on, her phone gave a buzz. Casey didn’t even realize that she had brought her phone with her into her dream. On the screen, four actions appeared:

The dropdown appeared and three attacks appeared:It was almost the same as in the Pocket Monsters game. Casey tapped her finger on the Attack icon.

Casey chose Bite.

Garm leapt forward and tried to bite the demon but it floated out of the way. It was too small for Garm to aim accurately.

Casey wanted to facepalm at the absurdity of it all… a huge demon dog, almost the size of a bear trying to snap at a tiny little demon no bigger than her cellphone. The demon doorknob was skilfully avoiding Garm and even had the cheek to blow a raspberry.

While Garm was circling about trying to bite the floating doorknob, Casey went behind the manager’s desk and picked up the wastepaper basket. She emptied the metal container and snuck up towards the demons.

With the doorknob eye glued to Garm, it didn’t notice Casey coming towards it from the opposite direction. Garm seemed to have noticed Casey’s actions and was herding the doorknob towards Casey. What a smart demon.

And with precision, Casey trapped the demon in the upturned wastepaper basket. The bloodshot eye widened in shock but there was nothing it could do, Casey had it trapped in the wastepaper basket and the floor. It banged futilely against the metal basket.

She made Garm rest its weight on top of it while she crouched down beside it to stare it in the eye.

“Are you going to behave or not?”

There was silence.

“Well, if you don’t want to, I can always let Garm have a snack.” The thorny tail started to wag.

The doorknob gave a little ‘eek’ before it docilely submitted.

“Sorry, Garm, I’ll find other demons for your snack.” Casey placated when Garm whined and looked at her pitifully.

The doorknob trembled and turned back into a doorknob. Casey lifted the wastepaper basket and picked up the doorknob, placing it back on the door. The door opened before turning back into a demon and resting on her right shoulder, away from Garm.

“So I can use you to unlock doors?”

Seeing the demon nod, she smiled in approval.

“Useful.”

The doorknob seemed proud of the praise, its one eye curving in happiness.

Garm gave another whine, pawing at her, wanting her to praise it as well. Now that it had shrunk back to its mini size, it was back to looking cute.

“You were a good boy too. Keep protecting me, ok?” she used her index finger to scratch it gently under its chin. Garm closed its eyes in enjoyment before giving a little bark.

Her phone gave another buzz and she saw the message ‘You have successfully captured demon keyhole. Give it a name?’

Casey thought for a moment and shook her head regretfully. She knew she had poor naming sense. Who knows if she might accidentally cause a revolt because of that?

She turned the screen off and went out, finding Derek in the middle of a confrontation with a floating poster.

"…"

“What’s going on?”

You couldn’t blame her for that. Derek looked like he was in a pantomime, swinging and raising his arms like he was using a sword and shield. Of course, she couldn’t see a thing at all.

“Be with you in a sec, I’m still trying to get the hang of the controls.”

Then Casey saw that Derek was holding something in his hands, except that they were so small his hands had covered them entirely.

She nodded in understanding. Which gamer had not seen wireless controls? She remembered that there had been a time when the game company had developed and sold sword and shield shaped controllers for better player immersion. Those had been limited edition items so Casey and Derek had not bought them. Besides, it would have been ridiculous to use when they were playing other games.

She stood at the side, watching Derek fight the demon. If she squinted hard enough, she could see a faint outline of a sword and shield in his hands. But unlike a real warrior, there was the additional timing of when to press certain buttons as well when he swung his sword or raised his shield. Casey could foresee chain combos in the future.

It looked like he didn’t need her help and he was still in tutorial mode so Casey wandered off to look at the now empty poster boards.

Like before, there were indeed patterns on all of them. She shrugged and took out the screwdriver to start unscrewing them. Well, the bottom screws at least. She can’t reach the top ones without a chair or ladder.

She slapped her forehead when she remembered that she had seen a small stepladder inside the closet with the tools. Oh well, they can use the benches in the lobby.

She was halfway through the third board when Derek finally defeated the poster. The demon gave a little shriek before it self-combusted, writhing in agony and finally became a pile of ashes on the ground.

“So? How was it?”

“The controls took a little getting used to but it was ok.”

Derek swung his arms a little and made a face.

“The controllers are light but all that swinging made my arms tired.”

“Be thankful it’s just a dream.”

“Yeah but if this is my mode of attack, it’s going to be a pain in the long run.”

Casey could only pat his shoulder in consolation. Then she turned around and went back to unscrewing the boards.

“Is there another screwdriver?”

Casey took it out of her inventory and handed it to him.

Derek stared at the screws at the top of the board.

“I’m going to either need a ladder or a chair at least.”

“Yeah, I forgot… Let’s just drag the bench over.”

Derek looked at the bench. It was a metal bench with five or six individual seats. The kind he would see at government complexes. They looked heavy.

“I’m not sure we can lift those…”

Casey cast the benches a look as well. Her brother might be right. She gave a resigned sigh.

“So we’ll have to go back in to get the stepladder?”

“Probably.”

“This tutorial is taking longer than expected…” She grumbled.

“It’s just a dream, remember? Maybe there’s a way to shortcut it…”

“What? Like point the screwdriver at the screws and it will automatically unscrew for us?”

Casey pointed her screwdriver at the screw she couldn’t reach for emphasis. To her surprise, her phone buzzed and the words [remove the screw? Y/N] appeared. Without a word, she selected ‘Y’. The screw disappeared and appeared in her hand.

She repeated her actions on another screw, this time the one she had been unscrewing while talking to Derek. After the second screw appeared in her hand, Casey stared at it for a while before she faced the wall and started banging her forehead against it.

“Stupid… stupid… stupid…”

“Sis?!”

Casey sighed, pointed at the last screw that was holding the poster board up. The screw appeared in her hand and the board fell to the ground with a bang.

“What did you do?” He looked at the board on the ground before looking at his sister. Casey’s forehead was already red but she still looked annoyed at herself.

“I pointed my screwdriver at the screw and I got a prompt. When I selected it, the screw appeared in my hand.”

“Ah…” Derek understood what happened now. He patted his sister on the head.

“Well, you live and learn.”

He too pointed his screwdriver on an attached screw but became confused after a while.

“How come nothing happened?”

“Is your phone on you in the first place?”

Derek searched his pockets.

“No…”

“That could be the reason.”

“So I still have to do it manually?!” Derek felt grumpy at the thought.

“Or, you could just cover my back while I do it…”

Derek gave a pout but said nothing. Casey meanwhile pointed at the screws and efficiently got the rest of the boards down. Derek collected and stored them before they went to the other side of the lobby to do the same.

Once all of the boards were down, Derek got on his knees and began to arrange them on the ground. Casey also got down and started to help. Once they started laying the boards down, they realized that they had a problem. They didn’t have all the pieces.

“It looks like it’s a four by four puzzle.”

“I think so too. So there should be more pieces elsewhere.”

“I remember that there were more posters lined up in the corridor to the theatres.”

“Yeah. So do we go in?”

“We don’t really have any other options. On the bright side, this game appears quite linear.”

They looked at each other and gave a small nod of agreement. Derek stored the pieces back into his inventory and they dusted their knees and walked to the passageway that separated the lobby from the individual theatres. There was red velvet curtains in front of it, to provide some privacy and sound proofing, as well as a barrier made from matching red velvet rope. Derek reached out to unhook the rope when his fingers met with an invisible resistance. He tried again.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s some kind of barrier. I don’t think we can go in.”

“That’s not surprising. Look.”

Casey pointed to a sign on the wall next to the rope.

Guests will not be permitted entry without a valid ticket.

“So we need to buy a ticket?”

“It looks like we do.”

They both turned to look at the dilapidated ticket booth.

“Why do I get a feeling we’re going to get a task ping there?”

“Because we’ve played too many games, read too many books and watched too many movies.”

“So it’s a trope?”

“I’ll bet my new phone that it is.”

They turned around and went to the ticket booth instead.