1 - Hello World 

The fact that she’d given her address to a stranger on the internet is probably an even greater testament to Lacuna’s lack of sleep for the past three days than the dark rings around her eyes.  As it turns out, it’s hard to get much sleep with a demon growling out increasingly detailed descriptions of all the gory things it’s going to do to you once it escapes the computer-drawn summoning circle projected into the middle of your studio apartment.  A predictable enough causal link between death threats and sleep deprivation, but then again, Lacuna hadn’t even believed in magic until the ritual she’d attempted out of just the wrong mix of boredom and desperation actually worked.  

 

What’s your address?  I’ll be there in an hour.

 

She checks her phone.  It’s been forty seven minutes since she replied to that direct message on the forum.  May as well step outside and see if her would-be savior is actually going to make good on their promise.  A promise that should be near-impossible to keep unless they somehow already knew where she lived and happened to be in the same city.  Not completely out of the picture she supposes, what with IP address tracking being a thing and all.  But even without that, she’s more than willing to believe in the impossible right now.

As she makes her way to the door her unwanted captive launches into another tirade.

“FOOLISH CRINGING MORTAL!  FLEE ALL YOU LIKE!  IT WILL ONLY MAKE MY HUNT ALL THE MORE EXHILARATING!  ALL THE SWEETER WHEN I FINALLY FEAST ON YOUR -”

Lacuna shuts the door behind her and pulls up her black hoodie as she steps out into the hall.  She figured out around thirty hours in that it was best just to ignore the thing when it got going like this.  It’s a minor miracle none of the neighbors have lodged a noise complaint yet.

Down the stairs and across the lamplit parking lot to the apartment complex gate.  Should have brought an umbrella, but at least the locked front office has an awning to stand under while she waits.

Lightning flashes and she flinches at the all-too-soon-to-follow thunderclap.  Normally she loves a good storm, but this wouldn’t be the first time one had knocked out the power here.  And if the power goes out no more binding circle.  And if the binding circle goes out…  Well, best not to think about that.

She checks her phone again.  Fifty one minutes.

“Hey!  Are you Lacuna?” a voice shouts over the rain.

She looks up to see a figure in a purple-and-green jacket walking toward her, umbrella in one hand, dufflebag in the other.  Where had he come from?  She?  Lacuna can’t quite tell.  Maybe they’re nonbinary?  Would it be rude to ask?  No, wait, asking for pronouns is supposed to be polite, right?  She chides herself.  She really should know this sort of thing.

“I said, you’re Lacuna, right?” The stranger repeats, as they join her under the awning. 

“Oh, right!  Sorry!  Yeah, that’s me.”  She rubs the back of her neck under her hoodie, not quite making eye contact.  “No one’s ever called me that IRL before.  But yes, that’s me.”

The stranger cocks their head.  “Eye are el?”

“In real life?” Lacuna drags out the acronym.  Seriously?  How does someone not know what that means?

“Oh, is that one of those leet speak things?  Sorry, I’m not great with computers.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess you could call it that?” Was this one of those magic-and-technology-don’t-mix things?

“I’ll need to remember that one.  Anyway, you can call me Road.  I’d shake your hand, but…”  they trail off as they shrug to indicate their full hands.  “Anyway, down to business.  Where’s this demon of yours?”

Lacuna blinks.  For a moment the strangeness of the meeting had displaced the fear-inducing reason for it.  “Oh, yeah.  That.  This way.”

As they cross the parking lot, Lacuna notices a change in the pattern of the rain pelting her and realizes Road’s held the umbrella out to cover her.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.  By the way, is there something else you’d prefer I call you?”

“What?  No, no, Lacuna’s fine.”  Better than fine, really.  Better than expected even.

Back up the stairs and at the door, Lacuna pauses with the key half turned in the lock.  “Oh, before we go in, I apologize ahead of time for the mess.  It’s been a rough few weeks and I wasn’t expecting company.”

The disclaimer is met with a reassuring smile and a soft shake of the head.  “Trust me, I’ve seen worse.” 

“Right.  Right.  Of course.”  The key completes its turn along with the knob and the door cracks open.  “And heads up, this thing can be a bit -”

“AND THE FLESHY MORSEL COMES CRAWLING BACK TO ME, RESIGNED TO HIS PITIFUL FATE IN HOPES FOR A QUICK DEATH BEFORE MY MEAL AS A REWARD FOR HIS COMPLIANCE!”

“Loud…”

What little furniture there is in the apartment has been pushed toward the walls to make room for the jerry-rigged setup in the center of the room.  A cable runs from a computer rig more expensive than the rest of the apartment’s contents combined to a projector once used to convert the unadorned white walls to large screens.  Now the projector is strapped to the center of a ceiling fan fixture and pointed straight down at the floor to cover the fake dark wood with a complex pattern of overlaid concentric geometries and runes.  The source of all the screeching crouches in the center of this golden circle of light; an overgrown monkey the size of a man with taloned fingers and far too many pointed teeth.  The creature’s barbed tail sways, sending up sparks with a sound of scratched glass as it brushes the otherwise invisible walls of its confines.  Noticing Road leaning their umbrella against the corner by the door it launches into another bout of taunts.  

“WHAT’S THIS?  A HUNTER?  AN EXORCIST?  SPICE FOR THE MEAL!  HOW I SHALL SAVOR THE VAIN STRUGGLE!”

Road steps past Lacuna, stopping at the edge of the binding circle and tilting their head down to look the demon in the eye.  “Well, you’re a talkative one, aren’t you?”

“ARROGANT FOOL!  WE SHALL SEE HOW YOU SMIRK AT ME ONCE I PEEL YOUR -”

“From whence comes the starlight in the Dark Forest?”  Road’s voice goes hard and cold as they speak the question.  The demon goes silent and still mid-sentence, glaring at the newcomer through narrowed eyes.  It occurs to Lacuna that her guest/savior is surprisingly dry after the walk through the rain.  

“What was that?” Lacuna asks.  “Some kind of spell or incantation or something?”

Road turns back to Lacuna, repeating the smile and head shake from earlier.  It’s harder to fear the thing in the circle when the one here to deal with it looks so at ease, even eager.  “Just a fair warning that he’d better shut up and start taking me seriously if he wants to come out of this on top.  Now then, let’s see what I’m working with here.”

Setting down the duffel bag, Road begins walking around the binding circle, mumbling to themself and occasionally leaning in to inspect the finer details whilst taking care not to get in the way of the projection.  The demon shuffles around in sync, remaining silent and keeping its slitted eyes trained on the newcomer.  

Meanwhile, Lacuna takes a place leaning against the wall by her air mattress, fidgeting uncomfortably.  On the one hand she feels like she should be doing something to help, but on the other hand she worries she’d just get in the way.  And she’s just so tired.  Here’s a life changing - possibly life-or-death - event that upends everything she knows coming to a head right in front of her eyes and she’s too exhausted and numb to feel anything other than irritation with herself for not feeling excited or terrified or anything appropriately dramatic.  When the sound of Road asking her a question startles her out of her thought spiral, she realizes with embarrassment that she missed what they said.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“The circle doesn’t have the same flaws that I found in the last few victims’ setups.  How did you know to fix it?”  If they feel any annoyance at repeating themself, they’re not showing it.  

“I…I didn’t, really.  When I was vectorizing the image from the forum to make it look better for the projector, I saw a few spots that were asymmetric or had weird angles or uneven edges, and the messiness bugged me.  Like when you open the silverware drawer and see a long fork in the short fork stack so you stop whatever you were doing to organize it properly.  So I cleaned it up until it stopped distracting me.”

“And why the projector?”

“I didn’t want to scratch up the floor or leave a stain.  Why?  Is it a problem?”

“Well, it’s not a professional setup, but you just skipped over millennia of tradition and went straight to the most recent innovations in summoning while undoing intentional sabotage that would have let your guest break free the moment it materialized.  And even then the circle’s inherently flawed enough that a traditional medium wouldn’t have held him this long, even with the corrections.  So you’ve either got good instincts, incredible luck, or a lot more experience than I realized.  Congratulations on that, it’s the reason you’re still alive right now.”

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome.  Anyway,” Road continues as they unzip the duffel bag on the floor and begin rifling through it, “I think I’ve seen enough to get a handle on the situation.” They stand back up and turn to face the demon again; now with an intricately embossed knife in one hand and a black candle in the other.  “This can go one of two ways.  The first way,” they hold up the candle, “you tell me what I need to know about who’s been telling untrained novices how to summon you and in return I perform a little light exorcism and send you back to whatever hell-type dimension you were plucked from as painlessly as possible.  The second way,” they hold up the knife, showing off the miniature binding circles inscribed along the blade, “I stab you with this, discorporate you, bind your essence to the blade, use you as a divination focus to track this guy down, and then banish you.  Your choice.  Even a demon deserves that much.”

“Such is barely a choice at all.  Lean in closer and will tell you what I know.”

“Oh, your inside voice!  So civil, how could I refuse?”  Road leans down, now eye level with the crouching demon.  

“Closer, so that I may whisper .  We know not who may be listening.”

Road leans closer still, turning their head to present an ear to whisper into.  

“THIS PRISON OF LIGHT WILL NOT HOLD ME DARKNESS WILL ENVELOPE US ALL I WILL REND YOUR ARMS FROM THEIR SOCKETS IN FRONT OF THE WEAKLING ENCHANTER I WILL SLURP HIS STILL PULSATING GUTS WHILE HE YET LIVES I WILL MAKE THE TWO OF YOU WATCH ONE ANOTHER HELPLESS AS YOU DIE!”

The demon throws itself against the barrier as it screeches, thrashing and scratching.  Flashes and sparks from the collision nearly blind Lacuna, who’s halfway to the door and suddenly feeling very awake before she realizes that despite the terrible creaking noise, the binding circle’s still holding strong.  

Road straightens to their full height, unperturbed.  

“Really?  That was your plan?  Scream in my face and hope that I’ll flinch and disrupt the circle?  I’m disappointed.”  They sigh.  “Well don’t say I didn’t warn you.  

“Lacuna,” they call back over their shoulder, “I suggest you stay back for this next part.  Maybe cover your eyes if you’re squeamish.  It could get -”

Whatever they were about to say gets drowned out by a crack of thunder that seems to be near-simultaneous with its progenitor lightning flash.  In the wake of the flash the room is plunged into darkness.  In the wake of the thunder the demon howls.  Before the howl even ends, Lacuna hears the sounds of her air mattress popping and her bedside table toppling.  Before she even reaches the door she hears a wordless shout from Road.  She’s still trying to find the doorknob in the dark when a green glow appears somewhere behind her.  She’s still trying to get her trembling hands to cooperate in undoing the deadbolts when the glow fades with a pained shriek she hopes is from the demon.  The door finally begins to open as everything goes quiet.  

Lacuna pauses.  Some part of her mind is screaming at her for being an idiot and not running.  She knows she should probably listen to that, but hope and curiosity are outweighing it.  Just like every horror character destined to die.  

“Got it!” Road’s voice rings out.  Lacuna thinks it’s their voice anyway, and not a trick by the demon.  

“Hey, you still here?” Road asks.  Probably Road.  

Is that something demons can do, imitating people?  Now that the thought has crossed her mind Lacuna can’t bring herself to answer.  But she can’t bring herself to finish opening the door either.  

Footsteps come closer.  That voice in her head is louder than ever, berating her for freezing up.  

The lights come back on and there’s Road, only feet away.  The sleeves of their jacket are shredded, revealing bloody bite and claw marks.  They give that reassuring smile once more, soft and warm.  

“It’s over now.  You’re safe.  Everything’s going to be alright.”

Lacuna slumps to the floor, still shaking.  She distantly registers the sound of the door clicking back shut as she leans against it.  She wants to cry.  Or sob.  Or cheer.  Feels like she should be doing something, but nothing comes out.  Instead she just focuses on not breathing too fast.  Softly drums her fingers on her arms.

“I know this has all been a lot.  What you’re feeling right now?  That’s normal.  It’s going to take some time for your body to process it all and accept that the danger’s passed, and that’s okay.  I can wait here with you as long as you need me to.”

Minutes pass.  Thoughts stabilize.  The loop breaks.  Lacuna becomes aware of Road sitting on the floor next to her, leaning against the wall, one leg outstretched while the other makes an arch to rest arm on knee.  The damage to the jacket is gone.  Was it ever there or did she just imagine it?

“Feeling better?”

Lacuna nods.  

“Glad to hear it.  You did great.  I really mean that.”

“But I didn’t…” No, not the time for self-deprecation.  “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Road pauses for a beat before going on.  “So, not to make this awkward, but this is the part where I’m supposed to make you forget what just happened so that the past few days of all this supernatural stuff just feels like a bad dream.”

“Oh…” Lacuna’s gaze drifts back down to her hands.  “That… that is how these stories go, isn’t it?  The government agent or normalcy enforcer or whatever wipes the hapless civvy’s memory so they go back to their normal, boring life, blissfully unaware.  Right?”

“Eh, it’s more like accepted best practice than law, and I’m definitely not government.” Road let’s out a chuckle.  “I like to think of myself as an ‘independent adventurer.’ And messing with people’s memories has always rubbed me the wrong way.  So, since I get the impression that you’re not too keen on the idea either, if you’d like I can explain what’s what, and then give you a choice: take the amnestic and go back to how things were, or find out what new paths your life can take you down.”

Lacuna looks back up, the trace of a smile creeping in.  “Blue pill or red pill, huh?”

“Why does everyone keep saying that when I give this speech?  There’s only one pill and it’s kind of a grey-ish color.”

“It’s a movie reference.  Similar situation.  Iconic scene.”

“Ah, that’ll do it.  I really should watch more of those.”

Lacuna’s turn to laugh.

“What?  I mean it.  Anyhow, real talk time.  Or at least an abridged version of it.

“This world,” Road begins, “is what we call an ‘anchor world,’ as in it’s stable and steady enough to anchor other nearby worlds in place so that they don’t go crashing into one another or drifting off into conceptual void or collapse in on themselves.  You see, reality is largely set by perception and belief, to a small degree by individuals, sure, but mostly by collective consciousness.  And the belief of an entire world’s worth of people - more or less - that on some level their reality operates on a set of fixed, unchanging, unalterable rules regardless of whether or not those rules are known or understood not only makes it true - more or less - for that world, it lends that constancy to surrounding worlds to let them get away with keeping things more… fluid.”

“Magic.”

“That’s the usual word for it, yeah.  Although sometimes it manifests more like superpowers or slightly different physics or tech that wouldn’t work here.”

“And so you have to keep all that secret on anchor worlds because if everyone knew then it would stop being an anchor world.”

“You got it.  The Veil, the Masquerade, everyone’s got their own name for it, but the end goal is the same.  Keeping anchor worlds in the dark for the sake of everyone’s continued existence.” Road’s gaze drifts up and off to some unseen distance.  “Of course, there’s some leeway.  People are beautifully imaginative and there’s always going to be some small portion of the population that’s going to go against the grain, evidence or no.” They return their gaze to Lacuna.  They’re wearing a different smile this time, touched by mischief.  “That’s why I can get away with letting someone Backstage every now and then.”

“And that’s it?”

“It’s the short version.  Forget about all this and keep doing your part in keeping worlds anchored or come Backstage and join the show for weal or woe.  And there will be both.  I won’t lie to you, if you choose to remember, then even if you otherwise keep going about your life as before, you’ll start noticing, encountering, and remembering more things of this nature.  Some of it may be wonderful, but some of it may be like your last few days.”

“And if… if I remember… if I ‘go Backstage’… could… could I…” Lacuna’s face grows strained.  Why is it still so hard to get the words out?  After everything that’s happened?  To someone that only knows her by this name?

“Could you what?”

“Could I…” she breaks eye contact as her voice drops to a whisper, “find… what I was hoping to get… from that demon?”

“I was meaning to ask about that actually.  Why did you summon that thing?”

“I hoped I could make a deal with it to -” the rest of her sentence comes out as an unintelligible mumble.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that last bit.”

“I wanted it to give me a new body!” Lacuna’s own shout surprises her with its intensity.  The long-expected tears finally attempt to make their appearance.  She fights them down.  

Road blinks once.  “Oh.  Yeah, that makes sense,” they say, more to themself than to Lacuna.  “It’s doable,” they answer.  “My friend’s the same way.  Well, opposite direction some might say, but same fundamental situation that he went through.  Dramatic, instantaneous, full body transmutation is difficult and almost never worth the price that the rare individual who can perform it will ask of you, but if you’re patient, you can get the same end result from smaller changes compounding over time.”

“But… it can be done.”

Road nods.  “It can.”

“Then I’m doing it.”

“That’s the kind of resolve I love to hear.”

Road grins, stands up, and puts out a hand.  Lacuna takes it.  They pull her to her feet.  Steady her as she wobbles.  Pat her on the back.  

“That said, you need some sleep and I need to finish tracking down whoever it is that’s distributing faulty summoning rituals.  I’ll patch up your mattress before I leave - sorry about that by the way - and I’ll be back in a few days.  Take some time to recover and think on things.  When I get back we’ll go over it all again in more detail when you’re not sleep deprived, and if you’re still sure you don’t want the amnestic I’ll help you get set up with a doctor and a therapist my friend recommends.  Sound good?”

“Sounds great.”

A handshake to seal the deal follows.  

“Welcome to the world.”

 

*******

 

Lacuna’s just taken her meds for the evening and is just sticking her fork into her dinner when the phone rings.  A glance at a caller ID she hasn’t heard from in years sends her in a scramble to answer that nearly knocks the plate off the kitchen table.  

“Road?!”

“Hey, you remember me.  Glad to hear it,” the voice on the other end of the line answers.  

“Remember you?  How could I ever forget?”

“It has been quite some time, and I hear you’ve been pretty busy since then.  That said, I’m sorry if this feels out of the blue, but a mutual friend tells me you’re looking for work…”