We're all in this virtual space together.
Muscida

You take a shuddering breath and step forward and immediately feelas though you are slipping. For the first few moments you panic and clutch theshield tight to your chest, afraid that everything will have been for naughtonce you hit the ground with a sickening splat. After you realize this fall seemsto be taking a while, you liken it to what Alice must have gone through andlaugh to yourself at the comparison between you and a young girl.

The rabbit hole was dark and deep, the only source of light bitsof dim coding that glowed and flickered like candles in the wind. Youshuddered, wishing that your companions were with you but are somewhat gladthey don’t have to face the experiences ahead. You feel a crushing lonelinessovercome you, and realize the feeling is similar to that when you began toremember. You feel empty and sigh, waiting to get whatever is coming to you atthe bottom of this chasm of a well.

The quintet entered apitch black space. For as far as they could - barely - see, it was the utterblackness of emptiness. For a fleeting moment, if Myos closed his eyes, hecould almost feel himself slipping into weightlessness of space that such ablank canvas of a room provided. His fingertips began to tingle at thesensation, and opening his eyes once again did nothing to alleviate it due tothe fact that the blackness of behind his eyelids pervaded into everysurrounding direction. It almost seemed as if the very air around him wassucking in every last speck of light.

Was it getting hard tobreathe?

Myos tried to look athis companions around him, replaceing nothing but the stifling, suffocatingblackness. He stretched his arm out wide, trying to brush someone, anyone,anything with his fingertips but replaceing nothing but more of the goddamnemptiness. The black hole room that he had fallen into was going to eat himalive.

He was going to die.

Myos couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t breathe.

The boy with the hair ofblood pressed his shaking hands to the smooth, cold metal of his headphones,trying to drown out the lack of sensations somehow. This complete emptiness wasmaddening, aching down to his very soul. Myos squeezed tighter to theprotective casing of his headset, willing the instruments to turn on to fillthe room with anything his senses could latch onto and ground him. He stumbled,vertigo creeping up on him as he struggled to keep a hold of his surroundings.With shaky knees he lowered himself to the ground, curling tight into theinstinctive protectiveness of the fetal position.

Breaths came in short,shallow gasps.

Sweat beaded on hisforehead, threatening to make its way down the young man’s face.

Myos let out a shakybreath, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. He tried to call out to one of histeammates. To those who had been behind him since they began this adventurewhat seemed like eons ago but in reality were only a few days. His voice chokedin his throat, the muscles tightening against his will as if his body didn’teven want to free his mind from the sickening emptiness.

Myos.

He blinked his eyes; pupilspressing outward so only a sliver of green were present in his iris. For amoment the word blurred and rippled, and it took a moment to realize it was hisown name flashed in front of him on the lime screen he didn’t remember that hewas still wearing. Myos’s hand slipped down from his starred headphones toadjust the angle of his computer glasses, eyes beginning to focus.

Myos, what are you doing here?

What was he doing here?Myos wracked his brain for the answer that should’ve been immediate. He wasgoing to defeat the Empress wasn’t he? To stop her from committing her evilplan of turning all of humanity into her robot slaves.

That’s it; he was goingto ensure the survival of free will. Myos was sure once again, and the emptydizziness began to ebb back from to recesses of his mind, and the world becameless of a harrowing place. He was going to be the hero.

Myos could feel hisbreathing even out.

No, Myos.

What are you doing here?

What was he? Myostightened his face in concentration. Didn’t he just answer that? He was goingto…

Did the air feel heavy?

Struggling to breathe. That’swhat he was doing here.

He was in a dark place,cold and alone, so very alone and he wanted out out out. The breath came inpainful gasps that resonated in his lungs and through his ribs and out of hisveins and capillaries and arteries and the painfulness of it all poured throughhis whole body and the weight of the air was crushing him, suffocating him,eating him alive like this ominous empty space had eaten every light that had evercome into contact with it. Myos’s chest heaved in and out, restricted by theatmosphere.

You Are Alone.

Myos nodded his head inagreement with the disembodied words that had flashed in front of his face,inches from his nose and the only thing he had left to hold onto in the world.He had always been alone. No massive multiplayer alternate reality game couldchange that. As much he had tried to integrate himself with people he nevercould, always the one on the other side of the semi transparent glass ofreality. He was endlessly drifting in a distended state through life just asmuch as he was in this darkened room. Myos lived his life in a virtual space.

Alone.

What are you doing here?

He was doing nothinghere. The boy with the mane of fire lost his fuel and slumped down, all thetension gone from his body as he lay on the floor that should’ve been coolchrome but just felt like the velvety blackness that continued to surround him.Myos didn’t even have the energy to make himself comfortable on the groundwhere he lay motionless, the aura around him crushing him with its almightyforce. He couldn’t fight the heaviness that seemed much stronger than gravityhad any right to be, feeling the pull downward in his very atoms.

Give up.

What?

Give up.

Give up.

Give up.

The two word phraseflashed itself over and over countless times across his small screen, Myos’seyes flicking all around to watch the words disappear and reappear insuccessive fashion. Give...up? The words snapped against the back of his skulllike a tautly pulled rubber band being released and the invisible chains thathad been growing link by link in his head were now broken. Like the satisfyingcacophony of shattering glass, his thoughts raced and buzzed around in his mindand filled him with new vitality.

Standing up on unsteadyfeet, Myos glared in whatever direction he felt that his silent companion’swords had been directed from. He face was determined, eyes shining like thelight of brightest stars of the Milky Way galaxy. There was no way he or histeam would ever give up. They had something important to do.

Myos took a blind stepforward, and as he did so, it was like slipping back from whatever parallelreality he had fell in to. The air moved across his skin like flowing water,and in comparison to the crushing might of the weight before it was positivelyrefreshing. As soon as Myos’s boot clad foot hit the ground, the purple glow ofblack lights flickered into existence around the room, revealing his teammatesand friends who all reacted in various stages of relief. He grinned a wide andtoothy smile when he saw them, teeth iridescent in the welcomed lighting. Giveup? No way. Heroes never give up.

It was unfortunate thatthe creeping seeds of the choking vines of doubt had already been planted inthe boy’s mind.