The Wives

“The fault lay with the brother who gave life to the lion. The others were ignorant of the fact that they were handling the skeleton of a lion and simply demonstrated their skills. The brother who gave life to the lion knew what it was and did it anyway, simply to prove himself,” you reply after careful consideration.

Much like before, the creature smiles in approval before floating and disappearing in the blink of an eye. Defeated, you return to the tree a third time. The creature once again welcomes you with its demand to be taken to the graveyard. As you gather the creature in your arms again, you lose yourself in your thoughts. Am I never getting out of here? Has there been a glitch in the experiment? I’m sure Mari is working to fix it—right? But what if she can’t and I’m stuck—

The creature’s voice interrupts your incessant worries. “Listen, friend, for I have a great puzzle for you…”

—

There was once a brave king who had a beautiful queen and a lovely daughter. The king heard whisperings of a coup and, fearing for the lives of his wife and daughter, he decided to take some precious jewels with him and flee to a forest.

Some days later the family came upon a village teeming with thieves and murderers. The king urged his wife and daughter to retreat to the forest while he fought off the robbers who had spotted his jewels from a distance. Unfortunately, the king was no match for their numbers and died in battle. The wife and daughter observed this from a distance and decided to flee.

Meanwhile, a newly widowed man and his son had entered the forest to hunt. Upon seeing the footprints of the women, the father exclaimed, “Son, look! Those are surely women’s footprints for they look small. We shall follow them and you can marry whichever of the two you like.”

“I will marry the woman with the smaller footprints for she must be the younger of the two and you can wed the other,” the son replied.

The father agreed and the two followed the footprints until they reached a clearing where the women were resting. The men explained their agreement to the women and asked if they were willing to be their wives. Determining that this was their best chance at survival, the women agreed and accompanied them back to their city.

Once they returned, they discovered that the mother had the smaller feet of the two and the daughter had the larger feet. Not wanting to break their initial agreement, the father married the daughter and the son married the mother.

Thus, the daughter became her mother’s mother-in-law and the mother became her daughter’s daughter-in-law. In due time, each couple gave birth to children.

—

“So, my dear friend,” says the creature. “Answer this: what relation were the children of one couple to the children of the other couple? Remember the rules you must abide by.”

You begin to turn the question over this way and that but no matter how much you think, you cannot come up with a solution. And so you continue to walk in silence.

Pleased by your silence, the creature lets out an eerie chuckle. “I see that I have stumped you,” it says. “I am satisfied with your perseverance, so I will tell you a secret.

“Your friend Mari is not who you think she is. She designed this simulation to be an inescapable paradox to keep you in an unconscious state. Her intent is to take over your position as director. She ensured she would face no legal repercussions for her crime due to the documents she made you sign prior to this so-called experiment. Despite all this, she committed one fatal flaw: she did not account for the fact that you were human.

“She thought so highly of you, assuming you had the answer to every situation. She did not consider that despite your position, you are human and you cannot have a solution for every problem.”

You listen to these words in utter shock. Your first instinct is denial. You’ve known Mari for so long—it’s impossible for her to feel this way about you, to go to this extent to be rid of you. But the more you ponder the creature’s words, the more you come to understand Mari’s motivations. After all, you both had gone to the same university and started in the same position but now she worked for you. You remember the wry smiles and insincere congratulations when you received your promotion—actions that you had initially brushed off. All the small interactions you had with Mari came to be cast in a new light. You are so engrossed in your thoughts that you jolt in surprise as the creature begins speaking.

“Once you take me to my grave, I will have the power to return you to your reality.”

With a newfound determination coursing through your veins, you march down the twisting path until you reach another clearing. The fog clears to reveal a lone headstone placed at the end of a hastily dug out pit. You approach cautiously and lay the creature down in its grave. The creature’s red eyes shine brightly at you before turning a dull black.

Immediately, the fog seems to get closer, engulfing all your senses. Its wispy tendrils wrap around your limbs, your torso, and begin to wind their way around your face. The last thing you see before the fog covers your eyes is the headstone. Roughly carved into the stone is your own name.

———

You open your eyes to a blindingly bright white light. The light slowly fades until it remains only at the edges of your vision before it disappears into nothingness. What remains before you is an all too familiar ceiling—the lab. With a deep, shuddering breath, you rise, ready to exact your revenge.

Author’s note: I started this part off by focusing on the anxiety felt by the reader and how they felt this impending sense of doom. In the original story, the goblin begins to have a growing appreciation for the king’s perseverance. Due to this, the goblin tells the king that the monk who requested that the goblin be carried through the forest and brought to him is actually evil. The monk planned to sacrifice the king. Armed with this knowledge, the king is able to defend himself and trick the trickster. Because this was an experiment programmed by Mari herself, I wanted the reason for the creature’s change of heart to be the result of Mari’s lack of foresight. She is blinded by her jealousy and convinced that the reader is invincible. Therefore, she expects the reader to know the correct answer every time and be forced into this never-ending loop. She doesn’t anticipate that the reader is only human and is therefore likely to be stumped by one of the riddles. I added the portion about how the creature’s grave is actually the reader’s grave to signify how deep Mari’s resentment and hatred for the reader runs. I also wanted to leave my storybook open-ended. How do you think the reader will exact revenge on Mari? I hope you enjoyed reading!

Fun fact: I picked the name Mari because it is short for Maricha, a demon in the Ramayana who is able to disguise his true form.

Bibliography. Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder, with illustrations by Perham W. Nahl (1917).

Image: Wives and husbands; source: Perham W. Nahl

Banner image: Dark forest on Pixabay.