Dear Reader,

Strange things are happening to Lila.

At breakfast, her neighbour, Mrs Okafor, exclaimed, “Beautiful morning, isn’t it?” The barista at the café handed her a latte with a rehearsed smile, stating, “Your usual, Lila.”

Disturbed, Lila confided in her friend, Amina. “Do you ever feel like we’re… repeating ourselves?”

Amina laughed, dismissing the notion. “You’re overthinking,” she said. That was her daily reply.

Her unease deepened when she started experiencing vivid nightmares of memories she had never lived.

Adding to her distress, a hooded figure in white began appearing everywhere she went. The figure stood motionless, observing her from a distance. No one else seemed to notice its presence.

One evening, as the figure drew closer, Lila felt an overwhelming urge to follow it. It led her to an expansive, dilapidated library she had never seen before. Inside, amidst towering shelves, she encountered a man sitting on the floor.

“Hello,” Lila greeted cautiously.

The man looked up, surprise evident in his eyes. “I didn’t expect to see anyone else here. I’m Daniel.”

“I’m Lila. Where are we?”

Daniel closed his book, a thoughtful expression on his face. “This library isn’t part of the standard DeV environment. I’ve been exploring anomalies, and this place is a significant one.”

He paused and stared at her. “You’re experiencing the glitches too,” he said, stunned.

Lila hesitated before sharing, “I’ve been seeing a hooded figure leading me here. And there are these… repetitions in my daily life and these nightmares,” she said, her voice shaking with fear.

Daniel nodded. “You’re not alone. It seems Dr Tariku Negasi, the creator of Dev, unknowingly embedded his own suppressed fears and memories into the system. These have manifested as glitches.”

“What’s going to happen to us?” she asked.

Daniel’s expression grew serious. “I don’t know, but if you die in Dev, it’s game over—for real. Our consciousness could be lost forever.”

“How do you know all this?” she asked.

“Eternity is a really long time,” he answered.

“So, what do we do?” she asked.

Daniel’s expression grew somber. “The glitches and monsters are real, lurking around everyone. But most people’s perceptions are filtered; they can’t see them. The monsters remain dormant until they sense they’ve been noticed. For those of us who do see them, it’s relentless torment. We can’t reach out for help—Negasi himself is unaware of their existence, and others would deem us insane. Our only option is to find a way back to the real world, as there seems to be no solution here.”

Lila halted, her eyes locking onto his. “I already died in the real world. I joined Dev a month before my estimated death—I had terminal brain cancer.”

He shook his head sadly.

“Let’s get you out of here,” she said, determination in her eyes.

P.S
Lila stayed behind to assist other people like us to cross back, condemning herself to an eternity of repetitions and torture.

PRESIDENT OF THE ‘END DEV’ MOVEMENT
Daniel

Written by Akinlabi Ifeolu