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Once I'm dressed, we head back out into the hall. Gabriel suggests we should look for a way out of this place, in case Aldith doesn't come back. I can't imagine she would just abandon us here, but we haven't seen or heard from her since she told us to spend time together. If Gabriel wants to search for an exit, I'll go along with it.
We've just reached the end of the hall, but the elevator door is gone.
Oh, great. We're trapped. I should feel scared by that fact, shouldn't I? But I don't. That's kind of weird. I feel safe, not cornered, and I don't really mind if we stay here for days or weeks, even months. I don't understand my reaction. I almost feel like…
"Someone is using magic on us," Gabriel says. "Can't you sense it? Suddenly, I want to take you into the nearest bedroom and make you scream again."
"Yeah, I do feel it. Not sure what's going on."
Gabriel opens his mouth, but the words we hear are not his.
"The Brain wants you to cement your bond in a deeper way. You won't be permitted to leave until you've done that."
We both spin around to face Aldith. She stands there with her hands clasped in front of her, seeming quite relaxed.
"You can't be suggesting we should have sex again," Gabriel says. "Come on, orgasms aren't the engine running the apocalypse."
"How do you know?" Aldith asks. "Sexual intercourse has powered several important changes in the Echo."
"Like what?"
She bows her head, and I swear she's blushing a little. "You must ask your friends. It's not my place to reveal such information."
"But you know about it. Are you a voyeur? Did you watch me and Sarah getting it on?"
"I do not watch. But it was fairly obvious afterward what transpired in the stronghold."
Gabriel starts to speak, but I can tell he's about to get grumpy again.
So I speak first. "Aldith, what do you mean that we won't be able to leave until we cement our bond? We, um, already did that."
I couldn't help the dopey little laugh that came out of me when I said that. Yeah, I feel very awkward about discussing sex with a woman I barely know who also happens to be an Echo creature.
Aldith shrugs. "I relay the information, nothing more. That's all I can tell you."
She vanishes.
My body wants me to do exactly what Aldith suggested and have bone-melting, earth-shattering sex with Gabriel again. And again. And again. For as long as it takes to finish cementing our bond. But the idea that the Echo's Brain wants us to do that… Yeah, it's beyond disturbing.
"What should we do?" I ask.
Gabriel scratches the back of his neck. "Keep looking for a way out. Screw the damn Brain. I choose when I do things, not some supernatural computer system."
"You think the Brain is a computer?"
"No idea. But it can't be an actual brain, with two hemispheres and blood vessels and neurons and whatever else. It must be more like a computer."
He grabs my hand, leading me back down the hall.
Not sure if a computer brain is less creepy than a real brain. Either way, we're supposed to merge with it or something. Aldith hasn't really explained that part. From what Erin and Grant have said, Aldith simply doesn't have access to all the information that's needed to do the things she informs us we need to do.
Why can't the universe just send me a postcard with all the details printed on it?
Gabriel approaches a door, not the one that leads into the room where we got naked, and throws it open. I see a bed and a couple of chairs. No window.
He shuts the door and moves on to the next one.
We had already searched this floor. But who knows, maybe the Echo decided to change the rooms and one of them includes an exit.
