After a brief wait of listening to the hum of the elevator’s mechanisms, the doors opened again to reveal a surprising sight.
The room the doors had opened to was pretty much a hotel room. It had a single bed, a table and various empty cabinets with one of them having an old CRT TV on top. And then there was a pair of French doors that lead to an empty balcony.
The view from these doors, however, was less than pleasant. All that was there was the same white void as the reception area that seemed to give off a bright light from all directions from apparently nowhere.
“Okay James, welcome to your room. Let’s get this over with,” Orange suddenly said as I entered the room. He had apparently been hiding behind the bed… Alright then.
“Fine,” I said with a hopeless sigh.
“This here is your educational equipment,” he said lifting up a strange helmet off of the bed, “You will be receiving 4 hours of Virtual Education a day. Though I’m sure it’ll feel a lot longer than that. The rest of your time is completely free to you and you may order literally anything you want using the intercom on the wall by the TV.”
“Slight question,” I said slightly aggressively, “What the hell is Virtual Education?”
“Oh, I sometimes forget that new transfers don’t know,” he said with a laugh, “Basically, this equipment puts you in the shoes of everyone you’ve affected. Some will be positive, but most will be negative. And, during those five hours, you will live out their entire lives from birth ‘till death until there is no one left that you’ve affected, hence the five year sentence.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“What the bloody hell?” I said while backing away from the demon, “I may have done some bad stuff, but what the hell is wrong with you? This just sounds like straight up torture?”
“That’s the point,” he said as a white rectangle appeared next to the bed, “Let me say it like you would: That’s the whole point, we torture these ‘people’ so that they can learn that their actions have consequences. Hmm… Did I get that right?”
“I may call others I don’t like people, but that… That isn’t me at all,”
“Oh Chris…” he said mockingly, “I’m afraid it is. Seems you don’t even know who you are? Maybe that’s how you cope. Besides, it’s time to start you first session of Virtual Education.”
“N-No…”
“Oh come on Chrissss… We have special equipment in each of these rooms that automatically puts the helmets on if you have failed to do so within two minutes. And with that last warning, I shall take my leave. Good luck I suppose,” Orange said coldly before walking through the white rectangle.
Before I knew it, my parents were dead. My soul was completely crushed, but I had to keep moving forward, less I disappoint them.
I had managed to keep a stable job at a coffee shop for the past few years and it was going pretty well. However, this annoying retard kept coming in every so often acting like he owned the world. He would constantly complain about the quality of the coffee or the service or some other petty thing. Sometimes, he would even leave without paying causing a dock in my pay.
And then one day, I had completely had enough of his crap and decided to give him the largest cup of coffee I could find. It was more of a joke than I intended it to be, but anything was better than nothing.
Then, for the final time, he left without paying. And now, I live… Nowhere. And now, I’m starving.
Wait no! I’m not Chris, I’m James! I’m James Smith! An important employee of a major company. I can do to others as I see fit! This isn’t my life!
This is going to be forever five years, isn’t it?