Neverquest – Part 137

Characters: Sophia, Alyssa, Neil, Kelsey
Location: In the basement of CNN
Time: Day 5 – Morning


“Should we pull the plug?”

“Not yet.”

“But it looks like they’re in trouble…”

Sophia looked up from her seat. “Kelsey, they’re fine. They’re just being brought to court.”

“And you call that ‘fine’?”

“…Why don’t you go get me some more coffee?”

“…Sorry.”

Sighing, Sophia leaned back in her chair and put her head in her hands. “No, I’m sorry, Kelsey. I’m just really tired.”

“Well, it has been a long night… I’ll get your coffee.”

“Thank you.”

Kelsey smiled and passed Alyssa on the stairs. They didn’t exchange any words, nor did Alyssa even acknowledge Kelsey’s presence as she brushed by and shoulder-checked her into wall, bounding down the stairs two at a time. She had a stack of papers under one arm and something wrapped in plastic in the other, which she began to unravel as she strolled across the basement floor.

Sophia turned back to the monitors. A few seconds later, she felt warm breath against her neck and breadcrumbs dribbling down her shoulder.

“…Alyssa,” she said. “What are you eating?”

“A sub.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Your dad’s office.”

“…Yeah, right. The door’s locked.”

Alyssa took another bite of the sub and then tossed a broken doorknob into Sophia’s lap. “You owe your dad a new door.”

“Okay, that’s it.” Sophia slammed the doorknob on the desk and spun around. “You can’t break into my dad’s office and go through his stuff.”

“Oh, no!”

“What?”

Alyssa took Sophia’s hand. “Can I borrow your fingernail? I think I got some lettuce between my teeth…”

“Get it out yourself.”

“Ugh…” Alyssa put her pinky between her lips and began scraping it against her teeth.

“Alyssa… Why did you break into my dad’s office?”

She shrugged. “I was bored.” Pulling out her finger, she flicked a strand of lettuce onto the floor. “And hungry.”

“Okay, but you still have no right to—”

“Oh, did you want some of my sub?”

“Alyssa, that’s not your sub. It’s not even your—hey, what do you have in your other hand?”

“What?”

“Those are my dad’s private files!”

“Oh, these…” Alyssa held up the packet of paper. “I was looking for some reading material. I’m through with it now, if you have to go to the bathroom.”

“Alyssa!”

“Sophia!”

They stared at each other for a while—Sophia with her mouth slightly open and Alyssa with a smirk and half a sub in her mouth—and then Sophia rolled up her eyes in disgust. “What did Jesse ever see in you?”

“A great body.”

“…Yeah, if you ever stop eating.”

Alyssa smiled and dabbed her lips on one of the papers in her hand. “I’ll stop when I’m full.” Then she crumbled up the paper and tossed it in the trash. “So, what’s on TV now?”

“This isn’t a TV, Alyssa. It’s a computer.”

“Which of these changes the channel?” she asked, leaning over the keyboard.

“Alyssa, get off me.”

“Oh, stop your whining. I’m not going to break your precious TV.”

“Computer!”

“Whatever.”

Sophia pushed Alyssa away and snatched the papers out from under her arm. “Just what all did you take from my dad’s office?”

“I dunno. Just some boring stuff.”

Laying the files on the desk, Sophia slid her thumb against the corner of the papers and began to flip through them. “These are his early business plans… The ones he made in college.”

Alyssa feigned interest. “Oh, wow… I’m so glad I used the other papers to wipe.”

“This is amazing. My dad had his whole life planned out by the time he was my age…”

“And then he had you. What a tragic ending.”

Sophia shook her head. “No, my mother, she…” Then she stopped and her finger fell against an old photograph taped to the page. “That’s her. That’s my mother.”

“Well, she does have your awful taste in fashion,” Alyssa said, looking over her shoulder.

“She’s beautiful…” Sophia slowly peeled the tape away. “She died when I was young… She was really young, too. It caught us all by surprise.”

“Uh-huh. Who’s that goofy man next to her?”

“That’s my dad, Alyssa.”

“He looks old. How did he ever get a girl like that?”

“Well, some girls go for a guy with charm and class. Other girls…” She looked at Alyssa. “Other girls get whatever they can.”

“I could get better.”

Sophia stared down at the photograph. “My dad never talks about her… When she died, he took down all her pictures and hid them from me. He didn’t want me remembering.”

“Wow, you must’ve been a wreck.”

She tried to smile. “You know, before…when Jesse and I dragged you here and we were going to lock you up, you kept saying how you couldn’t be alone. And I saw that look in your eye. That was the look I used to see in the mirror…when I thought of my mother. I couldn’t be alone either.”

For the first time that night, Alyssa was quiet. She just looked at Sophia without an expression to her face and then raised her hand, holding the other side of the photograph so it wouldn’t fold over.

“…She looks nice,” she said at last. “Like the kind of mother I always wanted.”

“Why? What happened to your mother?”

“Why do you care?”

“Well…because it’s normal for two people to share their feelings when they have something in common.”

Alyssa turned to her. “There’s only one thing we have in common and you stole it from me. That’s all anybody ever does. They take things from me. They always leave me alone.”

“Nobody’s—”

“My father took my mother away. In her sleep. I saw him do it. And then I saw the police take him away and lock him up and leave me alone in this world. That’s what they want to do to me, Sophia. They hurt me. That’s how they play their game.”

“Wait…” Sophia said, putting down the photograph. “Your dad killed your mom?”

“They took them away. They swam like fish and then they were swallowed by the sea. They’re gone, the story unwritten.”

“Alyssa…”

“They don’t exist!” She stared blankly into space. “Not anymore. I’m alone now. This is me. This is my alone.”

“I…um, I didn’t know, Alyssa.”

“Leave me alone. You’re just like the rest of them.”

Sophia started to say something, but it was at that moment that the lights in the room flashed twice and new gears began to whirl.

“I got it!” Neil cried from the other room. “We should have visual on Russell’s group in a minute.”

By the time she turned back around, Sophia noticed that Alyssa was gone and so was the photograph in her lap. She frowned a bit and then closed the file on the desk before pushing it aside.

“Good work, Neil,” she said.

He came out of the control room with a screwdriver fitted like a pencil in his ear lobe. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”

They both stared up at the monitors as Kelsey came back, holding a mug of black coffee. “Sorry it took so long. I had to put in another—”

“Shhh…” Sophia hissed. Then she glanced over at Kelsey just long enough to snatch the mug and put it to her lips.

“Oh, is the show about to begin?”

“It’s a computer,” Neil and Sophia said in unison.

A few seconds later, the lights on the wall began to blink. They made a brief humming noise and then clicked on, one by one, until all four blank monitors were showing Russell’s group through the eyes of the players.

“What’s wrong with Bob and Guy’s visuals?” Sophia asked. “They’re too dark to make out.”

Neil grabbed his screwdriver. “I’m on it. I’ll just crank the gamma and contrast all the way.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

“…Well, it looks like your dad and Wallace are okay,” Kelsey said, pointing to the monitors on the left. “It looks like they’re taking a stroll through a garden.”

Sophia squinted. “That’s a strange garden…”

“Maybe it’s one of those Japanese ones.”

“Resolution in five, four, three…” Neil counted down from the other room. Suddenly, the two black monitors began to fill with a faint orange glow.

“It’s still dark, Neil.”

“That’s as bright as we’re going to get. The pixels are too—”

Blah, blah, blah. They tuned out the nerd talk.

“Maybe they’re in a cave,” Kelsey suggested.

“Yeah, maybe a Japanese one.”

“Hey, it was just an idea.”

“Wait…” Sophia stepped closer. “On the ground… Right there. What are they standing in?”

“Looks like bacon.”

“Kelsey, that’s…wait, it does look like bacon.”

“I do like bacon.”

Suddenly, Sophia’s mug shattered against the floor. “Oh, my God…”