I decided that I would skip classes that day. I was in no mood to go attend class, especially not after seeing Emily’s condition. After half an hour, Emily finally calmed down. Despite saying that, I myself was on the verge of breaking down the entire time, only barely able to keep myself intact. Reality finally settled in, neither of us knowing what to do. We sat on our respective beds, in our own respective rooms, yet the distance between us was barely half a meter.
We remained silent. From the corner of my eyes, I could see my smartphone ringing. I had sent them a message saying I wouldn’t come, using the excuse of being sick, so they were probably worried. I decided to ignore them for now. Emily remained seated left of me, silent. After she stopped crying, she didn’t say anything, and we accompanied each other in silence for another few minutes. I didn’t know how long we were there, as I didn’t have the strength to go and check.
Eventually, Emily broke the silence.
“What should we do now?”
She asked, her voice filled with concern. For one, we need to know the boundaries of this ‘thing’. What can and cannot we do? How do we cheat the system? What is the system?
“Let’s try to calm ourselves down and look at this objectively.”
I said as calmly and composed as I possibly could. Even if I could hold myself back from crying, this entire thing was still a shock for me. Not only were we forced to always see each other, but any walls that protected our privacy had also been mercilessly torn down within a single day. Seeing me unable to think, she decided to start with a question.
“Let’s start with our senses. Are our senses connected to each other?”
“Hmm?”
I raised my eyebrow. I looked at her face, at the drop of tears held back within her face. She was obviously still trying to calm herself down, but she tried her best to not let anything show. I didn’t really know what to do at that moment, I couldn’t really help her in any way possible.
“I- I mean-”
I tried saying something, but I failed to think about anything useful.
“What is it…?”
She asked, her voice faint.
“Never mind. It’s nothing.”
Her question made me curious, however. How much of each other could we see, hear, or even smell? I could see her in my eyes, and I could hear her voice as well, so those senses must be intertwined one way or the other. Since I know that I could see her and only her, I decided to continue with the other senses, voice and hearing. I stood up and took my smartphone before returning to the bed. I thought I could check something else while I was at it. I searched for my mother’s contact, thinking that she should be someone I can trust.
“... What are you doing?”
She asked, leaning her body closer to me. She could only see my body movements, so naturally, she would be curious, but if I told her about my plans, she might freak out. I answered her with a simple apology and lay back on the bed. My answer made her even more confused. I could imagine a visible question mark somewhere above her head. I held my phone above my head and pressed call. It rang several times before my mom picked up. I then turned on the camera and aimed it toward Emily, not forgetting to turn on my speaker and set it to full volume.
Emily visibly shook the second I brought the camera toward her. She leaped off her bed and looked around, probably trying to predict where she could hide from my camera. She didn’t know where I lived, or the shape of my room, so she didn’t know where she could hide either.
She didn’t say anything, however, probably not wanting her voice to enter the call.
“Simon? What’s up? You miss your mom? Aren’t you supposed to be in class now?”
“Yeah, sorry, I don’t feel well.”
“Ah, what are the symptoms? Have you taken any medicine yet? Do you need me to come there for you?”
“Calm down, Mom. I think it’s a simple fever, that’s all. Do you have any medical recommendations?”
I knew that was a weird question, but I haven't prepared anything as of now. The entire ordeal had just happened roughly an hour ago, I didn’t bother to take note of the time, but an hour was nowhere near enough to draft up a perfect plan. As to why I didn’t think of something first…
“Medicine recommendations?”
My mother started listing all the medicine I could try as well as all the things I can do to speed up the recovery process.
“I think I get it. You heard that, Emily?”
“Eep!”
Emily let out a high-pitched squeak after hearing her name mentioned.
“What does- huh? What?”
She stammered, her mind trying to process what she had just heard. She seemingly realized something and snapped her head my way, her gaze looking sharp in my direction. Was what I said that weird, or was the wall above me weird?
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Oh wait, she couldn’t see my wall.
“Emily? Is she there with you? Now that you mention it, why is your camera facing your desk? Is there something I’m supposed to see?”
“Ah, sorry. Emily is a program a friend made for me that can write down everything you or someone else say… As for the camera, my bad. I’m so dizzy that I didn’t pay any attention to it.”
I apologized inside for lying to my mom, but it seemed that she couldn’t hear her, nor could she see her. Whether that meant Emily’s figure wasn’t captured by my phone, or was it something else, I had yet to figure out.
As all of this happened, Emily, kneeled inside my gaming chair, her head hidden behind the backrest with only her face showing. She looked like she was a ghost, just without the translucent part. A pink pajama-wearing ghost, to be exact.
“I think you really should get some rest. Like a lot. Just call me if you ever need anything, alright?”
“Okay, thanks a bunch, Mom.”
“No problem.”
I turned off the call and rose back. While she was probably just trying to stand somewhere for cover, or maybe hiding behind a chair in her room, in my point of view it looked like she had merged with the chair, turning into some kind of human-chair monster.
I pulled my camera out again and pointed it toward her.
“Hmm…”
Like before, the camera couldn’t see her. What was inside the frame was simply a black gaming chair and a brown desk placed behind it.
“Did you just hear what I discussed with my mom?”
“Your… mom? No. Do you actually have a fever, though?”
“No, I don’t. This means that an electronic device couldn’t capture your presence. Not on the camera, nor in the microphone, and you couldn’t hear anything it spouted, either.”
I then stood up and made my way to my wardrobe, located beside the balcony.
“Can you turn around?”
“What- wait, you’re not changing in front of me, are you!?”
“I don’t have another option, do I? Turn around.”
She reluctantly obliged. I did a quick check to make sure she was looking the other way and changed into my outside clothes as fast as possible.
“Alright.”
“You’re done?”
“Yes.”
She looked back. I passed her and headed out toward the door, dragging her behind me.
“Wait, you’re heading outside!?”
“I need to check if other real-life people could see you as well.”
“Wait, no! I’m not letting you!”
“Why?”
Despite asking her that, I ignored her plea and continued moving anyway, not like she could do anything.
“What if someone sees us!?”
“Isn’t that the point?”
I glanced behind me as I closed my door and locked it. I purposely lock it with Emily still inside. I then strolled to the elevator. I looked back, and with my own two eyes, saw her getting dragged out of the room, straight past the door. She seemingly gave up on trying to stop me and simply looked at me as I pulled her around.
I pressed the button on the elevator pad and it didn’t take long for one to arrive on my floor. I went inside and pressed the ground floor, leaving Emily outside. The elevator started moving downward. Due to the elevator’s metal doors, I couldn’t see Emily. Once the elevator opened, however, I found her standing where I left her.
“You can’t hear the elevator moving?”
I asked before I stepped out of the elevator. She shook her head in response.
“No.”
Her face looked tired as if she was ready to give up. I then inserted my wireless earphone in my left ear and walked straight to the receptionist. Emily didn’t move, she simply rotated in her position as I passed her. Once I was at a maximum distance away from her, roughly one meter, I started pulling her again.
“Excuse me.”
I called the receptionist at my apartment building.
“Hello, how may I help you?”
She smiled without the slightest hint of suspicion. I only started living here in the last two weeks, but maybe she saw me at some point?
“Can you tell me the nearest minimarket? My friend here needed to buy some drinks.”
“Oh.”
Her eyes wavered for a split second as if looking for the friend I mentioned. She looked to be a bit puzzled but managed to quickly regain her composure and answered regardless.
“There’s actually a small minimarket on the left side of the lobby. It had a rather limited selection, so if you wanted to visit a larger one, you could exit the lobby and take a right. There is another one further down the street. You’ll need to cross the street to reach it, however.”
“Alright, you got all that?”
I turned my body toward Emily, she looked as confused as the receptionist. The receptionist looked as bewildered as Emily was, but being a receptionist, she managed to show her confusion in a much more subtle way, her calm expression unchanging. Emily, meanwhile, looked at me as if I was a wild monkey going nuts.
“Can you be any less confusing?”
She said. I pretended to be reminded of something, facepalming myself.
“Ah.”
I showed the receptionist my left ear along with the earphone inside it. I then tapped lightly on it.
“Sorry, I completely forgot, my bad. Thank you for the information.”
“It’s alright. I’m happy to help.”
I left the receptionist and headed out, turning for the minimarket she mentioned.
“Are you still inside your room?”
“Yeah.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see Emily moving again. She headed for somewhere and sat down, her rear floating in the empty air.
“So, you get it now?”
“I can’t hear anything else but your voice and people can’t hear me nor see me.”
“Correct.”
It was a very weird kind of circumstance. Being with her like this made me feel uncomfortable as well, especially in my eyes, it looked like I was dragging a girl around, a girl that looked fed up with all the things happening around her. Emily looked like she really needed to go to the toilet to vomit, and I could understand her.
“But at the same time, the words you said to me can be heard by others.”
“Speaking is going to be hard.”
“Correct.”
We couldn’t stay like this forever, nor could I remain locked inside my apartment until I found a way to stop this. This meant concentrating in class would be a tough challenge, especially if Emily was also talking with someone else on the other side. Being a hundred percent silent all the time would be unrealistic.
“I’ll buy a coffee first, going to need it.”
“Alright.”