Sadie dug into her pocket and retrieved the lens. She lifted it to her eye, squeezed the other shut—
—and the whole world transformed.
It was just like yesterday. But this close, Sadie could see everything. She could still make out the shape of the bins to her left, but now they were covered in a sheet of interlocking leaves, dappled with violet flowers. The pigeons were still there, but their plumage seemed brighter, glossier. Their chests shimmered, iridescent, in a pool of light that seemed to come from somewhere distant.
She stepped further in. The ground felt soft beneath her shoes. She looked down and saw that the cobbles petered out into a soft, springy, mosslike layer, rich and verdant. Tall-leaved shrubs lined the road,
Like a road to paradise.
She was smiling again, like a child: buoyant and carefree. She hadn't felt this light in a long time, loosened from the weight of the world so she could float up and drift through without a care.
Her eyes fluttered shut and she breathed in once, twice, long and deeply. A gentle fragrance filtered through her nose and into her chest, and with it came a sense of calmness. She forgot about the letters piling up at her door. Forgot about the texts from her landlord. Everything slowed down around her, until it was just the flowers the trees and the sky, and her at the centre of it all, right where she was meant to be.
A car horn blared behind her. Startled, Sadie glanced around, and the city re-emerged: the bins and the fire escape and the pigeons, now drinking from a murky puddle. Disappointment stung, hot and bitter, in her chest. This was the world she lived in, not that distant, wonderous place.
If only...
Sadie caught her line of thinking and shook her head abruptly. That place wasn't real. She didn't know what was causing it — a trick of the lens, of the light — but it was just an illusion. Sadie dropped the lens into her pocket and backed out of the alley, emerging back onto the main road.
She hesitated on the pavement. She could follow the path back up the hill to her apartment, get on her laptop and start looking for jobs. But her mind wouldn't let her thoughts go.
What if it was real? And what if there were more places like this in the city? She'd found two already — that must mean there were more. Sadie's fingers reached for the lens once again, turning it over in her pocket. She knew it was just the familiar lure of wishful thinking, but this time she allowed herself to indulge.
She'd been getting flowers, rocks, berries, which she couldn't identify. Casper, Avel and Etta had also, in some capacity, seen them too. Perhaps Etta and Avel were going off what Casper had described, but surely it was too specific a delusion for both of them to share?
So what if Casper was right? This Eseran he'd come up with was a real place, the place where all the strange rocks and flowers had come from? And the lens was somehow able to see it?
But why only certain places? And why did Etta have a camera that could see there? And why had Avel been so weird about it when Sadie had asked?
She'd never be able to focus on job hunting with her mind this muddled. The only thing she could do was investigate.
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