Chapter 24: Shattered Illusions

  In the cold wind of the night, in the middle of an abandoned construction site, Lily prepared to play a game of supernatural Charades with her best friend’s ghost.

  The image of Lily’s friend, Eve, held up one finger, signalling that she was about to deliver the first word.

  “Ok first word, I’m ready!” Lily confirmed. At this point Lily fully believed the illusion was actually Eve’s ghost.

  Was this unusual? Yes, unprecedented? Certainly, but for Lily, this opportunity to share a few more moments with her friend was everything. She simply couldn’t bring herself to question it.

  As the mimed message began, Lily watched carefully. ‘Eve’ began by pointing at herself. As she tried to answer, Lily began tripping over her words and mixing up her tenses.

  “I? I mean, I as in you, Eve, not me Lily.” Lily babbled, slightly incoherently. The apparition didn’t seem to mind Lily’s verbal stumbling, simply giving a thumbs up and nodding to let Lily know she was correct after a few short seconds.

  “Ok, give me the next word.” Lily requested firmly, indicating she was ready to continue the game.

  Eve’s left arm formed a circular shape, pressing her palm towards her abdomen.

  “Circle?” Lily guessed, “Hoop? Round?”

  Eve waved these guesses away with her other hand. She then began dipping that hand into the hole she’d created with her arm. It was as if she was inserting something into the empty space.

  Lily made a guess, “Insert?”

  Eve’s hand wavered, Lily was close but not quite there.

  “Inside? Into?” Lily tried again, she could tell she was close, so close.

  “In... In... In” Lily repeated, trying to think of another word starting with in, before noticing Eve had given her another thumbs up.

  “IN?” Lily shouted. She gave a relieved smile, realising she got it right. “Ok so it’s ‘I In’, what’s next?”

  In the afterlife, Eve pointed directly up in the air. This was it. The final part of her message. The projection of her back on earth transmitted this action to Lily.

  Lily prepared to make her guess, but she froze as before her eyes, the right side of Eve’s ghost disappeared, while the left half remained visible.

  A piece of cardboard that had been picked up by the wind, had blown onto one of Wheeler’s headlights. This random piece of trash was now blocking one of the beams creating the Eve projection, causing half of the image to vanish.

  “Eve, where are you go...?” Lily cried out, before her eyes were drawn to the truck. The truck Lily had up until that point completely forgotten.

  Lily been so focused on Eve’s ghost, so caught in the illusion, but now? The spell was broken. Lily saw what Eve's ghost really was, a fake.

  Reality came crashing back in. Of course ghosts weren’t real, Lily realised. The truck had been toying with her. Playing with her emotions.

  A new rage washed over the young woman as she rearmed herself with the metal pole she had discarded earlier. She silently began approaching Wheeler, her eyes burning with malevolent fury.

  “Oh shit.” Wheeler exclaimed, for some reason despite him being a truck. The aura Lily emitted as she advanced on him was terrifying.

  “What’s wrong? Why has Lily stopped guessing?” Eve asked, worried for her friend.

  “She’s figured out the illusion,” Wheeler squeaked as Lily continued her approach.

  “Oh, how’s she taking it?” Eve enquired.

  *SMACK*

  Metal contacted metal as Lily brought the pole crashing down on Wheeler’s hood. “YOU BASTARD!” She screamed, wailing on the truck with her makeshift weapon.

  “Ow, not well, she’s... ahh... attacking me!” Wheeler exclaimed as Lily repeatedly struck him, “With a metal pipe” he clarified.

  Lily’s wild uncoordinated swings bounced off his bodywork. Every hit caused a slight sting to resonate through his truck body, comparable to being flicked repeatedly. Individually they didn’t hurt that much, but the frequency of the strikes were causing Wheeler some degree of pain.

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  Despite this, Wheeler didn’t disable his haptic feedback. On some level, he felt he deserved this. After all he had done, even if his actions had been well intentioned, he'd caused Lily so much pain. It seemed only fair to him, to allow her to take out her frustrations on him, as a form of penance.

  “Wait Lily is attacking you? With a metal pipe?!” Eve exclaimed in surprise. “That’s not like her at all.”

  After a brief pause, Eve burst out in uproarious laughter. “That’s the spirit bestie, get stuck in!” she cheered. “Finally you’re taking chances and taking names! WOO!”

  The piece of cardboard had dislodged from Wheeler’s headlights restoring the projection of Eve. The illusionary Eve was still linked into the real Eve’s movements. As a result it was dancing around and silently cheering Lily on as she continued to batter Wheeler with the pole.

  This seemed to just serve to piss Lily off more. She glared daggers into Wheeler’s tinted windscreen, looking directly at the driver she believed lurked behind the wheel.

  Wheeler could see Lily’s pain reflected in her eyes, the anger seething through the grieving girl’s every movement as she continued beating him with the pole. Overcome by guilt, he offered no resistance to Lily’s assault.

  All Wheeler could think as he felt the impacts repeatedly ringing throughout his truck body was “I deserve this.”

  “Still using the image of my friend, who YOU murdered, to mock me you sick fuck!” Lily shouted at him, stopping her assault to catch her breath. “Why don’t you get out here and face me huh? Coward!”

  Lily’s hot rage now transitioned to cold fury as her outbursts went ignored. “If you won’t come out, I’ll just have to smash your stupid truck to pieces.” She threatened.

  Instead of another blind swing, Lily focused herself. This time she picked the spot where she felt she could cause the most damage, and began winding up for a more precise and effective strike.

  Abeona had been listening to this all unfold with a slight bit of amusement. “She really thinks she can smash up a truck?” the goddess giggled. “She’s got guts I’ll give her that. But so far her attacks have barely left a scratch.”

  “I wouldn’t underestimate her...” Eve warned cautiously. “Even I’ve never seen Lily THIS angry before.”

  “No matter how angry she is, no regular human can damage the mighty Truck...” Abeona began to boast, until she was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. “Kun.” she finished, her voice quickly draining of her initial confidence.

  “Wheeler, what just happened?” Abeona asked in a panic tone.

  “Oh... Lily just broke one of my headlights.” Wheeler responded, seemingly in a daze.

  Abeona immediately hit the roof. “SHE DID WHAT?”

  “WOO! GO LILY!” Eve chimed in the background.

  “It’s ok,” Wheeler assured her, sounding as broken as his headlight now was. “Just let her do what she wants to me.” He insisted quietly.

  The loose glass fell from the destroyed headlight, the bulb fizzling out, cutting out half of the Eve illusion as it failed.

  “No can do Wheeler, you’ve got to get out of there.” Abeona had dropped her usual flippancy, now becoming deadly serious as she realised that she may have underestimated Lily’s fury. “She shouldn’t be able to destroy you, but since she broke your headlight, who knows what else she’s capable of.”

  *SMASH*

  A notification popped up on Abeona’s tablet screen informing her both headlights had been destroyed and the Illusion Projection system had been disabled.

  Abeona could hear Lily’s voice, as it came crackling over the tablet.

  “Now are you going to come out and face me you cowardly scumbag? Or am I gonna have to cave in your windscreen and drag you out?” Lily threatened, still talking to the driver she believed was hiding inside the truck.

  “Wheeler get out of there, now.” Abeona ordered. Only to be met with no response. “Wheeler?”

  The goddesses received nothing but silence.

  “Wheeler?” Abeona repeated, sounding more desperate as genuine concern began to settle in. “Why aren’t you responding? Please don’t shut down on me again.”

  Wheeler stayed silent. Not just had he killed Eve, his attempts to comfort Lily, to allow Eve to say goodbye, had only made things worse.

  As the beating continued, all Wheeler could think was, “I deserve this.” That thought cycled through his mind in an endless loop, blocking out everything else. He wasn’t even hearing Abeona’s instructions at this point.

  He wasn’t just broken physically, but mentally too. He was practically catatonic. The night’s events, transporting Eve to the afterlife, witnessing Lily’s grief. It had all been simply too much for him to bear.

  Lily was now using her weapon to pound on Wheeler’s windscreen. While the tougher, tinted glass, held up better than the headlights, it would only be a matter of time before she got inside.

  Abeona could see the damage increasing. She could hear Lily’s almost animalistic grunts of exertion as she swung at Wheeler again and again.

  Turning to Eve, Abeona could see Eve’s initial excitement at Lily coming out of her shell, was being quickly overshadowed by concern. “This isn’t like her. I thought that was a good thing, but now...” she mumbled sadly.

  “You’re not so sure?” Abeona responded quietly.

  Abeona realised Lily wasn’t going to stop. She also knew Wheeler wasn’t going to move. Just like after his first attempt at transporting Eve, the trauma had caused him to dissociate. The goddess decided she now had no choice but to intervene.

  “I’m sorry Wheeler, but if you get destroyed, then the whole of Project Isekai is at risk. I can’t allow that.” Abeona took a deep breath. “I hoped I wouldn’t have to do this again...” she sighed regretfully, as she activated her remote access to take control of Wheeler’s truck body.

  As Lily was winding up for another attack, the truck unexpectedly threw itself into reverse, avoiding the distraught young woman’s fierce swing. The momentum of her attack caused Lily to stumble forward, sending her crashing into the dirt and the pole to go flying out of her grasp.

  “HEY! WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” Lily yelled at the retreating truck, as she tried to pick herself up out of the mud. Having used all her strength however, she simply collapsed back onto the cold, unforgiving ground.

  The sound of sirens began to fill the air, as he truck crashed backwards through the chain-link fence. It then swerved around and took off along the adjoining road at top speed.

  Sobbing, Lily pulled herself along the ground back over to where Eve’s body laid. As the truck responsible for Eve’s death disappeared into the distance, the emergency services Lily had called earlier finally arrived, too late to prevent its escape.