Okay, this was looking familiar.
I loved The Kingfish. I often went there for lunch, but I had no idea what I was doing there at that moment.
Then the world slowly began slipping back into focus.
The last thing I remembered was standing in the Magician’s office with Chloe talking about WorGames.
I looked at the time on my phone. It was five thirty.
Somehow, I’d lost more than six hours.
* * *
—
I slipped into The Kingfish Cafe’s bathroom, splashed water on my face, and took inventory: Everything was where it should be, no scrapes or bruises. Whatever I’d done during the past six hours hadn’t involved bodily harm.
Losing time was obviously disconcerting, but the accompanying feeling of helplessness was worse. What had happened during that time? Had I done something that I was never going to remember?
Then something else hit me that was even more disturbing. The Kingfish Cafe had closed permanently in 2015.
* * *
—
“What’s up?” Chloe said, stepping past me and into the living room.
“Nothing much,” I said.
I watched as she moved around my place to see if something in her expression might reveal whether I’d contacted her during the past six hours.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Like what?” I said, shutting the door to my apartment and following her into the kitchen.
“Like a weirdo,” she said as she grabbed a soda from my fridge and cracked it open.
“I don’t know. Let’s go with lack of sleep,” I said, doing my best to sound nonchalant.
She tilted her head a little. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I said I’m fine,” I snapped.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “Settle TFD.”
I would have loved to have settled the fuck down, but I’d just lost six hours.
Chloe pulled out her laptop and opened a browser window. “Check it out.”
“What is it?”
Chloe pointed at her screen. “You were right. Tabitha Henry is connected to WorGames.”
“She is?”
“Yeah, through Chronicler Enterprises.”
“What is Chronicler Enterprises? Why does that sound familiar?”
“Um…because they own Tabitha Henry’s escape room company? Baron’s finance bros dug that shit up, remember?”
“Right, I remember, but why do we care what WorGames has to do with Tabitha Henry?” I asked.
“Are you serious?”
“What?” I asked.
She pulled up a bunch of legal documents and a list of shell corporations.
“K, you asked me to look into a possible Chronicler Enterprises/WorGames connection hours ago.”
“I did?”
Chloe crossed her arms and glared.
I forced a laugh, trying to sound casual. “What?”
“Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
I shook my head. “I’m just feeling a bit tired.”
“K…”
“Fine. I can’t remember the past six hours.”
“Oh, all right, Memento,” she said and shook her head as she looked something up on her laptop. “If you don’t wanna tell me what’s wrong, I’m not gonna push.”
I almost laughed. Since when the fuck was Chloe not going to push?
“I’m serious,” I said.
Chloe looked up from her computer. Something in my eyes must have let her know I wasn’t kidding, because her tone changed immediately. “Fuck, for real?”
“Yeah, for real.”
“You don’t remember calling me earlier?”
“Nope.”
“Not at all?”
“Nothing…and there’s more.”
“What?”
“Before I came here, I used the bathroom at The Kingfish Cafe.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Sounds impossible, I know.”
Chloe screwed up her face. “It doesn’t sound impossible. Just disgusting.”
“It doesn’t strike you as odd that I just used the bathroom of a restaurant that permanently closed six years ago?”
“It strikes me as odd that you, of all people, would use a public bathroom when you’re like five minutes from your apartment.”
“When did The Kingfish reopen?”
“What do you mean? The Kingfish isn’t closed.”
“It closed in 2015.”
“Umm…no, it didn’t. We ate there a week ago. Red velvet cake. Remember?”