Voices in my head- Publisher Audition pt. 3

A short while later found me finally figuring out how to input my chosen characters, and the three of them set up and ready to go.  Alto had been a given right away, he was in general my favorite character so it just seemed right.  The other two took some time, but I had wanted to choose characters from three different stories, since that would show this Publisher guy I had a variety of stories to offer.  In the end I decided having someone who was actually built for fighting seemed smart, so I chose Striker, and I wanted a female character to balance the boys, so Sammy it was.

I was considering trying out the watch just for fun, when a rather unpleasant smell assaulted my nose.

“Uggh the lingering smells of work.” I sniffed my scrub top and made a face. With all the anxiety and emotions running through me the past little while I had hardly even noticed, but now that I was tuning back into the world around me, I realized I must have picked up some lingering smells from the night's patients.

Pulling off my scrub top I begun to realize that must have been partly why Tie guy the Editor, and Andrew had been so dead set on shooing me away.

“Sure hope this place has a washer and dryer...or at least a sink and some soap.” Figuring I wasn't going to be allowed to use the Editor's office sink, I started my way down the hall in hopes of finding a bathroom or laundry room.

What I found was not a bathroom but a lady on a giant....Roomba? I stared as she cleaned, before eventually gathering the courage I needed and went over.  I tapped her shoulder lightly, since she was wearing headphones.

She looked at me from behind her visor and gave me a questioning look but nothing more.

“Um...is there somewhere I can wash this?” I held up my scrub top.

The lady gave it a once over, made a face, and snatched it out of my hand. “I'll take care of it.

“You really don't have to I could-”

She shook her head “It's my job, I'm The Janitor.”

Before much else could be said she sped off on her giant...hovering... vacuum...thing, taking my scrub top with her.  A bottle of bleach and a few other cleaning supplies had been left behind, probably indicating that she was going to be coming back to finish cleaning at least.

“Weeeeeird staff...” I mumbled to myself “But I totally want one of those hover vacuums!”

With nothing better to do I sat down again and noticed some spots on the walls.  Without really thinking I picked up the bottle of bleach and started scrubbing down the wall, falling into the rhythm of cleaning was actually quite relaxing to my tired and stressed out mind.  I could swear it wasn't more than half an hour before The Janitor reappeared, right behind me, and a lot quieter than you'd think.  She leaned past my shoulder from behind, inspecting the wall.

“Hmm you're not too bad at cleaning.” she observed.

“Gah!” I jerked in surprise and wound up knocking over the bottle of bleach, the lid still unscrewed from when I had been opening it to see if it was empty.

The bleach tipped right over and fell across the hand I'd been bracing on the floor, and partly onto the band on my wrist.  The wristband gave a little beep but didn't seem otherwise bothered by the bleach, all the same I sputtered and wiped it off my hand and the band quickly.  I tried to apologize to the Janitor but she just handed me back my scrub top and shooed me out of the way, mopping up the bleach and going back to her cleaning.  Asking her some more questions crossed my mind, but at this point it didn't seem like she wanted to chat.  So I let her be and trudged my way down the hall again, all the while my feet reminding me how tired I really was.

After taking a few turns down various halls and walking past the same bathroom twice somehow, I finally found what looked like a lounging room.  It was carpeted, unlike the halls outside the room, and had various chairs and a couple of couches throughout.  There was a table off to the side with a coffee pot and an empty plate that probably had some snacks at one point.  At that point I just didn't care if some employee came in and found me sleeping, I kicked off my shoes and flopped onto one of the couches.  Using my newly cleaned scrub top for a pillow I let go of my anxieties about this tournament and the worries of what might happen next, and gave in to my exhaustion.

When the later morning hours came around I expected to be woken up by another odd member of the staff.  Instead what I was first greeted by was an obnoxious beeping right in my ear.  I groaned and grumbled but for some odd reason that didn't get the beeping to stop (Hmm imagine that!).  Eventually I sat up enough to look around, fixing the glasses that were askew on my face.

“Ah there we are!” a male voice spoke up.  I couldn't pinpoint where it came from, and I couldn't see anyone in the room with me.  “I knew that would get you up eventually if I let it keep going.”

The beeping finally stopped but just before it had finished I realized it was coming from the band on my wrist.  That had to mean that the voice was coming from whoever was in charge of this crazy place, or at least someone who was watching me through the cameras...right?

“Oh come now creator, I know up until now I've been only a picture on a page, but do you really not know my voice?” Another shiver ran down my spine and I could practically feel the smirk that went with the voice.

I stared down at my wrist band.  Striker's picture was there, not moving, just staring back at me, as his voice, my own character's VOICE spoke in what seemed like both of my ears at once.

“Now you're getting it,” his dry, but not quite toneless, voice spoke again “Seems we've found an interesting glitch in this band, and I intend to exploit it in any way I can.”