Fantasy, the Drug for Another World

Amara was a name that evoked elegance and strength, but the girl who bore it felt empty, broken. Born and raised in Sicily, with roots deeply embedded in both Nigerian and Italian soil, Amara had always lived straddling two worlds. But now, she no longer belonged to either.Twenty-one years old, tall and slender, with skin dark and radiant as daylight and gray eyes that seemed to conceal the echo of infinite sadness, Amara was a girl who couldn't go unnoticed. And yet, her beauty had never been an antidote to pain.Her life had begun crumbling slowly, day by day. A silent and fierce depression had accompanied her for years, but she had always found the strength to resist. She had done it for the love of her parents, for the family that represented everything that mattered. Fantasy, the drug that promised to transport you to another world, had tempted her many times, but she had never tried it. It was a journey with no return, a one-way ticket to nowhere.Then, everything changed.That night, the rain-soaked road, the headlights of an out-of-control truck, and the heart-wrenching sound of twisted metal took her parents away. In an instant, her anchor, her world, everything that gave her a reason to go on, disappeared.Amara was left alone. And, as the days passed, the awareness of that solitude suffocated her. There was nothing left to live for, nothing tying her to that land, to Earth. And so, after weeks of torment, she made her decision. If the world she lived in had become a desert, she would risk everything to see if the other world, the one promised by Fantasy, truly existed.Sitting on the edge of her bed, with the vial in one hand and the syringe in the other, Amara allowed herself one last moment of hesitation. She had read everything there was to know about Fantasy: the sleep, the darkness, the death. But there was also the possibility, however remote, of finding a new beginning.She took a deep breath and injected the substance. As the cold liquid spread through her body, her eyes slowly closed, as if she were sinking into a calm sea. A fleeting thought crossed her mind before everything faded: I hope there's truly something on the other side.And then darkness.But after the darkness came the void.It wasn't a metaphorical void or a distant feeling but something physical, primal, the kind of void that makes you forget everything and brings you back to only one brutal awareness: she was falling.Amara opened her eyes, still dazed from the injection, her body naked and vulnerable. A cold, sharp wind caressed her skin as the air roared in her ears. This wasn't a dream. It was real. Her body was plummeting, propelled toward an unknown fate from a dizzying height. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of meters above the ground, with nothing to protect her.An instant of absolute panic overwhelmed her. Her hands flailed in the air as if to grasp something that wasn't there. But as adrenaline took over, something different crept into her mind: not fear, but wonder.The view before her was disarmingly beautiful. Below her stretched a vast sea of green, gentle hills and untouched forests that seemed to dance beneath the wind. It was a pure, unspoiled land. In the distance, beyond the light mist that shrouded the landscape, a small town was visible. The houses were small, with wooden or stone roofs, arranged in concentric circles like a perfect mosaic. There were no skyscrapers, no modern buildings, no chaos of an earthly city.At the center of it all, a massive basilica towered over the rest. It was a majestic structure, its spires stretching toward the sky, gleaming as if made of gold. It was impossible to ignore: it drew the eye, a landmark in an unknown world.Amara didn't have time to reflect on what she saw, though. She was falling, faster and faster, and the ground was approaching at a terrifying speed. Her heart pounded furiously. She had to do something, but what? She was alone, with nothing, and the ground grew ever closer.And yet, despite the terror, she couldn't ignore a thought that crept into her mind: This place... it's real. I'm truly elsewhere.Then, as if the universe had heard her silent cry for help, something happened.A metallic sound and a hiss from above caught her attention. Approaching her was what looked like a small dirigible. It had three inflatable balloons: two smaller ones on the sides and one central, all connected to a sleek, compact cabin. The structure seemed at once ancient and ultra-modern, with gears gleaming in the sunlight and surfaces pulsing with energy.From the cabin, two mechanical pincers extended, made of a metal that resembled copper. Amara's eyes widened, terrified but also curious. Those arms weren't simple machinery: through them flowed a gaseous red liquid, trapped in transparent, pulsating tubes like veins. The gas moved as if it had a life of its own, dancing within the mechanical arms and illuminating the structure with an eerie glow.The pincers grabbed her gently, gripping just enough to hold her without hurting her. The sensation of the cold metal on her skin made her shiver, but she was alive. Slowly, the mechanical arms lifted her toward the dirigible. The cabin opened before her, like a mouth yawning wide, revealing a mysterious, warmly lit interior.Amara was pulled inside. The cabin was a small masterpiece of engineering: walls lined with panels of burnished metal, buttons and levers that moved on their own, red lights softly blinking. It was an environment as fascinating as it was surreal, as if it were alive.And at the center of the cabin, seated on a command chair, was someone.Amara, still shaken and with her heart pounding, found the strength to speak:"Thank you... you saved me!"Only then did she lift her gaze toward her savior, and what she saw left her breathless.He was human—or something similar. His skin was incredibly pale, almost translucent, and his long white hair cascaded over his shoulders like a waterfall of ink. But it was his eyes that struck her: two irises of an intense red, like the gas flowing through the dirigible's mechanical arms.Amara instinctively stepped back, her heart leaping into her throat. It wasn't possible. In a trembling voice, she exclaimed, "A vampire!"