Virtual Imprisonment

"God you've really gotta stop doing shit like this." Your friend said, handing you the final piece of the headset, she was a friend longer than you could recall, helping you with all your stupid ideas.

Like this one. Following some rabbit hole you found on the Internet, something about an old folk tale, a "Virtual Angel" Very little of it was mentioned about what was inside, just how you could make the device.

Your friend Jeewon was more than happy to help, like when she was willing to help you jump off a cliff, hack ATM's and siphon trees. Now you had the device, which required levels of technical engineering you have never even witnessed. How she learned all this? She would never tell, but she was always the smarter one of you two.

"Yeah, but I'm sure whatever is on the other side is pretty fucking sick." You replied, sitting back on the collective pillows you set up in a late night haze.

"Maybe it will be, I've really gotta do some assignments. You good here?" She grabbed her bag on the floor, zipping it up as she threw it around her back.

"Yep, thanks again Jeewon." You smiled.

"don't mention it." Her voice was quiet as she walked away, you were a bit terrified to put this device on, it might not work, it might blow up, but it was way too much of your own money to just shy away from this.

The device was multiple colors, made out of scrap metal and a dream. A glorified VR headset with something that made it different, at the very least it felt heavy.

Here goes nothing.

You put it on, watching the screen light up, nothing? Just pure white. Did she fuck it up?

A sudden pain stabbed you in the stomach, forcing you to kneel over in agony, then your arms. Then your head, then you weren't conscious to think.

The world in front of you was certainly different, the sky was a dark blue, being pierced by the sun rising, or setting. It's pink and orange hues much brighter than you've ever seen, the ground below you looked like earth, just different, shifted. Indescribable, everything felt strange.

You could feel everything, a soft wind pushing against you, hand reaching out towards the sky. Throughout the horizon there was buildings, but the details didn't exist, like they weren't being rendered.

"Hello." A voice rang out from behind, your neck nearly snapping as you turned around in fear.

"So this is our new lover. Cute." One of them said.

There was 5 of them, all of them looking ethereal, unreal. Like seraphs, varying colors of hair from orange to black. Glowing against a light you couldn't see.

"Yeah, we got lucky this time." Another one said, they got closer.

"Hello new lover. It is nice to meet you, I'm Jinsoul." The girl said, her hair red, her words filling you with concern.

"New lover?" You repeated, taking a step back.

"Yes, you came to us, surely you knew that? I'm Choerry." The black haired girl said, hair curled up, all of them had matching white outfits, pairs of wings.

"No, no I did not." You've fucked up this time, the bemused looks made that pretty clearer.

"Interesting, you did all the effort to do this? But you didn't even check? I'm Kim Lip, and the blonde haired girl is Heejin and the other black hair girl is Haseul." She pointed, getting the rest of the introductions out of the way.

"I saw something online, thought I'd check it out." You responded cautiously, looking around. Your surroundings had changed, trees forming around you. They all looked the same, tall, green, perfect, carbon copies of themselves.

"Well no matter, you will learn how perfect it is here soon enough." The girl introduced as Heejin said.

"Uhh, I don't kn- FUCK" You fell to your knees, eyes burning in static as a vast surge of colors, like a TV screen. Hands clutching your chest. Every part of your body fighting against itself.

"Oh that's kicked in earlier than usual, we need to do the ritual quickly." You couldn't discern who said it, feeling a hand touching your face, it felt blurry, not real.

"R-ritual? Oh god." The pain surged, chest tightening every second bringing even more pain.

"Yes, just a......." The rest of the words replaced itself with static, what was happening to you?

You couldn't feel anything but pain, drowning in its waves, holding on to any ounce of stability you had. "........." the static grew louder, crushing down on you as another stabbing pain hit your stomach.

"...... Nearly......... Jinsoul?...... Good" The static started to break up, giving way to words, pain starting to subside.

"Oh god, what the fuck just happened to me?" You said, voice pained as Heejin shot you an empathetic look.

"That's just something that happens to all lovers, you are safe now." Choerry stepped in to speak. The environment had changed again, now the inside of a house, one eerily similar to your very own. The sight made your blood cold, Jinsoul held you on her lap, everything felt unnatural, but not unpleasant.

"What if I wanna go home? I have seen what I wanted to, can I just take this thing off?" Your hands grabbed at the headset, but it didn't budge, Jinsoul quickly grabbed your hands, holding them against her legs.

"You can't leave, we won't let you. We are sick of people running from us." Haseul's voice was firm, frustrated, you tried to move from Jinsoul's arms, but she held you down, heart pumping faster suddenly.

"I, don't think I'm the one you want, you could do better." You were struggling to weasel your way out of this, but their faces turned aggressive. Jeewon was right, you should have listened to her.

"Stop. We've heard this all before, you don't wanna see what happens to those who push our buttons." Kim Lip growled, you needed to get out of Jinsoul's arms, now.

You took advantage of her not paying attention, tugging your arms away as she gasped, jumping up. The other girls in front of you posed a threat, trying to find a way past, but there was no success. You were fucked.

"Fine, you can join the rest." Heejin snapped her fingers, the set drop changing as they all disappeared. You immediately felt nauseous, the sight in front of you was abhorrent.

Maggots crawled out from every surface, writhing around the various walls of what appeared to be a catacombs. The floor covered in blood, but the worst had to be the stench, repulsive, intolerable, rotten. "What the fuck."

You couldn't walk, having to get down and crawl in order to get past the obstacles, blood leaching into the fabric of your clothes, a cesspit of death. Resist the urge to gag.

You kept moving, every sight filled with more horrors than the last. There was so many bodies, all ripped open with so many bugs entering and leaving them. The sight filling your mouth with bile, the urge to throw up too strong, unloading your guts onto the ground. Fuck.

Roaches started to climb up your hands, unshakable, climbing into your jacket. You could feel them crawl around, maybe you shouldn't have turned them down.

You could finally get back to your feet, looking down at the ruined clothes below you. It was too dark to see, save for the faint digital light shining through the crack of the hatch. You tried to punch it, locked, shit. You tried again to no avail, but there was no other option.

Who knows how long it took, hand bruised and bloody when an opening finally presented itself, cracking open the faintest amount. Allowing your fingers through, grabbing onto the lock desperately. Couldn't bare the sight of what you were seeing. Hoisting yourself up with new found strength. Swatting the rest of the roaches off of your skin, feeling itchier than ever. Discarding your jacket as you looked up.

"Oh wow! Normally they don't make it out of there, being left to die and become bug food! I'm really proud, it's not too late to be ours honey!" Jinsoul said to your left, feet no longer on the ground as she flew above you. The rest you couldn't see, which only filled you with more fear.

"Fuck... You! That was disgusting." You coughed, struggling to stand.

"Oh wow, your words hurt you know? I don't like being swore at. You are going to have to pay for that." She mimicked Heejin's earlier actions, snapping her fingers as the world in front of you split into various pieces. Looking below led to a bottomless pit, full of stars and the cosmos itself. That couldn't be good. Looking above had the same effect, there was so many shards of earth, it was unexplainable. Unfathomable.

"What the fuck is this?!" You yelled to Jinsoul, who was flying in the middle now, taking a sadistic enjoyment in this slapped together torture show.

"Stop swearing! It's so uncouth." She was unbelievable, "Behind you is a little wall of instant death, I'm unoriginal, never had to do this before you know? So run, little prey, run." The wall behind you was pure black, choosing to take her at word, hopping from the starting platform to the next.

"This is doing too much!" You yelled, stumbling as the wall lingered closer, jumping forward once more. Adrenaline pumped through you, screaming as you landed on the grass. Unable to look at Jinsoul.