I almost choked on my response as Ildat gave me another grin. Sofi sighed as she turned to glare at him.
“That’s a joke? Right?” I had my hand on my knife again.
“No,” they both replied simultaneously. I nervously inched my chair back in response.
There was a good reason to not see this as too malicious. The way they and others had talked about death being one of them. But that didn’t mean I was willing to let them kill me.
“Do not panic, this is not as threatening as it sounds.” Sofi got up from the table, both hands held up. “Ildat just likes making terrible jokes.”
“Joke? It is the best way to demonstrate the concept!” Ildat chuckled and moved to get out of his chair. I was out of mine as soon as he moved, knife pulled out.
“How about we demonstrate it on you instead of me, if it’s the best way?” I countered, walking over to the table. Neither of them moved at all now. Both of them looked as tense as I felt. All four of their hands were in sight, so that was in my favor.
“We aren’t as likely to have as many uses as you do.” Ildat’s chair scraped across the table as he moved it back. “Look, I’m not going to do anything if you don’t agree to it. I was a bit glib with my wording, okay?”
“Any attempt to use force against us doesn’t go well,” Sofi observed. “My subordinate was a bit reckless with his verbiage, especially after our previous negotiations. If you could give us both a moment to explain?”
“I’m going to need a pretty hefty explanation for you wanting to kill me.” I went back to the chair, but I kept the knife in hand.
Ildat’s eyes flickered to the blade before focusing on me. He wasn’t very concerned, and I could understand why. We’d been in this situation before. But I’d try to keep things…calm. Then again, I hadn’t suggested killing one of us.
“So, down here, death doesn’t operate how it does in other places. When you die, you have no place for anything to go after death.” Ildat gestured around us. “We aren’t even supposed to be here.”
“So there is life after death?” That made sense, they had said earlier that the goddess had been created by a dead person’s soul hitting it.
“Yep. But through a process that we don’t understand that well, dying here doesn’t really leave you dead.”
“There are several leading theories,” Sofi added “Among them is the idea that this place will allow things in, but will not allow anything out. Things cannot decay, degrade, or dissipate.”
“Except the wood, the food, bodies if you do the right things to them….” Ildat trailed off as Sofi turned to stare at him.
“So, things just don’t die?” I cut in before they started arguing.
“Sort-of. You come back, but changed from how you were. Sometimes it’s minor, sometimes it’s drastic.”
I frowned. “Physically or mentally?”
“Both, usually.”
“Is that what happened with me then? I was the Suitcase Killer, thenI died Then I came back changed mentally. And that would explain why I didn’t remember what happened before?” That would explain a lot of the mystery. Except for the earth knowledge. Or maybe the mental changes could implant unknown knowledge?
“Unlikely. You’d have at least some of the memories of being her if that was the case. It can warp memories but that takes many, many deaths usually,” Sofi replied.
“Few hundred typically. And by then that’s more people’s minds turning to mush after so many times dead.”
“Okay, okay. So probably not the case. So Insurance is a saved backup state or something like that?” I doubted it was money payouts every time you died or got injured. That sounded like it could be abused really easily.
“Assurance you come back with no changes. Or minimal changes. There’s a host of packages you can get.” Ildat got up from the table, and while I tensed for a moment he didn’t try anything. He walked past me to the kitchen counter, and to my relief was just filling up a bowl with more of the stew. “You probably have the latter, given your wealth.”
“Minor adjustments are the cheapest, then no physical changes, no mental changes, then no changes at all. Varying packages in between those, injury as well is an option,” Sofi added. “Outside repairing you, typically Insurance has your basic information listed. You could confirm your identity, see what schools you specialized in, etc.”
Schools? Okay, more things to be explained. “Is there any way we can check this?”
I had maybe half a second before his fist hit me right in the eye, the force sent me out of the chair. My head hit the floor with a sickening crack. For the second time today, darkness overtook me as I blacked out.
***
When I came too, at least this time I wasn’t wet.
I groaned as I lifted myself up from the cold stone floor I was laying on. My head pounded from both front and back, which only made sense. Ildat had punched me in the face, and my head had bounced off the wall right before I lost consciousness. Or had it been the floor? I couldn’t remember.
I put a hand on the tender spot in the back, then immediately withdrew it with a hiss of pain. Yeah, that wasn’t feeling better any time soon. Where the hell was I?
Walls of black stone were on all sides of me. Veins of white branched through them, swirling about in lines, sometimes joining together in spirals or circles in the wall. If it was natural, it had lucked into these patterns. I doubted that was the case.
I was at the bottom of the near-perfect cube, the only exception being a single door set in one of the walls. The air was cool, but not chilly, and something was causing a breeze. Not the door, which was set perfectly in the stone.
I put one of my hands on the floor, and struggled for a second to get up. I was feeling woozy and unbalanced. If this was some mental realm or another place that handled the insurance, it was just my luck that the probable concussion Ildat had given me carried over.
I eventually got to my feet and unsteadily walked over to the door. Grabbing the handle, I pulled, and with the sound of stone scraping on stone managed to drag it open. The entire door was solid stone, and it took over a minute with both hands.
It opened into a hall with similar doors lining the walls. A vaulted ceiling towered above my head, stretching up over fifty feet easily. Lights illuminated the corridor, but I couldn’t see where it was coming from.
The corridor stretched ten doors further before opening into an intersection up ahead. I cautiously tried a door, and it was just as difficult to open as the first. But behind it was just another bare room, the same as I had been in. Frowning, I went to the next door, just to find the same room. Okay, this was beginning to get creepy.
I went to the next door, frowning, I could hear a sound coming from the gap at the bottom, a high-pitched whine that was familiar. I grabbed the door, opened it, and was confronted with a very familiar sight as the whine rose in volume. Carapace cracked and snapped. Green ichor sprayed about before being drawn back in. That was all I made out before I instinctively slammed it shut again. The other gripped my mouth as I tried to keep what was inside my stomach there. The whine was still there and even muffled it so now it sounded like a drill going into my ear as I stumbled away, fighting the churning in my stomach. Okay, no more doors then I thought to myself as I stumbled down the halls.
I reached the intersection, steadying myself against a wall. My stomach was trying to rise into my throat and after a while, I forced it back down. Okay, this was..memories maybe? A bit of a jump in reasoning but the number of empty rooms and the single one being something I had seen before suggested it.
The intersection around me seemed to continue down endless rows of doors on either side. The one to my left had stairs at the end. A direction to go at least. I walked down it, ignoring the noise from the occasional door along the way. I heard mostly sounds of water. It would not be a good idea to accidentally flood this place if I opened up to the lake.
Black stone steps lead down for over a minute, multiple flights lead into more and more corridors. Why were there so many? If the proportion of empty ones to ones with memories were the same, I still doubted there would be this many. Empty ones from who I was before?
Finally, I saw something different as I went down another flight. A wide chamber, the ceiling stretching easily sixty feet tall, and it needed to. A large obelisk dominated the center of the room, stretching till its tip scraped the ceiling, completely blank. "Platforms extended from the base in all four cardinal directions, forming bridges of dark stone over vast pools of water with bottoms I couldn't spot at a quick glance. Staying as close to the exact center of the stone bridge as I could, I moved closer to the obelisk.
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The surface was as blank as I had seen from further away, and I reached forward and cautiously prodded the stone surface. Just as cool as all the other stone in this place. I frowned as I leaned my head against it, closing my eyes, trying to think, and the cold temperature did at least help my throbbing head some.
“Well, it certainly took you long enough,” A voice called out.
I didn’t jump out of my skin at least, but I did turn around as fast as I could, fist drawn back to punch whoever had snuck up on me. A figure was at the top of the stairs I had just descended, strolling down languidly.
She was short. She was petite. She also had hair that went from pink to navy blue although hers was about halfway down her back. Wearing a dress that looked like it was from centuries ago, extravagant to the point it had to be hell to move around in. That, and the condescending sneer as she looked at me was giving me a pretty good idea of who exactly I was looking at.
That and I had been looking at a picture of her on a wanted poster just a few minutes before.
“Guessing you are the Suitcase Killer?” I called up. Immediately I wanted to take that back. What a stupid question. Even if I hadn’t seen the picture who else would it be?
She gave me a little smirk as she finished coming down the stairs and did a curtsey that managed to convey sarcasm despite not saying a word.
“I should hope you guessed that. I am unique after all.” She said.
“Everyone’s unique,” I responded, getting a small frown out of her in return.
Okay, so clearly she and I were probably the same, or linked somehow. Was I just her with amnesia? Did she represent my missing memories? Or was she a separate person whose body I was stuck in? Was she stuck in my body? Should I ask h-
“Is that cross-eyed expression you trying to think? You should maybe stop before you burst a blood vessel trying.”
Okay, well that little spike of pure condescension answered that as probably no.
Either way, hopefully I could punch her before this was over.
“Do you greet everyone you meet by immediately insulting them?” I asked, warily moving to the side as she strode closer to the Obelisk.
“When I know the worth of the person involved? Yes. And I know you’re worth perfectly.” She said drily, stopping perhaps a half dozen paces away from me.
“Fun. Sure you do. What is it then?” I asked, keeping a fist balled just in case. If she so much as twitched the wrong way, I wasn’t giving her a chance. Into the water surrounding us she would go. Would that actually kill her? I doubted it.
“You’re a horrible disappointment. A full day and you haven’t even managed to die once, let alone twice. I’ll have to lodge a complaint to the staff about the efficiency when this situation is finished.” The Suitcase Killer said tersely “An entire hotel filled with the city’s worst and the most they do is leave you alive but on the brink? I should have known the dross on that floor I chose would be insufficient.”
Huh, well whoever she was, if this was my soul she couldn’t actually see outside since I’m pretty sure Ildat was not from my floor. Dross I’d agree to after he hit me in the face, something that the pain from had not faded at all. Seriously, he couldn’t have warned me first? At least he held his punch back.
“I mean, if you want to kill me, you’re welcome to try. This close, I think I might have you beat on that,” I said.
Maybe I was being cocky, but she was maybe five feet tall at most and looked like she was maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet. And we were close enough that if she started pulling out the black hole gun or made anything that even vaguely seemed like magic I was pretty sure I could punch her first.
She rolled her eyes, moving her head in the same direction too, really exaggerating it and playing it up. “We’re in my soul, you moronic dolt. Well, technically your soul layered on top of my soul. Giving you a beating would not only be impossible as I would just go through you. And if I could damage you, it would defeat the purpose of having you in my soul if I killed you right now. As tempting as an offer that is.”
“Well, if you want to offer anything besides snark, it would be helpful. Until then I’m happy to just stand here and wait,” I said.
She sighed “I can’t actually have that, since your soul would expire. I don’t know what dimwit lucked into this, but being rendered braindead is actually something that hurts me just as much as you. Luckily, the insurance is mostly self-automated so it should be easy for even you to operate.”
I sighed, getting a little tired of the constant insults, which were making the inability to punch her or otherwise make her quiet even more irritating.
“Although I did lie a little bit, as you are unfortunately the one most in charge, this is more your soul than mine. Must explain why it’s so empty,” She commented, twirling as she gestured all around at all the blank space.
You know, she may have a point, in the fact that without many actual memories at all it was unlikely this place would have many facets if it was reflecting me. Still, there was a difference between having this pointed out and being insulted, and I reached out to grab the Suitcase Killer by the face only for my hand to pass through, not even turning transparent or anything, it just sank into the skin without any resistance at all. Okay, creepy.
“You know, I’m beginning to see why people are willing to kill you over a hotel bill,” I snarked as I pulled my fist out of her.
“Oh please. I arranged for that to happen. You think I would be foolish enough to not pay them for a week on purpose?” She said mockingly
“Don’t suppose I can use that to get the Night Manager off my case then?” I asked.
“She’ll realize the moment she takes a look in your soul. Mistaken identity,” She said. “Good look doing that though.”
I sighed, “I literally just need to tell her to do that. And either I go free or they find you. And if it's the later it's not like it's any worse for me”
She laughed haughtily in response, and it sounded both forced and very rehearsed. People did not laugh like that. As far as I knew. Right, I barely knew anything about Earth, much alone this place. Maybe haughty laughing was the way things went here?
“They won’t. They can poke and prod the soul all they want, they won’t find any trace of me in you. But you’ll get killed anyway because they will pass the debt from the debtor to whoever was using the room. So you either way. It. Is. Foolproof.” She started to laugh again. I needed earplugs.
“If you’re going to gloat, you could at least clue me in so…I’m more impressed?” I suggested.
“No, no, no.” She said, halting her laughing, then reaching forward and trying to playfully grab my chin. I reflexively slapped her hand and all that happened was our hands awkwardly phased through each other. She chose to just ignore it. “I’m happy to have you run around in your confusion, trying to guess at my plan.”
Uh, well she was correct that I didn’t know what her plan was, exactly. I did know she wanted me to die, and from what Sofi and Ildat had said, it wouldn’t permanently kill me. Intuiting from what the Suitcase Killer herself had said, I had insurance covering me for..death, still a weird concept but it would do its best to bring me back? The motivation and goal was lost to me but the next step was there. Not die.
“So, I’m guessing you and I are both souls then?” I asked
"I am but an extension of the whole, which is currently dreaming, waiting for your services to be finished. You can call me her dreams." She replied.
“And we are the same size because?” I prodded, genuinely curious.
She rolled her eyes “Because you are barely even a soul, much less a person.” She snarked. Well, that was unfortunate even if it was just an insult.
“So if you are the actual soul dreaming, what does that make me?” I asked, hoping to at least tease a little more out of her despite her supposed policy to not tell me anything.
“An unwanted parasite I’ve been forced to attach to me for a purpose I’ve been forced to reluctantly need.” She replied acerbically “If I had my own way with this, you would have been little more than an empty shell wandering around begging people to cave your skull in as many times as possible but I’ve been forced to compromise some.”
Okay, there was a little bit of information buried in those insults, but honestly, the urge to strangle her was rising. What was taking this insurance so long anyway? As if by command, writing was carving itself into the wall as I watched, stone indenting as words were carved in.
Good evening, Ms. Indigo. We have detected you are currently in a compromised state from injury to your head and there are no current attempts being made to heal you. Would you like to activate a use of your plan?
Okay, so an insurance policy for death was a thing, which had been mentioned before, but apparently it tried to talk to you through your soul. Made sense for communicating with those incapable of doing so from injury. I turned back to look at the Suitcase Killer “Your name really is Ms. Indigo? I thought that was a pseudonym.”
“Not commenting.” She said back, smirking.
Well, that was as close to a plain ‘I’m not going to give you any more hints” as I was likely to get. I turned my attention back to the obsidian wall which had yet to change from the previous text, clearly expecting an answer.
“Yes, I would like to use the policy?” I hesitantly said to the open air. If that didn’t work I’d have to figure out a way to carve my answer into the wall, something I was not looking forward to.
Acknowledged. Please wait a moment while we bring up your file.
“You know, this seems to be going pretty slowly if I’m on the verge of death. Time dilation?” I commented over my shoulder.
All I got back was silence, and turning around, the Suitcase Killer was gone. It took half a second before I was already moving, checking down in the pools of water and taking a quick look up the stairs. Nothing. Well, that’s real fucking ominous. Where did you go? Had she decided to leave before she accidentally gave anything else away? Or had she detected something where she wanted to leave? Either way, that hostile sense in the air was gone, instead replaced by tension as I hurried back over to the Insurance wall, boot leather slapping against the stone floor.
Please Confirm Following Profile is Yours by pressing YES
Name: Deliati Indigo
Gender: Female
Age: 67
Following of Choice: Primal Fear
Specialty of Choice: Fear, Shadows, Abyss
Identifier Code: 10753676
Okay, specialty of choice? Deliati? Following? 67? I was 67?
Okay, enough questions for now. Reaching forward, I pressed on the indented yes. Nothing happened for a second, then suddenly I was in nothing. I barely had time to register before suddenly I was back on the floor in Sofi’s house, flat on my back.
My head felt even worse than it had in the soul-place. So did one of my legs, and my fingers felt like they had been stabbed, again. Ildat’s face was only a few feet above me, the bastard leaned over me looking down.
“Well, look who’s finally woken up. Finally get some answers?”
I did the only reasonable thing that came to mind. I punched him in the face.