The House of Teeth (Con't)

[Katrielle Layton]

The tape ended right there and then, although it sounded like the man attempted to say something before it cut to white noise. From what she remembered, these old tapes could only hold one recording at a time; if you tried to record again, it would overwrite what was on there previously. It sounded like that was the case there, but she had to wonder what might've been erased.

"This sounds more like a university lecture than a zen tape," she mused, ejecting the tape. "Not really a thing you'd expect to find lying around." She turned to Fury, only to find the cop rocking out to a portable cassette player with headphones. It wasn't really her kind of music, but to each their own. She tapped on his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, I'm going to poke around the place a bit. Just don't want to make you think I disappeared or anything."

Whether the man heard her or not, she didn't know, but nevertheless she backed up into the kitchen, carrying the tape player. Walking across the checkerboard tiles, she made her way to the window and stared out into the night. There wasn't much to see, but as she turned around to return to the living room and maybe investigate the basement, she noticed another cassette tape on the dining table. Settling down, she placed the player in front of her and inserted the tape.

The voice continued where it had left off. "The house is one of the key elements that separates modern humanity from its more primitive antecedents. Never a creature goes to such lengths to create a lasting, permanent shelter for itself, where God held such shelter in importance and relevance. Human beings in our modern age foster this tremendous sympathy towards their homes. There are many reasons, of course, but perhaps it is due in some small part to seeing them as a reflection of ourselves."

Once again, the tape deteriorated back into static. Mei ejected the tape again, left with more questions than answers. Maybe the tapes didn't get overwritten? But this was certainly an odd way to format the lecture-- surely all of the tapes this speech was on would fit onto a single one? She was pretty sure those things could hold a lot more than 30 seconds of dialog.

She returned to the living room and waved slightly at the karate cop, confirming that she was still alive. She moved over to the basement door and carefully pushed it open. What met her, however, was a very confusing sight: as she pushed the door away from her along its frame, another door, having been resting in the same spot the other door had been a moment ago. Literally. It was as if the door created a clone to act upon her hand instead. Puzzled, she tried opening the new door, only for it to do the exact same thing.

"Fury? Do you have any idea what's going on here?" Hopefully he could hear her question through the headphones.