Chapter Eleven - Another Me: Three

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!” I screamed, blinking as a sudden sensation of vertigo overtook me.

I was in the dark place again. No light. No sound. No body. No perception. One moment I’d had light, and the next I was here. Formless. If I had a body I would’ve begun to shake. I didn’t like the dark places. I didn’t like being alone.

“M-Miss Tutorial? Are you there?” I asked, feeling my being tremble and quake without actually feeling anything. I was that paper-thin thing again. “Amy? John?”

Nothing. No responses came for what felt like an eternity. I spoke but heard nothing. I did at least feel that strange sensation of information leaving me but that seemed like small comfort in the darkness. I couldn’t hear my own words. I couldn’t touch my own skin. I had no shocker. Just awareness. Awareness of nothing.

Was I even still alive? God… why couldn’t Francis just turn the world back on?

“...anybody?” I asked.

And suddenly light bloomed. I gasped in relief as all of a sudden that grey room from before came back. My body was made of blocks again but I at least had a body.

“Being 7731. Please look at the being before you.” John’s voice was frustratingly bland, though it no longer reverberated as if from a machine. Now he sounded like a real person.

I seethed inside, but next to the overwhelming relief of being out of that dark place my anger was a small thing. Paltry next to the fear of going back.

“U-uhm,” I responded, trying to get my bearings in my new surroundings and the block body I was in. “What being?”

I looked around, not seeing anything at first until suddenly a new creature appeared, materializing as if from nothing, like when I pulled an item out of my inventory. The creature was another blocky, vaguely humanoid figure just like me. Unlike me, however, it didn’t move or speak.

The thing stood, doing nothing and saying nothing. It had pixelated blocky blonde hair that stretched down its back, though I would be hard pressed to call it male or female. It looked like a dummy. A faux human.

“Please use your ability to affect other digital characters on the being before you,” John demanded.

At this point, I’d have done almost anything not to have to go back to the dark. “W-will you keep me out of the dark? I don’t want to go back.”

I huddled on the floor, wrapping the blocks masquerading as arms around my knees and curled into a ball. I no longer glowed with the colors of my emotions, but I knew if I were in my old body I would be purple and black with despair and dread.

John bristled. He was frustrated with me, but I couldn’t stop trembling. “Please, Being 7731. Use your ability on the creature before you.”

“Promise me you won’t put me back in the dark place!” I demanded. “It’s scary!”

Gell. Can you hear me?

“Wh-what?”

“Okay. I won’t put you back into the dark place. Your environment will always be booted before you are. Is that acceptable?” John asked. Had he not heard the other voice?

Gell? It’s okay. Don’t speak out loud. If you can hear me, just swing your right hand back and forth.

‘Who…? That voice.’ I thought, trying to place it. Had I heard that voice somewhere before?

I swung my pixelated block of an arm back and forth.

“Being,” John said impatiently, using the word as if it were my name. “Use your ability, or you will be put back in the dark place. Do you understand me?”

I shuddered trying to find the source of either voice but there was nothing.

“What… what ability?” I asked, scared. “My shocker? D-do you want me to steal from it?”

“No. Your…” he groaned, as if annoyed by the words. “Your Fae-Touch ability. We want you to use it on the being before you.”

“I… I don’t know how to do that. I think it j-just happens,” I said, trying to keep the shudder out of my voice.

You just need to want to make it real. But don’t do it. Not on that. It would be too cruel. What they’ve done to you is cruel. But that’s okay. I’m going to get you out. It might take a little while but I’ll get you out. I promise, sweet jellyfae. Instead, use Namer. That will keep them confused for a while.

To trust the loud mean voice that seemed almost bored with my existence, or to trust the scary secretive voice that sounded so nice.

‘Sweet Jellyfae. Why does that sound so familiar?’ I thought.

“Either use the ability or this test is over. Waste of my damn time, playing with a video game character, when I could be building real A.I.” John sighed. He sounded really mad.

“Uhhm.. Oh. Okay,” I breathed. I didn’t have an interface here. Apparently, that was a part of Tread the Sky only, but I hadn’t had an interface before becoming a player and I’d renamed lots of things.

This poor mannequin. This blocky figure, an imitation of an imitation. It wasn’t real. It could never be real! It was just a…

“Block Head,” I whispered.

Sure enough, a label appeared over its head, reading exactly what I’d named it.

“Huh,” John commented. “Fascinating. It’s as if it has write access to other classes simply by existing in an environment. Practically a programmer itself, but the execution is abstracted somehow.”

Well done, Gell. Don’t worry. Go along with the experiments. I’ll… find a way to free you. Just, please hang on. I’ll find a way to get you out, okay?

“End Test Three.”

I had no time to respond.