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 - Mirigа invеntо. 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!
- Well, that's on camera, on TV! But here is reality, we saw everything with our own eyes.
- There is still a chance that all this is a dream.
I pinched myself. It hurt.
- And also, the instructions say that after the transformation, you can only return back after 8 hours, since the device cannot provide a full cycle more often! That is, whoever I turn into, I will have to walk around like that almost until the morning! - I said.
- So, are you serious? Are you going to climb up there and press the button?
I looked at him. Sanya, like me, was a skinny, bespectacled man with a lost look and disheveled hair, only he was fair-haired and I was brown-haired. Girls had never appeared in our room before. So, to be honest, at the sight of the phrase "dream essence" a coal of hope smoldered in my soul. What if the machine gave me some other appearance? Perhaps then the situation with my personal life would change dramatically?
At that time I didn't know how much my personal life would change! No, I had no idea!
Literally a few seconds later I found myself inside the "Amazing Invention". Sanya looked at me sympathetically.
- You, if it hurts or you feel uncomfortable, scream right away! Okay?
- Yeah... - and the thought was spinning in my head that I was making a terrible mistake.
Sanek slammed the lid shut. I heard the air hissing out of the sarcophagus. At first I panicked, and the next moment I started screaming and banging on the opaque lid with all my might. But it was obviously soundproof. A second later my vision went dark and I lost consciousness.
When I managed to open my eyes, the first thing I saw was not even Sasha's astonished, but his delighted and delighted face. His eyes literally glowed when he looked at me. At that time I still didn't know why. But soon the secret was revealed.
I raised myself up in the sarcophagus and glanced down. What I saw took my breath away. Thin, graceful legs smoothly turned into wide hips, small feet with neat girlish toes left no doubt about what had happened. I raised my hands to my face and, almost without surprise, saw cute little palms that definitely belonged to some sweet girl. I was dressed (or rather dressed) in a white blouse with sleeves up to the elbows and small gray panties. I had nothing else on.
Although I lay down in the apparatus in dark jeans and a purple T-shirt! But this was the least metamorphosis. The sensation between my legs was, of course, the most unusual. Carefully bending my legs at the knees, I rose up and climbed out of the sarcophagus, stepping barefoot onto the carpet.
