MARIE

I couldn’t wear wings. Maybe a wand? No, too overplayed. Swiping through the millions of options available for purchase, I sighed and closed out the avatar shop, leaving me staring at my current avatar, a tall, sky-blue character with the sparkles and incandescent glow reminiscent of the night sky projected onto my windows at night. Watching it pose, I groaned, muttering about how ridiculous it was that I, heir to trillions, couldn’t even find a new avatar style.

I re-focused my eyes onto my room, wincing slightly as my eyes adjusted to my new contact settings. Blinking quickly to alleviate the sting, I pulled up my calendar, which informed me of the technician coming today to install a new contact update. Rolling my eyes, I scoffed. Honestly, I wasn’t even annoyed at the wait, I was astounded. You’d think that because I paid millions yearly, they’d try a bit harder with their customer relations.

And it was rather uncomfortable, too.

 

CATALINA

Grabbing a nutrient freeze on my way out of the cinder block, as I’d lovingly named my apartment, I quickly ran outside, greeted by the constant noise and bustle of the Shallows, apparently once named for a lake that gobbled up the horizon. Those were both gone now, and the Shallows, colloquially called the Shadows for the ever-present haze of soot and smoke, had become the ultimate cesspool of poverty. Grabbing a ride to the edge of the Shadows, I scanned my handscreen, containing my new badge for the technician job I’d just landed at the CTECH company, which let me into the literal pearly gates and smog-proof dome closing the Floaters off from us all.

The Floaters, who were able to escape the Shadows by disappearing into an imaginary world, lived in squat concrete buildings stretching out for miles and miles. Strangely, they had an eerie resemblance to my own concrete prison and the thousands of others spread around the Shadows. Shaking off the thoughts that would no doubt offend, I plastered on a smile as I reached the building I was slated to assist, scanning my handscreen at the entrance once more.

As I walked through the empty halls, with my shoes creating echoes that could be heard by none other than myself, I frowned at the interior. I knew the Floaters could see different things than us Shadows could with the assistance of contacts manufactured by CTECH, but it was honestly astounding to observe. Their garments of luxury that had once been made of the finest material were truly just skintight jumpsuits, adjusted to feel as if whatever the Floaters felt really existed. The interior of the buildings that signified ultimate wealth were really just dark, windowless rooms filled with plywood, metal, and bare fixtures.
 

MARIE

Standing up, I started to walk around my room, which was reminiscent of the European palaces and the queen I was named after, with old money and gold covering every surface. Picking up a small handscreen disguised as a mirror, I looked at my face. Funny - I’d been wearing the avatar so long, I had no idea what I looked like. There were faint memories of black hair and brown eyes, although I was unsure whether even that was true. My contacts had unremovable beauty-enhancing filters, so even if I removed them, would I be real?

Flicking my wrist through the air, dismissing the floating ads, I looked around my room, taking in the beautiful gilded panels and period-appropriate decorations, suddenly vaguely annoyed with it all. Maybe I just needed to try something new?

Looking back down at the handscreen, I clicked the option to clear my room into an all-white area. A small warning popped up, telling me I wouldn’t get the millions of credits I’d spent back. Hesitating for a minute, I thought about it, then clicked the button. My parents wouldn’t care, after all. Millions of credits were nothing to them. They could practically afford to buy anything in the world, with the trillions they’d amassed through becoming two of the first investors in CTECH. Their lives were full of extravagant vacations and excursions to places that no longer existed, leaving me behind in exorbitantly expensive quarters, alone.

Sitting back down on the floor of my newly-empty room, I started from scratch.
 

CATALINA

Walking towards the circuitry board, I noticed that no one had updated it or changed the wires out yet. Strange, because I really needed that if I was going to do anything. Pulling out the wires, I groaned. Honestly, CTECH was the best technology company in the world, and they couldn’t hire someone to do the most basic work possible? Hesitating, I grabbed my handscreen in case I’d missed something. As I pulled up my job assignment, I scoffed.

I was the base-level worker. And I knew why. It was practically stamped onto my papers - SHADOW. I was forever branded as destitute, living in the smog and sickness that the Floaters themselves had caused. But I couldn’t afford to miss out on the money from CTECH. Fixing the wires and installing the new ones, I huffed the whole way.

I’d taught myself to code, so I thought they’d at least realized my skill. I’d gone down to the Heap, a conglomeration of discarded electronics, and learned how to escape from the Shadows. I had grabbed an extremely exclusive job at CTECH, I’d surpassed everyone in my preliminary tests of skill, and was easily a better coder than those in CTECH’s inner circle. And yet, I still wasn’t good enough because of where I was from.

Breathing in and out, an idea occurred to me. Looking down at my handscreen, I smirked as I changed just a couple lines of code in the update, tinting all white items slightly bluer. A harmless prank that would surely be resolved easily at CTECH Headquarters, but the Floaters that lived here would no doubt throw fits over their no longer perfectly-coordinated interior design. Allowing myself one stifled giggle, I quickly finished up the wires and walked through the gigantic labyrinth of a home to escape into the Shadows once again.

 

MARIE

Pulling out a new host of options from the handscreen, I squinted. Was it just me, or had my room turned blue? Confused, I walked outside of my room into the similarly-tinted rest of the house. Walking throughout the always-empty hallways, I actually bumped into someone.

The girl I’d bumped into stared at me, shock written all over her face, which was void of any modifications at all. Suspicious of this unmodified girl, I subtly pulled up her handscreen profile, which listed her as a Shadow technician, surprisingly. 

Technicians almost never came from the perpetual smoke and fog of the Shadows. Although I’d never actually seen it due to the filters, I knew that it existed and that it was a wasteland, according to bits and pieces of information I’d accumulated. But then how would she learn how to code?

Shoving aside the confusing thoughts and waiting for her to apologize for getting into my way, I hesitated. “Are you going to apologize?”

Rolling her eyes, the girl scoffs. “Why? You bumped into me.”

No one had ever spoken to me like that before, regardless of station. I suppose it was because I didn’t have much social interaction, due to mass schooling becoming irrelevant - the only worthy jobs now were those at CTECH, and the rich were too good for those. We all stayed home and learned by ourselves, either through tutors charging exorbitant commissions or through whatever scraps of information we could find. Everyone, really, just stayed in their houses or, like my parents, went around the world to yet another virtual reality where they could ‘really see’ things wiped out years ago.

The girl stared at me, seemingly realizing her mistake. “Oh. You live here, don’t you?”

“Yes. You’re the technician, correct? I’m Marie. Named after Marie Antoinette,” I responded, strangely not critiquing her informality.

“Catalina. Named after no one, really.”

“That’s a lovely name. And it’s alright, words don’t really need all that meaning. Sometimes, all the significance is simply just too much,” I replied instantly.

Catalina cocked her head, mulling over what I’d said. “Huh.”

Nodding, I smiled awkwardly. Had I said something wrong? Funny, I’d never really worried about that before. And especially with a Shadow - why would I care? She was below me, wasn’t she?

Catalina blinked, seemingly a bit shocked at my lack of decorum. “Yeah, I’ve really got to go, though.”

She was supposed to be below me, but she was the one leaving me in the lurch, with a house that now faintly resembled a blueberry. Frowning as I watched her leave, I realized that she must have been the one who’d made my house blue, and I smiled for a second, in awe of the skills I could only dream of.

 

CATALINA

Walking out of the Floater’s bubbled world, I mulled over the strangeness of ultra-wealthy Marie in a uniform jumpsuit, without an avatar, and in a house that more closely resembled a prison. She had everything, but I wasn’t even allowed to see it. Jolting me out of my train of thought, my handscreen pinged with an alert from CTECH. Apparently, I was to be sent back to Marie’s home tomorrow to fix the blue/white coordination.

As the truth hit me - that I had risked my job, my ticket out, for a couple of laughs - I stood still for a moment. I guess CTECH was more on top of things than I presumed. Maybe I wasn’t really cut out to be a technician. After all, I was only doing it to escape this slum. Walking inside of the cinder block, I promptly collapsed onto my bed. I was tired, I was worried, and Marie held all of the cards.

Once I awoke the next morning, I immediately headed back up to the Floaters’ dome, where I scanned my handscreen once again and walked back into Marie’s house, where Marie was waiting for me.

“Hello, Catalina. Were you the one who made my house blue?”

A little worried that she’d be mad, I hesitantly nodded, awaiting her reaction.

“Interesting. How’d you learn down there in the Shadows? It’s a wasteland, isn’t it?”

I winced, and her eyes widened, realizing her mistake.

“Oh, sorry. That was inconsiderate. I’m sure you’re a brilliant coder.”

“That’s alright,” I said, smiling through the sharp embarrassment her comment had awoken.

Suddenly, her elegance and poise dropped. “Listen, that’s why I need to ask you something. I’m a socially inadequate buffoon, and I cannot be stuck in here one more second. Please, take me to the Shadows.”

“You want to go to a place people spend their lives trying to escape?”

“Catalina, you really don’t understand. I am already stuck somewhere and this is my way out. I just want to see, please.”

As I watched the girl that had everything practically beg to go somewhere I was desperately trying to escape, I almost laughed at the cruel twist Fate had thrown into my life. But I didn’t laugh, no. I brought Marie back with me, to the place I despised.
 

MARIE

I wanted to go somewhere abandoned by society so I could truly be free. And even in the depths of the Shadows, as I followed Catalina dutifully, I was blinded from the world. The slums that no doubt formed the Shadows were covered by glittering skyscrapers, touching the clear blue sky that I knew couldn’t possibly exist.  I was stuck somewhere between reality and fantasy, forever trapped in limbo with no possible escape plan.

Breathing harshly, I stopped in the middle of the street, where Catalina turned, confused.

I took off my contacts, wincing as the bright light hit my eyes and the uniformly towering, sparkling skyscrapers twisted until they were really just an accumulation of buildings, all heaped upon one another as if they had run out of space, and so they had just kept building up. Even that was beautiful, because I was tired. I was exhausted with the fake, meaningless, self-absorbed life I led. I wanted reality, no matter how broken it may have been.

Looking down at myself in a puddle that I realized I’d been wading in for quite a bit, the reflection that greeted me wasn’t me at all. She wasn’t blue, and she wasn't sparkling or glowing. She didn’t have black hair and brown eyes. She’s lacking everything I was or vaguely remembered. She, instead of me, shoves the contacts into Catalina’s hand and walks away. And as someone who isn’t me carries my conscience away from what was the only person I’d really known, I realize that I have nothing now, as I’ve always had.

But this is so different. Is this what freedom is? Because I am absolutely, profoundly alone. Tethered by nothing and no one. I am lonely, yes, and scared, but I am plagued by relief rather than regret.
 

CATALINA

I stood there, watching her walk away, waiting for her to turn around and grab her contacts. But she didn't. She simply disappeared into the Shadows. And the strangest thing is that I barely knew her, but she changed her whole life because of me. She left everything she had, all the opportunities and wealth, for what? For a brief glimpse of the slums?

But most importantly, she’d left me with the only ticket out of my miserable life. She’d left me with her contacts, charged with millions or billions of credits and an identity pre-loaded in. I could become Marie. I could finally get out of the Shadows that consumed my life, that made others hate me. I could have everything I’d ever wanted, because no one cared enough about either me or her to notice.

I was no vigilante, trying to take down the ones running our world. I was no hero. I would give everything I had for even a moment of the brilliant wealth and status she so carelessly threw away. So as I put the contacts in, a small movement that would undoubtedly change my life, I gaped in awe as beautiful towers soared around me and I lost all sight of the things that once mattered.

I finally understood why some would let go and just float.