Lily

Paradise. That’s where they’re taking me. I repeat those words in my head, over and over. Paradise. Somewhere new, somewhere without all this sadness. Paradise. Cornan will be right behind me. Paradise. A voice interrupts me out of my thoughts.

“Huh?” I say. I hadn’t been paying attention to the women, too nervous to process  anything but my thoughts.

“This might hurt, but after this injection, you’ll be in paradise!” The lady in the bright white dress exclaims, but her smile looks like it hurt to hold, her layered makeup cracking at the corners of her mouth. “There’s a little chip in this serum that will transport you to worlds unknown! Now, remember, you’ll forget everything about your old life! It’ll be like you’re being reborn!” Her voice, which had sounded soothing, turned into acid in my mind.

I stammered, “F-forget E-everything?” I think about my parents, who were dead, but the memories of them is my mind would leave a mark forever. I think of every friend, and enemy, I’ve had, and how it’s affected me to be a better person. I think of my boyfriend Cornan, his understanding words, his soft hands, his rich, beautiful, chocolate brown eyes, every minute he’s spent with me and I shudder, because all those things, I never wanted to forget.

Cornan, who I just noticed in the background, spoke up. “Forget? You never told me anything about that!” He started moving toward me, but was stopped by the two burly men who had escorted me to this room. 

“Now, now,” scolded the lady. “You were the one who volunteered her! Now stay calm as I inject the Virtual World chip. Close your eyes little girl,” I resisted, trying to push the woman away. Cornan did so too, trying to fight the much stronger guards. Then one of them brought his fist to Cornan’s head, and he slumped to the ground.

“CORNAN!” I scream, desperate to get back to him, afraid that the guard had done more damage than just knock him out cold. I wanted the last thing I saw before being ‘reborn’ was him, his personality, not an unconscious body. The burly guards who had been restricting Cornan then grabbed my arms, and they pin me, making me unable to move an inch. 

“No!” I yelled, the gravity of the situation hitting hard. This was not Paradise. It was a despicable, veiled, hell. The hell of which none of its inhabitants would know. And it was masked in such beauty, no one outside would suspect. And there was nothing to do but submit. So I took a deep breath, and I relaxed, letting my last REAL moment last. And I let the lady, with all those layers, like the layers of her makeup, inject the thing that would, unknowingly to me, change my life forever. I would be reborn. I would be reborn in hell. And I would accept my future before me.

Cornan

The moment that guard knocked me out, I knew. The heavenly world that the people had advertised was nothing but an illusion. I fight the black seeping into my vision, trying to stay conscious. The least I could do for my beloved Lily was watch, because I had been the one who sentenced it in the first place. I would live on, while she. . . she would become nonexistent, but still alive. I would have to watch her with longing, just like the years before my confession. With that thought, I pulled through, and started standing up. The guards looked back at me, wary of me trying to get back to Lily, but I held my hands up high above my head, to show that I meant no harm. I at least owed her to watch, because I was the one who subjected her to that horror. The lady with too much makeup takes the syringe and inserted it into her neck, and Lily’s body goes still. The lady had said that the spirit of Lily would need to adjust to the new environment, the fake environment, and would come to soon. 

I took a deep breath in. The lady turned to me, and told me that Lily’s landscape and actions would need to be watched, to make sure that she was adjusting well, and that my father had ordered me to do it. The moment I heard the word ‘Father’, I darkened. He must have known what it would do to wonderful Lily. I would never forgive him. And with that, I walked away from the still body of Lily, away from the makeup covered lady, and into a new life. One that I had not wanted.