Reincarnated in Quality Assurance

Marke gave a brief scream and fell off the cot. His own voice laughed at him as he scrambled on the floor. A guard shone a light in and Marke had to squint his eyes. Wait, I actually don’t have to squint my eyes. Marke found he could stare straight at the light without discomfort.

“Quiet.” The guard commanded.

“Sorry, sorry.” Marke muttered as he stood up. “Just a nightmare.” The guard held the light another moment and then pulled away.

Marke’s voice came again, “Sorry, scaredy-cat. I’ve been real bored all day while you’ve been sleeping. I needed a bit of fun to make it worthwhile.” The voice seemed to come first from one side of the room and then moved swiftly to the other side.

“Who are you?” Marke asked quietly.

“The name’s Lewis, nice ta meetcha!” The voice tried to imitate some cheesy accent but failed exactly as badly as Marke himself would have.

Marke shook his head in confusion. “What?”

“Well, your name is Marke Clarke. I’m your companion, your other half, whatever. Who is Clarke’s partner? Lewis! Lewis and Clark. Tada!”

Marke continued to shake his head. “That’s a terrible name, I don’t want to be Louis and Clark.”

“Fine, fine. We can workshop a better name together. Maybe something from star trek? How about Kirk and Spock? Bert and Ernie? Sonny and Cher? Pete and… Pete? That one’s no good. How about Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?”

“Stop.” Marke whispered firmly. “Why do you need a name at all? Who are you? EXPLAIN.”

“Hmph. You’re the one who took the ‘Second Soul’ trait, not me. Seems like you should be the one explaining.” The voice spun around Marke’s head, sounding offended.

“You’re the second soul?” Marke asked.

“Right on, Einstein. Wait no, I should be Einstein. Snoopy? Snoopy and… that yellow bird guy?” The voice came from under the cot.

“You’re the second soul?” Marke asked again. “What does that mean?”

“Yeah man, you ripped me right out of you in that weird shadow sea thing. I don’t know why I got shadow and you got light but here we are.” The voice came from inside Marke’s shirt.

“What does this mean?” Marke nearly shouted in impatience but remembered the guard.

“I. Don’t. Know.” The voice whispered harshly in Marke’s ear. “I’ve been here less than a day with no one to talk to until just now. I’ve got all the same memories as you right until you tore us apart. I watched as that hick dragged us through the forest and tossed us in a cart. I managed to wake you up long enough to see the eclipse and put a stat point in endurance. That might be the only reason we survived.”

“How were we hurt? Did he drag us through acid or throw us in the cart really hard?” Marke could feel his mind slowly coming to grips with the existence of this second soul.

“No way, we were nearly dead right after the shadow sea thing. I have no idea why. What about something really off the wall? Vinny. Stumpy. Reggie. Sneezy. Doc. Marshal… Tim.”

“Your names are terrible and you missed the most obvious one.” Marke folded his arms and tried to look smug.

“Oh yeah, dear original? What’s the most obvious name that I completely missed?” The voice teased.

“I’m Marke Clarke. You and me are ‘Us’. You came from me or we both split off the original or something. I am Marke. You are Clarke.” Marke grinned into the darkness.

Several moments passed in silence. Marke heard a low murmur of Guards speaking outside. The silence dragged on.

“That’s almost exactly the same as my first suggestion, except this time you are Lewis and I’m Clark.” The voice managed to convey astonishment at Marke’s foolishness.

“I’m not Lewis; I’m Marke!” Marke shout-whispered. “Marke and Clarke. It makes sense.”

“Nah. But it did lead me to my final answer. Clarke. Clark Kent. Superman.”

“I’m not calling you superman, that’s absurd.”

“No! Call me Kent! I’ll even spell it with that obnoxious trailing ‘e’ that we have. Kente. It’s perfect.” The voice, Kente, trailed off in wistful tone.

Marke sighed and shook his head. “Marke Clarke and Kente Clarke? I’m going to sleep.”

“You’re jealous.” Kente teased in a sing-song voice.

“Yes. It’s genius. Good night.” Marke laid down and closed his eyes.

“Sorry to keep you up, princess, but you have a problem to consider.” Kente’s voice came from near the window.

Marke opened his eyes. “What problem?”

From next to Marke’s ear. “Have you noticed how dark this cell is?”

“Yes.” Marke said hesitantly. He looked at the dark window. He could see a handful of stars in the night sky. Realization hit him. “I can’t see the eclipses!” Marke’s voice was filled with dread. “I can’t level!”

Marke stood up and crammed his face into the bars of the window, but the slow moon was still out of sight. Marke returned to the cot and put his arm over his eyes. “Did you see any water in this room?”

“Yup, there is a small bucket with a ladle on the floor over there.” Kente responded. “Drink up, and then I need to train you on how to properly use the System. I figured out a bunch more menus during the cart ride.”

“You can use the System? Do you see my stats-our stats? Or your own stats?” Marke felt in the dark to find the water bucket. “Also, why can’t I see? Doesn’t that one trait make me see in the dark?” Marke found the ladle and took a drink of water that tasted like wood.

“I don’t think it ever did, we were just distracted and overwhelmed so we assumed it made us see in the dark. Also, we need to find a library. Also-also, I see our stats; the name says ‘ineedabrake’ so the System must be treating us like one entity. That might be the whole reason for the ‘second soul’ trait; two people, one level” Kente’s voice came from the cot, as though he were laying down.

Marke put the ladle back in the bucket. “Kente.”

“Yes?” Kente said.

“If we break the System in this realm, will you die?” Marke asked.

“I don’t know.” Kente said.

“If I die of old age, will you follow to the next realm?” Marke asked.

“I don’t know that either.” Kente said.

“If we both split off from the original Marke, will I continue on to the next realm?”

Kente didn’t answer.