When he opened his eyes with a gasp for air, white light blinded him. Strange noises were to be heard, not unlike the singing of birds, but nothing a bird could ever voice. They were almost hurtful to the ear.

His eyes slowly adjusted to the light. Someone was leaning above him. Fear cursed through him, but it was not the king.

The person covered up the lower half of their face with a peculiar, light green cloth. Their hair was held back by another cloth, not unlike in colour and texture. They began to speak in a wierd language, but to his surprise he could understand it.

"Hello? Hello, are you awake? Can you hear me? Alan, do you understand me?"

He nodded. Alan. How strange. Was that his name here? And were was he? What had happened?

Soon after he found out. He was in hospital. He had been in a coma for years, alive but unresponsive. The doctors said it was a miracle that he survived.

It would be a long way back into his old life. A life that he could barely even remember.

On his third day in the hospital - he was still confused by everything around him - his family came to visit. He had a brother and a wife. Both of them were glad he was awake. It had been a hard time for them.

"Alan, I can't wait for you to get home again. There's so much I want to show you! Do you remember the old apple tree in the garden? It's still there! The birds are using it as a nesting place now."

Alan could remember an apple tree. A gnawed old thing, that stood before his home in the city of kings.

"Susan is right, the tree is more beautiful than ever before. It is blooming now, the whole tree is full of white flowers and if you walk underneath them, you can hear the humming of the bees."

These things and others they told him. Many seemed familiar, most were unknown to him. Some seemed like he should remember, but he didn't. And still they went on with their explanations, stories, hopes and dreams. It was too much. How could one head keep all of it?

No, he thought, stop. Go back.

"Alan, I can't wait for you to get home again. There's so much I want to show you! Do you remember the old apple tree in the garden?"

Wait. No. This wasn't right. Hadn't Susan told him that before?

"It's still there! The birds are using it as a nesting place now."

"Susan is right", his brother added. "The tree is more beautiful than ever before. It is blooming now, the whole tree is full of white flowers and if you walk underneath them, you can hear the humming of the bees."

What? It couldn't be. No. No! Stop. Go back! Back to normal

Susan bubbled on, as if nothing had happened.

"Alan, I can't wait for you to get home again. There's so much I-"

Stop

And the world stopped. Susan and his brother stood there like frozen. Alan - or was it Aleanor - stared for a second. Noone said a word. Even the machines were silent now. He looked at the clock on the wall - it didn't move.

He waited a moment - Nothing. Susan was still standing there, frozen in time. He could see every detail in her face. The eyes, the lips, the teeth, small green numbers on the side of her nose.

Wait. Numbers? He looked, but they were still there. And they were not alone. Everywhere he looked, ones and zeros. The room was slowly dissolving into numbers.

A simulation. He was in a simulation. And everything was dissolving.

The walls were eaten by the green numbers. The clock, the machines. The two people before him. His feet. His legs. Soon his hands, arms and body were gone.

Panic filled him. He didn't want to die! But the numbers crawled higher, reaching his face. Mouth. Nose. Eyes.

With a gasp for air he awakened. He was laying in his bed. The sky outside was dark. With shaking hands he turned on the lights. No numbers. He turned his hands around. Still, no numbers.

It was a dream. It was all a dream.

He sighed. In a few hours he had to go to work. Monday's at the office were definitely not his favorite days. And he couldn't go back to sleep now.

Slowly he got up and began with his morning routine. Shower, change, make breakfast. In his cupboard he found the cereal next to the hidden camera and the bowls. The spoons were in the kitchen drawer. He only stopped when he had already grabbed a spoon.

I don't have a hidden camera in my cupboard

But there it was. Between the bowls and the cereal. Looking at him. Watching him.

In the next half hour he found several cameras in different parts of his house. Two in the kitchen, four in the living room, some more in the other rooms.

He cursed, took his laptop and started to search. When he found what he was looking for, he cursed some more.

He was on a reality TV-show.

[ERROR: Content Error]

Work was slow. Every few moments he turned to look for more hidden cameras. Was he watched? Even here?

[ERROR: Timeline Error]

He took the bus to work. What should he do? Was he followed? Could he call the police? Who was he?

[ERROR: Error number: 283.N.93p4]

》System anomaly detected. Running scan

》Scan running

》Scan running

》Scan finished

ERRORS found: 48

》Trying for ERROR repair

》running

》running

》running

》running

》timeout. ERRORS fixed: 6 ERRORS left: 57

》Calling engineer

》Engineer called

》shutting down

》saving progress

》cancelling processes

》shutting down

》Good night

/////

God, damnit. Author here, the plot-twist software has malfunctioned. I'm sorry, I'm afraid this story won't finish. First I have to repair this thing, get rid of the errors, start the backup... You know - the whole deal.

...

You know what? I'll grab a coffee, while I'm at it. Maybe it helps. You never know.

...

Aaaaah, yes. Much better. Well, I'm afraid the story ends here. Farewell, reader. I hope you had fun.

...

...

No, seriously. It's over. There's nothing left to say.

...

What do you want? Should I tell you what's happening outside my window? Is it that what you want?

...

Ok, so there's the old apple tree. To the left of it I can see the neighbors house. There's not much happening over there. The sky is blue, the grass is green....

Uhmmmm. What is that?

Is that a - meteorite? A fucking big meteorite?!?

Is that thing heading towards me? WHAT THE HELL??! WHAT THE --