Casey turned off her alarm and resisted the urge to throw her phone, telling herself that it was a new device and a gift from her brother. She rolled around in bed and debated on whether she should get out of bed or could lie down for another five minutes.

By the time she was done with her internal struggle, five minutes were up so she had to get up anyway. With a sigh, she went to wash up and change. Her bad habit of not eating breakfast reared its head as she stuffed her phone into her bag before grabbing her keys and headed out the door.

She got to her office in no time and after greeting her colleagues, started working. But Casey couldn’t focus. The dream last night had been far too vivid. She shook her head and went back to her emails.

By ten thirty though, the mysterious energy that had kept her going ran out and she sluggishly went to the pantry to look for some coffee. While waiting for the water to boil, she checked her phone. Her brother had sent her a message.

[Sis, you’re not going to believe this but I had the weirdest dream.]

[Oh?]

[Do you remember the old cinema in town? I dreamt that I was playing a game there]

Casey was very thankful that she did not have anything in her mouth or else it would have come spewing out or choked her.

[You wouldn’t happen to have a pair of controllers that you used as a shield and sword, would you?]

There was silence and Casey wondered if Derek had put down his phone to do something else.

She walked back to her place, coffee in one hand and phone in the other. As she sat down, her phone buzzed nonstop.

[It wasn’t a dream???]

[I was actually fighting demons???]

Then there was a string on unintelligible gibberish. Derek was venting very hard.

Casey couldn’t do anything about it and just turned her phone off, with a [we’ll talk about this later]. She sighed, massaged the side of her temple and went back to work.

Mondays were already difficult days to pick up work momentum but the tension and confusion from what happened the night before made it harder for Casey to concentrate or feel motivated.

She breathed a sigh of relief when lunch hour came around. After turning her colleagues’ invitation to have lunch together, Casey bought a sandwich from the cafeteria and went back to her desk. She then gave her brother a call. He picked up almost immediately.

But there was silence from both ends, the two of them unable to say what was lodged in their hearts.

“So…” Casey started first. “The both of us had the same dream…”

“I was supposed to seal demons and you were supposed to capture and train demons…”

“Yes.”

“Your started demon was the hellhound called Garm.”

“Yes.”

“I found a cardboard sword and shield, which became tattoos onto the back of my hands.”

“Like they were drawn by kindergarteners, yes. And when you wanted to use them they became game controllers.”

“That were similar to the controllers of my Shift.”

“I didn’t really see but if you say so. What happened after I woke up?”

“Well, we were supposed to explore a new area but I got a save prompt after you mentioned the beeping. After I clicked yes, I was removed from the game and I woke up. I went back to sleep after that but I didn’t continue the dream.”

“I think it needs the both of us to be in the game at the same time…”

“Maybe. But isn’t it just a dream?”

“The both of us having the same lucid dream?”

“Ok, when you put it that way, it seems ridiculous.”

“Do you think we’ll continue dreaming again tonight?”

“I’m not sure. But I did save the game…”

“Do you want to continue dreaming the same dream?”

“That…”

Casey was trembling and she felt extremely restless. Like she had run a marathon or had sprinted at full speed. The thudding of her heart and the numb, tingling sensation in her fingers…

“I want to continue the dream, though. It’s surreal, yes but…”

She didn’t know how to describe it. She had been a working adult for so long, almost a decade, actually. She had always longed for the carefree days of when she was a student. Almost no responsibilities and plenty of time in her hands. She could do anything she wanted and only answered to herself and her conscience.

Derek was silent on the other end but she could hear him sigh.

“So do I, sis. So do I.”

“We’ll only know tonight, I guess.”

“Do you know how tense I’ve been the whole day?”

“Try having to work and deliver something to the boss at the same time.”

“Sucks to be you.”

Casey pouted but said nothing. The siblings said their goodbyes and gave a vague “see you tonight” before hanging up. Casey looked at the chicken and mayo sandwich she had bought and put it to one side. She was so excited she didn’t think that she could swallow a single bite.

She forced herself to focus on her work and ploughed through the pile of work that she had been tasked with. At five thirty, she sent her last email and clocked out ten minutes after that.

Casey was normally efficient but she never left on the dot. Rush hour traffic was a very big pain so she would dawdle a little and leave at least half an hour later. There was no one waiting for her at home anyway.

Today she decided to just grab dinner first before going home. Stopping at a nearby restaurant, she had her dinner and left soon after. The roads were clear by then and she was soon home.

It was just before seven. Casey had never felt like the day could crawl like it did today. She sighed in frustration and forced herself to do some of the ironing that she had put off. She was done in an hour.

She felt defeated but went to take a hot shower instead. How did she pass the time in the past???

When she was done, she got comfortable in bed before she took out her phone and texted her brother.

[Why does today seem like it’s been slowed down?]

[I know… it feels like someone used a gadget from the future or an –anator…]

Casey gave a wry smile but was glad that someone else was in the same boat as her. It wasn’t even nine yet so she decided to read to pass the time. This was usually one of her favourite hobbies but she couldn’t concentrate.

“This is the first time I’m so eager for bed!”

She let out a frustrated huff of air and thumped her pillow. Since she couldn’t read, she might as well play a game.

Cuddling a pillow, she turned on her phone and noticed the Shift app again. She turned it on again, forgetting that she had planned to delete it. And then she stared at the list of details.

            Player: Casey

            Level: 1

            Number of demons: 2

            Area: Cinema Lobby

            Shifted games: 2

            [Continue? Y/N]

She immediately closed the app and called her brother.

“Sis? What’s up?”

“Have you ever played a game called Shift recently?”

There was silence over the phone and Casey wondered if she had been overly sensitive.

“I found it downloaded into my Shift the other day but couldn’t delete it. Let me turn it on.”

His Shift? Casey’s heart started thudding harder in her ribcage. The hand that wasn’t holding her phone had started clenching the pillow on her lap subconsciously.

“The shift app now has details of a saved game… it’s from our adventure last night…”

She had expected it so she shouldn’t have been surprised. But why did she feel so overwhelmed right now?

“This is getting weirder and weirder… Wait, what does shifted games mean?”

Derek’s question broke Casey out of her reverie and she tried to remember the data she had seen earlier.

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll figure it out when we continue playing.”

“Honestly, this is getting creepy…”

“… It is… I wonder if we’ll ever figure out what’s going on…”

“Probably it’ll be revealed at the end of the tutorial…”

“This is a pretty long tutorial, I wonder if the game is going to be even longer.”

“Will it be bad if it was?”

Casey paused, thinking of the hundreds of hours she had put in in some of the more immersive games she had played.

“Not really… hey, I just had a thought… if I’m gaming while I sleep, doesn’t that mean I’m resting while doing something I like?”

“Come back again in a few days. If you feel tired at work then we have a problem. If not then yay for you.”

“Spoilsport…”

“Just pointing out possible problems.”

Derek had a point but Casey didn’t want him to harp on it. She gave a hum and changed the subject.

“I’m just wondering though… Why is it an app on my phone but a game in your Shift... and if there’s going to be a price for this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think that this is a dream come true?”

“I can’t say that this is what I’ve always wanted but it does making things interesting.”

“Yeah, but you know what they say…”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“Exactly.”

Call it suspicion, call it being jaded or maybe just plain disappointed with the world. But the two down-to-earth, nice-kids-next-door siblings were actually people with low level of trust towards those that they were not familiar with. What’s more, they preferred to keep others at bay, when possible.

Derek manifested it in some passive aggressive behaviour while Casey was just plain apathetic. If asked, Casey could only shrug her shoulders and say that yes, they were broken.

As adults past the age of twenty-five, they were not naïve nor all accepting. The little bits of human nastiness that they come into contact with everyday had rubbed the grime of humanity on them and they just couldn’t be bothered anymore.

Derek still cared in his own little way, being nice kids and small animals mostly. Casey was still helpful and smiled at her colleagues every day. But there were walls in their hearts… surrounded by moats, pitfalls and topped with barbed wire. Maybe that was why they were both still single.

“So… good, neutral or evil?”

“Can’t tell… I’m putting them in neutral for now.”

“Lawful, true or chaotic?”

“Not enough info. We finish the tutorial and continue to find out. If they remain mum, I’d say chaotic.”

“I sometimes think we’re crazy stupid for wanting to continue this…”

“Says the person who went bungee jumping.”

“But that was a controlled environment.”

“If you say so…”

They bickered a little bit more before hanging up. Casey made herself a glass of warm milk before closing her eyes. Despite all the excitement, she soon fell asleep.

*           *           *           *           *

[The two of them are sharper than we anticipated.]

[If they had separate dreams, they would not have caught on. Unfortunately, their level of synchrony meant that they would pull each other in, even if their scenarios were different.]

[Do we reveal ourselves to them?]

[No. They are still sceptical. They must want to commit before we show ourselves.]

[We can always just take the entry price. They will work to win it back.]

[That was how the Mainframe was attacked the last time. There was too much resentment from Players]

[But we have upgraded our security. The Mainframe is untouchable now.]

[I think you need to see the Engineer to update your system.]

[What do you mean?]

[Naivety 2.5 was scrapped years ago. You seem to be holding onto a redundant software and it is compromising your judgement.]

[???]

[… Never mind… I’ve sent a screenshot of our conversation to the Engineer. You should be receiving a call soon.]

The systems became silent as one of them was forcefully recalled. The remaining system watched its host turn over in their sleep before initiating the saved game. They needed Players to play and it had to execute its responsibilities as programmed.