Challenge: Write a story that is exactly 999 words long. The ending and starting lines must be from a story or stories you have written during this month (you can turn an ending line into a starting line and vice versa) and there must be a puzzle, cipher or code (not a riddle – unless the riddle is in code). Optionally, the puzzle/cipher/code must be solvable by the reader.
I picked the Caesar cipher for this story. The starting and endling lines are from FFM 2022 7: Bears VS Zombies, which this is a continuation to.
“And that’s why we should do this my way.”
A feeling of deja vu made its home in my gut. “Why does it feel like we’ve done this before?”
Zach shrugged. “You argue against me and my methods all the time. We’ve had arguments like this plenty of times.”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant.” I shook my head. “It just… feels like we’ve done this specific conversation before.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean, I feel like we’ve discussed how to combat the bears sieging the city before, including you being hellbent on necromancy being the answer.”
Zach laughed. “Don’t be absurd. There’s no way any of this has happened before.”
“That’s why I’m confused.”
“Well, we can think about your potentially awakening psychic powers after we’ve dealt with the bears. Now c’mon, let’s go raise some undead.” Zach started to walk away.
“Wait, I didn’t agree to that!”
Zach laughed again. “Do you need to?”
Cursing, I ran after him. I was going to have his head if this didn’t work out.
I only barely noticed that the sign to the cemetery said Uif cfbs’t dvstf jt po zpv. I snapped a quick picture of it and moved on. I could ponder it after dealing with the bears.
“And that’s why we should do this my way.”
Immense deja vu slapped me in the face. “I think we’ve done this before…”
Zach shrugged. “You argue against me and my methods all the time. We’ve had arguments like this plenty of times.”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant.” I shook my head, frowning. “I think we’ve done this specific conversation before.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I think we’ve discussed how to combat the bears sieging the city before, including you being hellbent on necromancy being the answer.”
Zach laughed. “Don’t be absurd. There’s no way any of this has happened before.”
“I know. Still, something’s up.”
“Well, we can think about your potentially awakening psychic powers after we’ve dealt with the bears. Now c’mon, let’s go raise some undead.” Zach started to walk away.
“Hey, wait!”
Zach laughed again.
Cursing, I ran after him. Something was up and I needed to figure it out.
The sign to the cemetery said Hp xftu boe bupof. That was not what it said before. I snapped a quick picture of it and moved on. I couldn’t leave Zach alone to his insane plans.
“And that’s why we should do this my way.”
Deja vu sucker-punched me. This time, I was sure that something was up. “We’ve done this before, Zach.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I just have this feeling that something’s wrong.” I took out my phone and found two photos from the cemetery I had not taken. “The sign in the cemetery is changing. It’s some kind of a code.”
Zach looked over my shoulder. “Huh. What do you think it says?”
“I’ll copy the lines into a cipher decoder. Hopefully it’ll be able to tell us.”
The bear’s curse is on you
Go west and atone
“What the fuck?”
“Uh… Maybe we should check the sign and see if it’s different?”
“Yeah… let’s.”
This time, the sign said Mftu zpv sfnbjo jo uijt mppq gpsfwfsnpsf.
Lest you remain in this loop forevermore
“What the actual fuck, man?”
“I guess the bear gods didn’t like your plan and now we’re cursed with being stuck in a time loop or something.”
“…What do we do now? There’s gotta be a way to escape, right?!”
“Well, the signs tell us to go west and atone, so I guess we should try that.”
“What does atoning even mean?!”
“According to the dictionary, it means…”
“No, I mean, as in, what exactly are we supposed to do, like, in practice?”
“I believe we’ll find out if we go west.”
“…Yay.”
“And that’s why we should do this my way.”
I didn’t let the deja vu bother me anymore. “No. Your way got us stuck in a time loop.” I grabbed Zach’s wrist and started pulling him towards the cemetery. “I’ll fill you in along the way but now we need to try to get out.”
“Wait, what?”
The cemetery’s sign was normal now, so I turned us to west and kept on marching despite Zach whining about my grip. He got us into this mess so he can take some pain in exchange. If I squeezed a pressure point on his wrist every now and then… well, no one could prove I did it on purpose.
We ended up among the bears, although to our surprise they did not attack us. Instead, they let us pass.
“I reaaaally don’t like this, man…”
“Shut up. Neither do I.”
“Why are you so hostile all of sudden?”
“Because this is the umpteenth time loop and I’m tired.”
We ended up coming across a dead bear, surrounded by other bears. It was not any simple bear, however; it was massive and wore something that looked like a crown. The bears looked at us — no, at Zach — expectantly.
“Uh… what do you think all this is?”
“…Since they’re looking at you of all people, I’m assuming that they want you to do something about it.”
“Like what? I’m not a vet.”
“You’re a necromancer. Maybe they want you to raise it from the dead?”
Zach laughed nervously. “So it can lead the siege?”
I shrugged. “The bears aren’t getting angry at my suggestion so I guess it could be our atonement and way to escape the loop.”
“And die in the process.”
“Still a better alternative.”
“…Fine. But you owe me a lot.”
“Just do it.”
Zach worked his magic and the bear king came back to life. With a grunt, it started to walk away from the city perimeters and the rest of the bears walked away with it. The siege was finally actually over.
Huh. To think that that actually worked.
…All’s well that ends well, I guess?
WindySilver 