Polyamorous Hell

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds.

Visit progressive.com to see if you could save.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.

Welcome back to Creepcast.

Today we're going to be doing a story called When We Turn 18, We Get the Name of Our Soulmate.

Isaiah, tell us a little bit about the author.

So the author is a user that goes by the name The Whack Waffle.

They've posted a few stories to No Sleep, but nothing in the past couple years from the looks of it.

This is their most popular story.

The first part of it has 13,000 upvotes, which is

pretty impressive.

I'm not seeing any other links to

like anywhere else they're riding.

And again, they haven't uploaded in a couple years, but we'll leave a link to their Reddit page below if you want to show them some love directly or if they do see this and want to upload, you know, a place to find them.

But yeah, this seems to be their most popular one.

The title is certainly intriguing.

Is that what happened to you, Hunter?

No.

Did you get the name of a soulmate?

Absolutely not.

I had internal lone, I had, I had nothing but loneliness until I met my wife.

And

let me tell you, I was much, much older than 18 when I met my wife.

And she wasn't, is that the significance of that statement?

That she's not my soulmate?

No, that she wasn't 18.

Oh, no, no.

She was in her 40s.

No, and you know, who knows?

I don't know if she, I mean, I hope that she's my soulmate, but the statistics are.

So Allison is now pushing 60.

No, Allison's only

Allison's only 49.

She's not that old.

But, you know, everything ends 50-50.

You know, 50% of marriages end in failure.

So, you know, if I took that to

a casino,

we'd be playing Baccarat

in a way, half and half.

Little flip of the coin.

I like these stores.

I like the name of this story.

When we turn 18, we get the name of our soulmate.

I like whenever there's weird rules or conventions to a universe.

If this is literal,

it might be like a weird, it's not actually literal, but I like

whenever a story sets up that this is just kind of the way of the world.

Makes me think of

this movie called The Lobster, which was great, which is all about...

Oh, yeah.

I love that film.

If you don't have a partner, after a certain period of time, you get turned into an animal.

And that's just kind of

just a fun,

a fun take on just like a weird set of rules that I think you can really have a lot of fun with.

So I'm hoping that this is that similar thing where, you know, I think there's going to be a lot of deception.

Like, how do people abuse these rules as well

is what these kind of devices let you do.

So I'm stoked.

I'm curious.

And also, the guy's name is The Wack Waffle.

which is pretty fun.

Yeah, the whack waffle.

That's, I think, is that how he's spelled whacked?

There's There's an H in whack, isn't there?

I thought it was spelled whack.

I thought the

W-H-A-C-K.

Is that like whack?

Like I hate you?

Whack.

Yeah, it has to be.

There's no.

Versus whacky might be W-A-C-K-Y.

I don't know.

I'm really dumb, so I have no idea.

Wait, wait.

Okay, so I googled whack without the H, and it says whack is used as a familiar term of address chiefly in Liverpool.

Is this guy British?

All right.

Well, thank you all for watching the episode.

Pack it up.

Be sure to support the Patreon.

Thank you guys.

Vener, we'll see you in the next one.

Before we get into the episode,

no, I'm just saying I can't be expected to support the UK.

Well, I mean, no one can.

Not even that.

That's my bigger rate.

Yeah.

Thank you.

If you have a second, check us out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Give us a nice rating there.

It does help us out.

And also, thank you to all of our beautiful patrons.

And maybe consider checking out the Patreon and getting a little extra content on the side.

Without further ado, Isaiah, are you ready to read this beautiful, beautiful story?

Or at least I hope it's beautiful.

I have no idea.

I'm ready to find out the name of my soulmate.

I hope to meet her someday.

Are we going to pretend that we're 18 years old here?

We could.

We can.

We can.

How do we pretend that we're 18?

What's the difference?

i could be a little more optimistic i feel like when i was 18 i was a little more starry-eyed you were less jaded yes exactly i was more excited by things right

also i my heart would flutter when i would uh you know see a girl that i thought i was like oh she's beautiful that kind of thing

my heart would flutter

And now that you're tied down, you know, under the old ball and chain, you don't feel well, after just a lifetime of misery, it just, you know, it jades any person, you know.

So I'd say, let's go into this and we'll say we're 18.

And then at some point in the story, you'll say what you think your soulmate's name is.

Once that gets revealed in the story, we'll, we'll, RP is an 18-year-old version of ourselves.

And then we'll say, I think I know what the name of my soulmate is.

We'll see that.

First thing that comes to mind.

Okay, buddy.

Or not.

Really cool.

I'm trying desperately to give something to this show, and I apologize.

Look,

we can be honest.

The audience appreciates us.

Me and Hunter are both a little eepy right now.

Both a little...

We're some sleepy guys.

Okay.

He,

I don't know, he stays up all night gambling his house away.

I don't know.

I

was up till seven in the morning recording the mother horse eyes video for you people.

You think the reading can't be long?

It gets worse.

So this is your fault somehow you all uh because i wouldn't have known about that story if it wasn't for this show so you know what maybe it may be a little cranky maybe a little bit irritable but that's okay we mommy and daddy still love each other very much okay so anyway

we're supposed to be reading a story yeah when we turn 18 we get the name of our soulmate i was young when i realized that the place i lived was special I didn't realize it at first since I had lived there my whole life.

I thought it was normal for a city to not allow pets.

I grew up never hearing the sounds of barking dogs or hissing cats.

No one that lived inside the city border was allowed to have them.

I thought it was normal for cities to have mandatory blood testing every week.

No explanation or seemingly any reason.

I thought it was normal for cities to not have any jails.

I thought it was normal for cities to give their citizens soulmates.

I never really understood how it worked.

All that we were told was that there were the matchmakers, who were responsible for making the matches and sending out the tiny slips of paper that determined each citizen's love life and future.

No one ever saw the matchmakers.

No one knew how they were recruited.

No one knew how they worked.

All anyone knew was that it worked.

Where I lived, there has never been a filing for divorce.

The matchmakers are never wrong.

Each citizen received their paper on their 18th birthday.

Instead of the piece of paper, there was nothing except a name, the name of your supposed soulmate.

There was no telling how you would come across this person, no when or how.

All anyone knew was that it would eventually happen.

We were allowed to tell other people, allowed to ask around, try and seek out people that had the same name as the one on the paper.

But it didn't matter.

It couldn't be forced.

Isaiah, I sent you a message real quick, if you can check it out.

This sounds

all right.

So

I don't know.

I was heard in a series of discord dings, and I'm like, I wonder what that could be.

And Hunter has said,

this sounds like Portland, Oregon, but he spelled Portland, P-O-R-T-L-A-D-N.

And then he said some words I won't repeat, and then referred to those people as disgusting dogs.

I was trying to, whenever you were reading, I was hoping that you'd look over for a second and see it

and break, but no.

The funniest part,

the funniest part is that you didn't spell fit right the first time.

Instead of editing it, I was like, oh, fine, I'll just read the chips.

Said it again.

Oh,

sounds like Portland.

There is a thing with like

a lot of British media where the scare or like the premise of it is, what if all government wasn't as nice as they seem?

You know?

But it's all like, it's like the V for Vendetta stuff.

Or was it 1984?

Yeah, Orwald was British, right?

Or like we happy few.

And there's another one I can't remember right now, but it seems to be a recurring thing where it's like, what if they were lying to us?

Wouldn't that be scary?

The scariest part of this all so far is your British accent.

Is it that bad?

Was it that scary?

Just a bit.

You just sound like a fucking psychopath.

Do you think people in this universe, though, would be excited by a name?

You know?

They open it up and it's like, Jessica.

Wow.

And then there's some guy who's like, I wonder what mine is.

He like

opens the envelope, whatever, and it says, like, Jaundice.

He's like, huh?

Jaundice?

Like the disease?

Yeah, he doesn't know.

He's looking for people with the yellow eyes walking around.

Is your name Jaundice?

I know you're

jaundice, right?

It just means that he's going to die of jaundice.

Yeah, you will have no love.

The only soulmate is death, and it's going to be jaundice.

Yeah.

Isn't jaundice just a yellowing of the skin?

I don't think you can die from it.

I thought it was like liver failure.

Was it not?

I think jaundice is the yellow skin that's a symptom of liver failure.

I think.

I'm speaking to someone who acts like he knows.

Yeah, it's the discoloration of body tissue resulting from the accumulation of Billy Rubin.

All right, well, I didn't care about all that, but um, the accumulation of Billy Rubin.

You know what?

Is that a bass player?

Yes.

Why are you yellow?

Little, I went to Billy Rubin's concert last night.

He stained me with the funk.

It's a

Billy Rubin's like a liver enzyme.

Yeah.

It's in your blood.

But you know what?

I like your answer better.

This guy's dying because there's tiny little bass players in his blood.

That's why it's married to Jaundice.

How are you making

bass noises in a British accent?

Also, this has got the, I mean, I know that we're fucking three paragraphs in.

Dad's about to check the fuck out.

I mean, to be fair, we did kind of jump the story for no reason.

It was just like, well, in all town, Wood told us all man.

There's really no reason that we're even editing British, right?

You start messaging me obscene messages, and you're like, boom.

Now, remember the reason I said I think it's British is because a whack is like a term.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

The UK, yeah.

Should we just assume that's in England then?

I think we're too far gone to assume otherwise.

They're going to get like a chapter in and be like, so as I was leaving Atlanta, and we'll be like, oh, well, too late.

Atlanta, London?

Yes, Atlanta, London.

Yep, that's how

City goes.

Oh, it's Cobblestone Streets and the best pastries in the world.

Cobblestone Street.

Okay, we got to keep keep going.

I'm slipping.

Alright.

Of course, literal eternal love and happiness does not come without rules.

Every citizen had to follow the rules.

They weren't too strange and seemed like a small price to pay for what you were getting in return.

Most of the rules were simple.

To name a few, there was no going outside under any circumstances after 2 a.m.

No pets, blood tests, etc.

There were also rules that we weren't allowed to know until we were older.

We got the new rules on our 18th birthday.

Same day we got our matchmaker paper.

We called them slips.

As I got older, I realized that our city was special and that other cities didn't have what we had, but I didn't care.

Life was good.

Life seemed simple.

Our city was like a little paradise.

It was happy.

It was without issue.

It was the night before my 18th birthday and I couldn't sleep.

This was to be expected since knowing that the next morning you would know the name of your literal soulmate was enough to keep anyone up late.

Usually, I wouldn't have believed in such things like soulmates, especially as I got older, but it was hard to argue with evidence.

My parents had gotten married in their late 20s and have stayed happily married ever since, both of their names matching what was on their slips.

My older sister, Caitlin, got her slip last year, and though she's been through her fair share of failed relationships, she's currently in a happy one with some guy named Roger.

I don't think I need to tell you the name that was on her slip.

Can you imagine

your slip says like Ternk or something like that?

Turk?

You get a girl named Ternk Brownie?

Is that like the word trunk ready?

No.

I'm so tired.

I'm so tired that I, in my mind, while you're reading, all I thought of was ternk.

I started laughing.

Ternk brownie.

You want to know the best thing?

I was, I typed in ternk to see if that's hitting anything.

And this was the first image

that appeared.

It's apparently some YouTube channel.

This is the,

instead of a name, it's just this image on the slip.

What am I supposed to do with this?

Oh, Matt, Mike, Lucky, you got turned.

You got turned.

That's what she looks like.

I'm so sleepy.

This is going to be completely insufferable to everyone.

I know.

I'm sorry.

Just randomly turk.

We're going to get a lot of turk today, dude.

It's a turk kind of day.

Mom, dad, I want you to meet Terk.

She doesn't speak human language.

She speaks turtle.

So what's the point in his sister Caitlin dating if there's slips, right?

Like, what would be the point of dating someone if it's like, well, in a year, I'm going to get the piece of paper that says you aren't married.

It doesn't make any sense.

I mean, it's kind of fucking stupid if you think about it.

If you're like in a weird, like, Amish community, you're not fucking flirting around and fucking Jebedai on the side.

It's like, you're waiting for your slip is what I would assume.

Right.

Right?

Everybody.

yeah.

Because it's also like, oh, I don't want to date you.

I have to, I need my slip to know who it is.

Also, if you're older than 18, you would know who your soulmate is.

So maybe, I don't know, if you're a dirty leg, you could be a dirty leg or a dirty dick and try to like just be fucking around, maybe.

But I don't know.

I don't know why you'd be dating in the thing in the thought that it was going to be successful.

Yeah.

Yeah, it does some track.

I mean, you know, maybe they

This gorgeous woman, I'm like, yeah,

I mean, we can fool around, but you're no Turk.

You're no Turk.

So let's get that straight.

I'm saving myself for Terk.

I love Ternk.

Anyway.

Okay.

I woke up the next morning.

Mr.

Hunter Brownie.

I would take Turk's last name.

Mr.

Hunter Turnk Brownie.

Wow.

There's a ring to it, doesn't it?

I woke up.

I woke up the next morning, my arm groping for my alarm to turn it off, just like any other day.

It wasn't until I

can't, I can't read because that picture is so out of my purpose.

You need to fucking minimize Turk's profile picture.

Okay, it's gone.

It's gone.

We're good.

We're good.

What'd you do last weekend, Hunter?

Well, I went down to Victoria's Secret and got Terk some bras and panties trying to spice it up in the bedroom.

I like how the joke is.

Just normal wife interactions, but the name is Turk.

Yeah, because how the fuck.

Well, we want to invite you and Turk over for a barbecue tomorrow.

I don't know.

Actually, at this point, too,

I did say that she spoke turtle.

So she is an anomaly.

And she is that profile picture face.

So she is like

a bit of a monster.

But she's the love of my life, so please don't fucking talk ill of her.

Of course.

I would never, Mr.

County.

Thank you.

Oh.

Going down to the courthouse and changing my name

Okay, alright.

We used to share a room, but ever since she moved out, it feels empty with just me in it.

By some miracle, I eventually fell asleep.

My brain finally exhausted after hours of wondering what tomorrow was going to bring.

I woke up the next morning, my arm groping for my alarm to turn it off, just like any other day.

It wasn't until I sleepily sat up that I realized that today wasn't like any other day.

I swung my legs out of bed, my heart pounding in my chest as I tried to compose myself.

I wanted to pull on a shirt and shorts as fast as possible, rushed to the kitchen to get the envelope I knew would be addressed to me, but I didn't.

I didn't want to be one of those people whose entire lives suddenly revolved around trying to find their soulmate.

I needed to be calm.

Taking a few even breaths, I slowly put on a shirt and some basketball shorts before opening my door.

Chatter and the smell of waffles hit my senses instantly as I stepped out of my room.

Turning the corner, I stopped, grinning.

Caitlin!

I said, unable to contain my excitement at seeing her.

Reaching her in a few short steps, I wrapped my arms around her in a hug to which she enthusiastically returned.

What are you doing here?

I said, pulling myself away to look at her.

Oh, you seriously thought I would miss your birthday?

Get real.

Did you like that?

Did you like saying get real?

I feel like I need...

What is so she says?

So she's a bit of a bad boy.

What should I, should she be like, oh, you seriously thought I I would miss your birthday?

Get real.

That sounds right.

Do you like that?

Yeah.

She said, matching my grin as she looked at me.

Damn.

You got tall.

She said, looking at me.

He got it from his old man.

Okay, dude.

Dad,

you don't need to chime in, dad.

Yeah, I'm pretty hot, too.

Compliment me.

Yeah,

go ahead.

don't you think I'm beautiful, daughter of mine?

Yeah, he's probably spitting an image of his old man, so you probably think I'm pretty tall and cute too, huh?

Dad, could you just go already?

Yeah, I gotta go to work.

My dad.

My dad chimed in, and Caitlin rolled her eyes.

Besides my height, I got a lot for my dad.

I got his warm brown eyes, and I got his wavy, dirty blonde hair that I had always kept medium length.

I looked so much like my dad that my mom always chimed in, saying how I got her nose and smile.

Happy birthday, hun!

Mom said from the counter, giving me a soft smile.

These are almost done, and we'll go out for your birthday dinner later tonight, said gesturing at the waffles, and I smiled.

Birthday waffles for the birthday boy.

Better keep your girlfriends away from your old man.

They'll get us confused.

Dad, stop.

You're morbidly obese and you're 56 years old.

Yeah.

Spitting image.

It's like looking in the mirror.

I've got to persevere.

I have to get through this.

We're like a barley.

We're like

six paragraphs in Barlow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is the beginning of the season.

It's 30 minutes.

We've been recording for 30 minutes.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

Okay.

I want to take a quick moment to thank today's sponsor, Factor.

Lately, I've been running around with a million things to do.

And with everything going on, eating healthy is easier said than done.

Especially during the summer, who wants to spend their time around a hot kitchen?

Well, thankfully, today's sponsor, Factor, has me covered.

Factor powers your day sun up to sundown with nutritious breakfast options, on-the-go lunches, premium desserts, and guilt-free snacks.

In just two minutes, Factor lets you heat, eat, and enjoy.

And Factor's never been lacking in variety, but now there's even more.

They now have several Asian-inspired dishes,

Asian-approved, as well as Mediterranean diet options.

All packed with protein and the delicious, good-for-you fats.

97% of customers say Factor's helped them live a healthier lifestyle, and it's not hard to see why.

I mean, with meal options like Calorie Smart, Keto, Protein Plus, and Vegan, it's hard hard not to.

And every week you get to choose from 65 different meal options and I'm sure you'll find something you'll love.

And the best part about Factor is there's no prep work, grocery lines, and virtually no cleanup.

Make your days easier and healthier with Factor because right now is the perfect time to get in on their offer.

That's because you can eat smart at factormeals.com slash creepcast50Off and use code Creepcast50Off to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year.

That is right, half off your first box plus free breakfast for a whole year.

That's code Creepcast50Off at factormeals.com/slash creepcast50Off to get your delicious, ready-to-eat meals now.

Offer only valid to new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchases.

Get in on your meals today.

Thank you all for watching the ad and thank you to Factor for sponsoring the channel.

We are now back to the episode.

My dad chimed in, putting an arm around my mom, and the simple movement made me remember something I forgot in the midst of the excitement.

Is it, is it here?

I asked him, trying to keep my voice even.

My sister nodded, understanding what I was talking about.

On the front table.

My legs felt like rubber as I walked a few steps into the hallway.

Instantly seeing the stark white envelope on the table, I picked it up.

Delivered to Theodore Shillings.

That is an insane name.

I walked back to the kitchen.

All eyes on me as I turned the envelope over, trying to act calm.

I opened the envelope, pulling out two pieces of paper.

One of them I knew would be the new rules.

The other one was my slip.

I looked at the bigger paper first.

To people registered as 18 years as older, the following rules will come into effect.

1.

Under no circumstances is anyone 18 years or older permitted in city waters.

This includes all local rivers within city limits.

2.

Under no circumstances will anyone 18 years or older be allowed to watch the television on the 14th of every month?

3.

Under no circumstances is anyone 18 years or older permitted to use faucets after midnight.

This includes sinks, bathtubs, and showers.

4.

Under no circumstance is anyone 18 years or older permitted to use any kind of elevator after 9 p.m.

And then 5.

Under no circumstances is anyone 18 years or older permitted to share their rule with people under the age of 18.

So you can't do things related to the water, can't watch TV, and you can't use an elevator.

Yeah.

And that was it.

Honestly, I expected more, but was relieved there wasn't too many that I would have to memorize.

They were weird, sure, but nothing that I wouldn't be able to do.

After rereading the new rules, I put the paper down, heart hammering as I took my slip, wanting to get it over with.

I opened it, to which a single name was printed:

Avery.

That's a fine name.

It's not Turnk or anything.

You're okay.

I read and reread the name several times.

Avery Avery Avery.

I racked my brain for people I knew named Avery.

There was a girl in my history class and maybe one who I had pre-calc with a few years ago.

Before I could wonder further, Caitlin's voice cut me off.

What's the name?

She said, to which I handed it to her.

It passed from her to my mother, then my father.

Avery, nice name.

My dad said, handing my slit back to me.

Chatter resumed between my parents and Caitlin while my mind was worrying.

Some things made more sense now, like why I never saw adults kayaking in the river like I saw them do in other cities.

I had told myself for a long time that once I got my slip, that I wouldn't focus too much on it.

But my mind kept coming back to the name that was burning to my mind, Avery.

I still had to go to school and got ready while Caitlin went out to reconnect with some high school friends.

I ignored my text asking what the name on my slip was, preferring to have the conversation in person.

My friends were waiting for me at the bus stop eagerly.

There was Jennifer, who was usually pretty quiet and who I'd known since preschool.

There was Joseph, who was a bit of a daredevil and a jog who I'd met during my freshman year.

Lastly, there was Charles and Sophia, twins who were never separated and who I'd bonded for this sophomore year over our love for horror movies.

Looking at us as a group looked weird, but we worked and we had fun with each other.

I was bombarded with the same question question as I got close to them.

Whose name did you get?

Avery?

I said, the first time I had actually said the name.

It sounded nice, coming out of my mouth.

It sounded right.

My friends nodded, followed by a moment of silence that meant they were all trying to think of Avery's that we knew.

Isn't there a chick in your history class named Avery?

Joseph offered, and I nodded.

Yeah, I'm sure not to think about it too much.

I don't want to become one of those people who become obsessed with it.

I said, although the name was really all I could think about.

My friends dropped it after that, all except Joseph.

He would chime in every few minutes, rattling off girls that he knew, all with the name Avery.

He was still talking about it as the bus came and as we walked up to school.

He really didn't have an off button, which meant that I was left to try and tune him out, nodding my head in agreement every few minutes.

As the school day went on, I couldn't help but wonder if each Avery I came across was my soulmate.

Somehow, though, none of the girls I came across felt right.

Everything else aside, the school day went pretty smoothly.

People wished me happy birthday in the halls, occasionally asking who I got on my slip.

After school, I still had time before I had to head home and start working on homework.

So as usual, I met outside the school with my friends.

The day had gotten progressively hotter as it went on, and by the time school was let out, it had reached the point of uncomfort.

Most of my friends were already waiting for me.

As I got closer, they were already in conversation.

Paul's hot, man.

We should go claim a spot by the river before it gets too crowded, Joseph was saying, to which my other friends nodded in agreement.

The river he was referring to was the biggest in the city, almost cutting it in half.

It was a popular hangout spot, and my friends and I had been going there for ages.

But now my throat felt tight.

None of my friends had turned 18 yet.

I had an extra year of preschool when I was a kid.

They didn't know the new rules.

Something funny.

Just funny to justify that.

None of them are 18, and that's just because I had an extra year of preschool for you, so it's not weird that I'm older.

It's just they're just my younger friends.

That doesn't make me weird or different or anything.

It's normal.

Your baby is the love of my life.

And it's perfectly normal for someone to want to speak like this.

It's like

when you were talking, it became Ben Shapiro in my mind.

The relationship I have with Trunk, or not Trunk, what was it?

Turk.

Turk.

My beautiful baby's name is Ternk.

Turn brownie.

She is the love of my life, and I will not hear anything else of it.

I was hoping that if I got the ball rolling, you would pick up with the bitch Shapiro Turnkin.

Thank you.

Oh.

One of the rules said I wasn't allowed to tell them.

Did that mean I also couldn't hint at it?

I'm not sure if I'm feeling the river today.

i said trying to sound as nonchalant as possible okay the dialogue some of the like the verbiage choices in this story are really testing us right now we're being very good for not

i feel like i'm

i feel like i'm floating outside of my body this is becoming almost a religious experience for me

yeah like i'm trying to be nonchalant using erm unironically or uh like the the dad chimed in using the same like phrases over and over over.

Yeah, I'm pretty young and spikely, too.

You girls, stay away from me, I'll get in trouble.

You boys don't know how good you have it.

You have no idea.

You better save this because life only gets worse.

I thought you said

your soulmate, sure.

These are the best years of your life.

Remember that it'll never get any better than this, it'll never get any better than right now.

Fuck

are you crazy it's like 90 degrees out here jennifer said raising her eyebrows not wanting to act suspicious i decided that i would go but i wouldn't go in under any circumstances all right let's go but i can't stay long i i have my birthday dinner with caitlin and my parents i said to which joseph pumped his fist

why'd he pump his fist Oh, oh, for going to the river.

I see, I see.

Yeah.

I thought he was doing it over the mention of Caitlin.

I'm like it was Joseph.

Yeah, what about your dad, man?

All right, boys.

Stop.

McCatch.

McCash.

He's just there with them all of a sudden.

All right.

Who called the Pied Piper?

You could hear my flute from a mile away, couldn't you?

Okay, I'll get out of here.

I'll get out of here.

I'll be fine.

I'll be in the bushes again if you need me.

Just call,

Dad, get out of here.

He's like a real chummy child predator type.

God.

Jason.

What are you saying?

No, no, no.

Okay, all right.

He just thinks he's cool.

He just thinks he's like a catch.

It's wholesome.

Okay.

Relieved that no one seemed to suspect anything, we set off towards the river.

There were a couple other families there, with kids playing in the shallow water and the parents sitting safely on the edge.

I took a few even breaths to remind myself that I was fine and that I would stay on the shore.

Jennifer and Joseph were the first to the river, instantly pulling up their jeans and taking off their socks and shoes as they dipped them into the river, sighing with relief that the cool water provided from the hot weather.

I desperately wanted to be there with them, swimming in the river and enjoying the nice weather, but the rules were very clear.

I sighed, sitting down a few feet away from the water, my legs out in front of me, watching as my friends splashed each other with the water.

I just had to hold out until they had their birthdays, and then I wouldn't have to make excuses.

I could handle a few more months.

Oi!

Come on, birthday, boy!

Get in the water!

There you go.

See, it's got to be British, right?

What's the oi?

The oi is what got me, right?

Yeah, the oi.

That's what I'm saying.

The presence of oi, it's gotta be.

No way.

Charles yelled, splashing water in my direction as he was ankle-deep in it, a few feet away from where it dropped off into the deeper waters.

I smiled, shaking my head as I adjusted my legs to make myself more comfortable.

Nah, I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

Nah,

nah, I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

Nah,

I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

Nah, it's cool.

I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

I yelled back

to which I could see his eyes roll from there.

Hearing your friend say

the same thing.

Four times.

Ah, we can't have that.

Joseph called, waiting back to where I was.

I command the birthday boy to get hypothermia with the rest of us.

Joseph said, smirking as he approached me.

Gosh, this story is

tested.

I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

I felt a trickle of unease as he approached me.

A trickle.

Nah, I'll be the one to drive you guys to the hospital when you get hypothermia.

Joseph.

Seriously, you got to back up, man.

That trickle is

going down my back.

I'm trickling down.

I'm trickling down the side of my leg right now.

My legs are getting real trickled right now.

I stood up to move away, but just then he swooped down and picked me up over his shoulder.

Whoa, whoa.

All right.

All right, Joseph.

Give me a little flustered.

Joseph, you look just like your dad.

Joseph, what are you talking about?

Joseph, what are you talking about?

You say my name again?

You look just like your dad.

Put me down, Joseph.

Joseph, put me down.

Put me down.

Remember, Joseph?

I'm the one that drives you to the hospital.

Nah.

Nah.

I'll drive you to the hospital.

Jesus, stop saying that.

You remind me of your dad.

Yeah, I guess he is a spitting image of me, huh?

There's just way too many character stereotypes being mentioned back to back.

It's begging us to do something to make fun of it.

Joseph played for the football team, and I always admired his strength.

This was the first time I was afraid of it.

That's

what do you mean by that?

What do you mean by you admiring Joseph?

What do you mean by that?

Joseph, stop!

Put me down!

I yelled, panic rising in my voice, struggling to escape his arms as he was carrying me to the water.

Does he just have him like one-armed over his side?

Yeah, I think so.

My heart pounded wildly in my chest.

It's a rising fear crept up my throat.

He outmatched me in size and strength.

My struggles were fruitless.

I'm serious, Joseph.

Put me the fuck down!

I yelled, to which he gave a little laugh.

Ha, you're always a serious to you.

Loosen up.

Live a little.

He replied, and I could see he was in the water now, waiting further in.

I looked at my friends, wide-eyed.

They were giggling like it was a joke.

They had no idea.

As he got closer to the drop-off, I struggled harder.

hitting him on the shoulders.

I wasn't weak by any standards, but Joseph was built like an ox, almost all muscled.

Fear closed my throat so tightly, I couldn't breathe.

Come on, everyone, in the water, he said, motioning his head to my friends, who obliged, standing on the edge of the drop.

All right, on three.

We'll all jump in together.

He put his hands on my waist, and I knew what was coming.

One,

two.

Started rocking back and forth.

Joseph, stop!

Stop!

I yelled, punching him harder, but it didn't make any difference.

Three!

I heard the splashes of my friends jumping in just as I was launched a few feet into the air.

Didn't know what to expect.

I shut my eyes tightly as images rapidly flashed through my mind.

I saw myself at my 9th birthday party, saw myself applauding at Caitlin's graduation.

Rapid images throughout my life flashed before me.

Was my life flashing before my eyes?

It felt like an eternity before I hit the water.

Eyes are flashing before your eyes because you're breaking a rule.

Jumping into the water.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

I hit the water hard, the cold water stinging every part of my body.

I got hypothermia and someone had to drive me to the hospital.

Nah.

Nah.

The wind knocked out of me, but since nothing else happened immediately, I thought, fleetingly, that I was fine.

I was wrong.

Felt like a giant vacuum was at the bottom of the river, sucking me towards it.

I thrashed in the water, desperately trying anything to prevent myself from getting sucked deeper.

I had been swimming in the deep part of the river before, and one summer my friends and I actually measured how deep it was, and I knew well enough that I was being pulled far beyond that.

I was running out of air, and my panic state wasn't helping the situation.

Whatever was down there started to pull me faster, as if whatever it was could sense my desperation.

My chest felt tight as I could no longer hold my breath.

My body started to go lip when suddenly, I was falling.

I was no longer in water and I took a gasp of breath, sputtering out of the water that had managed to get in my mouth for my surprise.

I was so relieved to be breathing again that it took a minute to realize I was falling rapidly through the air.

Darkness surrounded me.

Through my confused dazed state, I couldn't make out what was around me.

A few seconds later, for the second time that day, my body hit water again.

Hard.

Once again, I had the wind knocked out of me, and I could feel myself sinking.

I couldn't couldn't move, couldn't breathe.

I didn't have the energy to panic.

My eyes closed.

I didn't know what I was supposed to think about.

I didn't want my last thoughts before death to be wasted.

It was during these last thoughts that suddenly, something pulled me away from them.

Literally.

I could feel something grabbing the back of my shirt, pulling me upwards towards the surface.

Confusion swept me as a moment later, I felt myself being heaved out of the water and being roughly set down on something hard, something solid.

I gasped, coughing and sputtering as water dripped off of me.

I shakily pushed myself onto my hands and knees, trying to get my breathing under control, my thoughts moving at the speed of light.

I felt oddly light-headed, my body drained and exhausted.

I wanted to look around for my savior, but I couldn't.

My vision had started to go black as my exhausted body finally collapsed.

Someone was shaking me awake.

My first fleeting thought was that it was my mom, telling me I was going to be late for school.

Then I remembered it was just a dream.

Told myself, just a dream.

You'll open your eyes and mom is going to wish you a happy birthday.

Tell you you're going to be late for school.

Someone shook me harder.

I opened my eyes.

It was not my mom.

It was a boy, who looked around my age with dark, messy hair.

Who was looking at me with two dark blue concerned eyes.

He looked relieved as I opened my eyes.

Good, you're awake.

Come on, we need to move.

He said quickly.

Looking behind him, confusion clouded my mind.

My name's Avery.

I can explain everything later, but we really have to go.

My breath caught in my throat.

Avery, Avery, Avery.

Oh, shit.

Kind of a fun way to find out you're gay.

Okay, yeah.

So apparently the state made him gay.

The government, they're

state-forced homosexuality.

Okay, I guess I'm cool with that.

All right.

This is truly a British horror story.

What if the government?

Yeah, what if the government made you gay?

What if my government made me gay?

And I didn't have any say in it.

That's just how it is.

And I have to do it.

What if I hold do

i don't lock avery like that i don't want to button up his trousers no more

part two

in school we had learned about the five stages of grief stages come into effect whenever a person experiences something unpleasant This means a variety of things from losing a loved one or going through a traumatic experience.

Your brain goes through these five stages to protect you and help you cope.

First is shock and denial.

People usually experience numbness both physically and emotionally.

It's typical for people in this stage to ask repeated questions.

More often, questions that they already know the answer to, but their brain refuses to believe.

I was no exception.

That dark-haired boy was still speaking, although his words landed on deaf ears.

For the person he was trying to talk to was currently going through the first stage of grief.

Your name is Avery?

I interrupted, my voice quiet, but cut in as I pushed myself up into a sitting position, feeling uncomfortable, laying on my back.

Boy looked at me, exasperated and annoyed as he realized that this was the only piece of information I gleaned from his words.

Yes, my name is Avery.

Did you get any of what I just said?

He asked as his eyebrows furrowed, irritation leaking into his voice.

An embarrassed flush crept up my face as I dropped my eyes.

Some of it.

I mumbled, my face so hot that I was sure that he could feel the heat radiating off of me.

I could hear the small sigh that he made, followed by rustling.

I took a chance and looked up, where I saw Avery rustling around in a black bag for something.

Look, I know this is confusing.

I'll explain everything later.

But right now, there's no time.

We've already made too much noise.

He said hurriedly with another paranoid glance over his shoulder.

Looking back, he finally removed two things from his bag.

You're gonna need this.

Put it on, he said, tossing one to I caught it, turning it over in my hands as confusion etched onto my face.

It looked like a mask, but with no holes for the eyes or mouth, or a strap at the back.

It was stark black and weirdly smooth, made of a material I didn't recognize.

What is this?

I started to ask, but his voice cut me off.

Do you trust me?

Come on.

Why would he say you?

I met you 10 seconds ago.

He said suddenly, his dark blue eyes pressing into mine.

I swallowed.

Thoughts raced across my mind as I tried to sort through them.

There was no time for logic, not now.

My dad had always told me to be logical and think with my head instead of my heart.

I was trying so hard to listen to my head, but my heart was louder.

Yes, I said quietly, so softly that I thought he wouldn't hear me, but the relieved expression that washed over his face told me that he did.

So is he immediately in love with him?

Yeah, I think he's like fucking bricked up right now.

Yeah.

It's like, I'm supposed to love this guy.

Well, now i'm blushing and my heart is louder than my head it's like well that was a fast adjustment all right then please put the damn thing on questions later he said softly some of the impatience leaving his voice without another word i held my breath and put the mask like thing up to my face it was one of the oddest experiences i had ever felt it felt like a suction cup attaching itself to my face so tightly it was as if the mask was merging with my face the no holes for the eyes or mouth proved to not be an issue since i got to breathe perfectly fine, almost as if it wasn't on at all.

I looked up to see if Avery had his on, and when I looked up, I had to stifle a gasp.

It was like his face had completely disappeared, a black oval where his face should have been.

It was beyond unnerving, merely looking at it sitting a chill through my body.

Is that what I looked like with this on me?

He asked, seeing I had put it on.

Hearing him speak without seeing his mouth was creeping me out, but I didn't say anything and instead just nodded.

He extended a hand out, seeing that I was still on the ground.

I hesitated for only a fraction of a second before I took his hand, letting him hold me to my feet.

As soon as my hand touched his, I felt a shot of warmth, startling me slightly, but leaving me as soon as he let go.

Stay with me and stay quiet.

He said softly, swinging his back.

Who calls it a bagpack?

I thought it was backpack.

Not a backpack?

Yeah, backpack.

Swinging his bagpack.

Probably a British thing, maybe.

This is probably a disgusting British thing again.

Okay.

Swinging his bagpack onto his back, turning to start walking.

As I started to follow him, I looked up, at last trying to get a picture of my surroundings.

To hopefully get some information to where the hell I was.

I was not prepared for what I saw.

It was the city.

I tried to keep walking so as to not get too far behind Avery, but my eyes were glued to the side in front of me.

It couldn't be, could it?

My thoughts were racing.

To confirm, I looked behind me.

The body of water that Avery had just pulled me out of was the very same one that I had gotten thrown into in the first place.

My heart was pounding as I looked around me.

It was an exact replica of the city, but it was distorted.

Every building was strained of color, almost everything inside being a different shade of black or gray.

On top of this, every few seconds something would glitch, like a lagging video game, like the holograms that were in the movies.

Something wasn't right.

You could feel it everywhere you looked.

Like I was like, the buildings are glitching, the city's desolate.

Something feels weird.

A sickening sense of unease or dread with every washed out, colorless building that we passed.

I quickened my pace to get closer to Avery.

I didn't know where we were going, since we were going into the west part of the city, which I wasn't too familiar with.

All my life, I had everything I needed fairly close to where I lived, so there wasn't really any reason to explore.

I know that Avery told me to not ask questions, but I wanted to know where we were going, if I was going to need anything to protect myself with, since the feeling that I was being watched hadn't gone away since I arrived in this screwed-up dystopia.

I silently walked faster until I was next to him.

Maybe it was the fact that I had my slip on my mind, but as I got closer, I could feel my heart start thumping uncomfortably against my chest.

Avery,

I asked softly, trying to keep my voice low.

He glanced at me, and I cringed as I remembered that we still had the black masks on.

Huh?

He replied, matching my quiet voice.

I know you said not to ask questions, but where are we going?

He glanced around before lowering his head to speak.

My place.

Where I lived before I came here.

I've been using it as a sort of a safe house.

We don't have to keep our voices down there, and I can explain everything.

Just as he finished speaking, a loud thump came from in front of us, startling me as a black, distorted figure came out from a glitching convenience store.

Looked like a man, but his face didn't have any features.

His face looked oddly like the black ovals that our faces now resembled because of the masks.

My heart stopped in my chest as Avery grabbed my arm to stop me from walking.

Don't look at him, Avery whispered feverishly into my ear.

He's lost.

Your voice for Avery is so fitting.

We can go to my place before the

lost beginnings.

Yeah, it's pretty much going to do whatever I want to do.

It's kind of awesome.

I have Mountain Dew and a PlayStation 2.

We can do all kinds of stuff with our hands and stuff.

Because

we're slip brothers.

Slip brothers?

Yeah.

That's a funny way to describe gay relationship.

We're pretty much boy things.

Yeah, we're dating.

We're

pretty much married by this point.

The distorted man had an uneven gait, almost limping.

As he got closer, I could see that his black body was glitching, everything else in the screwed-up place.

I quickly looked down as Avery instructed, trying to keep my breathing in control.

I felt Avery's hand tighten on my arm as the thing got closer to us, and as it got closer, I could hear it mumbling incoherently.

It continued to get closer, so close that I could feel its presence with every fiber of my being.

It was beyond uncomfortable, but, staying true to Avery's instructions, I didn't make a sound.

The next few minutes felt like an eternity before Avery looked up and looked behind us, letting out a small sigh of relief as his grip loosened on my arm before letting go.

Come on, we need to hurry.

He mumbled, starting to walk again, faster than we were before.

Neither of us said anything for a while.

As we walked, I was left to my own thoughts, as my brain was trying to make sense of everything that had happened to me.

Thought about my family, an internal ache spreading through me as I tried to imagine what they would be feeling when I didn't come home.

I stewed on this for a while, before the surge of anger washed through me.

This wasn't even my fault.

Joseph was the one who thought I needed to live a little more, who decided it would be a great idea to chuck me into the river.

I forgot to mention that the second and third stages of grief are pain and anger.

With all these thoughts running through my head, there was still one that I refused to acknowledge.

Getting a person of the same gender on your slip wasn't unheard of, and actually happened pretty often.

I just never thought I'd be one of those people.

I suppose having matchmakers made us blind.

With the promise of a soulmate, you never really had to think or worry about your sexuality or relationships.

You knew that someone else was out there, figuring it out for you.

It was uncomfortable to think about how people you've never even met know more about your own sexuality before you even do.

Before you even had a chance to figure it out.

I actually shook my head, trying to chase away these thoughts.

It was ridiculous.

I would know if I liked guys, right?

I didn't have time to dive deeper into these thoughts.

We're here, a soft voice said, bringing me away from my thoughts.

I looked up where we were.

It was one of those houses that was small and cramped, on a street where it seemed like the builders were trying to find out how many houses they could fit onto it.

It looked fairly normal, and I expect it would have looked better if I'd had, you know, color.

Avery opened the door, beckoning me inside quickly, shutting the door behind us.

I looked around, finding a surprisingly neat interior with bookshelves and couches like any normal house would.

Looking around, I was relieved to notice that nothing in here was glitching around like outside, even if it was still colorless.

The only odd thing was that there was an empty space in the middle of the living room, like someone had taken away the table but left the couches.

Avery said, to which I turned to look at him.

Before I could reply, he put a hand to his face, starting to peel the mask off from the bottom.

We could take these off, but keep you as close by.

He said, peeling his own off and setting it on the closest couch.

I put my own hand to my face, fleetingly wondering if mine would come off, since it felt like it wasn't even there anymore.

To my great relief, I was able to feel it and copied what Avery had done, peeling it off from the bottom, which came off with surprising ease.

I set it down on the table next to me, working up the courage to speak.

I'd opened my mouth to speak when Avery broke the silence first.

So, I guess you have a few questions.

He said with a small sigh, still standing.

I said nothing, instead nodding and gingerly sitting on the edge of the couch next to me.

I don't even know where to start.

How could a novice like you approach a

expert like myself?

When do I even begin to tell somebody like you this?

He mumbled to himself, eyebrows knitting together as he started to pace.

Courage bubbled up, making its way to my throat.

How'd you end up here?

I asked, making him look up, his face relaxing as if he was relieved to have somewhere solid to start his explanation.

Well,

I broke a wall,

he said with a sigh.

I said nothing, fully prepared to not speak until he was done.

The thirst for information for an explanation was too great.

Luckily for me, Avery picked up on it, and he continued.

It was a TV wool.

The one where we can't watch in the 14th of a month.

I was such an idiot.

He said, shaking his head as he resumed his pacing.

I got pulled through.

It happens so fast.

I was sitting on a catch, actually.

He gestured to the one I was sitting on with a tight smile.

I turned it on, and it was just static.

I realized what I had done.

Before I could fix my mistake, something was coming out of it.

Something solid.

It grabbed my shirt and pulled me through, into the TV, where I landed here.

I thought nothing had happened since I was still in my house until I realized I wasn't.

He said, his voice starting to get heavy.

He paused.

He didn't need to say any more.

It was perhaps a combination of sympathy or curiosity that was too overwhelming for me to stay quiet.

What is this place?

Avery gave out a small sigh.

Gosh, he loves the small size and the pacing and the

coming around to sit on a chair opposite to where I was sitting.

I don't know what the f we

He said before meeting my eyes.

He seemed to know what question I wanted to ask next.

Ever wonder why we didn't have jails?

He didn't wait for my answer.

I called them the lost ones.

The people that get thrown in here.

They lose themselves after a while.

They they turn into what you saw on the way here.

Altered versions of themselves.

No identity.

No remnants of their past selves.

They're hostile.

Angered and capable of much more than you could ever imagine.

It literally says I swallowed.

Literally, a gulp.

This is the jail that we never had up there.

Made for the warblers and people who threaten their precious utopia.

They get left here.

Left to waste away.

To spend the rest of eternity here.

They are nightmares.

Beings of their worst possible selves have no feelings, know nothing.

They are fueled off their worst qualities and are trapped in their own heads.

This time it was Avery that swallowed

the gulping.

As far as I can tell, they don't care who gets trapped here.

Even the people who break walls by accident.

Although, the actual criminals they deliver personally down here.

he said with a sigh.

The weight of the situation was pressing on me so hard that I was having a hard time breathing.

There's a way out of here, right?

I asked breathlessly.

To my immense relief, Avery nodded.

Does it only take two people?

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for someone down here, he said softly.

I felt a ping of sympathy.

How long have you been down here?

I asked and shrugged.

I don't know, shrugging and sighing.

I don't know.

A couple of months, maybe?

There's no way to tell down here.

I keep track by writing on the walls, but they would disappear the next day.

He said with a sigh, he was once again signed.

How do we get out of here?

I asked, my voice gaining confidence the longer I spent in his presence.

The same way that they get the criminals in here.

It's at the center of the city and looks like an archway.

The door they use is password protected, and I've been watching whenever they bring someone new down here, and I know it.

The only problem is, it seems to be a popular hangout spot for the people who are lost.

The masks that I had you put on ought to blend you in with them, but it only goes so far.

It only really works when there are a few of them around.

I didn't ask how he managed to get those masks.

There is a way to kill them,

but it was still outnumber me, which is why I need a second person.

You don't need to eat or drink down here, but you can still get hurt.

He said, lifting his sleeve to reveal two long, deep gashes that were in the process of healing.

I suppressed a shiver.

He has shivered like five times now.

I'll tell you, you have to record.

You know what the biggest crime is so far?

I'm fucking bored.

Bored.

It is.

It's also insanely British.

The whole like, what if all government, all the main people who didn't like to smile all the time?

What if there was another big bin beneath big ben, but it ain't got no color?

The old union jacks black and white.

Could you imagine?

It seems so far.

I'm wondering if this is a story, which, you know, listen, I'm stupid, so forgive me if this is on the nose and I just don't know, but it seems like it's something that is possibly a story about somebody coming to terms with their sexuality and then the other people who hide it or, you know, who basically defy those rules or people who basically it's like people who

I'm trying to think of

it feels like this parallel world is like the

is like the every person that like lives in denial or something like that.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

The world is bland and dark and all that kind of stuff.

Here's the thing though.

Like the sexuality thing is the most interesting part of the story like the idea that you get the name of your soulmate and then your soulmates soulmate's the same, you know, gender as you, like, and you didn't think you're into that.

But if it's true, how do you cope?

Um, that's interesting.

But what is all this other stuff about there's a city under the city, and you can't go into the river, and there's a television.

It's complicated because it tries to make it real by saying, Well, yeah, if you watch the telly on the 14th, you get sucked into the shadow realm, along with you know, all of the family killers and the manslaughter cases and whatnot.

It's like, what do you mean?

So you go down here as a prison, but also if you like fall in the water?

I can't tell if it's trying to be commentary of like societal norms, which I know, you know, sounds cheesy as fuck, but I'm wondering if it's supposed to be like arbitrary societal rules that people have to blindly follow.

Um,

that kind of thing.

I'm, but, you know, I don't know.

The problem is, like, yeah, the idea of like you have a soulmate, which is also kind of interesting with the slip idea where it's like you're just born with this, you know,

it's, it's not really a choice it's just kind of the thing that you that you have i think is interesting but it's just the static thing is kind of cringe and then the the idea of like the faceless man it's just kind of a bunch of cliche stuff and it's just i'm like it's it's going to

it's going to end on probably some kind of like heartfelt thing of like but we had each other And it's just, this thing is boiling up to be like a big cliche, but I don't know.

Also, to be fair, I'm just bored.

I'm just

very bored.

Well, I would agree with that because everything else has been a cliche up until this point.

The introduction of the friend sounded like it was off a breakfast club spin-off.

And the dad's stereotypical and like he's stereotypical and all of the setups and the descriptions.

And he shivers a lot.

And Avery sighs a lot.

Like, again, the coolest part is the whole, you know, you get someone that isn't who you expected to be attracted to as as a name.

I wish there was more of that instead of all the other stuff.

The new information spun around my head.

I felt slightly sick.

I knew then that I couldn't stay here.

I needed to get out.

I couldn't let myself become lost.

I'll do it.

Whatever it takes.

I don't care.

I'll help.

I said, breaking the silence, my voice confident.

Avery looked up at me with an expression I couldn't place.

It looked like newfound respect, like he was just noticing me for the first time.

He studied me for a moment or nodding.

I'll keep it safe.

I won't let anything happen to you.

The two of them are like immediately just all over each other.

Him being like, my voice grows confidence

the longer I'm with him.

We're like, he blushes the first time he speaks to him.

Yep.

I mean, it kind of feels like this is going into like a romantic kind of

like a like a

romance fantasy someone writes, you know, or whatever.

But even this idea of like him wanting to leave the area, which it isn't, it is like a dark, evil place, but I'm wondering if it's like supposed to be something where it's like, this isn't who I am.

I must escape or something.

You know what I mean?

But I don't fucking know.

I'm trying to make sense of this thing because it feels very random, random XD

kind of thing right now.

We'll see where it goes.

I thought of making a smart ass reply,

but he seemed so genuine about it that I kept my mouth shut.

It was then, sitting there with no immediate danger nearby, that I started to feel the weight of the day starting to press in around me.

I tried to cover up a yawn with my hand.

Avery caught it.

He stood up, running a hand through his hair.

I don't.

I interrupted suddenly, to which Avery raised his eyebrows.

I felt a hot flush rising in my cheeks as I continued.

I mean, if it's if it's okay, I'd feel more comfortable staying down here.

I said quietly, averting my eyes.

God damn, my boy Theodore is down

bad already.

He needs it.

You know, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, there were signs of this before the reveal.

I was making jokes about it, but the whole thing with Joseph, how it's like, I always admired his strength.

He picks me up in his strong arm.

Like, maybe,

maybe,

listen, you can admire I'm saying that he is down bad for Avery right now he is down bad.

He's like no I'll I'll sleep here like he's not

I guess I guess in this world you don't have to play it subtly you desperate little minx

desperation is rather cute

He's he's smooth talking him in that voice.

Here's the real thing is a is Avery or is Theodore a Finboy?

Well, well, well, Princess.

I think Theodore is more of a Finboy.

Well, well, well, Princess.

I said quietly, averting my eyes.

There was a pause, which was enough time for me to feel greatly embarrassed by my words.

He doesn't want you down here, idiot.

He doesn't even know you.

He doesn't.

Sure.

If it makes you more comfortable, I'm more than happy to set up a space for you.

He said finally, giving me a small smile.

He said, turning to leave, before stopping as if remembering something.

Um,

I never

I never got your name.

Forgot to ask,

he said sheepishly, stumbling slightly over his words and seemingly having a hard time meeting my eyes.

My heart seemed to stop just as my mind started to race.

Charles, I said suddenly, the name and the lie slipping out easily.

Not sure if it was just...

Why would you do the lie?

Whatever.

Because

he doesn't want him to know that this is his lover, dude.

I mean, if he's as into him as he seems to be, wouldn't you just be like...

It's too good to be true, Isaiah.

It's too good to be true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I feel like Theodore's voice should be in the...

I never got your name.

I have to play one of them straight.

I've committed to the Redditor, like, Discord mod voice thing that I know people are doing.

They can't both do it, yeah, yeah.

They can't both do it.

I'm not sure if it was just my imagination, but did Avery look slightly crestfallen?

What a crazy word to pull out.

It must have been because the next second, the look disappeared, and he gave me another small smile.

Pleasure to meet you, Charles.

It looks like he's not my beloved Theodore.

Really wish your name was Teddy.

That's okay.

Say, you haven't haven't seen a tunk around here, have you?

I saw.

I thought your name might have been tunk.

That's okay.

My name's Ternk.

Turn Brownie.

Oh my.

I've been waiting for you my whole life.

You know what?

What if this story does a thing, though, where there's multiple Averys?

You ever think about that?

Yeah, like a girl shows up named Avery.

Yeah,

he's a

bisexual crisis.

Dang it.

Oh,

I kind of like both of them.

What if we all just kind of made this work?

We're poly.

Yeah.

This world is a polyamorous hell is what it is.

Well, yeah, Portland.

As soon as he left the room, I slept down on the couch, putting my head in my hands.

Why had I lied?

I knew the answer, it was really just a matter of wanting to answer it.

I could say that it was because I didn't trust Avery, but that wasn't the truth.

There were so many different kinds of confusion, so many different kinds of pain.

I was tired of being the one who felt it all.

I was just tired in general.

This feels like something that's going to be like a 15-year-old, doesn't it?

Well, the whole story does, but yeah.

Yes, that one part.

It's like,

I'm the one who feels all the pain.

No one else, just me.

Yeah, it's very well just

the melodrama of it all, whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

I fully believe this was written by someone in high school, for sure.

It was disorienting to have your entire life flipped upside down in a matter of moments.

Everything that you thought you knew to be untrue were covered with layers of deception to keep people in a mindless bliss.

I suppose that even though people could feel certainty, it was an emotion.

Not a fact.

My thoughts kept me busy until Avery came back, arms laden with blankets and pillows.

He set them down at the empty space, starting to arrange them.

Do you need help?

I asked, wanting to feel at least a little useful.

He shook his head as he straightened up.

I'm just about done.

Is this enough?

I can get more stuff if you want.

He said, looking up at me.

Genuine interest and caring in his eyes startled me.

I took my head, gave it a tight smile.

Genuine.

It's genuine interest in caring in his eyes startling me.

oh my

yeah he looks down at him he's just like

it's great really thank you

i said crossing over to where it was it looked like two bedspreads placed slightly far apart but still within the empty space i chose the one on the right i have to get stuff ready for tomorrow but i'll just be in the next room

I'll come to sleep in a while.

Just give me a coffee and anything, alright?

He said, and I nodded.

Exhaustion was quickly catching up to me, and I tried to get myself comfortable on the spread of blankets and pillows.

Just as Avery was about to leave the room, it spoke.

I don't usually do it, but if I start snoring, I give you complete permission to smack me.

What?

I don't know, dude.

It's supposed to be fucking cute.

The shit's like, I want to punch a wall.

Shit's just so boring.

It's like,

it's like, I'm not kicking my feet and giggling.

I'm bored.

It's like all of the stereotypical, like, lovey-dovey.

Hee hee-ha-ha, love at first sight kind of thing.

Yeah, they're in a holy hellscape, by the way, with faceless creatures walking around.

Yeah,

they're in a space where color doesn't exist, and there's the loss stumbling around, and it's like, you could smack me if you wanted to.

I said this quietly, but based on the way he stopped and turned back around, I knew Avery had heard me.

No, dad.

He said, but there was something different about his voice.

As I looked at him, I saw that he was smiling.

Not a tight smile or a small one, but an actual genuine smile that made my entire body feel warm.

It was perhaps the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Down horrendous.

Down so bad.

Also, a person's smiling like a fucking psychopath and he's like, I feel warm.

Stop feeling so fucking warm all the time.

I butterflies in my tummy.

Imagine, and I shivered, but then I was warm.

Imagine the visual of like, you just met this guy and it's like, hey, you can smack me if you want.

And he's like,

noted.

Like, like, just a quote-unquote actual smile starts to form.

I had never been a lucid dreamer.

I heard about it and even studied it a bit in school.

A million percent.

The like 14 year old kid that wrote this just like heard about lucid dreaming online and wanted to make something about it.

I haven't studied it a bit in school, so I knew how to recognize it.

Lucid dreaming is a dream in which your body knows that you're dreaming and gives you the steering wheel for a bit, allowing you to be conscious and aware while dreaming.

I was currently experiencing this strange phenomenon.

I wasn't entirely sure where I was.

I knew I was dreaming, however, since I was fairly confident that in order to be walking, you had to be walking on something solid.

I appeared to be walking on water.

Looking around, everything was black.

It looked like I was standing on a lake, but the water stretched on as far as I could see.

The water rippled under my feet with every step I took.

Looking down, I couldn't see the bottom of whatever kind of water I was standing on.

Just more darkness.

I wasn't sure how long I stood there until I saw a figure in the distance.

I squinted, waiting for it to come closer.

When it got closer, however, my body seized with panic.

It was the man from the convenience store, the one without a face, the one that Avery said was lost.

I turned to run, but I couldn't.

Dread and fear was washing over me as I desperately tried to get my feet to move.

The man was getting closer.

My feet seemed to clue to the surface.

The screams I meant to yell died in my throat as I saw the man, now only a few feet from me, as my screams were silenced by the paralyzing fear that rendered me immobile.

Instead of the muttering I had heard from him earlier, he was eerily silent.

The only sound I could hear was my own heartbeat hammering against my chest.

Suddenly, the man's face started to change.

Instead of a black oval, white lines started to form near the bottom, and after a few moments, I realized that I was making a manic demented smile.

Sorry, I've lost the ability to read.

After a few moments, I realized that it was making a manic-demented smile.

It came closer, its unnaturally long fingers closing on my shirt and pulling me closer.

Its other hand drew back, transforming into something that I couldn't name in a place, but looked very, very sharp.

I only had a second to look at it before it plunged it into my stomach, letting loose pain that I had never felt in my life, among the screams and yells I had been holding in my throat.

It felt as if every fiber of my being, every atom, was being ripped apart.

Calling it right now, he's going to wake up in a panic, and then Avery is going to hold him to comfort him.

100%.

100%.

My eyes were wide with shock as the smile remained on the man's face.

I could-man, I would give anything for this man to say, why so serious?

That'd be- Why so serious?

I couldn't talk.

I couldn't breathe.

Looking down, I saw a bloom of red starting to quickly spread throughout my shirt.

So much more vibrant in contrast to the blank, colorless surroundings.

I woke up, gasping and shaking, a hand clutching my stomach as if the pain was real.

It felt so real.

I felt arms close around me a moment later.

There we go.

Bear trap.

Pulling me against something hard.

A chest.

Avery's arm.

This guy's screaming in the night.

You just met your video.

Like, hush!

Shh!

Shh!

A chest.

Avery's arms.

Avery's chest.

Holding me, keeping me safe.

I heard his voice soft in my ear.

You okay?

You're okay.

That voice is so funny.

He mumbled, holding me tighter.

Every motion I had been holding in since I got into this damned place, I let loose.

Dry sobs racked my body as a flurry of fear, pain, and confusion, along with others, flooded me.

I saw him, I said quietly, tears streaming down my face.

I know.

I know you did.

It's okay.

You're okay.

Avery said softly, pulling me tighter against him.

I didn't care.

I didn't care anymore.

I let myself turn towards him.

Blankets twisted around me as I buried my face in his chest, letting my tears soak his shirt as he held me.

I mean,

you just

rom-com story, dude, or something.

They're not rom-com, but it's like, you know, it's just like a, it's a, like a fanfic kind of thing.

It's a romance fantasy.

Yeah, romantic fantasy thing.

I don't know why this is posted on no sleep.

I don't know.

We've had some other stories.

We've had some facial stories like this, right?

Or is this our first like romance?

I don't think, have we had a romance fantasy thing?

We have not had a romance.

I do not.

we've had stuff where romance has been side characters, but typically because most horror stories are about the dissolving of romantic

boundaries rather than the creation of them.

Maybe that's why it doesn't feel so bad.

Anything like this?

Maybe that's why it feels so out of place is because it's taking such a pres like it's it's in the driver's seat so much versus being like a thing to add to the story or whatever, but this definitely doesn't feel like a horror story right now.

Like

we're in an alternate world and it doesn't feel like that at all.

Like we're in an alternate world yeah yeah

it's like um

again the premise is interesting the idea of like you finding out because of this mandated system that you know you're homosexual and then like kind of it's almost there's hints of like our main character feeling freed with it like he's happy now and it contributes to like you know like you said arbitrary role of society he's happy now because he can let that part of him out um

so there's like a cool story there but it's it's like

it's like 10 of it and the other 90 is like a stereotypical like yeah i had a spooky dream and i woke up in this person's arms it's just yeah yeah there's nothing adding to the actual i guess like threat or terror of the story which

paid by numbers yeah yeah i can't tell you how long he held me with my face buried in his chest him not caring that his shirt was getting soaked holding me tighter every time a fresh wave of emotion swept through me felt like hours before the pain for my dream subsided for my body was no longer shaking felt like hours and during them avery had never let go of me

it would have and again you're crying this hard over a scary dream like it wasn't like oh my family's gonna die

hell of this alternate world it's like

a guy with a creepy smile stabbed me and i'm crying this hard

it would have been okay It would have even been mostly okay if one of us had just let go.

If we didn't stay there, holding a part of each other, long after the danger, no matter how real, had passed.

My thoughts had finally slowed.

I had skipped the past few steps of the stages of grief.

I'd skipped the anger and bargaining.

My body just didn't have enough energy left to do it.

The only thing I felt sitting there against Avery was safety.

Two things that I hadn't experienced since the moment I had arrived here.

Here's heartbeat.

Soothing, rhythmic sound, but it's more relaxing than I can explain.

Sitting there with him felt right.

It was the feeling that I had never felt looking at the girls in my class, that I had never felt looking at any girl.

Okay, there we go.

So the state didn't force it on him.

He was always this way.

He just didn't confront it with himself until now.

Got it.

That's better than the alternative that this romantic story is being set up only to be rug-pulled later by saying, oh, it was actually a girl, which I was kind of afraid it would do.

I was afraid it would have all of this like identity crisis to be like, no, you're straight.

Yeah.

But, but this is a much better direction.

Like, okay, this

this he founded himself it felt like hours before i spoke again my voice dull like someone had run knife over it

avery

yeah

i never said thank you thank you for what he asked his voice soft against my ear for saving me i would have drowned i didn't need to explain further for him to understand that what i was talking about You don't have to thank me for that.

I know if you saw me hurtling out of the sky into a river, you would have done the same.

He said, and this time I could hear the smile in his voice.

I smiled a tired, but genuine smile.

True, I wanted to thank you anyway.

Oh, then you're welcome anyway.

I laughed, but it came off more of a huff.

Nah, there really should be a word.

I'll take you to the hospital.

I want to get that out there.

I'll be the one driving you to the hospital.

Yeah, yeah, baby.

On its comeback, let's go.

There really should be a word for a laugh that ends as soon as it starts.

I didn't want to leave the position that we were in, but I wanted to spend more time with Avery somewhere where we weren't in danger of becoming lost or, you know, stabbed.

Avery?

Yeah?

I want to go home.

I said quietly.

There was a pause.

Let's go home then.

Wasn't that always the plan?

Yeah.

Well, also, it's like the assumption of being like, can we just stay here forever?

It's like, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no,

in the demon lost one universe forever.

Yeah, in poly hell

in Portland, me and you.

What I assume was the next few days were spent going over the plan, or what I assumed was a few days since.

No time cycle.

Avery drew up the city center and where the lost one congregated the most heavily.

He gave...

Wait, so hold on.

This is...

this entire city is a giant prison that's amassed by everyone who breaks the rules.

And there's a single lost one to worry about.

Yeah.

Sure, whatever.

He gave and showed me how to use the weapons that could kill them.

These are the weapons that I found near the door.

The people that come down here have a stash.

This is an ontological gun.

An ontological gun?

I don't know what the fuck that means.

Well, ontological means like

super objectively or like, well, let me make sure I'm right.

I believe the word ontological means like definitively can't be disproven, like factual.

Yeah, super serious, not even joking.

Showing the relation.

Okay, ontological is relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.

Okay, so like ontology, so as saying existence can also mean showing the relation between the concepts and categories in a subject area or domain.

The nature of a being.

So he's just saying this is like a factual, legitimate gun.

Why wouldn't you just say this is a real gun?

This is an ontological gun.

Whatever.

He said, handing me what looked like a regular handgun.

He explained before I could ask.

I know it looks like a regular handgun, because it is.

The only difference is how you think about it.

I don't need to tell you about this place is weird and that regular logical rules don't apply.

If you shoot this at them, they simply cease to exist.

They go away.

Only if you believe it to be true.

What is going on?

What in hell?

At my confused expression, he tried again.

It sounds willy, will we stupid, but it works.

If you believe that you can make them cease to exist by shooting them, this is

by shooting this at them, it'll work.

His navy eyes pressed into mine, silently pleading.

I imagine they're uncomfortably close to each other, like nose to nose.

There's no such thing as uncomfortableness, but this guy's down bad.

That's true.

You could be closer.

He's like on top of him.

Noses pressing to his nose.

He needs you closer.

Closer.

Silently pleading for me to trust him.

I did, nodding.

I took it from him.

I didn't know how the hell this was supposed to work, but I trusted him.

Something had happened after my dream, after we had stayed interlocked for who knows how long.

Something unspoken.

I pee-peed my pants.

What was the thing he said earlier?

The something down his leg?

The tinkle or the legs?

Yeah,

the tinkle.

Yeah, the tinkle down his leg.

He no longer felt like a stranger or just a person who shared the same name that was on my slip.

It felt like I had known him my whole life.

Along with planning and preparing, Avery had had opened up greatly, letting me see more into his life, both past and present.

It was comforting, knowing that we were both more comfortable conversing with each other, often teasing and cracking jokes, something that seemed impossible while we were stuck in this hellhole.

I let myself notice things about him, how his mouth twisted to the side when he was deciding to laugh at something, how he smiled, you could see that he had dimples, or when he was thinking about something, he tapped his fingers lightly against the surface.

Being around him just filled me with such warmth that it made it harder when I tried to work out how I was going to tell him that I lied about my name.

Try not to think about it.

The night before we were going to put our plan in action, neither of us could sleep.

At first, it was disorienting going to sleep without any sleep-wake cycle, but I got used to it, just going to bed whenever I felt tired.

I lay next to Avery, who I could tell wasn't asleep either.

Avery,

Charles, he replied, to which I internally cringed.

Are you nervous?

There was a pause.

I bet.

Do you want to push another day to go in again?

He said finally, to which I shook my head, sitting up slightly to look at him.

No, I just would feel a bit more comfortable if I knew how the guns worked.

I said, a small smile tucking on his lips.

Avery rolled his eyes.

If you had played Destiny, I wouldn't have to explain.

What?

Is he talking about the fucking Xbox?

Is he talking about the video game

There's no way, right?

There's no way.

If you had played Destiny, I wouldn't have to explain.

I wouldn't have to explain.

Gosh, the voice you're doing worked so well.

It's literally like the.

Well, it's a bear trap of the storytelling.

Yeah, it is.

It is a bear trap of voice.

It's pierced in me.

I don't know how they developed it, but it works.

All right, nerd, I trust you.

All right, you know what?

There's been a culture shift in the story.

I'm vibing now.

Like, it's gone so far off the rails that this is hilarious.

Well, if you were familiar with Destiny, the concepts would be quite,

would not be surprising at all.

What?

There's some, there's some, like, copypasta like that.

Well, oh, the Rick and Morty thing.

Like, it takes an intellectual mind to understand Wick and Morty.

Right.

Same thing.

I said, sitting back, grinning as a pillow hit me in the chest.

I paused, looking over at him.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to get the hell away from the city as soon as I can when we get out.

I've had enough of this nonsense for a lifetime.

He's 18.

Okay, all we've heard.

Yeah, yeah.

18.

18.

All that we have heard is they've been there for a couple days and they've just been quiet inside of a house.

And he's like, I've had enough of this place.

You've just been sitting there quietly, like in a, in a building.

I said, watching as avery propped himself up on his elbows

me too i'll keep in touch with my parents and everything but it'd been wounded oh wait hold on hold on i thought he was talking about no he's talking about the city that's why he's talking about the city i it still doesn't make i mean like i understand the rules and stuff but he has literally said it was great been awesome happy existence i've had me too i'll keep in touch with my parents and everything but it's been woondey the image i had of this place i grew up has been completely wooed i don't think I could stay here and be happy.

He said, and I nodded.

At least we got our slips first.

I joked, but to my surprise, Avery blushed, looking down at the ground.

I don't know.

I think.

I think it's a bit bullshit.

I used to think it was a wheel, but now I mean.

He said, tripping over his words, still avoiding my eyes.

They can't control chemistry.

They can't control you feel safe and comfortable around.

He said, his voice getting quieter.

It was so out of character that I couldn't find my own voice to speak.

Is he saying what I thought he was saying?

Avery shook his head, as if to shake off these thoughts.

I'm not making sense.

We should probably go to bed.

Big day and all that.

He mumbled, laying back down.

I nodded, laying down as well, closing my eyes, my mind racing.

100%, the plan they're going to enact the next day is going to be like,

okay, run.

Oh my god.

It took us multi days to plan.

Isaiah.

What?

Do you think Avery likes Theodore?

Yes.

What?

No.

Yes.

And you think because his name's not, he doesn't think his name's Theodore, that's why he doesn't believe in it?

Yes.

Wow.

Yes.

Wow, that's incredible.

Wow.

That's awesome.

Wow.

Hey, Charles.

Yeah, Avery?

Can I give you a bigger smooch before we go on this crazy adventure?

I'm not one of those dudes.

That's coming up soon.

This is fine for like a like a you know a 12-13-year-old that wrote it or whatever, but yeah, for a 12-year-old

story in their composition notebook, definitely.

Yeah, yeah, totally fine.

Someone was shaking me awake.

I reluctantly opened my eyes where I could see Avery shaking my shoulder gently, stopping when he saw I was awake, giving a small smile.

I nodded, pushing myself up.

We spent the next little while getting ready, neither of us mentioning the conversation we had yesterday.

I'd gotten used to being in the house, and in a weird way, I was going to miss it.

I was going to miss a lot of things.

We were both armed with the weird guns and had our masks on.

We set off for the center of the city.

It was time to get out of here.

So wait, last night he was like, I wish someone would teach me how to use this gun.

And he's like, well, have you played Destiny?

And he doesn't actually teach him how to use a gun.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything to really use it on.

So he just doesn't do it.

We avoided entire streets whenever we saw a lost one, not wanting to create any unnecessary attention.

After a while of walking, I saw what Avery was talking about.

The city center was where we had our summer's farmer's market.

Events and concerts.

It looked the same, the only difference being the short archway with a stark red color.

Caught me off guard since the only things in color that I had seen were Avery and I.

The door was blood red, and next to it, a keypad.

The archway was a good ways away from where we were, and already I saw lost ones milling around, the same unclear mumbling filling the silence.

Remember, we're gonna get as far as we can without the guns, but they notice us and start shooting.

Avery mumbled into my ear.

I nodded.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as we started to walk.

We kept our heads straight, only focused on the door in front of us.

As we walked a few meters, we realized that we greatly overestimated the amount of time we had before they noticed us.

It was just like in my dream, their black faces starting to develop white lines.

I didn't want to wait to see if they turned into the demented, troubled smiles.

I pulled out the gun Avery had given to me, praying to whatever higher power there was to let this work.

I concentrated, imagining the one directly in front of me disappearing when the bullet made contact.

It was advancing, and I could already hear the loud crack of Avery's gun behind me.

It was running now, full speed at me, its mumbling getting louder.

I raised the gun, my heart pounding a few feet away, its mouth stretching into a wide grin.

COS!

I fired, my eyes closing for a split second.

Braced myself for the pain I knew was coming, but none came.

Opening my eyes, there was nothing but a scattering of dust at my feet.

Relief flooded through me as I could have laughed.

It worked.

It worked.

Looking around, they were coming in from behind buildings, out of windows.

Filled with renewed hope and confidence, I started firing rounds off, truly believing with each shot.

Adrenaline was rushing through me as the cracks of our loud guns filled the heavy silence, only being outmatched by the progressively louder mumbling made by advancing lost ones.

It was tight, but Avery was right.

The two of us, we were overpowering them, dust going up every few seconds.

Felt oddly like a video game, wave after wave coming until eventually they stopped, and there were only a few left.

I just reached the peak of my confidence when I heard a scream.

I was right about their plan is just run and then start shooting stuff.

That was their complicated plan.

Turning around, my heart stopped in my chest.

Avery was being dragged by the foot, a lost one's long, sharp fingers digging into his ankle.

His gun laying a few feet away.

I didn't have time to think or react, sprinting towards them as I pointed my gun, hoping desperately I wouldn't hit him.

I wouldn't be able to aim properly while running.

I stopped trying to level the gun trying to stop my hand from shaking.

I took a breath and fired.

The cloud of dust that replaced the thin black body was probably the most beautiful thing I had seen in my life.

I sprinted over where Avery was wincing horribly as he tried to turn himself around.

Avery heard me coming and when he looked up he wasn't looking at me.

No, no, Charles, Charles behind you.

He yelled, the panic clear in his voice.

Stopping and turning around, my heart seemed to stop for the second time.

It was the man from the convenience store, the one from my dream.

It looked like he was the only one left.

You can do this, I thought to myself.

I raised my gun, firing at him, right in the chest.

The bullet passed through, like an ordinary bullet.

Panic was rapidly flowing through me now as the man came closer.

I tried to move, but my feet felt glued to the ground.

Oh no, no, not again.

I could hear Avery behind me calling my name.

The man was slowly advancing, knowing that I wasn't going anywhere.

White lines appeared on his face.

My voice felt stuck in my throat.

His arm was pulling back, turning into the thing for my dream.

Avery's calls got louder.

Is Avery gonna like green goblin jump in front of the claw as it starts flying towards me?

The man was a few feet away, grabbing the front of my shirt.

The white lines transformed into a smile.

The corners of its mouth stretched wide to either corner of its face as drawn on teeth appeared.

I knew what was going to happen next.

The pain was unbearable.

I was was certain I was being ripped apart, being set on fire from the very depths of my body.

White hot pain clouded my vision, so badly that I didn't even notice when it was over.

I didn't notice the puff of dust appear in front of me, the loud crack that went with it.

I didn't feel it when I sank to my knees, feeling something hot and wet spread through my shirt.

It took me a minute to notice the hands grabbing at my shoulders, tipping me back.

It took me a minute to notice the tears slipping down Avery's face as he bent over me.

No, no, no, no, Charles, please.

Stay with me.

Please.

Avery whispered, silent sobs racking his chest as he started to rip at the bottom of his shirt, pulling away a piece of fabric to press on my stomach, his other arm cradling my head.

I can't, I can't lose you, Charles.

He whispered, his shoulders shaking.

That's not.

Avery's eyes flashed to mine briefly as he started to rip off another piece of fabric.

What?

My name is.

It's not Charles.

It's not Charles.

I'm gonna take you to House for the hypotheria.

What are you talking about?

He asked, tears streaming silently down his face as he desperately tried to control the bleeding.

I lied.

My name is...

My name is...

My name is...

Theodore.

I wanted you to like me f...

for who I was.

Not because my name might have been on your slip.

Oh, is that the reason you didn't tell him?

I thought it was because he's scared.

It's a world where the slip determines everything.

Wait, okay.

Exhaustion and coldness started to seep into my body.

I saw a realization pass through Avery's eyes, saw him putting the pieces together.

You, I...

I don't care.

Please.

I can't lose you.

We'll get back to the house.

We'll patch you up.

Just please, please don't go.

He said, his voice breaking on the last sentence.

You've come too far.

The door is right there, and more lost ones will be back.

Just go.

Fuck that.

I'm not weaving you here.

He said sharply, looking over me, seeming to make a decision.

Slid his arms under me, lifting me up and holding me like a little kid, being careful not to touch my stomach, where the red stain was getting progressively wetter.

He carried me over to the keypad, his hands shaking as he put in the numbers.

Winnie?

He asked softly.

I didn't have the energy to do anything but nod.

He put in the last number and the door swung open.

I winced as white light flooded my vision as I felt Avery step through.

My eyes closed as warmth spread through me.

I let myself drift out of consciousness.

Wait a minute.

I thought it required two people to go through the door, but all that you need is to enter a number.

You just enter.

I think you can walk through with a person, maybe.

Where did he get the code?

Was that mentioned?

Yeah, because

they come through and I watch he like basically saw them type in the code oh i i see i see all right sorry i zoned out for a little bit my bad i don't blame you i couldn't hear footsteps around me people talking in low voices my eyelids fluttered open ah mr shillings we've been expecting you and now comes the part of the story where the like the old guard like the government agent whatever explains their evil plan and why they do these things to him similar to uh this story is reminding me of the ending of uh my jobs watching a woman trapped in a room all right final part

final part i believe that i am correct in thinking that it is a well-known fact that people by nature are curious curiosity has fueled many of the greatest inventions of time such things being electricity or the wheel of course it does not take anything no great genius to be curious In fact, thanks to modern technology, everyone who becomes curious is able to fuel that curiosity, have it satisfied in mere seconds.

Back in middle school, I remember being curious about something.

I was curious to see how many variations there were of the word confusion.

As it turned out, there were many.

I won't bore you with all the variations there were, since if you are curious, you could simply look it up yourself.

However, I will share a particular one that I liked.

My favorite variation or synonym for the word confused was disoriented.

By definition, being disoriented means that a person is thoroughly confused as to a time or place.

They are out of touch with their surroundings.

They have lost their sense of direction.

They are unable to think clearly, their surroundings creating mixed feelings, emotions, thoughts.

Oddly, all of this was going through my head as my brain tried to register the words that I had just heard.

Ah, Mr.

Shillings, we've been expecting you.

Disoriented, my eyes slowly opened.

I winced as harsh, white light shone down on me.

It only took a moment for my eyes to adjust and when they did, my throat dropped into my stomach.

Standing above me was a man.

Despite my disoriented state, I tried to quickly take him in.

He looked old, with white, receding hair and a white, neat beard.

He was wearing all white, to his button-up shirt, to his pants, his coat, even his tie.

He was staring at me, a small smile on his face, trying to gauge my reaction as I could hear other people bustling around behind me.

What was happening?

Stay calm, I told myself.

You're not in danger.

If they wanted to kill you, they would have by now.

I tried to reason.

The man was still staring at me, and I was too afraid to break eye contact with him, too afraid to look around.

For what I could see out of my peripheral vision, the room was dark white and filled with what looked like hospital equipment.

The man was still staring at me.

Maybe he wouldn't speak until I would.

You've been expecting me?

I asked, trying to keep the fear, the apprehension, out of my voice.

The man smiled smiled wider, reaching next to him for something.

Clipboard.

Oh, yes.

We've been expecting you for a while.

I know you must have quite a few questions, but don't worry.

All of them will be answered in due time.

He said, giving a small laugh.

I was beyond unnerved.

His laugh was too high, too long for it to seem natural.

I desperately wanted him to stop smiling.

I finally worked up the courage to avert my eyes, to try and take in my surroundings.

It did look like a hospital room, but the equipment was different.

Unlike anything I had ever seen.

It looked like nurses were milling about with clipboards, all dressed in white.

Everything in the room was white, which is why it caught me off guard when my eyes fell onto the blood-red door on the far side of the room.

Same door that Avery and I had just come through.

Avery.

Avery.

Avery wasn't in the room.

I bolted upright, relieved to find I wasn't tied down, which honestly was a thought that crossed my mind.

I looked around, but I did not decide to check it and just assumed I was tied down until this moment.

I'm tied down.

Okay, no, I'm not.

Thank God.

I can't believe I'm tied down.

Oh, wait.

Okay, wait.

I'm not.

That's so awesome.

I looked around once, twice, and a third time.

I imagine him spinning.

Oh!

Oh!

Avery wasn't in here.

I looked at the man for the first time since my arrival, feeling angry.

Where's Avery?

I demanded, my voice stronger than it had been a minute ago.

The man simply looked looked at me, that creepy smile still plastered on his face.

Mr.

Anderson is quite fine.

However, I will ask that you don't make sudden movements.

You'll disrupt your healing process.

Healing process?

Shit, how could I have forgotten?

I looked down, lifting my blood-stained shirt up, the shake in my hands noticeable.

How is this possible?

The spot where I had been, well, impaled, showed nothing except a long scar.

I ran my fingers over it gently.

The indent noticeable, but nothing else.

I looked up quickly, to which the man put his hand up.

Questions will be answered.

How about we take a walk?

Take a walk?

Was he serious?

Why was he so serious?

Perhaps, why so serious?

A small, nagging voice in my head told me that it probably wasn't the best idea to refuse him, especially since he made it sound like it wasn't really a question where my answer mattered.

I didn't care.

No,

he said forcefully, renewed confidence flowing through me.

I want to see

Avery.

I said, my voice slow and measured, laced with anger, with stubbornness.

For the first time since I had seen him, the man's smile flickered, annoyance and impatience crossing his face.

Flipboard still in hand, he started across to the other side of the room where a keypad was attached to the wall.

The wall was entirely made up of those clouded glass panes, the ones they put on houses for privacy.

I slowly pushed myself off the bed, following him, trying to not look at the other people in the room.

The man stood in front of it, slowly putting in a password.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to get closer.

Was he going to let me see Avery, or was this some kind of prison cell to throw me into for not doing what he asked?

The man's back was turned, and that's when I saw something on the table.

It was Avery's gun, the one he used to kill the lost ones.

Now, of course, it was only a regular gun.

I made a decision quickly, silently reaching out and taking it, stuffing it into the back waistband of my jeans before quickly hurrying over to where the man was, praying he didn't notice anything or the nurses.

A few seconds passed and no one said anything.

No siren sounded.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

So they just had a gun on a table where he could get it and thought that was fine.

Yeah, they're like, it's fine.

He's

fine.

His name's Theodore.

He'll never go for that gun.

I'll never grab the gun.

He's British.

They don't even know what they are.

I bet he's never even played Destiny.

As the man finished putting in the password, the clouded glass started to get clearer.

The man silently moved to the side to let me see.

I slowly walked forward, and I had just reached the glass as it finally became clear, and I could see into it.

My voice seemed stuck in my throat.

It was a dark room, smaller than the one we were in, with more of the equipment that I didn't recognize.

The room was bare of furniture besides a bed, which was being occupied by Avery.

His eyes were closed, a mask covering, and attached to his mouth that was attached to one of the machines next to him.

One of his ankles was bandaged, from where the lost ones had got him.

He wasn't moving.

My brain didn't want to accept what I was seeing.

It was refusing to deal with the wave of emotions that had started to rise up, invading my thoughts.

Is he?

I choked out, my eyes not leaving him.

He is fine, the man said, turning to face him.

I saw that he was still smiling.

I wanted to hit him.

He is sleeping.

I would be more than happy to explain things to you.

Would you care to take a walk?

He keeps asking about the walk.

How about that walk?

How about that walk?

Care to go for that walk?

And then his dad.

That's the love of my life.

Don't make me hit you.

I'll punch you really hard.

And then his dad shows up.

Care to go for a walk with me?

Nah.

I'm a big walker.

I'm the one to drive you to the hospital once you get hypothermia.

Care to go for a walk?

No, but I'll drive you to a...

No, but I'll drive you to a hospital with hypothermia.

Care of your hospital.

You want.

Just kidding.

I don't know if the hospital has hypothermia or you.

I guess we'll find out.

I'll just find out some other time.

I love hospitals.

I didn't trust whatever this place was, whoever was here.

The only person I trusted right now was Avery, but I couldn't get to him.

I'd have to fix that.

You just have to be patient, I told myself.

Wait for the the right opportunity.

Then you can get him and find a way out of here.

I made a decision.

I'd have to play along for a little bit.

Looking at the man, I plastered a smile to match his.

I'd love to,

I said, smiling.

The man beamed.

I had never been good in pressured situations, or lying for that matter.

However, it was the thought of Avery lying motionless in that bed that allowed me to fall into step next to the man, to smile like everything was normal.

Okay, look.

I wish this was a good story because the principle was good, but the romance is written with all of the nuance as those old YouTube drawings with like music set to them of Mordecai from regular show and the purple horse from My Little Pony in Love, where it plays.

Can we pretend that airplanes and the night

is the same level?

That That is the same level of like

depth of romantic writing as everything between these two.

There's a lot of people in the comments who like it, who say they enjoy it, and it means something to them.

And I'm really happy to hear that, but I assure you, those have to be children.

If the

story just,

it's just, it's not even surface level.

It's just telling us, oh, well, there's romance.

You didn't know that.

This story has done one thing successful, and it has made me have a really gay thought, and it made me smile.

Did you want to know what it was?

What was your gay thought?

My gay thought was it was

Avery

looking, it was whenever Theodore was looking at Avery, and he was like, I started to notice all the you know that he would tap things when he was thinking, whatever.

And I started picturing that scene, and it made me smile because, like, oh, that's nice, like how cute this is.

And then the gayest thought of all came up where that train song came on, where it's like, I guess she's back in the atmosphere, jobs with her in her hair, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

You imagine that scene?

Yeah.

Set to drop some Jupiter by train.

Yeah.

Natalie,

it's

across the sun.

Drop through the Milky Way.

See the lies I faded.

That heaven is overrated.

But actually, it's not even the chorus, it's just the beginning.

Glad she's back in the atmosphere.

Drops of Jupiter in her hair.

that is

that is single-handedly the gayest thing i've ever thought

you you thought about this scene where like he's noticing the little ticks avery has and your mind set it to train

yeah yeah dude i was i was so

i was smiling i was i was playing with my toes but my feet were over each other, and then my toes were playing.

I was having a good time.

I was a little giddy.

So I will say it's successful on that.

Well, it's breaking new boundaries.

You know, that song's not even about a love interest.

He wrote that about his mother.

That's a love interest.

Loves his mom.

He wrote it after his mom died and he had a dream about her, which is why it's like, did you miss me while you were looking for yourself or whatever?

Everyone assumes it's a thing.

I would assume it's about

18 anyways.

Sure, buddy.

You know what?

Just for you, it sure is.

I will never hear that song for the rest of my life without thinking about this.

Glassy's back in the atmosphere.

Drive to you.

Just Theodore, like, smiling.

That is such a

smiling with an imagination gun pointed to his head.

Natalie,

did you make it cross?

To his own head or to Avery's head?

I think to both.

I don't fucking know.

He's like, if you see a monster, think real hard and it'll seize it'll thanosnap glad she's back in the atmosphere job jupiter

that is such like a hallmark tv movie moment yeah exactly that's what makes it notices

There's no romance or chemistry between them, but the moment he notices something about Avery, just immediately sets to like a music montage of them getting to know each other.

And at the end, we're supposed to be like, okay, they're in love.

This is a good romantic plot.

That's how romance works.

What would be better?

What would be better for a gay romance thing?

Would it be Train Drops of Jupiter?

Or I don't know the name of the song, but it's that one.

I think it came out around the same time, but I remember when I was younger, I really liked it.

It's that one's like a desperate for changing,

searching for truth.

It's like, I'm falling even more in love with you.

Fighting on a fall of fail on you.

I'm standing here until you make me move.

Waiting on a moment here with you.

So, you know, all the lyrics, but not

yeah, yeah.

I remember it because I remember

the singer when I was younger, I thought it was the same guy that was in Cabin Fever, who I think was the guy in Boy Meets World.

I don't know.

A lot of references.

All I gotta say is, I don't know.

Yeah, a lot of references.

My mind goes to the

beginning of that song, is just kind of like it has that kind of like high school angsty, you you know, desperate for changing,

searching for truth.

You know, the uh, what's that one song that got used for like commercials a ton back in the day?

It was like black keys or something.

Oh, that song that's like,

no, the one that's like, for you,

baby, I'm not moving on.

I love you all.

You know, that one.

Everyone.

Well, with the amount of beautiful tempo and the way that you did the inflection of that singing, it's hard for me not to know which song that is, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

All right.

Well, you did have to go.

I thought you were going to say gold.

Actually, you know what would be actually a funnier song for them?

Theodore looks at Avery.

He's looking at his legs and stuff, and it just says, Bamp!

Bernie, Bernie,

Bernie, BAM, BAMP!

Bernie, Bernamp!

And it is gold on the ceiling.

They want to get my gold on the ceiling.

No,

that would actually be the gayest thing to happen is if the black keys started playing right there.

They want to get my gold on the ceiling.

They ain't mine.

Just a matter of time for your stealing.

Yeah, basically, just the story is so poorly written.

Our brains are doing anything it can do to like not read it.

Yeah.

Make it to more to not read it.

Yeah.

Okay, go ahead.

Let's just be done with this hell.

Yeah.

This is Poly Hell.

I'm telling you right now, I'm going to name the episode that poly hell poly

they're not even polyamorous it's been two people the whole time yeah we kind of had a good bit out of it we had a good bit

so it's gonna be poly hell

just completely ignoring the title what the author named it all of that it's what it is to us the story is our story now it was the sight of avery lying in the bed that made my nerves settle enough for me to pay attention to the potential exes as we walked trying to draw a mental map of the place after all he had done for me i owed it to him to find a way to get us out of this here so i imagine you have a few questions

the man said leading us out of the room and down a long narrow hallway i tried to not wince with each step because of my stomach but it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative you could say that

gosh i hate all the snark

i'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

What would you like to know first?

Well, why is the role?

This is the part where this person explains everything.

Well, why can't we watch the TV?

I'm in

the middle of the day.

What's this world?

What are the lonely ones or whatever?

Why can't I go in the water?

Yeah, okay.

Who makes the matchmaker cards?

I was trying to focus on finding a way out of here, but I also had questions.

So many questions.

I took a breath.

what did you mean when you said that you that you'd been expecting me where where even am i

i asked the words tumbling out of my mouth we turned right around a corner well i'll try to keep it simple the fact of the matter is theodore is that you have what it takes to be a matchmaker he said a small smile resting on his face as he glanced at me internally i froze however tried to keep my feet moving what what what are you talking about again

i'll try to keep it simple.

But keep in mind, the real answer is quite complex.

Oh, no.

Long story short.

Exposition time.

This is literally like, well, I've set up a bunch of stuff.

I will now have a character appear and explain the stuff.

And that's it.

That's all he does.

He just appears and explains the stuff.

Not even veiled as like a character in the story or something like that.

We feed this monkey a grape nut every Tuesday.

And he is the man who is is magical and helps us have alfalfa sprouts for spring.

It's going to be something like that.

Where it's like, what the fuck are you even talking about?

Well,

the monkey eats his grapefruit and we're able to have alfalfa sprouts for our steaks.

Do you understand?

The man said as we turned another corner, left.

Eats this and

the man's leading him on a path that draws out a SWAT stick.

Do you know this?

He's like, oh my.

He's like, this is the SS.

These are Nazis.

Yeah, it turns out we were actually in the Nazi world.

Right next to Poly Hell was Nazi hell.

That's why the door was red.

It was a name like Splash Sticker Flag.

Each citizen born within city grounds has the ability to carry a gene.

One of the ones needed for the ability to possess the powers needed for a matchmaker.

Sometimes people don't exhibit the abilities when they are born, or at all, even if they have the gene that carries the ability.

It is because of that that citizens are required to have blood work done, so that we can know who is carrying the gene.

He said, his voice starting to sound flat, monotone.

We use the blood work to identify the people

so that later we can seek them out and begin training them to unlock the potential given to them.

These people serve as matchmakers, the leaders of the city.

He said, this time giving me a meaningful glance.

We were planning to seek you out after realizing that you carried this gene.

However, we hit a little snag when you broke out of the rules and most unfortunately got transported to below.

Said with a small sigh, but still another sigh, but still smiling.

Luckily, you seemed to manage just fine.

Not without a few bumps along the way, of course.

He said with a laugh, motioning to my stomach.

A sickening sense of unease was starting to wash over me.

Something wasn't right with the way that he was talking, the way he was laughing, the fact he wouldn't stop smiling.

So you know what happens to the people you throw in there?

The people that get down there by accident?

I asked, trying to sound innocent, but I couldn't help the anger that was sneaking into my voice.

Luckily for me, however, the man didn't seem to notice.

Well, of course.

The people that we put down there are a danger to our society.

They are a risk.

And here, we don't take risks.

Any citizen that doesn't follow the rules provided, in my opinion, is just as bad that get put there.

Or just as bad as the people that get put there.

Fuck sakes.

We have rules in place for a reason.

To protect the citizens that are not, they are not for laughs or for fun.

Anyone who does not take that seriously has no place in our community.

I would have given anything right then to have hit him as hard as I could.

Oh my gosh.

Don't make me do this.

Don't make me hit you.

I'm so strong and powerful.

I needed to change the subject.

I couldn't let my emotions get the better of me, not when so much was at risk.

We took another right turn.

I couldn't let my emotions get the better of me when so much was at risk.

Took another right turn.

It was this turn that made me realize that I hadn't seen another person anywhere since we left the room that we were in.

I just added it to the growing list of reasons I needed to get me and Avery out of here.

How did you heal me?

State-of-the-art technology!

The man said loudly, his words echoing off the walls, startling me slightly.

We have perfected almost all things, including health and safety.

Our state-of-the-art technology allows for healing and recovery unmatched by anyone else.

Injuries such as yours can be healed completely in a matter of hours, he said, his smile growing even wider than it had before.

It sounded like he was reading from a pamphlet.

We turned another corner, this time to face a dead end, where we were greeted by a handsome set of mahogany doors.

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but the man held his hand up.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with any more information.

You are here to wait until Matchmaker comes to start with you on your training and give you a more detailed explanation.

He said, moving to push the door open.

My mind spun, panic seizing my throat.

Wait, what?

I haven't agreed to anything.

My parents will be looking for me and my friends will notice I'm gone.

I said, my words trailing off as soon as the man shook his head, smiling.

No need to worry.

Your family and friends' memories will be modified.

Of course, however, the choice to become a matchmaker is up to you.

It is, of course, the highest honor.

You will have everything you have ever desired, dreamed about.

Your life will be perfect.

I won't pretend that I didn't think about it, and I'm ashamed to admit that I considered it even for a second.

A perfect life, everything taken care of for me, the ability to set people up with love, set them up with happiness, a perfect life.

He has this, he has this entire story.

He has never expressed any interest in matchmaker or having a bad life or wanting a better life or wanting to set people up.

But now at the end, is he like, suddenly, oh, these are things I consider, even though they haven't been mentioned once.

He has never witnessed, you have to give us a slack.

He has never witnessed state-of-the-art technology.

That's a good point.

That'd be hard to turn down.

That's fair.

That's fair.

And then he's going to hear all this and be like, but my life wouldn't be perfect without Avery.

The person I met three days ago.

I have an intense, long-standing relationship before that you just have to trust me on, based on a system that we have clearly established is corrupt as the system leads people down here.

It is wrong.

It shouldn't exist, but nevertheless, I and the narrative am not questioning it.

We are soulmates in the story.

Literally, the only reason that they have romance is because the story told them to.

Because you kissed them with

a kid.

In a system that now seems completely corrupt and out of nowhere.

Why do they even need

matchmakers to be the leader of the Seeley?

The city?

What does that have to do with anything?

Belly kisses.

Okay.

I paused, something rising up, blocking these intruding thoughts.

What about Avery?

The man smiled, shaking his head.

He is no longer your concern.

I thought of Avery.

I thought of the mask over his mouth, his unmoving body.

I thought of his smile, his laugh, the way he'd held me, protecting me.

Now she's back in the atmosphere.

The warmth that filled me whenever he darted.

whenever he touched me

the way he looked at me when he thought i did a vote

he had the chance to leave me behind to leave me the lost one

he could have let me drown had it been for myself

the door was right in front of me

once i went in that room i wouldn't have to worry about anything ever again a wave of certainty slowly washed over me avery's gun felt heavy in my waistband the man looked at me a smile still plastered on his face i could hear my heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Go to heck.

A flicker of confusion passed over the man's face.

Sorry?

I reached behind me, my hand closing around the handle as I pulled it out, clicking the safety off as I leveled it at the man.

For the first time since I saw him, the man's smile fell.

I said,

Go to

heck.

I snarled my finger.

It can't get worse.

It can't get worse.

There's no way.

Damn it.

My finger closing around the trigger somewhere in my head.

Before I even pulled out the gun, I knew there wouldn't be any blood.

I was correct.

Sparks flew as the man stumbled back against the wall, smoke starting to come out of the place on his chest where I had shot him.

Wires of all colors visible through the hole.

The man's eyes opened with the shock and unblinking as he slid to the floor, his head jerking a few times before he lay unmoving.

He was a cyclone.

Sirens began to sound as the

team titans.

Whoa,

way cooler than Avery.

Team Titan when there's trouble, you know who to call.

Teen Titans

from the town where they can't see it all.

Teen Titans

and the beasts go on the attack.

You can rest when they got their back.

Cause when the world needs heroes, I can troll

Oh my god, if you think about it,

it's actually kind of hot that Theodore's Robin and fucking Avery's Beast Boy.

I don't know.

I should have voiced them like this the whole time.

I'm going to turn into an elephant and give you belly kisses.

It's so hot, dude.

Ship that.

Ship that now.

Ship it.

Turn into an elephant.

Are you making elephant noises?

Yeah.

How did you do that?

It's so it came through so distorted on the disc.

It was like

I was hearing an elephant through a Ouija board.

I'm not moving my hand, are you?

No, I'm not.

It spells out

P

F T P P

F T oh my god.

P F T P P

Are we talking to a dead elephant?

What the f what is this?

It's either an elephant or it's a beast boy from Teen Titans.

I don't know which one.

Him saying go to heck was pretty hard though, huh?

Yeah, yeah, bro.

That was real cool.

Come on, man.

That was cool.

It was badass.

Yeah, that was really cool.

Him saying it twice, and the second time has periods after every word.

You let you know that he means business.

Freaking

go to heck

i'm tired of you dang robot scum

second later sirens began to sound as the lights everywhere turned red i turned and started to run my mind was reeling as i desperately tried to remember which way we came yeah this story's going to end and there's going to be zero explanation for why they can't watch tv on the 14th why the matchmakers exist why You have to be 18 to know about this, why you can't go in the water.

It's just going to be like, oh, we'll never know.

I bet you there's a commercial for the matchmaker on the 14th.

Go watch it for the matchmaker, yeah, something like that.

I don't know.

They know about the matchmakers because before they're 18, they know that they're going to get the slips, right?

I don't fucking know.

Who knows?

Yeah, you're right.

Who cares?

My mind was reeling as I desperately tried to remember which way we came.

All other thoughts being pushed aside, I didn't know how many bullets were left in the gun, and I didn't stop to check.

Left, right.

Left, right,

straight down this hallway, another left.

I was sprinting as fast as I could, my sneakers squeaking against the white tiled floors.

Above me, the noise was thunderous.

It sounded like people were running.

I tried to run faster.

Avery, I thought to myself, you have to get to Avery.

I turned left again and knew I had gone the right way.

I burst into the room I had come from, the room now empty, no nurses or anyone in sight.

I ran towards the glass wall where Avery lay on the other side.

I'm coming.

I said softly, knowing that he couldn't hear me.

I'm going to just roll over that.

I put the gun down, not wanting to waste any bullets.

I grabbed a chair, adrenaline coursing through me as I swung towards the wall.

Oh, fuck!

At the wall again and again, cracks forming each time I hit it.

Each hit

was fueled by emotions.

I pushed down.

This is for the lies, I thought as I swung.

This is for the pain.

I swung.

I paused, panting.

This is for Avery.

I took a power,

the glass shattering around me.

Throwing the chair away, I ran over the broken glass.

to Avery.

With shaking hands, I took off the mask, throwing it to the side.

I put put my hand to his face, my entire body shaking.

Wake up, baby.

Come on, wake up, baby, please.

I whispered, shaking his shoulders lightly.

Avery, please.

Please, baby, wake up.

I whispered, feeling a sob starting to creep up in my throat.

You can't leave me.

Whispered, my voice shaking.

I need you, Avery.

Please.

Baby, please, wake up.

Tears started to cloud my vision, which is why I thought the flutter of his eyelids was my mind playing tricks, showing me what I wanted to see.

My body froze, my breath still.

His eyes opened slowly, and it wasn't until I saw the dark, navy blue of them that I allowed myself to breathe, short, relieved breath escaping out of me.

I couldn't let myself go through what I was feeling right now.

There was no time.

Avery, I need you to listen to me.

You need to get up.

Can you get up?

I asked quickly, my eyes glancing over him.

I think so.

Theo,

do you trust me?

I asked suddenly, the irony not being lost on me.

Avery didn't hesitate before he nodded.

Then please, question later.

We need to go.

Avery gave me a quick searching look before nodding again.

So earlier when the phrase, do you trust me, was brought up, it was when Avery was asking Theo to trust him, a stranger, in this like new world.

Yeah.

And all Avery asked was, What's going on?

And he's like, Do you trust me?

It's like, well, that's not really what I was asking.

I was like, what's going on?

Well, the first time it's understood that I'm going to follow you out of here.

There's a weird parallel because the first time when Avery says it is whenever they're first introducing diaper play into the relationship.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

I took his hand.

Avery gave me a quick searching look before nodding again.

I took his hand, helping him out of the bed and noticing his wince once he put pressure on his foot.

I'm fine, he said, noticing my look.

Lead the way, he said softly.

It was then I realized that I had his full, unwavering trust.

I felt a surge of admiration for him.

What happened to Avery again?

Why is he injured?

I got ficked up.

Alright.

I nodded, walking a few paces and picking up the gun that I had set down.

I noticed Avery was limping on his injured foot.

Without a word, I crossed over to him, sliding an arm underneath his so that he could put some of his weight on me.

Thanks, he said quietly.

I nodded.

Of course.

The sirens didn't stop as we pushed our way out the door.

Muffled yells and voices were coming from behind us.

We have to hurry,

I said, Avery picking up on the unease in my voice, and tried to walk as fast as he could on his foot.

Is there an exit?

He said, wincing as we half ran down the halls.

There is.

I think I saw one around here.

I said, looking around, and to my relief, saw one of of the glowing red signs for an emergency exit at the end of the hallway we were in.

There, come on, I said, hearing the voices get louder.

We were only a few hundred feet away.

We could make it.

We could make it.

Loud cracks suddenly filled the air as I realized the people behind us were starting to shoot, bullets ricocheting off the walls.

I had a feeling that as soon as we got to the exit, they wouldn't be able to follow.

We tucked our heads as we tried to zigzag down the hall.

Fleetingly, I turned my head to look at the people who were shooting.

I wanted to look away instantly.

I wasn't sure if you could call them people.

They were in all black, their limbs too long, too thin, masks and helmet covering each one's heads.

Another crack sounded and I felt Avery slip out from under me as he screamed.

It only took me a second to realize what happened.

Avery!

Avery now!

I yelled, turning around to see five people in all black coming towards us, and more far behind them.

I held up the gun, praying that there were enough bullets as I fired off rounds, watching the same sparks appear as they did with the old man.

Avery was on the ground, clutching his leg and groaning.

I tried to pull the trigger again, but the gun clipped empty.

Avery heard the gun click empty.

Damn.

God, there's too many.

The door's like that.

Get go.

I can't move.

He said, groaning, his hands painted red with blood.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

No, no.

In your words, Avery.

Fuck that.

There's no way in hell I'm leaving you here.

I said forcefully.

Despite the pain, I could have sworn I saw a flicker of a smile on Avery's face.

Give me your arm, he said hurriedly, glancing up, seeing more of those things start to turn the corner.

Panic seized me as I grabbed Avery's arms.

I started to pull him towards the door.

Only a few feet away, we could make it.

More of the things in black were now jumping over the bodies of the ones that I shot.

I turned around, reaching the door to handle as the things raised their guns.

With a final yank, I pulled Avery towards me just as I opened the door, pulling us both through the door slammed closed.

I felt myself land hard on a rocky surface, but I wasn't paying attention.

My eyes were on the door, which now looked like a wooden board against a rundown building.

A second passed, and a few more.

No one came out.

Looking around frantically, I spotted Avery on the ground next to me, looking like he was going to pass out, blood flowing freely from his leg.

I scrambled towards him.

No, no, no, no, no, Avery!

I said, my voice shaking as he looked up at me.

Damn.

No, no, don't talk.

I'm gonna get help.

I didn't hand that.

He asked quietly, cutting me off.

I paused, listening as I looked around.

We were in what looked like an alley.

The sound of cars and people chattering filled my ears.

Familiar scent of pizza due to the overabundance of pizza chops filling my nose.

My breath caught in my throat.

We were home.

Wait, this isn't like a small community.

This is like a massive city with alleys and buildings that everyone is.

Whatever.

Who cares?

Babe, come on, we're gonna be late.

I yelled across the house as I started to button up my shirt, my finger lingering for half a second over the scar that ran across the middle of my stomach before butting my shirt up over it.

I try not to think about what happened five years ago, some of the blanks I filled in for myself, but there were some questions that were best left unanswered.

We are not going to be late.

Don't be so dramatic.

No, so the twist is going to be this is several years later, and that Avery died.

And just as we predicted earlier as a joke, he will now be married to a woman named Avery.

Maybe.

I guarantee.

I don't know.

I guarantee that's where this is.

I think it's just going to be a very quick ending of Happily Ever After and it's done.

Nope.

Nope.

I think he's married to a girl named Avery.

He has conformed to society's standards and gender roles and norms and has rejected

the apparently state-enforced, but not state-enforced homosexuality.

So now he's state-enforced heterosexual because of the name, I guess.

A voice came from around the corner.

i turned smiling at the familiar sight of a tall figure with dark hair avery i swear you're trying to make us late every time we go anywhere with my dad i said facing back towards the mirror reaching for another button before i felt someone's hand there instead avery turned me towards him okay you're right you're right my bad

avery turned me towards him starting to do my buttons up himself that's crazy and even if i was I'd be justified in doing so.

Your dad freaking scares me.

He said with a small smile, his fingers brushing lightly against my skin as he continued to do up the buttons.

That's ridiculous.

You've known him for five years.

I said, rolling my eyes to distract from the fact that even after five years, his touch still made my heartbeat feel like it was going to escape out of my chest.

Still, scary.

Also, why do your parents have to fly downhill every year for your birthday?

Because they couldn't fathom the fact that we moved so far away.

Also, are you still putting exposition into the sword?

also, I like seeing you get dressed up, which you only do when they're around.

I say, a smile tugging on the corners of my lips.

Here he paused for a moment, bringing his eyes up to meet mine.

Yeah,

he said, quietly, smiling enough that I could see his dimples.

I swallowed.

Stop swallowing.

Yeah.

I said back, smiling as he finished doing up my buttons.

I put my arms around him.

I'll remind you that our anniversary is next week, but to celebrate it without any fan members if it makes you feel better said my finger absentmindedly running over his shoulder i'd still like to debate about when exactly our anniversary should be is it the day we got married or is it the day we realized life was a hollow shell oh my god or the day oh my god

i'd still like to debate when exactly our anniversary should be is it the day we got married or the day when we realized life was just a hollow shell unless you uh unless you knew my heart was beating somewhere nearby

Can we talk about that?

Can we fake...

I want to actually get set of the score.

It's trying to do the cutesy-like, and they all lived happily.

And it is cute.

When is our anniversary?

When we got married or blah, blah, blah.

But it's had no buildup.

It's just like.

It's cute.

Well, they're in love because they're in love.

It's cute because it's cute.

It's cute because I said it's cute.

It is cute.

I'm writing things that are confusing.

It's fucking cute.

It's just another cute.

It's cute.

You know what, Hunter?

No, it's not.

Okay.

I can't do this anymore.

This is not cute.

It is a lie.

It is a farce, it's fixed at the base of things that are cute, it means nothing.

Why don't you sing train?

Why don't you sing train?

You were good at that.

Why don't you bring back that?

You know, keep

going.

He said with a teasing smile.

I couldn't help match his smile as I rolled my eyes.

Whatever you want, although that would make our anniversary the same day as my birthday,

which means we celebrate with my parents.

I said, moving my hands up across his shoulders to his chest

definitely not i wouldn't want to give your anniversary present in front of your parents

you

what dude what

that's hot that's cute

i wouldn't want to give your present in front of your parents yeah

it's just it's just being like every stereotypical lovey-dovey thing ever yeah and it's nice

this is what horror is dude hope you realize that this is the best horror story.

Yeah, this is R/slash no sleep.

Okay, this is a scary story, dude.

This is terrifying.

He said, grinning, I smacked him lightly on the chest.

My hand slid into his hair, pulling him down for a kiss, holding it for a moment to let myself enjoy the familiar shot of warmth that came with it before pulling away.

I can't help but remember thinking at that moment how perfectly beautiful life was, despite all that we had gone through.

In that moment, life was perfect.

perfect, life was without issue.

Then there's text at the end that says, Theodore, Aiden, and then is that Morse code?

Yeah, it's Morse code.

Okay, hold on, let me put this through a translator real quick.

Uh,

so I'm gonna go on a limb

and say that is one of the worst stories we've ever read in my life.

Oh, easy, easy, easy.

And

I hate that this is even on the RS.

This is not even a...

There's so much left open.

This is so dumb.

I also hate...

Is this the first story we've read with gay characters or

like a gay protagonist?

Didn't Left Fright Game have a couple that was...

There was gay characters, but it wasn't the protagonist, right?

Yeah.

This is probably their first gay protagonist.

Yeah, and it's like, oh, it's like a horribly written story where every piece of quote-unquote romancer writing is just a like contrivance.

It's just a stereotype laid out and you're supposed to believe it.

Okay, so the Morse code says Theodore Aiden and then the word acronym.

I don't know.

What?

I don't think that Aiden.

What's that mean?

Who's Aiden?

His name's Avery,

right?

I don't know.

I don't know.

All I know is...

He's trying to incorporate some.

I don't care.

All I know is

I would go up to my buddy Joseph and I'd fucking shoot him in the face with a real gun, not an imaginary gun.

I would shoot him in the face and be like, this is what you fucking get, idiot.

Or I would fucking throw his ass in the water, right?

You know what the problem is?

Is that

the biggest problem with this story?

Is that the horror of it is being like, oh, these weird creatures with smiles on their face.

It's like very Jeff the Killer kind of like, it's so creepy that they're smiling in this way.

Oh my God, there's a man with no face.

Who can't?

You guys just like went to an apartment building and you had like, it was just amazing like you guys it was there was no threat you have an imaginary gun whatever the fuck that means you go into like these backroom style situation where the guy's like well we need match it's just none of it matters to the point where why even why have all of that

makes sense yeah why have all of that stuff if anything why not just make it like a romance story where it's like somebody's gotten kidnapped and you're trying to find them or you know just something like don't post it on r slash no slate or you can make it unsettling and horrifying or something like that.

There's so much stuff where the only thing that the only thing that was remotely scary is like the lost ones that you can just shoot.

The only thing that was scary is just like a Hallmark film.

The only thing that was scary was Theodore's dialogue the entire time.

That was the most frightening thing.

That was rough.

That was rough.

Go.

Well, a lot of Avery's wasn't either.

Heck!

You go to heck and you die, Mother Falker.

Okay.

Yeah, this is.

Hold on, hold on.

Some of these comments, dude.

Some of these comments.

Oh, yeah.

So people are trying to like figure out the morse code and they're like aiden could stand for avery is dead but i'm not sure what the en would be for

like maybe like maybe it's an acronym if i ignore half the letter

like listen to this one So his soulmate is probably actually Aiden, and Avery's shadow creature replaced Avery in the below just before they got out or in the lab.

Avery has been calling out to his two boyfriends, past and present, because he's lost somewhere.

What are you talking about?

Why are you smoking?

This is absolutely insane.

This has been

Creepcast.

Look, look, look, look, this was probably written by a kid in middle school or high school.

Probably someone who,

you know, may have been struggling with their own sexuality.

And with that, it's cool.

It's fine.

But for what it is, reading it, it was miserable.

Uh, I hope that I hope they continued to write and got better, but yeah, it was rough.

Glad she's back.

She's back in the

spirit,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

at the exact same time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

since the return of the day.

She listens like

you, yeah, hey, yeah,

Tell me, did you sail across the south?

Did you make it to the Milky Way to see how the lights are faded in?

Tell me,

was it everything you wanted to find?

Did you miss me while you were looking for yourself?

Isaac, can we make a vote that if in any regard, if it ever goes into romance fantasy, we get a veto the story?

I don't want to read romance fantasy anymore.

I know.

You were the one that said at one point you would love to read Smut for this show.

So

this wasn't Smut.

This was like,

this was just someone being like, I hope he gives me belly kisses.

I was wanting...

Like,

I was wanting a centaur man.

He's like, you need to stay in my cottage.

And she's like, oh my God, this is, he's so beautiful.

If it it went in that direction where it's like so over the top, but this just felt, this made me sad.

Wait, what?

You just came up with that on your own, a centaur man that's like aggressively protected.

Yeah, he's got a big old donkey dick.

Why not?

All right, all right.

Okay, all right, okay.

I'm out of here.

Bye.

I'm leaving.

Thank you to also the audio listeners.

If you just stuck through this, I want you to know you deserve a fucking medal.

All right.

If anyone made it to the end of this spot,

I want you to to leave a comment in the comment section with your hand up and said, I survived this fucking episode because it was horrible.

I'm sorry.

This was my idea to read this episode too, and I feel horrible.

I feel horrible.

Tell me.

Did you sail across the sun?

Did you make it to the Milky Way?

Thank you to all of our Patreon supporters.

Thank you to everyone who watched.

It means the world.

Appreciate the support, and we will see you all in the next one.

And also,

uh, stay away from England.

I think that's the underlining, you know,

moral to this whole thing.

Bye.