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THE NEWCOMER
Path A1A3A by John
[Chose Path A1A3A to call for Flicker one more time. Flicker can be such a jerk.]
“Ok, Cy; just calm down. There must be a way to contact Flicker even though I told him not to peek. Actually, I am kind of surprised he is NOT peeking. Sh*t, he is probably just playing games with me.
“No, he wouldn’t do that after hearing the desperation in my voice. He can be a jerk, but I think it is just a front. I have to remember what Kan-chiang told me.”
Cy walks like water when she thinks/talks to herself. Unbeknownst to her she has wandered within a foot of the still frozen Brad Pitt, still in mid-blink. Suddenly her memory returns as she is standing just an arm’s length away from the front of Brad.
“Of course, you idiot! It’s a code word, I had to memorize a poem. Ok, it is:
'Even breathing will return balance.
Stare at the outside mirrored within.
Choose your next choice without making one
To forfeit patience is to loose the battle.'
"Ok, so I take the first letter from the first three lines, 'E' for 'Even'; bre wuh re bal 'STARE', 'S', then, duh duh duh, uhhh, 'Choose!' ESC, then three numbers encoded, uh, making one to forfeit .. 124!
She pushes the numbers into her phone: 3, 7, 2, 1, 2, 4 … two more numbers, shit! Um, damn. The clue to the last two numbers are in the poem as well. Oh! Mirror! Return to balance! But, to be mirror, the four should have been a seven. But, four plus the three that came before the seven EQUALS seven! OK, so? Wait, that’s a red herring. Of course! Even back to balance! Zero is the balance between the negative and positive numbers! So … two then zero! I am so smart!”
But before she is able to push send, she feels something fall onto her shoulder. She yelps like a hurt puppy and jumps up in a rising arc that is not allowed in normal gravity. Somehow, by instinct alone, she is able to manipulate the rules of the Construct!
Too scared to dare loose focus, she keeps her focus and does not question it. She sails straight up. Pushing the ceiling up away from her a half a foot with her mind to give her room to tuck in and start her way down to the other side of the bed. She turns so that when she lands on her feet she has turned her self around and is now facing Brad from the other side of the bed, poised in the position of the "Golden Crane".
She sees Brad’s arm go limp when it realizes there is nothing there now to hold on to. Taking on the accent of Bill Murray, he says “nimble little minx!” with a warm smile.
Cy is just about to apologize with embarrassment, when Brad Pitt’s face seems to move. It is as if his face is but a pond, and the wind is now moving across it. Its minute ripples soon increase in intensity.
Cy, her mind stolen by shock and awe, is frozen. She can only say, “Sta-stay away from me!” She watches in horror as the face changes to someone else’s.
Choose Path A1A3A1 to remember the phone in your hand that only needs “Send” to give you a quick emergency exit from the construct.
Choose Path A1A3A2 to drop your phone from abject fright and realize that it has bounced off of your shoe and sailed under the bed.
Choose Path A1A3A3 to choose your eyes, breathe, and then launch yourself towards Brad Pitt to fight, uh, it, into submission.
Choose Path A1A3A4 to put your finger on the “Send” button but try to talk to, uh, Brad or whatever.
Choose Path A1A3A5 to turn and run … but where? The lines of code that were once Brad unfortunately block the bedroom door.
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