A Time to Mourn A Time to Dance - A SciFi Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novella

Chapter Three

I yawned again as I hurried down the hallway. It was nearly ten a.m. and I was barely about of the shower. Somehow Jason had kept me talking until long after four and then I hadn't been able to fall asleep. If anyone should be awake and chipper for this first full day, it should be me. And yet here I was ...

I came into the lounge area.

Jason was standing there with a smile, holding two mugs of coffee. He held one out to me.

I looked around. "Where is everyone else?"

He nudged his head toward the open theater doors. "They've all taken their seats. Seems they're a bit eager to find out what this is all about."

I took the mug from him and had a sip.

Perfect.

I smiled and let the coffee wriggle its way down inside me with its warmth. "All right, then. I guess we get started."

We stepped in through the doors together. I waved my hand at the steel plate to the side and the doors eased closed behind us.

The theater was sized to hold the twenty plush chairs along with space out front for me to stand and walk around. All of the walls were ivory, curved, and smooth. The floor was flat but the ceiling held a curve to it.

As Jason had said, everyone had found their seats, although to my amusement they had left the front row free.

Some things never changed.

Jason winked at me and then moved to that front row, taking the center seat. I drank a long swallow of my coffee and then put my mug in the holder alongside his. I walked in front of the group.

"Welcome, everyone. In case you've forgotten, I'm Phuong. I hope you were able to get some sleep last night. You'll find, once we get started, that you won't want to waste time on sleep. I'm guessing you'll be so intrigued and excited that you'll push yourself to stay awake. I know it'll be challenging, but try your best to stay hydrated. Try to take breaks to eat, drink, and, yes, sleep. We'll all do much better if we keep our minds sharp and engaged."

Heads nodded, but I knew they'd be ignoring the advice soon enough.

I certainly had, when I first began down this road.

I waved a hand at the room around me. "Most of you have been in surround-view theaters before, so I'll recap the basics. Our human brains are rigged to detect certain input as representing motion. It might be that you feel a sense of vertigo or dizziness at some point. If you do, just close your eyes. Rest your hands on the arms of your chair. The sensation should pass. Remind yourself that you're just watching a scene. That you, yourself, are stationary."

More nods came.

"If you really start to feel ill, just call out for us to pause. I'll gladly wait for a moment. I know you might feel embarrassed, or ashamed, or not want to make the rest of us stop just for you. Really, speak up. We're going to be here for seven days. We could easily get exhausted at some point. Be kind to your bodies. Be aware of their limitations. We'll all have to take a breather. Eventually, some of us might fall asleep in our chairs. It's all right. We're humans and we accept our bodies have these quirks."

More nods, and a few smiles. I knew they would end up embracing this philosophy soon enough, out of sheer necessity.

I swept my arms to encompass the room. "All right, then. We'll do a demonstration for about fifteen minutes. Then we'll stop for questions. So let's get started. First, I'm going to bring down the house lights."

The lights in the room dimmed, slowly, surely, until it was nearly pitch black. Small lights gleamed from the edges of the chairs. A line of dots about waist-height circled the room, showing where the walls were. The exit doors behind us were similarly lined with dots.