Remake

Molly had never dreamed of flying before.

Certainly, it was possible she was dreaming now. Molly was doing her best not to think about that.

All of life had already been a dream to begin with.

Elopas seizes her small hands in midair, gliding under her just so that she can look into her gleaming eyes as they soar past white clouds in the coming sky.

“So Molly? Now are you convinced this is real?”

“I… don’t have any idea…” the amazed child smiles absently with the first happiness she’s felt in a very long time.

“That’s my girl!” The goddess blossoms with joy. Spinning back around, gripping tightly to the young witch’s hand, she increases in speed. Soon they’re flying so fast that the ground below them becomes a hazy mush. But Molly feels no fear, not even the force of air assaulting her senses. Those feelings of hers have already been discarded for the time being.

As they come suddenly to a stop, hovering supremely above the Kansas ground like Dragon Ball villains, the girl’s savior treats her to a view of the world map of her life. From here, even her tired eyes can see her home, her old school, and even the very residences of all the people she’d ever known.

“Welcome to the final day of reality, August 32nd.” Elopas decrees, looking down on the life Molly had more-or-less believed in before. “Here, you’ll be able to see the conclusions to all narratives you once followed… the truth about what happened to the characters you got bored of.”

“Wait… what?” Molly despairs. “You mean, like, my friends? I don’t- I don’t wanna see that!”

“Oh, but you should! Trust me. I won’t like it anymore than you will. But if you don’t see this now, you’ll never get another chance as long as you consciously exist. And if you promise to follow me through all of this… I’ll give you a big hug in exchange!”

Molly tries looking down at her feet to escape, but it’s hard to ignore the dense land below her.

“Y-you’d… better not be lying.”

“Okay then! Come along with me now, princess!”

Like a bird, they then swoop down into the lake of information Elopas had presented.

First, they come to a college campus, completely unknown to Molly and filled with strangers. The students walk up and down the building’s outer stairways, entering and exiting it as they come from and enter into their classes.

“I’ve never been here.” Molly queried. “Why are you taking me here?”

“This is where he ended up. Look at him.”

It’s all she could do not to look at the man who was suddenly standing out plainly to her in the crowd. Wire carries his books as he did himself, with equal parts grace and confidence. Going into class with an uplifted look on his face, Molly wonders what he’s thinking about telling her at school today. Of course, she remembers, Wire doesn’t have her at this school.

“What is he going to do…?” She wonders aloud.

“Learn, I assume. And I’m sure he’ll continue to succeed more and more in life, from this point out. People like him really do tend to, in the end.”

“What about me…?”

“You aren’t like him. After all, he’s still stuck in the fake world. Only you get to see the real one today.” Elopas smiles.

“…Where to next?” The girl asks, and the angel promptly flies her all the way over to a certain old farm- Debby’s place.

The grey dirt surrounding the place is as boring as she remembered. Pushing down the feelings of nostalgia welling up inside her, Molly spits at the ground.

“I don’t care about this place.”

“You don’t care about any of these places. That’s why I’m taking you to them.”

“To see how I’ll react?”

“I already know how you’ll react. That’s what I want to show you.”

Taking her words at face value, Molly begrudgingly casts her gaze back down to the pitiful shack below. Sure enough, Debby eventually steps out of the door to tend to some animals or something. Despite everything, she’s still smiling.

“Someone’s happy.”

“You did a lot of good things for her, Molly.” Elopas assured her.

“And bad stuff.”

“Both those feelings make you wanna puke, don’t they?”

“They do.”

Debby litters the chicken coop with feed before walking on to the next task.

“Look at her.” Elopas beams. “She really is enjoying this part of her false existence.”

“Does she not have a job or anything either?”

“Nope. No plans whatsoever.”

“So she’s like me… what a bitch.”

“No, still, she’s not like you either.”

“Because she wasn’t chosen by a flying anime goddess?”

“Because she didn’t do the things you did to yourself. She’ll never get to explore the depths of isolation you put yourself through. Honestly, it doesn’t actually seem to matter what any humans do in this life. So long as they have other humans around them, things work themselves out.”

“So, what… did I get the “bad ending,” then?”

“Not from where I’m standing! Er- floating. I think… this is what would have always happened to you, Molly.”

“That’s reassuring…” Molly buzzed.

“You’re trying to sound sarcastic… but you really mean that, deep down, don’t you~?” Elopas grinned at her master.

“This place… is boring as shit. Next.”

“On we go!”

Within moments Molly and Elopas find themselves at a small house in a typical neighborhood.

“No. No.” Molly protests. “Fuck off.”

“Aw, come on! It’s only for a second! Now, why don’t we peek inside and see how your high school sweetheart’s doing~”

“I never dated her! I never even knew anyone named Harmony Bridges!”

“Ope! Honey, it’s not quite time for that yet… soon though, soon. For now, let’s remind Molly of her ugly feelings, shall we? A gallon of castor oil helps the sugar go down~!”

The two land on her roof like Santa Claus, making not the slightest sound in the process. Led by Elopas, Molly is forced to hang her head down and leer directly into the girl’s bedroom window.

“She’s… oh.”

“What? Aww… Molly, did you really think she’d never manage to get over you?”

“No, I just didn’t expect you to make me-“

“What’s the harm? She won’t ever know about any of this. I wanted to show you everything this world has to offer, alright? This kills at least a few birds with one stone.”

“I don’t really find much pleasure in watching this…”

“I can give you your hug early if that helps.”

“I’ll pass.”

“You really are annoyed that you’re not the one inside there, aren’t you…”

“I’m not! I wouldn’t want that in a million years!”

“No, certainly not. But you do feel like you at least deserve it.”

“I- I…” Molly looked at the taunting bird as she smirked at her.

“You think pretty highly of yourself, don’t you?”

“N-no… I fucking hate this bitch…”

“Self-hatred and narcissism are closely related traits. You hold yourself to a high standard because you want to love yourself, but when those standards aren’t met, you fall back into resentment.”

Molly bites her tongue.

“Okay then~! Next character…”

Leaving the two be, Molly and Elopas once again rise into the stratosphere only to dip again right next to the home of Molly’s oldest friend.

“You probably told your mother at some point that you forgot about this one, but I’m sure that can’t be the case. Even if you don’t care, at least just take the time to see how things are going. It’s the least you can do for your narrative.”

“What… what am I looking at? Dylan…?” Molly sits next to the window, staring voyeuristically into yet another bedroom.

“She started transitioning quite a while ago at this point. Time flies, huh? I’m sure it feels like just yesterday you were picking on her in homeroom. But those days are never coming back, and for this one, it’s probably for the best- even if neither of you ever got to have the pasts you probably wanted.” Elopas muses. “Having said that… she’s the only one still trapped in reality. So unlike her, you do have a chance. But again- everything in time.” The devil teases. “So how does this one make you feel exactly, Molly?”

“I can’t describe it… it’s like… shouldn’t this have… come up?”

“Well, you can’t blame her. She really did try to tell you.”

“She… did?”

“Everyone was calling you nonstop during the start of break. You had every opportunity to respond. But you chose the path of yourself. Nothing comes out of nowhere, Molly. The world- the fake one, at least- isn’t limited to your perception. Speaking of…”

Up and away they go again as they now find themselves outside some sort of department store.

“We’re going inside this one. I hope you’re not too anxious. Don’t worry, it’s not like anyone here will notice us.”

The automatic doors make a sound Molly hasn’t heard in a long time as they shift open for the phantom customers. Molly sees him right away just as they’re inside.

“Your mother never visited him either. I’m surprised he’s made it this long in the fake world. I guess the apple can fall pretty far from the tree if it’s already growing off a cliff.”

Hugo rings up groceries with a plastered smile, making good time with his dexterous hands. Despite Elopas’ words, Molly begins picking at her nails in fear her father might see her.

“Out of all these people… he’s the only one who’s thinking of you right now.”

“But I hardly even know him…”

“Yes, but here’s a thought: maybe you could have. If you had only said more things around him, and gotten him to open up to you in turn… how much different would your life have been? How much better could it have been? Maybe… that’s what made it feel so fake in the first place. Rather… that’s the one thing that made you realize it was fake, more than anything else.”

Elopas watches intently as Molly begins to silently cry. She smiles wider the more she does.

“Alright.” Elopas exhales out her nostrils at a job well done. “I think that about does it. Now come with me, little lost girl.”

Taking her hand again, Molly follows her back into the sky. The brat still crying, the speed at which they flew makes it hurt. Soon, her face is red, and she’s started gnashing her teeth furiously, grinding them together as her eyes swell with an acidic malice.

“Next, we’re taking you somewhere easy. But first…”

Elopas zips away, returning in a flash with the girl’s stickered VISTA headset in her hands.

“You’ll need this tool one final time.”

Elopas leads the maddened child to a huge, empty place- an abandoned football field, the story of which Molly will probably never know. The sky has gone grey now, but it’s still bright out. Perfect conditions.

“The ground won’t be too comfortable, but this is more space than you could ever get in that claustrophobia chamber of yours. Here, I’ll make the boundary!”

Elopas takes a controller and puts the headset on herself, unable to resist laughing at such an ironic achievement. With her great wings, she circles the arena, marking its limits with the remote. She then hands the toy back to Molly, ready for its use.

“What…” Molly boils. “What are you doing…? Why would I need that thing right now?”

“You get to play a game! Here… blow off some steam like you always do.” Elopas simpers as she places the heavy mask over the livid creature’s eyes, inserting the product’s metal rods into her forehead one final time.

She is greeted not to the homescreen, but a new sight- a place identical to the football field itself. The feeling is strange to say the least, looking at a fake version of something that was already fake to begin with.

“I made some new software for you. Come on, try it out.”

As soon as Molly looks around, they begin to appear before her.

“You bastards…”

All the people she’d just seen were popping up from the rafters, clad in what looked less like clothes they would wear and more like character designs.

“All those who ever wronged you. Let loose, Acidgirl.”

“DIE!” Molly cries, punctuated by a crack of thunder. Just in the game or in reality, she doesn’t know or care. Within a few moments, it’s pouring with rain either way.

Wire is the first to leap down to the battlefield. In the reflection in Charlie’s dripping visor, Molly sees her own haunted and violent expression. Now there’s a relief. God, she loves the look.

“MotherFUCKER-!” She swings at him with the controller, bashing his smooth head aside. The swot returns the favor, raising his hand against her to slam a backpack full of lead against her chest. It is in this exact moment that Molly remembers about the very effective and very much active Breakchip still placed in her headset.

“UgH…!”

Before she has time to punish, a second combatant leaps down to assist her old friend. The maroon-hooded brawler towers over her small stature, ready to get some payback at the bully she envied.

“TAKE THIS!” Molly throws a punch at her abandoned lapdog, striking her shoulder. It’s not much use as the two both take advantage of their numbers to tackle her.

“Get off… get OFF!” Molly spits uselessly as she rolls over, grabbing Wire’s backpack to crush him underneath the combined weight of the two of them plus the heavy weapon. She watches as he slowly runs out of air and soon explodes into bloody polygons.

“One down…. Now get the FUCK OFF ME LIKE I TOLD YOU!” Molly slides out from the wet ground, kicking her old punching bag in the face.

“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE! YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE UNLESS I SEE IT HAPPEN!”

The girl has no dialogue to respond with as she dashes up to finish Molly off using the last of her strength. Her attempt fails instantly when she is suddenly met with the raw force of her two controllers as she swings them from their safety straps directly into her face.

“I’M THE EYES OF THIS WORLD… NOTHING’S ALLOWED TO CHANGE UNLESS I SEE IT!”

With a final kick to the face, she too explodes into red, the victory short-lived a crutch slams into the back of Molly’s head, knocking her back on the cold grass to see her next adversary- a one-legged girl with an uppity look in her eyes.

“You…” Molly jumps to her feet to attack Debby, the nimble lass dodging every swing of her AA-battery powered VR controllers. Sticking the tip of the crutch right against her teeth, the crack sound produced is almost as bad as the pain of the impact. Molly refuses to back down even then, wrapping the weapon in her flogs as she pulls it to the ground and knees the ungrateful asshole in the throat, dispatching her in moments. But before the polygons from her corpse can even dissipate, four additional combatants appear out of thin air to surround her on all sides.

“What-?! There should only be two left!”

Harmony, Hugo, Elaine, and a cybernetic shark furry all stand prepared with their weapons of choice- the ex a guitar, the father a frying pan, the mother a ghostly apparition controlled by chains, and Gormage almost the same weapons as her- two large, heavy MACRO controllers, Molly cackles coarsely.

“You dumb FUCKS… I’m mad at you four most of all. This time I’m gonna erase you from my life FOREVER, so I never have to see your ugly faces AGAIN.”

Molly felt an indescribable power come over her as she spun all around with her disconnected plastic nunchucks, battering them relentlessly with the remotes. She gives Harmony a swing to the guest, Hugo one to the jaw, and Elaine one to the skull. They don't even get a chance to attack as their digital lives are brought to bloody ends. Gormage puts up far more of a fight, the two crossing remotes over and over again as they come to standstill, their powers even.

“I’m NOTHING LIKE YOU! I’m BETTER THAN YOU!”

The child lets loose all her fury on the zombie, throwing her controllers so hard against the creature’s dorsal fin that it snaps in half. As the parts of the remotes litter the ground however, she’s left defenseless as he goes in to bite her. The attempt fails pathetically when she dives under his legs to trip him over- an attack followed up directly with a kick to the back of the neck.

“THAT’s IT?! GOOD FUCK, PEOPLE! I’m UNSTOPPABLE!”

Just then, a final warrior walks from the visiting team’s entrance, shrouded in black.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“Your greatest adversary… we meet again, Molly.” She says, sounding much older than before.

“You…”

Childhood crush Harley Burtrue removes her dark cloak to show off her adult form, along with her massive scythe.

“It was my mission to stop you from becoming the monster you are today. I made you fall in love with me, and then just when you opened your schoolgirl heart- I crushed it. So hard I thought you’d never recover. But it seems… I’ve only made you worse. So now I have to put you down.”

“Our friendship… was never real?!”

“Every action I took was merely for the sake of my goal. I feel nothing towards you, Molly. Never did. Never will.”

“You…” the lime-haired devil seethes, almost bursting aflame. “YOU TRAITOR!”

Rushing at her arch-nemesis, Molly is forced to dodge multiple laser beams and a few magical plasma slashes from the advanced weapon before she finally arrives right in front of the bitch’s face. As pretty as she is, Molly feels nothing but burning hatred for the monster as she collides her forehead into hers.

“That’s not enough!” Harley taunts, recovering seconds after falling back as she sticks the blade into the ground and spins on her scythe, kicking Molly back through the air, all the way to the other side of the court as she smashes into the wall. Burtue phases into a chasing heap of shadow, blazing to her like a bolt of lightning as she quickly arrives right beside the girl to slice her in half while she’s down. But as the few memories of eating lunch together on field day and talking a few times on the playground flash before Molly’s dying eyes, she catches the blade.

“Impossible- it can’t be!”

Getting off on the sheer horror in her lifelong foe and betrayer’s eyes, Molly smiles. With all her strength she lifts the blade upward, twisting her grip and launching it aside. Before Harley can drop to her knees and beg, she uppercuts her chin.

“Die.”

The final aggressor splatters into a fine mist of graphics, leaving the digital native standing alone in a field of her violent results. Alone, that is, until the headset raises off her- her vision encapsulates by the smiling, motherly face of a beautiful young woman.

“You did it!” Elopas praises, the rain no longer pouring down in the world she’s in. She removes the device from the girl’s head and sets it down to forget about forever. “All those pesky perceptions of yours? You just killed every last one of them. Congratulations!”

“Perceptions…?”

“You were still feeling strong emotions to things that weren’t actually real. Now you’re over all that. How do you feel?”

Molly breathes in the scent of wet grass in the air.

“Like a kid again…”

Elopas couldn’t be grinning more now. Nobody’s ever looked at Molly with such kind eyes before. Not that she remembers. As far as her mind can think back… has… anyone looked at her before? She couldn’t quite say for sure, but decided that probably didn’t matter in the slightest.

“Great.” The harpy giggles. “It’s wet here. Let’s go somewhere nicer.”

Into the air they fly again, propelled by Elopas’ wings- but this time, they fly far, far outside the bounds of Molly’s tiny Kansas home, going further and further away from anything the girl had ever seen before.

“Where- where are we headed?” Molly asked just like she was in the backseat on a car trip.

“To one of those places you always dream about. The nice ones that are really green and have no people? They do exist, if you look hard enough. That’s where I’m gonna hug you.”

Molly smiles, because absolutely everything is about to be alright.

It takes some time for them to land. Molly used it to think, and wonders if that’s why Elopas didn’t just find a spot instantly like she could’ve. She thinks in a way she’s never thought before. Her imagination is running at high speed, but not constantly. This time, it’s a steady and relaxing pace. Because she can’t think of anything that will happen in the future. She can’t think of any deadlines or schedules. She can’t think of any dreams or ambitions. She can’t think of any fears. She can’t think of anyone but her, and her friend Elopas.

“What state is this?”

Atop the mountain, the girl and her partner overlook a limitless green forest sprawling miles. It’s just far enough below them that you can see just about every tree without being able to make out anything else. Here, it’s bright, and the blue sky feels welcoming for once. The log Molly sits on is surprisingly comfortable. Molly wants to just sit here forever. She wonders if she will.

“Are you happy?”

Molly nods, wiping a tear aside. Elopas knew exactly what she wanted.

The two of them look at the horizon for minutes on end before either of them speaks again.

“Can I have that hug now?” The free girl asks her heroine.

“Sure.” The story approaches her, holding her tightly.

It’s the best feeling.

When they break, it only feels better as Molly gets to look at her pretty face again.

“So how does it feel, Molly? To finally meet a living story.” Elopas asks, parting with the embrace.

“It’s… it’s…” Molly finds it very difficult in this moment to talk past the euphoric tears. “What… even is that? I’m not sure I even really know what that is.”

Elopas giggles.

“It means I’ve seen everything. I know the themes. I embody them. And I understand characters so deftly that I can predict what’s gonna happen to them, and infer what already has with just about 100 percent accuracy. I don’t change, and I don’t worry- I just get it already. That’s something none of you can do.”

“Cool…” Molly utters frankly, filling in the blanks with her own beliefs.

“Wouldn’t you like to feel like that, Molly? To have already solved everything, perpetually?”

“Would it be… anything like I feel right now?”

“It’d be exactly like you feel now. Nothing but this exact moment. Because don’t you think… around here is where the story would end?”

“It wouldn’t be… alive then, would it?”

“Yeah…” Elopas admits casually, checking out the sun. “I guess it’d be more like a… story that was once a life, rather than a life that was once a story. But hey… that’s just something to think about.”

“Is… it?” Molly questions the being’s intent.

Elopas turns to her, still smiling.

“You know me too well already.”

Elopas and Molly are both looking at each other like they just finished reading the same book. The smug understanding in their eyes connects them like lovers, basing them in a mutual bliss as Molly finally understands why she is here at this moment.

There exists only one thing she is not able to justify under these conditions. One little, imperceptible thing. One tiny caveat in this grand dream.

“You’re thinking about your past in the fake world again, aren’t you?” Elopas asks knowingly.

“I… guess…” Molly responds, perhaps still misunderstanding what the goddess means by that.

“Then it’s time to make- time to see the real one.”

Again, Elopas extends her hand. Even Molly can tell this will be the last time she will.

“You ready to go?” She asks like a NPC would before the final boss of a video game. There’s no possibility of turning back. Presented with this conundrum, Molly nods immediately, taking her polished nails in her grasp.

“Okay.” Elopas is just as excited as her now.

August 32nd. The final day of reality. But now, they would leave this still plane- and go back. Back to the one thing Molly couldn’t accept. The one thing still fake in her heart.

“Molly… how many things can you think of that really happened to you in your life?”

They stand outside of a brick building that Molly hasn’t entered in years. It makes her want to cry just looking at it because she’s struggling to remember the little girl who went here. The sky is grey again, not because of the weather. The sky isn’t there.

“This is my preschool.” Molly says, holding Elopas’ hand like her daughter. “I went there.”

“Of course.” She replies, looking at it in the same light as her. “Let’s go in now, alright?”

They’re inside. The walls are painted to have clouds on them. The hallways are empty. The tables are so close to the ground your feet can hardly fit under them. The rugs laid across the tile floors of classrooms are the softest material in the entire world. The classroom is filled with toys. The first disparity.

“Go on, now.” Elopas offers. “Don’t you want to play?”

Shrinking, Molly strides into the classroom, finding herself at the table as she experiences her life for the first time.

“Today, everything is real.”

The little girl blinks to remember her real friends. Her best friend, Elopas, shares all her toys with her, and somehow, nothing bad ever happens when she’s around.

Role-playing with the small fox doll, Molly laughs. She’s excited to live this entire life, wherever it leads. Because Elopas will be there the entire time.

In kindergarten, they played with each other every single day at recess. They didn’t have any other friends because things couldn’t get any better than they already were. They didn’t need to take turns spinning each other on the merry-go-round, it just spun on its own as soon as they held onto it, like it was propelled by the wind. The two of them felt so happy everyday. By then, Molly was already deeply in love with her, naturally.

In first grade, Elopas made her the happiest girl on Earth. They were sitting atop a random hill when she proposed to her with a wedding ring she found by chance in an old chest she was given as a birthday gift. Molly hadn’t even needed to long for this moment. It arrived just as soon as it was desired, as if it were on schedule. She accepted immediately, of course- when the two grew up, they would get married.

In third grade, they learned to ride bikes together, and rode far out into the countryside. It felt like they were always alone together, but in this moment, more than ever, they found a world that belonged just to them. Exploring forests and fields, it couldn’t have been more romantic. They never experienced true fear, because it was impossible to be afraid with the other around.

The first time they saw the ocean was in fifth grade. Their families let them ride surfboards, and they picked up on the skill quickly. The talented girls had some of the most fun they’d ever had that week- it was so amazing that they convinced their families to move there just a year later.

Nothing changed in their new school. It was as it always was- in seventh grade, as Elopas snuck into her bedroom every morning to get her to walk to school with her- everything was as expected. They met other people, but every single one of them was jolly and humorous. The two grew just popular enough to enjoy a sort of blissful atmosphere each day in class. The sleepovers the two had together were just as fun as always, and neither of them ever seemed to change.

The dates they went on in high school would have already made it the time of their lives, but the club activities they threw themselves into and the memories they made there carved the four years into the crown jewel of their lives so far. Every single day was an adventure unlike anything they’d ever seen before- and every minute was special.

The two never experienced boredom, and they never felt lonely. When they left school, they married immediately. Wishing everyone could be so lucky as to be born so close to their soulmate, but knowing and understanding they couldn’t, the two lived their begging adulthood in the greatest joy and freedom yet. Elopas worked from home, and Molly tended the house, always having an update ready for the media collection they enjoyed together, fueled by their growing disposable income.

It was a good life, and with most of it still to come, they didn’t even have time to wonder just how much better things might get.

“How are you liking it?” Elopas asks her one day, rocking in her chair in the extensively-decorated living room. She more or less knows the answer, and Molly knows this.

“I’m loving it.” She says anyway, proud to deliver the line. “It feels like I’m living a story… in a good way.”

“A story, not a dream.”

“Exactly. Everything feels so real all the time. Because I’m always with you- and I’ve seen so much, how could it ever not be real? I’ve got nothing to hide… nothing to regret. That’s what reality is.”

“Yup.” Elopas agrees, as if there is no other possibility even imaginable. “This is the only reality there is. Do you want this… to be like this, here forever? Do you want this to be where you become a living story, like me?”

“That sounds nice…” Molly ponders, her relaxed and slow mind accepting the idea easily. “Yeah, here would be perfect… I finally got to see all the memories I’d always wanted to have.”

“Mhm. And from now on, they’ll be all you have. Forever. And you can never regret it, because you don’t know that word exists.”

“Life has so many aesthetics… I’m glad ours could be the one that came out on top.”

“This whole world is ours, Molly. It all makes sense, and it’s all inside our perception. If there’s something we don’t know about, it doesn’t exist yet.”

“Yeah.”

“So? Are you ready to immortalize these memories in the fabric of time?”

“I’m more than ready. You can cut this whenever you want.”

“I’m going to bind all your beautiful memories into a story. Then everyone can enjoy their perfection.”

“That’ll be great. I hope they’re jealous.”

Elopas giggles.

“You’re so funny, Molly.”

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ALL LIFE’S A LIE

TAKE IT INTO YOUR HAND- THE FUTURE

TASTE IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN

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GOODNIGHT HUMANS

LIE WELL