Cloud Chasers

seven | the empty mask [pt. two]

As she stared at the pages, purple clouds surrounded her and brought her back to her bathroom.

Damn it, she thought, realizing she'd forgotten to vape while she was watching the hologram show. Luckily, the pages she'd written in the Lobby were still in her hands right there in the bathroom. She decided to read them once more.

Halfway through, the pages slipped out of her hands as terror overtook her face, and she actually took a step back.

"No, no, that can't be right," she said aloud, her face pale.

She picked the pages back up and read some of the lines again. She punched the wall as she did.

The writing was bad, full of grammatical mistakes and badly put sentences. The entire story seemed banal and redundant. The pages were only five, not fifteen.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" she said, gritting her teeth.

She was sure that her short story was good. Like, really good. She'd read and reread it in the Lobby and she couldn't find anything to complain about.

But now everything had changed. She didn't even recognize the words printed on those pages.

She wondered what'd happen if she went back to the Lobby now, if the short story would return to its original state and if she could somehow find a way to preserve it, even by memorizing the whole thing.

She was searching for her vaping device when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She sighed angrily and got it. 'Dad' was the caller.

"Yes," she said harshly.

"Joyce, what the hell is going on? Why is your phone turned off? I tried calling you so many times today and I couldn't reach you," he sounded angry but mostly worried, though he was clearly trying to hide the latter.

"My phone was off cause I was busy and I didn't want to be disturbed," Joyce said without trying to hide the anger.

"Well, you could've just texted me. One text, Joyce, it's all I ask for."

"Dad, I'm fine, alright? If I were dead, you'd be the first one to know about it, somehow. I'm alive and well, just really busy, and I would love it if you'd stop calling every hour of the day," she said, letting out her annoyance.

"Are you sure you're alright? You sound angry," he said.

"I'm not. I promise. I'm fine. This is just my normal voice. I have to go now," she said and hung up after her dad mumbled an 'alright'.

She went back to her backpack to look for the vaping device when the bathroom door opened.

"Did you seriously sneak out of the bathroom window," Kuni barged in.

"Look, Kuni, this is not the time—"

"Save it, Joyce. I want to know what the deal is between you and Toru."

"I told you, there is no deal. It was a one-time thing, casual sex; do you know anything about that?"

"Do you know anything about Toru? I doubt you do, otherwise you'd know that he can't do things like that because he gets attached and starts thinking about it all day."

"Honestly, that's his problem. It's not like I raped him, Kuni. He was as consensual as I was."

"Because he likes you, you idiot. And I'm not the one who has to break it to him that you're a bitch, you have to do that yourself!"

"You're crossing the line, Kuni. Watch your mouth." Joyce stepped out of the bathroom and pushed her shoulder against Kuni's.

"Is that supposed to be a threat? Nice, Joyce... tell me, just what the hell happened to you? You used to be so nice and sweet. Now you're constantly pissed off and arrogant, and you don't care about anything or anyone around you, and you have random sex with my cousin. When did you turn into everything you used to say you hated?"