Suddenly, a familiar image flashed before Ethan’s eyes. He saw a circle of children pointing his way and laughing. Shame and fear tore into his mind, and he instinctively recoiled from the memory. Instantly, the image dissolved, leaving him alone and uncertain in the sea of mist.
“What the nerfbats was that?” Ethan swore as he regained his balance.
Had he just seen some sort of vision? No, wait. He remembered that scene. It was a memory from his childhood, an unpleasant one that he’d buried a long time ago. Had touching the orb made him remember it? The orb was still floating in front of him undisturbed, but he wasn’t going to touch it again. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. One weird and uncomfortable invasion of his mind was more than enough.
“Seriously, what are the game designers thinking?” Ethan took a deep calming breath of virtual air. It felt real, which was all that mattered.
Mental trickery involving memories was probably illegal, and it was definitely unethical. What right did the game developers have to go routing about in his head? People wouldn’t play games like this if they thought it was going to mess with their minds. VR was supposed to be relaxing and fun! Although, with a huge prize on the line, that all may have changed. Still, doing this to players was beyond sketchy. Ethan grimaced. At least, he hoped they were also doing this to other players. It would suck if a developer had some sort of grudge against him in particular. He was unlikely to get very far up the tower if that were the case.
After one last wary gaze, Ethan turned away from the orb and headed back into the mist. He walked through the seemingly endless haze for several dull minutes, until he noticed a new light to his left. With a sense of foreboding growing within him, he trudged closer to examine it. His suspicions were proven correct a moment later. Another orb of light was floating in front of him, although this one was distinguishable from the last by its color. It was a bit redder in hue.
Ethan scowled at the orb and then reluctantly reached for it. He didn’t seem to have much of a choice. There was nothing else in this test but the mist.
The moment his fingers passed into the orb, Ethan felt the same tingle as before. He braced himself as colors invaded his vision and formed another image. This time, a familiar woman with short brown hair was yelling at him. It was Lisa, his girlfriend from college. Anger, loss, and shame flooded into Ethan. He had broken up with her after she’d gotten into grad school, and she had accused him of being unambitious. The pain was fresher this time. He remembered this event much clearer than the last.
Instead of letting go of the orb, Ethan tried to hold on. He ignored the painful emotions and the jarring memory behind them, but the intensity just grew. After struggling to keep the mental storm of emotions at bay for several long seconds, he failed. Grunting, Ethan stumbled back from the orb with a painful headache and a heart full of regret.
“Ya, screw all this trash!” He hissed as his pain turned to fury. He turned around and began stomping back the way he’d come. What kind of game was this? It was unwinnable torture.
Almost immediately, Ethan noticed a shape appear in the mist before him. A second later, the mist parted before him to reveal the dais he’d started at. What? He’d been walking in a straight line through the mist for almost half an hour. There was no way he should be so close to the start already. Frowning thoughtfully, Ethan circled the stone block and looked it over. It seemed to be the same. Nothing had changed.
Experimenting, Ethan walked back into the mist. After counting to thirty, he turned around and almost immediately arrived back at the dais. What did it mean though? Did it mean anything? Ethan scratched his chin as he sat on the stone. “Huh, interesting.”
Feeling frustrated and caged in, Ethan decided to do more exploring. He walked away from the dais. Several minutes of wandering failed to produce any new sights or revelations until he spotted another light. Freezing, Ethan stared at it. He didn’t want to go anywhere near an orb. They did nothing but drudge up painful memories, and he didn’t even know if they were the key to getting to the next level.
Sighing, Ethan turned away from the light and headed deeper into the mist. Sometimes it seemed like his entire life was just a series of bad memories. He was probably indulging his self-pity too much by thinking that, but the last thing he wanted to do was focus on painful bits of his past. That was pointless. He hoped there was something in the depths of this mist that he was missing. Something he could shoot or blow up would be great.
Minutes passed. The walls of smothering haze didn’t relent. As Ethan trudged stiffly forward, they pressed in on him. His thoughts were turned inward, but he eventually sensed changes going on around him. Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought the mist was growing darker. Ethan squinted at the haze around him. It did seem to have lost its blue shade and become greyer. Also, was that a scraping sound he was hearing? Before, the mist had been utterly silent.
An eerie sense of nervousness picked at the edge of Ethan’s thoughts. He drew a deep breath as the mist around him continued to grow darker. He was sure something was going on now, so he slowed his pace. It didn’t help. The darkness continued to close in, and Ethan thought he saw small flashes of movement out in the mist that stirred the air. Cautiously, Ethan came to a complete stop and reached for his pistol. He could feel something unseen looming ahead of him. The hair on the back of his neck felt like it was standing straight up, and whispering noises reached his ears. Ethan bit his lip. Something dangerous was approaching, and it felt oddly familiar. He wanted to run, but he held his ground. There was no way a feeling was going to control him. He wasn’t a coward, and this was just a game anyway. He had fought all kinds of horrors in games before without a problem. This shouldn’t be any different. This was just a game…
Ahead of Ethan, the mist rippled and stirred. Something dark slithered just out of sight. Ethan took a step back as cold fear blossomed within his mind. He tried to suppress it, but it spread down his spine like freezing water. He recognized what he was seeing and feeling now. It was the shadow from the dark room, the first room in the tower. The creature had followed him somehow. It was hunting him. Ethan shuddered. Instinctively, he knew he couldn’t fight this monster. It was nothing like a normal foe. Before, he’d felt it touch his mind and try to worm its way deeper. He couldn’t face that with virtual swords or guns.
The mist swirled and grew darker. The haze around Ethan was almost black now. There was a sudden hiss, like escaping steam. Fuck this! Ethan abandoned his pride and ran for it. He spun around and dashed back the way he’d come as fast as he could. He half expected for something massive to burst out of the mist and swallow him, but it didn’t happen. Instead, the mist quickly lightened back to its previous blueish color and the dais appeared before him again, despite the fact that he’d spent almost an hour moving away from it and only a few seconds running back.
The cloud of fear around Ethan quickly dissipated as his surroundings became more familiar. He no longer felt the shadow lurking just out of his sight, so when he reached the dais, he came to a stop and sucked down a deep calming breath. Fuming, he then brushed a hand through his hair and sat on the edge of the stone to rest. What in all that was electric was that monster? There was no way anything like it should exist in a VR game! A whole lot of people needed to be fired and then beaten and thrown in jail.
Sighing, Ethan sat back and begin to think. What was his next move supposed to be? He wanted to climb the tower, but this floor seemed both impossible and genuinely dangerous. There was nothing out in the mist but pure pain and terror. How could he defeat it?
No great ideas or stunning revelations popped into his head. Instead, he spent the next few minutes trying not to think about the memories the orbs had drudged up or about his retreat from the shadow. It had been the smart thing to do. It wasn’t cowardice. There were simply memories he didn’t want to face…
Ethan sighed again in frustration. He couldn’t just stay here. The dais was a save point. Maybe it was tim
e to log off. He could come back another time after he’d cleared his mind.
Opening his in-game menu, Ethan reached out to click the button that would confirm his choice to log-off. However, just as his finger was hovering a hair’s width away from the button, there was a flash of light behind him. Quickly pulling his hand back, Ethan spun around to see what had caused the burst of light. Had something come out of the mist?
At the center of the stone dais he was sitting on, the light faded to reveal the form of a person. Ethan blinked in surprise. It was a young woman with long blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing futuristic white armor but no helmet, which wasn’t unusual in Worldshift outside of combat zones. Ethan studied her face as he quickly jumped to his feet and turned to face her. He immediately noticed she was cute. The thought popped into Ethan’s mind, and he couldn’t deny it. Her face was attractive in a girl-next-door sort of way. A quick subliminal command activated his scanner, causing a green dot to appear above her head. She was a player. Ethan’s heart skipped a beat.
“Oh, hello there,” the girl remarked in surprise when she saw Ethan. She gave him a shy smile that made her cheeks go red. Cute!
“Hi,” Ethan replied nervously. He needed to think of something cool to say! Nothing was coming to mind though. Come on. This was hardly the first time he’d ever talked to a cute girl. What was wrong with him? He blamed the mist. Obviously, he hadn’t recovered yet.
“Um, so you’re not going to attack me or anything, are you?” the woman asked as Ethan continued to stand there and stare at her. She sounded a little nervous herself.
Oh, right. They were technically competitors. It would make sense for anyone trying to claim the prize to eliminate the other players they met.
“No, I couldn’t attack you even if I wanted to, and I really don’t. You seem like a nice person, and this isn’t a PvP area,” Ethan explained as he tried to smile confidently. He had checked when he looked up her status. It was only possible for players to attack each other in certain areas.
The woman’s smile brightened. “Oh, you’re right. I didn’t check. How silly of me. Since we can’t fight, how about working together?”
Ethan blinked as he took a quick moment to think. Technically, he had no reason to help her, but she was cute, and he was stuck anyway. What did he have to lose?
“Sure, my name is Ethan,” he replied as he held out his hand. Would she take it?
The woman gave him a friendly grin and shook his hand. “Hello, Ethan. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lily.”
Even in armor, her hand was small when compared to his own, but she was surprisingly strong. Ethan let the handshake last a few pleasant seconds before letting go.
“I’ve been stuck in this chamber for a while,” Ethan explained as he stepped back. Lily listened attentively as he recounted a slightly more flattering version of everything that had happened to him here.
When he was done, she winced and frowned as if she shared his pain. “That sounds terrible. The tests I went through before this were nothing like what you just described.”
“So what do you want to do?” Ethan asked her.
“Well, you already tried going in alone, so let’s head into the mists together and see what happens.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Ethan said with a shrug of his shoulders. Internally, he stifled a shiver of fear that tried to go down his spine. He wasn’t going to look cowardly in front of Lily, despite how uneasy the shadow in the mist made him.
Together, they walked off the dais and headed straight into the mist. At first, Ethan tried to keep ahead of Lily, but as the mist thickened, he found himself reluctant to move forward. His pace slowed and Lily took the lead. Ethan grimaced. He didn’t mind getting an eyeful of Lily’s back. It was a great distraction from the mist, but he really should have been in the lead.
“This isn’t so bad,” Lily remarked happily as she kept walking forward. The mist swirled around her, but it was still a bluish-white color, and her bubbly mood was infectious.
“This is the easy part,” Ethan replied as he watched his surroundings for any sign of movement. Was the shadow still around? Would it show up if he wasn’t alone?
Suddenly, there was a familiar sparkle of light off to his left. Ethan turned to see another orb floating in the air off in the mist. Grunting in frustration, he turned back to say something to Lily, only to find her gone. In the second he’d looked away, she’d been swallowed into the mist.
“Frag on a stick,” Ethan swore as he looked around. There was no sign of Lily.
Alone, Ethan hesitated. He wanted to turn around and escape the mist before it grew dark and wild. A single step backward would take him to the dais, but he didn’t want to leave Lily out here alone. He liked her. She was cute and seemed nice. Maybe she was just out of sight and he could find her.
“Lily, are you there?” he yelled anxiously. His voice echoed back to him immediately, as if it had bounced off the curtain of fog around him.
There was no reply for several long, painful seconds. Ethan bit his lip and studied the mist. Off to the side, the glowing orb continued to float above the ground. Ethan ignored it. Maybe Lily was already back at the dais? He should probably go back there and meet up with her. Ethan started to turn, but then he heard a voice that washed away the anxiety that had been gnawing the inside of his chest.
“Ethan? I can hear you but not see you,” Lily’s shouted from out of sight. “It doesn’t sound like we are too far apart. Don’t go anywhere.”
“All right. Where did you go?” Ethan asked.
“I just moved to look at one of those orbs you mentioned, and when I looked back, you were gone.”
“Just don’t touch it.”
“Um, I already did. After, I saw you were gone. Sorry. It went sort of like you said it would, but then it disappeared. I think I passed its test.”
“What? How?” Ethan shouted in frustration. He’d tried everything. He was seriously beginning to suspect he’d pissed off a game designer somehow.
“I think you just need to accept the memories the orb shows. Don’t fight or resist them. You can’t let the memories hurt you. They’re part of yourself. Don’t push them away, like you said you did before.”
“That’s not what I said I did,” Ethan hissed. He was pretty sure he’d worded that in a much more heroic-sounding way.
“Anyway, I see another light up ahead.” The vanished girl continued obliviously. “I think if I follow the lights, I will reach the exit. I’ll wait for you there.”
“Wait! I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Ethan yelled back, but there was no reply. Lily was gone. He was alone in the mist with the orb.
Ethan’s first thought was that there was no way in hell he was going to touch the light again. That had gone very badly for him, but did he have a choice? Lily’s advice was his only clue. He couldn’t stay in the mist, and going back would be pointless. Lily wasn’t there. She was waiting for him up ahead.
“Man up.” Ethan hissed at himself as he clenched a fist. “They’re just memories. You can do this.”
Steeling himself, Ethan took a step toward the light. He really didn’t want to touch it again, but he wasn’t going to flee from some bad memories and leave Lily alone in the mist. The shadow might still be around, waiting for a chance to strike, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was dangerous in a very real way, even though this was just a game. Also, if Lily could beat the orb, there was no way he couldn’t. He wasn’t a weakling or coward. He could do this.
Ethan grimaced as he pushed his hand into the orb. The expected tingle shot up his arm, and it was followed by the swarm of colors filling his vision. He fought his desire to step back and tried to relax instead. He needed to do this. As he concentrated on taking deep calming breaths, the moving colors became an image. His old girlfriend Katie appeared before him again. He remembered what she had told him. That she couldn’t be with him anymore. Being around someone so
unfocused would only drag her down. She wanted to succeed in life, and he couldn’t help her with that. Again, Ethan felt the shame and loss. Breathing deeply, he remembered reacting angrily and yelling back. He had said she was cold and bossy, that he was better off without her, but his anger had only been an attempt to hide his pain. Deep down, he felt losing her had been his own fault. He’d thought he wasn’t good enough, that she was right and he was unfocused and lazy.
Pain stabbed through Ethan’s mind. He had instinctively tried to protect himself by pushing the memories away. He couldn’t do that if he wanted to pass this test.
“Don’t think about the emotions, just remember them. Accept what happened. It doesn’t matter if you were wrong or right. It’s just a memory. You can’t change it,” Ethan whispered to himself as he struggled to stay calm.
The orb shimmered. Ethan let the memory play out. He watched it in its entirety, every detail, without letting it provoke him. As his old emotions washed over him, he refused to act on them. The feelings passed through him and disappeared. The past was unchangeable, but it didn’t control him. As Ethan let out a deep sigh, the orb disappeared. He’d won!
“Take that, you creepy game developers!” Ethan exclaimed as he blinked to clear his eyes. He totally wasn’t tearing up. The mist was just getting in them or something.
Straightening himself, Ethan looked around. Off in the mist floated another shining orb. He scowled at it for a moment before reluctantly trudging forward. Touching it brought up the childhood memory of laughing kids again. This one was easier to accept than the first, so Ethan quickly moved on.
A few moments later, Ethan found a third orb of light in the mist. As he approached, he felt a shiver of apprehension go down his spine. He recognized something about this orb, a memory. Even without touching it yet, the ball was resonating with him, making him feel sick with fear.
“I’ve got to do this. It’s all an illusion,” Ethan reminded himself before gritting his teeth and reaching for the orb.
Worldshift- Virtual Revolution Page 8
