Janus 02.Redemption #Wattys2018

3.05 Jim.

"There has never been a glitch in your systems Janus." Alex mumbled while taking a couple steps backwards.

"I would take that as an insult" Jim told Alex "but I know that you can do better than that. I consider of myself more like a work of art than a wrong coding on your screen."

"You are always asking the wrong questions Alex. The real question isn't what happened during my glitch. The question is whether  this is my hallucination or yours. Are you sure which one of us is laying on a bed right now?" Janus asked Alex as she was enjoying her tea.

Alex screamed in pain and fell on the floor.

"I wouldn't be able to do that if you were in control Alex, would I?" A grin appeared on her face.

"You won't kill me, Janus"

"You are probably right Alex but I don't mind killing you." Jim replied while pouring some more tea into his cup.

The white walls turned into video walls which started streaming every Alex's experiment, every time he had gaslighted Janus, every step of making her an addict.

"This is bullshit. You said it yourself. You don't believe in Purgatory. I gave you Jim, someone to fight for, someone to die for. You were born alone. You won't die alone." Alex told Janus as he stood in front of Janus turning his back on Jim. "Now tell me what you really want. Name it and shall be granted to you. I trust myself in your mind."

" ... said the man who cut her brain in cold blood to make her a puppet of his while he forgot everything about string theory." Jim completed Alex's sentence as he stretched on his armchair.

"You already know what I want. You are a door. I shall pass through you to get where I want. You went through me to manipulate time. This time I shall pass through you. You shall become my bridge connecting me with all that I can't reach on my own.  Will you do that willingly or I have to put a pair of bunny ears on your head as a reminder?" Janus clicked her fingers and Alex got himself a pair of long, white, fluffy, bunny ears.

"Could you stop acting like a spoiled brat for a minute?" Alex asked Janus while trying to put his bunny ears down.

"And miss all the fun? You can't possibly be asking that from me!" Janus clicked her fingers again and Alex's bunny ears started clapping.

" You can't go where you wish. In that world you no longer exist. No matter what you do, according to their equilibrium you die before you even get to create a single memory. Jim is the only one who gets to live and triumph. Over there, you die alone. As soon as you go through me each one of you will land at different gravity's spots. " Alex told Janus while struggling with his white bunny ears.

"You are dead over there as well, aren't you Alex?" Janus asked.

"Yes, you killed me." and his bunny ears clapped happily. 

"Then who gets to kill me?" Janus asked and the fluffy bunny ears fell down to Alex's shoulders as if they had fainted.

"You did. You destroyed every version of yourself who made that jump."

"So we are trapped in a loop aren't we? How many times have we done it already Alex?"

"I don't have a clue."

"How many times have I made that jump as a moebius strip?"

"What do you mean?"

"How many times has Jim jumped first?" Janus turned her face towards Jim

"I don't have a clue." Alex answered while folding his bunny ears.

Janus stood up and walked in front of Jim.

"Wouldn't it be weird if you already knew the answer to that Jim?"