The Moon, chapter 31: Denial

No repeating tones of a heart rate monitor this time. Silence. After a few minutes, the silence was broken by the faint sound of whistling wind. Susie opened her eyes to see the glittering white chandelier above her. The pain from the previous encounter had mysteriously vanished. In fact, she felt better than ever. Even the dull pain from the elevator incident had completely ceased to be. She got up into a sitting position, and saw none other but Suze sitting across from her. The normal Suze. Once she noticed Susie, she plastered that familiar smile upon her face. Her eyes were back to normal, and she no longer had blood dripping from her mouth. She was acting as if nothing strange had happened.

“So, how was your first expedition to the islands?” Suze asked, in such a casual manner it made Susie uneasy. She didn't know how to respond.
“Suze, d-don't you think that's a little mean to ask?” Napstablook said from behind the kitchen counter.
“It was just a joke, Nappy. It's not my fault she passed out in the boat, but I guess it makes sense.”
“I did what?” Susie replied.
“Yeah, you totally threw up and passed out while we were getting stuff from one of the islands. We came back right after, but you're fine.”
Susie couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.
“N-No, there was this huge monster that attacked us. It hurt Napstablook and y-you... killed it.”
“I did? Wow, the version of me in your dream is really strong! But, really, you just passed out.”
“Th-There's no way, it was real, I-”
“Woah, woah, calm down. You've been really stressed, I get it. I was like that too, for a little bit.”

Susie remembered the strike at Napstablook that the creature made, and got an idea. She shot up from the couch, and walked over to him. On his left side, there was a dent around the middle of his body.
“Well, then where did this dent come from? In my dream he got hit right there, too!”
“Uhh... What a coincidence? He got caught between a wall and a mechanical arm in the machine room while you were asleep.”
“You really expect me to believe that?”
Suze's cheery smile faltered, slowly switching to a more neutral expression.
“Susie. What's more likely, that you had a weird dream that just so happened to mirror real life events, or that all that stuff actually happened, then suddenly didn't happen without a  trace?”
“I  know what I saw, it was real. What, you think I'm crazy?”

Suze stood up and began to yell in anger, her voice cracking a couple times.
“Yes! You are crazy! We all are, and that's not our fault! You think I didn't have weird visions and dreams when I first got here? I could've sworn they were real, too. But they weren't. You're... Just adjusting. You're going crazy, but everything will be okay. You just need to calm the hell down and accept things as  they are. If you don't, you'll just go even further into this hole you're making for yourself.”

Susie was taken aback. The last thing she expected was for Suze to show such negative emotion. But... maybe she was right. She'd had dreams before that felt as real as ever, and still woken up just fine. Why would this be any different? Perhaps, in a world where all she had trusted as true turned out to be a facade, she was less trusting of everything. Even, as it seemed, her own mind. Napstablook let himself out of the room quietly as Susie sat back down on the purple fabric couch, her head in her hands.

“I'm sorry Suze.”
“No, I'm sorry. I really shouldnt've freaked out like that. I-I hope that didn't like, ruin our potential friendship or something, I really meant the best out of what I said.”
“Don't worry about it. You were right, I just need to calm down.”
Suze walked over to the bathroom, yelling from inside.
“Let me hook up a bath for you. Don't worry, it's clean water. I'm sure you could use it right now.”
“Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you.”

The sound of rushing water splashing and echoing off of porcelain soon followed, and Susie silently mulled over her experience. It didn't take long for a tear to fall from her cheek to the floor. None others followed, though. She knew better. Or at least, she thought she did. Did she know anything anymore? It became monotonous to think of such things over and over, but she imagined anyone's thoughts would be swamped with these same emotions had they been in the same situation as her. It took only a dozen minutes or so, but the bath was eventually full, and Suze left her to her own devices to go catch up with Napstablook. Susie stood idle in the stagnant, white room. Averting her gaze from the shattered mirror that made her feel sick before, she pressed the doorknob forward and twisted it, locking the door. She had hoped that, at the very least, it would keep unwanted intrusions at bay. She looked to the counter and spied a small device that looked like a two way radio of some kind, and beside it was a note. The note was short and to the point, reading:

“1 – suze
2 – blook
If something's wrong, push the button on the side, speak, then release. Keep it with you.
~S”

Susie certainly appreciated the gesture, as this building seemed quite large, and having a secure way to speak to others was definitely needed. She wasn't sure if she trusted Suze completely still, so she turned the dial on the front of the radio to the two marked on it's face. The dial went up to nine, though she wasn't surprised only one and two were marked with any importance. Who else was there to call? Susie clicked the button on the side of the device and held it up to her mouth.
“Hey, this is Susie. Checking if this thing works.”
She let go of the button, and the crackly voice of Napstablook rung through the low fidelity speaker.
“Ah, it works. That's nice, b-but try to talk to Suze next.”
“Yeah, after my bath though.”
“A-Alright... Bye...”
The crackling stopped as the transmission did. The soft sound of clothes colliding with the floor preceded Susie's disrobing as she got ready for her bath. As she looked at her attire, she noticed that her clothes were quite clean as well. Near spotless, in fact. Surely ash would have stained a large amount of it had the encounter with the hook blade creature happened. Perhaps it really was all in her head.

She examined the water thoroughly, dipping a single finger into the water and letting it's warmth surround her scales. The liquid did in fact seem pure. Susie figured this place must have some sort of filtration system. The sound of the steaming water's surface being disrupted followed soon after her likely unneeded investigations. She laid down, her body fitting the tub quite well. She rested and closed her eyes, letting the warm, clean water envelop and cleanse her entire body up to her shoulders. It did well to relax her body, and even though her mind was still racing, the relaxation did help to soothe her mind at least a little. She let her hair float indiscriminately around her head, dipping herself into the water deep enough to drench the back of her head. To Susie, the concept of taking a bath, or any sort of self cleaning for that matter, had been alien to her for about her whole life until just recently. At least she could take solace in the fact that there was always a place for her to cleanse herself here, even if the outside world is so cruel and disturbing.

The outside world. The cube. The body that fell from the bottom of it. Shivers ran down her entire body like she'd been electrocuted, her zen like state of mind quickly shattering just as fast as it had formed. She saw the body drop from the bottom of the cube before she had even thought of getting in that boat, and supposedly she only passed out after she got in it.
Which means whatever person, monster, creature or otherwise that Susie saw drop from the cube... was real.
It's still out there.