As much as Chase loved a good story, he really wished the world would start making sense again sometime soon. Or at least that the little hints and discoveries they were making would all fit together. Certain things resetting every night, that fit with the date rewinding. Missing 34 minutes, well, it would certainly be noticeable if they could remember all of that happening. Mystery picture frames appearing on the edge of their prison bubble? That was a new one.
As much as Chase’s ingrained knowledge from watching horror movies screamed at him not to do it, they couldn’t just leave the picture frame sitting there. Whatever it was, it was probably important. And had even odds of being cursed or some kind of macguffin to get them all out of this situation. Chase didn’t exactly love those odds, but he nonetheless bent down to reach his free hand towards the frame.
It definitely felt like normal metal, pleasantly cool in his hand. The itching receded from where he held the surprisingly light frame as he straightened up and cast a glance over at Jess. Her eyes had followed the frame as if hypnotized, now locked on where it hung in his left hand.
“Come on,” he urged, tugging lightly on their joined hands. “Let’s get back inside.”
Jess nodded absently and took a half-step backwards, eyes never leaving the metal frame. It made for an awkward shuffle back to the door, but they somehow managed it without tripping. Working the door open with both hands occupied was a bit more difficult, but somehow Chase managed. As soon as the door swung shut, it was like the spell had broken. Jessica’s eyes snapped from the frame in Chase’s hand to his face.
“You back?” Chase asked gently. She nodded mutely. “Want to talk about it?”
“I - I don’t know if I can, really. It was a feeling. That no matter what I did, if I did anything, I’d be playing into their hands.”
Chase frowned. “Who are they?”
“I don’t know that either. It was just this overwhelming sense of foreboding, like the walls were closing in and the trap was just about to be sprung.”
“But it wasn’t,” Chase reassured her. “We’re both here, we’re fine. If the trap got sprung on anyone, it was me. Let’s get back to the dorm, yeah? See if we can find a picture to fit in our new wall hanging.”
Jessica muttered something under her breath before nodding and setting off in the direction of the dorm. She seemed to forget that her right hand was still firmly grasped in Chase’s left, and looked momentarily shocked that one part of her body would ignore its marching orders. She snatched her hand back with a faint blush and stepped more quickly to move ahead of Chase. He just smiled in response. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
The trip back was spent in silence, another series of revelations and general strangeness smothering the lighthearted banter they’d enjoyed this morning. It did leave Chase plenty of time to think, but very few of those thoughts were productive. Feels like just as I start to get a handle on one thing, another comes out of nowhere to blindside me. This picture frame is the only thing that seems really out of place though - replenishing food and changing behaviors are clearly connected to whatever goes on during the blank 34, but why a picture frame? ANd why such an obvious indicator of where to find it? It’s not like we would’ve spent hours patrolling the edge of the dome looking for anomalies if we hadn’t seen that footage. Are there things we’re missing by not doing that? Maybe a mirror, or a tasteful throw pillow? Is this all designed to subtly guide me down the path of an interior decorator? Will my life’s mission be to turn this lab from drab to fab through the power of feng shui and decorative accent pieces?
Chase snapped back to reality as Jess led him through their dorm’s door, promptly pouring herself onto one of the couches as soon as it closed behind them. Chase kept moving into the kitchen, filling a cup with water and chugging it down before refilling it to sip sedately. After a moment, he filled one for Jess as well. If they had to face down this increasing pace of bizarre happenings, he was gonna make damn sure they did it quenched.
She hadn’t moved from her prone position by the time Chase got back, so he set the cup of water on the coffee table and settled onto the other couch. Cut off from the usual distraction method that a phone with internet access would provide, Chase turned to inspecting the picture frame they’d picked up outside. It was a slightly old fashioned thing, something that wouldn’t have been out of place on his grandmother’s wall. The gilded edges evoked that sort of fancy, expensive feel without actually being either of those things. It was small for such an ornate style, maybe eight inches tall and six inches wide. Its weight clearly indicated that it wasn’t solid metal all the way through, much less solid gold. If he had seen it hanging in one of his college professors' offices, he wouldn’t have remarked on it other than pointing out how weird it was to hang a picture frame without a picture inside.
As he turned the frame over again in his hands in hopes that its secrets would suddenly spill out, the door slammed open and hurricane Kayla thundered inside, followed meekly by partly cloudy with a high in the mid fifties Tom. Her weapons-grade scowl was operating on full blast and woe be to any innocent creature who wandered onto the firing range. Even Tom, for all his usually understated mannerisms, seemed more frustrated than Chase had seen him since his ill-advised ceiling accusation last night.
“Buh?” Jess grunted, startled awake by the abrupt entrance.
“Yeah, what she said.” Chase agreed. “Who’s dead or about to be?”
Kayla looked momentarily surprised to see them there, but quickly returned to her dominant emotion of fury. “If I have to hear one more patronizing douchebag call me ‘little lady’, I will burn this lab to the ground. And if it somehow resets itself, I will do it again.”
Tom rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “It was pretty excessive. Never realized how much casual sexism those guys were throwing around before today.” Kayla hadn’t even turned her head more than an inch in his direction when he hurriedly continued. “And of course I won’t let it happen around me again now that I have!”
“You better not.” Kayla growled dangerously. “What’s with the picture frame? Doesn’t exactly fit our decor.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Chase sighed. “That’s a long story. Well, not long so much as weird. And we’re still trying to figure out what’s up with it.” Chase walked them through their trip to the security office and subsequent investigation of the outdoors, with Jess chiming in as she brought herself back to full consciousness. It had the unexpected side effect of dissipating some of Kayla’s immediate anger, transforming it instead into frustrated contemplation.
“Why is everything so weird now?” Tom sighed. “Yesterday I was just happy doing my part to keep this place running. Now I know that not only was that completely useless with these nightly resets happening, but there’s a whole other pile of strange that may or may not be connected. Puppet people, spontaneously appearing wall hangings, I don’t even want to guess what comes next in case I’m right.”
“I hope it’s a delicious steak.” Three glares turned on Chase, who looked back innocently. “What? It wouldn’t be any weirder than what we’ve seen lately, and eating the same prepackaged food is starting to get old.”
“Thank you for volunteering as sous chef.” Kayla said in a sickly sweet tone that promised horrible retribution if Chase didn’t agree. He did, of course. He liked all his limbs exactly where they were. So he trailed along in Kayla’s wake as she busied herself in the kitchen, taking stock of their supplies.
“Can’t exactly make anything fancy, but rice and beans will at least be warm and filling.” She decided, hefting a sack of rice onto the counter. “Get those cans of beans open and measure out the rice while I see if I can scrounge an onion from somewhere.”
“Yes chef!” Chase shouted. Kayla snorted as she dug out two onions and began to chop them up. The prep work continued in silence until Chase spoke up as Kayla stirred the sauteing onions.
“Hey Kayla?” She half-turned to him. “Did you stop by any of the laundry rooms today with Tom?” A nod. “Did they happen to have any borax?”
“Borax?” She pursed her lips in thought, then shrugged. “Wasn’t paying that much attention, but I think so. Why?”
Chase’s eyes flicked to the living room for a moment, where the sounds of one of Tom’s playlists and the occasional comment from him or Jess could be heard. “Just an experiment.”
“An experiment? You gonna bring us back to elementary school and make flubber?” She smirked. “Once more, with a little more honesty.”
“Please, borax crystals or bust.” Chase sighed. “It is partially an experiment. I want to see if something we deliberately set up but mostly runs on its own gets reset or not. But it’s also for Jess. She was the first of us to notice the blank 34, and it seems like she’s taking things harder than the rest of us. Just want to cheer her up.”
“With elementary school science projects?”
“It’s something she mentioned doing with her mom today, something that meant a lot to her. Just want to remind her of the better times, give her some hope that this will all work out.”
“Huh.” Kayla seemed baffled. “So there is a sensitive dude under all the snark. I’ll be rooting for you.”
“That’s not -” Chase paused at Kayla’s raised eyebrow. “The entire reason. Fine, she’s cute and fun to banter with. Sue me.”
“You wouldn’t survive discovery. Hand me the rice.”
They continued to cook in companionable silence until the sound of the door and two new voices drifted into the dorm. Ellie’s tone was as upright and proper as ever, but Miles’s voice got more nasal the more frustrated he was, which right now seemed like very. Seeing that Kayla had things well in hand and rice and beans not exactly requiring two people, Chase grabbed a jar of salsa and a bag of tortilla chips and excused himself to the living room.
He was wrong - Miles had gone straight past frustrated and landed firmly in fuming, tattooed arms crossed and scowl painted across his face. Ellie didn’t look much different at first glance, but she had lost her customary half-smile for a decidedly neutral expression. For someone who emoted as little as she typically did, that was a definite red flag.
“Something tells me it’s time for stress eating. Come on, chips make everything better. You two get the runaround again?”
Miles huffed, but did unfold his arms to grab a chip and snap an angry bite. “I can’t understand men and women of science being so incurious! Even if we can’t present hard evidence, to completely ignore us like they did is ridiculous!”
Ellie was much more dainty in feeding herself, but nodded along with Miles. “It is rather strange. They seemed to be utterly consumed by their own pursuits, speaking with us only long enough to make sure we would not bother them again.”
“But we do have a lab space of our own, right?” Tom asked.
Miles snorted. “Yeah, they were too eager to give that up. Like I said before, kick us all to the kids table so we don’t tramp around underfoot.”
“Hey, that’s mission accomplished though! Good stuff!” Chase attempted to lighten the mood. Miles shrugged and sat down, some of his stewing anger dissipating. Seems like emotions were high for everyone today. Is that something else we need to watch out for? Or are heightened emotions and mood swings common for new prisoners? I wish one of us was a sociology major, they’d probably know.
“I suppose that is true. And how did your investigation of the security office go, Chase?” Ellie asked.
Chase frowned a bit, then turned to face Jess. She raised her eyebrows as if to say ‘go ahead’, so he did. “Weird is probably the best word for it. Unless you stumbled across any clashing bits of decor today?”
Miles blinked, and Ellie shook her head. Kayla emerged from the kitchen at this point with a pot of rice and beans, so Chase regaled the last members of their group with a summary of his and Jessica’s adventures as they ate. By the end of it the pot was much-diminished and the primary mood around the table seemed to be confusion.
“How does any of what’s happening here connect to a picture frame of all things?” Kayla was the one to articulate the general mood.
“Maybe it’s a red herring?” Tom suggested.
“Tom, this isn’t a detective novel. We’re probably just missing some context.” Miles objected. Tom held his hands up in surrender.
“Whatever the context behind it, I believe we should include it in tonight’s recording.” Ellie suggested. “The fact that as far as we know it appeared during the blank 34 would suggest that it is somehow connected to it. Recording it should provide at least a hint.”
“Yeah,” Jess said. “Except that all the recordings we saw at the security office cut off two seconds into the blank 34. I don’t know how much information we’re gonna be able to get if our phone cameras have the same limitation.”
“That is true. But we will not know that until we try. Chase, would you like to take charge of the picture frame?”
Chase blinked. “Sure, I can do that. You don’t want to, though?”
She shook her head. “So far, you are the only one who has handled it. I believe we should keep it that way for as long as possible in case there are unforeseen effects.”
“Then I guess I’m your guinea pig.”
“Well,” Kayla said. “If we’re all set on the plan for tonight, I’m gonna grab a nap. You all should probably do the same. Tonight feels like it’s gonna be a whole thing and I’m not running the risk of passing out before we get at least one answer.”
“Good call.” Jess agrees, standing and stretching.
“I’ll get the dishes.” Tom stood as well.
“Can’t we just leave them and see if they reset?” Chase asked. The rest of the table turned to him. “What? It’s for science!”