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Commander Jason Hawkins was accustomed to operating in the dark. His superiors never told him why his missions were important to accomplish, just that they were. He knew it was important that the public never discovered what he and his team were doing, so important that when he accepted the job all record of his existence was erased. So it didn’t seem unusual to him at all when he was ordered to break into a civilian’s home and apprehend a woman and a small child. He knew it was vital to the security of Mars, and that was good enough for him, even if the people he was sent to apprehend were citizens of Mars.
Commander Hawkins crept carefully across the dark street closely followed by two of his lieutenants, weapons in hand. He ordered Lieutenant Essy to operate the SEID: Standard Electronic Inhibitor Device. This device blocked all technology in the immediate area, so no one could record what they were doing or alert anyone else. When they approached the front door Hawkins waited patiently while Lieutenant Palmer placed a neutralizer on the locked door to force it open.
The moment the door slid open the three of them shot inside, using the speed and stealth that they had acquired through their years of experience. Hawkins signalled Lieutenant Palmer and Lieutenant Essy to search the house in separate directions, while he went upstairs. The house was very dark, which wasn’t a problem because they were equipped with special implants that allowed them to see in the dark, among other things. He went down the hallway, carefully opening each door and checking inside, until he came to the third room down the hall. There, sleeping soundly in a bed was a little boy. Hawkins knew from the Intelligence reports he had received that the child was eight years and three months old. The boy reminded him a bit of his own son, the way he was sleeping peacefully in his bed, but he knew in his heart that he had a job to do which was vital to the safety of the people of his world that he loved so much.
Commander Hawkins raised his weapon, took careful aim and fired. The stun gun he used was very powerful; the boy would be unconscious for some time. This would allow him plenty of time to get the woman and then collect the boy’s body. As Commander Hawkins resumed his search of the second level, he heard loud footsteps from the ground floor. He ran down the stairs with his weapon drawn to see Lieutenant Palmer running towards the kitchen.
When he entered the kitchen he saw Essy lying unconscious on the floor with a frying pan next to his head. Lieutenant Palmer in front of him must have seen something outside because he quickly ran towards the door. As Hawkins rushed outside to follow, he could see Palmer chasing the woman they were sent to apprehend. She started screaming franticly for help. Hawkins was afraid that she might alert her neighbours so he aimed his weapon and fired at her. She managed to dart out of the way of his blast, but that little maneuver allotted Palmer the time he needed to catch up with her.
Hawkins watched with satisfaction as Palmer tackled her to the ground. He began to move on her, but stopped when he saw Palmer jump back with a painful scream. He was holding his left cheek in pain, apparently she had clawed his face. She shot up and began screaming for help. Hawkins admired her spirit, but she was determined to cause harm to their people and he couldn’t allow that. He raised his weapon, took careful aim this time and fired. It was a direct hit. She immediately fell to the ground, stunned.
Hawkins moved to pick up the woman. “Grab Essy and the child and let’s go!” he ordered Palmer, his voice seething with irritation. He grabbed the woman and carried her to his van that just pulled up to take them quickly away from the scene. He shook his head as Palmer approached carrying the child and Essy moved all too slowly to the van. His team was supposed to be the elite, yet they let themselves be hurt by a helpless civilian. Hawkins was going to have to seriously re-evaluate the structure of his team.
As soon as they were in the van they drove quickly away. He glared at the unconscious woman and her son in the back. The expression on the woman’s face was one of terror, and it was still wet with tears. Hawkins started to feel a bit sorry for her, but he reminded himself that she was going to be treated very well and would live the rest of her life better off than most. It was more than a traitor who tried to destroy the great nation that he loved so much deserved.
Chapter One
The front door to her house flew open as Miranda stepped through, weighed down with too many bags to carry. She slowly waddled into the house until she was far enough in to dump most of her baggage and sighed with relief at a release of the weight. Miranda was taking off her wet raincoat as her daughter quickly ran in after her and went straight to the Holoviewer, not bothering to help her. Miranda didn’t mind, after all Maggie was only four years old. After changing into dry clothes Miranda went to the kitchen to have a refreshing cup of peppermint tea. It had been a long hard day at work. The real estate market wasn’t so good at the moment so she was having a hard time finding enough buyers for the high prices estates she preferred to sell.
She was halfway through her second cup when her friend and next door neighbour Rebecca showed up to join her. Rebecca had recently been through a divorce with her ex-husband Steve who had left her for a nineteen year old girl when both Rebecca and Steve were in their thirties. For the past four months she had been coming over everyday around this time to join Miranda for a cup of tea. Miranda was more than happy to have her over, she understood how Rebecca could be lonely after going through a separation but on this day she seemed particularly troubled. “I don’t know Miranda,” she said after a little small talk, “some times I have doubts.”
“About what?” Mirnada asked.
Rebecca shrugged her shoulders, “Life. Today I’ve been considering checking myself into an Enchantment Inn.”
“Enchantment Inn?” Miranda asked, puzzled.
“You haven’t heard of them?” After Miranda shook her head Rebecca explained, “It’s this new thing where you can go into this place and they hook you up to this computer and you can live any life you want in your head. You can do whatever you want, be whatever you want. The whole life you lead is not real it’s all in your head, but it feels real to you, you would have no idea that you’re in an Enchantment Inn.”
“How long does this last for?”
“The rest of your life.” Rebecca answered simply.
Miranda quickly put her cup down and shot her friend a look of disappointment. “You’re not seriously considering this, are you?”
“Oh, you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t be tempted. You could live the rest of your life as a rich mountain climber living on the sunny beaches of Mandero or as an interstellar spy operating on the remote moons of Neptune.”
“No, I’m not tempted, I love my family and my life too much and I’m surprised you would be considering this.”
A devious smile crossed Rebecca’s lips, “I’m not.” She said.
Miranda smiled in return, “I didn’t think so.”
The conversation turned lighter after that. Miranda and Rebecca laughed about neighbourhood gossip and reminisced about old memories until Miranda’s husband David came home, soaking wet and muttering to himself. “Hello David.” Rebecca said loudly to him.
“It’s always raining here. This planet was terraformed; you’d think they could have made the whole planet a sunny paradise. But no, they had to have wet, cold, miserable places as well.”
The comment made Miranda’s smile grow bigger. She knew that he was well aware of the fact that Mars possessed a totally diverse ecosphere, the same way Earth did, he just liked to complain. “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you move?”
“What, and leave you here by yourself?” He said with a look of mock pain, “You wouldn’t be able to get out of bed without me around.”
“True.” Miranda agreed.
David soon joined the conversation which he did on occasion. He was very busy with his job as a reporter so he seldom had enough time to relax. Whenever David and Rebecca conversed the conversation usually turned political which didn’t interest Miranda very much, so she drifted in and out of daydreams, but snapped to attention when they began arguing about the war in Iapetus. Mars had invaded that moon of Saturn in the hopes of liberating its inhabitants from the ruthless dictator that ruled there. Miranda didn’t know much on the subject but for some reason she was overwhelmed with an eerie feeling by this conversation. When the conversation ended her uneasiness faded but she was puzzled at why she would feel so overwhelmingly strange by a topic she cared little about.
Soon after Rebecca returned home they had their usually brief family dinner after which David buried himself in his work while Miranda put Maggie to bed. As Miranda kissed her forehead she thought about the whole Enchantment Inn idea and realized just how much she loved her life with her family.
Interlude
Miranda lifted her tear stricken head up from her hands that were resting on her knees and slowly looked around. From her crouched position she could see the entire island she was on. It was barely large enough to fit her on it; just a tiny sandy knoll that stuck up out of the vast sea. The ocean waved angrily all around her while menacing storm clouds raced toward her. She could feel the sky darkening all around her. How long had she been there? How did she get there? And how much longer could she last?
She looked to her hands, they looked wrinkled and worn, and her eyes felt swollen. It seemed to her that she had been crying for an eternity. She had never felt so alone in her life. The water kept rising higher and higher, and her island kept getting smaller and smaller. The angry clouds grew larger and closer as if they would pick her up and spit her out. She felt so helpless.
Before she knew it the ocean had risen up and swallowed her little island and she found herself trapped within cold merciless waters. She felt her sorrows and regrets overcome her. The water chocked her. She tried to swim up to get air, but the unforgiving waves beat her down until she could breathe no more and knew that she was drowning.
Chapter Two
Miranda heard a gasp escape her lips as she woke up suddenly. She sat up quickly and gasped desperately for air. She realized it was just a dream. She quickly took in her surroundings; she was in a small tent lying inside a thick sleeping bag. For some reason this felt wrong to her, like she should be in a comfortable bed in a house. She looked around again, she was alone. So where was David?
She hurriedly got out of her sleeping bag, only to be chilled to the bone by the cold air. She noticed a thermal jacket lying on top of a large red pack. She put it on, opened the tent door and stepped outside. Miranda looked around and found herself standing on a small precipice on the side of a very large mountain. There was another tent there; she recognized it as Rebecca’s. It all started coming back to her then. She was climbing Mount Mandero with Rebecca. In fact they were on their way down.
She looked above her at the massive reddish mountain covered with sprinkles of green vegetation and further up, snow. She scanned the horizon where she could see the sun raising over the luscious blue green ocean and on the shore the city of Mandero, where she lived.
Even with the thermal jacket on she still felt cold, so she entered her tent and grabbed her thermos to boil some peppermint tea. Sitting outside sipping her peppermint tea, she watched the sun rise, and a very beautiful sunrise it was. It was still quite early so she put off waking Rebecca, they were in no hurry. They weren’t that far from the bottom and would be home by late afternoon.
A few hours later after Rebecca had awoken they packed their gear and headed down the mountain. Rebecca was her usual chatty self during the descent talking about how she couldn’t wait to get home to the dinner party she was having tonight. “You’re still coming to that, aren’t you?”
“Sure.” Miranda smiled. “You know David he’ll be working till the late hours of the night. It takes a lot of work to be the CEO of Landov Inc. And it’s not like we have to worry about looking after Maggie.”
“Right,” Rebecca said, “She’s off at boarding school. When do you get to see her again?”
“In a couple months, but in the meantime I’m free tonight to do what I want.”
After finishing the climb Miranda returned to her mansion and had her servants fetch her something particularly elegant for the party, after all she couldn’t have Rebecca’s friends thinking they were richer than she was.
The party was a bit drab but mildly entertaining. Miranda spent most of the night talking to Rebecca and her husband Steve whom Miranda suspected had a crush on her, but she couldn’t blame him. Miranda returned home and let the massive amounts of alcohol send her to sleep as she thought to herself, what a life.
Interlude
Miranda laughed merrily as she watched Maggie play on the swing set. “Look at me, mommy.” She called out with glee as she propelled herself upward on the swing. Miranda’s smile was wide; it was a rare occasion when she could enjoy to the fullest a simple moment such as her daughter taking some enjoyment out of life. Miranda almost felt like a child again herself not being concerned with all the little problems that adult life brings. She felt hopeful that her daughter would lead a happy life.
But as she watched her daughter she started to realize something was wrong. Her daughter didn’t seem real. She glanced around her; the swing set, the trees, the benches, they all looked fake, like a holographic projection. Panic crept into her heart. “Maggie!” She ran over to embrace her daughter only to glide right through her. Maggie continued swinging gleefully, totally oblivious to the look of horror on her mother’s face. She was just a holographic projection, Miranda realized with shock. Something in the distance caught her eye, a house that looked familiar, familiar and real. She ran towards it as Maggie continued merrily on the swing. She stopped as she approached; although her mind couldn’t place it, she knew in her bones that this was her house. She looked inside to see a boy playing, a real boy around the age of eight; he looked very familiar. She suddenly felt a warm hand on her shoulder and turned to see David smiling at her.
“Our son,” David replied to her unspoken question, “Brian.”
All her memories told her that this couldn’t be true, she had a five-year-old daughter, not an eight year old son, but in her heart she knew it was true. She looked back through the window at the child with recognition it was her son, Brian. A smile crept across her face and tears began to swell in her eyes. She looked to David hoping for an explanation. “You always did want a daughter Miranda, but I can’t believe you could forget your own son.”
Miranda wanted to apologize to him but when she turned to him again he was gone. She looked around but he was no where to be found. She decided to approach her son, she went to the front door and entered. She knew she needed to go up the stairs that led to the second floor to get to the boy’s room, except when she entered the house it was empty; no stairs, no doors, It was just a large empty room with nothing in it save a single glass table. On the table was a manila envelop with the words “from David” written in bold on the cover.
David suddenly appeared behind her and put a finger to his lips, “shh, don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret.” He said before exiting the house through the only door. Miranda slowly walked over to the table, picked up the envelope and looked inside. Inside was a single piece of paper with one word on it, repeated over and over, with no spaces in between, just the same word covering the entire sheet of paper; “secret”.
“You!” Miranda turned quickly around to see who had shouted at her. A man was standing in the doorway wearing a military uniform pointing a finger at her. “What are you doing with that?” Miranda opened her mouth to explain but the angry man cut her off, “You’re a traitor to your nation!” He raised a gun and pointed at her.
“No! Wait!” She called out, but it did no good. He fired and she collapsed to the ground.
Chapter Three
“Major Darren, we will arrive at Science Station R27 in ten minutes.” The intercom above her head buzzed loudly waking Miranda from her dream. She slowly got out of bed regaining her senses and pressed the intercom button.
“I’m on my way.” She responded. She tried to shake the strange feelings she still had from the odd dream as she put her uniform on. The dream was already beginning to fade from her memory, but what a strange dream it was. It had felt so real at the time, but she found the concept of being tied down to some family and stuck in one place preposterous. Miranda had neither the time nor the inclination for family life, not with her chosen career.
After fully dressing, Major Miranda Darren strode down the narrow corridor and climbed the long ladder leading to the airlock. Although the ship had artificial gravity, it still wasn’t the same as Mars’ norm. She could feel the extra bounce in her step, plus it made it that much easier to ascend the ladder, not that she would have any difficulty with her level of physical fitness.
When she arrived at the airlock she stood and waited until it was announced that they had docked with the space station. Station R27 was a scientific space station that orbited Triton, the largest moon of Neptune. It was established by Mars to study the possibility of establishing a mining colony on Triton. Miranda couldn’t imagine who would want to live this far out in the system though; the trip from Mars had taken three months. The scientists there had discovered to their surprise that Triton contained unique minerals that could boost Mars’ economy, so it was vital to Martian security that Mars’ enemies didn’t learn about the valuable mineral, for it could very well start a war. However Martian intelligence deduced that one of the scientists working on the station was spying for the Io government and sending them information about the mineral extraction project. Major Miranda Darren was sent there to uncover the spy, to prevent the valuable information from falling into the hands of a violent foe.
The huge airlock doors clamped open to reveal the inner corridors of the science station and Miranda was greeted by a large contingent of station personnel. They were trying to appear as welcoming and accommodating as they could, but Miranda could tell by the concerned looks on most of their faces that really, they were scared. Good, Miranda thought, she liked to make people nervous, because when they were nervous they made mistakes.
She slowly stepped onto the station giving the entire welcoming committee a very intimidating look. “Welcome to science station R27,” the lead scientist said in a friendly voice, “I’m Rebecca Lemming, Team leader.” She extended her hand to Miranda, but Miranda just nodded curtly at her, so she finally retracted her hand, trying not to look foolish, but failing. She began jabbering on nervously about all the progress they had been making. She was obviously anxious to find out why Miranda was sent there, so Miranda decided to get right to the point.
“Professor,” Miranda said abruptly, cutting her off mid sentence, “I would like to speak to you,” Miranda took an unfriendly glance at the rest of Rebecca Lemming’s team then added, “In private.”
Rebecca looked uncomfortably to her fellow scientists, and then said reluctantly, “very well.” She led Miranda into her private office. When they stepped inside Rebecca gestured to the seat on the opposite side of her desk, Miranda took it. Rebecca went to the food slot and ordered a pot of tea. She poured herself a cup then turned to Miranda, “May I offer you some-“
“I’ll get right to the point.” Miranda said rudely, interrupting her again, she had waited three months to get there; she had no time to waste on pointless pleasantries. Just when she was about to move on she lost her train of thought as she detected a very pleasant and familiar aroma. “Is that peppermint?” Miranda asked indicating the tea.
“Why, yes.” Rebecca said after taking a sip, “Would you like some?”
“Please.” Miranda replied a bit more polite this time. As she sipped the tea she felt her whole body relax and felt more at ease; however that quickly passed as she remembered she had a job to do. “I’ll get right to the point,’ Miranda continued, “You have a spy on board.” Miranda paused for the expected gasp and look of disbelief she knew would come from Rebecca Lemming. When that passed she continued, “Someone on your staff has been covertly supplying Io with delicate information from your research. I’m here to find out who it is and stop them.”
It was a risk she knew, letting Rebecca Lemming in on it, she couldn’t know for certain that Rebecca wasn’t the spy; however she had researched the station’s personnel records before arriving, so she already had a few suspects and thought Rebecca to be one of the least likely candidates. Additionally Miranda was not familiar with the station’s crew. Rebecca was, so she would need her help.
After taking a few minutes to convince the naîve scientist that someone on her staff was a spy, she asked her for any additional information on any of her suspects. After studying Miranda’s list, Rebecca pointed to a name.
“Him,” She said, “I would say he is the most likely suspect.”
“Why?”
“A few weeks ago, I noticed he was sending unrecordable messages to somewhere around Jupiter, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Miranda looked appalled. Rebecca continued, trying to defend herself, “A lot of the crew send some of their more personnel messages that way, and Mr. Burner has family on Ganymede, so I didn’t think anything of it, that is until now.”
It was true that Mars had two allies in orbit of Jupiter, Ganymede and Calisto, however one of their greatest adversaries also made its home on a moon of Jupiter’s; Io. How could anyone be so naîve? Miranda was now convinced that this Mr. Burner was the perpetrator she was looking for. She was too excited at the prospect of finding her suspect to waste time chastising Rebecca for her incompetence, instead she said, “Where is he now?”
“In his quarters.”
“Take me to him at once.” Rebecca escorted her to the man’s room. Miranda decided to forgo allowing the security team to escort her, judging she could handle one scientist herself. Rebecca stepped in front of a door that had a nameplate that read “David Burner”, Miranda gestured her aside.
“I’ll handle this.” She overrode the lock on his door keeping her other hand ready to reach for her weapon, should she need it.
When she stepped in instead of the cold stale environment of a room on a remote space station she found herself in a warm, cozy lived in house, with a huge window showing the sun outside on a perfect spring afternoon on Mars. She suddenly found that she recognized this place, it was her home.
“Miranda, you’re home!” David exclaimed while approaching her with a big grin. He was her husband, she realized. She looked down at herself only to find that the military uniform she was wearing only a moment ago was gone, replaced with plain casual civilian clothing. This was her home, this was her husband and this was her life she realized. Her life as a major in the military was starting to fade just like her dream had that morning. She embraced her husband and felt the warmth in his touch.
Someone else entered the room and rushed into Miranda’s arms; an eight year old boy, Miranda’s son, Brian, she realized. This isn’t real, she thought, none of it was. As he jumped into her arms she felt a surge of great pain. As she felt the life drain out of her and she collapsed to the floor a single though came to her, I’m in an Enchantment Inn.
Chapter Four
Pain surged throughout Miranda’s body as memories came rushing back to her. The combination of the pain and her newfound revelation was so overwhelming that she wanted to scream for all eternity, but she couldn’t. She had no voice, no stable realm of existence. She existed solely in her memories now, bits and pieces of many memories spanning her entire life. She had no control over her actions, for these events had already occurred.
She knew now where she was; she was living inside her head, in a reality created by a machine, this so called Enchantment Inn. All of it was a lie. She recalled her recent lives of fiction: first her life which most resembled reality, except she had had the daughter she had always wanted instead of her son. Then the life she had always wanted, that of a rich mountain climber living in Mandero, the most beautiful place in the system. And finally, the life she had only imagined in her wildest fantasies, being a military agent in the far reaches of the frontier, but it was all fake. She couldn’t believe she had accepted those fantasies as reality. Each time she’d had an entire lifetime of fake memories, but she’d won, she’d finally beat the machine and her real memories were returning to her. She felt triumphant, but the intense pain surging through her body kept getting worse.
All of the memories flashing before her eyes came crashing to a halt, and she could see nothing but white light. She could still see her own body, but it was as if she was standing in a great nothingness. She knew she wasn’t really there, and that it wasn’t her body she was observing. Her real body was lying somewhere hooked up to a machine, everything that was happening to her now was all inside her mind, just like it had been for who knows how long. She now remembered everything, growing up on Mars in the rainy city of New Seattle, finding a career as a real estate agent, meeting and falling in love with a dashing reporter named David, and raising a bright and beautiful young boy named Brian. But she couldn’t recall recent memories of how she ended up in an enchantment Inn. The machine was still fighting her, it wouldn’t let her access those memories. “Come on, give them to me!” she yelled out in defiance. She tried with all the strength she could muster to regain her memories. “GIVE THEM TO ME!” she cried out in an earth shattering shriek. The pain was growing beyond unbearable; it was all she could do not to pass out.
She collapsed to the floor with tears streaming down face. She was weak, very weak, she felt like she had very little life left in her. Suddenly her world came to life again right in front of her eyes. She again had no control of her actions as her body just reacted like it had... before.
She was sitting in the kitchen drinking peppermint tea with Rebecca talking about the events of the day when suddenly David burst through the door in a hurry. She was surprised to see him, because he wasn’t supposed to be home for a couple of hours. He looked very worried and agitated which was unlike him. He was usually in a good mood when he came home from work.
“Hello David.” Rebecca greeted him warmly, but he only replied with an emotionless half smile. Now Miranda was really starting to worry.
“Rebecca, could you excuse us for a minute?” Miranda asked, figuring that something was really troubling David.
“Sure,” Rebecca replied, “I have some stuff I need to do anyway; I’ll see you both later.” Miranda and David said their goodbyes to Rebecca then she went back to her house next door.
“David, what’s wrong?” she said with grave concern.
He walked very slowly toward her like he was burdened with a heavy weight. Miranda felt the heart in her chest pounding, and terror began to grow within her. She had never in her whole life seen him look so frightened. He gave her an ever so slight smile trying to hide his immense discomfort, but he didn’t fool her one bit. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said. Miranda gave him a stern look, wanting to make it clear to him that she wasn’t buying it. He caved in and his features sagged. “It’s better that you not know.”
The fear within her escalated, she stood up from the table to approach him. She grabbed both of his hands and clasped them in hers, and stared directly into his eyes. “David,” she began, “We’ve been married for ten years. I can tell something in seriously wrong. You’ve got to tell me what it is.”
He stared into her eyes then turned away from her. He took a few steps back toward the table then reached inside his coat and pulled out a manila folder and plopped it down on the table. “I found something huge.” He said turning back to her, “A lead on a story that could change how everyone views our government and its foreign policies.”
“What it is?” Miranda asked indicating the folder.
“Mike first uncovered it while he was on Iapetus. It’s evidence of what our people did there.” He looked directly into her eyes, “Miranda, Mike died right after giving this to me.” An uncontrollable gasp escaped her lips and her hand flew to her mouth. “He died last night in an... accident.”
Miranda couldn’t believe what she was hearing, David’s best friend from work was killed in what she could tell David suspected was clearly not an accident. “Are you saying that our own government had Mike killed?” Miranda didn’t want to believe it, but she had never known David to be paranoid or to make outrageous assumptions without knowing all the facts, but she had some need to convince him that he was mistaken. Maybe she was just trying to convince herself, she realized. “It could have just been a coincidence...”
“No, Miranda I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. You have to trust me on this.” He looked directly into her eyes, she knew him well enough to know that he believed with all his heart what he was saying, and she trusted his judgment enough to take him at his word even if she didn’t want to believe it.
“But if what you’re saying is true, that they killed Mike for trying to release this, and you want to release it now...”
“The people have the right to know, and I’m the only one who can tell them.”
The terror started to overwhelm her, it would be easier if she didn’t believe him because it would mean that his life is not in danger, but she had never known him to be wrong about anything like this before. “No!”
“The problem is that the evidence might not be enough to prove beyond any doubts what they did, so I’m meeting with an eye witness tonight in Dannysville. With his testimony no one will doubt me.”
“David, don’t go.” Miranda heard herself say before she even realized it.
David took a step closer to her and continued, “There’s still enough evidence in that folder to make a difference. If I don’t come back tonight-“
“Don’t say that!” Miranda yelled at him.
“If I don’t come back tonight, you have to take this to the station tomorrow, give it to Elizabeth; she’ll know what to do with it.” Miranda could hear the fear in his voice, it matched her own and she knew she couldn’t talk him out of it, so she embraced him. He held her tightly while a few tears streaked down their faces. Then he leaned back to look at her and she could see the tears in his eyes, “Don’t worry, I will come back.” And then he was gone.
Miranda waited for what seemed like an eternity. Even though Brian was home, she felt very alone. It was late and he was already in bed asleep. Miranda was far too terrified to get any sleep so she stayed up and watched the news in the kitchen. Then what she most feared would happen did. Life seemed surreal as she listened to the reporter go on about a deadly explosion in Dannysville, killing two people, including channel twenty-five’s own David Burner.
Everything else seemed to fade out of existence, panic spread through her as she tried to make sense of this nightmare. Her knees felt weak and gave way as she fell to a crouching position on the floor, sobbing loudly. Her whole life at that moment was nothing but grief. After a few moments where she just wanted to die so she could be with her beloved again, a thought occurred to her, Brain. He was still alive and he would need her more than ever now that David was gone.
David was gone? It was hard for her to believe, hard to accept. Then through her swollen eyes her gaze fell upon the manila folder sitting on the kitchen table. The gravity of her situation started to sink in. Agents from her own government, the one that was put in place to protect her, had killed her husband and if they knew that David was meeting with the witness tonight, they might also have known she had the folder. Panic hit her like a bucket of water to the face, almost completely overwhelming her grief. She had to get Brian and get out of there fast.
Suddenly there was a loud sound came from the front door as if it was forced open from the outside. They’re here. She realized. For a moment she was frozen with fear, not knowing what to do. They were in the main lobby between the kitchen and Brian’s room, she couldn’t get to him without encountering them.
She heard a slight noise outside the door and realized someone was coming for her. She felt a new emotion then that overwhelmed her: anger. First they’d killed her husband and now they were breaking into her own house. Who the hell did they think they were? She quickly grabbed a frying pan and ran to the door and stood beside it, poised to strike anyone who came through.
A person dressed all in black quickly entered the room with his weapon aimed in front of him. As soon as he entered the room, she let her rage take over as she knocked him flat on the head with every ounce of strength in her. The intruder collapsed to the floor apparently knocked out.
Miranda didn’t wait to see if he’d get up again, she seized the opportunity to run out of the house and seek help. There were still other intruders in the house, she could hear them approaching, so she bolted into the yard and ran towards Rebecca’s house, screaming for help. If she could just alert the public to what was going on, she might survive. She had to get the evidence to the public. She took a glance back to see that there was one man chasing her and another who aimed his weapon at her, she quickly darted out of the way just as the shot whizzed past her right, but that little maneuver allotted her pursuer the time he needed to catch up to her and he tackled her to the ground. She turned on him. Full of panicky rage and fear, she clawed at his face. He drew back holding a hand to his face in pain.
Miranda took off running again, screaming at the top of her lungs. Rebecca had to hear her. She would, and she would send for help, she kept telling herself. But then she felt a sudden pain in her back as a shot hit her this time, then all went black as she collapsed to the ground.
Miranda slowly lifted her head up from her knees to look at her surroundings. She was in a room of nothingness, no door, no windows, no furniture, no color, no decorations, nothing, just white; an eerie unnatural bright white. The memories she was just reliving were finished, so now she knew how she’d gotten there. She had expected to die that night, but it seems that her abductors decided to spare her life, and instead checked her into an Enchantment Inn, where she would be a prisoner, trapped in her own mind. She now knew that none of this was real, that her real body was rotting out there somewhere in the real world. But there was nothing she could do about it, no way to wake up from this dream. She would be trapped in here forever.
She felt weak, like she was sick or dying. She wanted to be with her son or her husband, but they had found a way to rob her of both of them. She felt old and weak and all used up as she lost conciseness.
Chapter Five
Miranda slowly opened her eyes, which was a lot harder to accomplish than she’d expected, she could feel that she had very little strength in her. Her vision was still a bit blurry from deep sleep, but she could make out a friendly face. In front of her was a woman who was crouched beside her bed, who slowly helped her into a sitting position. She had never seen this bed before; it was huge with sheets that were all bright red, the most beautiful shade of red she had ever seen, and the bed was the most comfortable she had ever been in.
The woman sitting on the edge of her bed was slowly propping her up on the big soft pillows. Miranda looked at the friendly woman only to see a face she knew very well. It was the same face that greeted her every morning when she looked in the mirror. The haziness of sleep now completely faded, Miranda took a good look at the woman and found that she was looking at herself, entirely. Her arms, her face, her whole body was exactly like her own, except that there was a certain glow to her features, the likes of which she had never seen. It made her appear more beautiful than she ever thought she could be. “How...” Miranda said, startled while she was bolting up.
“Shhh,” her other self said softly while gently pushing her back down, “You’re still very weak.” She said in a voice so beautiful it almost sounded like music, “You mustn’t over exert yourself.”
Miranda leaned back against the soft pillows; the woman’s voice was so soothing she had to listen to her. The bed was comfortable; it felt like she was floating on clouds. Her mind raced to figure out what was going on, then she remembered where she truly was; the Enchantment Inn. None of this was real. It all made sense now. She leaned back, ignoring the comfort of the bed, resigning herself to ignore this fiction. She wanted no part in it. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her side, overwhelming her. She screamed in pain as she reached for her side. She felt horrible inside, worse than she could ever remember.
Her other self gently touched the spot that ached and the pain slowly began to go away. Miranda saw genuine concern on the woman’s face. She cried a single tear that splashed on Miranda’s arm. Her own body looked very wrinkled and ill, but where the tear landed it became vibrant with color, and it felt more alive as well. Miranda stared deep into her eyes, which were identical to her own, except that they glowed bright, a realization, dawned on her. “You’re real aren’t you?” She asked with her weak voice.
“Well, of course I am.” The woman replied with her song like voice.
“But how can that be?” Miranda understood enough about the Enchantment Inn to know that no one else could be in her artificial reality with her.
“Well, just look at me,” Miranda looked, she looked exactly like herself, except she was wearing a big red sweater with matching red pants and scarf, where as Miranda was wearing the exact same outfit except it was completely black instead of red. She looked back at the woman, still puzzled. “I’m you.” The woman gently touched her face with the back of her hand, and Miranda began to feel much stronger, a special glowing feeling emanated from the woman’s touch.
“But why are you here?” She asked in a voice raspy, this time from sadness rather than sickness.
“Miranda, you’re dying.” She said with a great sadness to her voice.
“I know.” She said as she cried a few tears of her own.
“And you’re bringing it on yourself.” The woman said sweetly. “You need to stop.”
Miranda didn’t completely understand, but as if in answer the door to her room opened and another woman entered, gliding through as if she floated until she came to Miranda’s other side. It was another her. This woman looked just like herself and the other woman except her outfit was completely blue and her features didn’t glow bright like the other woman’s, nor were they sickly like her own. Yet she still didn’t look normal, she had boldness to her that Miranda couldn’t place. She stood by her bed looking down at her lovingly.
When she spoke it wasn’t song like, like the other woman’s voice. It was bold and deep, almost echoing. “The Enchantment Inn wasn’t meant to operate when the person knows that they’re in an Enchantment Inn.”
“And,” the woman in red added, “The fact that you’re not accepting the reality it’s giving you is killing you.”
“What do you mean ‘not accepting the reality it’s given me’? It gave me several different fictions, and some were quite strange. I was trapped on a small island that got swallowed by the ocean and I drowned. Then I saw my daughter as I hologram and David was there. Then a soldier shot me. Why would the machine show me such things?”
“It didn’t.” Miranda in red answered.
“The way an Enchantment Inn usually operates is that it has one reality that the subject lives his or her entire life in, it’s not meant to switch from reality to reality as it did with you.” Miranda in blue explained.
“Then why did it?” Miranda asked
“Because most people who are in an Enchantment Inn are there voluntarily, it had a different effect on you because you do not want to be here.” Miranda in red answered.
“Your subconscious mind knew that you were in a computer generated fantasy and was trying to alert you to it.” Miranda in blue said.
“And although your memories of how you got here were being blocked by the machine, the technology does not exist to erase them entirely from your mind.” Miranda in red added.
“Part of you remembered what happen and was trying to relate that to your conscious mind.” Miranda in blue said, “And that’s what caused the strange dreams you had. Being trapped on an island to show how alone you really are and how horrible that made you feel.”
“But the machine fought back,” Miranda in red said, “by switching your reality to something that resembled your own life a little less but to something that would make you happy but not so happy to be an odious fantasy.”
“Then your subconscious fought back even harder by showing you that you had a son and not a daughter and giving you hints about how you were forcibly put here by soldiers.” Miranda in blue said, “So the computer came up with an even more elaborate fantasy but your desire to discover the truth won out. So here you are.”
“Here I am.” Miranda said in sadness.
“By discovering the truth you only endangered your own life you have to stop fighting it.” the woman in red said sweetly, “There’s no way you can get out of the Enchantment Inn, and even if there were, you regained your memories; you know how you got here. You don’t think they’d just let you go. They’d rather see you dead then let you go.”
“Then maybe I should just die, instead of giving them the satisfaction of seeing me trapped here.” She said with anger, and as she spoke the pain worsened.
“It makes no difference to the people who put you here whether you live or die.” the woman in blue answered matter-of-factly. “The only reason they put you in here in the first place is because a woman recently widowed, not being able to deal with the reality of her husband’s death, who checked herself into an Enchantment Inn is a lot easier to explain than another accident happening on the same night as her husband’s accidental death.”
“They could have made it look like a suicide.” Miranda retorted and the pain worsened some more.
“This is less suspicious, you know that.” The woman in red answered.
“If you die now, it will be the people who operate this Enchantment Inn’s problem, not the problem of the people who put you here. You are not being held or incarcerated; they simply dropped you off at a civilian run Enchantment Inn and made it look like you put yourself here. As far as they’re concerned they’re done with you. They don’t care what happens to you anymore because they know that you can never escape.”
Miranda eyed both women suspiciously, “You’re not me, are you? You’re the machine trying to convince me to give up!”
“The machine is just a machine.” The woman in blue answered, “It can’t think on its own.”
“No,” the woman in red said, “we come from here.” She touched Miranda on her heart and she felt a great beauty, a great love swell up within her. She wept two more tears; she knew they were speaking the truth.
“We’re only a part of you.” The woman in blue answered her unasked question, “we can’t make the ultimate decision, only you can.”
The woman in red grabbed her hand tightly, “And we think you want to live.”
“But it’s not real.” Miranda said through tears.
“It’s as real as you allow it to be.”
“You can be with David and Brain again.”
“I want to.”
“Then let go.” Both women intoned lovingly.
Epilogue
Miranda slowly opened her eyes, she felt groggy as if she had just woken up from a very long sleep. She was lying on a couch in what appeared to be a hotel room. As she slowly started to get up, she noticed bandages all over her arms and legs and a few on her neck. Her head ached, and her body felt sore as if she hadn’t used it in a while. She tried to sit up, but could barely accomplish that. She groaned loudly as it took a lot of strength to sit upright.
Apparently having heard her, someone approached her room to check on her. “Mom, are you awake?” Miranda’s heart sank as she recognized that voice. A voice she thought she would never hear again.
“Brian?”
“Mom!” he yelled out as he ran into the room and straight into his mother arms. Pain surged through Miranda’s still sore body as Brian jumped up on her to embrace her, but she didn’t care she was just so happy to see him again.
Memories started coming back to her about an Enchantment Inn. She and her son had been abducted and put in an Enchantment Inn, but what were they doing here in a hotel room? After giving her son a long embrace, she brushed his hair out of his eyes and looked lovingly into them. “Brian, how did we get here? What’s going on?”
“Hello Miranda.” She heard a familiar voice say from across the room. She looked up to see her good friend Rebecca smiling down at her. “We got you out,” She then looked at Brian with a smile, “Both of you.”
Miranda looked at Brian again and noticed that he too had bandages all over his body in the exact same spot as she did. “Out?” she said her mind trying to comprehend what was going on, “Of the Enchantment Inn?”
“That’s right.” Rebecca said with a smile. “I saw the people abducting you and Brian, and when I learned that you were both in an Enchantment Inn, it didn’t take me long to figure out you were put there against your will. So we rescued you.”
“We?” Miranda asked, she was very grateful to Rebecca for saving her and her son but knew she couldn’t have done it herself.
Rebecca’s smile widened, “A friend helped me.” She gestured to the opened doorway and Miranda’s heart jumped in her throat and her mouth flung open as a man she’d never thought she’d see again stepped through.
“David, you’re alive!” She cried with joy as her husband went to her and their son and embraced them both. “The news said you were dead.” She managed to get out through her tears.
“They were onto me. They tried to kill me and thought they succeeded, so I let them think I was dead so I could get away.” He stared lovingly into her eyes and started to cry. “I’m so sorry they got you. I tried to save you but I was too late.”
He sobbed loudly and buried his head in her chest; she kissed the top of his head and soothingly shushed him. “Don’t worry; I know you did everything you could.” She said through tears, “And you did rescue us.” After a moments embrace a thought occurred to her. “Are we safe, now? Are they going to come after us again?”
Rebecca and David smiled widely, “You’re safe, alright. We got them!” Rebecca replied.
Miranda shot David a puzzled look. “I wasn’t the only one to survive the attack at Dannysville. The witness survived as well. Miranda, I underestimated his testimony; we didn’t even need the evidence. After we went public the whole government was in disgrace. The administration responsible for the atrocities committed on Iapetus was impeached. The agents who abducted you and tried to kill me were arrested, and now the people know the truth.”
Miranda remembered that they were in a hotel room. “So where are we now?”
Brian got up and walked to the main window that was still covered by a curtain. As he pulled the curtain back, Miranda squinted her eyes at the bright sunlight that poured through. “Our new home.” Brian announced proudly.
When Miranda’s eyes adjusted she could see a vast mountain range to the east and beautiful beaches to the west. “Welcome to Mandero.” David said then gave her a loving kiss. Her husband, her son, and her friend all looked to her with huge smiles, and as Miranda started laughing with joy they all joined in.
Sweet Miranda dressed all in red and bold Miranda dressed all in blue both sat by the window watching the recently recovered Miranda through the window as she lovingly embraced her family. “It’s so good to see that she’s feeling better.” Miranda in blue said.
“Yes, it’s so good to see her smile, and to see her happy.” Miranda in red agreed. She looked to Miranda in blue. “Do you think she’ll ever get sick again? Do you think she’ll ever discover the truth?”
“No, She won’t get sick again.” Miranda in blue replied then looked out the window at happy Miranda as she enjoyed a stroll on Mandero beach with her family. “We know the truth, so in a way, she knows the truth too.”
