I hear the soft click of a door, then whispering, “don’t wake her up.” Leo speaks softly.

“Why not? She doesn’t own our house.”

“What can I say, I’m a communist, everyone should be happy.” The exit door opens with a creak.

“Don’t joke about that, you weren’t very communal last night leaving me all alone for hours, I thought you were dead.”

“I’ll make it up to you, come on.”

The door closes, I do not want to open my eyes. If I open my eyes and I’m still in the same spot, my life has ended, the prenup had been signed and I’m in a loveless marriage with a new reality. I force my eyes closed, trying to somehow control reality, soon ill wake up in my real apartment, the honking of cars and curses of the people through my window, the bad air quality making me sick to my stomach.

Oh, how I miss the air quality. Here feels too perfect, like everything is new, like I'm living in the beginning of genesis when God first created the earth. Now I know why eve wanted to get out of there, its disgusting living in a world that isn't designed by humans.

After a while, after the sounds disappear and I cant really tell where I am, I finally open my eyes. Fuck.

I move off the couch and open the curtains, the bright light from the windows irritates my eyes causing me to scratch them.

Its official, I am now married to my new reality, and it is abusive. Both physically and mentally, what a world we live in. I hadn't got a good look at this place yesterday because I was not really in my body. But this is a really cozy spot. Its what seems to be a rich person's cabin, the ones you'd find in the middle of the woods, where teenagers in those horror movies would get slaughtered by guys in hockey masks.

But its nice, the kitchen has a mix of new elements like a fridge and sink, stuff that doesn't really fit the area. It makes me wonder something, do these rooms ‘spawn’ depending on what people assume would be behind them. Like if Jack from 1994 opened up a room would it be something older, than the sleek room I got when I opened a door.

I don't know, but if I'm going to live here, I should at least make some theories, although I'm guessing they both have it all figured out. I find a deck of poker cards, its called ‘free poker cards.’ I open them up and lay them on the table, setting up a game of solitaire, each card has some sort of god on it, its hard to tell what they’re supposed to be.

The Jester card has a name on the back, named ‘Dolos.’ ‘Eros’ is the queen card, ‘Zeus’ is the king card, and the ace card is completely blank, making it hard to actually play a game of solitaire.

The numbered cards are also Greek gods, but I just don't care that much anymore.

I play for around 10 minutes until Jack and Leo come in laughing, they are both wearing new clothes and their hair is wet, probably from showering. Jack sees me and jumps onto the couch over the arm rest, “ohhh you gambling?”

I look over, its weird to see him back to ‘normal’ after he threatened me last night. “Just playing solitaire.”

Jack looks excited, “do you remember the rules? Seriously? Write them down, I wanna play too.”

Leo sits down at the edge of the table, watching me play, “you play this a lot?”

“Yeah, on my computer. At work.” I put an 8 under a 9 and store a queen.

Jack seems to be incredibly invested in every movement, “are computers better now? Leo said they got all crazy, but considering you are even further in the future they must be simulating whole worlds.”

Leo chimes in before I can talk, “I actually had a theory that we might be in a video game somehow, like a simulation.”

“Yeah... video games look realistic now, like real life.”

Jack and Leo both say at the same time, “for real?”

“jinx, you owe me some ‘dark soda’”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Leo grunts and gets up, walking over to the fridge and grabbing ‘dark soda, evil star flavour.’ he holds 3, one in each hand then one under his armpit. “Here, make sure to brush your teeth after.”

I take it, it has a dark star with white space around it, a fully white can, the design is pretty cool actually, I open it up and drink, it tastes like nothing I've ever tasted before. There aren't words to describe it.

Jack gulps his down and crushes it, “alright Alice, we are going hunting this time, okay? So, suck it up because we are going to the 296th floor.” He makes his way to the bathroom and grabs his axe, I look at my cards then Leo.

Leo just smiles, “he is a lot better at hunting than me, believe it or not. You'll be safe.” Leo gets up and begins to pack up my cards, “that is if he remembers to actually grab food this time!” He yells at Jack who is in the bathroom.

Jack comes out looking all smart with his hair sliced shorter and stubble shaved, “bitch, I got you a fully grown person instead dumbass.”

I get up, “I won't freak out this time, can I use your spear?”

Leo nods, grabbing it from beside the fireplace and handing it to me, “don't worry if it breaks, I can always make a new one. Just... don't freak out this time, okay?” Patting me on the shoulder he whispers, “you have to adapt quickly, or you'll die, Jack is probably going to push you.”

I wave as I walk out with Jack, “Bye.” He doesn't respond, already writing in his notebook.

We stroll through the hallways, Jack seems to be on a mission to walk annoyingly fast, “okay, rule 1, you don't yell on floors 297 and above, echoists can hear you and will eventually find you.”

Oh so I really did put Leo in danger for freaking out earlier, it makes more sense why he is mad now.

“Fun fact: the reason there are less face spiders here is because the echoists feed on them, making this spot the goldilocks zone, another goldilocks zone is floor 288, so if you are ever in a situation where you cant go up, make it to floor 288 and find a balcony room.”

My mind is spinning from all this information, “a balcony room?”

He holds a finger up, “balcony rooms are rooms that connect with the pits on the roof, allowing you to climb back up safely if you have rope. You cannot go down on balcony rooms because for some reason if you go down one you stay on the same floor, don't ask why.”

I just nod, following his brutal pace, we make it to a grey door, “quiz time, why is floor 296 infested with face spiders?”

“Uh, because there's no natural predators?”

“ding ding ding, yep that's it.” He reaches into his pocket and gives me a piece of candy, “thought id start training you like a dog.” He giggles as I take the candy and eat it. It tastes like clay, but the aftertaste is fine and sweet.

He opens the door and i see the red webs again, this stairway goes up and down, the way down seems to be a bit sticky, covered in a weird goo. “Oh you’re not wearing shoes... okay just give me a moment.” He pulls me back into the hallway and walks into a random red door, I wait for a few moments, he comes out with slippers, “hope these are your size.”

They are about a size too big, they look worn and torn, but its fine. Walking down the concrete stairs my slippers stick and make a gross slapping sound every step. We make it to the door that says ‘296’ and walk through.

The hallway is nightmarish, its the same layout as above but covered in red webs, the carpet is wet and mushy with some sort of black goo, making it incredibly hard to traverse. “It'll be fine, there's fresh doors like 5 minutes away, just keep my back.

The hallways echo with sounds of tiny feet, we make a turn and see what seems to be a red egg sack, it is almost transparent and pulsating, Jack just ignores it like its the most normal thing in the world. I see tiny hands through the sack, grabbing and pushing, like how a baby kicks in a mothers stomach.

The webs were less of a problem than I thought, they are mostly in the corner of rooms and lining the walls, they seem more like thin vines than webs though.

Jack stops and holds his hand out, “there's around... yeah I hear 3 around the corner, they like to jump around a lot so take any out that get behind me.” He crouches down barely, and slowly moves. My body instinctively leans backwards as i move, trying to delay whatever's going to happen by centimetres.

We make a turn and I see 3 heads. Just heads with legs with hair, one has red hair and seems to be a girl, the other two seem to be older people, one with grey hair and the other balding almost, showing the skin of their stick like legs, their eyes are fully black and way too big proportionally. They make an awful clicking noise with their tongues.

I am mortified, expecting a similar reaction from Jack I look over, he has almost a smile on his face, fully zoned in, “okay... go.” He steps forward and lunges himself at the 3 heads, going for the lady one first he fully punctures it with the axe in the forehead. The creature still attached to his axe was then used as a mace in a haymaker attack on the grey-haired head, knocking it towards me.

I let out a screech and stab it multiple times with the spear, fully on instinct. My legs keep jumping, left, right, left, right as I slam the head into the wall while its attached to the spear, blood drips down onto my hand and I drop it onto the ground. Jack seems to have taken care of the balding head and walks over.

He stomps on the head below my feet and takes the spear out, “cool. Start searching doors.”

Before I can reply he has already stepped into a room, shutting it with a slam. I look down at the creature, its jaw had been leaking blood from the stab wound. I avert my gaze while making an almost whimper sound, I never thought id ever see something like that in real life.

Sure, I've seen people die in videos, just not... in real life. And for all intents and purposes that thing has the head of a human being. And now I know what one of those looks like with a stab wound through the jaw.

I walk to a door and open it, the door handle feels sticky but then I realise that's just the blood on my hands. I have actual blood on my hands now.