New Game

A cat wanders. Past the colorless dorms and areas of zone 3, past the great big library of zone 2, past the empty and abandoned barns and mine entrances of zone 1, all the way back to zone 0, where he belongs. And he waits. He crawls up and down the ladders, he walks around the small rooms, and he waits. Most of his life had been just waiting. He knows what he has been waiting for, he always does. For the illusion is, in fact, that he knows more than he actually does. What he didn't know, was that his brother was to die. Or that the last Batter would be an impostor. He was never prepared for such things. But no one knew this, of course. Especially not the Player, nor the Batter. He didn't think even Zacharie knew. He did know, however, that this universe, this world, this being, his being, was all just part of a game.

A twisted game with many endings, those of which he knew of. A game, in the Player's eyes, for fun. This "game" had started getting to him in the last session. He didn't want to think about it, and he tried not to, but memories of seeing his brother being murdered countless times by the Batter, possessed by the guardian of zone 2, Japhet, were all too real. A game? Maybe for some. But to this cat, this was his life. And there was no escape from it. He watches the world refill with color, meaning that the new Batter has arrived. The cat walks out of the small room on the outside of zone 0 and over to where the Batter is standing. "There cannot be any other living beings in zone 0, so I must assume that you are only a mere figment of my imagination. Nevertheless, I will introduce myself. I am the Judge, and I am aching to know your name, dear elusory interlocutor."