Twenty years later. Ris, 29, slides out of an enclosed MRI machine. She is participating in a sleep study to find the cause for her blackouts and insomnia. As a neuroscientist, Ris is well-aware of the importance of using technology to understand and make sense of the chaos in the human brain. She knows that, with the right tools and techniques, she can unlock the secrets of her own mind and get the bottom of her sleep problems.
In her apartment, Ris sits down at her desk. It’s littered with documents, binders, files. On her computer screen she plays a video detailing the 20th anniversary of her father John’s disappearance. It discusses the enigmatic Project Resonance and a technology called Ecorithm. From her hard drive, Ris opens a file entitled “Project Resonance and Ecorithm.” Ris in a soft tone asks, “What happened to you? I must be missing something...” Suddenly, the phone rings. It’s Stefan, Ris’s adopted father, who seems stressed but wishes her a happy birthday and asks if she’ll come by later.
While live-streaming his virtual avatar, Dj Zer/0 receives a direct message from user F4C4D3, “A spiral enclosed, within a sequence of numbers, is the key to understanding who you are…” He clicks on the message. User is offline. File: F4C4D3 Manifesto Attachment. Download button. Click.
Ris, her head down on her desk, sleeps wearing an EEG headset. She receives a text notification. A 30 year old Alicia, with her brunette hair dangling in her face, bends over and shakes Ris awake. Confused and disoriented, Ris looks up. Alicia asks why she’s not ready yet. Ris tells Alecia she’s not really up for going out tonight. Alicia leaves. Alone, Ris checks her notifications. An unknown number, “I know where he is. x] = 33.751814, -84.3951311. Beware of The Watchers.” Ris gets upset and leaves to meet up with Alicia.
At a masquerade EDM party, Ris and Alicia are in the booth with Dj Zer/0. Ris begins to see colors swirling in the air and reacting to the music, before suddenly collapsing. Zer/0 turns around, catching her before she falls to the ground. Zer/0 and Alicia react as if this is normal.
Ris awakes in the green room, unfazed she grabs her phone, and begins dictating the experience. As she tells Alicia about the weird text message and an organization called the Dream Collection Agency, a swirling figure appears behind Alicia pointing at its eyes. Ris stops mid-sentence. “Are you ok?” Alicia asks.
Four government officials sit around a gleaming conference table, their expressions grave. In the center of the table is a holographic display, showing a series of complex diagrams and charts. “The Watch has begun. All programs will be updated within 72 hours. Testing will commence once all programs have been pushed to the target.” says the lead official. The officials nod, their eyes fixed on the holographic display. A sense of tension hangs in the air, as they grapple with the implications.
Ris exits the party, gets into her car and drives. She thinks she’s being followed. She hits the gas. Making a right-hand turn, maneuvering her vehicle to shake off the tail. The Watchers are in full pursuit. Scared, she calls Stefan to tell him she’s being followed. Ris manages to escape the Watchers—frantic as she pulls into Stefan’s driveway.
Stefan is mixing liquids in a home laboratory when Ris arrives, visibly shaken. She explains to Stefan about her experiences including blackouts, cryptic text messages, and being followed. Stefan questions Ris’s paranoia, enraging her. “I think…someone is trying to destroy me and my father’s research and this doesn’t seem to bother you. Why is that?!?” Ris storms off and leaves in frustration.
At 3am, Zer/0 starts a livestream and receives another direct message from The F4C4D3. Confirm your identity…Code confirmed. GPS coordinates. Server address. Zer/0 hacks into the server, Iris, and uncovers a folder containing a Mnemonic Enigma titled Rez. Baffled by the discovery, Zer/0 asks his online chat for help decoding the files.
It’s 3:15 am, Alicia wanders around her apartment after leaving the masquerade party. Excited when she receives a text notification from Zer/0, “I think The Facade is a new Alternate Reality Game”, she notices a missed call and voicemail from Ris detailing her horrible birthday. Creepy text included, “I know where he is. x] = 33.751814, -84.3951311” Alicia sends a group text to Ris and Zer/0, “Brunch tomorrow at Cafe Isabella. We all need to chat.”
A broke mid-twenties couple, Sara and Sam, sit in a 70s-style van with the side doors open, the moon lighting up the interior. A sticker in the window reads “Bali or Bust”, as waves wash against the sand. Ambient music plays, Sam mentions to Sara maybe they should expand beyond their “Van Life” travel content videos. “We have nothing to lose at this point,” he points out. “We’ve spent a year and gone through all of our savings. We have only a week left before we run out of money.” To convince Sara to take the risk, Sam promises to take her to Bali if the new direction for the channel is a success. Reluctantly, she agrees. Inquiring who the artist playing is, Sam tells her that it’s a livestream from Dj Zer/0 called Fermata, using voice audio from some ‘manifesto’ sent by F4C4D3.
At Cafe Isabella, Zer/0 and Alicia are sitting outside on the patio. Ris arrives. Zer/0 shares information about The Façade, the Alternate Reality Game (ARG), and the instructions he’s received: hack into a server and start up a virtual machine called Iris. Iris will provide a set of coordinates. Zer/0’s instructions also warned of a group called The Watchers. Ris freezes.
“Iris? How do you know about Iris?” Ris says.
Recognizing the coordinate numbers from Zer/0, x] = 33.751814, -84.3951311, they find the GPS location appears to be near Ris’s abandoned childhood home. Calling the number from Ris’s texts, the outgoing message says, “Welcome to the Dream Collection Agency…” Ris is immediately teleported to her experience at the EDM party when she lost consciousness.
Ris calls Stefan for the security code of her childhood home and for him to meet her. Stefan asks, “Why do you still keep looking for him after all these years? Why can’t you just accept he’s gone?”
As Stefan is driving to meet with Ris, he has a flashback of John, her biological father, asking him to take care of Ris if anything ever happened to him. Unwittingly, Stefan has now become a target and is being followed by a Watcher whose actual mission is to kidnap Ris.
Inside her childhood home, Ris discovers some old files, micro-cassettes, and VHS tape recordings. Among them is a strange platonic solid called a hyper-diamond, which she and her father found sailing.
As she handles the hyper-diamond, Ris is flooded with fragmented memories of the trip. Recalling the moment when John pulled the vibrating object from the water and the audio recordings that it contained, another memory flashes as she remembers the violent storm squall that nearly claimed her life, as she was nearly thrown overboard.
The acute trauma of the flashback cause Ris to blackout, her mind overwhelmed by the flood of memories.
Ris enters a building. The offices are illuminated in blown out lights and monochrome. In the windows black and white letters read, Dream Collection Agency. A dream technician in a lab coat is interviewing her, “Have you ever experienced lucid dreaming and noticed any changes in your cognitive or physical abilities after such an experience?” She replies, “Yes, my sensitivity to sound has increased.” One final question, “Are you having a lucid dream now?” Ris wakes up startled.
Stefan arrives at the vacation house in his car, realizing he’s been followed he gets out and steps up to the car behind him. The Watcher points a gun at his face and informs Stefan his time is up. The Watcher demands that Stefan give him the Eno, and formula, then take him to Ris.
Stefan and the Watcher find Alicia, Zer/0 and Ris downstairs. A fight ensues where Ris uses her sonic speed upgrades to save Stefan—only to find that Stefan had already sold her out to the Watchers.
As Ris is captured, Alicia and Zer/0 manage to escape. Knowing they can’t leave Ris, they make a plan to go back in and rescue her. Alicia tunes the sound oscillators in the room to 52 hertz causing Ris to lose consciousness. Zer/0 takes advantage of this opportunity to hack into Iris and upload a new program to Ris’s mind.
Waking up, Ris’s body begins to resonate at a high frequency, causing the ropes that bind her to break. Free and able to escape, Ris grabs the hyper-diamond as Alicia and her make for an escape.
A bullet flies towards Ris. Stefan sacrifices himself in front of the bullet to save Ris. Ris kills the Watcher. Stefan gives Ris the Eno he’s been working on, “You…have the Ecorithm already. Use this.”
”What are you talking about Dad?” Ris begins to cry.
Stefan choked the words “I love you,” one last time.
”I love you too,” Ris sobs.
Sara and Sam follow the F4C4D3 ARG to Ris’s childhood home, where they live-stream footage of Ris’s post-human abilities, getting 5 million views within an hour. They steal a boat and set off to find Majorana Island, but when they arrive at the coordinates, they find nothing but open waters. Frustrated and with their relationship in disarray, they begin to turn back when Majorana Island appears from another dimension, right in front of them. Excitedly, Sara sends up a drone to get the layout of the mysterious island.
Ris, Alicia, and Zer/0 land on the island as Sara and Sam approach from a different location. Ris has a deja vu moment that unlocks a memory—her childhood memories guiding her to a labyrinth structure containing Iris and her past.
As they approach the structure, Zer/0 receives a phone notification about another enigma to solve. Solved by scanning Ris’s retinas. Enter. Ris and company find themselves at the center of an elaborate labyrinth. Ris takes the hyper-diamond and places it on the monolith pedestal at the center. Nothing happens. Alicia suggests Ris inject the Eno. Ris complies. A radius around the pedestal begins to rotate. Within seconds, Ris just vanishes.
Sara and Sam have not found a way into the mysterious structure. Considering their options for retreat, the Watchers arrive on the island. Sara deploys a set of tiny drones to fight the Watchers and she streams the entire battle to the world. Sam hacks into the security computer to gain access.
Alicia and Zer/0 are still in the labyrinth. Hacked into Iris, they’re prepared to battle with Ris against the quantum intelligence from the future, OSiris, to save John. OSiris closes the connection to Sam’s computers. Sam tries again. Connection denied.
After being teleported inside Iris, Ris instantly notices her vision has changed into a heads up display. Standing outside the Dream Collection Agency, Iris shares John’s location with Ris—locked in liminal sector 55. A small child from the future is there with John who knows of a secret backdoor to get out of the simulation. Ris acquired information from Iris about a post-human species from the future and that she is the first human to be implanted with the Ecorithm and augmented by A.I. She doesn’t believe it.
As they begin their escape, John and Ris get separated again by OSiris. Separated and alone, Ris remembers what her father said to her once, “There is no destiny. There is only what you create.”
While Sara and Sam are launching an attack on the Watchers they notice a pattern on the roof of the building. As the drone moves closer they realize it’s another enigma symbol. With the Watchers closing in, they turn to their online Discord community for help decoding the symbol while they do their best to hold off the Watchers.
Iris finally locates John, which helps Ris to, at last, find her father. Holding hands, Ris and John are teleported back into the labyrinth on Majorana Island, Ris must then choose between herself or destroying Iris, the Dream Collection Agency, and the future OSiris. Ris realizes that only she has the power to piece together the final enigma. And in a moment of clarity, she sees that the key has been right in front of her all along: the Ecorithm.
As the group escapes, Majorana Island begins to fade away right before their very eyes. In a desperate bid for survival, they frantically board their boats and push off from the shore. Just in the nick of time, they escape the island and it disappears completely, leaving nothing but empty ocean in its wake.
On their boat, Sam keeps his promises and gives Sara a round trip ticket to Bali. After some contemplation, Sam eventually shows up in Bali to video Sara surfing. Inspired by their experiences. Sara begins writing her book of their experience while Sam creates the screenplay titled Surfing on Entropy. Together, they capture the thrill and uncertainty of their journey, documenting it for all the world to see.
John and Ris are sailing the ocean together once again. They pull into the dock. John steps off the boat, Iris, and ties the rope to the dock.
Fin
Ris stops, looking around at the congregation, as an existential crisis sets in—proliferating experiences between self-identity warping within the structures of a cognitive dissociation. Hypnotized, she stands huddled among the masses, gazing at the holographic video walls, feeling a little at sea as the DJ conducts his post-architectural symphony; tethered lines between the past and future encapsulating the present; “existing only in this very moment are glimpses of an iota of who I am,” Ris remembers.
“I think it’s time,” Alicia tugs on Ris’s hand, snapping her back into the present moment. The resonance of the bass shakes the warehouse. She nods. “Are you ok?” Alicia yells over the music. Ris nods again.
Still holding Alicia’s hand, they meander in and out of the openings of people towards the right side of the video wall. Beach ball battered souls in the eye of an EDM hurricane, moving around one of the barricades, towards a hallway leading backstage, they finally reach a vacancy of people—a calm refuge from the storm calling them.
A security guard appears out of nowhere and startles them, “Passes?”
Ris looks up, still in a state of dissonance, "Passes?"
"Yeah…passes,” he says, blocking the hallway in front of them. “You have to have passes to go any further.”
"Zer0 is my boyfriend; he didn't mention anything to me about a pass. He said that we’d be on the list,” Alicia says irritated.
“Don’t have a list. No Pass. No Backstage,” he says starkly looking over at Ris’s hypnotic eyes of fractional blues staring at him from behind her lace mask.
“Are you sure we're not on your list?” she smiles at him.
“No Pass. No Backstage,” he says dismissively, turning to walk away.
Ris reaches out and touches his forearm, “Hey, wait a minute, are your eyes two different colors?”
“Um,” he pauses, his body half turned towards Ris, as if unsure he should continue trying to walk away. “Y-yeah, yeah they are. I get that all the time.”
She gestures towards him with her finger so she can talk into his ear, “ It’s heterochromia, right? I have it partially on my left eye! ”
“Um, yeah, I think that’s what it’s called. My dad had it. So I got it now.”
Ris looks surprised, “I got mine from my dad. He has it too! Well, had it…yeah,” taking off her mask to show her left eye.
The guard takes another look over Ris and softens a bit, “Well, if it means anything to you at all, your eyes really are beautiful. I’ve never seen a pattern like that before.”
Smiling at the guard, she tucks her hair behind her ear, “Thanks. Hey, listen, not to sound like a broken record, but this really is Zer0’s girlfriend. We need to speak to him but he's doing his set right now. We can't text him as he uses signal jammers at his events, as you probably know. I mean, what are we supposed to do?” She pauses just long enough to glance at him. “Are you sure there’s not a list in your head you might’ve forgotten about?” She steps back with an award-winning smile.
Stepping aside, he lets them walk across the threshold through the gated arches.
"We will. Thank you so much… What's your name?"
"It's Tyler,” he says with a smile.
"This is Alicia and I'm Ris,” reaching out to shake his hand. "Thank you so much,” smiling as they move past his human barricade.
As they walk down the hallway Alicia turns to Ris, “How do you do that? What did you say to him?”
“It’s a gift, it’s called heterochromia,” she says with a wink.
Moving further into the dimly lit castle, there’s an echoing coming from the vestibule in front of them. As the music reflects off the 17th century walls, Alicia squeezes Ris's hand a little tighter. “So now what? Do you know where we’re going?" she asks.
"Of course. It's a labyrinth, just turn left around this corner ahead," Ris says as a matter of fact. All the while knowing she really has no idea either.
Alicia says half-jokingly, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, now come on,” she says, pulling on Alicia's hand.
A spiral enclosed,
within a sequence of numbers
is the key to understanding
who you are
within the set
that has no members.
The dilation of the set
is a 3 dimensional experience
Based on your perspective
From existence.
Once we find
what’s intertwined,
between the 3 and the 4,
we can then rotate
infinity to nein.
It is the emptiness
between everything and nothing,
that is oscillating
between time.
If you preface the set
of emptiness
With the Devine,
This set still contains an x
that doubles as designed.
Zer0 turns around noticing his visitors. He proceeds to give Alicia a hug and a kiss before turning to say, "Ris is that you?"
"Of course, it is. You didn't think I was going to miss this, did you?" She says, stepping back with a smile.
"Wasn't sure if you could figure the enigma out,” he says sarcastically. "Glad to see you made it."
“Actually, figuring out the code wasn't that hard. I didn’t even need any help from Alicia this time, not like I wouldn’t have found out anyways. You really need to step up your game or you might just get caught,” winking from under her mask. “Although it was quite the trip finding you once we got past the backstage security."
"So, you enjoyed the labyrinth of sound then?" he says smiling.
"Is that what you call it? Never experienced anything like that before, that's for sure. We need to get a couple of passes by the way,” Ris raising her voice to be heard above the music.
Alicia steps forward, "I can't believe that just happened."
"No problem. Wait till you go back out. It will transform you," Zer0 says as he turns back around to change the song, "Welcome to my world!" putting his hands out in front of him.
Ris looking out at the swaying, vibrating, sea of people over Zer0's shoulder seemed to bring with it fragments of memories that seemed familiar, yet at the same time unrecognizable.
Zer0 turns back around with two passes and a drink in his hand, "Here, you ladies should drink some of this."
"What is it?" Alicia says with a serious tone of question.
"Don't worry, it's a tea that some friends of mine make and sell. It's 100 percent made from natural roots and herbs. It will enhance the experience you are already having from the labyrinth without the use of drugs." He smiles with the drink still in his hand.
Ris removes the passes and drink from Zer0's hands and starts to put it to her lips but Alicia grabs her hand, "What are you doing?"
"It's Zer0, I mean he is your boyfriend, right?”
"Really? Do you think that is a good idea Ris?” Alicia says concerned. Looking directly at Zer0, “What the hell are you thinking?”
Not wasting any time, Ris puts the drink to her lips and takes a drink. "This is really delicious. It reminds me of something...You should have some too,” handing the drink to Alicia.
Zer0 hands Alicia a cup for herself. Reluctantly, Alicia takes the drink from his hand. Slowly moving it towards her mouth, Ris yells, "Just drink it already, Jesus!"
“I don’t know about this Ris, considering…”
“Considering what exactly?” Ris replies.
“Well, you know, with all the things…you’ve been experiencing lately,” Alicia says treading lightly.
“Can we please not discuss this right now? I’m really just trying to go out and have some fun and dance all night.”
Still looking for a way out of this, Alicia hesitantly gets the drink to her mouth and tilts it back. "This is really good,” with a surprised look on her face.
“Come on, you know I wouldn't steer you wrong,” Zer0 says, looking directly at Alicia.
“Yeah, well it’s not me I’m really worried about,” Alicia says snidely as she hands the drink back to him.
“Oh, come on. She’ll be fine,” He says as Ris hand the cup back to him.
Looking down at the cup. “It's all yours. I have plenty, plus you’re going to need it where you’re about to go next. It’s going to be a fantastic ride. Enjoy!” raising his own cup in the air to do a toast. “Sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to experience new things. Think of it as a metamorphosis brought to you by the universal consciousness,” Zer0 says, waiting for everyone to toast.
They toast and then Ris grabs Alicia’s hand. “Come on, it’s time to get going and have some fun now.”
“Alright, fine,” she says to Ris.
Alicia hugs Zer0 and as they embrace, she says in his ear, “I still don’t think that was a good idea. We can’t take chances like that.”
Whispering in her ear he replies, “We need her. You have to trust me on this one.”
“I hate to interrupt you love birds, but can we please go dancing?” Ris asks.
“Ok, ok,” Alicia says as she pulls away from Zer0.
Ris hugs Zer0 goodbye and says, “Thank you.”
“Anytime! Let’s get this party going.”
Zer0 turns back and throws up his hands, energizing the crowd during the build-up of the song. The audience starts bouncing up and down in sync with the beat and his motions. His hands resemble that of a 21st century maestro orchestrating the crescendo to the pit of mass below. Letting go of control just as the 32nd notes climb and echo throughout the walls, the song drops in anticipation of the beat that is about to pound through the hearts and minds of all those present.
Zer0 throws these covert parties allowing for others to experience a glimpse of what lies beyond the material world; the Kundalini frequency that gives rise to consciousness. A journey into the manifestation of experiences projecting its energy centres through a 3D world.
“Please don’t…,” Ris interrupts, “Not tonight, ok.”
Alicia looks at Ris. “You’re right. I’m sorry. We are about to experience something, and we don’t know what that might be. So, let’s take a deep breath together and let go and see where this journey takes us.”
Holding hands, they both take a deep breath and exhale.
Just as they exhale, the beat comes back in full force like a roundhouse kick to the chest, banging on the inner rhythm of their souls reminding it… of its presence in this world.
It's at this moment that Ris starts feeling the halo effect of the roots and herbs coursing through her veins down to the capillaries. With nerves tingling and the urge to dance no longer containable inside her mind or her body. She starts moving fast down the corridor with Alicia.
Ris's senses are overloading from the labyrinth of sound. Unaware, she looks in her hand and realizes she is still carrying a cup of the tea. At first, she almost forgets what it is but then she takes another drink from her cup, as if beckoning her…to remember. Not quite able to pinpoint exactly what the taste was she takes another drink, this time the taste on her lips gets the neurons flowing with the memories of an ex-boyfriend's kiss. “Lane,” she says to herself out loud.
More than two years later, and she still struggles letting go. It all ended so abruptly one day. There were no fights, no arguments and no infidelity, just a couple of days after his birthday he tells her, "There's never been anyone that I love and adore more than you. Every day I wake up next to you I feel like the most blessed man in the world, and the way you look at me reminds me of who I really am. I feel like I couldn't ask for more.” She remembers that moment now. It was the last time she truly felt happy. The words he said after that seemed to drift off into a tunnel. Her mind picking out random sentences, "But I'm going to Costa Rica...", was the last clear thing she recalled.
The next part is like a bad dream, “…surfing photographer…something inside of me says I need to go and follow this path…,” tears flow down her face now, holding back the river no more when she vaguely recalls “…our relationship is one I will carry with me for the rest of my life till we find each other again."
The words echo in her head like the music around her, "find each other again." If only he hadn't said those words she'd be able to move on, she thinks to herself.
Over the next couple of weeks things became more difficult as he kept referring to his 're-birthday'. "Since the first moment I felt the ocean beneath my feet, I’ve dreamed of being a photographer out on the waves,” he would say. "It's one of the longest lefts in the world. It’s going to be amazing.” Somehow his excitement didn't quite make it through to her fragmented heart. These were the longest 2 weeks of her life. She tried to enjoy the moments they had together still, but she couldn't. It was always sadly destroyed by the fact he was leaving. She would spend some nights at Alicia’s house just so she could try and not think about it. This didn't work of course, it only just reminded her of what it was going to be like after he left. She was going to be—alone.
The day finally came; dread, fear, love and rejection all wrapped up in one day, September 5th.
She doesn't remember much about the drive to the airport. As they reached the point where there was no going forward for her and no turning back for him, they stopped. Facing each other he spoke first, "I'm sorry, Ris. I can't go on the rest of my life and not know,” wiping the tears away from his eyes and giving her a hug.
Her final objection, “Lane, how can you live and not know about us?" might have struck a chord but if it did, he didn’t show it. “I know I will always wonder,” she said as the tears came rushing out.
"I love you Ris. Always,” sang from his lips one last time as he held her and kissed her.
Her memories fade as he turned and walked through the security checkpoint.
She knows she needs to let go. She just can't because this feeling she's left with in her heart everyday says that it's not over. It's like the unresolved symphony in E Flat by Tchaikovsky—scattered pieces only to be brought together again sometime in the future.
“Don’t cry. I’ll be back shortly to pick you up Ris.” He looks at his friend Stefan, “Just going to test out the new GPS and see if the integration with the computer works properly. Thanks for watching her. It should only take a couple of hours.”
The boat drifts away from the dock as Jon pushes off. He waves as he as talks into a small mini-cassette tape recorder, “Iris, leaving dock on a solo trip at 8:55 am on our birthdays. Testing GPS[. Expected return in 3 hours.” He says out loud to himself as he looks back at Ris and Stefan, “Everything is possible.“as he yells back to them, “There is no destiny. There is only what you create.”
As he continues waving and speaking into the recorder, “Iris, heading to coordinates…(in a Amelia’s voice…89…34…tape distortion)”h and exhale.
Zer0 turns around noticing his visitors. He proceeds to give Alicia a hug and a kiss before turning to say, "Ris is that you?"
"Of course, it is. You didn't think I was going to miss this, did you?" She says, stepping back with a smile.
"Wasn't sure if you could figure the enigma out,” he says sarcastically. "Glad to see you made it."
“Actually, figuring out the code wasn't that hard. I didn’t even need any help from Alicia this time, not like I wouldn’t have found out anyways. You really need to step up your game or you might just get caught,” winking from under her mask. “Although it was quite the trip finding you once we got past the backstage security."
"So, you enjoyed the labyrinth of sound then?" he says smiling.
"Is that what you call it? Never experienced anything like that before, that's for sure. We need to get a couple of passes by the way,” Ris raising her voice to be heard above the music.
Alicia steps forward, "I can't believe that just happened."
"No problem. Wait till you go back out. It will transform you," Zer0 says as he turns back around to change the song, "Welcome to my world!" putting his hands out in front of him.
Ris looking out at the swaying, vibrating, sea of people over Zer0's shoulder seemed to bring with it fragments of memories that seemed familiar, yet at the same time unrecognizable.
Zer0 turns back around with two passes and a drink in his hand, "Here, you ladies should drink some of this."
"What is it?" Alicia says with a serious tone of question.
"Don't worry, it's a tea that some friends of mine make and sell. It's 100 percent made from natural roots and herbs. It will enhance the experience you are already having from the labyrinth without the use of drugs." He smiles with the drink still in his hand.
Ris removes the passes and drink from Zer0's hands and starts to put it to her lips but Alicia grabs her hand, "What are you doing?"
"It's Zer0, I mean he is your boyfriend, right?”
"Really? Do you think that is a good idea Ris?” Alicia says concerned. Looking directly at Zer0, “What the hell are you thinking?”
Not wasting any time, Ris puts the drink to her lips and takes a drink. "This is really delicious. It reminds me of something...You should have some too,” handing the drink to Alicia.
Zer0 hands Alicia a cup for herself. Reluctantly, Alicia takes the drink from his hand. Slowly moving it towards her mouth, Ris yells, "Just drink it already, Jesus!"
“I don’t know about this Ris, considering…”
“Considering what exactly?” Ris replies.
“Well, you know, with all the things…you’ve been experiencing lately,” Alicia says treading lightly.
“Can we please not discuss this right now? I’m really just trying to go out and have some fun and dance all night.”
Still looking for a way out of this, Alicia hesitantly gets the drink to her mouth and tilts it back. "This is really good,” with a surprised look on her face.
“Come on, you know I wouldn't steer you wrong,” Zer0 says, looking directly at Alicia.
“Yeah, well it’s not me I’m really worried about,” Alicia says snidely as she hands the drink back to him.
“Oh, come on. She’ll be fine,” He says as Ris hand the cup back to him.
Looking down at the cup. “It's all yours. I have plenty, plus you’re going to need it where you’re about to go next. It’s going to be a fantastic ride. Enjoy!” raising his own cup in the air to do a toast. “Sometimes we need a little kick in the pants to experience new things. Think of it as a metamorphosis brought to you by the universal consciousness,” Zer0 says, waiting for everyone to toast.
They toast and then Ris grabs Alicia’s hand. “Come on, it’s time to get going and have some fun now.”
“Alright, fine,” she says to Ris.
Alicia hugs Zer0 and as they embrace, she says in his ear, “I still don’t think that was a good idea. We can’t take chances like that.”
Whispering in her ear he replies, “We need her. You have to trust me on this one.”
“I hate to interrupt you love birds, but can we please go dancing?” Ris asks.
“Ok, ok,” Alicia says as she pulls away from Zer0.
Ris hugs Zer0 goodbye and says, “Thank you.”
“Anytime! Let’s get this party going.”
Zer0 turns back and throws up his hands, energizing the crowd during the build-up of the song. The audience starts bouncing up and down in sync with the beat and his motions. His hands resemble that of a 21st century maestro orchestrating the crescendo to the pit of mass below. Letting go of control just as the 32nd notes climb and echo throughout the walls, the song drops in anticipation of the beat that is about to pound through the hearts and minds of all those present.