“Eustace,” his mother called. “Come say hi to Miss Marta.”
Eustace ignored the summons and kept practicing the combo on his controller. Two basic attacks, block, stab, slash, another block. It left just enough stamina for an ult. A forum online said the maneuver was so overpowered, he could beat dungeon bosses two
I stepped into Gram’s room in Sandy Valley Home and nearly dropped my fresh-cut flowers. Gram sat next to the open window, her arm half-buried in a bucket of dried insects and grubs. She tossed some onto the pavement where a crow pecked hungrily.
Hazel, Gram’s aide, smiled at me. “You’re just in time,
How are you doing? Warrick’s text appears on the floating screen next to my head.
Dead inside and out. Same as always. Think-to-text is so exhausting.
I’ve been having a hard time, too.
He’s having a hard time? I’m the one whose mind is hanging out in a computer simulation while my body is who-knows-where
Flashes of memory assaulted me—wandering alone in a blizzard, standing on the edge of an icy sea, the word “DEAD” flashing in the air. And always, waking up in the same place.
Everywhere I looked, prismatic light reflected off a sparkling surface. And the cold crept into my bones.
It was my job to lead us out of our underground dwellings when the surface was finally safe. I expected to encounter many things upon our emergence. Destruction, scorched earth. But not a summoning.
It was just lying there. Waiting for us. A metal cube. When I picked it up, it projected a trail of red footprints on the cracked ground.
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I swallowed past the pain burning like a boulder in my throat. It resisted. I swallowed again, the lump searing into my soul as I trembled.
Again… I was back in the game again. Trapped in this place of darkness.
My car stood as I’d left it—a broken-down heap of trash
I think I would call this pain if I could feel anything at all.
My cousin used to rave about float tanks. He said they were the ultimate form of relaxation, drifting in warm salt water in complete darkness. The experience disconnected your brain from your body, so you became a mind suspended in nothingness.
Tamara stood on tiptoe and flipped the switch on the flickering Open sign, officially closing Reused Realities to the public. When it came to repairing and refurbishing virtual reality systems, Tamara needed interruptions at a minimum. Besides, switching between the real world and the virtual almost always jeopardized her productivity.
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