Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Quinn
Imake it as far as the Pirate Plunder ride in Dead Man’s Cove before the urge to hide overwhelms me.
Aven is probably hot on my heels, and the sooner I conceal myself, the more likely I am to remain undetected.
There are no crowds to slink into, so I choose the next best thing and dive into the foliage beside the ride’s queue. Then, I wait.
Several minutes pass before Aven strolls by. His head spins on a swivel, turning every direction but mine as he considers which path I might have taken. After checking a signpost, he heads down a side street that will lead him far away from me.
Perfect.
Once he’s gone, I unfurl myself from the shrubbery and begin plucking bits of greenery from my hair. When I feel icy fingers wrap around my arm, I turn toward the figure with a raised fist, certain it’s my damned bodyguard.
But it’s not Aven holding my arm in an iron grip. It’s Jim.
He steadies me on my feet and lowers my raised fist. “Where’s your security detail run off to?”
“Probably to go fuck up someone else’s good time,” I grumble as I pull a final twig from my shirt. “You said I could have some fun for the rest of the trip, but he’s seriously killing the mood, Jim. He tricked me into going to the lame popcorn thing, and—”
“Lame?” Jim frowns and looks genuinely hurt. “I thought it was exciting and fun.”
“Oh, it was so exciting and fun,” I say, trying to cover my blunder. “It’s just that Aven wouldn’t let me participate, and I got bored.”
Jim sighs and releases my arm so that he can cup his chin. “Yes, he’s concerned about your mental welfare, I’m sure. Going from Normie to Sinner is a bit of a leap, and no one wants you to regret your decision.”
“Regret? I don’t know the meaning of the word.”
“I’m serious, Quinn. For once, I’m very, very serious.” He stops rocking. “Would you like to see something very not lame?”
“Practically dying for it,” I say.
He smiles at me, then raises his walkie to his lips. “Scotland’s package is with me. Let him know so that he doesn’t worry. And prepare the simulation.”
With that, he offers me his arm, and I take it.
After a golf cart picked us up and ferried us to the hangars I saw when we first arrived, we went inside and ended up in this large white room with an egg-shaped chair in its center.
I’ve never been to the back lots of a theme park before this impromptu excursion, but I doubt many of them have a room like this.
In front of the chair is a single concave wall of glass.
A beautiful, dark-haired woman with striking blue eyes approaches Jim. I recognize her as one of the girls who sat at our table the night before, but I can’t place her name. She gives me a polite smile before pulling him aside and whispering, “Do you really think this is wise?”
Jim waves her off and pulls her closer to me. “Frankie, this is Quinn. She’s part of the project King and I have been working on for these past months. Since she is the subject of our little simulation, I figured it might be good to let her see it.”
Frankie turns and offers her hand, which I accept with a firm shake. “Nice to meet you,” she says. “Has Jim explained what you’ll see?”
“I guess. He said I’d see some predicted outcomes of some events.”
Frankie glares at him. “Right. Some events. And what events did you want her to see?”
“I didn’t have anything specific in mind.” He rolls his hand through the air. “Maybe show her what would have happened if she’d gone to the roller coaster exhibition.”
Frankie shakes her head and walks off as Jim takes my arm and leads me to the egg chair. When he motions for me to sit, I do. The white cushions practically grab me in a comforting hug as I sink into the pillowy fabric. It’s much more comfortable than it looks.
“Now sit back fully,” he instructs. “Let the seating immerse you, and don’t take your eyes off the screen.” He motions to the curved glass wall. “Frankie just needs to feed the device a little data, and it will spit out some scenarios for you.”
As he steps away, the lights click off overhead.
My senses are dulled by the chair, meaning all I hear and see is whatever is in front of me.
The concave glass lights up then, and the chair begins drifting closer with a grating whine.
I grip the edges until the ride comes to a stop way too close to the screen.
While my mother wasn’t in my life for very long, I can still hear her telling me to scoot away from the television before I ruined my eyesight.
Which didn’t happen often, as being homeless doesn’t exactly put you in front of televisions very often. Still, her voice fills my head.
Little memories of my mother continue to haunt me in this place, but I welcome her spirit. I feel closer to her now than I have in a long time. A reunion seems an impossibility, but with all this money I’ll make at the end of this, I can probably pay a pretty good investigator to find her.
Speakers in the chair play a soft tone as the screen comes to life.
It’s almost like the opening scene of a movie.
The camera pans over the park and comes to land behind two people: me and Aven.
It looks like it could have been shot while we were walking to the park, but I never saw a camera behind us.
“This is all simulated video,” Jim says through the speakers.
“None of that mucky generative-AI mess, though. Our program is state-of-the-art! Spared no expense. You’ll find that all human renderings have the correct amount of fingers, and no one’s head will turn into a cabbage if it’s bitten off by a dog. ”
“Is the cabbage thing a common problem? Because that seems oddly specific,” I say, but Jim doesn’t respond. He just keeps going on about how they hired actual artists and used extensive human motion-capture research to feed the sim machine instead of stealing from actual human workers.
On the screen, Aven and I begin walking again. The camera follows us to the roller coaster, where the simulation once again pauses.
“Quinn, at the coaster event, you and Aven would have been required to choose the red team or the blue team. No other information would have been provided. Which team would you have chosen?” Before I can answer, he interrupts me. “Don’t say it aloud, dear girl. Just have the answer in your head.”
I’d pick the red side because it all but promises blood.
I nod to let Jim know I have my answer locked in.
The simulation picks up again. A faceless barker approaches and asks which team we’re on. Sim Quinn answers before Sim Aven has a chance to open his mouth.
“I’m picking red,” she says.
The hairs on my arm stand up. How did it know that?
Jim pauses the simulation again, freezing Sim Aven as he looks at Sim Quinn. Is that really how he looks at me? There’s a hint of admiration in his eyes. And something else. I don’t have time to dwell on it, though, because Jim’s currently getting annoyed with me for ignoring him.
“Sorry, what was that?” I ask.
“Did it get it right? Would you have picked the red side?”
I bite my bottom lip and nod. “Yeah. That’s what I was thinking.”
Despite the egg chair’s soundproofing, I hear Jim’s joyous shout and clapping hands from here, even though his mic is off. I’m glad he’s so overjoyed about this outcome. Meanwhile, I’m just getting more curious—and nervous.
“Let’s try another one,” Frankie says through the speakers, and even she sounds a little excited about this.
“You’ll be given the option to ride the coaster.
You’ll be allowed to choose where you sit.
Each coaster car has four seats—two in front and two in back.
There are six cars to a train. Are you riding, and if so, where are you sitting? ”
I close my eyes and think about it. “Is it one of the original coasters?”
“The only original I kept in the park,” Jim says. “Steel Tiger, one of the most diabolical hybrid coasters ever created.”
A smile eases onto my face. I can’t help it.
That was my mother’s favorite ride at the park, and I just made the height requirement on that last visit.
I’d had a nice little growth spurt that summer.
When Mama and I were standing in line, she told me all about the best places to sit on each coaster in the park.
For Steel Tiger, you wanted to sit in the very last row on the last car.
That way, every time you went down a hill, you had the force of the entire train pulling you down.
“I know exactly what I would say,” I tell Jim as I open my eyes. “Roll the footage.”
The people jump to life on the screen again. Another faceless staff member approaches and asks if we’ll be riding the coaster. Once again, Sim Quinn jumps in to answer before Aven can open his mouth. Am I really this much of an attention whore?
But I’m not paying attention to whatever Sim Quinn says on screen.
My eyes remain on Sim Aven. He’s watching me again, but not in the way I imagine him watching me in real life.
In my mind’s eye, he’s perpetually rolling his eyes and grumbling about anything I have to say, and that’s when he’s even listening.
Sim Aven, on the other hand, listens to me speak as if I’m saying the most interesting thing he’s ever heard.
I’m starting to think this simulation is just creating another fantasy for me to lose myself in, but then it happens.
The shift. The simulation captures the moment perfectly.
As Sim Quinn turns to Sim Aven to ask if he wants to ride with her, the admiration fades as quickly as if someone dropped a curtain of indifference over his face.
His gaze cuts to the side, and he shrugs.
“Whatever the lass wants is fine by me, pal,” he says to the worker, and Jesus fuck, they nailed the accent.
Sim Quinn huffs and trots her happy little ass toward the back car, last row. I will have them know I do not walk like that. My hip swing is not that dramatic.
The screen freezes again, right on an unflattering angle as Sim Quinn is climbing into the coaster car. She’s bent over with her ass facing the camera as Sim Aven stares a hole through her khaki shorts.
“Did it get it right again?” Jim asks, and I confirm.
“Now let it play!” I shout toward them. “I want to see what would have happened next!”
Initially, what happens next isn’t that exciting.
We ride the coaster, and Aven keeps his eyes clenched shut the entire time.
I’m all smiles as the cars whip us right, left, and upside down.
By the end of it, the smile has turned upside down, and I’m crying, which is totally embarrassing. God, I am such an ugly crier.
It’s also probably totally accurate. Because I would have been thinking about my mother.
Sim Quinn and Aven exit the ride, and the former tries to cover her tears as the latter tries to figure out why she’s crying.
The three people we met earlier—Bennett, Eve, and Cat—come over to find out what’s wrong, but as Aven tries to shoo them off, I slip out through the exit.
The camera stays with Sim Quinn, but Sim Aven joins her moments later at the bottom of some stairs.
“Maybe it’s best we don’t do the event. Why don’t we head back to the resort and grab a bite?
” Then Sim Aven steals my breath as he wraps his arm around my facsimile and actually tries to comfort her.
“I don’t know what all this fuss is about, lass, and you don’t have to tell me.
But if you want to talk, I’ve ears enough to listen. ”
Tell him, I urge in my mind. Tell him how badly you’re hurting. Let him in.
But it’s a very accurate simulation, and I already know what my copy will do before she does it. Still, it’s a slap in the face when she pulls away and tells him he wouldn’t understand.
How can he when you won’t tell him anything?
Fuck therapy. This little egg chair is giving me more insight into my psyche than I bargained for.
Sim Aven grabs Sim Quinn’s arm to prevent her from running off again.
She stumbles from the abrupt stop, then tumbles backward into his arms when he grabs her.
As he rights her, they’re looking right into each other’s eyes.
A fire burns there, glowing right between them, so hot I can nearly feel it myself.
Kiss him, you fool!
And by god, she does. She grabs that big hunk of man and just goes for it, leaping onto him and mauling his face like a mountain lion who hasn’t eaten in a month of Sundays.
The image freezes on the screen, and I sit forward with a shout. “No! It just got to the best part! Don’t stop it now!”
Then the chair spins around, and the lights come on. Frankie and Jim are tucked away in a little booth with the simulation characters displayed on large screens behind them. The kissing simulation characters that represent me and Aven.
And right behind Jim stands Aven.