May I Carry Your Books? (Patreon)

I heard this town was weird and strange, but I never thought I would live something like… this.

Let me explain.

It was hard to put my words and thoughts in order in the first place, because this is so surreal. Believe it or not, I’m trapped into a video game.

Crazy, I know.

And not your classic video game, by the way: this is not an action or a shooter or a fighting one. In a way, it would have been at least exciting or easier to understand, but no. I’m stuck into this weird-ass dating simulator. Yeah, one of those games that only very, VERY lonely men on the Internet play… and I think I heard Soos talking about this one a couple of times.

It’s insane, but please, follow me through this…

I don’t know why, but Soos brought his computer to the shack; maybe it was malfunctioning and needed equipment he didn’t have at home, I wouldn’t be able to tell, but there it was. I never really paid much attention to it, it’s not strange for him to bring broken stuff and devices here to try to fix them and/or to record his public access show (that’s another story).

And I was minding my own business and trying to do as little as I could while still being paid.

Then, I realized that the computer seemed to blink a little light, even when it was supposed to be turned off; heck, it wasn’t even plugged in, and it had been doing that all day long. Only after several hours, my eyes took notice of that detail.

And I had to be curious, and I got closer to that still functioning screen.

Then… light. A really powerful, blinding light that realistically, might have lasted just a couple of seconds, and yet, it felt way longer. But in the end, that bright stopped, and little by little I could recover my vision.

That was when things really started going off-the-wall.

I looked at my surroundings; I was definitely not in Gravity Falls anymore: around me, an unknown neighborhood, super clean, with cherry blossoms floating through the air. Was I teleported to a foreign land? It seemed so; the signs were in Japanese.

“Oh, that’s great”, I thought. How could I communicate with others?

But then, the place itself didn’t seem as unusual as how it looked, and I’m not talking about the sensation of just being thrown away into a strange place, but everything looked… a little, off. How could I put it? Maybe a little… artificial?

It looked like reality but not quite so; the colors seemed too bright and lighty, the shapes a little rough around the edges, literally. Like a simulation, or…

“A game?” Those words crossed my mind.

Then I stopped noticing how that place looked, and I started to notice how I did.

I wasn’t wearing my flannel, jeans or boots: I was wearing some kind of school uniform: a white blouse with a skirt in blue, long socks and pink shoes.

“WTF, dude?” I gasped.

Then, I stared just in  front of me; I could see, barely, but I could, two overlaid pictures: first, a reflection, and I could see how I looked now: my hair was electric pink, and had this weird bow over my head. That definitely wasn’t me!

“Me” was in that other picture, a weaker one, but still noticeable if I focused hard enough: on that “other side”, I could see my body, myself! Well, not “myself” really, since I knew where I was, but whoever she was, she looked exactly like me!: My hair, my skin, my eyes, everything!

I tried to call her attention, waving my arms, and I even somehow could “punch” the air: it was like it clashed with an invisible wall, this experience was getting weirder by the second.

And then, she seemed to stare at me, smiling, smug, as if she knew exactly what she was doing.

I even heard her whispering something to me…

“Thank you for your body” she said as she touched my chest with one hand, “I know I will enjoy your life. I hope you learn to enjoy yours!”

Then, she left.

I yelled and screamed for help, but she either didn’t hear me, or didn’t want to. Then, a boy around high school age walked nearby.

I didn’t know what else I could do, so I intercepted him.

“Please, you gotta help me!” I shouted, only realizing now of that weird computer vibration my voice had from that point moving on.

He smiled, and said to me one simple question:

“May I carry our books?”

“What do you mean?” I replied, and I begged, on my knees and almost to the point of tears.

It didn’t work, and that phrase was the only thing that character could say…

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: OK, so here it is! The story based on the winning pic for the poll of July! Hope you enjoy it! I'd be creating the poll for August pretty soon! Thank you!