A college age student named Tomas sits at a desk at the campus library. Pens and writing materials scatter over a multitude of project sheets. His schedule was incredibly full. So much work to do. He was intelligent and had took on a significant class load. It was expected of him. He could never have to admit that he was not working to his capabilities.

This was a two hour break before his next class and he had worked through the majority of it. There was a problem though. Something was bothering him. A memory at the corner of his mind that was important. It was not a new problem and he had been suffering from it for over a day.

Idly he pulled up his grades. High marks were expected in every class. It was the normal. Only “A”s should line his class list. His eye was drawn to an anomaly to this normal. A “D” was listed as the current grade of a single class.

Anxiety rose up.

It had to be a mistake.

He clicked on the grade. Scrolling through the individual assignments to find the culprit.

Oh no.

It was a project meant to have been due the previous day online. He had forgot entirely. Worse still, he knew that the teacher was not one to accept extensions. He had to do something however. Quickly he emailed the professor saying that he had in fact tried to submit the project and there must have been an error with the school server.

Tomas knew that what the response would be. A firm denial. He only briefly scanned the response that arrived a few minutes later. It was not the response he wanted but a paper trail. He would not let it end this way. With a focused mind he went to student services and filed a report against the teacher for failure of reasonable accommodations.

It was a lie. He knew it. But his goal outweighed the guilt. The teacher would most likely be forced to accept his project.

Tomas left the building and entered a bigger one that held his next class. He did not look forward to seeing the teacher in person the next day but that was a problem for future him.

He entered the building lobby and as soon as the door shut behind him he knew there was something else wrong. It was dead silent. There were no students around. The room itself looked different as well. It was bigger and three ornate doors stood in front of him.

Weirded out by the situation, he turned to leave only to find the door out gone.

With a sinking feeling he turned his attention to the doors. The center door was locked. An inscription above it read: “clear both other rooms to proceed.” The other two doors had writing above them as well. One read heaven and the other read hell.

Finding no other alternative he approached the doors. The hell door swung open on it’s own. He was meant to solve that room first. There would be no other option.

Inside was a huge room lined with stone statues around the edge. A chair faced a covered statue in the center of the room. Carefully he walked around this odd space but nothing happened. Tomas would have to do the obvious. He sat in the single chair.

There was a rumble and a wooden marionette came from the ceiling out of seemingly nowhere. It had a wig on it like a judge and was adorned with a robe. At the same time the covered statue shifted position to a more crouched and cowering one.

The marionette spoke to a frightened Tomas.

“You have accused another human of unjust treatment. Make your case or perish.”

The sheet covering the statue was lifted to the side by nothing. To Tomas’s horror, it was not a statue. It was the teacher he accused ashen and chained so tightly that they could not even make eye contact. The chains were too heavy. The man was also almost completely naked. Wearing only rags, he was a horrible display of the human form.

“What evidence do you have?”, the marionette asked almost gleefully.

Tomas dragged his attention away from the man. Heart racing he responded.

“I have always turned in my work on time so a single instance of me not doing so supports my story of the software having a problem.” He choked out.

The marionette dangled in place for a moment.

“That is a very good point. That damages the credibility of the teacher for not being reasonable. Let the damage be inflicted.”

Suddenly the chains on the teacher squirmed like a living creature. The man let out a pained scream. The chains stopped.

“Further evidence?”, the marionette asked. There seemed to be a grin carved onto it’s face.

Tomas sat frozen in place. He did not want this. This was wrong. This was all over a lie. Was this even real?

“Liar liar”, the other statues whispered.