The flames of the Cyberspace weren't real. The heat that came off from them wasn't real. Joyce just imagined it.
When the flames reached her legs and rose up to her nose, they had the same effect that a projector light would have.
Soon, the flames turned into red smoke that surrounded her. She couldn't see a thing through the thick red clouds.
Then the color started to change, until the clouds became blue.
When they dissipated, Joyce wasn't in the Cyberspace anymore.
She was inside of what looked like an office space, with persian blue walls and resin floor. Except for closed shutters letting in a faint light from the outside, the entire room had this persian blue glow.
On top of transparent glass desks, a number of old computers were set up, some turned on and some turned off. They were beeping and making internal hard drive and fans sounds.
Joyce vaped once more, the clouds came out in the same blue color as the office.
She noticed the music in the background of that otherwise silent place, a looping sound of hazy lo-fi combined with classical music's pianos and violins. Joyce paced around the room, hypnotized by the atmosphere created by the strange place and the entrancing music. She found it hauntingly beautiful. The feelings of fear and anxiety were long gone, to make room for a serene mood.
She approached some of the turned on computers, her footsteps noisy on the resin floor. The screens emitted a flickering light.
You are already dead, she read on one of the computer screens.
"What..." she whispered, the one next to it was filled with the word 'Saudade' in repetition.
She approached another flickering computer screen.
$ cd jan/memory Just when I think I'm winning
$ cd jan/memory When I've broken every door
$ cd jan/memory The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before
$ echo $HOME
She vaped as the computers kept beeping and elaborating and the hazy music played. Her mind momentarily thought about two a.m commercials.
"Helios...?" she whispered, unsure if it would cause any reaction.
"Hello, Joyce," the voice resonated through the whole place, as the marble bust appeared under the persian blue lighting.
"Where am I, Helios?" she asked.
"This is the Computer Afterlife," the marble bust informed.
"And what is it exactly?" she asked, vaping once more with her brows knitted.
"A resting place of sorts for obsolete computers. This place is held together by their memories. It is a simulation of a time that has long gone, but remains archived in the circuitboards of these dying machines," Helios explained.
"So this is basically computer heaven. Are we still in the Lobby?" Joyce asked, looking around with awe on her face.
"Yes, of course," Helios said. Joyce stayed there, looking everywhere with a puzzled expression. "Is there something wrong?" Helios asked.
"I'm having trouble telling apart memories from dreams," Joyce said.
"Happens sometimes," Helios said.
"So what was that all about? In the Cyberspace, everyone trying to scare me, when there was nothing to be scared about," Joyce asked.
"It was, you might say, a test. Of course the Lobby is all about escaping your real world, but we had to see how much you were willing to do it," Helios said.
YOU ARE READING
Cloud Chasers
Romance[EDITORS' PICK] Joyce Blackbird is a bored aspiring writer who just entered her adult years. The world around her frustrates her and disrupts her inspiration to write. Chase Journey, musician, is the first person she's interested in. Through the cl...
