While Suzanne talks on the phone labeled with “Rumble”, Sherman Chex looks around.

  He begins to read each of the cards next to each of the telephones.

  [ Where to buy the best coffee.

  Name: Jeremy

  District: NeverGreen ]

  He's not quite interested in that one.

  The next one reads similarly.

  [ Celebrity gossip.

  Name: Wadder Boddle

  District: 1st Capital ]

  Not quite interested in that one either.

  [ How to destroy the continent.

  Name: Ricky Revels

  District: Red Hills ]

  He's intrigued by that one, but doesn't think it's the best idea to pick up that phone.

  He decides to stop paying too much attention to them, and just skim over them.

  Orange conspiracy.

  Sports fixing.

  Purple smuggling.

  How to absorb color from the environment and use it to destroy your enemies easily 10 step program (NOT A PYRAMID SCHEME THIS TIME).

  Sherman Chex.

  Why every hair color is natural in Columbia.

  Call if you have info on General Zykes.

  Sherman Chex snaps his head back around to look at the phone labeled with his name.

  “Why does this one have my name on it?”

  Nobody hears him.

  He looks around and notices neither Lyme nor Suzanne are even moving. The cups Lyme started to juggle again are frozen midair, and Suzanne is frozen, talking on the phone.

  The blue phone, a different shade of blue than the others, turns white. Chex picks up the phone.

  “Hello?”

  A voice comes through, though it feels more like it's being broadcast directly into his brain than from the telephone. The voice sounds a bit silly, as if it were coming from a jester.

  [ A B C D E F G ]

  “Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying [1].”

  [ HELLO. ]

  “Sorry, is there some audio distortion? Do you hear me?”

  [ DO YOU HEAR ME? ]

  “Is that another language?”

  There’s suddenly a very loud ringing noise coming from the phone. Sherman Chex is forced to move it away from his ear.

  [ SILLY ME, I’VE FIXED IT. ]

  “Oh, I can hear you now!”

  [ HOW’S YOUR DAY, SHERMAN CHEX? ]

  “It’s been fine, how about you?”

  [ I HAVEN’T HAD A DAY YET. ]

  “What?”

  [ THE DAY HASN’T STARTED. ]

  “What does that mean?”

  [ YOU’VE JUST WOKEN UP. IT’S ONLY ONE O’CLOCK. ]

  “What? Why does nobody explain anything?”

  The other side of the conversation proceeds to speak in a mocking tone for the next portion of the call.

  [ Why does nobody explain anything? ]

  “Why did this phone have my name on it?”

  [ Why did this phone have my name on it? ]

  “Why are you copying everything I say?”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  Back in a normal tone, the voice from the telephone decides to ask a question of his own.

  [ SHERMAN CHEX, AREN’T YOU INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING BEING FROZEN? ]

  “Sorry, I’m not particularly interested in it.”

  [ THAT IS QUITE FUNNY. ]

  “Sorry, could you please tell me the information you have on me? Under the type of information this phone would supply, it has my name.”

  [ I SEE. YOUR NAME IS SHERMAN CHEX. ]

  “I already knew that...”

  [ DATE OF BIRTH: THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST MONTH. ]

  “I knew that too...”

  [ FATHER: NONE. MOTHER: NONE. SIBLINGS: UNCOUNTABLE. ]

  “Uncountable?”

  [ DATE OF DEATH: SPOILERS ]

  “Wait, could you elaborate further on those last two?”

  Suddenly, in a very quiet, whispering voice...

  [ That’s not possible at all. We can’t take up any more of your day, even if it’s just started. ]

  Sherman Chex blinks, and suddenly he’s not holding the phone anymore. In fact, the phone isn’t even there. He’s nowhere near any of the phones, either, he’s sitting at one of the tables. He, for some reason, remembers reading more info cards and then sitting down to wait for Suzanne, as if he never saw the card with his name on it.

  Though, at the same time, he remembers the events of the phone call happening as well, despite the fact that, to him, they would have had to happen at the same time.

  Both Lyme and Suzanne are moving as if all is normal, and everything seems to be as usual. Sherman Chex has no idea what just happened. He didn’t get any useful information out of it either.

  Suzanne finishes with her call, and walks over to Chex.

  He attempts to speak about what happened, but once he attempts to speak, he instead coughs up flour.

  Suzanne is very, very confused. The only other person she’s ever seen cough up flour when trying to talk about something is her husband, Alexander Dars.

  “Employee, did you get a strange phone call?”

  Sherman Chex coughs up more flour.

  Suzanne turns to Lyme.

  “Very interesting! I’ve got the information I need!”

  “Will that be all for today?”

  “Yeah, cancel that tomato soup.”

  They move back up to the ground floor.

  Sherman Chex is quite confused as to why he’s coughing up flour, though attempting to ask about it leads to more flour.

  Suzanne starts walking to another building, this one being completely blank.

  Sherman Chex is mildly annoyed at being dragged around town, but he follows.

  Once they’re there, Suzanne stops him.

  “You’ve gotta stay outside of this one.”

  She enters the building, while Chex stays outside.

  He decides to sit down and wait.

  In the meantime...

  A man with hair curling in an unnatural way, similar to flowers in a band around his head is sitting on top of a table. He’s idly tapping his hand on the corner of it. He does not have a chair. In front of him are two computer screens. Each is running the same program, though with different goals. One labelled in a language he doesn’t understand, and the other labelled with the name of his son.

  The one labelled with his son’s name is constantly beeping, there’s a frequency graph, a radar, and they’re all constantly moving.

  “Of course, he’s quite easy to find.”

  On the other hand, the screen in an unreadable language is completely silent.

  “I don’t understand this, that’s not possible at all. There’s no way to escape it, he’d have to be dead for this to not find him.”

  Alexander Dars is quite frustrated.

  “It’s not possible, how is it that nothing can find him? This doesn’t seem reasonable, even Ricky gave up.”

  He hits his hand on the corner of the table slightly harder than usual, breaking nearly every bone in his hand and wrist [2]. They heal back before he even notices. He exits the room, leaving the computers on. Outside, leaning on the wall is a man in blue. His hair is in knots, and actively tying themselves into more and more knots.

  “You’re still looking for him.”

  “Of course I am, why aren’t you?”

  “We know where he is. We know he doesn’t want to see us.”

  “He said the same thing a long time ago, and he was being corrupted by a reaper!”

  Virgil Harper, the man in blue with knotted hair, stares directly into Alexander’s eyes. His eyes are a purple color, different than they usually are. To the untrained eye, it would appear that Virgil’s attempting to look straight through Alexander’s body, into his image.

  “The current version of that man would never fall for any trick.”

  Virgil Harper walks away, through a wall. The wall doesn’t have a hole in it or anything, he just walks through it.

  Alexander goes to a different room and picks up a telephone, hearing a ding. He reads the number.

  3 - 2 - 7 - 7

  2 dings.

  3 dings.

  “It’s me!”

  ..!

  “Of course, of course!”

  ..

  “Flour? Wait, like when I was trying to talk about that phone call I got?”

  ..!

  “Yeah, though I’m still not sure where that call came from.”

  ..?

  “I remember I told you they suddenly started speaking in my voice, maybe ask him if they did the same.”

  ..!

  “Of course!”

  ..!!!

  “Love you too, bye!”

  ..!!!

  Click.

  “I can’t wait until she’s back.”

  He walks out of the room and back into the previous one, with the computers. He switches the first computer from his son onto something else.

  “Let’s see, White and blue clothing, not Columbian. There shouldn’t be many of those, right?”

  He gets a very quick response. With a ding, he receives:

  “Zero.”

  It’s very peculiar that he got a zero response. The program doesn’t finish running until it gets at least one, that’s why the second computer is still running.

  “What the hell is trying to stop us from spreading information about it?”

  He turns around and heads towards the door.

  His next sentence causes him to cough up flour.

  [1] The other side of the phone is speaking in a language Sherman Chex wouldn’t understand.

  [2] He has really fragile bones.