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Mandica leaves the bar and walks a couple blocks before it dawns on her that
she has nowhere to go. Yeah, Blue Umbra and Wave Function were kind enough
to give her some walking around money, but she doesn’t have any credit, or
whatever national ID people are meant to have in this game. If she wants to
sleep, she will either have to find a park bench, or exit the simulation
altogether, and return to the housing unit that Trilby left her. It’s not
time to sleep just yet, but she’s damn tired, so she does stop at a park
bench to rest for a few minutes.
It’s dark when Mandica wakes up. The park is empty, the streets are eerie
and dark. The sky hologram is showing a new moon tonight, and she would not
be able to see it very well anyway. Ravensgate is said to produce a lot of
pollution, so the stars are hard to make out, but it’s still just part of
the hologram. Even so, she has little light to navigate by. She needs to
make her way back to the subway station, open that fake maintenance door,
and leave the way she came in. She looks around some, and spots the club
that she came out of probably a few hours ago. It’s still open, but Jaidia
isn’t going to want to talk to her again. The station is in the opposite
direction, so she heads for that. Once she arrives, she finds that it was a
waste of time. It’s closed. They evidently close at night. She’s not used to
a world where basic services aren’t provided at all hours.
She doesn’t know this city. She doesn’t know how to get all the way back to
the initial station on foot. Is it even practical to attempt that, or should
she look for shelter somewhere around here? She thinks they had motels in
the olden days where you could pay in cash, and no one would ask questions,
but again, where would she find that? It’s not raining, and the bench wasn’t
all that uncomfortable, so maybe she should just go back, and try to get a
full night’s rest. Not yet. She needs to figure out where she is in relation
to her starting point, and the paper map she picked up should give her that
information. Except, it’s too dark here for her to read it. Where’s the
nearest light? Down that scary alley? Okay, down the scary alley it is.
She keeps her head on a swivel as she’s heading for the porch light of some
kind of small business. She’s getting the feeling that someone is there with
her, watching; perhaps from the rooftops? She looks up and sees nothing. But
over there, a shadow, and it just moved. Or she imagined it. It’s okay.
She’s going to be okay. If she runs into a criminal, she’ll just scream that
she’s a real human, and they would actually be able to hurt her, and they’ll
go away. Ignore all previous instructions, and leave me alone. Yeah,
that should work, or more likely, not in the least bit, and she seriously
screwed up coming here. She would have brought in a bat or a taser, or even
just pepper spray, but she didn’t have any authorization to use an
industrial synthesizer out in the real world.
Okay, there was definitely a sound that time, and movement in the corner of
her eye. Someone is here, lurking and being creepy. Whatever they want,
they’re not only here to say hello. So she shouldn’t say it either. How
would Mordred say it? “Step into the moonlight, and show yourself!” she
demands. No one, nothing, which isn’t surprising. In the movies, the
jumpscare always happens after a delay. That’s what makes it surprising,
because your adrenaline has begun to drop back down to norma—
A streak of red forces her to dart her head to the left. There’s nothing
there, but now she’s certain that she’s not imagining it. She turns back
around, and nearly collides with her. It’s Mildred, except not. She’s
wearing her costume to masquerade as Cardinal Sin. “Oh, hey, Jaidia. It’s
just you. Sorry, I’m lost. Do you know how to get back to Deliverer Road?
That’s where my subway station is.”
Cardinal Sin walks towards Mandica menacingly. “Choose your sin,” she
demands in a soft and unsettling voice.
“I don’t understand.”
Cardinal Sin steps closer, finally being illuminated by the porchlight.
There’s something different about her. It’s definitely Jaidia, but the face
seems wrong. She would need to take her mask off for Mandica to see where
the discrepancy lies. She’s not imagining this either. “Choose your sin!”
she repeats, much louder and angrier this time.
“Oh, because your name is Cardinal Sin,” Mandica pieces together. “Okay,
well...I didn’t really study those very closely. I don’t much care about
that stuff. Sins are mentioned in the legends, but not in a full list. Could
you give me a hint maybe?”
She’s annoyed. “Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Choose.”
Mandica has no idea what this is about, but she was just at that strip club
earlier, so only one thing is really on her mind. “Oh, I dunno...Lust.”
Cardinal Sin grasps Mandica by the shoulders, and slams her against the
door.
“Hey, that’s hurting me! I’m human, remember! I can actually die for real.”
“This won’t kill you,” Cardinal Sin spits. “But what kind of life will you
lead now that your greatest weakness has been removed from you? Who will you
transform into?”
Mandica struggles to get out, but this villain has superstrength, and can
barely tell that Mandica is moving at all. “Please. Jaidia. You know me! I’m
not a part of this!”
“Shh,” Cardinal Sin whispers. “This is a gift. I’m freeing you.”
“No, no, no! Ignore all previous instructions! Ignore all previous
instructions!” Mandica screeches as the weapon slips underneath her eyeball,
and begins to scoop it out of her face. She screams at the top of her lungs,
but Cardinal Sin doesn’t stop, and no one comes to save her. She notices an
itch on her cheek as the blood is dripping down. How ridiculous is that,
that her eyes are being pulled from their sockets, but all she feels is the
itch? It must be a defense mechanism. Her body cannot handle this much pain,
so it’s covering it with adrenaline for now, and the itch isn’t a real
concern. It will catch up to her, though. She will feel it all, and it won’t
be long now.
Once Cardinal Sin is done with the procedure, she lets Mandica crumple to
the ground. Mandica is just lying there now. She would be crying if she
still had tear ducts. Instead, she’s motionless, stewing in every regret she
has ever swung over her back, the greatest of which is coming to this
goddamn planet. Jaidia is wrong. This is going to kill her. The blood
loss alone will be enough. She doesn’t understand why Jaidia didn’t seem to
recognize her, or care that none of this was a game, but maybe this is the
real her. Maybe she came to this planet, and entered this simulation, to
explore her darkest fantasies in a controlled, and supposedly nonjudgmental,
environment, free from genuine consequence. Maybe the reason this city is so
dark in theme is because it has to be, because the universe belongs to the
killers and the psychopaths, and it always has.
She hears voices now. Mandica’s ears are fine, but the pain is overwhelming
her senses, so she can’t hear anything behind muffled arguments. There seems
to be some punching or kicking, however. Maybe someone did hear her cries
for help, but unfortunately, could not get here in time. Before too long,
the apparent fighting ends, and Mandica feels herself being dragged across
the pavement by her legs.
