You Become Invisible but It’s Not as Cool as You Thought

At first, you hear a high-pitched buzzing sound. Then sparks start flying in the air around your head. Light bulbs begin to flicker. A deafening crack, and you nearly jump out of your skin. Then you feel hot — as if you’re in the middle of a desert. And you scream and scream until everything around fades to black.

You come to your senses with a gasp. You’re lying on the floor in complete darkness. You try to get your thoughts together. In the morning, you decided to visit your best friend — an inventor. He’d been working on a new mechanism but never told you what this thing was supposed to do.

Anyway, you knocked on his front door, but there was no reply. That’s when you noticed that the door was slightly ajar. You entered the house. It was eerily quiet inside.

Moving slowly and carefully, you reached a staircase. It led downstairs, to your friend’s laboratory. Normally, he doesn’t let anyone in. But what if something had happened, and he was there alone, unable to call for help?!

When you opened a heavy metal door leading to the lab, you couldn’t help but do a double-take. The room was filled with complex equipment — but devoid of any human beings. You almost stepped out of the laboratory, overwhelmed with all the test tubes and flashing lights. You were also a bit scared by a strange low humming sound.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to get out of there as fast as possible, you didn’t notice a bunch of cables under your right foot. You tripped over them and started flailing your arms to keep balance. Your hand — of course — hit a piece of equipment and knocked it down. It crashed to the floor, you heard a high-pitched buzzing sound... and the rest was history.

Now that you know what’s happened, it’s time to get out of here. You rise to your feet — nothing hurts, awesome. You slowly go upstairs, calling your friend’s name. No answer. You decide to go home first and apologize for the accident later.

But before you leave the house, something grabs your attention. A mirror on the wall. Or is it? Because it doesn’t reflect you! Confused, you stare at the glass surface.

Then, very slowly, you lower your eyes and look at your hands. They aren’t there. Like, at all. You examine the rest of your body — or rather, its absence.

You don’t start screaming and running around in circles only because the entire situation feels like a bad dream. But you can’t deny the obvious — you’ve become invisible! Your clothes and shoes you were wearing during the accident are invisible too.

You go to the living room and pick up a book. You can definitely see it. How about food? You shuffle to the kitchen and open the fridge. For a second, you get distracted by a piece of cake sitting on a blue plate.

A moment later, you’re already holding it in your hand. Still visible. Duh, so many opportunities are wasted! Like, that latest smartphone model you’ve been dreaming about for ages! You can’t just sneak into the store and leave with the phone clutched in your hand.

You go back to the mirror. The cake remains visible until you put it into your mouth. It means that if you decide to munch on something outside, you’ll have to eat it very fast. A levitating donut would look extremely weird.

But even if you can’t get yourself nice material things, you can still have some unique experiences! A brilliant idea comes to your mind — what if you sneak into some super-secret place and have a look around! For example... an airport! Especially since there’s one nearby. Finally, you’ll quench your curiosity!

You try to rub your hands together. Even though you don’t see them, your body knows the move well enough. You go outside and set off in the direction of the airport, humming a tune that’s stuck in your head. But after several people have turned their heads, confused about where the sound is coming from, you decide to keep quiet.

A bit later, you find out another inconvenience of your current state — dogs. Even though they can’t see you, they can still detect your smell very well. One pooch leaves its owner’s side and runs toward you. It sniffs your left leg, growls, and starts jumping around you.

You’re rooted to the spot. The dog’s owner whistles and calls his pet. But instead of leaving you alone, the dog starts barking at you. Only after the man calls its name does the animal run away.

In half an hour, rather shaken, you reach the airport. You get inside without any problems. You manage to sneak past one security guard, then another... But as soon as you approach a door that looks particularly promising, a shrill sound of alarm startles you. It seems the system has detected your body’s warmth!

Frightened by all the commotion around, you flatten yourself against the wall to let security guards pass. The accident dampens your spirit of curiosity. All you want now is to get home. After leaving the airport building, you face a dilemma.

How can you get home? It would take ages to walk there. You can’t use a bike rental because, you know, reasons. You can’t hail a cab because the driver won’t see you. You could probably get on a bus, but there are no buses around.

So, walking it is. Two hours later, you’re exhausted and more than ready for a break. You spot a small park with a lake on the other side of the road. Trees and some shadow! You’re saved. You plop down on the grass and let out a long breath. In a minute, you’re already asleep.

“Grrr...” You jolt awake. Oh no, a large dog is towering over you! And this one doesn’t look as if it’s going to give up any time soon! You carefully get up and start to slowly retreat. When you can’t stand the tension anymore, you turn and run — and the dog is on your heels.

At one point, you carelessly move too close to the lake. Splashes and cold water hits your entire body, getting into your nose and mouth... When you get back to the surface, there’s already a small crowd of picnic-goers gathered around. They wave their hands, discussing how big a fish must be to cause such a noise.

You can’t just swim to the shore and get out of the water in front of their eyes! That’s why you hold your breath and dive deeper. Soon you reach the other side of the lake and finally crawl to dry land.

Oho, you can partially see your body! It’s covered with very visible mud, algae, and other stuff. You can’t show up in the street half-visible and half-not! You spend the next hour sitting behind a bush, waiting for your clothes to dry. Then you clean them as well as you can.

It’s getting dark. You’re tired, thirsty, hungry, and sleepy. And your home is still so far away! A brilliant idea occurs to you when you’re passing the most expensive hotel in the city. That’s where you can have a rest! Besides, you’ve never been to such a luxurious place before!

The hotel has sliding doors, and you manage to sneak inside among the other guests. No one notices or questions you. Taking an elevator seems too risky, that’s why you climb the stairs until you reach the top floor. What a view you’re going to have tonight!

But there’s still one problem — how can you get inside a room? You seem to be in luck — a maid is cleaning one of the largest suites, and the door is open. You quietly walk inside and stand still in the corner.

Soon, the maid leaves — and wow, the possibilities! You take a long bubble bath enjoying the view of the night city. Then you watch some shows on a huge flat-screen TV. You toy with all kinds of remote controls, make yourself a cup of delicious coffee and sit on each and every sofa in the suite.

When you can’t keep your eyes open anymore, you lie down on the softest bed in your life. You fall asleep with a smile on your face.

A scream wakes you up. You blink your eyes open — the maid from yesterday is staring at you with her mouth agape. Oh, no! Your invisibility must have worn off. What now?