Empyrean

Passing through the crack in the wall, she looked over at the Evergreen Garden, it wasn't barren but not as beautiful as she remembered. Surprised that the beauty of Empyrean wasn't completely fabricated in her head, Beneatha took the short way to the Ancient Gallery.

Passing through the garden where she used to come for a piece of clarity, the grass was dry with no roses anywhere at sight. The sky she used to stare at was locked behind the huge metal dome. Beneatha sighed in pain to realize that the good people of Empyrean were nothing but prisoners blinded by a delusion of heaven.

After staying two long hours, waiting patiently for the transcendence to finish, they started hearing voices bringing life back to the empty routes of Empyrean.

Beneatha told them that the people of Empyrean would be heading to the residence shortly after the ceremony. So, they started sneaking to the control room, where Ader was kept.

Slowly, they went to the second floor, where a long corridor took them to a room at the far end. With every step, Beneatha's heartbeats were rising, she was barely moving her legs towards that door as if something was pushing her away. She shook her head, resisting her fears. Despite her curiosity to see Ader as it really was, she was concerned. Everything she ever knew would change forever in just a couple of minutes. However, she wondered…. Would she be able to remember?

Nervously, Beneatha stood aside staring at the screens, boards, and wires crowding the little place where Goliard was impatiently plugging in the virus. The shock paralyzed her, she couldn't move, as if something huge was grabbing her body blocking even air from coming in. Suddenly, Goliard's voice awoke her saying "Ready?"

A small nod was the best she could do. Without even blinking, Goliard turned his head to the screen in front of him, murmuring "rest in peace now, Hede." Before touching the board to end the way life was, and welcome them into new uncertainty.

Fractions of seconds passed when the grip got tighter crushing her body into complete darkness. She couldn't feel, see, nor hear anything, she was in the abyss. Soon enough, she surrendered to the darkness. Then, she heard a voice breaking through the tightened walls of her mental coffin. She recognized that voice, so she summoned her energy to follow it.

"Beneatha, get up," he said, "we did it"

She felt his warm hands pressing on her shoulders, shaking her awake. It wasn't the first time Goliard's voice snatched her from the grip of darkness. She opened her eyes, but the darkness wasn't lifted.

"Goliard, where are you?" she cried...

"What do you mean?" he said, "I am right here"

All of sudden, a strong light hit her eyes "just remove your goggles, dummy"

Beneatha struggled to get up as the strong light was burning her eyes. So, Goliard helped her to get on her feet to find herself astonished by the new surroundings she woke up in. Unable to say a word, Goliard took the liberty of filling up the silence.

"You are a genius, the plan worked," he said.

Unable to comprehend anything he was saying, her eyes wandered around. They were in a glass room; other people were in the adjoining rooms wearing goggles and headphones. She could not hear them, but Goliard's voice took her fizzy attention again.

"You figured the best way to do it," he said repeatedly, "we are the first to finish, you sneaky genius"

Ignoring the new annoying way Goliard was speaking, she wanted to understand what he meant by "the first to finish", finish what? She wondered.

"Poor bastards, still playing" Goliard added, "not knowing that the big prize has already been taken"

Noticing that Beneatha was preoccupied with her surroundings, he wondered "Aren't you happy? We won, babe"

Apart from his looks and voice, Goliard was nothing like the one she met weeks ago. Despite the familiarity of everything, she couldn't recognize anything.

Her silence urged him to insist "we are the first to win the biggest prize, thanks to your plan, we finished the game without using any violence. In the end, you were right. All we had to do was to fully immerse ourselves in the game. None of these fools thought of choosing a character from Empyrean, but you did. So, victory was ours, babe!"

His words were more overwhelming than explanatory. It was a moment where all of her newfound reality had shattered into fractions of complete nonsense, again. For 3 long minutes, Beneatha was still as a stone, silently battling to believe. The details of her plan, Goliard was telling, stirred a pot of memories she didn't remember living. Wondering what happened to every truth she just woke up into, she felt completely numb. Her brain was swimming in a sea of uncertainty all over again when she finally uttered...

"A game? All of this was just a game?"