Cookbook from Hell Reheated by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.
Published: 2016-04-17T16:00:00+00:00

Another Time

Light shone into the otherwise complete darkness from two sources. The first, behind her, cast her shadow onto a rectangle of light on the otherwise featureless floor in front of her. The second streamed from a doorway facing hers, that silhouetted another person.

Her eyes adjusted and she could make out that they stood upon opposite edges of a great, circular platform several dozen strides across, each entering from a glaring doorway. In the middle stood two desks, each with a computer console on its surface.

As she stepped forward onto the dark floor, the light behind her began to fade. She turned barely in time to see it disappear completely. A door slamming shut. She flinched at the finality of the act, then she reached out to touch the doorknob.

Emptiness.

Nothing lay beyond the edge of the platform.

Looking outward, black spots floated before her eyes. Only void and darkness were upon the face of the deep. If she stepped off the edge, she’d fall forever.

She turned toward the center of the platform, back to face the other figure. Their door had closed as well. The only light was now a glow emanating from the great disk on which they stood, as if the surface were transparent and a languid sea of light shifted slowly back and forth within its depths. By its glow she could see her companion, an average-height man, average-build, tending toward the rotund, and hair starting to gray. Nothing exceptional about him at all.

She looked down at herself. Even without anyone to compare to, she knew she was looking at something way better than average. With a body like this she could do some serious damage, and have a lot of fun along the way.

“Where did you come from?” she called across to him.

He looked down into the lighted disk that was their floor. “I don’t know.”

If his voice held concern, she could detect no note of it.

“How about you?”

She thought for a moment, then she thought some more. And a bit more. She didn’t know either. Not a good feeling. It was a feeling she’d gladly trade in for… She couldn’t think of anything. She knew she stood on a disk across from a man, each in front of a computer, but when she thought of herself, all she found was a blank slate.

They had been cut off from their past, fully grown with no memories. It didn’t seem right, something was missing. Sure, no one remembered their own birth, but this was ridiculous.

He knelt and rapped the floor lightly with his knuckles. A hollow ringing filled the air out of all proportion to the gentleness of the tap. The sound and vibrations coursing up through the soles of her sandaled feet were as if he’d struck some great bell with a massive hammer. The vibration settled only slowly, as if infinite potential were trapped within the disk waiting for release.

Rising to his feet he walked over to one of the desks. He wore a plain white, button-down shirt, khaki slacks, and scuffed loafers with too-white socks.

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