She stepped outside. The night had swallowed the city, the fog swirling around, enveloping everything in its thick blanket. The distant lights of street lamps barely pierced the gray shroud, and the fog made it difficult to see anything more than a few meters away. Delia Asia Vieira began to walk forward, her footsteps echoing dully on the deserted sidewalk. With each step, the world around her became more and more blurred, as if the city was melting into this whitish sea. It seemed to her that she was walking on an endless bridge between reality and something invisible.
The fog was enveloping her, and this strange feeling of freedom, mixed with anxiety, was beginning to lull her sensors. Thoughts were swarming in her head, giving her no peace: what if all this was just a bug in her programming? What if she was only seeing all this because of a glitch in her processors?
But suddenly, figures began to emerge from the swirling haze ahead. She froze. It was a procession, men and women in formal suits, clearly standing out for their orderliness against the chaotic night city. They walked at a brisk pace, as if nothing unusual was happening. Delia Asia Vieira blinked, trying to analyze what she saw.
Ahead of the procession walked a man with grey hair, dressed in a black coat with a raised collar. He held a briefcase in his hand and read something from a piece of paper with a serious face. He was followed by his two deputies, their eyes red from lack of sleep, and several correspondents with notepads and cameras at the ready. A typesetter with his shirt sleeves tucked into his trousers and a proofreader with a stack of galleys under his arm brought up the rear of this strange parade.
Delia Asia Vieira froze in place, her eyes widening.
"What the hell?" she thought, but instinctively took a step back.
The crowd of editors and journalists approached without noticing her, as if she were just part of the foggy background.
"Hey! You..." Delia Asia Vieira began, but her voice was drowned out by the surrounding darkness.
The editor-in-chief looked up as if he had finally noticed her. His cold eyes bored into hers with an incomprehensible expression-a mixture of curiosity and mockery.
"Can I help you, miss?" he snapped, continuing to move as if the question was just a formality.
"What are you all doing here at night? In the fog?" Delia Asia Vieira blurted out, trying to comprehend what was happening.
The man just chuckled, as if her question was completely ridiculous.
"The nightly news doesn't wait, right? We're here to capture all the important events, even if it's just an illusion," he said, waving his hand as if to dispel the fog around him.
The editorial office seemed to flow past her, and Delia Asia Vieira suddenly felt completely alien in this dense world of light and shadow. Her head was spinning from the flow of information and strangeness around her. It all seemed irrational, as if her programs could no longer distinguish between reality and delirium.
When the last figure disappeared into the fog, Delia Asia Vieira was left alone on the deserted street. Once again, there was only dead silence and a gray fog that seemed to swallow all her thoughts. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Maybe I really am starting to go crazy?" the thought flashed.
But she had no time to hesitate. Delia Asia Vieira took a hesitant step forward, trying to catch up with the group of journalists, when she noticed a strange figure in the periphery of her vision. A man in a black coat walked through the swirling fog, behind the crowd of reporters. Delia Asia Vieira narrowed her eyes and froze, her processors instantly recognizing the figure. It was Professor Makoto Shugarami, a legendary scientist famous for his research in the field of simulating virtual worlds.
His appearance here seemed so absurd that Delia Asia Vieira even doubted the functionality of her sensors.
"What is he doing here in the middle of the night, and in such fog?" flashed through her digital consciousness.
She knew the professor rarely left his lab, absorbed in experiments to create new simulation systems. But there he was, following a crowd of reporters, like a lost spirit in the shadows.
The journalists seemed not to notice his presence at all, absorbed in their own conversations and arguments. Delia Asia Vieira decided to ignore them and stopped. She needed to understand what the professor was doing here, but how to talk to him? After all, he was a legend in the scientific world, and she was just a humble android with a heightened sense of curiosity.
Before she had time to consider her actions, the professor, as if sensing her gaze, turned his head sharply and headed straight towards her. In the fog, his figure seemed like a blur, but then he came closer - his face was tense, his eyes glittered with anxiety.
"Yurei... She will come for us!" his voice trembled, as if he was talking not to her, but to some invisible shadow nearby.
"What?" Delia Asia Vieira frowned, trying to understand what he was talking about. "Professor, what are you talking about? Who is Yurei?"
He took a deep breath, trying to get his thoughts in order, but he only waved his arms like a man trying to catch elusive fragments of thoughts.
"Yurei... ghosts, you understand? It's like in my new novel... Yes, yes, I'm going to write a book! It will be about America, but not now... About 1991!" the professor shook his head, as if he was surprised at himself. "Just imagine: New York, neon lights, big palm trees... And there's Yurei! She's already here, in this city! She's hunting for those who know the truth!"
"Professor, are you sure you're okay?" Delia Asia Vieira looked at him, trying to figure out if he was joking or if he was really crazy.
"You don't understand anything!" he cried, grabbing her hand. "Yurei, she's not just a spirit... She's a symbol! A symbol of the destruction of all simulations! America in 1991 is the key! They know I've figured out their plan!"
Delia Asia Vieira carefully pulled her hand out of his grip, feeling the cold sweat on the back of her neck. The professor was clearly not himself, but something in his words made her tense. An internal alarm signal was awakened in her system, warning of a possible threat.
"Okay, Professor, I get it. But what does this have to do with me?" Delia Asia Vieira decided to play along, hoping that it would help figure out what was going on.
"They're looking for you too!" He spoke quickly again, looking around as if he was afraid they were being overheard. "You're part of the code, you understand? You're the glitch in the system that can destroy their simulation! If Yurei finds you, everything... everything will collapse!"
The fog was thickening, and the light of the few street lamps barely penetrated the dense darkness. Delia Asia Vieira felt the tension growing. She looked around, but there was no one else on the street except the two of them.
"Professor, you talk about ghosts and simulations... But what does this mean for us now? Where is this Yurei of yours?"
Makoto suddenly stopped, looking straight into her eyes, and added in a whisper:
"Yurei is already here. She is in your shadow..."
And at that moment, a motorcycle roared from afar, approaching them through the fog. The professor froze, his eyes widening in horror.
"She's coming! Hide, Delia Asia Vieira! This is your only chance!" he cried out, and, as if obeying some sudden impulse, he rushed into the darkness, dissolving into the fog like a frightened animal.
Delia Asia Vieira was left alone, shaking with tension. Somewhere ahead, behind a thick curtain of fog, the roar of an engine was heard again, growing louder. It was as if darkness was thickening around her, and for a moment it seemed to her that the shadows were actually moving...
The professor disappeared, leaving her standing alone on the deserted street, surrounded by thick fog and a fine drizzle that trickled down her face in icy drops. She looked up and saw through the murky haze the occasional glimmer of city lights at night. Billboards, traffic lights, and neon signs merged into a chaotic but mesmerizing glow, casting shimmers of red, green, and yellow on the wet asphalt. High in the sky, the first stars lit up, but their light seemed muted-as if the entire city had been swallowed by a haze of shaky, ghostly smoke.
She stopped suddenly, trying to figure out what was happening. How did I get here? Disjointed fragments of memories flashed through her mind. She seemed to have stolen a truck, fleeing from the traffic police. She sped along deserted highways, then turned into some park... And now here she was, alone, in the rain. But something about this picture did not add up. Why did the air around her smell like burning? Why was there anxiety lurking in her chest?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a bright flash from across the street. The red brick house was ablaze, as if someone had held a match to its wooden walls. The fire was inexorably devouring the first floor, and somewhere in the depths of the building she could hear cries for help. Delia Asia Vieira froze in place, watching as bright orange flames rushed out, engulfing the street in heat.
"I have to do something," flashed the thought.
But her body did not obey her, as if paralyzed by fear and confusion. And then - BOOM! - an explosion of such force that the earth shook. Delia Asia Vieira reflexively ducked, covering her ears, but the roar still pierced her. The explosion blew out the windows of the house opposite, and shards of glass fell onto the pavement, mixing with raindrops.
At that very moment, the air was filled with the deafening crackle of machine-gun fire. Somewhere beyond the smoke screen that covered the street, someone's shrill screams could be heard, muffled by the roar of flames. Then another explosion rang out, this time behind the building on the right. The flash lit up the night, and everything became silent, as if the entire city had frozen in anticipation.
Delia Asia Vieira felt the ground tremble beneath her feet, but the silence that followed the explosions seemed even more ominous. It was as if someone had pressed pause, and the entire world had frozen in this uneasy, tense void.
She took a step forward, unable to take her eyes off the burning house. Something inside her screamed to run, to save herself, but her feet seemed rooted to the ground.
A figure appeared from the fog. A tall man in dark clothes, his face hidden under a hood. He moved slowly, as if he himself were a shadow come to life in the thick darkness. Delia Asia Vieira could not see his face, but his eyes gleamed in the darkness, cold and indifferent. He looked straight at her, and from that look she broke out in a cold sweat.
"Hey! What's going on here?!" Delia Asia Vieira shouted, but her voice sounded broken and strangled, as if the air had suddenly become thick as syrup.
The stranger did not answer. Instead, he turned his back on her and, without looking back, disappeared into the fog, dissolving into its thick clouds like a ghost. Delia Asia Vieira took a few steps after him, but soon stopped. The pursuit was pointless - he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.
She looked back at the burning house and heard the engine rumble again in the distance, like the inexorable roar of a monster unleashed. Questions raced through her mind, but none of them were answered. The fog thickened, and the night seemed endless. Delia Asia Vieira finally realized that there was nothing holding her here anymore.
"I have to run," she told herself, and, gathering all her will, she turned away from the fire and destruction, walking into the dark streets, swallowed by rain and fog.
Delia Asia Vieira walked along the rain-soaked street as if in a fog. The streets of the night city were drowning in a gray haze, the lights of billboards and shop windows were dissolving in the damp haze. With difficulty orienting herself in space, she suddenly noticed a white sheet of paper, stuck with tape, on the wall of a peeling house. It seemed to beckon her to come closer, torn out of the context of this nightmare.
Stopping in front of the sheet, Delia Asia Vieira read the headline: "DIFFICULT CHILD!" At first, it made her laugh. What kind of stupid ad was this? What if it was some kind of prank or an ad for a new book?
But curiosity got the better of her. Coming closer, she read the text:
"The family of lawyer Gene York is looking for a governess for their adopted daughter, who they named Delia. The girl is eight years old, and the parents hope that the new nanny will be able to help with her upbringing..."
Delia Asia Vieira froze, reading the line over and over again. Her eyes widened in surprise - the girl in the ad had her name! Or rather, the first part of her name! She thought that this coincidence was too strange to be a coincidence. But at the same time, for some reason, it seemed funny to her. Perhaps this was the spark of absurdity that enlivened her boring and confusing life.
At the bottom of the sheet was attached an illustration: a girl in a brown dress with a cute but slightly mischievous face, drawn in crayon, standing behind a wooden staircase railing and holding onto it with both hands.
Under the drawing was written: "OUR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER" and a contact number for Karen York.
"This... This is fate..." muttered Delia Asia Vieira. "I can't pass this by!"
She looked at the ad again. A thought came to her:
"What if I really get a job there? It's even fun to be a nanny for a girl with the same name!"
The idea seemed crazy, but appealing. After all, her life was already full of chaos and unpredictability. She needed something new, something to distract her from endlessly wandering around this confusing city full of ghosts of her past.
She took out her phone and, without thinking twice, dialed the number listed in the ad. The receiver rang and Delia froze in anticipation. Her heart was beating so loudly that it seemed to echo in the empty alleys.
After a short click of the answering machine, a pleasant female voice was heard:
"Hello! This is Karen York. Thank you for your interest in our advert. Please leave your message and we will contact you shortly..."
Karen York... The name seemed oddly familiar to Delia, but she couldn't place it. Perhaps it was just a trick of her overheated imagination.
"Good evening," she said into the phone, trying to speak clearly and confidently. "My name is Delia Asia Vieira. I would like to respond to your advertisement for a position as a governess for your daughter... with the same name as me. This... seems rather amusing to me.
She laughed, feeling the absurdity of the situation become even more real with her words. A second of silence, then a click in the receiver, and the connection was broken. Delia put the phone in her pocket, feeling a little excited.
"Why not?" she thought, looking at the dark lights of distant buildings behind the foggy curtain.
Something new was waiting for her ahead. Even if it turned out to be complete stupidity, what was she losing? Now she had a goal. She was going to find this house and meet this mysterious Yorks family. The foggy night street no longer seemed so gloomy and cold to Delia Asia Vieira as it had a few minutes ago. The fog spreading at her feet was more like a soft carpet, absorbing all sounds. With each step she felt a growing sense of strange but pleasant peace. There was something comforting in the silence around her, as if the fog was enveloping her in a soft embrace after a long and tiring day.
Delia herself hadn't expected to find herself here, on this deserted city alley. It had been a spontaneous decision - she'd stumbled upon an advert while wandering the streets in search of something... what exactly, she couldn't quite say. The advert was for a governess for a "problem child". She was surprised that no one had taken it down from the wall yet - usually such vacancies were filled instantly. But something about the words had caught her attention, piqued her interest and made her remember the address.
Now she walked towards Yorks House, wondering why she was so drawn to this place. It was a decision she had made on her own, without any instructions from Robert, her creator. She had always carried out his orders, but this time she had decided to test herself differently. And here she was, a robot governess, going to apply for a job that no one had sent her to.
When the school building with its first floor windows glowing loomed ahead, her thoughts slowed down, as if she had entered another, calmer world. The surrounding red brick houses with identical fences created a feeling of a closed space, but this did not cause her anxiety. On the contrary, it seemed to her that something important was waiting for her here, something that could change her forever.
"This is where the Yorks live!" flashed through Delia's mind as she stopped in front of a house with a small garden and glowing windows.
The anxiety subsided for a moment, leaving room for curiosity:
"And where will my room be then?"
But for some reason she couldn't finish this thought, namely because from the house opposite came the ringing children's laughter, breaking through the night silence - loud and carefree, as if someone was playing right under the windows. Delia Asia Vieira stopped for a moment, listening. The laughter was so pure and sincere that for a second it seemed to her that it was coming directly from the second-floor window. Or was it just her imagination? She wasn't sure, but she felt a strange desire to come closer to check.