It was long past midnight and I was still at the bar. This was a highly irregular occurrence for Adaman Yimmand. Evidently it was extremely irresponsible too and quite out of character for me. Not that it was really that problematic in the big scheme of things: tomorrow I’d have to work an afternoon shift so it wasn’t that much of a problem, but at my age it was better to have enough sleep each night. My body would have its problems with the alcohol already, and I had still a rather long walk to do before I would be home. I emptied another beer that was paid for by my new friends, and got up, ready to leave. All I had to do now was get my sweater back from Evelith. But on the moment she understood what my plan was she took my hand in hers. She blocked my way with her body and stopped me from leaving for the second time that night.

“You will stay here tonight!” She said decidedly.

I looked at her and nodded no, completely bewildered. I was just getting used to basic human interactions, and I had no energy for this kind of stuff. What was she even planning?

“I can’t stay here!” I mumbled.

“Yes you do, you’re way too tired and have had too much beer to go home now.”

In spite of all the beer my head suddenly was quite clear -did the stuff even contain proper alcohol these days?-, and I felt rather uncomfortable with the turn this whole affair was taking. Unfortunately I was so still bad at the whole social thing so I had no clue about how to turn her down. But on the other hand she had a point: it wouldn’t be easy to get home safely in this state either, so I’d be in trouble no matter what. In the end I just said the first thing that came to my mind.

“But I don’t even have the funds to stay for a whole night in a room here in the light district…”

Her eyes flickered. “You incredible idiot!” She almost yelled now. “What on Earth are you talking about? You will sleep on my couch and stay away from me, you creep! I just think you shouldn’t walk home alone in this state.” And then she added less seriously. “We don’t even have fundlocks in this building, dummy!” The way she held on so tightly to my hand and the smile behind her half played reaction told me there was more, and she could read my look.

“Ok; I might want more human company too, and I’m not ready to let go a new friend in this fake world. Seems like I’ve only been losing people for years. Even this little enclave with actual people is getting so lonely lately.“

I knew I wouldn’t be able say no when she looked at me with those golden eyes, but the idea of being alone with her terrified me. Spending so much time with another human being came as a shock to me. But the alcohol, bad quality or not, had woken a dangerous honesty in me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to offend you. Like you say I probably haven’t spoken with a human being for years, and I haven’t been close to a woman for ages. I am not used to any human contact, or with being somewhere that isn’t home or the factory.”

She let go of my hand, and I stared at my fingers for a while.

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“There’s no turning back now, Adaman. You’ll have to get used to change. The genie isn’t gonna get back into the bottle.” She said darkly, and she nodded to a door behind the stage.

“Follow me, I’ll show you my room.”

I had no chance but following her, if just for the fact that she was still wearing my sweater, which was the only ‘real’ thing in that I still had in my possession in an otherwise utterly fake universe.

The walk to her room alone proved to be worth it: I had never seen anything close to the building of the Nirvana Ecstasy. It was ancient indeed; with no elevators but wooden stairs, and doors were made of dark wood too. Old paintings and strange antique holographic art were hung on the walls here and there. The carpet itself would have been an attraction in a museum, provided that there still was an audience for museums in The City. I wasn’t certain of that any more.

Walking three stairs was more more exhausting that I had anticipated, but we finally arrived at her room. She opened her door with a weird small key made of metal instead of a fundchip, and let me in. Her apartment consisted of a tiny kitchen, a small bathroom, and an enormous room with a bed, a table, some chairs and a couch. There was an infoscreen on the wall, but it was turned off and not even plugged in. I saw an old foldable computer and pens and paper on her bureau.

“You take the couch, the blankets are there.”

She mumbled those words, and without a blink she started undressing. I frantically looked away from her, and peeked out of the window, a bit uneasy. The view I saw there made me forget everything, including the idea of a woman undressing. Even in the grey artificial twilight of the satellites that made sure that it never was completely dark, the City was quite impressive from this height. Endless buildings as far as the eye could see filled up my view, with here and there a fake tree or a statue. The City surely was enormous, if it didn’t fill up all of the world it at least filled everything I knew and could see now, and much more.

Some buildings stood out in the immediate skyline, like the local filial of the ministry of daily affairs, the bank, two temples of Acosmia and Amaya, and a big black Thanathorium.

I wondered for a second if anyone else was looking over the same city at that moment, and if so what kind of person they were. There were no lights in the windows of any building in sight though. This whole town could as well be a ghost town. Maybe the few souls in this old building were among the last people on Earth. Maybe all that was left of my species was me and Evelith, plus some strippers and that rock'n roll anachronism named Leste. Worse thoughts formed themselves when I looked over the darkness of the City. But they were not true. Or were they?

I turned back to Evelith, who was now dressed in an old-fashioned nightdress with a flower motif. My sombre thoughts disappeared just from seeing the life she radiated. “Time to sleep.” She said, closing the curtains and switching off the light before she put herself to bed.

And sleeping was what we both did. It had been a very intense evening.