“I can’t believe you figured it out this early!” said Mike, appearing in the doorway. “You haven’t even met Tala and Jackson yet!”
Chad looked incredibly confused. “Wait, what? The Bapie? We’re in the Bapie?”
“Yep!” Elena said, crossing her arms confidently. “And based on what Mike just said, I’d guess this isn’t the first time we’ve been here. Isn’t that right, bud?”
Mike sighed and strolled into the room, slumping onto a leather couch. “You got me. This is reboot… ten thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three, I think. It was risky going with the Cheltenham podiatry expert story, but I just knew you’d hate it so much! If I could have pulled it off, this could have been the best torture yet.”
“Torture?” Chad said.
“Yeah, bud, keep up,” said Elena, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Mike is a demon and he is psychologically torturing us. The thing is, this time it was just way too obvious. Working as someone who gives arch supports for kids, for the rest of time? There’s no way this wasn’t an elaborate Bapie plan.”
“Wait, but what did I do to get in the Bapie?” said Chad. “Oh, no… I once saw an ad telling me that cow’s milk wasn’t for humans, but I continued to drink it anyway.”
“No, you idiot,” said Mike. “It’s because moral philosophers are really annoying.”
Chad’s posture crumbled, making him seem utterly defeated. “So, what now, then? If you can’t curse Elena to a life of providing foot treatments, what happens next?”
“I’ll reboot you again, and we’ll go with something else. Maybe I’ll try making you all wear robes and hit yourselves in the head with wooden planks again. I don’t know. I’m running out of ideas. But hey, at least this one didn’t last long enough to have Jackson figure it out again. That was a real low point.”
Elena had an idea, but as she went to suggest it, Mike snapped his fingers and everything went white.
Elena opened her eyes to see a brown wall with large words in green before her.
WELCOME. EVERYTHING IS FINE.