Page 138 of Tapeworld Induction

“No doubt. I just barely trust her.” Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and back. He feared the worst. Astrid strapping the Sleeper device on him again, sapping his confidence and will to live, making him another sleptigrade in her army. “It wasn’t just the dreams. When I was in Cardinal Row, or rather, just before, my diagnostics program said I had LSD in my system.”

She frowned. “You didn’t tell me you partied that hard.”

“That’s the thing, I don’t. I don’t do any drugs harder than a joint. It was the tape-space I was in.”

“Made by Astrid.”

“Why though?” he said. “What does she want with all these people?”

“Like Elodie said, she could amass an army in the Tapeworld, muscle in before anyone else makes a play for it. And, as evidenced by my meat cravings and your dreams, she’s trying to control people’s minds. Seeing how far she can push us, what she can make us believe.”

He nodded in quiet agreement as a new, terrible thought took root that he didn’t want to confront. As soon as he considered it, he tried to put it aside. But looking at her, her eyes like constellations, bright and beautiful and all-encompassing, this idea kept pushing itself to the forefront. He walked away, towards the slits in the wall, seeking solace in London’s nightscape.

“What is it?” she asked. Then Dylan seemed to have the same thought as him. “No, no, no! There’s no way. There’s no way!”

Fists wrapped like rocks, he was desperately trying to stop the rising urge to punch the wall, to ruin his hands and put all of himself into the rock.

She went to him and enlaced her arms around his waist.

“You… You do love me, Isaak. I love you. This isn’t one of Astrid’s tricks!” She paused, as if to think. “I always had a crush on you. I know my feelings are true. I just… I just know yours are too. Believe me, please.” Face against his back, her tears began to wet his skin through his t-shirt.

Eyes still fixed on the horizon, his mind was a storm.

Manipulated. First by Astrid’s bullshit sex, then by the tape itself, then by the Sleeper. Have I been programmed to fall in love with Dylan?

“I feel like it’s real,” he said. “But I also feel like I sometimes don’t know what’s real anymore…”

She tightened her grip on his waist, lips against his back. “This is real! I’m here, holding you. I love you. I want to be with you all the time. And I want to make that bitch pay for what she’s done to you!” Her voice reverberated through him.

The pain threatened to explode his heart and his chest, his breathing all over the place. His voice lowered to a pained whisper. “I don’t know…”

“Yes, you do!” She spun him around to face her. “Tell me. Tell me how you feel. Forget this idea that she manipulated you into this. I feel your love for me, have felt it this whole time. It can’t have been programmed… It just can’t!”

One hand on her face, he wiped away her nascent tears. Her skin felt cold. A caring warmth filled him. His swirling emotions resolved into one truth.

“I love you, Dylan.” This was real. “I would have fallen in love with you in every reality.”

He pulled her to him, his lips a magnet attracting hers. Her tongue invited itself into his mouth and he welcomed it with his own, his hand on her waist, the other going down her back, fingers light on the white fabric, darting towards the curves of her bottom.

A thirst ran through the both of them. To prove their humanity to each other, to taste each other’s love.

Her caresses stopped to let him lift her dress over her head.

She stood in front of him in a white minimalist bra and black neoprene shorts.

They both looked down as his erection shot up, hitting the inside of his jeans.

“Lemme help you with that.”

The sight of Dylan going down to her knees and unbuckling his belt filled him with desire.

His jeans fell with a clang of his belt, and they quickly did away with the rest of his clothes.

“Um, are you staring?” he asked, uncertain.

She shook her head, like she was coming out of a daydream. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen you like this, but I’ll never get tired of looking at it.” She grinned.

The same guiding impulse that led him when he called a shot for the London Lazarus, the same one that pushed him to lead this stalwart team to infiltrate Astrid’s Night of Entertainment, also guided his words now.