Sinner's Game

19 - DPDR

Jim

Jim half consciously moved through the hallways with an empty gaze and mechanical movements, his mind snapping out of a string of thoughts momentarily. A familiar path of broken windows, walls and flooring barely presented a way towards the main entrance of their school. School... if you could even call it that. Everything was in place, and it was their school in visual appearance for sure, but empty like that and broken down in illogical ways... it made the lines of reality blur. Not even to mention the never-ending plains of space which laid beyond.

Jim hadn't talked to the monster while walking, had just followed him through the nostalgic rooms which led to their destination. This place here wasn't real, so much was certain. It looked real, but it wasn't. But if that was true, where were they?

The game wasn't real, that was a fact... but what about everything else? The monster's statement earlier had gotten him thinking: what if nothing was real?

The lives of all these dead Jim's... had they been real? Had they led a different life than he had? Probably not, which was even more concerning.

Even if they all roughly shared the same memory with him, would he be just a copy then, or the real Jim? His memories were real... they were all still there, he was sure about that. All these things in his past for sure had happened.

Jim shook his head, attempted to stay focused. The main entrance of the school was now close enough to see. The left half of it was missing, so they could just walk through the hole in the wall next to where the door was supposed to be.

Suddenly, Jim had to think about Anna again. Her smile, her mocking comments, everything. His hand formed into a fist as he dug his fingernails inside of his palm.

I will never forget you. I'll find out what all of this is about, and I'll make sure he will never be able to hurt you again.

As they stepped through the hole in the wall, the school's surroundings were revealed.

Countless stars were planted across their sight, shining in mysterious glow far off in the distance. Lights and colours pulled themselves through the seams of reality. It was kind of sad that it wasn't real.

But somehow, it felt like something was waiting out there.

From where they were currently standing, a single path floated in space. A line of platforms and stairs, floating in place as if gravity had been defied only for them. At the end of it, rather high above their current location, a bigger, round shaped platform floated. He couldn't identify what was on top, but he could see bits of dirt and grass around the edge of it.

Wait... is that?

The monster stepped forward, made the jump onto the first floating platform. It was made out of dirt with a chunk of grass and concrete embedded into its side. Jim spotted one looking like a present and one out of mechanical parts in the distance.

What is this place? he asked himself.

"Hendrick. One question."

The monster stopped moving, turned around while carrying a stale expression.

"I get that 'Sinner's Game' isn't real. Obviously, all of this isn't reality. It defies common sense and logic in numerous ways. But... your wording earlier was different, right?"