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Kaden glanced at the puddle forming under my feet as he continued. “Topside is the world as you know. Nowhere, well, that’s something completely different.”
“And that door leads to Nowhere?” I pointed in the direction of the other door he’d mentioned.
“Yes.” He took a sip of his coffee, waiting for me to ask my next question.
“And that’s what, exactly?”
“Have you ever heard of the dark web? The part of the internet devoted to anonymous dealings? Take that basic idea and transfer it to the universe, and that’s Nowhere. It’s the universe’s equivalent of the dark web, where there is no law, no oversight, no rules.”
Nothing about that sounded good. I’d known it the first time I came here. This place was not for me. A shiver shot through me, and it had nothing to do with my wet clothes.
“Look, can you just fix me up and let me go back home—or Topside, as you call it?”
“If it were only that simple.” He shook his head, his thoughts broadcast by his expression. I was already a pain in his ass that wasn’t going to listen.
Kaden looked over to Dice, who was getting up.
“I’m on it,” he said, as if he’d gotten a silent order.
“I’ll be back in a little while to see how things are going,” Kaden said, walking toward the door that led to Nowhere.
I tried to catch a glimpse before it shut, but my view was cut off by Dice.
“Trust me,” he said, giving me a once-over, “you’re not ready for that place yet.”
“Now what? How long will this transition take? What am I supposed to do? What are you people?”
He let out a sigh and started down the hallway. “This is going to be fun, fun, fun,” he said, like someone heading to get a root canal.
He hadn’t answered a single question, and I followed him anyway.
Chapter Six
Dice stood beside a door, motioning me into a room that was mostly empty. There was a chair on a platform and a weird-looking scale off to the side, a table and a cabinet along the wall. Other than that, the room was pretty bare.
He pointed to the chair. “Sit there.”
The chair was constructed of chunky wood and appeared to be made by a teenager who’d failed his workshop class, but it didn’t have any restraining straps.
“What is this for?” I asked, not budging.
“Sit in the chair. I don’t have all day.” He stabbed his finger in its direction again.
“What do you plan on doing?” I asked, not moving an inch. I was still soaked, no one had bothered to so much as hand me a towel, and I didn’t care any longer. I’d stand there all night unless I got some answers.
He took a good look at me, at my crossed arms, the puddle underneath me, and must’ve seen something that told him I wasn’t going to move a hair.
“I do nothing. The chair does it all. It weighs your abilities and aptitudes, and if you’d go sit on it, we could be working our way through this already. You’re not the only one who isn’t in the mood for this right now.”
Misery really did like company, because hearing he got no satisfaction out of doing this, probably didn’t care if I sat in the chair or not, somehow made me feel a little more agreeable. I settled into the wooden monstrosity, waiting for a megavolt of electricity to hit and ready to grin and bear it, because it would still be better than leaving here and going back to that constant pain.
When there wasn’t a jolt after a few seconds, I settled in a little more comfortably, or as comfortable as I could get in this thing.
“How long will this take?” I asked, my stomach growling. I wondered if there was somewhere in this place to get food. Now that the pain was gone, my appetite was roaring back like a lion with its teeth out. These people offering a meal was unlikely, considering I was leaving a trail of water through their building and still had no towel. Still, there might be food somewhere, and I was beyond caring.
“A couple minutes or a couple of days. You never know.”
I was sure I’d be sitting here for however long that took. Everything about Dice looked unmovable and stubborn, from his short, blunt haircut to his thick, stubby fingers that were beating up the tablet in his hand.
