Chapter 3
(Feed me, See-more)
Shakily moving one leg forward at a time, allowing the circulation of blood to begin bringing renewed function to his legs, Jarow slowly made his way towards the door. Before he left though, he glanced back once more at the broken corpse lying on the floor. His mind told him he should be unsettled by the sight, but the memories and life associated with his now dead and mangled body made him more nostalgic than upset.
He realized his brain must already be adapting to his strange new set of circumstances. While he couldn't be sure, he doubted his previous life had translucent windows popping up in his vision. These windows seemed vaguely familiar to him somehow, but at the same time were completely new and extremely strange.
Thinking about how he now had a new life and body was the strangest part of his entire situation though. Try as he might, Jarow could think of no other way of looking at this situation. He knew intuitively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had lived in that body. Now he was occupying this new, different body. An obvious downgrade in his opinion, although he could now walk and move on his own, which is something he didn't think was possible in his previous life.
He wondered if he died again, would he switch to yet another body? "That sounds illogical, though, doesn't it? Like some sort of reincarnation or something?" he thought to himself as he made his way into the hall once again.
Jarow racked his brain trying to piece everything together. He felt so close to understanding or remembering what was going on, yet so far from the answers that he felt like he knew nothing at all.
It felt like knowing a word, having it on the tip of your tongue, but being unable to remember what it was or why you wanted to say it in the first place.
He pushed these difficult thoughts to the back of his mind as he walked into the hall. His more pressing concern was figuring out why he was here and where here was. Luckily, his curiosity, the compulsion from this body, had kicked in again.
"I need to move, to look in every door, take everything, and solve the mystery of the foggy hallway." As he mentally gave words to his circumstances and his desires, the phrasing reminded him of a new word: Game.
The many definitions of the word "game" spilled through his brain as he looked around. He thought of what he had gone through and what else was around. One specific definition of the word fit this scenario very well, but there was another word missing to that definition. This place wasn't just a game, it was a video game. Somehow he had become a player in some strange video-game-world.
As Jarow's understanding grew, the pop-up windows started to make more sense. They were his user interface or (UI), the guide system he would use to play this game. He wasn't sure how to access them directly yet, but he felt sure they would be a big part of his life from now on.
Jarow also began to wonder about his new body. It seemed to have already grasped the fact that this world was more of a game. His mind, or rather the part of his mind that wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, had been suppressed or made less accessible in order for him to move on in the beginning.
The more useful thoughts, which Jarow now suspected were from his new body, had somehow moved to the forefront of his consciousness. The happy and curious emotional remnants had made him act in a way more fitting to a game world, given him the drive to move forward and explore, and kept him from losing his mind right from the start.
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Jarow's brain was racing. There was so much he didn't understand. His body, though, moved on its own accord, crossing the hall to the locked door on the other side. Jarow barely noticed he had moved until he was looking through the tray slot at another empty room.
His brain slowly caught up with his body, and he paused for a moment, staring into the familiar room. He knew he wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on by thinking his way through this, especially with his missing past. Actions were necessary if he were going to survive.
With a shrug, Jarow decided to give in. There was no other choice but to keep checking the rooms and hope to find something useful. He considered just walking past them and trying to find the end of the hall, but something told him that would be a bad idea, that there would be dire consequences for doing something like that.
Jarow's thoughts on skipping to the end led him to wonder how much of himself was actually left. He knew his memories were gone, but was he still himself? Was his consciousness still whole? Did he feel and think the same way? How much of what he had been feeling were just leftovers from the person's body he was occupying? He questioned whether he was just renting this body or if it was truly his now. The thoughts occupied his mind as he walked down the hall once again, as if on autopilot.
Jarow methodically moved to the next door, this time on the opposite side of the hall. This side of the hall had open doors, so he pulled on the handle of the next one. The door screeched as it moved, reminding him of the door he had originally opened. The ear-piercing sound of rusty hinges forced him to snap back to attention. There was nothing new or different about this room though, so he stepped in, grabbed the blanket, and moved on to the next room.
Even though he had tried before and failed, Jarow's mind finally stopped thinking about all the things he didn't know. He couldn't think of anything else he could do right now except what he was already doing. Without more information or a change of scenery, he was stuck dealing with his circumstances as they were. The monotony was maddening, but unfortunately necessary. He could only hope he found something else soon.
He stared at the key as he walked to the next door, twirling it around his finger and feeling the smooth metal move along the familiar yet foreign skin of his finger. He really wanted to find the door that the key fit. He figured that since he was in a game world, the key would most likely open a door to exit this place or to a boss fight. He wasn't quite sure what a boss fight would entail or how he even knew what a boss fight was, but either way, he would welcome the change to break the monotony of this place.
As Jarow continued down the hall, he stepped back to the other side and approached the next locked door. He briefly wondered how he had come to be here. It seemed like some sort of punishment, and he wondered if he had committed a crime that he didn't remember. Although in his previous body, he couldn't imagine a crime which he could commit that would call for such extreme punishment.
He pulled on the ring of the door as per usual, but the solid door remained firmly shut. He opened the flap and gazed in. The room was ordinary, with the same walls and the same threadbare blanket on the floor.
He closed the flap and sighed. "Am I going to be doing this forever?"
His body moved once again across the hall. He pulled on the ring to the next door, and it screeched again with rusty hinges. Jarow wondered why these doors were different. He had been able to open multiple doors without any sound, but now these last two had been stuck, as if the metal were exposed to moisture and the hinges had oxidized.
He winced at the sound, scrunched up his face, and closed his eyes as he pulled the door open.
When he unclenched his face and opened his eyes again, he fully expected to see yet another gray room with a measly small blanket on the floor. He secretly hoped he would find another window. At least that had been different, out of the ordinary.
The scene before him was definitely out of the ordinary, but not in a good way. In fact, he saw something much worse than a blanket. It was worse than gray walls or a bug. It was less exciting than the key, but that was only because fear was the primary emotion occupying his mind now.
Jarow saw teeth. Large, sharp, yellow teeth attached to an even larger mouth. A wet, sticky, green mouth. The mouth was wide open, and a small red tongue stuck out from the back of the throat. Behind the tongue was a large, open gullet that undulated in anticipation.
This happened to be the last thing Jarow saw as well. His entire body exploded with pain as the long yellow teeth lodged themselves into his shoulders, chest, and back. His head was immediately and fully enclosed within the dark, wet maw he had glimpsed, and the tongue licked excitedly along his face as Jarow's circumstance finally hit home.
He felt his body go limp, and the creature lowered him to the floor. Jarow was unable to comprehend what had happened. The speed and overwhelming surprise from finding something behind the door caused a complete system shutdown. He was in shock, his mind frozen from the horror.
An angry red window entered his vision. It said:
You are suffering from Shlazak poison. Shlazak poison cases; stun and paralysis. Duration: 30 seconds - Good going dumbass!
He barely had the chance to read the message before his world darkened completely. The edges of his vision closed in like a dark vignette. He had thought the inside of the monster’s mouth was dark, but the darkness of death was even blacker, an absence of everything.