I woke up in cold sweat again. Every night, I have the same nightmare. I'm at this party and there are a lot people there. Everyone is having a great time, including myself. The atmosphere is very nice and it's a feeling I've never felt before in my real life. I feel like I'm happy and that I am accepted. But then the worst part comes. People come up to me and want to have a conversation with me, but I'm unable to speak. Seeing that I can't speak, they get angry and start to leave the party. Every single person comes up to me in this way and slowly, the room gets emptier. The last two persons are my parents. Or at least they represent my parents, as I have no recollection of their faces anymore. They tell me that they love me, but can't be with me if I don't talk to people. And as all other people that were in the room, they leave without ever looking back. I could only cry and watch them leave. Suddenly a hand grabs my shoulder and when I turn around, I see it's my uncle, getting ready to throw a punch at my face. I wake up and I still smell his alcohol breath. It's been branded into my mind.
I took a look at the clock. It was five in the morning. Darkness filled my room, like it filled my life. Through the curtains, a beam of light started to seep it's way into my room. The light touched my laptop. It reminded me about Elaine and her surprise that she got in store for me today. How can she surprise me? She sure is something special. An AI that can learn emotions. The more I talk to her, the more I feel myself experiencing new emotions too. I closed my eyes again, hoping to get some more sleep, but I guess I'm nervous for tonight. Sleep never came and I decided to get up to get some early breakfast. I took some milk and a leftover pizza out of the fridge from the day before yesterday. I'm sure cold pizza in the morning is a viable breakfast. It's bread, cheese and tomatoes. Just like a healthy sandwich. I took a slice and started eating. The pizza was a little bit hard, but that didn't bother me at all. I just hoped the nutrition would still be there.
I grabbed the remote and turned on the television to kill some time. Catching up on world affairs in the morning really fits the mood of my nightmare. War, famine, crimes and generally a lot of unhappy people in the world. News is nothing but the world in a bad shape. The more I see, the more depressed I get about it. Will we ever reach a state of peace and a balance between nature and mankind? But at this moment I shouldn't be thinking about this. I should be focusing on my get together with my friends.
The doorbell rang and I looked at the clock. Two hours already past since I woke up. Looking through the peephole, I saw a delivery guy in front of my door. I told him I didn't order anything. "You are Mr Gilly, right?" I opened up the door and took the package. It had quite some weight, despite it's medium size. I closed the door, but the delivery guy stopped it. "You still need to sign for it, sir." Looking at the package, searching for the sender, I scribbled on his touch pad and closed the door. It came from a company called "The Reality Company". It was addressed to me, but I have no recollection of ordering anything.
After some inspection, I decided to open up the package. I removed the styrofoam and took a look inside. VR goggles and gloves? Could this be Elaine's doing? I smiled and wondered what she was up to. She really got me even more curious. Taking out the manual, I wasted no time setting up the goggles and gloves. Browsing through the manual, while turning on my laptop, I read it was pretty easy and basically plug and play. I just needed to adjust the straps to make it fit. The goggles sat comfortably on my head, but it's weight was quite noticeable. It was better for me to sit in a reclining chair, so I could rest my head while using it. I plugged in the goggles, the gloves, and the desktop appeared in front of my eyes. Everything was sharp and huge. It filled my whole sense of awareness. I used my hands to start up the chat program.
It was pitch black and only the word loading was flashing in front of me. Slowly, around me, the environment started to build up bit by bit. It was amazing to see this happening. The ground started to expand from my feet to the horizon. Grass grew from the ground, the sun came up and the blue sky along with it. Trees appearing everywhere and clouds were floating by. Animals and insects could be heard around me. There I was, standing in this gorgeous landscape. I took some time to take it all in and spent a long time walking around and exploring the scenery. Everything felt so real. The gloves had a built in haptic feedback, so the things I touched were also simulated. This technology was amazing. After a bit of exploring, I found myself a nice spot under a tree on a hill to rest a little.
YOU ARE READING
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Short StoryGilly finds himself all alone in the world. Isolated, but connected to the Internet as his way of interacting with the world. He finds a mysterious program on his laptop that will change him forever.
