Taylor walked up to the frozen people in front of her and poked the guy, Aiden, in the head. Cold, hard. It felt like pushing against a stone statue. She turned and approached the frozen Administrator, waving a hand in front of her face, but the woman's eyes didn’t so much as flicker. Noting both results, she walked around to one of the torches along the walls and put her hand over a fire, but she felt no sign of heat transfer.

‘So, not a time freeze situation,’ she concluded, knowing that, even if time were stopped, heat should still be there, ‘but what then? Did I fall into a glitch in the Matrix? Better yet, why did that annoying ass voice sound so familiar?’

This was the second time that the disembodied voice had wailed out into the space around her and, both times, Taylor felt the voice sounded familiar. It was difficult to say though, because the wailing had a layered quality to it, like reverb or two voices layered on top of each other. Even so, there was something familiar in the noise that she was this close to placing.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that the voice was going to give her the time to figure it out. Everything around her began to warp and blend together like running paint. Looking down while bringing her hands to her face, Taylor could see and feel that she wasn’t being affected by whatever was going on around her. As she watched, the room quickly began to regain its shape, this time, however, the room that solidified was empty except for two people: the Administrator and a blonde-haired woman. Both were facing away from Taylor and gazing out of the large window at the far end of the room.

Taylor felt her skin crawl, but everything began moving again before she had time to collect herself. The Administrator spoke in a familiar tone to the woman beside her, “Taylor, I must thank you and your partner again for going out of your way to deliver the latest batch of prospects to the capital for the Screening Exam. I know the task itself isn’t one that is typically taken on willingly, but having people like you and Mac, members in good standing that are familiar with the village and its people, step up to ensure their safety goes a long way in solidifying our relationship with the people of the area.”

‘What?! Is that supposed to be me?’

The Taylor by the window sighed loudly and turned to look at the Administrator, smiling fondly before nudging her lightly with a shoulder, “Seriously, Cynthia. Stop thanking me! I told you that you’re the one doing us the favor by helping us rack up easy merits with the Order, s--”

“Whoa, ok! Alright, that’s enough!” Taylor suddenly burst out, instinctively knowing that watching anymore would do serious damage to her sanity, “HEY! Creepy voice with the personality disorder! I don’t know what the hell is going on but I’m not about to just sit here and be Blade Runner-ed! Get your ass out here and show yourself!”

Taylor hadn’t heard what the Other Taylor had said but the Administrator had, laughing, and rolling her eyes in response, ignorant of Taylor’s shouting.

“If someone had told me when you two showed up here six months ago that we’d be having this conversation now, I wouldn’t have believed it. Who’d have thought that the two unknown Warriors from nowhere could have such untapped potential?” Cynthia teased fondly, “It’s a blessing from the stars to have such powerful allies to count on.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

With the ending of Cynthia’s statement, the room froze once again. Taylor almost got stuck on the whole ‘six months’ thing but decided that there were more pressing concerns at the moment, like figuring out what the hell was going on.

'I honestly didn't expect that to work.'

Everything was just as stopped as the previous time, making her feel like she had been dropped into a still photo. Crossing her arms, Taylor looked around the room and then up towards the ceiling, waiting.

She had no idea where the voice came from, but magical voices descending from the sky had precedent. Her wait wasn’t long.

“You! Why are you here? Why are you doing this to me?!”

“Uhh…,” Taylor had expected a lot of things and being accused by her captor wasn’t one of them. She was completely thrown by the situation.

“Answer me, demon! Why are you torturing me?! What have I done to deserve any of this?”

The reverberating voice seemed to crack towards the end, like it genuinely believed what it was saying.

‘Is it going to cry?’

Although her uncertainty was becoming stronger by the second, Taylor grasped on to her growing anger, unwilling to be jerked around any more, and refused to be swayed by the voice.

“Look, whatever you are, I’m not a demon. Let’s get one thing straight, YOU are the one torturing ME. I don’t want to be here, and I sure as shit didn’t want to have my brain torn apart and trapped in some void for who knows how long. I don’t know what’s going on, but you’d better fix it. Now, send me back!”

Pacing back and forth across the room in agitation, Taylor clenched her fists as her demand echoed throughout the vast depths of the vaulted ceilings. If there was one thing she’d learned growing up with a competitive older brother, it was that usually the first one to lose their composure would lose the contest. Never show weakness.

When the voice responded, it sounded much more meek than any other time it had spoken, almost sounding as uncertain as Taylor secretly felt. Her aggression seemed to have worked.

“…you’re not the one that’s doing this to me?” it asked cautiously, the resonating voices much less conflicting than they had been. Taylor was able to hear the voices much more clearly and she recognized one of them.

‘Kaitlyn?’

It was. The main voice was definitely the woman she had been trying to save before she ended up in this nightmare. Had she been dragged here too? If so, who was the other voice? It was still too distorted to make anything out.

“No. I don’t even know what’s going on or where we are.” Taylor said forcefully, “You’re the only thing I’ve encountered besides crushing pain and terror since I got pulled here. I just want to get back to where I came from.”

Pausing for a moment, she lowered the aggression slightly before asking, “Is your name Kaitlyn?”

Two voices responded simultaneously with two different answers, “You know my name?/No.”

The voice of Kaitlyn groaned in apparent pain, before whimpering pitifully, “I just want to see my parents again.”

Taylor’s pacing came to a stop as her anger slipped away, leaving her feeling exhausted.

‘What the hell, man?’

It wasn't that long ago that she was also just a voice, existing in the void, feeling like she was all alone. She remembered how terrible it felt and how depressed she had become in just a short time. She had heard Kaitlyn speaking then too, so, maybe, she hadn't really been alone.

Beginning to really feel like the bad guy here, Taylor opened her mouth to comfort the voice of the pitiful woman but, before even getting the words out, she was cut off by the intrusion of another voice.

Her own voice.

“Go to sleep Kaitlyn. I promise, everything will be better when you wake up.”

Taylor spun around, shocked to see the Other Taylor no longer frozen, if she ever had been at all, and staring directly at her.