i kin show you the world

by SZ

 

A body floated slowly across the lake, its long hair spread fan-like on top of the water. Tomorrow, a tourist would alert the authorities. The day after, the body would be identified as Helena Coombs, younger sister of retired pro gamer Travis Coombs. Her murder would be labeled a tragedy, investigated day and night until the killers were brought to justice, her memory seared into the minds of the public.

For now, the corpse continued its lonely journey towards the far shore.

–

Helena exited the virtual reality cabin with tears dripping down her hollowed-out cheeks.

“That was so sad!” she cried into the empty hallway, unable to contain her grief. “Oh my god!”

But so beautiful for it, she thought. Helena had lived a glorious life, full of twists and turns and ups and downs, all jumbled together into a work of pure art. She couldn’t wait to go back and see it all again—she had to—but first, she had to eat something, or the simulation would reject her request.

Helena impatiently jabbed the up arrow next to the elevator, her heart pounding unsteadily as she stumbled her way to the cafeteria, paid for the first nutrition pack she saw, and gobbled the contents down without tasting anything. Ba-dum. Ba-dum-ba. Dum.

Against her will, fragments of Helena’s real life seeped through the cracks of her high. Her emptying bank account. Her disappointed parents. Her… his… ragged beard… His sweat-soaked shirt, which was beginning to smell something awful—

No, no, no, this wouldn’t do. She was Helena Coombs. She’d pioneered a world-changing education program at age twenty-three. She had the coolest older brother and her parents loved them both unconditionally. And she was going to see them again, no matter the cost.

After tossing her meal’s packaging down a garbage chute, Helena rushed past the elevator, taking the stairs three steps at a time back to the virtual reality floor, where a caretaker was just finishing up the routine cleaning of recently emptied cabins. She plunged her ID into the designated slot so hard that it scraped her palm bloody, but she paid it no heed.

Climbing into the virtual reality cabin at record speed, Helena considered her options. She had Helena’s life favorited, as well as a few other popular characters. But she could certainly mix it up a little.

I want to see what happens after I die… I’ll choose Travis this time.

Yes. That was a good idea.

Choice finalized, Travis Coombs put on his headset and pressed Start.

In a computer-generated world buried deep in the quantum network, a baby boy was born for the 31340th time.

–

The door to the virtual reality cabin that had just been cleaned—and immediately dirtied again—shut with a quiet hiss. The caretaker readied a disinfecting wipe for the bloody palm print on the outside of the otherwise pristine cabin and shook their head.

Poor thing. So young and already addicted.