Copyright 2004 by N.R. Wagner, all rights reserved.
All music, all motion stopped abruptly, his new bride frozen with a golden spoon halfway to her lips, the great celebration of his triumph halted like a photograph, when, to his horror as he stood up, the entire roof of the dark stone castle tilted insanely back, with a gigantic mechanical hand reaching in for him, and only as he was lifted over to the holding area did the old memories come flooding back -- dropping him out of the VR fantasy, created in despair to escape the ravaged land outside.