Farewell, Green Garden - Part 1

Spin.

Spin.

The square logo spins at the right-bottom of the window.

I stare at it and begin to feel dizzy.

As if I'm now being dragging into a deep, dark dream.

"Green Garden".

The title pops up - the destination.

Hi, Green Garden, I'm coming.

Into the nightmare, again.

In the dreamlike state, I recall how it happened.

Spin.

Spin.

I'm with Tim, my friend, wandering around the map.

'What do you think of the map?' I asked.

'DULL. Absolutely dull.' Answered Tim. Then, he typed a chain of hashtags in the chat to express his mood. I knew he was swearing - he was a bad-tempered kid. I knew him.

'Who on earth built this junk? Why did we join here?' I complained, 'Why not leave this lousy place to find an interesting place?'

'Did anyone say "interesting place"?' Immediately after that, I received a whisper in the chat box, which shocked me a bit. How could that guy type so fast?

I took a quick glance at their name. 'DarkGr3En' was what I could recognize, the other part was gibberish.

I looked around to find them.

In a shadow of a city building nearby, a ghostly robloxian suddenly showed up. It appeared, walked towards us as if it has just been born from the shadow.

That girl in green was just like the daughter of the shadow. She popped up so suddenly, though she wore a goofy default face like an ordinary player. Like anyone else.

'Come, Terry. Come to my place. It's a surprise.' The girl kept whispering to me, induced me.

How did she know my name?

In a flash, I figured out who she was. 'Sorry. We don't want myth service. Thank you.'

'Come on Terry! Elsewhere can't be better.' Tim encouraged, 'Remember we are looking for fun, not boredom!'

'Come on.' The girl insisted to take me. 'My place won't let you down.'

I looked into her eyes. There was something in her ordinary, goofy eyes, shining behind the darkness. The darkness in front of it is like a long, long tunnel while the light is the end of it, far away from me.

Her frozen default face began to move. Her facial muscles moved to make a smile - a playful, coltish, inducing but cold, even a bit scornful. Her face approached towards me, getting closer and closer, waiting for a defined answer.

But hey, I say, how could that happen? This is just a plain Roblox game, and that must be my hallucination. But it must have worked as well - the hallucination - I rapidly typed 'Alright then.'

When I was in the game for the appointment, I found there was nothing but a house.

I knew what's its name - Green Garden, as DarkGr3En called it.

DarkGr3En was there, waiting for me. The girl in green.

'Come, Terry. I have the thing you've been always dreaming for. Come.'

She stood at the gate, like a statue. As I was spawned very far away, she looked so small, so blurry, like a dot on my screen.

She waved. Even though there was a big distance between us, I could still see her waving. So robotic, she waved. So inflexible, she waved. So...weird she was.

From the first sight, I saw her.

I walked and walked. It was a really long journey to take, tiring and boring. What I saw was just the Green Garden in front of me, getting closer and closer, bigger and bigger. So bad they didn't add a sprint to the game. So bad.

So bad.

I was dizzy again.

So bad.

I was in the dreamlike state again.

So... bad.

Argggh. Here we are, finally. I was just standing at the gate, where she stood when I joined.

Wait a minute. Where has she gone? Her name was still on the list, wasn't it? She must have got inside when I was still on my way.

I looked at the gate. A strange feeling suddenly rose inside me, trying to push me away from Green Garden. A voice roared, 'Don't get in! Don't go there!' in my mind, while another voice fought back, 'Go. Just go. Just look around to see if there's anything you wanted. Yes. The thing you wanted for a long time. The thing you've lost, you've forgotten. Get in. Find it.'

I pushed the door.

Stepped in.

'Well, this is not bad at least.' I said.

The map was much better than the previous one, and it had gained much more popularity than that as well.

I was in the center of the city - a big city game - with my friend, Tim. We enjoyed visiting other people's homes, driving different kinds of cars, swimming in the pools, and harassing several kids.

'This map is just big and interesting!' I praised the game while speeding up with Tim. 'So many things to discover!'

'Yep, that's right!' He agreed. 'BTW, where are we going now?'

'...Find somewhere undiscovered!' I replied. I looked back and saw the high buildings getting away from us.

We were on the crossed highways, with a few cars on them. One of the highways was quite straight and long, and we were on it.

Suddenly there was a turn. I controlled the wheel at once and successfully passed it.

'Look at that.' Tim pointed at a giant building far far away, which was a little blurry. 'Isn't it somewhere you haven't discovered?'

The ghostly building stood there unnaturally as if it shouldn't be there. Its size was multiple times larger than it should be.

My god.

That was the Green Garden.

'Terry?'

'Terry!'

'Discover it by yourself!' I yelled and jumped out of the car. 'I quit this lame game!'

Here must be the front hall. I looked around. DarkGr3En wasn't here.

The hall was grand. Grandiose. I watched the decorations: they were all pretty and decent. The carpet on the ground was fancy and expensive - I could tell it. The hanging lamp was above my head, high on the ceiling, shining like a star, swang a little bit as if somebody had just pushed it.

Swinging like the end of the tunnel.

I looked straight forward. There were two grand stairs there. Obviously, the masters' bedrooms are up there, on the second floor. Red carpets were on them, the kind that movie stars would walk on them. Red as blood.

Coming down from the stairs,

I heard footsteps.