I didn’t particularly enjoy waking up again.

  Not because I particularly wanted to be dead or anything. Not even after the whole maze experience was I that far gone, especially now that I knew it was over.

  It was just supremely uncomfortable to wake up strapped to an operating table. Especially when that table was angled in such a way to leave me dangling from it by the metal cuffs around my wrists, making the cuffs around my ankles dig into my flesh even harder.

  And then, of course, there was the company. And the general ambience.

  The room was sterile and largely empty. Oh, there was some manner of machine hovering above me, spinning and moving about on a robotic arm. Probably a scanner of some sort. The walls had suspicious seams running across them, suggesting they were actually panels that could open up to reveal… something.

  That was more than a little ominous. Anything could be hidden behind those panels. Knives, hatchets, surgery tools… Who knew?

  I suppose the menacing figure keenly observing my every move did.

  Well… okay. The doctor was doing his very best ‘menacing’ pose, and his voice while he monologued over me helped the impression along. So did his clothes. He was wearing an apron-like thing that was reminiscent of a butcher’s shop, made even more creepy by the juxtaposition with the sharp suit-like clothing he wore underneath. Obviously meant to be very scary.

  But he just wasn’t cutting it.

  The problem was… he was small. As in, shorter than I was. So, so small. It kind of ruined his whole ass vibe.

  I giggled. The good doctor cut off the speech I was ignoring and scowled.

  The next second, my giggle changed to a scream as electricity coursed through me. It wasn’t quite as horrible as the pain I suffered inside the maze, but it was up there. At least I now knew the ‘block B’ experience had done wonders for my pain tolerance.

  …and maybe, just maybe, scrambled my brain a little?

  “Hrm, that’s better.” The doctor’s cold voice cut through the room, and this time, I properly zeroed in on it. “It would appear that we need to account for the loss of higher brain functions in future experiments. Now, you will answer my questions unless you want to suffer more pain. You can still understand me well enough to comprehend the request, correct?”

  I nodded mutely.

  “Good. During the time you’ve had those eyes inside your skull, have you seen anything strange? Odd stat prompts? Mentions of ‘experience’, maybe?”

  Now, maybe my brain not worky so well at the moment. But I wasn’t stupid, before or after the Maze ExperienceTM. Obviously, I wasn’t going to tell him the truth.

  I was, however, a little leery of trying to lie to his face. You know, on account of the fact that he might be able to figure out I was doing it, using those fancy scans of his that could reach the soul and all the other weird mental stats.

  So, I reached for the ol’ reliable: bullshit.

  “There’s the shadow people! Do you know about the shadow people? They’re in my head. They’re also in the shards. And the net. And they steal people’s faces sometimes so they can replace them and —”

  I cut off my enthusiastic ramble on all things shadowy when my teeth clenched so hard they almost cracked. You know, ‘cause of the electricity I got zapped with. Again. It was getting kind of old, to be honest.

  “I don’t care to hear about the shadows, you pathetic slum scum. What else did you see? Was there anything else?!” he snarled, drawing so close to me I could have tried to headbutt him if I cared to. Fortunately for his cranial integrity, I really was getting over the whole craving for the ‘zap’ thing, so I just decided on another round of word vomit instead.

  “I saw the moon blink and bleed. I saw reality crack! It is beautiful, you know. The colors, the shapes, the smells, the texture, it’s all bleeeeeeeding together, you see, and the shadows come to —”

  Oh, look! More zippy zap! Third round of dancing for me.

  I closed my mouth and kept it shut.

  He started to pace angrily in front of me, forcing the girl who was huddled nearby to scramble out of the way.

  I peered at her groggily, really noticing her for the very first time. Probably because she was doing such a good job blending into her surroundings.

  She caught me looking. Bright green eyes blinked at me behind a set of glasses perched precariously on her nose. The glasses themselves were half covered by raven bangs.

  For a moment, I was thrown for a loop. Glasses? In this day and age? While working for an actual cybernetics engineer?

  Still, I couldn’t deny they fit her. Unlike the lab coat she was drowning in, and the baggy sweater she had on underneath it, and the equally baggy pants. She held a large silver scroll thrust out in front of her like a shield.

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  “I can’t believe this.” The doctor resumed his rambling, twirling on the spot dramatically to frown at the girl I could only assume was his assistant. “You are sure he’s not managed to tap into the full package installation somehow?”

  “Y-Yes, Doctor. No sign of a full installation at all. You reviewed the logs yourself,” the assistant (Amelia, wasn’t it?) managed to stammer.

  “Preposterous!” the man shouted. Spinning again, he pinned me to the operating table with a glare from his glowing red cybernetic eyes. I was uncomfortable with how similar they looked to my own. But I did notice some kind of marking on them, which suggested they were a commercially available pair, unlike my prototype tech.

  He strode over, gripped my face roughly in one of his hands, and started tilting my head this way and that.

  “It is theoretically possible to pass the maze with an uninstalled package, but the level of compatibility that would require is…” He trailed off, his expression shifting to a mixture of curiosity and hesitation. “No matter. This simply lets us test out something else before he expires. I wonder…”

  I couldn’t help myself. Amusement just bubbled up and spilled out of me in a giggle.

  “About the moon? I can tell you all about the bleeding eye, I —”

  A slap rocked my head to the right, and I saw stars for a moment.

  “Silence, you trash. You are not even worth recycling,” the doctor hissed, all his previous anger returning. Then he nodded sharply and turned to his assistant. “You will prepare him for transport to block A. I am curious how they’ll react to him, if his compatibility really is as high as we suspect.”

  “But, sir, that could easily end up damaging the eyes, and then —”

  “What did I say about questioning my orders, girl?!” snapped the good doctor.

  The girl squeaked and hunched in on herself even further, bringing her large scroll up to conceal her eyes.

  “Yes, Doctor. I’ll get it done, Doctor,” she got out in a hurry.

  The man heaved a couple agitated breaths before nodding imperiously and sweeping out of the room.

  Now that I was paying attention, I realized I hadn’t seen any doors. I’d originally assumed they were somewhere behind me. But as the doctor approached a wall, and the many panels rearranged themselves to reveal an opening he could walk out through, I realized my assumption was wrong.

  The assistant and I maintained eye contact for several long moments.

  Then a profound change swept through the girl. Her eyes sharpened, her back straightened, and the look she gave me was equal parts amused and annoyed.

  “You shouldn’t try to rile him up like that. He’s just going to take it out on both of us, and I really don’t appreciate it.”

  “Oh. Sorry! I’m kind of new around here, so I still haven’t learned all of his triggers,” I shot back cheekily.

  This drew a chuckle from the girl — no, woman — as she waved her hand leisurely at a wall. A whole suite of screens unfurled out of the wall on robotic arms, along with tools and convenient horizontal surfaces to put stuff on, all coming to a rest in front of her.

  She put down her scroll on one of the mini desks. Stretching languidly, she laced her fingers together and cracked them above her head.

  “I guess I can forgive you. Especially since you’re probably going to be dead soon.”

  I blinked slowly. “What?”

  “Block A is where they keep the shadows. You know, the ones you were rambling about? Full physical form, too. He’s going to stuff you into their cell and then watch what they do to you.”

  “Ah. That doesn’t sound… ideal,” I ventured, my heart already trying to beat its way out of my chest.

  “For your continued health? It’s really not. Highly hazardous. 0/10, would not recommend. I’m afraid my daddy dearest isn’t going to give you much of a choice, though.”

  That was almost enough to shock me out of my fear.

  “He’s your father? Really? But —” I cut myself off just in time, not wanting to reveal how much I’d overheard when I was supposed to be passed out cold.

  “He treats me like trash? From the way he treated my mother, too, I would say that’s his love language. But he doesn’t have the ability to feel that particular emotion, so…”

  I kept quiet, because really, what was I supposed to say?

  She didn’t seem to mind as she continued to work away at the screens. Some were touchscreen, but some did have honest-to-goodness keyboards. It was nice to know I had guessed correctly about the noise before, but come on. Keyboards?!

  Eventually, though, the tension and the fear got to me. “So… I don’t suppose you can just, I don’t know, let me go?”

  She giggled at that. What a quiet, sad sound it was. “I’m afraid not. Sorry. Especially since you managed to somehow access the full package. I was really hoping he’d decide to keep you here for a bit because of your compatibility with the eyes, but… Anyway, how did you manage that? The package installation, I mean?”

  “Eh, you know… I was just messing around with programming and managed to trigger it, somehow…”

  It was a mostly truthful answer. But from the way she arched an eyebrow when she stole a glance at me, she was obviously onto my nonsense.

  I pressed on in a hurry. “Why’s it important that I’ve ‘installed the full package’ anyway?”

  “Because you’ve somehow managed to get those eyes to bond to you, but without turning into a goopy shadow monster. That’s why. And because if we try to take them out now, with the package installed, they’ll rot away. So will most of your head.” She sighed. “No offense, but I’m really hoping the shadows will mess you up. Badly.”

  I managed a strained smile. “Wow. Ladies have had some horrible reactions to my presence before, but nothing quite so harsh. At least I don’t have to wonder in this case. I know it’s me, not you.”

  That drew an actual laugh out of her, more cheerful and sincere than her previous muted reactions. She even gave me a dazzlingly bright smile when she turned to look at me. “Aws, don’t be like that. You’re pretty funny, and kind of cute. Taller than me and all!”

  Only by the barest of margins, actually. Probably had her father’s genes to blame on that.

  She shook her head and continued, “I just need to cover my ass.”

  “Ahhh, hoping they’ll destroy the evidence? Eat the eyes straight out of my skull or something?”

  “Yep. Thankfully, they are prone to cannibalism.”

  I furrowed my brow. I liked absolutely nothing about that sentence. But since I was about to die shortly, regardless, I didn’t think it was worth fussing over much.

  “Why did you lie to him, anyway?” I asked.

  “As I mentioned, I was hoping he’d keep you. Then maybe we could have schemed something together, and… Never mind that now. Unfortunately, it’s off to the shadows with you, and I’ll be stuck to the side of my dear old dad.” Sighing again, she pushed away one of the screens and checked her scroll. “Guess it’s time to wheel you out to your holding cell. That’s where we’ll be keeping you until it’s shadow feeding time. I hope you won’t hate me too much?”

  It wasn’t really a question, but I nodded anyway. “Not your fault.”

  “I don’t suppose you’re some kind of eldritch monster whisperer?” she mused. “And you can survive, bust out the shadows, and have them eat my father?”

  “Last time I checked?” I shook my head. “Not as such. Sorry. But… I’ll do my best?”

  She sent me the saddest smile I had ever seen. “You do that.”

  “I don’t suppose you’ve discovered a spice they dislike to chow down on, and have an abundance of it? Like… enough for me to cover myself in?”

  “Sorry, no.”

  Well, fuck. Guess that was that.