Year 506

The room was black when Hannah opened her eyes. She tried to push herself from the bed but couldn't feel the mattress... or her arms. (Six seconds on the outside and she already felt the pleasure loop calling her name.)

"Jon!" she cried in the dark. "Emmanuel! Something's wrong!"

No reply.

Is it over? she wondered. Did I wait too long? Is this some new, horrible reality?

Is this death?

"Hannah." Her name wove through the darkness like a drug-induced lullaby. The voice was feminine, but it wasn't Ellie. "It's me," it said, and a face appeared with the words, slowly manifesting in the shadows; a woman, bald, viewed through Hannah's eyes with clarity she had never experienced either inside or out.

The pristine hologram distracted her from the face itself, but now she saw it—Princess!—and she knew she was still inside. "Let me out!" she screamed. "Emmanuel! Ellie! Get me the fuck out of here!"

"You're not in the pleasure loop," said the apparition.

Hannah felt the itchy beginnings of a panic attack, but focused on the image in front of her and said, "I don't believe you."

"Do you feel any sense of euphoria?"

"No."

"Can you remember a time in life when you were in pain?"

She could. Several. "Maybe I'm out of the loop... but I'm still in the system."

"Your inability to move should prove you're not."

"I've been unable to control myself inside."

"Your clarity of mind, then."

As Hannah's attention turned inward, she realized the woman was right. The difference in her thought process was like a Sunday morning hangover compared to a Tangerine breather. "They could have updated the system."

"You saw our Chicago facilities. Did they look capable of patching the PECs?"

Hannah knew the answer. But if it was true... if she was actually outside... "Is it really you?" she asked.

Princess grinned. "Yeah, love. It's really me."