Page 35

A Familiar Face

Marsh’s shoes echo on the asphalt as she runs across the empty parking lot toward RealTV’s looming front entrance. The moon is just a crescent tonight over Kowloon Bay, and it almost seems like she’s flickering in and out of existence as she passes through each streetlamp’s yellow pool of light and then plunges into darkness again, over and over.

Even though RealTV is now located in Hong Kong, the building itself still looks mostly the same as its original location. At last, Marsh reaches the curb, and quickly surveys the manicured walkway and entrance. As she does, a shadow on the concrete just before the giant glass doors begins to work itself into a solid shape, something large and horizontal, like a miniature mountain range—until at last, she recognizes the maroon shirt Ren was wearing before he disappeared from their apartment on his sleepwalk.

“Ren!” Marsh gasps, dashing forward. “Thank God. Are you all right?”

She kneels and gently rolls him onto his back so she can see his face. His eyes are lazy, drooping, and his mouth is slack and his expression relaxed.

Still asleep.

He must have sleepwalked all the way here along Austin Road or Hung Hom South and tried to get into the building, but then ran out of steam because it was locked and curled up on the bristly entrance mat, all without knowing he’d done any of it.

Thank goodness she’s found him before he could have gotten into real trouble.

Marsh lets out an exhausted sigh and sits back.

That’s one problem solved, at least.

In the silence, she studies Ren as he sleeps. Out of all the episodes since the midseason special, Ren might look the most like his original self, for once, except there’s something a little off. Almost like he’s a little bit... undefined. It’s as if he’s just slightly out of focus, his outline fuzzy, like the Bubble can’t quite capture him with the same sharp, crystalline detail it can everything else.

How strange.

She doesn’t know what to make of it, but as she looks up at the RealTV building they’re sitting beneath, her musing comes to a screeching halt.

She stares, petrified, at the giant, glowing REALTV NETWORK sign above the door.

It doesn’t say RealTV anymore.

It says ChrysalisTV now.

Just then, the glass doors shudder, then begin to swing outward, like someone is pushing them open from the inside.

SagwaGold: Run!!!!!

The comments explode, but she’s still crouched beside Ren, unwilling to flee without him. The glint of the lights around the entrance have turned the glass into mirrors, and she can’t see who—or what —is opening them.

“Stay back!” Marsh shouts, but it’s too late.

The doors open, revealing a figure cloaked in the darkness of the inner hall. Slowly, he steps into the light.

SharpTruth400: At last

SharpTruth400: Thank God

[Automatic security filters have deleted this account]

SharpTruth401: There he is

[Automatic security filters have deleted this account]

Huh?

Marsh uncovers one eye.

“Hi, Marsh,” the man now standing there says. He’s tall and lanky, with dark hair and eyes. Marsh has definitely seen him somewhere before, she knows.

SharpTruth402: Lev

Lev?

She realizes at once.

The twins.

Lev and Ezra Hoffman. The brothers who helped invent the technology that the Bubble runs on!

The memories come rushing back. Dylan went to school with Lev, before he and Ezra were hired at Sharp Labs and eventually discovered quan tum bubbling. Lev was the one who told Dylan and Marsh to watch All This and More in the first place, way back when it had just gone on the air with Talia Cruz as its star.

SharpTruth402: We found you

[Automatic security filters have deleted this account]

[Additional security measures implemented]

Marsh stares long after the words have been erased.

It all makes sense now. How SharpTruth knows so much about how the show works, and how he can keep evading the security filters.

And why he’s so desperate to help Marsh figure out what’s going wrong in her Bubble.

Ezra? Marsh wonders.

It has to be.

“It’s good to meet you, at last,” the man in front of her finally says.

“Lev Hoffman?” Marsh asks. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been here since the pilot episode,” he replies. “This office is where I run everything from.”

“Where you run everything from?” Marsh repeats. “But I thought your brother was running things this season.”

Lev’s eyes widen.

“Ezra works for All This and More now?” he asks. “Where is he?”

“At—”

Marsh pauses.

It’s not called RealTV anymore in this episode—but she refuses to call it ChrysalisTV.

“—at the office outside the Bubble,” she finally says. “They put the science team on the outside this season, instead of on the inside like it used to be.”

Marsh watches Lev as he tries to absorb this information. He’s surprised and confused.

Something is very off about this.

She turns on the comments, but Ezra is still banned, and she snaps them off again.

Why doesn’t Lev know that his brother is also working for the show this season? Even if they once had a falling-out over quantum bubbling—if they’re both now part of the crew, didn’t they communicate before her first episode? And why aren’t they communicating now? Why is Ezra sneaking around in Marsh’s comments, whispering secrets to her, instead of going directly to Lev?

“Lev, what happened during season two?” Marsh asks him.

Lev looks at her and, after a moment, shakes his head.

“That’s just it,” he finally says. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Marsh repeats.

“I’ve tried to recall it, but it’s all just a blank. I remember working on Talia’s first season, and I know that I also worked on season two. But when I try to think about it, it’s all vague. Like my memory was wiped or something.” He sighs. “Talia’s finale is clear in my mind, and then the next thing I remember is your first episode.”

Marsh stares, rattled.

It doesn’t make any sense. Why can’t Lev remember anything from the last season, if he worked on it before production shut down? And why didn’t Talia or anyone else on the new crew mention that Lev was back this year?

“I don’t... I don’t understand,” Marsh says.

Lev shrugs helplessly. “Me either. But I’m trying to figure it out. And I do remember all of this season, so far.”

“Then you must know about Chrysalis,” she replies.

Whatever’s gone wrong between Ezra and Lev, and whatever happened to Lev’s memory of season two, they can figure that out later. Because in this season, Marsh is fast running out of time.

Lev nods. “I’ve been tracking it since your first episode.”

He looks around, and then crouches beside a still-slumbering Ren.

“Come on,” he says, helping Marsh to lift him up. “Let’s talk inside.”

The two of them stagger into the lobby, Ren slung between them. They carry him into the conference room and gently set him down behind the big oak table. Marsh sees that Lev has set up his workstation all across it, having turned the space into a web of laptops, empty snack wrappers, and a collection of RealTV—now ChrysalisTV—coffee mugs.

“Whew!” A musical gasp breaks the silence as the door swings open behind them.

Marsh lurches upright to see a new figure rushing in.

“Marsh, there you are!” Talia cries when she sees her. “Thank goodness you found Ren. I was so worried! I—”

Talia’s relieved monologue cuts off abruptly as Lev also stands up from behind the table.

“Lev,” she says, surprised. “You’ve been at RealTV this whole time?”

“Yep. Trying to figure out what’s going on with Marsh’s season.”

“That’s right!” Marsh says, shaking off the distraction of Talia’s appearance. “Lev was telling me that he noticed Chrysalis right at the start of my first episode. So you must know more about it than we do,” she prompts him.

Lev nods again, but he’s frowning. He beckons them over to his laptops.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I have some theories,” he says.

“Well, this is good news, right?” Marsh replies, hopeful. “Can’t you just tell the tech team outside the Bubble what to search for, so they can patch the glitch? If they can locate Chrysalis, they could—”

“They can’t,” Talia says.

Marsh pauses. “Can’t? What does that mean?”

Lev seems to agree. “It’s a security feature. Once the Bubble starts running, you can’t alter its code from the outside. It’s an automatic defensive strategy against hacking.” He sighs. “Unfortunately, we never anticipated tampering from the inside.”

Well, that explains why Ezra can’t reach Lev directly, either, Marsh supposes.

As Lev begins typing again, Marsh spots a familiar purple font on his screen.

It’s the same one that’s been on her own laptop lately, thanks to her new client.

“Is that Sharp Entertainment’s website?” Marsh asks.

“I’ve been trying to hack into their databases,” Lev replies. “Well, not the real Sharp Entertainment, but what little of Sharp Entertainment exists here in the Bubble. I’m hoping that maybe I can find the answers there, if I can’t remember them myself.” He frowns. “But so far, I haven’t gotten anywhere.”

“But RealTV bought the rights to All This and More after Sharp Entertainment folded, and took over everything for Marsh’s episodes,” Talia says. “You won’t find any data from this season there.”

“You’re right—but I’m not looking for data from this season,” Lev says.

Talia cocks her head, as if not expecting that response. “What do you mean?”

“This Bubble we’re in now is the one I created for you, Talia. I know, because I recognize all my code.” He points to an incomprehensible matrix of numbers on his screen. “I think that once I perfected the first Bubble, Sharp Entertainment—and now, RealTV—didn’t make a new one for each season. They kept reusing the same one.”

He glances sidelong at Marsh, his fingers on the keyboard never slowing.

“Whatever Chrysalis is, it’s here inside the Bubble, with us,” he says. “Which means, if there’s only one Bubble...”

“You’re after data from season two,” Marsh gasps suddenly, understanding. “From the mysterious contestant’s life that never aired.”

Lev looks at her.

“Bingo.”

He finally stops typing, and turns to her.

“Whatever happened in those lost episodes that no one ever got to see... I think that’s where Chrysalis started.”

Marsh stares.

“Holy mackerel,” she finally says.

Notamackerel: This is... I mean, I knew something was wrong, but this...

N3v3rGiv3Up: What does it mean??

StrikeF0rce: It means that Marsh might be in a lot more trouble than we thought

“So that’s what you’ve been working on all season,” Talia finally says, equally stunned.

Lev nods. “If I can find something in Sharp Entertainment’s files, I might have a better idea of how to resolve this glitch.” He grimaces at his screen. “If. I’ve been searching since the end of Marsh’s first episode, and I’ve found nothing so far. What little record of Sharp Entertainment that exists here in RealTV’s—or, I guess, ChrysalisTV’s—databases, it’s been wiped pretty clean.”

Marsh leans closer to his herd of computers. “There must be something I can do to help,” she says.

Suddenly, a huge rumble startles them all, and the room wobbles violently.

“What’s happening?!” she cries.

Marsh, Talia, and Lev stumble, and then drop to the floor as the shaking continues.

“I think it’s an earthquake!” Talia says.

“In Hong Kong?” Marsh asks, bewildered.

“It’s not really an earthquake...” Lev says. “It’s the Bubble! It’s struggling to... resolve the conflicts!”

They grab Ren and drag him under the conference table, holding on to the legs for safety. The whole building is groaning now, rolling in waves, and Marsh screams as the chairs around them topple over and the big flatscreen bolted to the wall jerks threateningly.

“What was that?” she wails as something glass crashes to the floor outside the conference room, sending a spray of shrapnel across the lobby.

“Come on!” Talia lunges from her crouch toward the door, and manages to wrench it open amid the shaking. “Let’s get out of the building!” she shouts.

But Marsh shakes her head. “We can’t leave Ren!” she says. “We have to make the choice here!”

Talia looks at Ren, still trapped in his slumber, then at Marsh before another crash nearly sends them all flying against the wall. “With everything so unstable, there’s no telling where we’ll end up!”

“I think I know where we’re all going to end up right now if we stay another second,” Lev replies.

As if in response, the angular chandelier overhead snaps its chain and smashes into the top of the table.

“Fine! Everyone, hang on!” Talia orders as she throws herself back under the table with them. Marsh can’t tell what she’s doing at first amid all the shaking, but then as a thump even louder than everything else pummeling their building rattles her teeth in their sockets, she knows.

The Show Bible.

It’s so monstrous now, Talia can’t even hold it up. She has to leave it on the floor and crouch over it to flip through it.

“Let me read it,” Marsh begs. “Let me read it, Talia!”

“Marsh, you know this already,” Talia says, hovering protectively over it. “Contestants cannot see the Show Bible, or read ahead in it before they make choices. It’s cheating.”

“I know, I know!” Marsh replies, furious. “But this isn’t about the show, Talia. This is serious. It’s my safety. It’s my life !”

“All the more reason not to risk it!” Talia argues. “Trust me!”

Moms4Marsh: Come on, Talia! Let her see it! This is serious!

Marsh hesitates, on the verge of panic. She’s frozen, her mind gripped by fear—but suddenly, an idea strikes her.

“We have to jump back!” she cries.

“What?” Talia asks. “We’re almost at the finale, Marsh! Why do you want to go back ?”

“Because then, I’ll already know how everything happens,” Marsh says. Ezra was right all along, she can see now. “I can go straight to Chrysalis from the start, when it’s still small, and figure out what’s going on, once and for all!”

Talia is shaking her head, shouting something about episode constraints or viewership numbers, but Lev is deep in thought despite the chaos, considering her logic.

“It could work,” he says at last. “If the Bubble holds long enough.”

“That’s a big i f !” Talia protests. She flinches as a piece of drywall dislodges and lands right next to them in a spray of white sand. “What are you even going to do, once you get there?”

“I don’t know yet,” Marsh says. “But I’ll figure it out!”

“Marsh, this is ridiculous,” Talia replies. “Let’s finish strong. You love your Hong Kong life, don’t you? Why do you want to leave it? Let me take you to your finale, where we can make every last thing perfect.”

Marsh shakes her head, desperate. The building is collapsing around them, and yet her host refuses to budge. Another minute, and they could all be buried in the rubble!

There’s only one way she’s going to be able to find out what Chrysalis really is.

Finally, instead of arguing, Marsh looks at Lev.

Lev sees her expression and nods back.

“Now,” Marsh says.

“What?” Talia asks—and then yelps angrily as Lev grabs her and Marsh dives for the Show Bible.

“Hurry!” he urges as Talia struggles.

“No!” she says. “Marsh, seriously, don’t do this!”

Marsh throws her whole body into it, and manages to muscle open the cover. Instantly, text overwhelms her, the font tiny and dense, every page packed to the margins, the words nearly impossible to read without a magnifying glass.

What does it say? She flips wildly as the building wavers. What secrets are there?

As Talia begs her to stop, Marsh finds the current scene. It almost looks like it’s writing itself in real time, words printing themselves upon the paper to record that Marsh has commandeered the Show Bible, that the end-of-episode music has just begun overhead. The book bloats even more, growing a little larger, as Marsh hovers over her next choice.

EPISODE 6: PARADISE

EPISODE 9: DEADLINE

Marsh frantically tries to remember. “Paradise” was the name of her Tahiti vacation episode, wasn’t it? Should she go back to search for Chrysalis in Tahiti, or to the start of this episode, in Hong Kong? Is Tahiti too far? Is Hong Kong not far enough?

“What should I do?” she asks Lev.

“Neither,” Talia demands coldly.

She’s going for intimidating instead of beseeching now, cycling through every tactic. Even amid the chaos, her voice cuts, low and sharp, like the edge of a knife.

“It’s not safe, Marsh. You can’t just flip like that, without me. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what could happen .”

Marsh’s hand wavers, hesitant.

What is Talia hiding? Or is she just protecting them? Will Marsh make an even bigger mess than the one she’s already in if she tries to do this alone?

“Let me guide you.” Talia reaches for her. “We can do this together. We can still make this life perfect.”

SharpTruth499: Perfect for who?

[Automatic security filters have deleted this account]

Just then, Ren finally begins to stir beside Marsh as the end-of-episode song jingles in garbled bursts over the building’s failing speaker system.

“Did I miss it?” he mumbles, his eyelids fluttering. “What did she choose?”

Marsh stares at him with terrified wonder.

“You could have...” he hums. “... All This ...”

“No, Marsh!” Talia shrieks, breaking free from Lev. “You can’t—”

Marsh makes her choice just as the ceiling splits open.

To jump back to Paradise: Turn the page

To jump back to Deadline: Go to Episode 9