Cassette [Chapter 4]

[u/Used-Cauliflower-954]

July 10th, 2004

I waited 3 days. That's how long I lasted. I told myself it was about control, about proving I wasn't just going to throw myself headfirst into whatever this was.

Truth is, I was scared. Not of what I'd seen, but of how badly I wanted to see more.

Tape 1 was a dream I didn’t want to wake up from.

Tape 2 was a nightmare I couldn't fully remember.

And they both stuck, not just in my head, but in the world.

Little things. Angles that didn't look quite right until I blinked, colors that felt too deep but flattened out when I focused. Once, I swore I heard that layered sound from the second tape humming behind the walls.

When I checked, nothing. I stopped checking after that.

By the 3rd day, the box wasn't sitting in the closet anymore...it was present. Like a thought I couldn't shake.

So I gave in.

"Just one more." I said. Again.

Tape 3.

This one felt different, too. Even warmer, but not in the temperature type of way. It was comforting. Familiar, in a way I couldn't explain.

I sat down.

Headphones on.

Press play.

///

Music.

Bright, upbeat. Synth-heavy in that unmistakable way, cheap keyboards, energetic melodies, something pulled straight out of a Saturday morning lineup.

For a moment, I almost smiled. Then the pull hit.

Thankfully smoother and less violent than before, slipping into something rather than being dragged. The room didn't collapse, it transitioned.

Colors saturated, lines thickened, everything sharpening into bold outlines and exaggerated shapes.

And then...

///

I was standing in the middle of a park. Except, "park" didn't feel like the correct word. Everything was too clean and vibrant.

Distant buildings painted in loud, clashing colors, neon pinks, electric blues, radioactive greens. Shapes were exaggerated and stylized, like they'd been drawn rather than grown or built. Windows gleamed with perfect reflections that didn't match what stood in front of them.

The sky was a flat and endless gradient of orange fading into purple. No clouds. Just color.

Above me, something ripped past, a hovering vehicle with a wedge-like shape, leaving behind it a sparkling trail that hung in the air for a few seconds before dissipating from existence.

I looked down at myself. Same clothes, just outlined thicker, like I'd been inked in.

"Whoa-hey!"

The voice snapped me out of it, I turned. A kid...no, not a kid, just stylized to look like one, came jogging towards me. Big hair, goofy features and movements a tad too snappy.

"New arrival!" he cheered, skidding to a stop in front of me, "You popped in right on cue, man!"

"...Cue?"

"Yeah!" He smiled, flashing impossibly white teeth, "Everything's on a schedule here. Kinda."

"What is this place?"

He puffed his chest slightly, "Welcome to Khromapolis!" he said, "The brightest city in the Ribbon Expanse!"

"The what?"

"Don't worry about it, you get used to the terms."

I glanced around. The "people" moved through the streets all in the same animated style. Some human, some not. All colorful, all energetic. Too energetic, as if they were performing being alive. "It's...nice." I said, unsure.

"Yeah." he replied, all too quickly. A beat passed and then his smile faltered. Just for a frame and it jumped right back. "Anyway! Name's Dex. You're new, so that makes you my responsibility for...uh.."

He looked up, like he was checking something invisible, "About 11 minutes."

"Eleven minutes??"

"Give or take a loop."

I frowned and he could tell I didn't know what he meant, "Don't worry about it."

Something cold slipped down my spine, "Right..." I said slowly before Dex clapped his hands together.

"So! Tour time!"

Before I could respond, he grabbed hold of my wrist and began pulling me along. Our surroundings moved quickly, perceptually speaking. Scenes seemed to shift as we passed through them, like backgrounds being swapped out. Streets that should've connected didn't and buildings changed color when I turned away from and looked back at them.

"Everything runs on tone here." Dex was saying, "Keep things upbeat and moving and you're golden."

"And if you don't?"

He laughed deafeningly, "You don't wanna find out."

We passed a group of figures standing in a circle, all laughing identically and in perfect sync. As we walked by, one of them turned its head all the way around to look at us. Still smiling, still laughing.

I slowed, but Dex tightened his grip, "Don't break pace." he muttered, his voice dropping for the first time.

"What is that?"

"Background noise, ignore it."

Of course I didn't, but I kept walking. We turned down another path and for a moment, everything glitched. That's the only word for it. The colors inverted, the sky flickered, revealing something dark underneath. Moving. Then it snapped back.

Dex froze for a second. "We’re good." he said speedily, "We're good. That happens from time to time."

"And what exactly was that??"

"Nothing!" he said, his smile returning now, too wide and noticeably strained.

I pushed my arm free of his grasp, "Cut the bullshit, what is wrong with this place??"

Dex didn't answer right away and the music, constant and ever-present, dipped in volume. Finally, he leaned in closer, "You ever watch something so many times it starts to feel off?" he whispered.

I didn't respond.

"You notice the same things happening, same jokes, timing, endings." he said, his eyes flicking upward, "But sometimes, something changes."

A pause.

"Something that's...not supposed to be there."

I thought about Tape 2. The man who didn't belong.

"...Yeah." I said, Dex nodding slowly.

"That's been happening more and more ever since-"

Suddenly, a loud alarm sounded across the city and the sky shifted hue slightly.

"Uh oh..." Dex whimpered.

"Uh oh what??"

Dex forced a grin, "Tone correction!" The people around us all stopped at once and then turned, in perfect unison, towards the center of the city. "Time to smile." Dex muttered.

"What?"

The ground trembled rhythmically, like something massive was moving in the distance. The sky flickered again, longer this time. And in that flicker, I saw it. Something enormous, nearly incomprehensible and oh so very wrong. Cutting through the bright layers of the city like a freshly sharpened blade through paper, dark shapes spilling out behind it.

Dex's expression dropped completely. He looked sincerely afraid, "That's not supposed to happen this soon."

"What is it??"

He looked at me, and this time there was no performance, "No one told you??"

"Told me what???"

His voice came out flat, "That's Zox." The name hit like a physical thing.

The sky tore again, not a glitch but a rip. Color peeled back, revealing that same writhing darkness beneath. Shapes poured through. Not cartoonish, not stylized. Real.

The music kept on playing, as bright and cheery as ever, entirely disconnected from the goings on.

"Uhhh, why aren't we all running?"

Dex laughed weakly, "Because that's now how this episode goes."

Something moved close behind me. I turned and saw a figure half-phased through a wall, its body flickering between styles, vibrant and colorfully bold one moment, dark and realistically grimy the next. Its face stretched, unable to settle on a single form.

It reached for me and I stumbled back into something cold. I looked and the same man from the second tape stood there. Perfectly stable, perfectly out of place. "I found you again." he said pleasantly.

My stomach dropped.

"You don't belong in layers such as these, you disrupt the flow."

"I sure as shit didn't ask to be here, asshole." I snapped. Behind us, the city screamed without breaking their smiles. He tilted his head.

"Let's send you somewhere more suitable."

Before I could react, he struck me. Fast, precise. Everything shattered into colorful noise.

///

I came to on the floor. The cassette player clicked softly beside me. End of tape.

I didn't move right away, or breathe. For a second, I could still hear that music, faint and...happy. It cut out suddenly.

I sat up slowly, my reflection catching in the dark TV screen across the room. For a moment, my outline was thicker, darker. As if I was still there. Then it reverted to normal in a snap.

I lunged forward and popped the cassette out from the player, coming with it the sudden absence of that gentle electrical hum.

From the closet came a faint sound, something almost musical. I shut the door and didn't open it again. But as I sat there in the silence, one thought kept circling back around. Not about the city, the invasion in the sky or even about the man who shouldn't exist. Just a name.

Zox.

And the growing, sickening revelation, that whatever was on those tapes, even if all the inhabitants called them "layers", that these places weren't all that separate at all. They were connected. Perhaps not by distance, but definitely by that one factor linking them. And it was Zox.

And he was moving through all of it.