Mia texts Craig, asking if he's still at John's party. He instantly replies, saying that he's not. Mia is about to explain her new discovery to him, but hesitates. It doesn't seem like something she can say over text. Instead, she asks if she can come to his house to talk about "something really, really important."

He agrees and gives her his address. It takes her little time to get in the car and over to his house. He happens to only live a few blocks away. Craig lives in a modest house with a well-kept lawn. She parks next to his car, which is a white Jeep. Mia gets out of the car and nearly runs to his door. She knocks twice and restrains herself from doing so repeatedly.

Craig takes a minute before opening the door. "Hey Mi—"

Mia walks past Craig and into his living room. She doesn't mean to be rude. She's just so freaked out that she can't think clearly. She stands in the center of his living room, eyes wide.

"Hey there." Craig approaches her. "What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Do you remember what you told me at John's? About the hospital?" Mia asks, her voice shaking.

"Yes, but—"

"Look." Mia cups Craig's face and pulls him close to her. Craig looks at Mia, confused. He examines her face for awhile, taking a moment before locking his eyes with hers. He squints. Then, his eyes widen. He takes a step back.

"It can't be..."

Mia nods. "I think it is."

Craig is silent for a moment. He paces back and forth, muttering something under his breath. He slides his hand over his hair. Mia watches him, scared and confused. She doesn't want to believe that it's true, for her eyes are pretty little evidence. It's a crazy coincidence, though. Especially if Craig can see the blue light, too.

Craig finally stands still. He rubs the bridge of his nose and sighs. When he sees how scared Mia is, he relaxes and gives her a small smile. "Would you like to sit down? How about a cup of coffee?"

Mia nods and sits on the couch. Craig leaves to his kitchen. He comes back after a moment with two steaming mugs. He hands one to Mia, which she gladly takes. He sits on the couch next to her. Mia downs the coffee quickly. When she sets down her empty cup, she sees that Craig hasn't raised the cup to his lips once. He's gripping it tightly.

Mia's stare seems to snap Craig out of his trance. He sets his mug on a coffee table in front of him. "Mia, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer them truthfully, okay?"

She nods. Craig thinks for another moment. "Okay...what is the first choice you usually make in the morning, and how many options are there?"

Mia thinks for a moment. "Well, two. I decide every morning whether to go straight to work or stop at the Serene Caffeine first."

Craig nods. "After work, what do you decide to do?"

This one's easy. "I choose between staying at work or going home."

"So two options?"

"Yes."

Mia doesn't understand what he's getting at. Craig seems satisfied with her answers so far, but she doesn't know why. "How many colleges did you decide between?"

Mia has to think a little bit for this one. "Two."

"How many careers were you deciding between?"

Mia's voice grows quiet. "Two."

"When you go to a coffee shop, how many drinks do you decide between?"

She smiles. "Three."

Craig asks Mia more questions about decisions she has made in the past. Mia answers "two" every time. The more she says the number, the more it seems less like a real word. Like there's no possible way that it can actually exist, and that Mia can actually have only decided between two options her entire life.

"There's clearly a pattern here," Craig says. "Apart from the coffee one, your choices are always narrowed down to two."

"How does that help us?"

"The hospital is helping with human manipulation. A manipulation of their choices. They do this through computers, which minimize their choices," Craig explains. "Can you remember any time when you chose between more than three things in your life?"

Mia thinks hard about his question. To her surprise, she comes up with nothing. She can only think of moments where she chose between two decisions. Tears well in her eyes. Has she really missed out on making her own choices? Has she spent her life merely being a shell of someone else's preferences?

Craig gets off the couch and leaves the living room. He returns with a laptop. He sets it on the coffee table and types in "the St. John's conspiracy".

There aren't any articles related to the topic. They only find a video mildly related to it. Finally, after going down a rabbit hole, they land on a video explaining the conspiracy. Craig turns on the subtitles. He looks at Mia before turning up the volume as well.

It explains a run down on the conspiracy, just like Craig had talked about earlier. The random Google images implemented in the video make Mia scared. She doesn't want it to be true. It seems unreal. Can she actually be part of this?

The only new information they seem to get out of the video is who St. John's is working with—Digital company. Mia is surprised. Digital is the company Mia goes to for all of her phones and computers. Why would they be apart of something likes this? It doesn't make sense. Craig seems to find a logical explanation, though. "I mean, they want to see how capable their computers are, so this could be a test of that."

When the video ends, they sit in silence. Mia's doing everything she can not to cry. She is confused and conflicted. If all of this is true, who is controlling her decisions? How long have they been doing so? Assumably since she was born. That's twenty-three years that she hasn't been in control of her own life.

She feels as if her life has been wasted. Would she have done something different if she could have made her own choices? Surely she has some sort of control, like her interests. Unless those are influenced, too.

"Hey." Craig wraps his arm around Mia's shoulder. She comes close and buries her face in his shoulder. The tears start to flood. He rubs her back comfortingly. "Maybe it's not true, that we're thinking about this too hard. Do you want to stop talking about it? It's been a long night, you could crash on my couch if you need to."

Mia lifts her head. She rubs her eyes with the heel of her palm. Once she has calmed down, she looks back at Craig. "Is there anyway we can go to the Digital company? Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Tomorrow?" he asks. "What about work?"

"I need to know if this is true," she says firmly. "Please..."

Craig thinks for a moment, then smiles. "Of course. It's a long drive, so we need to be ready bright and early."

Mia nods. A newfound determination overwhelms her. She's going to figure out if this is true. And if it is, she's going to get to the bottom of it.

~~~

Mia and Craig wake up when it's still dark. Mia went home after the two planned to leave for the Digital company. Craig picks her up in his Jeep at four in the morning so that they can make it to the company early.

Mia can feel a pull on her chest, as if her typical routine is trying to tug her back. She clutches onto her seat. Craig gives her a side glance. He grabs her hand and squeezes it.

"It's okay. We're going to figure this out."

In a few hours they reach their destination. Mia looks at the large building. She releases a shaky breath. Here they are. Here's where they'll see if it's all true.

At least she thinks so. Unless they have an individual area for these experiments. She'll worry about that later, though.

They stand there, looking at the building for another minute before walking inside. They wander around the large area mindlessly, both trying to not look skeptical and to find where to go. Craig had managed to find a blueprint online last night of the company and discovered a downstairs where they should try to find.

They find a receptionist close to the front. A woman is sitting behind the desk with a phone between her head and her shoulder. The two wait patiently for her to finish. Once she sets the phone down, she looks up and smiles. "Hello, what can I do for you?"

"Well," Craig clears his throat, "we were hoping to get some directions to downstairs?"

"Are you employees?" she asks.

"Well, no..."

"I'm sorry, you only have access to this floor and the next to upward. There are a flight of stairs and an elevator to the right if you'd like to explore around there. However, we recommend you to attend the next tour, which is in twenty minutes," the secretary replies. She's talking very quickly, and Craig clearly doesn't catch a few things. He seems to get the jist, though. He plasters on a tight smile.

"Thank you for your time, ma'am."

They walk away from the desk. Craig waits until they are far from the secretary to pull Mia to the side. He leans in close to whisper in her ear.

"I think we need to split up," he mutters. "I think we've pretty much cleared this floor, so we should check the other floors. You do the second and I'll do the third?"

Mia nods. They can cover more ground this way. They both go right as the receptionist had instructed, but split from there. Craig takes the elevator while Mia goes up the stairs.

The second floor is filled with displays of computers and other pieces of technology. There are statues and images covering the walls. A few other people are looking around the room, admiring the different displays. This must be where the tour mainly focuses.

Besides that, there doesn't seem to be much else. Mia is about to go up another set of stairs to tell Craig, but a water fountain catches her eye. She takes a drink. When she rises back up, she sees a hallway that she hasn't ventured down yet. She peeks through the windows. There doesn't seem to be anything of interest in them. She's about to leave when a pair of elevator doors slide open. A man bustles out of it, nearly knocking into Mia. She moves out of the way just in time. A card falls out of his pocket.

She plucks it off of the floor. "Hey!" she calls out. "I think you left your—"

It's too late. He's already out of sight.

Mia slides the card in her pocket. Then she enters the elevator. She lingers her finger over the buttons, looking for the one she wants. She's debating whether to meet Craig or to take the fourth floor first. Her thoughts are disrupted by the sight of a key card slot. Mia stares at it, confused. Why would an elevator need that?

Mia quickly takes the card out of her pocket. Though she's unsure whether it'll work, she slips it into the slot. Remarkably, it leads to a series of other buttons appearing. She looks at the labels under each button. The closest thing she can find is "Testing Room."

She clicks the button. The elevator doors close, then begin to lower.

***

"Wow!" you say. "Not complaining, but this is really meta." You watch as Mia walks out of the elevator and starts searching rooms similar to the ones near you. "I feel like she's going to bust into this room right—"

The door flings open. You turn your head to see a figure in the doorway. She looks up at the screen. You turn to look, too. The same thing that's happening is also occurring on the screen. You swallow hard.

"...Mia?"

She charges at you. Your mind is swirling with thoughts. This is real. You can't believe it. You haven't been controlling a game, you have been controlling a person. And now she's here and thinks that you're the one who has caused all of this.

You think quickly for a way to get out of this. Two ideas come to mind. You can try to talk to her to calm her down, though you're unsure if she's in the mood for talking. She only seems to be here for answers, so an explanation may calm her down.

On the other hand, you can grab something to defend yourself. Who knows what her intentions are. You can at least ensure that you're safe by grabbing the chair.

What are you going to do?

Talk to Mia ... Chapter 38

Defend Yourself ... Chapter 39