Interactive Illusion: A Psychological Thriller with Ollie and Helena

I was selling my wares at a convention when I saw her. She was on the other side of the room, half-covered by a black leather jacket and slouched down in a chair as if she'd rather be anywhere else.

I didn't pay much attention to her at first, just noted that she was not a regular face around these parts. Most people who showed up were either vendors or guests; the occasional fan might come wander through the hallways to find their favorite booth, but for the most part it was fairly quiet.

Still, there were enough people around that someone would have noticed if something had happened. So I paid enough attention to glance over towards her every once in a while while I talked with some other vendors. There was nothing particularly interesting about her appearance; she had shoulder length brown hair, pale skin, and wore glasses, which meant she might've been an otaku or a fan of some kind. The fact that she was alone was more interesting than anything else. From what I could tell there were only three people within shouting distance: me, Hirano over at his maid cafe stall, and an older man wearing some kind of military uniform who was talking intently with someone among the crowd at the rival time travel stall.

I went back to the conversation with my fellow vendors for a while, until one of them said something funny and I laughed loudly enough that even Hirano turned around to look at me. That's when I noticed that the girl in black had stood up and crossed over to our table. She looked down at me for a second before speaking in a voice that seemed too soft for her frame. "Sir? Do you think you could do me a favor?"

"Uh...sure?" I wasn't quite sure how to react to this stranger suddenly standing above me; I gave the rest of my colleagues a shrug and an "I don't know" expression before turning towards her again.

"Would you mind selling this to someone for me?" She held out what looked like a small black box with no markings whatsoever on it. It dimly occurred to me that it looked remarkably like one of my own products, but I shook off the thought quickly as she continued speaking: "It's just that...well, see..." Her voice trailed off as she started looking around nervously, obviously not wanting anyone else to overhear us.

I began to get up from my stool and motioned towards one of several nearby booths with empty tables where we could talk in private when...well...she lunged forward and grabbed onto my wrist with surprising strength before whispering into my ear "Please! Just take this to him!" There wasn't really any choice in the matter after that; I simply nodded reluctantly and pocketed the box without thinking about it any further. When I tried to ask more about it, however...all she said was "Thank you." Then she walked away without another word or glance backwards.

It wasn't until afterwards that things really started getting weird. No sooner had she left than Hirano returned from whatever he'd been doing and asked me what had happened with all of his usual energy. When he found out about the strange woman asking for help, he immediately wanted details about what she looked like - which might have been normal except for how quickly he moved on to personal questions after that: How tall was she? Was her hair tied back? How did she sound? What color were her eyes? Most peculiarly...did I remember where I put down my drink earlier? When it became clear that neither of us had ever seen each other before today (and therefore couldn't have traded drinks) he shrugged it off and let out an exasperated sigh before walking back towards his booth - but not before commenting loudly behind him "That is one crazy broad."

Afterwards another vendor tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out that there was now an intense bidding war going on between two younger men who appeared to be fighting over some sort of rare figurine from one of last year's new anime titles - which definitely wasn't supposed to be on sale yet, especially not here where pirated goods were supposed to be confiscated by security staff as they came across them during their patrols. He seemed as nonplussed by this as everyone else in attendance until his co-worker leaned over and whispered something into his ear: "Don't you remember? Those are all fake figures anyway." At those words both vendors began laughing loudly together before returning their attention back towards their own stalls and leaving me alone once again without another word or glance backwards.