Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 30: Insight

It was raining. Strange. It hadn't been raining earlier.

Cold water splashed up over V's boots as she walked down an empty city street, her eyes taking in the strange liminal light of the streetlamps. There wasn't anyone else out there, not even cars driving down the street or parked in parking spots. The buildings looked weird too; all of them had windows, but no entryways.

Wait...where am I? V wondered suddenly. 

After fighting Maelstrom and watching Jackie jet away on his new ride to go see Misty, V had driven aimlessly around the city before ending up at the dam overlook. She stood there for what felt like hours looking out over the cityscape and watching the sun set, before getting into the car and heading back to her apartment. She went straight to bed then.

Bed...then I'm dreaming, V thought. 

Strange dream though. The city street she found herself wandering down was dead silent. There was no noise other than the sound of V's boots shuffling along oddly pristine asphalt. The city felt dead without the usual perpetual roaring background din. After a few more steps, V saw something in front her, set perfectly in the middle of the street facing her.

A streetlamp. A weird streetlamp. It was tall and black, with a strange flickering light that seemed to be glitching in and out of existence. V felt her spine tingle when she realized that the closer she got to the streetlamp, the dimmer everything else became. It wasn't that the light from the other streetlamps was fading; it was the whole environment all around her that grew darker and darker, like it was fading from existence. V tried to stop her forward march, but her body didn't listen. Her feet kept right on walking her towards the odd lamp in the middle of the street.

Everything else faded into darkness. The only light was from the lamp. V's boots stopped at the edge of the ring of flickering light. 

The light glitched, and suddenly there was something on the ground in the center of the light. A small piece of...paper?

V stepped forward and reached down. Her nails slipped under the small object and brought it into her hand. She realized then that it was a card - a tarot card. V recognized it vaguely, recalling what Misty's deck looked like. The art on this one looked super old though. There was writing on the bottom part of the illustration.

The Fool.

V's eyes snapped open. 

It took a moment to register that she was in her apartment, not standing in some dark street. Her HUD popped up to show a wakeup diagnostic; apparently V had only been out for an hour. She lay there, hoping to fall back asleep, but it was impossible. Something about that dream had unsettled V to her core. It had felt so...real. 

After another few minutes V called it quits on getting any sleep. She sat up in bed, sweeping back her hair before pulling up her phone app to text Jackie. By the time V slipped on a black t-shirt, baggy jeans, and old combat boots, and still hadn't gotten a reply, she knew it meant the big dummy was asleep already. V paced restlessly around her apartment, trying to decide what to do. She really wanted to talk to Jackie about her dream, but she didn't want to wake him up. So, with Jackie unavailable, who else would be up at this hour?

V paused at her desk when a thought came to her. Misty would still be awake, most likely. With her insomnia, V wondered if the woman ever actually slept. Despite how awkward V felt around Misty sometimes, if she wanted to get closer to her, what better way than to reach out to her now? 

V pulled up her phone app.

Hey Misty, u up? Can't sleep 

Misty replied within a few seconds.