Page 15 of Mr. North
“Don’t look so afraid,” Raphael says abruptly. “You’re in no danger. I know what this must look like.”
“Oh? I don’t know what you mean.” I squirm, rubbing my hand against the back of my neck. Fuck. I must be so easy to read.
“This room looks like some sort of torture chamber. It isn’t. You just have to trust me,” Raphael says.
Trust is earned, not freely given, though. My heart is skipping all over the damn place as he moves to stand in front of a computer sitting on a desk against the wall. The desk and the computer are the only items of furniture in here. A bundle of black cables hang down from the center of the ceiling. Raphael opens a drawer in the desk and takes out a soft shell container, which he unzips. Inside: some kind of headset. No, not a headset. Way less bulky. More like a pair of glasses that wrap all the way around my head, encompassing my peripherals. He connects the glasses to the cables that hang down from the ceiling, then he also connects a series of what look like electrode pads to the glasses, too.
Then he turns to me. “Are you feeling brave, Ms. Dreymon?”
I’m absolutely, categorically not feeling brave. Telling Raphael so seems impossible, though. He seems so…solid . So damn confident of every move he makes. I study the strange VR glasses, tapping my fingers nervously against my legs.
“What is it?” I ask. “What’s it for?”
He looks down at the equipment he’s holding and shrugs. “It’s a virtual reality simulator. Nothing more.”
“What is it going to show me?”
“Something profound.” There’s a weight and gravity to his words that sends chills down my spine.
“And…it’s not dangerous?”
“Most definitely not.”
“Okay, then. Sure, I’ll try it.” Aside from the idea of being completely vulnerable and at his mercy while I’m wearing the VR glasses, I am intrigued. It’s not every day someone offers you the chance to witness something never seen before. Something profound. And Raphael doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to exaggerate. His movements are quick and self-assured as he first connects the electrodes to my temples and at the base of my skull.
“You might feel a slight pulsing sensation,” he says. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
I don’t feel anything at first, but as he slides the arms of the VR glasses over my ears, a gentle throbbing sensation, not painful, just strange, beings to pulse at my temples. Raphael is standing so close. Close enough that I can see the pale, almost silver flecks in his remarkably green eyes. The corner of his mouth twitches as he looks down at me, apparently transfixed. He smells like the ocean. Like something fresh and wild and untamable—a natural, clean and heady smell that leaves me breathless.
“You’re nervous,” he says softly.
“I’m fine.”
“Your pupils are dilated.”
“So are yours.”
Raphael angles his head to one side, observing me. He keeps doing this, as if he’s caught off guard by me in some way, sucked deep into some train of thought I’m not privy to. Silence fills the small room, echoing off the walls.
Five…
Six…
Seven…
Eight…
He seems to land back in the moment with a jarring shock. Inhaling deeply through his nose, he quickly finishes hooking everything up to the VR glasses, then he places it down over my eyes.
“Can you see anything?” he asks.
“No.” And I really can’t. I’m in utter darkness. Not the kind of darkness you experience when you close your eyes. This is the kind of darkness you experience underground, deep down in the bowels of the earth, where there are no lights to guide you. It’s an absolute darkness that reaches inside you and settles heavily inside your mind—a living, breathing kind of darkness.
“The throbbing will intensify now,” Raphael says. He’s moved away from me. I can sense that he’s on the side of the room, over by the computer. My suspicions are confirmed when I hear the tapping of keys, and then the low hum of something mechanical booting up.
I slide my hands into the pockets of my jeans; I don’t want him to notice that they’re shaking, or that I’m clenching them into fists. The throbbing, just a dull thump a moment ago, grows until it’s more of a solid drumming at the both sides of my head. Still it doesn’t hurt, but the sensation is kind of unsettling.
“Okay. Are you ready?” Raphael asks.
