She blinked.
The act of blinking wasn't unusual in and of itself. However, blinking implied action. But, why was that so strange?
Her arms slowly sank to her sides and she waited.
And waited.
Just what was she doing there again? Slowly, her head craned to the side so she could survey her surroundings. But before she could even blink, something nearest to her caught all of her focus.
It was a motorbike. Just how she even knew what one was, she didn't know. Hesitantly, she tiptoed over to the vehicle, her gloved hands slowly brushing along the seat just to feel that it was real.
To feel.
Why did feeling things feel so good? Was she even supposed to feel? She could feel the breeze blowing through her hair and the warm, radiating sun over her clothing.
And she also felt a small buzzing in the back of her head. Instinctively, she reached back to feel for anything, but all she felt was hair.
Still, the buzzing continued. It wasn't unpleasant, in fact, it felt really good. Just like feeling had.
Then she felt something else. Something strange that was well beyond her own control. Instructions seemed to flow into her consciousness at an impossibly fast rate.
She bent her knees. Which felt fine.
She spread her arms and they felt fine too.
She blinked and breathed and wiggled her body in various places. She started to give herself a real workout by running in place. It was so strange like she hadn't moved in years and suddenly got to. But, just why would that even be strange?
As far as she knew, she hadn't ever moved before. Was there even a before?
She blinked and walked back over to her bike.
Her bike? Was that right?
The contraption, in her opinion, was gorgeous in its design. Granted, she didn't have much to compare it to, if anything at all. The sleek black licorice theme which curved along the outer portion of its engine was simply fascinating to look at. Black was by far the most prominent color, but there was a dash of brightly coated candies on the sides of the wheels. Carefully, she felt along each tire and found a hint of sour smelling dust had started to coat her gloves.
She smelled, which was odd to her. She had never smelled anything quite so pungent before in her entire life. Yet it wasn't all bad, in fact, it tasted quite good. Tiny shivers of delight shot into her consciousness and it took all of her will power not lick the tires themselves. Sour was certainly her favorite flavor.
Which was odd because she knew she had never tasted anything before. And certainly never smelled anything before. But nothing about that seemed unusual to her.
Shaking her head of those silly thoughts, she walked back over to the front of her bike and carefully picked up her black helmet.
Her helmet.
Like the tires, the thing was heavily coated in sour candied dust but somehow it retained a black hue with an equally black faceplate to see through. She felt it and her whole world suddenly got much brighter.
She was meant to race. That's all she could think about while she rotated the helmet in her hands several times. Just how she came to this conclusion was well beyond her understanding, but, like a light switch, the urge to race was there. It grew stronger the more she touched the helmet and she just knew the right thing to do was to wear it.
Race.
The girl plopped the thing on and waited. The helmet had fit perfectly with the inner cushion perfectly aligned to fit her face and skull's shape. A bright blue flash overtook her body and she started to feel way more like a racer. Her clothing shifted and changed to match the mysterious black coloring of her helmet. She looked to her arms and found a black leather jacket had replaced her plain shirt, along with what could only be described as racing pants. If that was even a thing?
It's time to race.
The girl didn't need any further instructions as she quickly hopped onto her bike and got into the right position. She felt along the controls and twisted the steering several times. It all just felt so right. She smiled for perhaps the first time in her life. A genuine and overly happy smile. This was where she was meant to be. Where she belonged.
SECOND CHECKPOINT! HERE COMES THE MYSTERY RACER! LOOK OUT FOR HER WRATH! SHE'LL STOP AT NOTHING TO WIN! WIN! WIN!
Win! It was her duty to win!
Running on pure instinct, the engine in her bike rang to life for the first time. The seat rumbled, the engine roared and the girl smirked. It was time to show them what she was made of. Before she even knew her own actions, the bike had started gunning down the hill at breakneck speeds.
She wasn't nervous, even if she had never even tried something like it before.
She had never even driven before.
Everything felt natural. There wasn't a single instruction or move that didn't pop up as second nature.
As an instruction to follow.
It was almost like she was following a barely visible pathway. One that would always steer here in the right direction. Where she'd never make a single mistake.
But, had she even made mistakes before?
The road where the other racers were started to get closer and closer. She sped up and revved her engine several times to keep in gear. The edge of the mountain became dangerously close.
And yet, she didn't feel any fear.
Her bike jumped and soon she was soaring through the air at unfathomable speeds. The ground was about to end and yet another flawless instruction radiated through her mind.
The pathway was clear, right between the two other racers was her target. She landed with her bike jumping high in the air several times before settling down. Despite her actions not fully being her own, the entire experience was exhilarating!
She was meant to race!
The instructions suddenly got vastly more complicated; something she could never come up with on her own. She was just thankful they were there to help guide her.
They were a guide, right?
Again, shaking the thought aside, her Bike crashed into a massive powerup box as the announcer declared to everyone the results of her prize.
Her powerup.
You must win! You have to!
Grinning under her helmet, she took her newly acquired canon and aimed it high up at a nearby mountain.
A mountain which happened to be positioned right next to the race track. Just before she hit the cannon, a pleasant dull feeling of mischievous giddiness bubbled to the surface of her emotions.
Her emotions.
She felt herself giggle and kicked the bike high in the air before releasing a massive stream of powerful cannons which struck the ice cream mountain dead center. She landed while one of the girls behind her screamed something. Still giggling to herself, she waved and sped off just before the ice cream avalanche could get her.
Not that there was even the slightest chance of that happening with the programmed pathway guiding her every move.
The rest of the race seemed to go along quite smoothly. She would swerve her bike from left to right in sync with her inner guide. Like a set of training wheels which always kept her safe and kept her winning.
"Hey, barf breath! I hope you like second!"
Suddenly, as the road tilted to the right, the racer from behind did something she had never seen before. Her entire form glitched ahead, almost like teleporting.
No! I have to win!
Her guide, her pathway, her instructions shifted and changed as they neared the finish line. Possibly seconds away. She popped a wheelie again and landed squarely on the other racer's messy looking kart with their forms crashing together. Spinning out of control, her hand reached out to touch the other girls. Something about doing it just felt right.
A bizarre a strangely euphoric sensation began to radiate throughout her code. She closed her eyes and felt a multitude of three-dimensional pixels with brightly detailed lights flash over her body and her mind. But there was something else. As they spun wildly out of control and neared the finish line, the girl felt something oddly familiar about the other racer.
Whatever it was, she barely had time to decipher the meaning. Her code and her bike materialized ahead of the other racer using the exact same trick that she had: teleporting through thin air.
One moment she was stuck on the racer's kart and the next she was back in the race and crossing the finish line. It didn't matter how she did it, or even how she was able to go about doing it.
She had won the race! She sped off, eager to follow more glorious instructions. Life couldn't be any sweeter.
The guiding pathway led the girl deep into the game's world. Very deep. Slowly, the strange glowing hue that was her guide started to fade away and she stopped her bike and gently shut the engine off.
And she waited.
She blinked and slowly, very slowly, started to finally look at her surroundings. Just what was this place?
She knew of the track and its purpose: to race. Wasn't there all that was to life? Why would anything else need to exist?
Why am I here?
Quite the tiny chapter and I apologize. But I didn't feel this needed to be much longer than this. Thank you all for reading and any comments and reviews.