A Void Travel

Souls in the Machine

Alexander Okoro, a black college student studying botanical science, had skipped attendance this morning to grab his new VR headset. The door to room 327 swung open, the sizeable package in his hands. Upon entering the room, you could see a coat hanger that was almost never used, and a fairly open space with a couch and tables against a wall. Above these were shelves currently holding onto nothing but an Aloe Vera plant pot that looked to be thriving and well nourished. Walking further into the bedroom, was a well-kept bed with a yellow blanket with Spongebob expressions all over it, small carpets lining the floors of certain pathways. Next to the bed was a window with currently open shutters. The window was the gap between the bed and his desk where he had a computer and monitor for all his remote work; a black pen holder cup that held mostly mechanical pencils, but also some complementary pens from the school; an open notebook filled with diagrams of plant life, as well as more cartoony plant drawings sprinkled into each of the pages; finally, a rolling chair was pushed neatly under the desk. Alex walked off to the side of the entrance, pushing his chair aside, set the box down on his desk beside his computer and monitor. He wasted no time ripping the box apart with controlled brute force, taking care not to smack anything else on the desk. After opening the package, he was greeted with a much darker variant than the one on the box. Alex didn't mind, though, as he wasted little time booting up his computer to connect his VR headset to it. After taking out the device and the two controllers that came with it, he picked it up to observe it. It was split at the center with a black screen much like a Valve Index. These, however, came with their own headphones built in. He pushed the power button, and saw it flare to life with a white light pulsing, illuminating the whole screen before quickly fading to black. He was somewhat thankful he wasn't wearing it just yet. Alex strapped on the headset; once fastened, he let his eyes focus on what he saw. Or rather, what he didn't see. Nothing was visible through the film, and he was confused at first, until Alexander took notice of his hands. They were visible, his left hand outlined in red, and his right outlined in blue.

"What?" Alex whispered to himself as he tried to make sense of this. He then took notice of his feet, and eventually, his whole body that was outlined in red and blue. Alex took off the headset to see that nothing had changed outside of his little device. He didn't think much of it, but it did strike him as odd that he couldn't see anything in his room outlined in the same colors. He also had yet to pick up the controllers, which was especially strange to him. Alexander set down the machine as he began trying to connect his computer to the VR headset. He soon realized that he may need the instruction manual in order to help his computer locate the headset, but as he rummaged through the box, he could not find any instruction manual. He turned the machine at all sorts of different angles, only to find there was no extra button, audio jack, or USB port for that matter. Feeling increasingly frustrated and worried he may have been scammed, he alternated between looking for it on his computer and searching for buttons on the controllers and the headset itself. At his wits' end, he put it on once more. "Perhaps there are some instructions visible at this point," he thought. Unfortunately for Alex, there were no instructions for him. It was unusually warm on his ears, adding to the anxiety that the device may be fake. As Alex spun around his room slowly, he saw something he couldn't explain. There was a man outlined in green walking around in the void. Alex looked at his hands. He could still see them. His eyes snapped back to the man who was walking around.

"Uh..." Alex expressed to himself. The green man seemed to hear that as he stopped walking and stared at Alexander with white glowing eyes. Alex wasted no time taking off his headset as he tossed it onto the floor. Upon impact, it made an unceremonious thud, the clacking of the fragile parts marking Alex's return to the real world. The black screen pulsed with bright iridescent lights of different colors before settling on two, a red and blue. At the same time, Alex felt a nasty migraine coming on. The throbbing sensation was like alarm bells in his mind. The boy felt he needed to get out of here, and fast. Alex stumbled his way out of his room, away from the headset. He moved towards the door as the throbbing in his head persisted. A million thoughts flooded his head at once, but fear prevailed as he frantically stuck his shoes back onto his feet and ran off through the door. The headaches still persisted as he tried to walk away from the scene. The only place he could think to go was to his college. Picking up pace, Alex tripped and nearly fell, being caught by the walls of the corridor. Alex shakily pressed a button on the wall that called an elevator. He waited rather impatiently, looking back in the direction he came from. Suddenly, Alex hyperfocused on the elevator which was nearing his floor. With a calm beep, it opened, and another student and he locked eyes. Alex tried to put on a friendly face, but be it nerves or the throbbing in his head, all he could manage was half his face contorted into what he hoped was a smile. The Caucasian man walked out of the elevator and gave Alex a firm and supportive two taps on the shoulder. The non-verbal communication told Alex whatever he did was in fact not a smile. Sighing, he got into the elevator and pressed the Ground floor button. His reflection on every wall made him nervous as thoughts of the paranormal started to creep into his head as he thought about the headset. He shook those thoughts away, though, as it seemed the headaches were subsiding. Alex backed up and leaned against one of the railings with his hands in his pockets, his head tapping gently on the glass. Alex closed his eyes until he heard the ding and the sound of the elevator opening, then he pushed himself off the rails and towards the dormitory exit. Alex noted the casual sounds of people talking as he speed-walked his way outside.