Untitled | Julia Shepteban (11)

An online forum prompted me to explore an archaic computer algorithm to solve a mystery. While scrolling through what seemed to be an endless amount of pixels, I noticed that the patterns embedded into the lines of code scattered across my computer screen were interrupted by an anomaly. I thought that the unusual line of code was just a mistype, an error, or even a miscalculation, but my curiosity got the better of me. To fix this glitch, I began to experiment and attempt to solve the line of code in order to replicate the pattern my eyes were accustomed to beforehand. Tick. Tack. Tick. Tack. With every push my fingers made on the keyboard, every letter added or removed, and every number changed, an unusual reaction took place in the physical realm. Irregular vibrations escaped from beneath my fingertips, the air around me began to feel tense, and I could see and hear unfamiliar energy pulses throughout the room and my body. I could feel the gravity of the situation. The anomaly on my screen unprecedentedly transformed into an abnormality in the third dimension; the laws of physics have been broken. 

With the impression that I had solved the online forum’s mystery—the ability to manipulate tangible matter—I decided to experiment with the irregular line of code more in depth in order to unlock more of its secrets. After playing around with the code, I still experienced the same abnormalities in the physical world as before. I was stumped. I looked more thoroughly throughout the rest of the computer algorithm, trying to find similar lines of code or any references to incongruity in the system. Suddenly, I realized that I shouldn’t be exploring the algorithm in whole, I should find a pattern within the anomaly. It wasn’t a series of randomly generated symbols, it was something more. I played around with the code, and began to feel an unnatural pressure erupting from the computer mouse that my right hand was resting on, prompting me to whip my arm away from the desk. The mouse was floating. The paranormal experience caused me to enter a state of panic. I jolted up from my chair and scrambled to the nearest exit. I quickly extended my arm and firmly gripped the door knob, only to be interrupted by a clicking noise from behind me. Click. Click. Click. It was the floating computer mouse. Click. Click. Click. The sound seemed to rapidly increase. Click. Click. Click. Is the mouse going to blow up? Click. Click. Click. I could see a faint light glimmering through the cracks on the top of the mouse, a bright light, almost blinding. The clicking noise came to a halt. Despite my fear, I began to trudge my way back to the floating mouse to examine it. The light shining from the mouse illuminated the room I was in, getting brighter and brighter by the second. Suddenly, the mouse began to rattle mid-air. Fwoosh! A puff of smoke escaped from the mouse, shielding my vision. It was almost like an explosion, but it was too faint to be one. It was like magic. 

Hesitatingly, I walked towards the amassed smoke and waved my arms to clear the air. To my surprise, the floating mouse was missing. I looked down in hopes to find it, but instead, another item was resting on the desktop. It wasn't a worn-down computer mouse, it was worth a king’s ransom. The shabby mouse had transmuted into pure gold. The computer algorithm’s secret wasn’t just any mystery: it was alchemy. I looked back at the computer screen in hopes to find praise from the anonymous lines of code, only to find an eerie notification: “Gold weighs upon the hands, but knowledge weighs upon the soul. You solved the mystery, but at what cost?”