Page 115 of Tapeworld Induction

The blue-red aura of a tape-tube formed next to them.

“Oh, my dear Ike. What are you doing here?”

His heart sank. It was her.

Astrid strode out of the tube in a black office pencil dress, wild-eyed, her mouth a jagged line.

“You bitch. What the fuck—”

“Silence!” Astrid waved a hand at Talia, and she shouted in pain, doubling over, knees hitting the floor.

The Nicholas-shape looked at Astrid. Whereas before the grey shapes all looked uniform, now his eyes glowed yellow. It – he – seemed to recognise Astrid’s authority.

“Poor Nick. You’re not my best sleptigrade, are you? Go on, Isaak. Finish him off.”

The realisation twisted his chest. All of the shapes he’d destroyed were connected to real people strapped to Sleepers. Sleptigrade?

“No.”

“Suit yourself.”

Nicholas looked at her, the glowing embers of his eyes widening. He looked scared, and he ran, scrambling for a way out of the room.

Astrid seized the translucent cable connecting him to his body, and twisted it, severing it in the process.

The shape let out a scream like a CRT TV tuned to static. The translucent cables evaporated – Nicholas’s body, a mirror of himself in IRL, began convulsing and foaming at the mouth. His spasms became more violent by the second.

“Stop!” Isaak shouted.

Nicholas went still, head lolling to the side.

“Is he…?”

Astrid grinned.

“You killed him.” He could barely speak, his body and brain numb.

He finally had an answer to the question that had haunted him for the last couple of weeks. Dying in the Tapeworld killed you the real one.

Goddess. All the shapes I’ve destroyed. That guard…

“What the fuck did you make me do? Who are you?”

“I thought you knew me.”

Blood poured from Isaak’s thumb, his index fingernail driven fully into the space between the nail and the nail bed, as he tried to fight off the mounting horror dawning inside him. Horror, fear, guilt.

Astrid cocked her head to one side, smirking. “I thought you loved our time together.”

He shook his head, trying not to spiral. “It was a mistake.”

She laughed, arching her neck backwards, yet keeping her eyes always on him, like a creepy painting. “Not to me. I had a lot of fun, building you up every night. Then breaking you into a wreck in your post-coital return. You were like a bawling child, and me…” She came closer to him, ever so slowly. “I was your new mummy!”

He backed away, trying to escape a flood of memories from their time together. “Shut up! You took advantage of me.”

Talia was still staring at Nicholas. Tears trickled down her face.

Astrid grinned. “I know I wasn’t the only one taking pleasure. When you wiped your tears on these” – her hands cupped her breasts – “you looked very pleased then!”