???

Hendrick made the last jump, landed on familiar ground as he found himself standing on grass. He turned around, saw Jim make the jump as well. Behind them, a path made out of small islands and stairs descended towards the remains of the school building. They consisted out of a mixture of the other stages: copper, plastic, concrete and so on.

So far, so good. They were finally here.

“Your... I mean... Hendrick’s house? But why should it end here? Wasn’t the game all about made up worlds with flashy things, just like a video game or a book?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know why the third stage is like this either,” Hendrick said. “It is quite linear and feels more or less like reality itself is collapsing, but to be honest, if there’s any deeper meaning to this, I couldn’t care less about it. I just want this to end.”

Jim had nothing to add to that.

Hendrick turned around, viewed upon the house he had waken up inside of so many times before. The last attempts had always been: clear everything until stage 3, reach the house, die in the house, wake up in the house again. He could barely endure its view. He swore to himself that he would burn it down once he reached the other side.

Contradicting to all the rather broken down and worn off surroundings in this stage, the house almost seemed like nothing had changed. Besides the fact that it was a floating house with a tiny garden in space, everything was normal. The grass was awfully green, the walls of the house painted in a cheery, almost strawberry red tone. He wanted to vomit.

He walked up to the door, turned towards Jim. “Just let me clear the way. If you don’t touch anything, I should be able to go ahead like usual. After that, we can get to work at the door. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Hendrick knocked on the door, hid the scissor behind his back. Jim, who surprisingly used his brain for once, walked a little to the side so he wouldn’t be spotted.

Silence, then a cheerful female voice, “One moment, please. Who’s there?”

“It’s me, mom.” Hendrick said. “I’m back from school.”

There was some shifting inside of the house, dragged footsteps, then the doorknob turned.

His ‘mother’ opened the door.

She wanted to say something.

But before she could, Hendrick’s scissor had already pierced through her throat,

and he pushed forward, inside of the house,

as gurgled screaming echoed through the endless bounds of space.

---

Officer Jeff

The door slid open with a heavy mechanical screech. Jeff’s eyes required a moment to adjust to the darker environment ahead. He took a few steps inside of the room, but took one back as soon as he saw what towered in front of him.

The room was filled with technologically advanced machines and other items of high expense. There were countless thick, blue cables he recalled having seen earlier while being shown around. In the middle of it all, something was suspended in the air, held by heavy chains and cables woven into the massive construct.

So this is where all of these are leading.

In the middle of the room was something which roughly resembled a human brain, but shaped out of technology. It emitted a low humming sound, glyphs of unknown language written all over its surface. The blue glow of the symbols slowly changed its intensity, commuting between dim and bright.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” The old man asked with an unusual youth in his voice. “This is the result of a lifetime of work, and also the creation my company is named after: C.U.A.”

Is it… alive? he thought.

As Jeff turned to look at the old man,

an uncomfortably wide grin had formed on the founder’s face.

And he said:

“It will help us reach our common goal, officer...“

“…it will help us Ascent.”

---

Jim

A few snow-white flowers rested on the green grass close to the door of Hendrick’s home.

Jim moved a few steps to the side. The monster appeared to know what it had to do, and he didn’t want to screw anything up. Anything but having to go through all of this again. Anna and Jack should never live through this again. Jim sensed that something in his gaze had gotten lost, yet his confidence was more present than ever.

He leaned against the wall of the building about 2 meters away from the door, waited. He tried to calm his breath down a little, failed.

A knock on the door. Hendrick’s voice, then someone else’s.

Wait, that voice had sounded familiar.

The door opened.

The monster brought his scissor up fast, stabbing someone standing inside of the doorframe. Jim couldn’t quite see who it was from the angle he was currently standing, but a wet gurgling sound could be clearly heard. The monster pulled its weapon back, some blood spurting on its face before it entered the house. There were screams from inside, then shuffling and shouting.

Then, something stumbled out of the doorway and more or less fell on the single stair in front of the door. It was Hendrick’s mom. She held her hands on her neck, clearly in panic as blood continuously poured out of a stabbing wound. Her hands were already covered in blood, made it hard to see the details.

She turned her head with an expression of terror, looked up at Jim with pleading eyes.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Another gurgle escaped her lips. Jim backed off. He reminded himself that this wasn’t real. These weren’t Hendrick’s real parents.

Then, another realization followed: But… they still feel pain.

Hendrick’s mother stared up at Jim, tears streaming down her face as she held a hand up towards him as if to reach out. Jim hesitated, tightened the grip around his weapon. He wanted to end her suffering, but he didn’t want his events to change anything. There was no way he would go back through all of this again, even if a few needed to suffer for it.

Then he realized there was something else. Reddened skin and pale bone peaked faintly through the mess of blood. Her hand… it had a round hole inside of it, almost as if something had smashed through it violently.

Maybe the monster? No… this couldn’t be done with a scissor.

Jim noticed a similar hole in her other hand. Her feet had them too. With these kinds of injuries, she shouldn’t even be still alive in the first place. The monster had been right, at least partly. This wasn’t real, but her pain was real for herself. Jim brought his scissor up.

Jim’s attention got put off as the fighting sounds inside of the house suddenly vanished. As Jim brought his attention back to Hendrick’s mother, her movements had already ceased.

A small river of blood had appeared from her neck towards the green grass.

And the gentle flowers’ petals had turned from snow-white to crimson-red.

---

Jim stepped inside of the door-frame, a few sprinkles of blood reflecting on the cold oak-wood. What had once been a kitchen now more looked like an arena. Tables had been flipped over, things laid on the floor. There was also a dead body between the mess on the floor – Hendrick’s father. He had been stabbed in a similar fashion to Hendrick’s mom. But there was something else.

Jim felt his insides tense up, his eyes narrowed. “Was it really necessary?”

“What do you mean?” the monster asked.

“Cutting off his hands.”

“I did not cut off his hands. They were that way since I entered.”

Jim felt his breathing get fainter. “How?”

“Like I said earlier. This isn’t real. They couldn’t even have been alive in the first place. I know for a fact that-”

“Wait, did you hear that?”

“What?”

Jim moved closer to the offside of the kitchen. He was pretty sure that he had heard a faint whimpering – something like a quiet crying – close by. The sounds led him to a small cabinet. He put his hands on it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the monster said.

“…”

The whimpering had gotten louder. Jim slowly opened the cabinet. Inside of it, crouching in the corner, a small figure was crying while hiding its face with its hands. It was Hendrick’s little sister, Lea. But there was something odd: there appeared to be a red mark going horizontally around her neck. She was shaking.

Just before Jim could say something, she said, “H-Hello? Is the scary man gone?”

Jim hesitated, then said, “Yea. He is gone.”

“Is brother okay? I heard him, but I couldn’t see.”

The monster’s voice appeared as if on command right behind Jim. “Yea Lea. No reason to be scared anymore. I’m fine.” It was frightening how calming its voice was.

“Brother. Where are mommy and daddy? I’m scared.”

“No need to be scared Lea… you don’t need to hide anymore. Everything will be okay now.”

Lea still hesitated, yet her shaking had gotten less. She then took her hands off her face, turned her glance lightly upwards as two empty eye sockets stared at Jim.

“Mommy? Where are you? Daddy?” Lea moved her head around as if to search for something which wasn’t there. She got up, walked right past Jim and the monster. She started moving across the room, almost falling over a piece of furniture.

“Mommy? Daddy?”

The room was dead silent.

“H-Hello? Why are you hiding from me?”

The monster tapped on Jim’s shoulder, then whispered, “We should go now.” He started moving towards the stairs, waited for Jim there.

Jim hesitated, took another glance at the little girl blindly wandering around the room, her dead father laying only a couple of meters away from her. Jim moved towards the staircase.

He put one foot on the first stair.

“Mommy? Daddy? I can’t see you…”

Jim felt his teeth clench.

“She isn’t real, Jim,” it whispered. “I think even you should get that by now.”

“If we leave her here… will she vanish or stay alive?”

The monster shrugged, started ascending the staircase.

Jim looked up the staircase, his heartbeat even faster than before now. He thought about his friends, then the deal he had made. His eyes widened.

He turned around, started moving towards Lea, said, “I’m here, Lea. You don’t need to be scared anymore.”

And it was at this moment in time where Jim had finally realized what this game was really about. He knew why the monster had to be punished, and the sin it had commited.

The little girl ran over to Jim, hugged his leg. “Jimmy! I was so scared.” Jim picked her up, held her on his left arm, keeping her close. Her lightly rotten eye-sockets were just a few centimeters in front of him as she stared out into the void.

She had an innocent, bright smile across her face.

“No worries Lea…”

Jim said with calming voice.

“Everything will be fine now.”

He moved his right arm in a swift movement.

A few seconds later he could feel Lea’s body turn limp on his arm.

---

Slow clapping echoed from upstairs. Jim put down Lea next to her father as carefully as possible. He got up, covered the girl’s eyes with a piece of fabric which was lying around nearby.

“Very heroic, Jim. How does it feel to kill a human? You murdered her, you know that, right?”

Jim moved towards the stairs, started ascending. His heartbeat had calmed down.

“Usually that’s the part when people argue that they aren’t a murderer since the circumstances made them do it, but it’s not like anyone would ever think about the circumstances, right? You and I aren’t as different as you think we are, Jimmy.”

Jim moved up the last stair, stopped. “Which door?”

“Hm? You don’t even say anything against it anymore?”

“Which door is it?”

The monster frowned, nodded across the hallway. “Hendrick’s room.”

Jim started moving along the hallway – a hallway which he had already walked across hundreds if not thousands of times in the past. There had been so many good times at Hen’s house, all now shrouded in the cloaks of the past. As he reached Hendrick’s door, he stopped. He turned around, saw the monster leaned against a wall a couple of meters away.

“What? Any last words?” the monster asked.

“I think get it now.”

“Hm?”

“I know what game it's playing.”

Jim put his hand down on the doorknob.

Nothing happened.

He turned the doorknob sideways.

He was still alive.

He opened the door.

---