Black Mirror

Chapter 18 - Buzzcut Season

Hey, as much as I want to feel safe and loved in Kensi's arms, for instance, my life can't exactly revolve around her.

Speaking of Kensi, where the hell is she?

Where are any of my friends?

And where's the Mirror so we can reverse what's happened with Jay and Harris?

The door opens. Maybe Park can answer my questions. Yes, it's Park coming in. Of course - it's his office, after all. Thank God it's not that creep Penner. I feel sorry for whoever he visits.

"Hey, guys," Park says with a gentle wave before taking off a pair of huge aviator sunglasses. "Sorry about all this cloak and dagger shit. I told them not to go dark-bagging, but..."

"But you let them bag and tag us anyway," Jay grumbles.

"Was the 'tag' part just a joke? I bet it was."

I play with the tint on the windows, and instantly regret turning it off when I see the Second 'Verse Bearville skyline. God, when are they going to repaint this town? These garish colors look so wrong under a sunlit green sky. Jasper Fforde writes stories about people getting sick from looking at colors like these.

"Could you not?" Park asks. "Please? You're gonna give me a seizure. I need the tint maxed out for a reason."

"Oh, sorry." I dial the darkness all the way up. Now it reminds me of the nights when there were "attack drills" on the wall - a wall that I get one last glimpse of before I completely tint the window. They've finally begun dismantling it, but that'll take a good long time, even with all those prefab parts they used to build it. Imagine if one of those ultra-conservative types they get on Earth got their hands on that technology. They'd have too much fun walling off all the countries, starting with the US.

"So..." Park flips open the Macbook he keeps on his desk, waits for a moment, then swipes the touch screen a couple of times. "So what exactly did you do with the Black Mirror? I mean, we've got a guy who's not supposed to be here." He nods and grins at Jay. "No offense, man."

"Not offended. You're only telling it like it is."

I twitch, wondering where Jay's going with his endless self-deprecation. It feels almost strategic. Maybe he's not exactly going for sympathy, but he's definitely playing on Park's heartstrings, and it appears to be working. Unlike Penner, Park isn't a cold, robotic fish. Or, at least, he doesn't present that way.

"Here's the record of how time progressed for your humans before you used the Mirror." Park turns his laptop screen around. "Go ahead, take a look."

On the left is a record with my name written in all caps on top, as well as the subtitle "HUMAN." It abruptly cuts off about halfway down the screen, and when I pinch it and zoom in, I see that it ends with my human's death by suicide, followed only a few seconds later by this entry:

"Sunday, November 9, 2020, 12:00:24am. Fionna Lee's demon dies - see relevant file under Appendix B - and her human thus ceases to exist."

On the right, Jay and I read his human's file, which doesn't end with his death. It does, however, specifically highlight one moment of importance. "Sunday, December 21, 2020, 7:43:26pm. Jay Cross' human, aided by his friends under the direction of inventor and covert counterspy Elena Montoya, assists in ending an armed uprising against the first-ever California Solstice Rising."

"We were supposed to win?" he asks. "I felt like we were losing."

"Maybe that's why you wound up losing," Park suggests. "You made some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy...but look, if you click on the Solstice Rising, you'll get a properly detailed entry about the events therein."