The spotlight beamed brightly down onto the master of ceremonies, Gerald De' Gama, the audience was quiet as tension filled the air. The intense work towards winning this award meant everything to all the scientists here today, and it has shown through recent years as KalTech continued head on against their nemesis, Nucloide.
"Ladies, gentlemen and scientists, in honor of her magnificent findings of Hydroxide-Breathing, working hand-in-hand with QualityAir Incorporate and KelTech, we now present the Nobel Peace award to Doctor Andrea Evelyn Dergus and her amazing team of scientists." Gerald, the MC announced loudly as the crowd all applauded.
I ascended the podium steps, careful to hold the surprised expression I'd rehearsed all week. My heels tugged against the hem of my mermaid style dress, forcing each step to be deliberate. On the towering screens surrounding the auditorium, my image glittered back at me, every movement magnified for the world to see. The black strapless corset shimmered beneath the lights exactly as I had imagined it would. When the master of ceremonies placed the trophy and certificate into my hands, I accepted them with practiced grace, my chest swelling with pride.
"Thank you, Gerald De' Gama." I said into the microphone. "And a great thank you to everyone at KelTech and QualityAir Inc. I've had a dream since I was a little girl to clean our unbreathable air. I can remember on the eleventh of December, the year 2152, at just five years old; when the Prime Minister declared a global pandemic. I remember the hazmat suits showing up at my neighbor's home, handing them respirators with built-in oxygen tank connectors, and completely disregarding me along with all the lower class communities. The world's air pollution spiked at its highest without declination, killing more than a hundred thousand people per day and endangering all lifeforms on this planet including its agriculture, oceans, and sky. Everyone was dying from respiratory illnesses as an onset of our polluted air. I, myself, have hypoxemic respiratory lung disease which doesn't allow my lungs to take in the adequate amount of oxygen that my body requires. I vowed to right this wrong that our past and present leaders before us pushed onto us. I~" My throat started to swell up and I began to wheeze. "I made a promise…" My words now fleeting and my vision, blurring.
I turned toward my team of scientists, the world around me stretching into silence. Time unraveled, each heartbeat a heavy echo in the void. My fingers slackened, the trophy sliding from my grasp. I watched it fall in eerie stillness, the gleam of gold catching the light before shattering against the stage. Though I knew the sound must have been deafening, to me it was nothing. Only the sight of my team surging forward, mouths open in voiceless cries, as darkness pulled me down into their arms.
"Andy!" I can hear my fiancé shout from the side stage, tears dropping off the edge of his eyes.
I tried to keep my eyes open, but my breath is no longer catching. Their voices now muffled. Through the chaos, my eyes saw past my team, glued onto a smirk slowly rising on a familiar face. It took me a moment to realize who that person was and with all my remaining strength, I lifted my hand and pointed at her.
"Jo..han..na…" I forced myself to say.
My eyelids grew heavy, drifting shut just as the guards surged forward, apprehending Johanna. The last of my strength ebbed away, my body releasing its grip on tension at last. I surrendered to the darkness, letting go of sight, struggle, and leaving myself with nothing but the faint echoes of sound.
"Andy… Andy, stay with me, please. MEDIC!" Theodore's muffled screaming slowly drowned away.
"Female. Early forties. Unresponsive with no pulse. O2 sat and body temp is dropping. Defib now!"
Little by little my unfocused vision faded in and out. The defibrillator gauged in a screech and I felt the shock, but I am unable to move.
I'm no longer breathing on my own.
"AGAIN! CLEAR!" the medic yelled. Another shock, again, I'm still slipping away.
The stage light began to consume all forms of lights and I felt myself being pulled away from my body. Floating weightlessly, I felt at peace.
Wait. No. I am NOT at peace. I have been ROBBED! ROBBED OF MY TIME!! I'M ONLY 40 AND HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN THE CHANCE TO UNDERSTAND LIFE… OR MAKE MY OWN FAMILY YET! NO! I WAS FINALLY ACCOMPLISHING MY GOALS. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING?!? I AM TOO YOUNG TO DIE! OH GOD! WHY? WHY ARE THE GODS ALWAYS SCREWING WITH MY LIFE? EFFING GODS!!
*
The first thing I noticed after the slap wasn't the sting, but its painful echo.
It reverberated through the white void like sound carried in an empty space, bouncing back to mock me. My cheek throbbed, hot and foreign, as though sensation itself had been rebooted. I pressed my palm to my face, glaring at the silhouette of the tiny figure who had dared to lay a hand on me.
"You slapped me…" I repeated, incredulously, sharpening each syllable.
A girlish laugh tinkled from the mist. "Of course I did. You were throwing a tantrum. Someone had to shut you up."
I squinted. Slowly, like charcoal smudges on paper, a figure took shape, bare feet and in a simple white tunic that brushed her knees. Her hair was the color of burnished gold, falling in unkempt waves. Her eyes were too large, too ancient, as though a universe of galaxies were compressed into the child's sockets.
"What the hell are you?" I asked.
Her mouth curved into a mischievous grin. "Funny choice of words again. You keep cursing at the gods, Andrea Evelyn Dergus, or should I call you Andy? Oh, but if I must give you an answer…" She performed a dramatic curtsey, arms spread wide. "I am Sylphi. Your god, your judge, your… hmm. Let's call it 'life coach.'"
I barked a humorless laugh. "Life coach? You robbed me of my Nobel Peace Prize and now you're pretending you're my life coach? Aren't you still in preschool kiddo?"
She cocked her head, feigning innocence. "Robbed you? Oh no, no. That one wasn't me. That was your precious colleague, Johanna. Humans and their betrayals, deliciously messy."
My stomach turned. "Johanna? She poisoned me? On stage?"
Sylphi shrugged, like the details bored her. "Remember? Johanna had been feeding secrets to Nucloide for months and you caught her. She eventually lost her cushy spot at KelTech. Did you really think she'd accept her fall from grace quietly?"
A memory stabbed through me, Johanna's smirk just before my world collapsed into muffled screams and defibrillator jolts. I clenched my fists until my nails bit my skin.
"She killed me out of spite." I whispered.
"Correct!" Sylphi sang, twirling. "Spite. Greed. A bruised ego. Classic human motives. And now… here you are. Dead at the height of your triumph. A tragic heroine with unfinished business."
I glared at her. "You sound like you're really enjoying this?"
"Of course I am. Your species is very entertaining, however don't pout, Andy, you're not entirely out of luck." She tapped a finger to her lips, eyes glittering. "What if I told you, death doesn't have to be the end?"
I let out a loud hollowing jagged laugh. "What? Are you offering me reincarnation? Do I atleast get to choose what I want to be whether it be dragon, elf, or vending machine?"
"Vending machine?" she repeated, wrinkling her nose. "Mortals are so strange." Then she leaned closer, her face inches from mine, voice dropping into a whisper that seemed to seep directly into my bones. "Yes, Andy. You get another chance. A whole new world with a new body, in a new life. But, there's no guarantee you'll like it."
My pulse, or the memory of one, kicked against my ribs. My scientist brain tripped over on itself, desperate to rationalize my current situation. "Wait.... this is absurd. Consciousness doesn't transfer like data. Neurons die, bodies decay and memory erodes…"
Sylphi poked my forehead, cutting me off. "And yet, here you are talking, thinking and raging at me. Science ends where MY playground begins, buddy."
The mist around us shifted, swirling with currents of pale light. I caught glimpses of mountains under twin suns, forests with glowing leaves, oceans swirling in a spectrum of colors that I had no name for. Each vision dissolved before I could latch onto detail.
"Why?" I asked. "Why me, Sylphi? Why not let me rot like everyone else?"
Sylphi's grin softened into something eerie, almost tender. "Because you are interesting. Because you fought your world's poisoned air with nothing but stubbornness even though your lungs betrayed you, it never deterred you from winning. Because you reached for the stars of science when others cowered in filtered bubbles. And because… I'm bored."
The admission chilled me more than the void's endless mist. "So I'm just… entertainment?"
"Partly, but also opportunity." She clapped her hands. The sound cracked like thunder. "This new world is stitched with rules you don't understand. Magic, you'll call it. Mana, they call it. You, Andy, with your body, you may find yourself…hmmm special."
I swallowed hard. My lungs ached at the memory of my polluted and unsustainable world. Special. The word tasted poisonous.
"And if I refuse?" I asked.
Sylphi's laughter rang out again, sharp and cruel. "Refuse? You already died, silly. You don't get to negotiate. This is me being generous."
I opened my mouth to retort, but the mist began tightening around me, pulling like invisible hands. Panic clawed up my throat.
"Wait! What happens to my team? My fiancé?"
"They mourn. They rage. They carry on." Sylphi's tone turned mocking in melody. "And maybe they even forget. Time erases all except legends. But who knows, you might just find similar people in this new world…" Sylphi winked.
Tears burned behind my eyes. "That's not fair."
"No, it isn't," she said simply. "Life never was."
The light swelled, blinding. My form unraveled like smoke in a storm. Sylphi's voice echoed as the void cracked open beneath me.
"Go, Andy. Live again. Breathe again. Suffer, struggle, shine. Entertain me."
And then I fell.