Unreality

10. The Sufferer

As Umbra and Virgil transitioned from the outside to the inside of the domed planetarium, the day too seemingly metamorphosed into night. An utterly lightless night, shrouded in the most ubiquitous of silences, where their reluctant steps alone echoed through the darkness.

After a short while, as if brought on by the reverberation of those same echoes, scintillating dots began to form and hover above, replacing the ominous lightlessness with a far more reassuring starry sky.

However, as the stars began to form a pattern, it soon became clear the latter did not represent any known constellation, but actual words:

STAY AWAY

Umbra gulped silently, glancing towards Virgil with the corner of her eye, only to find his face as impassive as ever. As a veteran agent of Anima, had sights such as this become but a mere routine to him?

'Look out,' he called out abruptly, interrupting her thoughts. 'Something's happening...'

Both agents gazed intently into the stars above, only to realize they were now spreading throughout the entire place, above as well as below them, until it looked as if they were standing on an invisible floor in the middle of outer space. It was an eerie sensation, all the more so considering they knew their presence was unwanted and unwelcome, and soon the rookie agent took a couple of steps closer to her senior and the droids.

'What now...?' she asked. 'Where do we go?'

Virgil looked around for a short while, before settling his gaze upon a particular point in space.

'There,' he said, pointing to Umbra's right.

She turned her head in that direction, and was immediately awed by what she saw — a vast and vibrant cerulean nebula, which lay not too far from where they were standing. Its shape was almost spiral-like in appearance, with a hole in its center that, strangely enough, appeared to lead to another place.

Although Umbra was hardly enthused by the prospect of entering such an unnerving passage, she realized that, in their current situation, it was their best bet of making some progress within the unreality they now found themselves in, and thus accompanied Virgil as he began to walk towards the spiral-shaped nebula.

As she passed through it, her steps became slower and she raised her arms whilst looking around as if preparing to swat away some sort of looming threat, but none came. Instead, they safely came out on the other end and found themselves in what appeared to be a theater room, complete with a massive screen — seemingly turned off for now — and rows of seats. The room was large and spherical and the seats formed half a circle, with the screen occupying the other half of the room. Between them there was also a rather advanced looking telescope.

'...Come on,' said Virgil, beginning to make his way towards the seats.

Umbra looked to the ground before taking the first step, thus seeing that they were now standing on a proper floor rather than the vastness of interstellar space.

It was almost hard to believe, but it did seem as if they were now inside a proper planetarium, almost as if unreality had ceased and reality had settled in once more.

But still, was calmly taking a seat really the best course of action? she wondered.

Maybe Adam wants to show us something? And it's best if we show interest in it?