Play of Shadows

Chapter 46: Phantom

Ann Sufort awoke in a VR pod surrounded by military personnel for the second time in her life.

The inside of the pod was flashing with dull red light. Ann struggled to lift her arm and reach the manual release hatch above her head. Her fingers were numb and lacked power. It took her several tries before she was able to grasp the handle and then let her body sag back, pulling down on the mechanism with her own weight.

The pod opened. A wave of sound surged in, previously held at bay by the insulated glass. Hands reached for Ann immediately. Trapped in a cramped space with disembodied limbs clawing at the wires tangled over her suit, Ann was left to wonder if she had woken up at all and not slipped into another of VELES' horror instances instead.

Eventually, she was lifted out of the pod. A medical team fretted over her stretcher, their faces blank – Ann's vision was greying at the edges, coming in and out in bursts, like a static channel. She managed to grab someone's sleeve and hold on enough to get the person's attention. It was a man in a dark suit, in stark contrast to the white lab coats floating around. Ann couldn't make out his face through her blurred eyes and the fluorescent lights glaring down on her as if determined to burn out her retinas.

"Am I under arrest?" she managed to slur.

The motion around her paused. The man shook off her hand, which Ann found very rude.

"Not yet," he said at last.

The voice sounded familiar, but Ann didn't have the brainpower left to place it. The floor rolled forward again – she might have been placed on a gurney at some point – and she closed her eyes to keep the rising nausea at bay.

She lost some time trapped between wakefulness and delirium. By the time she came to her senses properly, she was alone in a small room that might have once been a closet but was currently refashioned into a private medical ward with all the trimmings. The sour-faced nurse included.

"What're you playing?" Ann croaked.

The obnoxious beeping paused. A familiar woman looked up from her phone, brows smoothing once she saw that Ann was awake and in her right mind. She covered up her relief with a scowl right afterward however and made a show of putting her phone away, as if Ann was a great bother.

"You sure took your time. Guilty conscience?" the lab tech goaded.

She did pour Ann water, however, and even helped her drink when Ann tried to raise an arm and realized that she had all the strength of a newborn kitten. Ann watched the woman as she drank. It was the young tech that seemed to have an issue with her from first sight. The woman was likely an old fan of the Empress. Ann's fanbase had figuratively eaten her alive after her scandal and fall from grace. It was a parasocial relationship turned toxic, right alongside Ann's real relationship. Irony at its finest.

"What's your name?" Ann asked when the cup was taken away.

The tech gave her a sneer. "Now you think to ask?" she groused, but answered a begrudging, "Amanda," nonetheless.

"Amanda, nice to meet you. I'm Ann. I'd shake your hand, but you would have to do it for me," Ann smiled.

Amanda looked at her like she had lost her mind.

Ann cleared her throat. "How're the other players? The ones in my instance?" she asked.

The woman went tight-lipped. "We didn't lose anyone," she said after a pause.

The stone in Ann's chest loosened. She lay back with a soft word of thanks that Amanda pretended not to hear.

A harsh knock at the door broke the tentative mood. Amanda went to the door, returning shortly with two men. One was Alexander. The other was a middle-aged man in a military uniform. Both looked none too happy to be there.