And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There And Back And There

“Welcome back, did you sleep well?” Asmodai greeted us at the front desk, the slightest bit of amusement in his voice.

“Very,” I said drily. He knows. I don’t think there's a single thing we could do in here that wouldn’t catch his eyes to be real.

“Good, good,” Asmodai paused. “Here at the Furniture Hotel, we pride ourselves on providing a luxury experience for each and every guest… provided they heed our advice.”

Violet walked up beside me. Neither of us felt fantastic after last night, but the few hours of sleep we did get after five had worked wonders.

We couldn’t put this off any longer. It was time to take the core.

“But where do we go for that?” I muttered. There hadn’t been any obvious caverns or giant signs leading the way.

“Oh, but it’s right this way,” Asmodai said. How the hell did he hear that?

Asmodai pointed toward a blank spot on the wall.

The ground rumbled, with pebbles shaking on the ground like they were in the middle of an earthquake. From the dust, a small seam ripped through the marble wall, one that grew and grew until a giant entryway had split the wall into two.

“Never mind…”

“I am obligated to warn you that the hotel’s guarantees of safety are voided after you enter the first trial chamber. I will do nothing to prevent your reentry; however, the chamber is not under my control.”

Guarantees of safety, my ass. “Fine. Anything else we should know?”

“There is practically nothing I could say that would cover what the chamber won't teach you much more quickly. But remember, this isn’t the kind of trial that violence will solve. That is the most I can say.”

“Thank you, Asmodai,” I said. Despite everything we went through yesterday, he had been the only one to warn us. We were the idiots who ignored his advice. “Are you ready, Violet?”

“Let’s go.” Violet walked straight toward the entrance, not a bit of hesitation in her step.

Here goes nothing. I sighed, following Violet as I stepped inside.

The air changed from the first step, becoming cold and clammy, the kind of cold that seemed to stick to my skin like glue.

The cave here was vastly different than the one outside. Instead of the boring, uniform cave we walked through, this one twisted around, split off in five different directions every second.

That damn force is back, stronger than ever, too.

Despite the fifty million branching paths, that force from earlier led us along like puppets on a string. Left and right and left again, we silently made our way through with nothing but instinct.

“Quiet,” after an hour, Violet gently stuck a hand out. “There's something ahead.”

We quietly entered a large, torch-lit room, with giant stone brick walls that rose nearly thirty feet into the air.

There's not another exit, at least not one I can see. But this doesn’t feel like a dead end. And that… force, it feels almost giddy that we arrived.

In every other case, that would have been an immediate sign to turn back, but for some reason, I felt that leading us astray wasn’t the force's goal.

“Violet, sense anyone?”

“No, strange…” She dug out her infrared camera and turned it on. So that’s working now too? Interesting. ”Not saying to completely trust the infrared, but I’m not seeing anyone else.”

“Good enough for me.” I took a few steps into the room.

At the center, a single chest-height altar had been carved out from the stone floor. A shiny, almost stereotypical black orb sat at the center.

I slowly walked up to the altar, careful to watch for any traps. None came.

“What do you think this is?” I asked Violet as she walked up beside me.

“No idea.” She pointed the camera at it. “Nothing strange on the camera. Looks like obsidian.”

“Maybe.” No, not obsidian. The reflections aren’t right for that. Actually… the more I stare at it, forget obsidian, there’s no reflections whatsoever.

Despite the torches, Violet's camera, anything, there wasn’t a single reflection on the orb. It was more so like a void, a black hole that seemed to suck us in.

And that damn force. I hadn’t initially noticed, but from the second we stepped foot in this room, the force has been drawing us in stronger than ever.

And it all came from the orb.

“Well, I don’t see another way out of here. Might as well see what this thing does.”

“Wait, I don’t like the aura I get from that,” Violet said.

“I don’t either, but do you see another way out?”

“No, but–”

“Good enough for me,” I said, and touched the sphere.

The second my finger graced the orb, I found myself back in a plain teal room.

A very, very familiar teal room.

How the hell… The smell made me want to vomit. That sickly, rotten smell of black licorice was so thick I could taste it.

“Mika!” A cheerful voice came from the neighboring room. “I found your candy!”

“No.. no no no!” I ran back, away from that voice. The blue paint scratched as I clawed on the wall. This can’t be happening.

Not this dream again! Please no please please please please please–

The wall moved.

It shoved me closer to the voice, closer to her.

I scratched, clawed, and punched the wall, but it refused to even bend.

“Please! This was years ago! Why are you showing me this now?”

The wall didn’t respond.

“Mika, where are you? Why were you hiding the candy from me? Big bro says it's not nice to hide things!”

What do you want from me? I know I can’t change the past! I tried, ok!

The wall stopped, mere inches from the door.

I flipped around, spreading myself as far as I could from the slightly ajar door.

“It was your fault, Mika.”

“W-whose there?” I looked around wildly, but not a single person was in sight.

“You left out the candy for her. You wanted her to eat some.”

“No, I–” the disembodied voice seemed to come from every part of the room. The floorboards vibrated when it spoke, and the faintest of echoes came from the wall I so desperately clung to.

“Do you admit it, Mika? Do you admit your sins? You wanted her to die.”

“N-no I didn’t stop making up lies and show yourself!”

The door flew open.

Inside, a single girl had collapsed onto the colorful play rug. She shook with a seizure as foam spilled from her mouth.

I’m gonna puke…

“You’re the one who left the gummies in her room. They tasted like black liquorice, one of her favorite foods. It was a perfect storm, really.”

“Stop playing these games! Show yourself!” The voice didn’t sound masculine or feminine, young or old. It didn’t have a trace of any accent, nor did it sound like a robot. The voice was deep yet light, high-pitched yet with a deep undertone. It was an anomaly of sound, something that broke the laws of physics with every word.

“Were you at fault, Mika?” the voice asked.

“O-of course not! I didn’t know she would eat the entire bag! I didn’t want to–”

“Were you at fault for her death!” the voice boomed.

“No! I didn’t kill her! She did! She’s the one who decided to gorge on those drugs like a glutton! They tasted terrible! She knew exactly what she was doing! She–”

I blinked.

I was back in the room. Violet had disappeared, but I was far from alone.

A man cast in shadows stood at the end of the room. No, not cast, it’s like he is the shadows.

“W-who the hell are you!” His glance sent a wave of fear washing throughout my whole body. T-this isn’t someone I can take on. I need to run!

Yet his gaze locked me in place like a stone statue.

“Why won’t you just admit it, Mika? Forty times, forty denials.”

“Answer my question!” I pulled out my gun and aimed it right at its face.

BANG BANG

My two bullets flew, passing straight through the creature and implanting themselves into the wall.

The creature just sighed. “I have given you a chance. You have failed. Like the thirty-nine times before now, I banish you from these chambers! I will take my price for your entry. Now, leave!”

With a wave of his hand, I flew back.

Through the stone, through the caverns, through the hotel, through the outside cave.

It continued until I plummeted back into the jungle, completely lifeless.

The jungle leaves swayed quietly in the wind. I could hear the gentle sound of cicadas buzzing from every direction as the evening's sun cast everything in a faint orange glow.

What the hell…” It’s like I’m in a giant tub of honey…

I tried to get up, but just moving a single muscle felt like an impossible task.

That damn…. I… If only we hadn’t entered that hotel...

Wait… what hotel?

My head pounded as I eventually got back up. Hotel? Where was I getting a hotel from? There’s no hotels on this abandoned ass planet. That’s half of why a god would put their core in a place like this.

“I’ve been stalling long enough. We don’t have a lot of daylight left to find the x.” I muttered.

I looked around. “Hey, Violet? Violet? Where did you go?”

“Right here!” from my right, Violet cut down a few stray vines. Maybe it's this sudden headache, but wow, does she look worse for wear. “Why did you wander off?”

“Me? I may not have your oh-so special sense of directions, but I’ve been right here this entire time…”

My voice trailed off as a raindrop landed right on my forehead. “You have to be kidding me.”

“It rains all the time on this planet,” Violet said. “Come on, you still have the map right, the one our client gave us?”

“Yeah, let's get going.”

So with that, we set off along the jungle in order to do the impossible, to steal the core of a god.