It was Monday. Time to go back to work. Hopefully, compared to last week, this work week would be more forgiving. She required it to be, after last night.

Vilja sat down at her desk and wiggled the mouse to wake up her PC. She had gotten in early so she could check something. She glanced around the room, even though no one else was here yet.

She opened Kari's employee database and searched for "Ville Tuomela." There were no results. She sighed in relief.

Last night, she had a dream that she met Ville in a disused, gently decaying, section of the factory that obviously didn't exist in waking life. The dream wasn't quite a nightmare but it was extremely unnerving: Ville and Vilja had seen each other from opposite ends of a long corridor. They slowly walked towards each other, passing doors upon doors of empty offices, noticing missing ceiling panels and exposed wires, until they met in the middle, where they stood and stared at each other silently while a florescent light flickered overhead. At first, Ville's face was pixelated, and there was a sort of static noise. Then, as his face became distressingly clear, the static faded away and flicked off with a sudden pop. He, in crisp graphical quality only currently achieved by the human eye, was gazing at her in wonder. She woke up in a cold sweat after that.

Vilja shuddered and leaned back in the squeaky company chair, resisting the urge to fold up her legs and sit crisscrossed.

This dream had opened the flood gates. It was now becoming increasingly difficult to repress the fact that she had been having dreams of being a man, or, no, of being Ville, on and off, for years. Last night's reverie was the first instance where she had observed him as a separate person.

...She needed to meet him.

---


By Adaline Guerra