All I see is white. No colors, no forms, no sound, nothing, just white. Then I hear her voice in my head.
-Just breath, your vision will adjust soon.
If it wasn't Eliza talking I would probably freaking out that someone can talk to me in my head, but it's her and her voice always makes everything better. I try to say something, but my voice is stuck in my throat.
-If you want to talk to me, just image what you would be saying to me in real life but in your head, and I'll hear it.
-Where are we? I think.
-In the nothing, she answer. I didn't wanted to show you too much at once, so I choose the nothing. You'll see me appear pretty soon.
And she's right. The second she finishes her sentence I see her, right in front of me. She walks toward me.
-Ok, so in here, you can move, but your actual body won't move. It's all in your head, so you can do anything you want, like...
She jumps in the air and does a backflip.
-Also, there's to way of speaking. There's the normal one, so in real life like the boys did, which is good when you're many in the simulation because everybody can hear you, or there's telepathically, like we do right now. But that's just between two person, so that's why the boys were talking out loud.
-So everything I can imagine I can make it? I ask.
She nods. To show me, she opens up her hand and I see colors dancing on it, like a fire of color. Then, out of the colorful airy flames, a butterfly starts flying around. It flips and flops in the air, and then comes to me. I extend my hand and then butterfly stops on my finger. Then, the butterfly becomes a little pool of water in my hand, and a tiny fish jumps out of the water. It's so beautiful I feel like crying. It looks to real, and it feels so real. It's amazing. The water disappear, and then the white around us becomes a field of flowers, where hundreds of butterfly floats around. I can smell the flowers, I can feel the wind on my face, I can hear the birds.
-This is amazing, I think.
-You like?
-So much.
-Watch this, she says in my head with an excited voice.
I'm thrown in water and I sink, put I have no trouble breathing. In the water I see fishes, and Eliza point toward something. I swim to the place she's pointing, and I see a coral castle with mermaids. Then the world flips again and I'm floating in space.
-This is Alac's favorite place.
I can see the Earth, and the other planets, and the sun, and satellites floating. Then the world changes again and we are back in the white, but it's more like a white room, not just nothing. There's a floor and walls.
-Show me how you work in here, I ask her.
At these words, pieces of metal start flying towards us, coming out of nowhere. She makes a pile of them.
-Imagine I want to build a rocket. There's a lot of electric stuff to create, but if I just want to see the shape, I can just make it in my head.
The metal pieces jump in the air to arrange themselves in a rocket ship.
-Then, if I want to change something, I just need to think it.
The rocket becomes taller, fatter, thinner, with another reactor.
-Then I put together the electric in it.
Cables and buttons and stuff appear from nowhere and I look at her putting in place a rocket.
-Of course I know what to do and where to put stuff, so I know what I'm doing. That's why it looks so easy. But it's not my first rocket in here. It's done, by the way.
I walk around it. There's actually a real life rocket ship in the middle of the room. The door opens and I take it as a sign that I can go in. Inside everything is perfect, everything you see in pictures and video of rocket ship is in there.
-Come out, she tells me.
I do. When I'm standing next to her, she gives me a remote control with only one red button on it.
-You want to launch it? She asks.
-In here?
-Where else, it's in our head, nothing really happens for real.
I press the button and the rocket fly in the air super fast. The heat and fire that would have burned us in real life doesn't even reach us in here.
-You try, she says.
-Try what? I ask.
-To make something. Close your eyes and imagine something, then you have to visualize yourself having it in your hands or being able to touch it. Then open your eyes.
I do. I close my eyes, but I can't think of anything suddenly.
-It doesn't have to be something really impressive Rio. You can just imagine a glass of water if you want to. Just try.
-But you do impressive things.
-And I have hours of practice and I made this thing.
I imagine a book. Just a book, with no tittle and no story, only the shape of a book. But nothing happens.
-You need to feel it inside your head, she tells me. You need to be able to hold it, feel it, twist it. Think what it would feel in real life, imagine every bit of it, every angle, everything.
I do. I visualize a small black book, not too heavy, with hard cover, soft paper, that creaks when you open it because it's old, that smell like old paper and dust. I can see it inside my head, feel it, smell the old sent.
-Open your eyes Rio, she says.
I do, and in my hand there's a book, a black book, exactly like in my head.
-Woo, I say, dropping the book on the floor.
-If you don't want it anymore, you need to deconstruct it, just like you made it.
I try, taking away every page, losing the smell and everything. When I open my eyes, it's gone.
Eliza walks up to me.
-The only thing we can't do in here, is touch, she says.
She lifts her hand and place it on my cheek, but I feel nothing. Her hand is air. It makes me sad that we can't touch, so I change the subject.
-Create something for me, I ask. Like the field, but something you've never imagine before. I want to see.
She nods, then take a step back and close her eyes. Around us the room becomes blurry, some part of it changing in colors, turning green and grey and white again. Shapes and forms appear, but everything is uncertain. Then, right under our feet, there's rock forming. It expands, becoming more rocks and then grass and then sky. When the outside colors are made, small details start appearing, like trees and animals and birds in the sky, and wind, and leaves floating in the air. When she open her eyes, we're at the top of a mountain. Far away, there's nothing, it's white. She didn't imagine anything there, but close to us everything is there, and everything is so real.
-This is crazy, I say.
She laugh.
-And you thought of that machine all by yourself? I ask.
She nods.
-I was 15. The first few prototypes were crazy, some really dangerous. It wasn't pretty. Making something in the brain can sometimes look so easy, like the rocket, but try it in real life and you'll kill yourself doing it. The brain only allow us to visualize the most crazy things, to then decide if we try them in real life or not.
-And what's the game? I ask.
-It's a thing the guys do. Someone create a world, a map, and they team up and attack each other, and since the simulation works with your imagination, you can create anything and everything, so everything is allowed. You still need to be careful, sometimes things can get out of hands, you can get too excited, and it can hurt the others. There's a limit of what the brain can take.
-Like Dwayne's aliens?
-Yea, they started attacking the others, and it got really stressful for the brain. It's hard sometimes for your brain to understand it's not real when you've been inside the simulation for a long time.
-What was your longest time in it? I ask.
-Four hours.
-Without moving at all in real life! I say.
She nods.
-Can we get out now? I ask. I want to be able to touch you again.
She gives me a smile and close her eyes. I close mine too. I feel myself being thrown back in the real world. What's around my body becomes real again, the cold, concrete floor, the boys talking in one corner, the walls, the light, Eliza. She puts her mask down and I slide to her.
-You're really impressive, I say.
She gives me a shy smile. I slide my hand on hers, lacing our fingers together.
-Thank you, I say.
-For what? she asks.
-Showing me this.
She pulls me to her.
-My pleasure, she says before kissing me softly.