Page 39 of The Program

With all the courage I could muster I leapt from my current perch, refused to look into the abyss I was sailing over, and grabbed onto that line with a fierceness that shocked even me. Something about it sang to me, the light pulsing in excitement that matched my own. It was more than just the break in the monotony of these dreams if they even were such a thing. I’d not been able to snoop in all the times I’d been here, trapped in that one specific spot on that one specific line.

The excitement grew to such an extreme that it felt like even my blood was dancing in anticipation inside my veins. That was how I knew that this was more than just my own emotional reaction. Something was happening. Something big.

Without any conscious instruction from me, the line seemed to magnetise me to it before it dragged me forward. I zipped down it with such speeds that if I were in my physical body I would have left parts of me behind. Namely my stomach… and its contents. As it stood now, I merely felt a slight tingling sensation where my body connected with the line.

And that was when I realised, for the very first time, I had a physical body in this place. Realm. Dimension. Whatever you wanted to call it. I could feel the glow beneath me like an electric current passing me by, or like static on the wind. It was energising in a way I’d never experienced before, like my entire brain was lit up and functioning all at once.

In the fast-approaching distance I could see something that made this specific line even more unusual: a vast gap between mine and another of equal vibrancy. Except that gap, the closer I got, seemed to be closing as rapidly as I was reaching it.

The closer I got, however, the more afraid I became. While the two lines looked like they were going to collide, I had no idea what would happen if they did. Would the impact reverberate across the lines and knock me off to drift endlessly in the void surrounding me? Or would I get stuck inside the collision? Could I die here?

I wasn’t given any more time to panic. Within moments the lines touched and I braced myself for whatever the outcome.

But the only reaction the lines made was to hum, vibrate and glow at an even greater frequency as a brilliant light blinded me. It was only a flash, there and gone again, and when I opened my eyes I saw that the lines had fused into one.

The newly formed single line didn’t hold my attention for long, however. When the spots in my vision cleared, a figure was revealed to me. I was no longer travelling, and we stood there taking stock of what happened while eyeing each other like this was a hallucination.

And it had to have been, because standing right in front of me was the woman who haunted me.

‘Artemis?’ Her name came out unbidden, breathy and stunned.

‘This must be a dream,’ she reasoned. Her voice was higher than I remembered but still recognisable. I wondered how she’d lowered it so much while masquerading as a male.

‘I don’t think it’s a dream, love,’ I said, slowly inching myself forward on the line, trying to maintain my balance. I need not have worried about that, though. I was still somehow magnetised to the thing.

‘A hallucination then?’

I chuckled, having just thought the same thing. But if she was questioning our presence here then was this real? Were we both here? We had to be.

‘Well, this ismydream, so you must be the hallucination, love.’

She frowned. ‘I was searching The Program’s database when the web hijacked me and brought me here...’

‘I wasn’t searching through any databases, but I was hijacked, too.’

‘But you can’t be here… it’s impossible…’ she muttered, low and confused. The hope in her tone also lit up her eyes as she took in the way I scootched on the line, a small smirk tilting up the corners of her lips at what must have been an amusing sight.

‘I’m the type to believe in the impossible, my love,’ I told her, shooting her my brightest grin.

Her head shook side to side as if she were trying to shake some sense into herself, but when her gaze landed back on me, close enough to touch now, she shrank in on herself and watched me with a wariness that hurt my heart.

‘What’s wrong, love? I thought you’d be happy to see me…’ I admitted, though now that I thought about it… The solar apart might have caused a rift between us that could be challenging to bridge if she didn’t feel the same as I did. I didn’t want to think about that as a possibility, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that we needed to clear the air.

Open honesty was the only way forward, even if the result wasn’t what I wanted.

‘So… you’re a woman.’ I gave her a gentle smile to soften my words, not wanting her to think I was attacking her for her previous disguise.

She blinked once at me, then glanced down her body where two plump breasts extended from her chest beneath a black, skin-tight jumpsuit. She didn’t meet my eyes again after that.

‘You… Are you really here?’ she asked.

‘I’m really here, love.’

Her right hand lifted, fingers reaching toward my face, but she paused before she made contact. Hand still held in front of her, she leaned forward, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

‘Like the ocean…’she mouthed the words, no sound escaping. Then, eyes still closed, she reached the rest of the way until her fingers grazed my cheek. Her hand snapped back, her eyes now open and wide as she stared at me, their brown depths swirling with so many emotions I couldn’t even begin to decipher them.

But then she chose one, and the way her expression twisted into something self-deprecating and pleading that I sat there frozen, torn between trying to comfort her or letting her process the way she needed to.

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