Ghosts Don't Die Twice

04|| Aria's

Chapter 04|| Aria's

"Ever had a dream where you thought you'd woken up, only to find out that was just the beginning of the nightmare?"

This was where it all began.

-_-

Aria Vega
Day 134,
Year 2030.                      

Hello Aria, Welcome to Day 1-3-4 , rise and shine...

Aria opens her eyes groggily to the low hum of the in-house artificial intelligence, Luna.

"...it's going to be a great day!" She mumbles along.

She sits up, rubbing her eyes, trying to recollect her thoughts from last night, it all seemed like a blur, she'd worked late, again. Her work visibly sprawled all over her workstation in what she'd call "organized chaos."

"Any new mail?" She asks Luna, like she'd done for the past year, hoping to receive the same rote response from her self-built AI. She hears something totally different.

"You-have -one -new-mail."

She pauses, holding her breath, hopeful that she doesn't jinx it by drawing air into her lungs.

"Please Luna, read it."

"New message from LP Corporations-

Hello, dear Aria VEGA, this mail looks to address your application to join our amiable staff and offices in the capacity of a Support Psychiatrist, Level 1. Upon rigorous review, your application has been deemed successful. You can find further details concerning work integrations, and a drone delivery of your contract to be signed in-person at the LP Co. main offices. Please note that the delivery has been automated and would be shipped out 120 seconds after this message has been opened and read. We look forward to an exciting time with you.

Signed, Head of Recruitments,

Jefferey B.T."

Aria felt lightheaded, more from holding her breath through the message. She was in absolute disbelief, so much so she had Luna read it one more time. All her doubts went out the window when the contract arrived. She wanted to scream at the top of lungs, jump off the balustrade of her 61st floor loft and somehow fly and float through Olive City while telling everyone she'd finally got her dream on track and gets to work with the company she'd fantasized about all these years.

She contemplates calling her father, Doctor Phillipe Vega. At some point in the past he'd have been proud of her, hell, he'd have told her that all her hard work had finally paid off, but like many others he'd lost faith, in her dream, in her. Aria had been applying to the LP CO. Program, twice a year, consecutively for six years running, since she graduated top two of her Psychology class.
Phillipe had given up an arm or two trying to convince her to join his sanatorium, or even apply to other top tech firm, since she was adamant on working is that space, but Aria was adamant, it had to be LP CO. the only company with the goal and capacity to work on the cure for a technology induced disease, that had become rampant in 2030. It was physically worse than cancer and killed faster than the ischemic heart disease.

With the advent of augmented reality, humans would rather spend time in fantasy worlds than in the real one. At first everyone thought it was just mere infatuation and once the tech got aged it would become less addictive. They were wrong. AR companies kept developing more sophisticated worlds, and then the outbreak of the AR sickness, dubbed, "head-in-the-clouds," H-I-T-C for short, or it's street name "tech high," it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. You'd think people would stay away from life threatening tech, but it was still too addictive.

Addicts were willing to ride the edge between augmented high and suspended animation. LP CO, were the only company actively trying to combat this addiction. They are actively using fire to fight fire by using the same tech in AR to fight back against itself. They created more serene environments and anti-depression worlds where victims could recalibrate their emotions and existence within the real world. Psychologists were spearheading the ground-breaking research and are making real progress. Aria hoped to be a part of that.