Chapter 30 - The Audience
The applause echoed through the corridor.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Mocking.
One clap every few seconds.
We stepped into the hallway.
No one stood there.
Yet the clapping continued from somewhere beyond the walls.
The Caretaker's voice drifted through hidden speakers.
"You've reached the point where everyone makes the same mistake."
"What mistake?"
"They begin looking for one enemy."
The applause stopped.
Doors along both sides of the hallway clicked open simultaneously.
Inside every office sat a person.
Perfectly still.
Men.
Women.
Young.
Old.
All dressed in ordinary clothes.
All facing desks covered with reports.
None looked toward us.
They simply continued writing.
Hundreds of pens scratched across paper in perfect rhythm.
The sound filled the hallway.
I approached the nearest office.
The writer never acknowledged me.
His report described a family eating dinner.
Every detail was exact.
Even the number of times each person chewed.
I turned another page.
The report described my current heartbeat.
Another page.
The position of Rick's ears.
Another.
The realtor shifting her weight onto her left foot.
Everything was happening in real time.
I grabbed the notebook.
Blank pages.
The writing vanished the moment I touched it.
The worker finally stopped writing.
He slowly lifted his head.
His eyes were completely white.
No pupils.
No iris.
Only white.
Then every worker in every office raised their heads together.
Hundreds of white eyes fixed on us.
Without opening their mouths, they spoke in perfect unison.
"We are only recording."
Rick barked furiously.
One worker finally smiled.
"No."
Another corrected.
"We were."
The lights flickered.
Every office instantly became empty.
The chairs rocked gently as though someone had just stood up.
The reports were gone.
Only one remained on the floor outside the final office.
Across the cover, someone had written by hand:
Volume 1
Beneath it rested another identical book.
Volume 2
Then another.
Volume 3
The hallway stretched into darkness.
As my flashlight reached farther, I realized the books continued in endless rows.
Thousands of volumes.
Each one labeled with my name.
May you like
None of them had reached the final chapter.
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