Chapter 73: I Hope So

  Lissy watched at first, confused, as Clara answered the call right in front of her. Clara wasn’t someone who got angry easily or raised her voice, especially not in public. So, it felt strange how she slowly got irritated while answering the call. Still, if this was some kind of spam call or a stupid prank, Lissy could understand why Clara was getting angry, since they really had other things to worry about at the moment.

  But even the idea of a prank call stirred something uneasy in Lissy. Wasn’t there something about her own phone? Something about a call that shouldn’t have happened? The thought hovered, vague and unsettling, at the edge of her consciousness, repeatedly tugging her attention back to the call without her quite realizing it.

  And when Lissy heard the voice coming from Clara’s phone, now a bit louder and clear enough for her to understand, saying; “Hello, Lady Clarathiel Nuara. You have an incoming call from ???????. Do you accept the call?”

  She acted almost automatically before she could stop herself or even think it through, because her body moved on its own. Her hand shot forward and snapped the phone straight out of Clara’s hand.

  “Lissy!” Clara protested.

  But Lissy barely heard her. Her attention was completely focused on the device in her hands, and the warmth radiating into her palms felt strangely familiar. It felt inexplicably right, as if she were answering something that’d been waiting for her.

  “I, Lissy Flamesborn, will accept the call!”

  The words left her mouth without hesitation, and in the same moment she heard a click on the other end. Then a female, almost robotic call-center voice answered.

  “Hello, Lady Lissy Flamesborn. Your identity has been confirmed. Since you are not Lady Clarathiel Nuara, please remain still while reality is being recalibrated.

  Alignment at eighty-nine percent…

  Alignment complete. Reality is now synchronized.

  Extraction request verified.

  Confirming origin: ???????. Extraction sequence initialized...

  Preparing fractured soul segments. Please wait one moment…

  Remaining missing fragments are located in X-32737.

  Warning. The following process may be unpleasant, as your reality will now be overwritten in X-32737.

  Please prepare for transfer in ten… six… two…”

  While she was listening to the voice around her, everything slowed down. She could see Clara’s mouth moving, slowly forming words she couldn’t hear anymore. Clara looked frantic, her expression stretched with fear, but the sound never reached Lissy.

  Pale light began to seep out of the phone, spilling over her hands and crawling up her arms before she could react. It wrapped around her, growing brighter with every heartbeat, and everywhere it touched her skin it felt wrong. It was a sharp pain that felt hot, but not like heat, more like she was coming apart. Like she was melting from the inside out. And while it happened, every fiber of her being began to fuse with the pale light.

  The sensation spread with terrifying speed. Her legs grew weak, her chest constricted, and her breath caught as the light completely enveloped her. It felt like her body was losing its shape, like something fundamental was being worn away layer by layer.

  Then the pain changed. The sensation of melting intensified into something unbearable, like she was burning alive while still aware of every second of it. It felt slow and endless, like time itself had stretched just to make sure she felt everything. And when the light finally consumed her, Lissy realized she couldn’t even scream anymore.

  It felt at the same time like an endless stretch and only a brief moment, and then Lissy suddenly came back to her senses.

  She was sitting on a simple stool, her body stiff and her head still buzzing. For a second she didn’t move, just breathed, because the pain was gone but the afterimage of it still lingered in her mind. Slowly, she looked around.

  She was inside some kind of office. It looked old, like something straight out of a movie from the eighties. In front of her stood a desk, heavy and rectangular, and on top of it was a huge stack of papers piled high and slightly uneven. Beside it sat an old computer she only knew from museums, white and bulky, with a tube screen, thick cables, and an old wired mouse resting next to it.

  A few pencils lay neatly arranged on the desk, lined up with almost uncomfortable precision, and several folders and files were stacked nearby. Lissy didn’t recognize the writing on them. When she lifted her gaze, she noticed a round clock on the wall. Instead of numbers, it showed strange symbols she didn’t know either, slowly shifting to mark the time.

  Lissy swallowed. What the actual fuck? Where am I…?

  She tried to stand up, but it didn’t work. No matter how much she focused on it, nothing happened. Confused and suddenly uneasy, she looked down, and that was when she saw the reason. She had no legs.

  At least not in the way she should have. She could still feel them somehow, like a faint echo, but where her lower body should’ve been there was only a blue, luminescent mass. Panic flared immediately. She checked the rest of herself as best as she could, and it only got worse. Her whole body seemed to be made of the same glowing substance, smooth and formless. Like a blue droplet. She had no mirror, so she couldn’t really see herself properly, but from what she could tell, that was all she was now.

  Calm down, Lissy…

  She forced herself to breathe slowly, trying to remember how she’d learned it in the first aid course, back when they’d practiced what to do when someone was right before a panic attack. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. And again.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I probably lost it completely now,” she whispered. “I’m mad. That’s it.” Her chest tightened. “I bet the others already put me into an asylum, and now I’m hallucinating…”

  Then, left of her, a door suddenly opened, and Lissy flinched.

  A man stepped into the office, looking to be in his mid-forties. He wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he held a mug in one hand. His hair was dark with lighter streaks already showing, and he wore round glasses that slid slightly down his nose as he moved. In a tired, medium-low voice that sounded surprised, he said, “Mhh, oh… you’re already here!”

  He walked past her without hesitation, moved behind the desk, placed the mug down among the papers, and sat down in the office chair. He grabbed one of the files and opened it.

  “Ahh, yes… here you are. Lissy Flamesborn from X-32737,” he said casually. “You’re part of our Platinum Reality Bending Service and Faith Program. And one of…” He paused, flipping a page. “Let me see… ah, here it is. Five souls to be transferred to X-34237. Everything’s already fully paid and booked. All right…”

  He turned toward the computer and began typing something in, the old machine humming softly. Lissy just stared at him, frozen. She tried to say something, but every time she did, the words stayed trapped in her head. No sound came out. So, she just watched.

  After a moment, the man stopped typing. His brows drew together, and he leaned closer to the screen.

  “Oh… who approved that?” he muttered. “That’s not good. The reality in X-34237’s already altered? No, that shouldn’t be okay…” He frowned, scrolling further. “Are there any—”

  The rest of his words faded into quiet murmuring as he continued talking to himself, already more focused on whatever he was reading than on her presence at all.

  After a while, he let out a long sigh. “It seems there’s also some outside interference. Normally, we’d drop our engagement here,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “But since you’re part of the Platinum package…” He shrugged lightly. “I’ll file a complaint about it later. In the meantime, we should proceed, right? Yes. Good. Then I’ll explain the next steps.”

  He set the file aside and pulled out another folder, flipping it open with practiced movements. “So… here it is. Good. Mhh, how much do I need to explain?” He skimmed a page. “I think the educational discussion with the contractor from X-34237 already took place. Yes… I see a note about an interdimensional call a few days ago. Good.”

  He nodded to himself, clearly satisfied. “Then let’s just talk about how we proceed from here.”

  Lissy listened, of course, since she didn’t really have any choice in the matter anyway.

  “As you may’ve already realized,” he continued, “your inferior body in X-32737’s already been disposed of, which’s the reason you’re currently only in soul form.” He said it casually, like he was talking about outdated paperwork. “We’ve also merged your soul fragments from X-32737 with X-34237 to ensure a smooth transition...”

  He kept talking after that, going on at length with technical explanations filled with terms Lissy couldn’t quite follow, and he never once stopped to check whether she understood any of it, clearly assuming that she did. Since she also had no way to express herself at all, Lissy eventually stopped trying to make sense of every word and focused on the bigger picture instead.

  Am I really here as a soul? she wondered. Or did I really finally lose it completely?

  Her thoughts drifted back to the last few days, to the missing time, the strange messages on her phone, and then to the battlefield she’d seen, where Lily had been dying again right in front of her eyes. Had that vision been part of this too, some side effect of this reality-bending nonsense? That didn’t really make sense, though, because why would they show her something like that at all? From what Lissy could understand, she was here for some kind of transition between worlds, handled in a strangely business-like manner, especially since that was what the man in front of her had been talking about this whole time, so visions like that felt completely out of place.

  And yet… If this is real, does that mean I’ll see Lily again?

  She snapped out of her thoughts when the man stood up from his desk and walked over to a filing cabinet. He opened it, pulled out a small box, set it down on the desk, and then took out a strange device that looked nothing like anything she recognized, except that in a distant way it reminded her of an old speed gun.

  “As I already mentioned, we’ll now begin with the transfer to X-34237,” he said calmly. “Please be aware that your new body will need time to adjust, so I’ll drop you at the agreed location. If you’re ready, please look here into the light.”

  The device in his hand began to activate with a low hum, and the same pale light she’d already made acquaintance with earlier, and wouldn’t complain about never seeing again, spilled out once more and reached for her. Pain flooded her being again, sharp and overwhelming, but this time it felt different. Instead of feeling like she was being melted alive again, it felt like she was being stretched and shaped, like she was being formed into something new.

  Luckily, she lost consciousness quickly, and the blackness claimed her before the pain could fully settle in.

  …

  …

  A sharp headache helped Lissy regain consciousness. She groaned softly while slowly opening her eyes. Her vision was blurry, probably because of the pain, and the dim light in the room didn’t help either, so it took her a moment to make out anything at all.

  “Seriously, what is this shit?” she muttered hoarsely. “Was that some kind of fever nightmare or what?”

  At least she was lying in a bed. She lifted one arm and pulled the blanket aside with her own solid and real hands, and that alone made her exhale in relief. So, it really had been a dream. She wasn’t some strange blue blob anymore. She sighed and slowly pushed herself upright, the headache throbbing with the movement, while she tried to get her bearings.

  “So where am I?” she murmured. “Did Clara drive me back to the hotel?” She frowned and looked around. “No… the bed’s too big… ah man…”

  She turned her head, scanning the room while trying to find her phone so she could call Clara or Tom. That felt like the safest way to figure out what had actually happened. She squinted, trying to see through the dim light and her still-blurry vision.

  Then she heard a voice.

  “Lissy…”

  She froze. Her head slowly turned toward the sound. Someone was standing near a window, their shape dark against the faint light behind them. Lissy’s breath caught, because the voice, and the silhouette, felt painfully familiar.

  Her lips began to tremble. “I swear,” she whispered, her voice shaking, “it’s not funny anymore if you’re—”

  She stopped when the figure stepped closer, moving into the light, and the face that came into view was unmistakable. It was the face of a beautiful demoness she knew far too well.

  Lissy swallowed hard and whispered, “Lily… I… I’m not insane, right?”

  The demoness sat down on the edge of the bed and gently laid a hand against Lissy’s cheek. Tears were already slipping down her own face as she looked at her.

  “I’m so sorry, Lissy…”

  And in that moment, Lissy forgot everything that’d happened earlier, including the headache and all the questions that’d been tearing at her mind.

  “Shut up,” she said suddenly, her voice breaking. “Just shut up.”

  Tears spilled down her face as she grabbed Lily and pulled her into a tight hug, pressing her back against the bed with more force than she meant to, but she didn’t let go for even a second. She clung to her like she was afraid she’d disappear again if she loosened her grip.

  “I don’t care if this is a dream,” Lissy sobbed. “I really don’t. Just… stay here, and don’t say sorry for anything, okay?”

  Lily shifted slightly so she could return the embrace properly, then pulled Lissy’s head against her chest and held her there. The warmth of her body felt real, solid, and that was when Lissy completely broke down, her quiet crying turning into shaking sobs.

  “Okay,” Lily whispered softly against her ear. “We’ve got as much time as you want.”

  Lissy squeezed her tighter, eyes closed, holding on as hard as she could, like letting go wasn’t an option.

  “I hope so…” she whispered back.