Reality

Part One: The Edge of Memory

People once remembered her, a tall black-haired girl in crimson, with a dancer’s grace and deep dark eyes that promised the world in exchange for only a secret.

‘I’ll give you the world,’ she seemed to say with those eyes, ‘If you tell me a secret. A secret that no one else knows. “

She danced her way through life, and people’s eyes followed her. Bright and beautiful and shining as the sun, she was the girl who seemed to have everything. A charmed life, and everyone loved her.

But one day, she just danced her way out of life, and no one’s eyes followed her. The girl’s memory just faded like smoke…no one remembered her. Beauty and grace and eyes like a secret promise just were gone, there one day and gone the next.

Sometimes, someone remembers. Little things…not enough to make up the whole picture of the girl who danced her way through life.

The way that pale lips quirked upward into a smile, or the curve of a pale, white shoulder as crimson fabric, red like blood, like life, slipped down to reveal porcelain flesh. Deep dark eyes with that silent promise, or tendrils of long black hair. Never anything else. Never all those details remembered at once, or by the same person.

No name. Just a ghost of a face, a whisper of a haunted lullaby.

Everyone who remembered thought they were dreams. Daydreams born of idle fancy.

And no one remembered those fragments for long.

After all, they were only dreams, weren’t they?

Part Two: Unmaking Reality

Jissai stood atop a staircase in the back of the darkened hall, her crimson dress shining in the harsh artificial lighting.

Crimson. The color of life. It was such a strong color…so vibrant. It was ironic, really, that she went around all day clothed in nothing but red…it had always made her feel unreal. Which was the truth, but that didn’t mean that she had liked to admit it. After finding out her secret, she had continued to wear as much red as she could…defiance, she guessed. Strange defiance, but it had made her feel better, never having lived but wearing nothing but the color of life.

“I guess I’m ready now.” she said to the empty air.

But it was better this way. She enjoyed her existence, truly she did, but it was time for her to go away. She wanted to stay, she wanted to stay with her friends more than anything, but it was time for her to go away.

After all, she was only a ripple in the virtual network, an echo in the minds of all who spent their lives hooked into this world. It was better this way, better that she go away and not come back.

“Establish connection, network 090-Alpha09, 123.099.34.”

Gradually, the darkened room began to brighten, as the heart of the virtual network came to life.

“Commence prime directive A-108.”

Light began to glow steadily, a column of shifting brilliance stretching from floor to ceiling in the central portion of the hallway.

“Delete program J-I-S-S-A-I from all memory banks, hard drives, and network cache files, with no chance of recovery. Begin sequence, now.”

The brilliance was almost blinding by now, as Jissai smiled, turning one last time as if she could look through the closed door that led into the heart of the network, back to the world which was all she had ever known. To the world that would never know she had ever existed.

Then she turned away, walked down the staircase, and into the light.

Notes: Once again, I go with the symbolic name for the main character, like in “The Tragedy of Innocence.” Jissai=”reality”, unless my source is wrong.