The Key

 

As expected, the metal key opened the door. The house seemed normal on the outside, but inside it was obviously something else. The room they opened up was smaller than expected, with strange metal sculptures on the walls. Cars, clocks, robots, and rockets taking up almost every square foot.

There were small cubes in the room that doubled as tables. On each of them, a large glass bowl filled with gears, switches and screws. It was obvious that none of the decorations on the wall were finished. The contents of the bowls could probably fix them, but which one to start on? The wallpaper seemed oddly designed. The pattern was interrupted by roman numerals, each seemly unique to a particular decoration.

He turned the key over in his hand. A small indent on one side left a ‘53’ raised to the normal shape of the key. It was a small clock next to that number, and it only seemed to be missing a small gear on the outside. He grabbed a handful of candidates from a bowl and had a closer look.

Again it seemed like a complicated puzzle, but the reality was much more straightforward. Only one of the gears was even close to the right size and tooth pattern and it was easy enough to replace.

A small slot on the bottom of the clock opened up. There was a small coin in the space that seemed unusually heavy for it’s size. He noticed a slot in the door further in, now lit up with small flashing lights – resembling a pinball machine. He took two steps towards it when the girl grabbed his arm.

“You don’t want to go that way” she said, walking back the way they came in. “Why not?” he asked. “You didn’t notice the room spinning after you put the gear in?” she said. “No.”

He took a few more steps in her direction and felt the room shift. This time they both looked around suspiciously. The movement stopped then reversed. They resumed heading toward the plain door.

He paused at the door, playing with the coin, he had felt the room moving once, so it was definitely possible, but why hadn’t he noticed the first time. “Where were you standing the first time?” he asked her. “Over there,” she pointed at a far bowl. “And was it a faster movement, the first time or the second?” “Definitely the first. About half again as fast.”

He pictured where they were both standing each time and assumed in front of the clock was the pivot point. It seemed to check out. She had grabbed the coin from him while he was thinking and was about to drop it in the slot for the plain door. He nodded.

It sounded like it dropped clear to the floor on the other side, and then into a small pile of similar tokens. They then heard footsteps and an older man in formal wear opened the door. “Very good.” he said to them after sizing each of them up. “Come in then.”

This next room was a mix of a library and a scientific lab. Most of the people in the room were sitting in lavish chairs, reading quietly between trying to watch the few doing experiments, or examine the newcomers. They seemed to be whispering to one another something about ‘first door’.

The boy and girl stood a bit straighter when the man who let them in did a short announcement to the room. “Please welcome ....”

He sat up in bed. Another dream, another mini adventure. He grabbed the rubic’s cube like device on his nightstand. He looked at the display screen on the top – ‘53’ it said. ‘Type?’ it asked. He selected ‘Puzzle Room’ from the options. It buzzed in his hand as it scanned him.

“Solution acceptable, reward missing.” Obviously, he thought. Still the DreamBox was fun, if a little nebulous. It was obviously working, as the key had 53 on it in his dream, and it had summarized that he solved the puzzle, without cheating, but woke up before anything resolved itself.

It was shortly after 4am in the morning and he was still tired. “Try and Resume Dream?” it prompted quietly in the dark. “Sure.” he said, wondering if the last update had made that feature any more successful than before.

He was back in the house, in the first room. Except this time all the parts were floating in the air, all the clocks were chiming, robots flashing, car tires spinning and rockets blasting. It was a mess of sensations and it was nearly overwhelming. He ran over to the 53 clock and pushed the key into the front face. Everything in the air dropped and the room went silent.

The far door quietly opened and the girl appeared again. “What did you do?” she asked. “Nothing, it was already happening.” She shrugged “It must be the puzzle box’s idea of a reward.”

He figured the girl must represent a secondary bit of himself, something observational and a little less involved. He felt a strange feeling like that information would break the effect, but the girl was already a few steps ahead of him, walking to the plain door. “We should go back to the library lab.”

The room was empty of people, and a lot of the books and equipment were missing as well. “You’re too focused on the puzzle” the girl said, analyzing him offhandedly. “Don’t you want to know anyone?”

He went to a shelf and grabbed a book. It said “Credits” on the outside, but the inside swam around and didn’t make any sense. He got the impression of a few people he knew from the Cube company on Social Media. “Dreaming about text is always a pain” said the girl.

He woke up again. 7 am. “Rate your experience” said the cube as he touched it. ‘Meh’ he said.