Tales Of The Macabre

Beatrix's

Her name was Beatrix, well that's what I thought she said her name was. 

"Beatrix, what an unusual name," I thought fondly to myself. And the more I said her name in my head, the more beautiful it sounded. 

"Beatrix!!"

I listened intently to her conversation looking for something I could use to try and break the ice. I didn't know what it was about her but there was something definitely familiar about her.

I'm not usually one for falling for girls sitting across from me on trains, but this felt strange. It wasn't an attraction. She seemed lost and vulnerable and some kind of fatherly sense in me just wanted to protect her. 

I continued listening in on her conversation only because something seemed off about it. She was pleading with someone down the phone. She tried talking in a hushed tone, but I could hear the fear in her voice. 

She hung up the phone and quickly looked around while trying to hide her tears. There was an awkward moment when she suddenly realised I was worryingly looking at her.

At this point, I was curious as much as I was concerned.

"Is everything alright, you seem upset, " I asked her. 

Beatrix wiped more tears from her eyes and gave me a nervous smile. 

"I just got some really bad news, " she said while turning her head and glancing out the window. She gave a little disgruntled laugh as she turned to look back at me. 

"None of this is real do you know that. I mean you, me, the people on this train, the trees flying past the window, none of it, " she said as she began to get upset again. 

"Why is it always the mad ones that try to talk to me? " I quietly mumbled to myself. 

"I'm pretty sure myself and everyone on this train are real, " I said jokingly.

She looked at me and laughed. "I'll prove it to you, " she said as she reached into her handbag and pulled out a gun. I jumped back in my seat. She raised the gun and pointed it straight at me. 

"Ok, I believe you, you're not real, but that gun sure looks real, " I pleaded. 

She pointed it to her own head. She waved at me and mouths the word bye as she pulled the trigger blowing her brains out. 

I sat there for a second too terrified to move. I looked around and no one batted an eyelid. I began screaming for someone to help, but everyone just sat there. My ears were still ringing so I was sure the people in the carriage heard it. 

I stayed clung to my chair not able to move when all of a sudden Beatrix's phone that sat next to her lifeless body began to ring. 

I cautiously reached my hand over to pick up her phone. The number was strange just a load of zero's.  I answered the phone and nervously put it to my ear.

"Dad! Dad! ," said the familiar female voice over the phone. All of a sudden the world outside seemed to be catch up to the train.  

"Look out the window, " said the girl on the phone. And there she was just standing there holding a phone to her ear, Beatrix, the same girl who had just shot herself.

"Dad! Look at the people they're not real." 

I looked around at the people sitting in the carriage and at first everything seemed normal. 

"Look closer, dad, " said the girl.

And that's when I noticed it. The people didn't appear to move and the more I looked the more I realised that the people weren't even people just outlines of people, like dark silhouettes. 

"Who are you and why are you calling me dad? " I shouted angrily down the phone 

"You know who you are. You know this isn't real. Don't believe your own lies," cried the girl. 

"Beatrix is that you princess? How long was I gone ?" I asked as the realisation of who I was started to sink in. 

"Almost a week, dad, " said Beatrix, who sounded relieved she had her dad back. 

I pressed a button on the side of my head by my temple. The virtual world I was in melted away and I found myself back in my basement. My daughter Beatrix was standing over the cryotube that I was lying in with her hands crossed. She was angry but with a sadness in her eyes. 

"It's getting harder and harder to bring you back and each time you're gone for longer, " she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I'm so close to finding her Beatrix, you have to give me more time, " I said as I looked over at the other cryotube. The one that held my comatose wife. 

When I was in university trying to get my doctorate in neurology I created a device that sent an image made up of light through a microscopic optic cable attached to the optic nerve, allowing people who were blind from birth, see the image. 

The image was that of a person and I discovered that the people who took part in my trials couldn't distinguish between the reality of the picture and believed it to be a real person. And it got me thinking what if I could send an entire world through someone's optic nerve. 

It was my life's work. I spent twenty years developing and expanding the virtual universe I called "Yourtopia."  It was a place the user could control and interact with by the power of their thoughts. A place where your brain thinks it and the virtual world brings it to life. 

But it had a problem the brain had massive difficulty distinguishing between what is virtual and what was real. And it didn't take long for the brain to fully integrate itself in the virtual world. 

I thought I had solved the problem. My wife who was the genius behind the cryotube that was to allow people to spend days if not weeks in the virtual world, wanted to test its ability. So she decided she wanted to spend a day or two in the world.

Three days had passed and we couldn't wake her.  That's when I decided to go in and bring her back. I spent what seemed like a lifetime searching for her until I began forgetting who I was. And that's when Beatrix found a way to get me back. 

It's been six months now and we haven't been able to bring her back. I made a promise to Beatrix that I would and I wasn't going to stop now. I kissed her on the forehead and looked into her eyes. 

"I know where to look now so you have to give me more time, " I said as I laid back in the tube and pressed the button on the side of my head. 

As I sat there waiting for the bus to take me to the centre of town. I noticed a girl staring at me. There was something very familiar about her. She just stood there smiling at me. I walked over to her and asked for her name. She looked at me and smiled. 

"Beatrix!"