The Puzzle Box TG - Chapter 10

The Puzzle Box


Chapter 10 – Hollow


The other Seth gave her a cloth to dry her eyes as Isaac guided her to lie down on the couch. Immediately, with tremulous concerns she usually didn’t dwell on, Seth asked with Marley’s voice, “Is it okay? I don’t want to take up the whole couch.”

Seth by the dresser fished out a convenient pair of roll-out cushions with pillows and tossed one to Isaac, who urged, “I insist and Seth agrees, right?”

With a pleasant smile she’d given out when that face was hers, ‘Seth’ answered, “After what we’ve experienced lately, we can all use a breather. I do wish there were more couches. Beds would be ideal. But…Marley, looking at you right now, I can tell you need that couch. Besides, this is a comfy roll-out.”

There was so much Marley-Seth wanted to say but her mouth quivered as she tried to use it. She was the weak one. The frail one. The frightened one and that feeling had invaded her heart. She just wanted to crawl up in the most comfortable place and not feel anything.

Isaac glanced around sympathetically and added, “Besides, this isn’t naptime or anything. Not with that horrifying black box across the room or these blazing lights on. But sometimes you just need to sit for a bit. And if you feel like talking about why you came out of the box crying…feel free. For me, I feel like I could easily rage about being turned into a boy…” Isaac tested a laugh but didn’t seem pleased with its unfamiliar baritone.

Marley-Seth wanted to bolt from the couch and scream her truth, shake the others, and challenge everything around them. At the same time, she felt a creeping exhaustion. There was so much. Like a massive thumb upon her neck, slowly crushing her. She wanted to rest for a moment. She wanted to breathe without needing to solve the mysteries and without needing to fear Sim’s ominous words.

She leaned back and tried to blink back the constant light of the ceiling. Turning towards the dense fabric of the couch only helped a little. She tucked her legs up despite the fact she was small enough to comfortably stretch out. Some feeling within her urged her to be as slight as possible. At the same moment, a festering fury percolated within her. Words that would make Isaac blush. The desire to burn everything, to wash Sim’s smugness in an endless fire. But imaginings only doubled the helplessness of her situation.

Quietly and mostly to himself, the Seth next to her started to relay his experience in the black box, only he was relaying what she had experienced. Embers of anger lashed out from her at their constant jailer, Sim. In her quiet, she feared Marley as she knew her had been overwritten and what she held inside herself was all that was left. Isaac confessed face-rubbing embarrassment at his previous attraction admission, adding, “It’s even more embarrassing in this body.”

Marley kept her words close to herself, weighing them carefully. She feared speaking desperately, clutching her mouth. Despite that fear, she worked on her words until she could say, “I feel like I’ve been hollowed out with only a shadowy husk left behind where there once was a person.”

Isaac reached over to touch Marley’s hand in comfort. It was a pleasant gesture, one which made her return a smile for it. But it was small comfort. The same fear rushed around her. Even though she’d spoke what she felt, that only seemed an affirmation to the worst of it rather than a resolution but she let Isaac feel he’d done something to help as he offered, “Rest a little bit. We could all use a breather.”

The other Seth had already taken that to heart, his eyes shut as he rested where he was. Marley-Seth curled up under an imaginary blanket spread across the couch with a quivering of her left, cloaked eye like a throb to the beating of her heart. She shut both eyes as they felt hot and wet with tears which refused to drop.

Inside her mind, with the stormy fragments of her thoughts, she could see Marley and Seth, both as her, together. They discussed what to do, her thoughts bifurcated.

Seth urged, “We can’t just sit here and let Sim rule over us with fear.”

Marley answered, “But everything we’ve done has just made it harder. We pushed and we fought but it’s just dug us deeper.”

Seth told her, “We just have to keep fighting. If we don’t, then all is lost.”

Marley had no answer and Seth fell quiet as well. They blinked once and then opened their eyes. Marley-Seth was no longer on the couch in the room below the hatch. She was somewhere else, a normal house with all sorts of furniture and carpet and windows looking out on verdant grasses. Sitting up, the back and forth selves settled into the singular confusion of Seth’s urging and Marley’s fear.

From the hallway came a medium-sized, brown setter dog with glossy fur which flowed and twisted like a dense coat of human hair as its pale pink tongue drooped over its mouth. It approached her and nuzzled at Marley-Seth’s legs before sitting on the floor. It looked up at her with dark, deep eyes and gave a slight whimper. She bent to rub its head and knew automatically, “You’re Crumpet. I’m not really your Marley but I hope you don’t mind.”

“MARLEY!” The voice came as a roar which consumed all thought and even caused the room to waver, as through shaking. Marley found herself trembling but wishing to run. She would take the spot behind the stairs, the little closet space. Like some character out of a fantasy book, she could hide there quietly till fairies finally resolved to spirit her away. She daydreamed that often. A way out. A world to herself. Somewhere safe.

However, all she could feel in that moment was a whimpering wish to be left alone on the couch with Crumpet. But her quiet was interrupted by a looming gray statue of a man. His features were polished away and his form larger than seemed possible. His arms were raised to strike. His demands echoed, as though reverberating from far off. She knew to answer “Yes, sir” as much as possible. The massive figure kicked Crumpet until the dog bolted away with little squeaking cries. It was just her and the monster.

She wanted to die. She wanted to kill him. She’d imagined using old fireworks in his bed as he slept. Maybe just enough to ruin his hands or put him in the hospital. He’d never know it was her. He didn’t hit her this time but each furious word struck deeper than his punches could.

Marley stood there, which was a small miracle in itself. She didn’t stand defiantly but she was standing. She didn’t run away. She could feel her tears quivering inside her against his rage as he slammed the nearby table with blurry, inhuman hands.

As she looked, Seth as Marley could see features of his face shifting to the male Seth face that Sim preferred. Inside, she knew that this wasn’t real. It was one of those illusions. Nothing here mattered. She could do whatever she wanted without consequences. But still, the training of fear held her in place. The resolve of Seth and Marley kept her standing even as Marley’s father flailed and huffed like a crazed beast.

But, together, they took a step further as Seth used Marley’s voice to say, “You will not yell at me. I don’t deserve it.” The quivering lines of his body settled before flashing into a frenzy, bright and sharp, like wild static.

Clutching her fists, Marley and Seth told the rage-filled unhuman blur with Sim’s presence, “You do not own me. I am not yours. I have no idea what a soul is but you will never possess it. I am free.” Not a single word Marley-Seth spoke represented anything she could be certain of. Every bit of it could be wrong. But, despite this, saying those words meant something more. Like an incantation wrapped in a wish wrapped in a sliver of her will.

The outline of the monstrous man rippled like a crudely-drawn stick figure. She braced herself in case he decided to leave words behind for action. The room around them receded into shadow. Then, the ripples burst forth in waves like a flurry of arms. Marley-Seth shut her eyes but felt as slashes like the bites of scissors dug into her flesh. As with the black box, the arms tried to pull her apart. Sim let out an infernal screech of, “YOU KNOW NOTHING! I HAVE A SOUL! I HAVE ALL THE SOULS I WANT!”

He slashed again and again at Marley’s arms but Seth kept them up. She answered, “You have nothing. You are nothing. Switch me up. Take my memories. Make me suffer. It only shows how hollow you really are, how little power you actually have. I am still me.”

Giving a beastly growl, Sim said, “You’re nothing but leftovers and copies. You will see the futility of resistance because I control all the rules here!” With a wave of the Sim-like blur, Marley’s house vanished along with the man who scared her most of all. She was returned to the couch with the others sitting on the floor in front of her as though no time had passed. She was about to sit up and express what she had seen when a voice to her left called out, “What the devil are you three doing in my chateau?”

A young man suddenly stood before them with his leather gloved hands folded in front of him and a stern expression on his face. He was lanky, taller than any of them. He wore a dark, long-sleeved coat like something out of an old movie Marley-Seth couldn’t remember. Something with a war. His dark boots clacked against the floor and the strange man tightened his gloves and brushed at his coat. His body was lean and flowed more like Jessica’s or Marisa’s than Seth’s male one. Long, golden hair rested in straight lines on his shoulders. His face didn’t match his body. It was thick, broad, and looked like it had been pulled off someone with a more muscular form. The frame of a model and the face of a foreign boxer. Marley-Seth grappled with the notion and other feelings inside her head when she looked at him.

The new man gave them all a moment before he tucked his hands neatly behind him, raised his chin, and declared, “If you are vagrants seeking a free meal, you’ll have none of that here. Leave forthwith or I will be forced to take serious action.” His voice held a strange flavor to the words but Marley-Seth didn’t sense a specific accent. Her Marley feelings were intimidated by him and his look. Seth told herself that she’d bravely stood up to their captor…so a guy with a strange outfit was hardly a problem.

Moving closer to him, Marley-Seth asked the man, “Where do you think you are?”

The man’s eyes bugged out like he was looking at a ghost when he gazed at Marley. He raised a finger accusingly and yelled, “How can you move so freely in my chateau?! Guards! Servants! Remove this vagrant woman at once!”

Marley gave a look left and right and then right at the man with her arms folded as she remarked, “I don’t think anyone is coming…”

Male Seth stepped closer with Marley’s tentativeness. Isaac, tenting his shirt a little to recover some appearance of breasts, moved beside Marley and asked, “Want me to tell him?”

Marley looked back at him as the man stomped around his invisible castle. She glared a long moment until her gaze finally softened and she answered, “No. Leave him.” She turned away and returned to the couch.

Isaac followed her back and raised an eyebrow as she plopped down beside Marley and male Seth soon joined them. Isaac inquired, “Why?”

Looking at the flailing man as he mimed picking up a phone, Marley asked, “Who are we to tell him his reality is any less true than ours?” Isaac watched Marley and gave a quick frown before asking, “What happened to you inside that cube?”

Teasing at the hair which cloaked her left eye, Marley noted, “I guess it’s time to talk about it now. I remember being Seth. But I also have some of Marley’s memories and feelings.” Male Seth dipped his head and clenched his lips as he muttered, “So I’m not crazy…”

Isaac looked quickly back and forth between them and pointed. “So…you’re saying you both swapped bodies?....Along with the obvious physical changes.” Isaac gestured to his flat chest for emphasis.

Marley allowed herself a slight smile and asked male Seth, “Were you Marley before?”

Male Seth brought his head up slowly and said, “I thought I was nuts because I felt like Seth but I remembered being Marley. Every thought pushed me towards being Seth. My brother Steven and all the things I remember about him…good and bad.” Marley-Seth passed along the sliver of Marley’s father she had seen. Male Seth shivered and Marley clenched her lip at the mention of Steven.

Isaac, shaking her head, let out a long breath as she said, “Sim confusing us again. The bastard.” Marley kept herself from flinching.

The man on the other side of the room came closer and announced, “The police are on their way. You’re all in big trouble now.” The three didn’t give him more than a quick look.

Folding her arms, Marley pondered, “I keep hold of the fact that I am me, names don’t matter. But you can call me Marley or Seth if you like. I’m thinking Marley-Seth in my head. And Marley for short. You?” She looked to male Seth, who glanced away.

After a moment, male Seth offered, “Seth-Marley? I’d rather just be Marley…myself…but I don’t know for sure if that’s how I even started out. And everything.”

Clapping his hands, Isaac stood and turned to face them, proclaiming, “Bite that jerk. He can spin us around in a blender but we’re still us. I’m keeping my name. I’m Marisa!” Marley kept a smile despite what she knew.

Male Seth clapped back and said, “I’m Marley! I don’t care what memories there are or my body says! I wanna be Marley!...If that’s okay with the other Marley…”

Marley couldn’t resist a giggle and an echo of the same sensation as she explained, “I feel the same…believe me. I am still Seth and I will spit it in Sim’s face. But I want a new name. A name I made. ‘Marlise’ comes to mind. A name I pick for myself. Feel free to choose one for yourself, Marley.”  

Marley scratched at her hands like she did when she was younger and even more nervous. Marlise knew that feeling well. Her other, sharing the fragmentation of bits and trading of bodies, took a deep breath and said, loud as heck, “I AM MARLEY!” The man to the side mimed writing something down, noting, “The police will know that when they get here!”

But none of them were listening to him. Self-proclaimed Marley blushed at her loudness and took another breath to continue, “And I pick a name for myself too. Call me Semara.”

The rechristened Marlise and Semara sat together with the reaffirmed Marisa, who quipped, “So close to being all M names…oh well.” They laughed together a moment before the man rushed over to a wall. He reached out to grab something that only he could see. Then, his eyes widened.

“It’s gone! No! What have you done?!”

They noticed him again, his name still unknown as Marisa asked, “What are you going on about?” Marlise realized he was looking right at the same walls they saw. Before, it was more like he was looking beyond those walls. With a frown, Marlise asked him, “Do you see blank walls, this couch, a dresser, and that box?”

The man rubbed at his eyes and yelled, “This is madness! You’ve clearly drugged me or kidnapped me or done both! Release me at once!” Marisa snorted and said, “You’re as released as we are. Why do you think we’d keep ourselves in the same place as our supposed prisoner, jerknuts?”

Growling, the man proclaimed, “I am Oswald Hatch and I want to be released at once!”

Marlise cupped her face before saying, “Another Hatch. Just like us.”

Clenching his teeth, Oswald spat, “What senseless blather is that?”

Marisa dipped his head back in frustration, “It means you’re stuck in this place just like we are.”

Quivering, Oswald said only, “No…” Then he blinked in surprise to find a long, glistening cutting knife in the grip of his left hand. Curling his lips, he raised the knife to shoulder level and said, “You, sir…will explain everything properly or I will make you all suffer, one by one…”



*END PART 2*