The Reali Ty of Fantasia, Zen Andrius [read an ebook week .TXT] 📗

The Reali Ty of Fantasia

July 15, 3036

Velistras, Dimension B612

 

The place was quiet. Too quiet. It was also pitch black save for a small light that illuminated from one corner of the room.

The occupant of the room stared at the computer screen for who knows how long. Doesn't mind the mild stinging of her eyes from forgetting from blinking, hoping and wishing fervently that those words on the screen would say something else.

But no. The words: "Immortality Experiment- Total Failure" also failed to change.

"They're all dead," the still figure muttered.

With a scream, the person hefted the machine and threw it out the window, bathing the room with the brilliant glow of sunlight. Wincing from the sudden brightness, tears began falling from the woman's face.

"They're all dead."

 

April 19, 3040

"Yep... It's dead, alright."

The quiet planet was disturbed from the clacking of expensive men's shoes. The man hummed happily while looking at his surroundings and checking at his wristwatch from time to time.

"What luck," he grinned as he glanced at his wristwatch again. "In a few moments, the money will be received and those clients of mine will move in." He looked around at the place.

Unknown wild life are sprouting abundantly at every nook and cranny of the abandoned, rusty, web-and-insect infested establishments. Trash and trashier trash littered the place. And he wants nothing to do with cleaning.

"Good thing the money comes first and I'll split this joint before they arrive--"

"A person!"

He looked up from his watch and saw a woman running towards him.

"Thank goodness!" she sighed with relief. "Someone IS alive--!"

"Sorry, lady. I'm not from around here," he quickly cut off what she was about to say.

"Wha...?" she huffed as she stopped short in from of him. "But--"

"Oh!" he interrupted again. "Before anything else, allow me to introduce myself. I'm V. I'm here to investigate this world to confirm.if it's status is dead or alive. And this planet's dead."

"Wait," she shook her head in confusion. "I thought you are not from here?"

"And I am not." V smiled. "I'm just here to check if this world is dead so the new tenants could move in and make this their new home. Aren't I 'V'-ry nice?"

It took a moment before she digested what V was saying.

"How dare you! You can't sell my planet just like that!" she screamed.

V didn't even so much as blinked at her angry outburst. "Well, Miss...?"

"It's Dame. And I strongly protest that you sell my planet to whoever will buy it!" she shouted and stomped her foot for good measure.

This is where she grew up, where she went to school, where she lived her life!

V sighed and ran a hand through his gel-thickened hair.

"Dame..." he started seriously. "I know you and I, too, strongly suggest..."

Dame blinked and waited for hid next words.

"That we get out of here together and split the money between ourselves!" V announced while grabbing her hand and swinging it.

"What the!" Dame snatched her hand back. "Didn't you hear what I said? I refuse to let you sell this planet! MY planet! I still have to find someone who--"

"What? You still think someone is alive in this place?" V scoffed. "Just get over the fact that your the only living person in this stinkhole!"

Dame gasped and a tear fell from her eye at V's remark.

"I know. You don't have to tell me that to rub that in my face. But I can't help myself but be hopeful that they must have some other people they experimented on and that I might find them here. Alive."

V sighed and gently said, "I know about you, Dame. How your people experimented on you and how they found out that they 'failed'. How they destroyed their lives and this world afterwards."

As much as she doesn't want to admit, Dame knew all of that. She had read the newspapers a hundred times. The dark news swirled round and round her head.

"Dame," V reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know you don't trust me and I know I somehow betrayed you because of selling your planet but... Believe this. There are other beings that desperately need your planet for their kind to finally live amongst themselves in peace. A world where no other species threaten and scare them. A world where they can comfortably and happily call Home."

As much as it pains Dame. She knew that V's right.

"You're right..." she said with a sigh. "But... Where will I go?"

V grinned and threw his arm on her shoulder. "You come with me, of course! Imagine the planets and adventures we'll be having." Spinning the both of them to face the horizon, V glanced at his watch and pointed a random direction.

"Imagine the different flora and faunas we'll be discovering. The beautiful scenery the worlds can offer. The sculpted rocks of majestic mountains that could fall over and crush us to oblivion. Monsters as tall as the exosphere. And the rivers of blood we will go through in order to continue living to tomorrow."

Dame blinked, dumbfounded at V's litany.

"What?" she managed to squeak out in disbelief upon registering the last part of V's speech.

"Dame, just think. Not only you'll give the new tenants a home but you'll also be accompanying my lonely existence! I'm sure that the new tenants will take good care of your world, too. Isn't that great? And... Aren't you hungry?"

The rising momentum on Dame's respect and awe towards V suddenly plummeted after that moment-breaking question.

After staring at his smiling face blankly, V just laughed and grabbed her arm, pulling her in a direction. "Come on. Let's eat."

Dame dug in her heels. "Wait a minute! How can we leave? And how did you get here? All the portal stations in my world are not working!"

V just laughed and flicked his left wrist. His wristwatch turned into a pocket watch and as V opened it, a portal appeared in front of them.

A portal clock!, Dame thought in shock.

V turned to her and held out his hand. "How long has it been since you ate from a restaurant?" he asked.

Dame stared at his offered hand and looked at his kind and smiling face. With a small smule, she accepted his hand and a thought suddenly went throught her head as she felt him pull her into the open portal.

"Wait! Aren't portal clocks illegal--"

And the portal closed.

 

Aries 16, 3040

Brink Forest, Dimension H364

"V, I thought we're going to a restaurant?" Dame asked while sitting hunched beside V before a small sea of the forest.

There was nothing special in that forest. It was made a setting of one or more movies in ecistence because of it's ordinariness and lack of dangerouls being-eating monsters. Nothing out of the ordinary except for that small sea where Dame and V are currently fishing.

"Shh, pipe down, Dame or you'll scare away the fishermen." V whispered.

"Huh? Fishermen?"

"DAME! Don't you see?!" V suddenly stood up much to Dame's surprise. "We're in the middle of a forest! Have you seen any restaurants nearby? No! 'Cause we don't have money so we're stuck here IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKIN' FOREST!" he whacked his fishing pole on the water with intense emotion.

Dame just stared up at him in shock and wonder.

Whoa, did I switch on something?, she thought curiously.

"And I thought you said be quiet." Dame murmured cautiously as V huffed and turned his back towards her. Opting to stay silent may result in an awkward tension hanging on both of them so Dame continued speaking.

"Maybe..." a thought came into Dame as she mulled over the possibilities on why they end up in the forest. "Oh, V," she giggled. "I know you're reason. You don't have to hide it from me."

V blushed. "Hide what?"

Dame adjusted her fishing pole gently. "Oh, that maybe your watch is broken that's why you can't take me to a restaurant." she teased, hoping to ease some of the tension. "It really was a long time since I last ate at a restaurant."

"Hey! Need I inform you that my watch is not broken. Just old!" V shouted out and threw his fishing pole to the sea.

"Are you... Crying?" Dame asked in surprise as she gave him a look.

"N-no, I'm not." He said through teary-eyes.

Looking deflated, V sat next to Dame and gave a sigh before turning towards her, red faced.

"D-Dame... I'm... I'm just sooooo hungry, I feel I'll die! I'm so hungry thay, given the chance, I'll steal from someone just to eat!"

"Seriously--Whoa! V!" Dame yelped when something suddenly pulled on the line. It pulled so hard, Dame was about to make a splash on the water face-first when V pounced over her to stop her descent.

Holding her by the waist, V dragged her away from the sea and moved to grab onto the fishing pole and helped her reel in the catch.

Then a man with a basketful of fish emerged from the water, perched on the lasso-type fishing line.

"Hey, wanna buy some fish? I got a buy one get one free with the pufferfish liver." the man offered.

Dame stared at the man disbelievingly. Could it be they fished a fisherman selling fish?

The man seem to grow annoyed at their lack of response. "What? You gonna buy something or what?"

V suddenly got up and, without a word, punched the fisherman in the face. The man lay sprawled on top of the water that left Dame gaping at the sudden scene.

"No time to lose. Let's get what we can and make a run for it!" V said as he quickly snatched the basketful of fish from the unconscious fisherman with the other hand and snatching Dame's hand with another, pulling her along as he raced away from the small sea.

 

Arie 16, 3040

Brink Forest, approximately three kilometers from the sea, Dimension H364

Dame and V silently ate the fish V stole from the fisherman. The fish was perfectly cooked and seemed to have been cooked with honey and olive oil. Dame even wondered where he got those AND the cooking utensils to cook the fish.

They may be eating peacefully but that was after they finally silenced the still-talking-cooked fish by eating it's head. Dame already had a hard time coming to terms about V punching the fisherman and she doesn't want to know what the fish experienced in its entire life so they could refrain from eating it.

"V, this world really is... Different. I don't understand what I understand, anymore. I don't understand what I don't understand, too." Dame sighed as they finished eating and sat by the left over fire from V's cooking.

V laughed. "But it's fun, right? Don't worry, I'll pay that fisherman back. I'm having delays in receiving the new tenants' payment for your planet."

Dame gulped and sighed sadly. "That means... They're already in my planet now."

V just stared at her for a moment before inching closer to her side.

"Do you... Have somewhere you want to go, Dame?" V asked softly.

Dame shook her head and buried her face on her hands. "No. I don't know. I don't know anything about the other worlds. I am an immortal now and I don't know how to start my life."

"Come with me then."

She looked at him with a dead stare. "What do you think I'm doing now? You even declared me to come with you when we're in my planet."

"I did, didn't I?" V chuckled, bracing his arms behind him, he leaned back. "There's this planet I wanted to go and I want you to come with me there. The world's not that special but it's one world that beings go to when they want to start on something new." V glanced at her and gave a smile. "Reali Ty."

Dame blinked. "Reali Ty?"

"Yep! It can't be accessed by any portal stations or any portal devices. We have to travel to Fantasia, Dimension Z599. When the time is right, we