​

I opened my Everywhere Door to Reggie’s apartment. “Knock, Knock!” I called as I poked my head inside. “You guys dressed?”

 

“Hey Seth!” Reggie popped up from the couch to look at me. 

 

I glanced around. “Where’s Artemis?” I asked. 

 

“He had to go handle something. You weren’t watching?”

 

“I can’t watch *everything* in real time, Reg. It’s literally too much information. Also, I was working on something— which is why I’m here. I have something to show you.”

 

Reggie’s eyes lit up and she followed me back through my door. I led her to my living room, where Jack and Andrew were already waiting for us. Reggie sat next to Jack, and they immediately touched hands and bowed their faces close to each other to whisper. 

 

I observed them briefly, then cleared my throat. Andrew tapped Jack and gestured to me. 

 

“Oh! Sorry, Seth!”  He said, and sank back into the couch. 

 

Reggie looked at me. “So what’s up?”

 

“I found Marcy.”

 

Reggie and Jack both gasped audibly. Andrew didn’t perceptibly react.

 

“Where is she!?” Reggie asked. 

 

“I’m gonna show you,” I said, “fair warning though: this might be sort of graphic.”

 

I turned on a screen and a grainy feed appeared. Marcy was in a darkened room. She was holding a knife, and her eyes were wild. She was covered in red. 

 

“Shh, listen,” someone whispered, “hold your breath.”

 

Marcy obeyed and looked around.  Breathing could be heard through the feed, but it wasn’t Marcy’s. She tiptoed toward the sound. The person with her was tall and lithe and he silently approached a closed door. (I heard Reggie and Jack whisper nervously to each other.)His hand rested gently on the knob and he looked at Marcy. She nodded her head, and he flung open the door and reached his whole arm inside. He struggled for a moment, then dragged out a man.  He held the man still, and said, “Finish him.”

 

Marcy stabbed him in the gut. The man cried out. He begged for mercy. The one helping Marcy reached around and tapped the man’s chest. “Aim here. Between the ribs.”

 

Marcy prepared to stab again and the man asked her, “Why!?”

 

Marcy slid her knife between his ribs and  growled, “*Because I fucking can!*”

 

The body dropped with a thud and I paused the feed. 

 

Jack and Reggie were huddled together. Andrew seemed undisturbed. 

 

“Yikes,” he said casually. 

 

“Mmmm.”  Reggie shook her head. “She’s with Louis.” [Read: Louie. It’s French.)

 

“She’s gone fucking psycho!”  Jack said. 

 

Andrew’s brow creased, but he shrugged. “I dunno. Who was that dude?  Was he one of us?  Or was he just an NPC?  Because.. I mean that’s just like killing things in a video game. You do it *instead* of hurting real people.”

 

“Uuh,” Reggie objected, “you think she’s *hunting* with Louis [Louie] because she’s NOT fucking psycho??”

 

“Yes!  After what she did to Jack?  If she’s taking her shit out on people who can’t feel it or won’t remember it, then yeah!  I think she’s trying to control herself— and I’m not super fond of how we’re using ‘psycho’ here, by the way.”

 

Reggie‘s eyes stretched. “Oh— u-umm.. ok sorry.”

 

I cleared my throat. “Guys, who’s Louis?” [Louie]

 

“Louis is a fucking serial killer!” Jack exclaimed.

 

“That’s.. not *technically* accurate? I think.” Reggie said. “He doesn’t have a ‘type’ or whatever. It’s not like he only kills women with brown hair or something. He..” Reggie trailed off, thinking. “He kills people who he perceives to have... I guess *disrespected* him?”

 

I shrugged. “I dunno what the legal definition of ‘serial killer’ is, but he *has* killed a *series* of people.”

 

“That’s not what’s important here!” Reggie yelled. 

 

“Ok ok, you’re right.” I said, “So Louis [Louie] is some kind of mass murder, and Marcy has joined him in his World, and is apparently just..*goin’ to town*.”

 

“I say let her be,” Andrew said. 

 

“You can’t be serious!” Reggie protested. 

 

“Guys Louis is dangerous,” Jack said. “We can’t just let her stay with him. He’s.. like for real crazy.”

 

“I’m ‘like for real crazy’, Jack. You don’t mind staying with *me*.” Andrew said. 

 

I was beginning to notice some tension. 

 

“Andrew, he is a fucking murder!” Jack shouted, “And he *does not* have a grip on reality!  Stop taking this personally!“

 

“No no you’re right.” Andrew said, ”You’re only equating psychotic disorders with violent murderers. I’ll just fucking sit here quietly, being psychotic and not killing anyone.”

 

Jack frowned. “That’s not— Louis [Louie] isn’t like you!”

 

“Not right fuckin’ now!” Andrew shouted and stood up. “You haven’t *seen* me during an episode. You’ve seen me get nervous when reality does something weird— because I know what it could turn into!  I stop being able to tell what’s real, Jack!  And it fucking *terrifies* people, but I have *never* hurt *anyone*!”

 

Reggie stood up. Her hands were raised placatingly. Andrew stepped back from her a little bit, and Reggie took a step back herself. “Andrew,” she said, “Louis kills people. Sometimes he kills people because he hallucinated them saying something they didn’t say.”

 

Andrew didn’t respond. His expression didn’t soften. 

 

“Maybe,” I said, “Andrew should sit out this discussion?”

 

Andrew’s hard glare snapped to me.  I shifted uncomfortably. After a long moment he stalked to the guest room and slammed the door behind him. 

 

I opened his feed in my ocular display. Andrew stood just inside the door and glared. I could see him breathing. 

 

“Stop watching me!  I’m fine!!” He shouted. I flinched, and turned off his feed. 

 

“Ok. So..” I said and trailed off. 

 

“We can’t let her stay with him,” Jack said. 

 

“I have.. concerns about that,” I said. “Do we have the ability to contain her?”

 

Jack and Reggie looked at each other. 

 

“Not.. really,” Reggie said at length. 

 

“Ok,” I said, “Then if we remove her, not only do we risk her finding Jack and turning on all of us, but there’s also nothing stopping her from just going back to Louis [Louie].  It’s basically pointless.  It’s actually worse than pointless.”

 

Reggie sighed and sank into the couch with her arms crossed. 

 

“Besides,” I continued, “Marcy is in a Static Zone. I already tried her ID in my door. That’s like the first thing I did.”

 

“Then what are we supposed to do?!” Reggie shouted. 

 

“I’m still going to look for a way to get to her,” I said, “but for now I think it’s best to just... keep an eye on the situation. If it looks like Louis is going to hurt her, then we can go get her.”

 

“*If* we can get to her,” Reggie muttered. 

 

“Yes. If.” I confirmed. 

 

Jack looked... depressed?  Worried? We *were* talking about Marcy. Maybe he was conflicted?

 

“Jack?” 

 

He looked up at me. 

 

“Are you ok?”

 

He looked down again. “I dunno,” he said. 

 

Reggie slid in close to Jack and put her arm around him. “Seth, why don’t you—“

 

“Yea yea, go work on the thing,” I said and headed to my computer room. 

 

I flopped into my chair and switched on the screens. I opened Jack’s feed and Andrew’s feed. 

 

Andrew was just laying on his bed. 

 

Jack and Reggie had their heads together. Reggie kissed his cheek, and his brow, and his jaw.  Jack smiled a bit as she peppered his face with little kisses. 

 

“Can you tell me how you’re feeling?” Reggie murmured. 

 

“I feel empty,” Jack whispered. 

 

“Mmm,” Reggie hummed, “me too.”

 

She kissed his lips. 

 

I opened Marcy’s feed and moved Jack and Reggie to the side. I leaned back and stared at the feed. Thinking. 

 

“Why are you here, Marcy?” Louis [Louie] asked. 

 

“Because,” Marcy said, “I hate everyone but you.”

 

“That’s not true,” Louis purred. He leaned in close to Marcy and studied her face. “Maybe it’s true in this moment.” He pulled back again and lit a cigarette. He handed it to Marcy and lit another. “You love them. Even the worst of them. Even Dante . You love Dante the most, actually.”

 

Marcy stared at him. 

 

“What are you thinking?” Louis asked. 

 

“I don’t know.” Marcy frowned. 

 

“Is it about me?” He asked. 

 

“Yes,” she answered. 

 

“Is it good?” Louis continued. 

 

Marcy furrowed her brow. “...I don’t know.”

 

“What do you feel?” He pressed. 

 

“I want...” Marcy’s expression deepened. 

 

Louis smirked. “Do you want me?”

 

“No!”  Marcy paused. “Yes?  I don’t know!”  She searched for words. “You’re so pretty.”

 

“I know!” Louis [Louie] laughed. He reached for her hand and he drew it to his face. “Do you want to touch?”

 

Marcy frowned as she caressed his face. Her thumb skated smoothly across his cheek.  Louis touched her waist and Marcy recoiled. 

 

“No!!” She shouted. “Don’t touch me like that!”  She pulled herself into a ball. 

 

Louis took a breath and observed her for a moment before asking, “What do you want, Marcy?”

 

“I don’t know!! Everything’s wrong!  Everything feels wrong!”

 

She scowled at Louis [Louie].  She crept close to him again and held his face in her hands. She stared, and scowled. The lines on her face were deep and sharp. 

 

“What do you want, Marcy?” Louis asked again, and Marcy burst into tears. 

 

“I don’t know!!” She cried. 

 

Louie pulled her into his arms and rocked back and forth. 

 

I dug around in the raw data from the feed again. I found Louis’ ID tag and saved it. I tried Marcy’s ID earlier, but not Louis’. I assumed they would both open to static, but assumptions weren’t very scientifically sound. 

 

Maybe it wasn’t the location that caused the static. Maybe it was the person. 

 

I glanced over at Jack and Reggie, and I clicked my tongue. “Are these guys gonna fuck on my couch?” I watched for a moment longer. “Oh my god they fuckin’ are!”  I minimized their window and sighed. “I gotta stop inviting people over. Fuckin’... monkeys.”

 

I wrote Louis’ ID number down on a scrap of paper and taped it to my door. Then I quietly opened it just a crack. I held my breath. 

 

It was dark, but I didn’t hear static. 

 

I heard Marcy, crying. 

 

I silently pulled the door shut again.

 

My attention was pulled back to the screen. Marcy cried in Louis’ arms as he rocked gently. “What do you feel, Marcy?” He asked. 

 

“I feel...” she thought about her answer. “I feel like.. I need something.  Something I’ve never had, so I don’t know what it is.”

 

“Hmm,” Louis [Louie] hummed. “I know this feeling. Do you know what I find helpful?”  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a flask. He waved it in front of Marcy who took it from him eagerly. 

 

Louis hummed a tune and his rocking conformed to the rhythm. Marcy drank silently for a while before she began to hum along with him. Louis adjusted his grip on her and he held her snugly against himself.  Marcy nuzzled a little deeper into the embrace.

 

They glowed gently in the darkness. They breathed in unison. Their bodies began to morph together. Marcy’s breath hitched and Louis firmed his arms around her.

 

“Shh. Don’t be scared.”

 

He resumed humming. Marcy joined him, and they melted into a single person. 

 

“How do you feel?” They said, and answered, “I dunno. Different.  Well that’s good isn’t it—“ They gasped suddenly and stood up, hand over mouth. 

 

“What did you do, Marcy?” They asked, and began to tear up. “Even I think that’s cruel.  You can’t leave him like that.”  They’re body shook with sobs and they split apart again. 

 

“I don’t know how to fix it!” Marcy cried. “I- I- I didn’t want—“

 

“You have to find him and break the cycle!” Louis [Louie] shouted over Marcy’s hysterics. 

 

“I don’t know how!  I’m not the one who put Nathan in a loop!” Marcy shouted back.

 

“Nathan?” I said under my breath. 

 

“What did he do?  Why are you angry with him?” Louis asked. 

 

“He- I-“. Marcy shook her head. “I dunno there’s too much!”

 

Louis took a breath, sighed, and glared around the room. He was thinking. 

 

“Why did you really come here, Marcy?” He asked. “It wasn’t just to blow off steam. What are you doing here?  Are you hiding?”

 

“No! Kind of. But not really.  I’m—“ Marcy pressed her lips together. She looked around like she didn’t know what to say. 

 

Louis [Louie] narrowed his eyes. “What are you not telling me?”

 

“Oh shit,” I whispered.

 

I felt nervous. Jack and Reggie thought he might hurt Marcy, and I wasn’t about to question that. He seemed fond of Marcy, but sometimes damaged people broke the their own toys. 

 

Marcy squirmed under Louis’ gaze. “I need to..” She worried her lip, then mumbled, “I’m gonna visit Kasey and he’s a werewolf so... Y’know, I’d like to get away intact.”

 

“You cannot *kill* Kasey!” Louis said. 

 

“I not going to!  And why the hell not?  He’s a loose fucking cannon!” Marcy shouted. 

 

“I have a Rule,” Louis said, “I have many rules but this is the most important one: Do not shit where you eat!”

 

Nobody spoke for a moment. 

 

Louis continued, “Everything here is inside your head. Do not kill the other residents.” 

 

“Ok so what about that guy?” Marcy pointed to the fresh corps on the floor. 

 

Louis shrugged. “He’s nobody.  It wouldn’t matter if he never existed. He effects nothing. *Kasey* can walk in your skin. Tell me, why do you want to hurt him?”

 

“Because he broke up with Angie!!” Marcy screamed. 

 

“Oh. My love.” Louis said, and his expression softened. “Come to me.”  He spread his arms and waited for Marcy to begrudgingly walk towards him. 

 

She was angry. 

 

Louis wrapped his arms around her and she didn’t soften. 

 

“I did not like her,” he said, and tightened his embrace so Marcy couldn’t move. “I found her... boring, and a little full of herself. And she never did the dishes. And she was always playing games on her laptop while we were desperately completing homework— she had time to help out around the house, she just didn’t!  Meanwhile we slowly drown in an ever growing mountain of clutter, our workspace growing smaller and smaller. She knew what it was doing to us!  She knew we didn’t have the time or the energy to spare on it if we were going to complete our classes!  She had the fucking time!!  You know what she was!?”  Louis [Louie] released Marcy and paced heatedly. “She was selfish!  She cared for you when it was convenient for *her*!  You wanted to let Jack explore polyamory with that weird boy he was friends with and she never went for it— until it was something she wanted. Which is why this didn’t work, by the way. She only wanted to fuck around. *We* wanted to have meaningful relationships. Maybe you would have gotten there with her if she had ever wanted to *talk* about it!  But she didn’t. She thought she was above jealousy. Because she’s *full of herself*!”

 

Louis paused to breathe. 

 

“Angie always really liked you,” Marcy muttered. 

 

“For the same reason that I killed her incarnation in my lifetime, her attraction to me is a turn off.” Louis scowled. 

 

“I thought you killed her because she found out you’re a killer,” Marcy said. 

 

“No, I killed her because she *liked* that about me. A decent person would be horrified.  Angie was always too excited to see me, and I think that tells you a lot about her character.”

​

“Ok but it’s still *my* life!  It should be *my* choice!!  He can’t just—“

 

“So go Out there and fix it,” Louis said with a shrug. Marcy furrowed her brow and chewed on her lip. Louis smirked. “Oh, you don’t *want* to go Out there?  Then what do you need to be making choices for?  About the life you aren’t living?  You’re the one who stopped showing up to have a say—“

 

“I didn’t just *stop* showing up!  I was pushed out!!  They all just *decided* they didn’t have to listen to me anymore!  I couldn’t get Out!  Every time there was an opportunity, someone new jumped on it!  It was like a fucking flood!  They all just—“ Marcy lost her words and gestured in frustration. 

 

“Ooh yes I remember when that happened,” Louis said and his eyes became distant. “A light appeared above me and I understood.”  Louis’ eyes snapped back into focus and he looked at Marcy. “Is that why?  Nathan was just the messenger. Someone else would have realized it, and everyone would have made the same decision.”

 

“He just *dismissed* me!” Marcy snarled. 

 

“I understand why you’re angry,” Louis said. “But you have been absent for longer than you were forced to be. The flood has stopped.  The people are tired. You have always been the default, and they have been calling you. You don’t go because you don’t want to, so they started making decisions without you.”

 

Marcy looked down at her hands and wrung them together.  “I’ve tried,” her voice was trembling, “I’ve tried to get Outside and when I get close.. I feel.. I- I don’t know but it’s like something is wrong!  It’s like.. it’s like it doesn’t want me anymore. I don’t know. Maybe what I want doesn’t matter.”

 

Marcy sighed and sat down on the floor. She was still staring at her hands. Louis approached her slowly and crouched down. 

 

I shrank their window and searched through my files for Nathan’s feed.  I didn’t have a great feeling about what I would find.  

 

I watched his feed in horror for maybe ten minutes, before speaking into a microphone on my desk.  “Everyone put your cloths back on and meet me in the living room. We have a situation.”