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A vast mountain range, an ocean-view house, a dark, scary forest— the sceneries glitched in and out of existence in a matter of seconds, eventually settling into a big, red and black bedroom.
Gem threw her pencil down in frustration, flopping down onto her bed— made perfectly, as always. She’d seen it all before. Every landscape she could possibly dream of, every city she could imagine— she’s been there hundreds of times. Yet, they all shared the same feature. There was never anyone but her.
She could spend hours drawing the most intricately detailed clothes, putting on makeup and doing her hair but there was no one to see her, so why bother? She’d gotten bored of these pastimes what felt like a lifetime ago.
Her tablet lay beside her, silent as always. Ever since she saw the flashbacks detailing how she got to her little world, the dreadful simulation she was stuck in, she spent her days hoping for any message at all.
Yet, the message app read: “no messages in 2312 days”. The number ticked up dreadfully, one by one, each day started and ended all alone, and Gem was starting to lose hope. Her life before she found out how she got here seemed so distant, now— a memory of a simpler time.
In a way, she loathed her father for finding a way to give her back her memories— she was furious. Her life before was spent in bliss, frolicking distant lands that were all in the palm of her hand, and the pencil she always held.
But when she thought about it more, the nagging feeling of loneliness had always been there. Hidden before she could recognise it, but fully uncovered now that she had an idea of how it might have felt to have someone.
Tears welled in her eyes as she stared into the ceiling— her father was dead, there was no denying it, and probably so were all of the people she’d ever met— she could ever meet if not for that stupid asteroid.
Was she really the only person left in the whole world? Was she even a part of this world now, floating in the vastness of space where no other human had ever reached? Was she even a human anymore?
So many questions and no one to answer. Just her, her tablet, and the pencil that never seemed to go dull or get lost.
So, she did the only thing she knew how to do— picked up a pencil, wiped her tears, and began to draw. A white, black and red castle began to rise behind her windows— soon to be destroyed with a single click, or maybe slowly pulled apart with the digital eraser, if Gem felt like it.
Everything was always just like Gem wanted it to be.
Every day she hoped something, anything would rebel against her power that felt so mundane.