The Holo Earth

Chapter 33

Liam's hand was steady as he raised it to knock on Sarah's door. Sarah opened the door, her eyes widening in surprise. "Liam? What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting anyone."

"Sarah, I know I've been... difficult lately and I owe you an explanation. You've always been there for me, and now I need to repay that trust by sharing something crucial with you," Liam said, his voice steady.

As Sarah led him into her living room, Liam's heart sank. Aurelio was there, lounging on the couch with a book in his pretentious hands. Of course he would be here. Liam swallowed hard, pushing the jealousy out.

"What's going on, Liam?" Sarah asked, concern creeping into her voice.

Liam took a deep breath. He thought back to the night of the party, how he had pushed Sarah away. The memory of sending her the pre-release game copy in a desperate attempt to salvage their friendship flashed through his mind. He had to make this right. "Do you remember when you said you'd be here for me when I was ready to tell you the truth, the whole truth?"

Sarah nodded.

"Well, I'm ready. In fact, I wish I had done it before. You deserved better from me." Liam took a deep breath, steadying himself. He knew he had to approach this carefully. "And I'm glad that Aurelio is here, because it turns out that one of his outlandish-seeming theories turns out to be true."

Sarah waved him to a chair.

"It's going to sound impossible," Liam began, carefully choosing his words. "Over the past few months, I've discovered something that challenges everything we know about reality. Things have been happening to me, impossible things that defy explanation. I'm not asking you to believe me right away, but I am asking you to hear me out with an open mind."

He paused, meeting both their gazes. Sarah's eyes were filled with concern, while Aurelio's held a spark of intellectual curiosity.

"You both know how my life has changed recently, my sudden success, the impossible luck. There's a reason for that, and it's not just good fortune." Liam leaned forward, his voice low and urgent. "What I'm about to share with you is information that very few people in the world have access to. We're living in a controlled environment, a simulation, manipulated by entities outside our reality called the Xenumia."

Sarah's brow furrowed, but she remained silent, allowing Liam to continue. Aurelio tilted his head, his expression skeptical but intrigued.

"I know this sounds like science fiction," Liam acknowledged. "But Aurelio, remember our conversation at the party about the nature of reality? About us potentially being NPCs? It's not just a theory. I've experienced it firsthand."

He could feel how absurd the words were coming out of his mouth.

"Sarah, remember when you told me that you valued honesty above all else in our friendship? And Aurelio, you've always said that we should question everything, even our most basic assumptions about reality. I'm asking you both to stay true to those principles now."

"Again, I know how this sounds," Liam continued, fighting to keep his voice level despite the tremor in his hands. He gripped the arms of the chair, anchoring himself. "But I've been in direct contact with an entity, something beyond our normal understanding of reality." He forced himself to meet their eyes, knowing how crucial these next words were. "Its name is Zolok. It's been... guiding me, manipulating events. But now I think I have a way to block its influence."

Aurelio leaned forward, his scientific mind engaging despite his obvious skepticism. "Liam, that's a pretty extraordinary claim. What kind of evidence do you have?"

"Let me tell you about some of the things that have happened to me," Liam said, his voice shaking slightly. "I found an impossible bug at work. The conditions for the bug occurring couldn't be guessed. They could only be discovered by scrutinizing large segments of the code-base. I hadn't even looked at it before. I didn't just stumble upon it. Zolok told me exactly where to look. Then Zolok or some other Xenumia recommended me to my boss's wife and that got me the promotion."