(Dyn)

  Death 1 - The First Death

  Dyn had never died before. Death was something only mortals—and careless immortals—experienced. Now, without a body, he couldn’t move; without a mind, he couldn’t think. He existed only as the barest cept of a soul, drifting aimlessly in voidspace. A newly formed tether was the only thing preventing his soul from slipping away, from disc what truly y beyond. Suddenly, the tether pulled—yanking Dyn bato existence, resetting him.

  [Time orb]: [Dejavu] triggered. Wait.

  Dyn blinked and found himself ba the cell, seated on the cold bench. The dead woman’s body y once again at his feet, while the shirtless elf and bronze-scaled woman casually pyed cards at a nearby table, as if nothing had ged.

  She tossed a ent toward Dyn with a vulgar iion.

  [Time orb]: Thirty-Four Resets remain.

  He sat there in shock, trying to figure out what the fuck had just happehe world around him felt more real than ever. He was sciously breathing—in and out.

  ‘Am I halluating?’ he wondered. It was funny—because of course, he was halluating—but could halluations have halluations?

  The rough fabric of his toga draped across his shoulder, bung in his p. Every shift of his feet sent gritty ches of dirt and hay eg under his bare soles, the sounds too loud iillness. His hands, he noticed, collected an impressive amount of filth and grime. He saw the dark lines of gunk under his fingernails as he curled and flexed his fingers.

  “I died,” he whispered, the words feeling hollow, as if his brain refused to fully process them. The problem it wrestled with was that he couldn’t remember ‘not being alive.’ A part, deep inside of him, was different. Something happened, an experience he couldn’t recall—like a suppressed trauma that left a mark on his soul. Even if he didn’t have those memories, he still knew he had died.

  Movement from the other side of the bars caught his attention. The overly aggressive Argonian cospyer, who’d killed him, shifted oool to get a more fortable position as she surveyed the cards spyed oable. A potent bination of fear and anger welled up inside of him.

  With the experience fresh in his mind, his hand cradled his stomach as he gred at her. Without thinking, his hands balled into fists. He wao hit her almost as bad as his desire to run away. Adrenaline couldn’t pie, so it fed both needs.

  A dark thought crept into Dyn’s mind: ‘She should know what helplessness feels like…’ he thought, dangerous darkness simmering in his chest.

  Dyn’s jaded scowl shifted toward Abs and his impossible physique. The shirtless elf sat there, leaning over the table as he pyed with his stupid cards, shuffling them, pg them down, and turning them sideways.

  ‘Little help you were. Ran away a me st time.’ He had to stop himself from boiling over and having a repeat of his previous demise. ‘Calm down…’ He took a deep breath, letting his posure return as he exhaled slowly. ‘That’s how it started st time,’ he reminded himself. He goaded the feisty lizard-woman, and theabbed him to death. That wouldn’t happen again.

  He forced his mind to ge gears, thinking about other things, and actally sent himself on a sidequest.

  ‘If this isn’t a dream… Do I have magic powers?’ The thought was sudden and ued, but his logicluded he’d made a terrible mistake. ‘Damnit, why did I skip all those prompts?’ He regretted Past Dyn’s decision and really wao know more about how that magic worked.

  “Options,” Dyn said out loud.

  The bronze-scaled woman gnced up from their game. Dyn shrank back against the bender her pierg stare, feeling the tent hatred in her eyes. Abs ignored him, not even b to look up from the game. tent that Dyn wasn’t trying to cause trouble, she returo finish her turn.

  Dyn tirying different ands, whispering to himself. “Repy. Menu. Messages…” A dozen ands ter, and still nothing happened. He tried them agaially, something that had worked for him before. Nothing—the Time orb remaiubbornly silent. He sighed in frustration.

  Another realization came to him; ‘This isn’t a vention…’ Dyn’s brain cooked with that new logio vention means no cospyers, no cospyers means…’ He stared at tiles on the floor as he cooked. It helped him focus and avoid going down any tas that iably came up. There was a y-nine pert ce Abs was an actual elf… or maybe a vul. If he could just get to his ears, he’d know for certain.

  Slowly, his eyes made their way toward the ‘woman’ slinging cards with the shirtless elf. She wasn’t just some person pying dress up as an Argonian orn. She was something else entirely. Like a slow-motion freeileup happening in front of him, his brain finished cooking to reveal that he’d been deluding himself the eime.

  Finally able to see without the protective veil of self-deceptioched her lip curl back as her tongue picked at a k of meat stuck between her upper row of sharp teeth. Something as simple as pig up a card and flipping it over showed she could feel micro tactile respohrough her fingers, which would be impossible with a glove. Even the way her eyes focused aed when her gaze moved about the room, or how her nostrils fred with every breath. She wasn’t a person.

  ‘She’s a monster.’ Dyn realized he was being held captive by monsters.

  ‘Calm down,’ he thought again. The deep breath was much less effective this time. Reining in his fear only forced it to prowl at the edges of his mind.

  ‘Are they going to eat me?’ Dyn’s thoughts spiraled. ‘Holy crap, they’re probably going to eat me. Wait, aren’t vuls vegetarian? Or maybe it was vegan?’ He couldn’t remember whether elves ate meat.

  He needed a distra before he had a panic attaot that he’d ever had one before, but now would be a terrible time to start. Fog on his Dejavu ability, he tried to piece together how it actually worked.

  ‘Does it have to do with fate or destiny? Am I still going to die at the same time as before, but in different ways?’ The Final Destination movies came to mind, and he frowned. He’d find out shortly. That moment of truth loomed.

  ‘What happens if I run out of Resets?’ He thought, whiaturally led to. ‘What is a Reset?’ His only guess was some sort of time loop. ‘Why thirty-five, and I get more?’ His mind buzzed with questions he didn’t have ao. He really, really wished he hadn’t skipped those prompts. Time trudged on and his regrets on past decisions tio preoccupy him.

  Ding! The terror tube’s chime announced a new arrival.

  ‘This is new,’ he thought. Dyn was relieved to know he wasn’t stu some terrible, repeating time loop.

  The ‘ushed off her stool and moved to greet whoever stepped out of the terror tube. Abs also stepped away from the game to stand at attentioo his fellotor. It was him, the healing ‘cospyer’ from before. If they had been human, their white scales and red eyes would’ve been a side effect of albinism. Dyn wasn’t sure whether this was the same.

  There seemed to be several of the lizard, dragon, whatever people around. He niamed them by the primary color of their scales. It robably racist, but Bronze had fug stabbed him to death, so he didn’t care.

  White’s previously bd gold robes now dispyed blue and green stains all over them. Those same colors streaked across his face. Grime covered his cwed hands. He appeared drained, almost exhausted.

  ‘Now you decide to show up.’ Dyn frowned, crossing his arms.

  It’d beehan an hour since he st saw White. Dyn wondered what could have possibly happened in that time to put him in such a disheveled state.

  White sighed and then spoke an order to them. Both Bronze and Abs walked toward his cell. A shiver danced down his spine as Broared at him with the same unkind eyes as before. The shirtless elf pced a hand on the sb, unlog the cell. The grinding of the bars as they lowered unnerved him, and he reflexively fli the thunk at the end.

  Dyn’s heart quied as he watched Bronze bend down to reach for the sheathed dagger he ko be in her boot. He stumbled, tripping over himself. Trying to back away from her, he found himself crammed in the cell’s er with o hide.

  “Not again!” He closed his eyes and threw up his arms defensively, anticipating the first strike.

  Dyn heard White speak, using a scolding tone. He opened his eyes to see Bronze spin around to challenge White. She argued, jabbing her dagger at Dyn to make her point. It was a minor fort to know that it wasn’t just him she gave a hard time to.

  White shook his head, which was universal enough for Dyn to uand. She hissed and narrowed her eyes at White. He snorted and pointed, banishio the terror tube. Sn in kind, she abruptly turo leave.

  Ding! The torture device called out before opening. The mental imagery of her trapped in an endless up-and-down cycle brought a small smile to Dyn’s face.

  Whomever White was, he carried the weight of authority in his words. Both Abs and Bronze answered to him and ultimately followed his orders. The shirtless elf took hold of Dyn by his upper arm with a grip so firm it hurt as fingers dug into his soft and fleshy bicep. Another order came from White, and Abs nodded in reply.

  His captor took Dyn by the arm aually resorted to yanking him after Dyn realized where he was being taken.

  “e on, not the terror tubes again…” Dyn slouched, dragging his feet.

  Abs’ gaze shifted to him and then back to the curved doors, letting out a chuckle.

  Ding! Sighe start of aormenting ride as they went up or down. Dyn didn’t know because he was too busy screaming. The doors couldn’t open fast enough as Dyn rushed to get out of the crimes against humanity lift.

  Searg for a distra to calm his rag heart, he noticed they were in a different hallway from before. It still had stone walls, but the floor was of dirt and debris. There were different portraits of Lady Spock hanging on the walls. Her judgmental stares tio accost him as the shirtless elf perp-walked him to another room down the long hallway.

  Dyn wasn’t sure which disturbed him more; that someone was obsessed with colleg so many pictures of this poor woman, or that she was vain enough to ission them herself. Then an equally terrible option came to mind—or both.

  They arrived at their destination, a sparsely furnished room. This one had a regur door frame. Well, maybe it was regur. It might have had one of those magical vault-door things, but he couldn’t tell.

  Ihe room was a table with a crystal ball and two chairs. Ohrough mirror would’ve pleted the ensemble.

  ‘What’s the ball for?’ he wondered.

  Obviously, ierrogation room, he expected White to py the ‘good’ cop while Abs pyed the ‘bad’ cop. They sat Dyn down on the far side of the table. Surprisingly, there weren’t araints or bars above or below the table to ect the restraints to. White took a seat opposite him and waited. Dyn mirrored him and also waited.

  ‘Don’t piss off the monster,’ he told himself.

  White leaned ba his chair and steepled his hands, resting his elbows oable. Dyn did the same. White’s eyes narrowed as he sat silently, sizing Dyn up.

  White’s mouth parted slightly, suggesting he wao speak. Instead, he stopped, adjusting himself in his seat. Speaking of chairs, his looked much more fortable than Dyn’s. It had leather-padded cushions on the seat and armrests. There wasn’t any padding under Dyn’s ass—just hard wood.

  The shirtless elf stood against the wall o the door. Leaning forwards, he pushed himself off the wall to whisper something into White’s ear. It was too soft for Dyn to make out, not that he’d uand it anyway, but that’s wheiced White didn’t have an outer ear, just a small ear-hole. He assumed it was an ear-hole since Abs was whispering into it.

  White raised a cwed hand, and Abs fell silent, retreating to his pce by the door. The air between them grew heavy, the tension thiing as they stared each other down, both waiting for the move.

  ‘Don’t piss off the monster,’ he reminded himself again.