text: “Come on! You have to take me! It sounds like so much fun!” My girlfriend exclaimed, handing me a flier that we just received in the mail. *ALL NEW EXPERIENCE * Join us in our Grand Opening THIS saturday! If you received this flier, you and one other person are VIP guests and will skip the line! Just show up this Saturday at “It was all a Dream” See you there! “But what is it? There are no details. I’m not sure how we know if it will be fun at all.” I knew I sounded like a pessimist, but today was already Friday night and I had big plans for my weekend. I looked over the flier at Avery. Her eyes told me that we were going and she somehow knew I was going to have fun. She had a knack for knowing what I would enjoy and what I wouldn’t. I sighed and decided my big day of reading and fluffy socks could wait. Avery smiled at me and kissed her forehead, “what time are we leaving tomorrow?” She hopped in bed giggling and said “we set sail at 10am!” :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: We stood in the parking lot staring at a building that I have never noticed before. It was painted black with neon green trim and a bright purple door. There was a line out the door and down the sidewalk. How did everyone know about this? And what even is *this*? I was starting to feel uneasy. Avery took my hand and led me towards the main door. I pointed to the end of the line and she said “We are VIP, remember?!” as she dragged me closer to the front of the line. People were staring at us confused and slightly angry. I started to hold up the flier and Avery said, “we aren’t doing anything wrong, no explanation is needed.” I took a deep breath as the blast of AC hit us, thinking that I wish I was on my worn denim couch with my book and my cat, but as my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, those thoughts were fleeting. The air was so crisp that it made me very aware of my lungs. The music, no, sounds seemed to be coming from all directions. It was as though we walked into a forest. The front desk looked like a fallen tree complete with the roots holding eye masks and head sets. Another couple walked out looking very dreamy. What in the world happened here? Behind the desk was a woman in a very tight lycra jumper. She handed us a tablet without saying anything. We filled out our personal information and on the last page, it simply asked “Adventure” or “Relaxing”. I looked over at Avery and saw her tap Adventure, so I did the same. Then the woman spoke for the first time. Her voice was extremely soothing, but something else about her made me feel uneasy as she said “together or separate”, and I was not about to go anywhere without Avery by my side. It was taking everything I had not to flee right here and now. “Together” we both said in unison. I realized Avery had my hand in hers as the woman pointed to the left and that’s when I realized that the woman was not real, she was a robot and a damn good one at that! We walked to the door and pushed our way into another dark hallway only lit by a ceiling that was made to look like a night sky. “Avery, this is weird. We have no idea what is about to happen, a robot just checked us in, and we have yet to see a real human that works here. Does any of this make you uneasy?” I whisper, mainly because I am afraid to find out what happens if I make too much noise. “What’s the worst that could happen?’ Avery smiled at me but I could see a little anxiety behind her eyes. Before I could answer, she opened another door that led us to a planetarium-looking room. I had been in one of these before except there were no seats, just futuristic looking pods lining the walls in this circular room. About half of the pods were occupied by corpse-still bodies. I was going to throw up right here, I just knew it. We looked around the room and saw there were a handful of double pods, that’s what the “together” or “separate” must have meant. Somehow we knew not to talk, but the anxiety had definitely risen in both of us until we crawled into the pod. You know when you are a kid and you dream of taking a nap in a big fluffy cloud and it being the most comfortable place you have ever been in? That was these pods. I had never been so comfortable and so secure ever in my life. All of my worries literally drifted away. I vaguely saw a mist flowing in from the top of the pod as I looked over at Avery who had already drifted to sleep. I was right behind her. ====================== When I came to, I was no longer in the pod, I was next to Avery in an open-cockpit biplane. She was looking over the edge smiling and enjoying the wind rushing through her hair. She didn’t look nearly as confused as I felt. Then, without warning, Avery stood up and jumped out of the plane! I yelled for her but she was falling so fast, there was nothing I could do. Suddenly, I realized I was wearing a backpack, no, it was a parachute. I looked toward the pilot to see what to do only to realize that there was no pilot! I had no choice. I jumped. It couldn’t have taken me as long to jump as it felt because I could see Avery still rushing to the ground and I somehow caught up with her and she was smiling ear to ear. I couldn’t help but feel at ease looking at her excitement. We weren’t close enough to touch or hear each other, but we both pulled the parachute cord at the same time and started to slow to a peaceful drift all the way to the ground. We landed on a patch of grass just outside what could only be a jungle. Both of us out of breath, heart pounding and sweating, we embraced and started laughing. The laughing was uncontrollable, we ended up in the grass holding our stomachs, just laughing. As we slowed into soft chuckles, we held each others gaze and smiled. I said “okay, this was worth it” and Avery just beamed. Our adrenaline eased and we were able to take in our surroundings. We were the only ones around so when we heard footsteps running towards us, we jumped up and turned. We couldn’t make out what the figure was that we saw until it was right up on us. It was not a creature that I had ever seen. It looked like a human, but had lion features. His beautiful mane was the eye catcher until it grinned at us and all of his teeth were shining through at us. We didn’t know whether to stay or run, so we just held eye contact with it until suddenly it lunged at us. We took off into the jungle. While it was incredibly dense, we somehow managed to stay upright as we ran and dodged vines and logs. We looked back and didn’t see that creature so we started to slow. Trying to catch our breath, we heard a noise from the trees and as we both looked up, the lion creature lunged at us from about 50 feet up. Right before we were ripped to pieces, I woke up. I was covered in sweat and looked over at Avery. She was gone. I was in my bed at home. Reality washed over me as I sat up. There is no Avery. There never was an Avery. I guess it was all a dream, I thought, but as I stood up from bed, there was the crunch of leaves and earth beneath my feet.