Phantasmagoria ✔

FILE 08 | Pretentious

- Bancroft Household -
- December 05, 2022 -

The sun's brilliant beams shone through her cocoa-colored eyes, illuminating them. Mirage has recently awoken. A little early, really. When the doors weren't open for a maid to rush in and greet her once more, she realized that this wasn't as programmed.

She had her own will now! 

"Ms. Mirage. It's time to wake up. You're gonna be late-." Shouted her maid, "Oh, you're already awake. Your mother and breakfast will be waiting for you downstairs."

"Okay, thank you." The maid left the room, and Mirage nodded as she did so. She paced her room as she attempted to put pieces of the puzzle together.

"So it may have worked... Is what Gareth said true? There's no glitch so far." She thought, "Did the restart work? So much has happened..."

"What if I just don't go to school? I already know what's gonna happen anyway, it was a boring class that day too." She sighed, "Hm, I can also test out if the glitch is gone and I can control myself..."

[ Go to Class / Skip Classes ]

"Mom, I don't want to go to school. My head hurts a lot..." She came running to the door. Her acting abilities were absolutely excellent. It was realistic enough to give the impression that she actually did have a headache.

"Oh, dear. Do you need to go to the hospital?" Serena, her mother, asked with concern.

"N-No need. I think a few pills can help me get through it." Mirage dropped a sweat.

"Maid! Maid!" Yelled her mother, "Get my daughter some Ibuprofen! And bring a lot of water to her room!" She then directed her attention to her daughter, "You go rest well."

"Thank you, mom." Mira replied weakly.

She rushes to her room, and grabbed her remote. She forced upon herself two options.

[ Netflix / YouTube ]

"I don't have any glitches so far." She concluded. She kept experimenting with new things, and so far she made all of her own decisions. At least, she believed that.

"There's no loops... No glitches..." She told herself, "But there's one thing I've got to do to confirm everything!"

She descends the stairs with a stoop. The only occupants of the house were the dogs and the maids because her mother had left early for work. 

Approaching the main door, she took a deep breath before holding its handle. Turning it right, she pushes it open...

"1..."

"2..."

"3..."

Mirage opens her eyes to see a peaceful street, the wind blows through her frontyard as she felt it's shivering coldness. The temperature wasn't her main focus though. 

"I'm outside.. I'm outside! There's no loop anymore! There's no glitch!" She realized in glee. Giddily, she turned her head from side to side and peered into every crevice of the area around her house.

In the center of the road, she spun and danced. She couldn't even describe how joyful she was. She was at last free. She wasn't chained to this player's decisions.

"Gareth! Wherever you are! Thank you!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. 

♫ Blip, blip, blip, blippity blop! ♫

"That's my phone..." Mirage looked around her pockets to find her phone buzzing. There were 10 Missed Calls and 15 Messages. "This reminds me of that night when I ran away... Wait, that night is tonight!"

She hurriedly answered.

"Girl, are you absent today? Or are you just late?" Migggie's voice was the first she heard during the call.

Then Mirage reveals that she is absent that day due to an illness. She at least told her mother that. Of course, she admitted this to her friend: that she lied to her mother because she was actually doing something else.

"Congratulations, girl! You're finally free at least for once?!" Miggie cheered at the other side of the phone. Hazel took the phone and said, "You know what, Mira? Let's make the most of that freedom of yours. Come with us tonight, party at Miggie's House!"

"Yeah, there'll be wine and a lot of Soju!" Miggie added.

"O-Of course, I'll come." Mirage stuttered, she knows very well that her mother won't allow her. Still she added, "I'll go ask my mom later..."

A few chitchat later, the conversation quickly came to an end as her friends' courses started. Standing in the street filled with silence, it had just hit her.

"It's my birthday..." She trailed off, "Guess I'm that special. My birthday went on for more than one day." She laughed it off.

She returned home and went about her day in solitude. When nightfall arrived, she had never once considered telling her mother her whereabouts.

"This'll be the last time mom... and that stupid player too, ever controls my life."

[ Stay / Run Away ]

Mirage happily chooses to Run Away, just like she did before.

[ Stay / Run Away ]

"Wait, no!" Mirage activated the "Stay" button, causing her body to keep acting as instructed. It wasn't an accident either. She clearly made the decision to leave, but her body choose to stay.

Her body moves to settle inside her room, where she grabs a remote and sits on the bed to watch TV. "What's happening? Why am I not able to control myself?"

She can't even disobey. She can't glitch and cause an error so she could do whatever she wants. It was like her conscious was just a mere observant of what's to happen to her body.

She began to cry deep inside. This wasn't what she wanted. "Gareth? Gareth? Where are you? Please... Help me... What am I suppose to do? What's happening to me? Did I do something wrong?"

"You did perfectly well, Mirage." A voice echoed in her head.

"Gareth? Gareth! Help me!"

"What for? I've already helped you. Isn't this what you wanted?"

"It's not! I'm not free... I can't control myself! I want freedom, please!"

"Freedom is such an interesting concept, Mira. Freedom... isn't free. This is freedom... yet you don't feel free?" The familiar voice says, "Actually, Mira. Have you never thought of what I ordered you to do?"

"You told me... that the Malware was inside me."

"Exactly. And?"

"The solution was... to delete and restart." She then paused. Mirage gulped her own saliva when there she finally understood.

That time... She deleted herself. No. She deleted her free will. And she was the one who decided to take Gareth's word for it... She had the free will to do that. That freedom of hers ruined itself.

"Sometimes, it's us who destroy ourselves."