Some Things Must be Taken on Faith
Lyra grabbed a box.
"Are you getting tired?" she asked.
"Mmm. Not really. Taping the boxes isn't very hard," Bon Bon answered.
Lyra taped the top of the box shut.
"What time is it?" Lyra asked.
"I dunno. I forgot to bring a watch," Bon Bon answered.
Lyra flipped the box over, and taped the bottom.
"How long do you think we've been here?" Lyra asked.
"I don't know."
Lyra stacked the box neatly on the pile, and grabbed a new box.
"Guess. More or less than an hour?"
"More, I suppose."
Lyra taped the top of the box.
"More than two hours?"
"Uh… Maybe?"
Lyra flipped the box over, and taped the bottom.
"More than three?"
"Lyra, I don't know, ok? After awhile, the brain just gives up on measuring time. One minute is pretty much just like the next. I'm just going along until break."
Lyra stacked the box neatly on the pile, and grabbed a new box.
"What about how many boxes we've taped so far?"
"I haven't been counting them."
Lyra taped the top of the box.
"So, we don't know how long we've been here or how many boxes we've taped, and we're not getting tired."
"What's your point, Lyra?"
"Bon Bon, do you ever…"
Lyra paused, fiddling with her roll of tape.
"What?" Bon Bon asked.
"Do you ever think about Hell?"
Bon Bon froze halfway through flipping her box over to tape the bottom.
"Do I what?"
"Do you ever think about Hell? I mean, what it's like to be in Hell."
"What a morbid thing to think about!"
"Well, do you?"
"No!"
Bon Bon resumed taping her box. Lyra followed suit.
Lyra taped the top of the box.
Lyra flipped the box over, and taped the bottom.
Lyra stacked the box neatly on the pile, and grabbed a new box.
"It's just that I've been thinking about it ever since we've been here," Lyra blurted out. "Like, what if it's not a horrible pit of lava where you burn forever. What if it's just a place where nothing ever happens. It never changes, and you just do nothing forever, and it never ends."
"Lyra, stop it."
"But-"
"I know what you're about to say, and it's idiotic."
"Bon Bon-"
"We are not in Hell, Lyra!"
"But think about it for a moment," Lyra said. "Imagine that you didn't know you were in Hell. You thought you were doing something else, something pointless that would keep you occupied, like, for instance, taping up boxes and stacking them in a pile. You said that the you lose track of time from doing a boring, repetitive task, so if you never got tired or hungry, and no one ever came along to stop you, then how would you know if you'd been going on forever?"
"Well you'd… I mean…"
"You couldn't, could you? You'd just keep saying 'just a little bit longer, and then the shift will end. Just a little longer.'"
"You… You'd notice eventually that it never ended."
"And how long would that take?"
"I don't know."
"And how long have we been here?"
"I don't… This conversation is just getting weird. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Lyra taped the top of the box.
Lyra flipped the box over, and taped the bottom.
Lyra stacked the box neatly on the pile, and grabbed a new box.
"Bon Bon, why are we here?"
"We need the money, I suppose."
"You suppose? Why? Are we planning to buy something? What do we need the money for?"
"I don't know. Just stuff."
"And why this job specifically? It has nothing to do with out special talents."
"The pay isn't great, but it's something. Here is as good as anywhere else, I guess."
"And where is 'here' exactly? Where do all these boxes come from, and where to they go, and what were we doing before we came here?"
"Lyra, just shut up and tape the damn boxes!"
Lyra dropped her roll of tape.
"No. Let's leave."
"What?"
"I think we've worked long enough."
"Lyra, you're going to get us fired!" Bon Bon hissed through gritted teeth.
"Isn't that convenient!" Lyra said. "So, you have no way of telling how long you've been here, you aren't getting tired, you have no idea how many boxes you've taped, you don't know how long it will be until the shift ends, and you won't try to stop because you're afraid you'll get fired, so you'll just sit there, taping the boxes over and over again until it's break time! Well, what if break time never comes? You'd just keep taping the boxes for eternity, wouldn't you?"
Bon Bon's eyes grew wide, and she leaned back.
"I… I don't want to talk about this anymore, Lyra."
"Think, Bon Bon. Try to remember specific details. Can you explain how we got here?"
"Stop it."
"You can't do it can you?"
"Lyra, stop it."
Bon Bon's voice wavered. She tried to tape her box, but the tape kept getting stuck on her trembling hooves.
"There is no explanation! This whole thing started with us just being here, didn't it? We were just here, taping boxes!"
"Lyra, stop it! I just want to tape the boxes. W-we'll just tape for a little while longer, and then the shift will be over, and we can go home."
"Don't you get it, Bon Bon? There's not gonna be an end to the shift! You're just going to stack boxes forever!"
"Lyra, please!"
There were tears in her eyes now. The tape was getting all over her. The more she struggled, the more she became entwined with it, like a fly in a spider's web.
"You have to snap out of it, Bon Bon!"
"Lyra, just tape the boxes, please!"
"Bon Bon, listen to me! We're in Hell! We're in Hell, and we're going to be stuck here forever unless we do something!"
Clip clop. Clip clop.
Lyra whipped her head around.
A stallion appeared, walking toward them from behind a stack of boxes.
"What's all this shouting about?" he demanded. He then caught sight of Bon Bon's tear-streaked face. "What's going on? Were you two fighting?"
"Uh…" Lyra said, suddenly going pale. "No, it's fine! Everything's fine! We were just… Uh… Roleplaying!"
The stallion stared unblinkingly at Lyra, brow furrowed in disapproval.
"Roleplaying?"
"Yeah, you know, Dungeons and Dragons. That kind of thing," Lyra explained. "Doing repetitive tasks is kind of draining, so we use our imaginations to keep our morale up while we work."
The stallion stared at Lyra. She began to sweat. His tiny, beady eyes bored into hers. The irises were dark, nearly as black as the pupils, and Lyra felt herself withering under his gaze.
After an agonizing few seconds, he finally spoke.
"Just stay focussed on your work. You're not being paid to goof off. You're here to work. We place a big emphasis on efficiency here, and I'd hate to have to report you for disruptive behavior and slacking on your first day."
"Sorry, sir," Lyra replied meekly.
"Don't let it happen again."
The stallion walked away, disappearing back behind the boxes to wherever he came from.
"Oh my gosh, Bon Bon!" Lyra said, leaning in close to whisper in Bon Bon's ear. "Did you see his eyes? He was a demon! We can't let them know that we're on to them, or else they'll put us somewhere even worse."
"Oh, Lyra! What are we going to do?" Bon Bon whimpered. Her eyes were now red and puffy, and she sniffed, trembling helplessly.
"Shh. It's ok. It's ok," Lyra said, holding Bon Bon close and stroking her mane. "There's got to be some way out."
Bon Bon clung tightly to Lyra's side she peered around their pile of boxes. The warehouse was full of boxes. Great piles of boxes stacked high, some almost up to the ceiling. Lyra turned around in a circle, taking the warehouse in.
"Just workers and boxes. Workers and boxes everywhere."
"Which way did we come from?" Bon Bon asked.
"I don't remember. They had us stacking the damn boxes so long that I've forgotten."
"E-even if we found it they'd stop us before we could get through."
Lyra gritted her teeth. There had to be a way out. There had to be.
"Lyra, look!"
Bon Bon untangled herself from the tape and pointed a wavering hoof.
Off in the distance, a forklift rumbled down the aisle of boxes.
"That's it," Lyra said as the forklift sped closer. "This is our only chance. Get ready to jump."
"Lyra…"
Lyra tensed her muscles. She had to time it correctly, or it was all over.
"Lyra, I…"
Closer. Closer.
"Lyra, if we don't… If they…"
"I love you, Bon Bon."
They jumped.
Lyra forced herself halfway into the seat grabbed the demon driving the forklift. He gasped in surprise, but before he could move, Lyra wrenched his head down, forcing it into the steering wheel with a dull thump.
"Auugh!" he said.
"You'll never take us alive, demon!" Lyra shouted, kicking him out of the forklift.
"Go! Go!" Bon Bon yelled, clinging to the back.
Lyra slammed her hoof down on the gas pedal, and the forklift shot forward.
"FREEDOM! FREEEEEDOM!"
Bon Bon skewered a stray newspaper with her stick.
"Bon Bon?"
Bon Bon scraped the newspaper off into the trash bag.
"Talk to me, Bon Bon."
Bon Bon skewered a styrofoam cup with her stick.
"I said I was sorry, ok?"
Bon Bon scraped the styrofoam cup off into the trash bag.
"Come on, it's not so bad. The judge was very kind to just give us community service instead of jail time, and for assaulting a co-worker and hijacking and crashing his forklift, that's pretty generous. Although, picking up litter in the hot sun isn't quite as good as taping boxes, but at least we're not in Hell, right? So that's something. I wonder when we get our first break. How long have we been out here? Bon Bon? How long do you think we've been out here? Bon Bon? Bon Bon? Bon Bon? Bon-"
"GO TO HELL, LYRA!"
