Page 13 of Immersed
It’s a Feature, Not a Bug
Levi’seyessnappedopento blinding sunlight. The scent of pine needles and fresh earth filled his nostrils. His throat ached with the phantom sensation of fingers crushing his windpipe lingered like a bruise that wouldn’t fade.
Tall grass swayed around his legs. Birds chirped overhead. The same meadow from before.
No. No no no no.
The forest edge loomed just as it had when he’d first arrived. The same cluster of pines to the north. The same rocky outcropping to the east. Every blade of grass, every fallen branch, exactly as before.
“This isn’t possible,” he whispered. “I d-died. I fucking died.”
His fingers flew to his neck, searching for bruises and tenderness from the stranger’s grip, for any trace of what had happened. The skin felt smooth, unmarked.
But he remembered. He remembered everything.
The headset. I need to take off the headset.
Levi clawed at his forehead, fingers scrabbling for the edges of a VR unit that wasn’t there. His nails raked across his scalp, digging in with increasing panic. Something warm trickled down his temple.
Blood. Real blood from his own desperate scratching.
“End simulation!” he screamed, his voice echoing across the meadow with a pronounced stutter breaking through. “Exit g-game! Pause! Fucking STOP!”
Nothing changed. The birds continued singing. The breeze kept blowing.
“System override! Emergency shutdown! H-HELP ME!”
Levi dropped to his knees, pressing his palms against his eyes until bursts of color exploded in the darkness. When he opened them again, the meadow remained, pristine and unchanged and terrifyingly real.
He lurched back to his feet, spinning wildly, searching for any hint of digital artifice. A texture glitch. A rendering error. A seam in reality where he could pry his way out.
“This isn’t real,” he panted, dizzy from turning. “This can’t be real.”
He slapped his face hard, once, twice, three times. The stinging pain felt viscerally authentic, sending shock waves through his nervous system. Every sensation was flawless.
I can’t be back. I can’t.
Images of Zoe’s mutilated body flashed through his mind. The stranger’s face studying him with predatory interest. The absolute certainty of death as consciousness fled.
“Safe word!” Levi shouted, his voice breaking with stuttered consonants. “Ab-abort! Red! Mayday! F-fucking anything!”
The silence that followed his outburst seemed to mock him. The world remained stubbornly, horrifically real.
Blood from his self-inflicted scalp wounds trickled down his forehead. Levi wiped it away with a shaking hand, staring at the red smear across his palm.
I died. I know I died.
He stumbled forward, legs weak, mind fracturing with possibilities too terrible to fully comprehend. If death just reset the simulation... if there was no way out...
“Levi! There you are, man!”
The voice froze Levi in place. He turned slowly, dread pooling in his stomach.
Jasper stood at the edge of the meadow, beanie pulled low, the same rumpled clothes, the same easy smile. He raised a hand in greeting, as if nothing happened.
“Yo, Levi! We’ve been looking for you, man. Thought you wandered off and got eaten by a bear or something.” Jasper laughed, approaching with the same loping gait, the same inflection in his voice. “You okay, dude? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Something broke inside Levi’s mind. He lunged forward, grabbing Jasper by the shoulders, fingers digging into the fabric of his hoodie.
