I hadn’t cried since that day. I just could no longer muster up the emotion to. I no longer had the urge to leave my bed. Day after day I just lay there, letting the day pass me by. I was getting worse, I could feel my skin shrinking, my body failing, but I didn’t care. The world meant nothing anymore. I stared at the ceiling, taking in all the details, every imperfection.

Sometimes the doctors would come by and try and talk to me. None of them could help. I was trapped. I couldn’t ever leave here. I couldn’t even eat any more, forcing them to set up machines to force nutrition inside of me. Doctor after doctor tried to diagnose me. They gave me new medicine, had a therapist come in, they tried everything under the sun. Still I felt nothing. No hope, no dread, just nothing.

Somedays I felt like I could hear her voice, see her face. It was only then that I actually felt something. I missed her hand holding mine. I missed being able to hide my face in her hair. I missed her stories about her parents and little brother and sister. I missed her.

Then one evening the doctor who had brought me to Elizabeth came in. He pulled up a chair and sat next to my bed. He didn’t try to talk for a while, just sat there, watching. After what felt like hours I couldn’t take it anymore.

“What do you want?”

He smiled a little. “What do you want?”

“I want it to be over. I want it to end. I want to escape and leave this prison.”

“Prison huh? That’s what you see this as?”

“What else am I supposed to see it as? I’m trapped and can’t leave. People watch me to make sure I behave. I have no control over my own life.”

“I see.” He stood up. “So, you want an escape? I’ll see what I can do.” He made his way to the door, opening it before looking back at me. “Cheer up some ok? Elizabeth would not want you to be this way.”

“Well she shouldn’t have left me,” I muttered angrily under my breath. That was unfair. I know she hadn’t done it on purpose. Maybe I could try to be happier for her. I tried to smile, but even then, I could feel how fake it was. It wouldn’t fool anyone.

Then I noticed something. The doctor had left an envelope on the bed. I picked it up and saw the handwriting on it. It was Elizabeth’s. Shaking, I opened it, dumping its contents on my lap. There were several pictures of us as well as a letter. I picked up the letter and read it, hearing her voice.

Dear Marilynn,

I’m sorry. You’ll be reading this after it is too late for me. I don’t know how much longer I have left. No one will tell me anything. I know it isn’t much longer though, I can feel myself slipping. I’m writing this as my final apology as well as my last thanks. You’ve made my life so much brighter than it ever was before. My life was so dull and gray before you entered it. You brought back the color. These last few months were the happiest I’ve ever been. So, I need to apologize. I’m about to break our promise to leave here together. I’m sorry. I will continue to watch over you, so please stay strong. You deserve happiness. You deserve it all. It’s funny at this point it is so easy to say, even though it has been so tough in the past. I just want to say I love you more than you ever knew. I love your smile. I love your energy. I want you to share them with the world. You made my life so much brighter, so please make the world brighter as well. I will wait for you, and I better wait a while.

Love,

Elizabeth

For the first time in a long time I felt emotion. Tears freely flowed from my eyes. I hugged the letter to my chest. I could almost feel her in my arms. I felt my body shake as the emotions just flooded through me. I slowly put down the letter to look at the pictures. The memories flowed through me, the happy and the sad. I laid back, clutching the picture and for the first time in a while I fell asleep with little trouble.

While the letter helped I still hadn’t improved. I was too weak to move, and I could barely feed myself. Then one day the doctor came back. He sat down again and held out a clipboard. “So, I have a solution to your problem.” I took the clipboard. “It’s a new treatment.”

As I read the clipboard I saw it was a standard liability release form, though there were a few words I didn’t know. “What’s an eir?”

“A prototype medical device. It has just been approved for human trials.”

“What’s it do?”

“It gives you the escape you wanted. If you sign the waiver, you’ll be the first test subject.”

I paused, thinking. “You said it gives me an escape, right?”

“Correct.”

He seemed to be serious. I looked back at the form. It had a lot of warnings on it. After a moments hesitation I picked up the pen attached to the board and signed. “Do it.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He smiled as he took the board back. “Next time you see me it’ll be ready for you.”

A week passed. I didn’t know how to feel. My curiosity was burning as I had no idea what to expect. Finally, I heard a knock on the door and he entered. “Marilynn, I am Doctor Cooper. I’ve officially been assigned to administer your treatment.” A nurse helped me into a wheelchair and pushed me to follow the Doctor. “So, we’ve set up the EIR for you. We’ll run a few tests on you to prepare before hooking you up.”

I nodded as he led us into a room. The nurses poked and prodded me, running all sorts of tests. Eventually they were done, and I was wheeled into a large room. In the room there was a large machine, that I could see the nurses firing up. On its side were three letters, EIR. They wheeled me over to the machine and lifted me up to the bed, gently placing me on it.

They attached wires all over my body. The pads felt cold against my body. I was nervous and could feel my body shaking. I didn’t know how to feel about what was happening. The doctor approached me. “Alright Marilynn, we’re about ready to put you in the EIR.” As he spoke they placed a helmet on my head. I felt a little tingle as it settled in. “Once you’re in it’ll be a little different from reality. Just breathe deeply and stay calm.”

I nodded, barely moving my head. The nurses helped me lay down, and then they pushed the bed into the machine. There was a loud mechanical noise as it turned on, and then a bright light as the inside lit up. I felt my body slowly go numb and then the world dimmed and went black. I was plunged into complete darkness. I couldn’t feel anything. I seemed to be floating through a void. Then a light appeared. It drifted towards me. It was a large rectangle, and it appeared to be something like a window. I gazed into it, and made an involuntary yelping noise as I saw the room I had just been in. I saw my own body laying still with the entire upper body encased in the machine.

“Marilynn can you hear me?” If I had been able to, I would have jumped. It was the Doctor’s voice. I looked around but couldn’t see him. “Marilynn?”

“Y-yes. I hear you.”

“Good. Now I want you hold out your right and move it down quickly.”

I did as he said, and a screen popped into existence in front of me. It appeared to be a menu, with multiple options. “There’s a menu thing.”

“Correct. You’re now in the realm of Virtual Reality. We’ll take care of your real body, but you can stay in the EIR. So, feel free to explore.”

I looked over the menu. Exploring Virtual Reality seemed cool and all, but there was just blackness here. As I thought this a button stood out to me. It had a tree, and a name. “There is a button here labeled ‘Yggdrasil’.”

“That is the game developed by the company that made the EIR. You have full access to it. You also have a small allowance to use on it if you want. Go ahead and play it.”

I took a deep breath and pressed the button. The rectangle disappeared and suddenly it was as though I was rushing through space as the lights zoomed by. It stopped, just as suddenly as it started, and I was in a round chamber, standing in front of a console with a big button labeled ‘START’. I gingerly reached out and pressed the button. A loud tone sounded, and a sound like a machine firing up filled the room as the center of the chamber spun.

“Welcome to Yggdrasil. I am your guide to avatar creation. I will walk you through, step by step, the process of building your avatar in which you will explore the magical world of Yggdrasil. The first step is to register your username.”

A screen popped up in front of me with a keyboard. I now had to type in a name. I had no idea what to pick. Nothing. Well my name has worked fine for me so far. I typed in my name and pressed enter.

“Registering user as Marilynn, is this correct?”

A new pop up, this one has the buttons to accept or decline. I pressed accept, causing the pop up to flash green.

“Registered. Now to begin the avatar creation process. To begin with you must pick a race. You have three options: Human, Gnome, and Beastkin.” A normal human appeared. “Humans are a versatile race. They are not particularly skilled in any area but have the ability to spec into any role easily.” Then a short stubby creature appeared. “Gnomes are a magical race. Skilled at crafting, cooking, and spells Gnomes make great support and magical characters.” The third race appeared. It was about the same size as the human, just with animal ears and a tail. “Beastkin are a strong race. With animalistic features this race specializes in physical combat.”

Well this was a difficult decision. I had to think. I could rule out the Gnomes, was never much into magic. But that left me with a decision between Human and Beastkin. Well human fit me more I suppose. I wanted freedom and human offered versatility, which should mean I wasn’t trapped into any one thing. I pressed the button labeled human.

“You have chosen human. Warning, once race has been chosen it cannot be changed without a fee. Are you sure you want to continue?”

I pressed the confirm button.

“Confirmed. A random avatar will be chosen for you upon spawning, unless you are willing to pay a small customization fee.”

Well he did say I had an allowance. I pressed the option to customize. Suddenly there were sliders everywhere. I could customize everything, or well nearly everything. Well it’s time to customize. I wanted it reasonably close to me, seemed like that would make it easier to work with. But at the same time, I didn’t want to look frail. As I tinkered with the settings, I slowly made it look like a healthy me. It looked so real, like looking into a better mirror. The strawberry blonde hair was thick and wavy, and the eyes were green with nice silver accents. I pressed the confirm button and the avatar disappeared.

“Customization complete. You will be spawned in 10 seconds.”

As the countdown began, I once again felt some feeling growing. I didn’t know what it would be like. This was such a unique experience. The countdown reached zero and suddenly I was standing in the middle of a town square. I could feel the wind and I could smell the dirt. I even felt like I was standing. I raised my hand, it looked whole, not skin and bones. I looked down and laughed. I looked normal. I looked like a regular person, not a patient!

I went to take a step and stumbled. I hadn’t walked in so long. I had to take this slow, get used to actually using my body again. I took another step, doing my best to retain my balance. It would be extremely embarrassing to fall over. After a few moments of testing I felt confident enough to walk, without staring at the ground. I breathed in excitedly. It felt so good to be outside, even if it was just virtual, it felt so real. I took a deep breath and smiled to myself, it felt good to finally be free.