Restart after restart after restart.
That was Stanley's life.
All of his accomplishments. All of his goals. Simply erased by the click of an option of the will of the narrator.
The offices were quiet. Always. The Narrator was loud, annoying, and bossy. Always.
Stanley had gone the wrong way. Again. And the Narrator was annoyed and fussy about it. Again.
And so the game reset.
Chapter 1: 427
Stanley's world faded into his view. He saw the offices where he had worked at for many years. The long hallway ahead of him eventually led to a right turn and the beginning of his story. All of the floors were orange-colored, and there were many doors marked with numbers like "428" and "430". All of this was familiar to Stanley, and he was quite tired of seeing it.
When he walked out of his office -numbered 427- he heard the familiar voice of the non-physical being he liked to call "The Narrator".
"All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room. Perhaps he had simply missed a memo."
Stanley knew what was coming. Two open doors, and he would choose which one to go through. Behind those doors lay.. lay.. actually, he couldn't quite remember. Its as if his memories reset with the game. Its as if HIS OWN memories meant nothing at all! Just to fill someone else's orders!
But sadly, this was Stanley's life, and he knew it. He had come to this realization many times before, but always forgot about it. Ironic, the way he thinks about his memories being lost, and then loses those memories.
Stanley had been so deep in thought, he had mindlessly wandered into the room with the two doors, and The Narrator snapped him back to reality.
"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left."
"Left my ass." Stanley thought to himself, and he took the door on his right.
"This was not the correct way to the meeting room. And Stanley knew it perfectly well. Perhaps he wanted to visit the employee lounge first, just to admire it." Boomed The Narrator, obviously annoyed as usual.
But something.... different happened this time.
As Stanley rounded the multiple corners to the meeting room, he came across something very odd, which perplexed him. He had no idea what it was, or what it did. In fact, he almost tripped over it.
Wincing in pain from the feeling in his toe, Stanley looked on the ground at what he had kicked. It was a large metal piece in a U shape, with what looked like rivets jotting out every few inches.
"Stanley? What is that?" Said the Narrator with curiosity.
Stanley shrugged to the sky, clearly as perplexed as the Narrator.
"This is weird. I don't remember this anywhere! This is not on any of my maps-I-I don't really know what to--" The Narrator went silent. A distant explosion was heard, and it rattled the structure around Stanley, causing many file cabinets to open and coffee cups to fall downwards toward the ground.
"But no... I swear I shut that project down years ago! I cut all power to the wing I.. well, Stanley, I think we are of to a new story. Care to join me?"
A panel on the office wall opened next to Stanley, exposing a tunnel that seemed to have been made of pure concrete.
Stanley had never been so excited in his life. He would be going on a real adventure. No doors. No Narrator to boss him around, no story to follow. As the entire area he had been in, all of the choices, all of the lines, was one large script. The area had been built to represent choice, freedom, but at the same time, it had been occupying Stanley TO choose something. Is there a choice to not have a choice? Can he just never choose? Freedom does not exist in choices, but expressions. This adventure would not only give Stanley choices, but the choice to choose not to choose. Stanley found that whole situation ironic and exciting.
Stanley walked through the open passageway, and looked ahead to see a sign that read "PROJECT EQ47- EXTREME DANGER".
"Danger? Oh Stanley, do not worry about a thing. Nothing is dangerous as long as it is in my contro-- okay, that is not entirely true. I actually have absolutely no control over this experiment anymore. Not after.. well, that would spoil it wouldn't it?" The Narrator said.
Stanley hoped that one day the Narrator would understand that it is NOT in fact, a game. This is a life. A human. But the Narrator would never understand. He is a being, not a personality. At least, it seemed that way.
Well, the only thing that truly concerned Stanley right now was this "danger". Of course it is dangerous behind the door that says "EXTREME DANGER"! Its common sense! But it didn't really seem that Stanley could do much else.
That's when it came to him. He could just choose not to choose! He had been thinking about it only moments ago!
So he did. He just simply sat onto the ground, leaned his back against the wall, and sat there.
"Stanley? What are you doing? Are you--no, that's ridiculous. I just had the completely preposterous thought that
you didn't want to obey me! Ha! How silly! Because, no matter what you want to do, you are going in there. Nice try."
Stanley felt the wall behind him pushing him directly to the door, which swung open when he came near to it. He went faster and faster and faster until he went through the open door and----
White. Nothing to see. Nothing to know.
