Chapter 1: Memories

It was declared that a digital afterlife was available on a subscription basis.

Rightfully skeptical but excited, many signed up to find out it was the truth. Life after death.

It wasn’t a continuous experience, but the AI in the “afterlife” would behave the same way as the person.

BrainDog Inc. was the invention’s owner, the creation of the machine a highly guarded secret.

Lily Bearish was one of the first to apply, a terminal illness had caused her predicted lifespan to dwindle down to nothing. She hadn’t given up yet, seeking anything, anything at all to save her.

When she woke up she was in a garden. Her own garden, the one behind her childhood home.

The pain from the illness faded, and she curiously looked around.

In a few hours, her actual body had died.

Being one of the first to sign up, she had no idea what it meant to upload a digitized consciousness.

Testing out her pain-free body she went on a walk, seeing her childhood parks, schools, and stores.

Before long she felt a mental exhaustion that caused her to walk back home. It was getting late out after all. The lack of people also was creepy.

Not having house keys in her hospital gown, she cracked open the unlocked window and climbed on in. 

Memories flooded her as she smelled the scent of pumpkin pie. Going to the kitchen there wasn’t anyone or anything cooking, just a fridge full of pie.

Chuckling at that silly childhood dream of hers, to have a fridge full of pie, she went upstairs to sleep. Now too large… old to fit easily, it was a fetal position in which she slept.

When she woke up it was to the sound of her childhood alarm. Strangely next to it was a black phone, almost weightless but sturdy.

Without a phone of her own, Lily looked at it, powering it on to see various apps and two large popup messages on the home screen.

Added-Weather by AI, variable weather

Added-Multiplayer by Robert, enable multiplayer in settings

Added-Help by Will, ask for help intentionally to the developers to send a mental help request.

The third one was almost perfectly covered and in small print. So clearly strange, Lily decided she just had to try it.

‘Help?’

A mental response, almost ‘how can we help you?’ surprised Lily.

Before enabling multiplayer, meeting other people, Lily wanted to go around a bit. Even take or steal a few things, did it count as digital theft?

The air was crisp on her skin, the sun warm, leaves rustled, perfectly detailed buildings.

Not feeling hungry but wanting to test out if this was more than just a high-quality VR, she went downstairs once again.

Warming up a pumpkin pie, she took a bite. And another. And another.

You see, sensations in VR were recorded once or twice, each “experience” not unique to the individual and standardized. These pies tasted of home.

Putting on her mother’s shoes, which replaced the slippers she wore, she walked out. 

Memories of childhood came and went, but certain stories stuck with her.

How much of her memory had gotten emulated? While most of the things she had seen so far she remembered clearly, strange empty spots or unopenable doors were also present.

For it to be exactly like how she remembered it, it was more wish fulfillment. While Lily didn’t read too much about nostalgia, she knew that the past was always rose-colored.

An interesting thought popped into her head, causing her to head to a specific building.

Yellow walls of sandstone, expensive carvings, and open tables. Less of a club room, it was an old relative’s family home. A very large family of sisters and brothers all together.

They were almost like refugees, Lily recalled, temporarily staying here until they could immigrate elsewhere. That temporary stay turned into years until she had the chance to leave.

That wasn’t important. What was important were the ludicrous stories she remembered getting told and believing. As she grew older she became less and less confident in those stories, but the vivid imagery described to her had stuck with her into adulthood.

Stepping into the basement she was previously barred from, a fantastical sight was revealed.

A giant snake’s skeleton, hung into the wall by a machete. A large wet rock, covered in moss but consistently turning as if pushed by an unseen force. A golden dagger that she knew was inside of the golden vanity table.

Walking close to the table she had seen for herself before it was placed, sealed here. A curiosity overtook her as it did all those years ago.

She reached her hand out, opening the table’s compartment to reveal a gilded dagger.

Taking the small sheathe off, gleaming silver was revealed.

The story went that this dagger was used by a beautiful girl, one of her long-lost sisters. The dagger went with the woman no matter where she went, used to trim nails, cut hair, and even dinner. Despite its apparently rough and unsanitary treatment, it always remained clean and pristine. All was well until the family decided to marry her off. Her husband waited in her room, waiting to consummate their marriage ahead of schedule. He rummaged through the room, finding and finding the knife. The girl walked in then, asking him to put the knife down. The pleasant conversation that was overheard suddenly devolves into a female scream. Family members rushed up, only to find a bizarre situation.

The man was dead, blood pouring from a slash across his eyes and wrists. The woman was bleeding out, one hand holding the blade as both wrists bleed and eventually lost strength. The knife was still clean, although the sheath of the weapon was red and bloody, showing a pattern of a red-eyed dragon. The man and woman were buried, the knife alongside them.

It was then she had found the vanity table one day, and noticing the gorgeous knife strangely inside of it, asked a lot of questions. The room’s owner, a beautiful girl, immediately claimed it was always there, and that she owned it. When Lily complained about finders keepers at dinner that day, the faces of the adults went pale. 

The story was told to her by one of her older brothers while the vanity table and the knife were taken. The girl who took the knife was crying, crying, crying. It was only to threats of physical violence that the beautiful girl stopped trying to get into the sealed room.

The same knife Lily now held, still resplendently shining a patterned gold, a yellow dragon.

An almost mystical story of superstitious origin, she took the knife with her.

The rock, a stranger story told by one of her brothers.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.