The smell of the carpet was intimately familiar, but that was all. The room's dimensions had changed, and there was a strange ambient sound, like a metallic glissando, coming from everywhere at once.

My cello case was there, where I had left it all those years ago. But so was another presence, looming to my left. I dared not look up, threatened by the vague sensation of red just outside my peripheral vision.

AI Surrealism exhibition, Oculus NYC, June 2023 Superchief Gallery + Exquisite Workers