Riddles
One day a sheet of paper was slipped through the door along with Daniel’s meal. At first Daniel assumed it was a mistake, or perhaps even a letter from somebody seeking to bust her out from the cell. However, upon reading it, she found something different entirely.
“I walk on four days in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and then three in the evening. What am I?”
The question felt familiar to Daniel, something she had probably seen in passing before winding up in Area 50. It filled her with a strange feeling, one of giddy excitement and curiosity. She spent hours pondering the question, her food going cold without her even noticing. Daniel paced about the room with a pensive scowl, repeating the short riddle out loud until it finally hit her.
“A human!” she exclaimed with a giddy smirk. “It’s a human!”
Despite having nobody around her at all, let alone anybody who’d care about her solving the riddle, Daniel felt genuine euphoria towards solving the riddle. It was like a drug, a sweet ambrosia that gave her a feeling unlike any other. Daniel never really cared for riddles before this, but it was perhaps rather fitting given her new body that she grew interested in them now. It was the beginning of a strange new addiction for Daniel.
Short riddles became a mainstay part of her meals from then on. Each one would bring a smile to her face and she would devote large chunks of time towards solving them. After some time she began to develop ones of her own. At first she was dissatisfied with them, finding them too obvious or too clunky to be strong. Yet, just as she slowly managed to learn to walk properly, her riddle crafting too grew more refined and intelligent.
Written by Kolaghan on 23 May 2018