He’s a man with black hair that’s just beginning to turn gray at its tips. Like Lily’s, his nose is just slightly small. But he’s got little whiskers running all over his cheeks and chin and there’s no light in his eyes, though he's smiling.

And he shakes his head.

[Lofus]: As I said you were supposed to wait in your rooms. But since the game is over there'll be no penalty; the cameras are off and you’re no longer bound by the rules.

I step towards him, as if to embrace him, but I instead thrust the wrench so it just barely hovers under his chin.

[Yuri]: Explain.

He gently pushes the wrench aside and slowly lowers himself into a chair, the one labelled for [Dog]. Don’t you dare sit there…!

He gestures for us to take a seat as well. Ana does so, but I just lean on the bar instead; watching both him and the [Rabbit]'s prone form.

[Lofus]: Have you heard of Schrodinger's cat?

[Yuri]: Everyone’s heard of Schrodinger’s cat. It’s the number-one thought experiment that people blab about to sound smarter than they are,

Lofus looks oddly disappointed.

[Ana]: I’ve never heard of it.

He brightens.

[Lofus]: Then I suppose I’ll have to educate you.

Dammit…!

[Lofus]: Imagine, if you will, that I have three things. A cat, a box, and a deadly chemical bomb.

He takes out a small plastic bottle, colored medical-white. He then unscrews the lid and places two blue pills on the table, tapping them; this one is the cat, that one is the bomb.

[Lofus]: We put the cat and the bomb inside the box together.

He claps the lid he just displaced over the capsules.

[Lofus]: Now, this bomb has a very peculiar detonation mechanism. It is activated via radiation.

[Lofus]: Radiation is random and unpredictable. The decay needed to set off the bomb could happen in the next millisecond, or it could happen in the next ten years.

[Lofus]: Until we open this box, we don’t know what happened to the cat. It’s both dead and alive. Only when we open the box and confirm the results do we know its fate.

I hate this analogy. The mafia community I’ve spent time with are some of the smartest people I’ve ever met; but over time I’ve realized they’re also some of the most pretentious. They bring this up repeatedly - so I’ve learned how to kill this cat.

[Yuri]: You’re using the analogy wrong; it's not about randomness or radiation. Schrodinger came up with that example to show how ridiculous quantum mechanics are, not to be used by wannabe philosophers.

[Yuri]: Quantum theory says matter can exist in multiple states at once unobserved. So based on that, if a cat is killed by a quantum bomb sight unseen, it will literally be both dead and alive til we open the box and observe it.

[Yuri]: But in truth, there’s no such thing as zombie cat. You either killed it or you didn’t.

At first, the man appears taken aback - but then the smile creeps back onto his face.

[Lofus]: And yet you were the cats, and the hotel the box.

[Lofus]: Everyone playing this game was both dead and alive. Your reward.

He bows, and sweeps the cap away, unveiling the two capsules once more. I see my own reflection dimly in the plastic shells.

Two azure pills are on the table; they move slightly, having touched the edge of the lid as the man lifted it away.

[Ana]: I don’t take drugs!

[Lofus]: You’ll take these. I assure you.

I examine the pill. It’s familiar, as if I had dreamed of taking it before.

My thumb and index finger push together, almost crushing it, but the capsule instead slips away and skitters onto the ground.

[Lofus]: Careful. Each of these pills costs about two hundred thousand USD.

With the attachment of the dollar-sign, the purpose of the game becomes clear. I doubt that there’s rich people gambling on us behind the scenes. But…

[Yuri]: Bastards. You’re bastards.

[Ana]: Yuri…?

[Yuri]: I said, you’re all bastards!

I let my fingers rest on the wrench I had set down. The man still wears his bland smile, perfect teeth with the golden ratio of crinkled eye. The worst part is his smile is just like hers, like Lily’s, but on his face and with his words it's all just wrong. It's empty, devoid of any of the genuine emotion or warmth.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

[Lofus]: We prefer to be known as angels.

[Yuri]: Angel investors playing with your guinea pigs, your caged animals. You didn't even let us have names.

He waves his hand.

[Lofus]: We're angels here to see our miracles.

He casually picks up the pill I dropped and scrutinizes it, as if he sees a world in its depths.

[Lofus]: Cities are bastions of life. Your city is no different; people of all kinds hustling, bustling, doing their best to survive.

[Lofus]: Of course with life comes death. While the restaurants and cafes, shops and storefronts, bookstores and libraries hold life within their walls, look at the cemeteries. Look at the hospitals.

[Lofus]: People dying of burns… disease… self-inflicted wounds…

I had thought his eyes were focusing on the pill. But with a shudder I realize that while he’s holding the pill in front of him, he’s focusing on me.

[Lofus]: We provided. We saved your lives and changed your fate. All with this little pill, twenty-five years in development.

[Lofus]: We call it Vita. Latin for life. Groundbreaking, isn’t it?

[Ana]: Thank you… for saving us?

Though Ana chooses words that are grateful, she’s still overwhelmingly confused. I stare at him with a vicious hate, gripping tight on the wrench til my hand turns white.

[Lofus]: However, as with any new technology there were unexpected results. The bodies of people who had taken this pill started to fail years later. Those who had taken it as children seemed especially susceptible.

[Lofus]: We learned that once you take this medicine you cannot stop. Time to termination of function is different for everyone depending on dosage, but your body restructures itself in a way that it needs what’s inside this little prototype.

[Yuri]: And you are part of this ‘pill-company’, having tested this product on us.

[Lofus]: We’re not part of the company. You misunderstand my intentions; we’re part of the charity.

[Lofus]: Obviously we cannot provide this capsule to everyone; it would be absurd to ask us to spend a significant amount of funding to support people we do not know.

[Lofus]: Our ability to have an impact was spread too thin. So we’re focusing on where we can make the most meaningful change.

[Yuri]: You held a series of games.

[Lofus]: Yes. You understand. After a long debate, we decided to hold a series of games, clearly stated rules, testing social, mathematical, and psychological skills.

[Lofus]: We came to a consensus that those who rise to the top in such high-stakes situations deserve our care.

[Lofus]: For those who are about to die, isn’t this a wonderful opportunity?

His inflections and speech are perfectly measured, as if he had rehearsed this long in advance.

[Yuri]: Where are the others?

[Lofus]: Pardon?

[Yuri]: All the players who were ‘murdered.’ Where are they being held?

[Lofus]: I took them away. Gas, poison, viruses, brute force… I can’t tell you how because that’d be sensitive business information.

[Yuri]: I don’t care about how. I care about where.

[Lofus]: That's also classified business information.

He puts his hand on my shoulder. I instantly raise them, like a cat.

[Lofus]: They’re not worth worrying about, Yuri. You succeeded and they failed.

I break away.

[Yuri]: We’re all worth something. I don’t care if that’s nonsensical, non-philosophical, non-economical, or if I’m lying to myself.

[Yuri]: But being able to make our own choices, that has its own kind of worth.

[Yuri]: If I go out for ice cream, I can find meaning in whether I pick ‘chocolate’ or ‘vanilla.’

[Yuri]: I can decide whether to read a book, watch a movie, or look at a magazine.

[Yuri]: If someone isn’t good at some rules set by some random council, it doesn’t mean that they deserve to die! They're worth as much as everybody else.

The man tugs at his collar the whole time I speak. His expression sours, like he had swallowed a lemon. But soon he straightens and his eternal smile returns.

[Lofus]: Are you done?

I don’t speak. Ana doesn’t either; but my world is narrowed to just him.

[Lofus]: You can keep talking. After all, it’s important to allow a free marketplace of ideas.

[Lofus]: If you’re still angry, you can write an essay or a blog. Or a poem? A tumblr? What do kids use nowadays?

I breathe in sharply, and breathe out just as ragged. It doesn’t help. I feel like I’m burning all over, my thoughts are on fire and the only coldness is from the metal wrench I’ve laid beside me.

[Lofus]: Okay, deep breaths. Easy. Now that it’s all over, it’s time for you to take the pill.

…it’s all meaningless. I might well have shouted nonsense, because we’re all in the same place.

[Lofus]: Yuri, you’ve won. Take the pill.

Why am I so mad…? Is it because he’s right? Because I don’t have a choice?

Because everything he says makes sense?

[Lofus]: Take the pill. You need it to survive.

I don’t want this. I want to live, but I don’t want to say that ‘this game is okay.’

This pill isn’t ‘mine’... it belongs to everyone who played this.

[Lofus]: Take it. You earned it.

A lot of people thought I was insane throughout this game.

Even though people who never said “I think you’re nuts” outright, I could tell what they were saying behind closed doors, or what they thought in their closed-off thoughts.

Despite this, I never considered myself like that. Even as I move swiftly from emotion to emotion, reason to reason, every moment of my life makes perfect sense. When strung together they may feel abrupt and disturbed, but it’s no more than how a river might carve a jagged path as it flows downstream.

I’m rethinking that sanity right now.

Maybe my mind isn’t sound; all I know is that in the face of this man’s blank, quiet, smile, I am absolutely 100% mad.

Ana grabs my arm, but she’s too late.

[Ana]: Yuri, don’t-!