I turned the key in the lock and tried to open the door to our block. The lock clicked and jammed as usual. I put my heavy travel bag down on the floor in frustration and looked around. The dorm was buzzing with the usual buzz before another school week. Sunday evening was the time when most of the inhabitants of this haven of knowledge seekers were either recovering from a fun weekend or returning from their native lands with another batch of home supplies. I belonged to the second category.
A desperate knock on the door, as expected, brought no result. The residents of the three would arrive only tomorrow evening, and my neighbor Sanek - in the morning. Having loudly hit the unexpected obstacle again, I suddenly caused another click of the lock. To my delight, the door quietly opened and I found myself in the hallway with gray wallpaper that had become boring for two months. But the next picture that appeared before my eyes simply made me dumbfounded.
In the middle of the room, right between two sofas that had been bought cheaply from neighbors right after settling into the dorm, there was something. It was white and looked most like a sarcophagus for anabiosis from science fiction films. On top of the cylindrical lid lay some kind of brochure. And on the side were Latin letters - MirigΠ° invΠ΅ntΠΎ. I leafed through the brochure, which was written in small, tight font. The language was most similar to Italian, but different.
Having turned on the computer, I had already started searching for a translation on the Internet, but at that moment there was a stamping of feet in the hallway and a key being moved in the keyhole. Sanya, my roommate, burst into the doorway. Seeing the miracle that took up almost half the room, he was terribly surprised.
- Zheka, why did you bring this crap into the room?
- I have no idea how she got here. If this is a prank, it's a very strange one.
He dropped his heavy backpack on the floor and walked around the strange device. It had a matte gleam with its slightly open lid. Sanya looked at me suspiciously.
- You're kidding me!
- So what's the joke? I know as much as you do!
Sasha came closer to the device and tried to lift it. He only just managed to tear one of the short legs off the carpet, where traces of extinguished cigarettes from the previous owners were still visible.
- Yes, it's heavy! And besides, this thing wouldn't fit through the doorway, even if you took the doors off! - I appealed to logic.
- Yes, you're right... But then where did it come from?!
-- There was a brochure here, some kind of instructions. I already found the translation online. It's an artificial language -- Esperanto. Those letters on the side mean "Amazing invention." And the instructions themselves say that if you lie down in the chamber, close the lid and press the button at the head of the bed, the person who lies down there will turn into some kind of "Dream Entity"...
- What the hell is a dream essence? What are you talking about? This is complete nonsense and rubbish! Someone played a joke, brought in the parts and assembled it here, isn't it clear?
- But why?
- For the sake of the trailer!
- Wait, there's one more thing... There must be a remote control!
Sanek stared at me in confusion. I walked up to the machine, pressed the lid, and it gently went up, completely opening the interior of the chamber. At the bottom lay a small remote control, similar to any other remote control. It had only one red button.
- So, according to the instructions, this red button turns on the "Masking" mode, and if you press it again, it will "Exit camouflage".
"Go ahead, press," my roommate said skeptically.
I pressed it. At first it seemed to me that nothing happened. But then the device seemed to become covered in gray and hazy and, flickering, suddenly disappeared. And without a trace!
Sasha jumped to the place where the car was parked and waved his hand. His hand did not hit an obstacle, but passed through the air. The sarcophagus did not become invisible, it simply disappeared!
I pressed the button again. Nothing happened. The machine did not appear out of thin air, as was probably to be expected. Breathing a sigh of relief, I realized that it was just an illusion. Only this illusion was terribly realistic. I remembered how Sasha tried to lift the device, and at that moment it did not seem ephemeral at all, but very material.
To check, I pressed the red button again. Suddenly, a silvery smoke began to gather in the middle of the room again. Sanek looked at this fog, which had already become thick, in amazement, and sat down on the edge of his sofa. The contours of the sarcophagus began to appear in the smoke again, and here it was again frozen in the middle of the room in all its glory, with an invitingly open lid and short legs. The resemblance to a hibernation chamber only increased.
- So what do you think, is it worth trying? It doesn't look like a joke! - Sanek changed his position radically after seeing it.
- Well, maybe you're right. Although magicians have made entire trains disappear!