Hendrick?

Hendrick leaned back against the familiar wooden chair, glanced out towards the seemingly endless realms of space. Stars and lights melted against black nothingness, interrupted by spots of vibrant colour. Light and darkness clashed with each other in the never-ending bounds, complimenting each other at the same time.

The view was quite stunning. He only wished it was real.

Shouldn’t he be here by now? Did I screw something up?

A butterfly flew around close by, its bright wings in sharp contrast to its dark surroundings. But it was barely out of reach.

He was in the middle of their old school classroom, the chair he was sitting on the last one present. He had thrown out all the other ones in preparation to make enough space. The tall closets on the wall to his left were closed up and filled up to the brim. The wall in front of him was completely gone, revealing the outside scenery.

Only that the ‘scenery’ wasn’t there anymore. There weren’t any trees or buildings outside of the room, only void. Gravity seemed to be intact though, and breathing was possible as well.

It doesn’t even act like it’s real, he thought.

Then, the sound of the portal opening behind him as blue light flooded the room momentarily. He got off the chair, kicked it off the edge into space. It fell downwards. He turned around, was met with Jim holding his scissor in his direction.

“You took longer than expected,” Hendrick said.

“…” Jim’s expression carried all the words necessary.

He looked up and down at Jim. Shouldn’t he have a cut somewhere near his right leg? Perhaps he really did something wrong? Well, it didn’t matter anymore anyways. It was time to bring light to all of this, even if he had to readjust a little.

Hendrick moved his half-scissors forward fast, some leftover blood sprinkling over the wooden flooring. He held it in Jim’s direction with a straightened right arm.

“It is time for you to find out what all of this was good for.”

“Who are you?” Jim asked.

“I am going to need your help one more time.”

Jim’s expression tightened. “Who are you!”

Hendrick smiled.

And then he charged.

---

Anna

Pictures flashed through her head, a rapid following of scenes and moments from her past. She saw her friends, family, people. Then, something disturbed the peace.

A heartbeat.

It was quiet at first, soft and gentle.

The pictures disappeared.

Anna regained consciousness.

The sound of the heartbeat was now at a deafening volume. She could hear something else between the noise, like someone cutting through metal with force, or rather drilling a hard object. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt heavy like dark curtains keeping her distant from reality.

She was now almost certain that she was lying on her back, but not entirely. As she tried moving her body, she soon realized that she couldn’t move a single muscle. It was like she was cast in stone, a statue paralysed by its own being. It felt like her entire body had lost the ability to feel, more dense and compressed somehow.

Then her eyes opened. It wasn’t by her own free will, they just did. She viewed upon a giant hole which she appeared to be at the very bottom of, flesh slightly moving and pulsing at every deafening heartbeat which seemed to originate very close by. She recalled looking down at this pit earlier.

Suddenly, she remembered what had happened. Hendrick... the factory. Did all of that really happen, or had it all just been a dream? She didn’t quite remember. She tried recalling the pictures she had seen earlier, but they felt more like a burning memory now, slowly getting lost in a fire which spread across the library of her brain.

Far up appeared to be a platform hovering in mid-air. Blue, transparent stairs lead to it, floating as well. Portal. That was the only word which came to her mind.

At the edge of her vision, something else appeared to be floating over the center of the hole. It seemed to be the object where the heartbeat originated from, but she couldn’t quite see it from the angle she was lying.

Then, the drilling sound close to her stopped. She felt her body move, sit up by itself as she tried to control it but failed. For a moment, she got a glance at what was in the center of the hole. A giant floating heart, mashed together out of mostly smaller hearts and brains, pulsing and pumping in a steady rhythm. On its lower side, a single huge fleshy tube was attached to the ground, leading to somewhere out of vision.

Black assembly lines were hanging out of the reddened walls which surrounded the place. From there, countless metallic humanoid figures carried organs towards a hill of gore which was close to the heart and carefully placed them on top of it.

More words formed inside of her head: Factory. Heart. Core. Fuel.

Her head was turned downwards, and she viewed upon herself. Her metallic arms carried countless screws, her alloyed chest raising and sinking accompanied by slight bursts of smoke which came out of openings on her side. Across her stomach and lower chest, there was a big cut which split the metal plating which rested there in two. She got up.

Anna tried her best to remember. She recalled things which were still inside of her head, things she wasn’t supposed to forget. There was one name. Jim.

Who was he again?

Her body told her to go on, so it did. Anna’s hands gripped inside of the cut on her stomach, got a hold of the metal and started pulling it outwards, opening up the cut further. The metal bend outward slowly, and it revealed a red mass inside. Blood started pouring out, ran down the metal and onto the already red floor. Anna knew she wouldn’t die from blood loss. Something told her that she wouldn’t need it anymore.

Two of the humanoid machines came up to her, looked at her opened up cut. Anna’s hands still held the metal gripped, bent it further open as the sounds of creaking metal nearly drowned in the loud sounds of the heartbeat close by. It felt like it was inside and outside of her at the same time. Hadn’t she felt that before?

Now, up close, the machines really looked familiar. They definitely had human features, even if metallic and somehow changed. Could it be? No... that wouldn’t be possible. A picture flashed inside of her inner eye. The presents back at the Doll-Maker’s place. The person which had been inside of there… it had certainly looked like him, the one name she remembered. She was almost sure now. But she needed to get a better look at these humanoid machines first to be certain.

But for now, her vision was fixed on herself. The two humanoid machines reached out for Anna’s stomach and entered the cut with their hands. They moved with care, seemed to examine something. They then moved around, rearranged things as if to analyse what was where.

Then, they started moving their hands with force, and pulled out one organ after the other.

I’m not allowed to forget him, she thought.

Anna felt the pain,

but she knew she wouldn’t die from it.

The voice insinde her head had gotten louder...

The machine had told her...

And so she knew...

She had to feed the machine.

---

???

Hendrick brought his scissor upwards, blocked Jim’s attack with it before turning to strike. The tip of the weapon barely sliced Jim’s arm before he pushed him away with his foot.

Jim stumbled backwards, managed to keep his footing as he backed off a few steps. He appeared to be scanning Hendrick, as if to look for an opening.

Jim looked at the cut for a moment, then back at Hendrick, said, “You had planned all of this from the beginning. The map, knowing where to go, all of it. You were at this place before, am I right?”

Good, Hendrick thought. This will be a suitable moment to start provoking him. Since he isn’t injured, I need to make him more angry so his movements get sloppier.

“I really thought you would be smarter than that, Jim. I laid out all the necessary information for you. Come on, think a little harder.”

“I’m tired of the games. Just say who you are.”

“We’ll come to that soon enough. Think.”

“Why should I believe you? You fucking killed Anna!”

“Her sacrifice was necessary.”

Hendrick noticed the grip around Jim’s weapon tighten. He saw how dense he was, but it was almost weird how calm he was at the same time. He seemed to somehow manage to hold himself back, which was unexpected.

Finally, Jim answered. “Tell me what really happened back at the first stage.”

Hendrick couldn’t help it but smile.

---

“You killed him as well, am I right? Jack would have never gotten caught by that thing.”

The smile on Hendrick’s face disgusted Jim. He wanted to jump on him right now, rip him apart, but he knew that it wasn’t as easy as that. The fight before had told him he couldn’t get an upper hand in combat, Hendrick’s movements somehow predicting perfectly what he planned on doing.

Just who the hell is he? he thought. Seems like I need to play into him to find out more. Maybe there will be an opportunity to strike.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But before he could ponder deeper, Hendrick raised his voice, “You are right. It appears that he didn’t see that one coming, though. Perhaps he didn’t expect his friend to betray him... whoops.” His smile widened. “But I already told you on our little walk, Jim. Don’t you remember?”

“What?” Jim froze. He thought back to the morning when they walked to school together. The day where it had all started. First, he couldn’t quite recall what Hendrick meant. Then, a quote snapped back to him.

“He just would find out things he is not intended to find out way too fast and it would create problems. You said that…”

“Ah, there you go.”

“That means you had already planned it before we entered the game. But how did you do it?”

Hendricks sighed, lowered his weapon. Perhaps a good moment to strike? No… he slowly got a bad feeling about this.

“I told him that he should just treat it like a game, to have some fun. He followed my plan blindly because of trust, and I told him before that there was no pain. Funny, since he would soon after find out that there very well was pain in here. But I suppose you found that out by yourself too, am I right?”

“Ho…”

“I shot his leg.” Hendrick started laughing quietly. “Sorry, I just have a hard time controlling myself here. You should have seen the look on his face.” Jim saw Hendrick scratch his fingers again.

“Bullshit!”

“Hm?”

“Jack would have read you like a book. There is no way you could have tricked him.”

“Oh? Yea right.” Hendrick laughed even more, held back tears. “Of course he figured out I was using my other hand and such. He is so smart, right? Noticing all the small details. But you know what he didn’t predict? Me knowing that he would read through my betrayal. And he always dodges to the right, so I had no problem aiming my shot.”

Jim gripped his scissor even tighter, his knuckles now painted white. This fucking bastard. He dashed forward, but was met with a smooth movement which brought him to fall. He received a kick to the side, but Hendrick backed off after that.

Is he playing with me? No. he didn’t even hesitated to kill Anna. He has some plan. Damn it, it seems like I really need to play along.

“I already told you. You can’t win this fight, Jimmy. I know all your attacks.”

Jim got up, swallowed some anger. “But… Anna got caught. Without her getting caught, the scenario would have never happened, so you couldn’t possibly have planned tha-”

Jim saw Hendrick hold a hand before his mouth. He looked like he was gasping for air, then:

“Hashhuuu!”

“…” Jim just looked at him.

“Sorry. Seems like I had to sneeze.”

“…” He felt the anger raise. And before he could even think about what he was doing, he dashed forward once again, and metal hit upon metal as the fight continued.

Jim started unleashing all he had left onto Hendrick. He let his anger guide him, only faintly hearing the sentences Hendrick said mid-fight as he continued pushing forward.

I am going to fucking kill him.

---

Hendrick barely managed to dodge a strike, swiped upwards roughly, then dashed back. He had him where he wanted to. Now he only needed his rage to wear off.

“I already told you. You can’t win.”

“…”

Jim slashed sideways with surprising speed, managed to barely hit Hendrick across the forehead. Hendrick backed off, felt a stinging pain. He put his hand on his forehead, felt warm fluid on his palm.

I got lucky. It isn’t deep enough to kill me, he thought. But he moves so fluently. His leg... Why isn’t it injured?

“Use your brain. I already told you all the solutions to your questions,” Hendrick said as blood started running down his forehead.

“…”

And Jim dashed towards him once again, this time not fast enough to strike Hendrick, who returned the favour and hit his head with the back of his scissor.

And Jim fell down once again, his weapon sliding over the ground and stopping close to the edge towards space. Hendrick held out his weapon close to Jim’s face, was met with furious eyes.

“Listen to me. Think. I won’t kill you. I need your help.”

The fury in Jim’s eyes weakened.

“You disgust me,” Jim said.

“I know that. But you have no other choice.”

---

He somehow managed to hold himself back, calm down just enough to not just grab the blade with his very hands. His anger had overtaken him, but he needed to remember the contract he made earlier. The blade of the scissor hovered just a couple of centimeters in front of him, like an unspoken death sentence already on paper. All Hendrick had left to do was sign it, but he didn’t. Why? If Hendrick would have wanted to kill him, he would have done so already. What did he plan? What was his goal?

“What do you want from me?”

“God.”

“What?”

“You asked earlier. I am a god.”

“You wh-”

“The box back at stage one. The present which contained the wind up box. It didn’t have a clown’s head, did it?”

Jim was stunned. He didn’t know what to say. Hendrick could have manipulated them for sure, but he couldn’t possibly have known that. It made no sense. Even if he had entered the game earlier, and managed to reach the secret room, there was no way he could have known which present Jim would open.

Hendrick went on, “It had a familiar face, didn’t it? You weren’t sure about it at first, but deep down you knew it was her, right?”

“What does all of that mean? I-I don’t understand?”

“Anna’s face. It wasn’t only her face, Jim. It was her. Her real head.”

“B-But…” Jim felt his head spinning. Pictures of stage one flashed through his head. The wind-up box… the head… the sewn shut mouth and eyes. Hendrick was right, it had been her. But how?

“Anna was with me. With us. She… died as you killed her, right?”

“Not this one. The one at stage 1 wasn’t our Anna… our rather, your Anna. It was another one.”

Jim felt like dying. This was the worst. Anna had died in the factory, but Anna also died in stage 1? Did she get replaced? No…

“I-I… don’t understand.”

“No, no, NO! Fuck. You piece of shit. Are you really that retarded? Use your brain! I put all the necessary information out for you. Think!” Hendrick had started scratching his thumb against his middle finger again, but his expression and posture had lost its softness as well.

Jim focused. He recalled things from the last few days. Suddenly, things seemed to make sense. Hendrick had said he would be a good leader as well… pulling strings behind the scenes. The map… he knew where to go… he planned killing Jack because he had noticed something before he even noticed it. The hints on the walk… the sandpit… the sandpit!

“A butterfly… you drew a butterfly in the sand. What was the shape next to that? A circle with a smile inside of it?”

He did ask Hendrick that, but he had seen the ‘circle’ with a smile in the middle before. The smile had been on the Doll-Maker’s mask, and the being with the suit had been wearing it as well.

“You saw it back in stage one since the Doll-Maker was wearing a similar mask. The creature wearing that mask is the thing we need to stop. And it is also the thing I see every time I wake up.”

“Who is it?”

“It made the game.”

And then things finally clicked. “A butterfly… the butterfly effect.”

Hendrick started clapping, smiled at him with his disgusting face. “Go on.”

“Some things you did could have been done with smart planning, but some couldn’t. You couldn’t have possibly known all the small details and developments, the butterfly effect would have led you into unknown directions, and your plan wouldn’t work out. Besides…”

“Besides?” Hendrick tilted his head sideways.

“Besides you would have known all the things that happened beforehand. Down to the smallest detail. Then it would be theoretically possible.”

A loud metallic clank echoed through space. Hendrick had thrown his weapon on to the floor next to Jim.

“You wouldn’t like to fight me like this, right? I have no weapon, and that would be boring as hell.”

Jim picked up the scissor, but he didn’t feel like fighting Hendrick anymore. “Right.”

Jim swallowed. The puzzle pieces had started falling into place now. Some questions still remained unanswered, though.

“You stated you are a god earlier...”

“Tell me, Jim. If someone can change all the things as many times as he wants to until they turn out how he wants them too… and if that person would never really die, wouldn’t that person be immortal and inevitable?”

Hendrick had started to slowly approach the left wall of the room. The wall where all the closets were which had originally been used to store things for school.

“And if someone would be immortal and inevitable, wouldn’t that theoretically make him a god?”

And Hendrick stopped in front of the biggest cabinet.

“Let me show you something.”

He put his hands on the closet’s doors.

“And then I will tell you the truth…”

And he opened them.

“The truth about Sinner's Game.”

---