Escaping the System: A Wonderland of the Soul

Escaping the System: A Wonderland of the Soul

By Kateb Nuri-Alim Shunnar

They say the forest only blooms when the soul is ready. Aliyah didn’t believe that. She was just hungry.

The sun had barely stretched its arms when she found it a strange fruit glowing beneath a bed of wet moss. It hummed, actually hummed, like a lullaby composed by temptation itself. She picked it up. It smelled like fresh bread, caramel lies, and childhood dreams no one keeps.

One bite. That’s all it took.

The world melted. Colors bled like watercolor tears. Her feet, once loyal, betrayed her and ran in all directions at once. She stumbled through laughter that wasn’t hers, falling upward into a spiral of sound and time and distraction. And then

Silence.

Then

"NAME?"

Aliyah opened her eyes. She stood in a room made entirely of ticking clocks. A strange man in a velvet suit half owl, half accountant sat behind a desk stacked with pink bills labeled “LIFE OWED.”

"NAME?" he repeated, tapping a golden feather pen against his beak.

"Uh… Aliyah."

He clicked his tongue. "Too real. Let’s call you Asset 372-B. Welcome to the System. You’ve been drafted into the Debtiverse."

A siren wailed. Confetti fell. A talking toaster rolled by yelling, "CONGRATULATIONS, YOU NOW OWE YOUR SOUL!"

She tried to run. But the floor spun like a hamster wheel. Every step forward led her back to the desk.

"What is this place?!" she cried.

The owl-man smirked. "Why, dear. It’s your world. Just...unmasked."

Behind her, a curtain parted. A family sat around a dinner table, but each had headphones in. The father stared at his phone. The child watched cartoons in his glasses. The mother typed a prayer with one hand, but shushed her heart with the other. No one looked up.

Aliyah stepped forward, but a vine of red tape wrapped around her ankle.

"Careful," said a voice. She turned.

Two little girls stood in front of her. One wore white with golden laces her eyes clear as mountain springs. The other, clothed in deep earth brown, smiled gently and extended her hand.

"We’re Honor and Humility," they said in unison.

"You’ll need us if you want to make it out of here."

And thus began her journey.

She wandered through the Land of Clicks, where creatures with giant thumbs banged gongs of notifications. In the Mirror Maze of Me, people begged for reflections that made them look important but hid who they truly were. Atop the Tower of More, she met the Mad Collector, who offered her false security wrapped in monthly payments.

"Everything is yours," he grinned, "as long as you never stop owing."

Aliyah laughed nervously. "But I don’t even want any of this."

"Want?" he said. "Wanting is irrelevant. Consuming is the objective."

She ran.

Then came the Arena of Ego, where people rode mythical beasts like the Narcisaurus a dragon with selfie mirrors for scales and dueled in status battles judged by likes and emojis. Aliyah tried to sneak past but was almost trampled by a herd of Instagryphs, who shouted hashtags with every flap of their glitter-covered wings.

In the techno-jungle of Influenzia, she met the Fruit Dealer again, riding a fluorescent centipede with Bluetooth antennas.

"Darling, you’ve been upgraded!" he called, tossing her a new fruit labeled Instant Gratification: Now With Less Soul!

"No thanks," Aliyah muttered, dodging an ad-bomb that exploded into a cloud of "LIMITED TIME ONLY!

She fled into the Forest of Forgotten Names, where every tree whispered who people used to be before they traded themselves for applause. There, she met Mirror Man, who polished people's illusions and sold them masks with filters pre-installed.

"Care to see your best self?" he grinned, waving a mirror that flickered between beauty, popularity, and complete loneliness.

"I’d rather be my real self, thanks."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged. "But remember truth isn't trending."

Aliyah laughed. "Then I’m officially canceled."

Later, she came upon a mushroom the size of a beanbag. It glowed purple and smelled like bubblegum and poor choices.

"Why not?" she said and took a bite.

POOF!

Suddenly, she was ten inches tall, being carried away on the back of a hummingbird in aviator goggles named Zip-Zap.

"Hang on tight, princess of confusion!" Zip-Zap chirped. "We're headed to the Belly of Busyness!"

They crash-landed on a trampoline shaped like a calendar, where every day screamed “HURRY!” and a tap-dancing unicorn yelled, "YOU'RE LATE TO EVERYTHING, INCLUDING YOUR PURPOSE!"

Aliyah rolled off the calendar and into a stand-up comedy club run by a llama named Pastor Chuckles.

He looked over his glasses and said, "Why did the soul meditate? Because it needed to talk to management!"

The crowd made up of laughing jellybeans roared.

A squirrel band began to sing:

🎶 “We scroll and we scroll and forget how to be, We chase the illusion and miss destiny! So log out your mind and upgrade your grace, Before your heart’s Wi-Fi leaves cyberspace!” 🎶

Suddenly, an alarm went off. A booming voice echoed through the treetops:

"INTRUDER ALERT. SYSTEM BREACH. BEGIN CHASE SEQUENCE."

Aliyah turned to see the Scroll Troll from earlier, now fused with three algorithm bots and a caffeine monster called Javajaw, stomping through the forest.

Zip-Zap shouted, "NO TIME TO THINK JUST RUN!"

Aliyah and the hummingbird raced through twisting tunnels of thought and memory. She dodged Spam Bats and swam through a swamp of Forgotten Prayers.

They reached a riddle gate guarded by a serpent made of broken clocks named Logiccoil.

"To pass," Logiccoil hissed, "solve this:

'I can’t be bought, but I’m easily lost. I’m what you have when you stop and pause. I can’t be stored, but I multiplies love. I dwell in the soul, not the cloud above. What am I?'"

Aliyah thought. Zip-Zap paced in midair.

Finally, she whispered, "Presence."

Logiccoil bowed. "Go on, truth traveler. You remember who you are."

Aliyah clapped along until she remembered the seed.

The old woman appeared again, this time riding a flying turtle called Ancient Wisdom.

"Truth doesn’t run," she said. "It waits. Now dig."

Aliyah planted the seed.

The ground cracked. A great vine burst forth, lifting her past systems and schemes, past illusions and lies. It grew into a towering tree with golden roots that reached back into her heart.

She climbed.

She passed the Mad Collector crying into his coin purse. The Mirror Man cracked his reflection and hummed a lullaby. The Narcisaurus now gave free hugs and asked, "Do you even like yourself today?"

She paused to rest on a branch made of melted clocks and found herself beside a wise old Slothbird named Sabbath. He was slow, gentle, and sipping tea that smelled like peace.

"Everyone's rushing," Sabbath mumbled. "But the Creator doesn’t race. He walks with you. You just forgot to listen."

Aliyah nodded. "I’ve been too loud to hear."

Near the top, she entered the Temple of Relationship, where every heartbeat was a song and every connection a prayer. There were no apps here. Only hands held, eyes meeting, truth exchanged.

There, she sang with others:

🎵 “I was chasing mushrooms, snacks, and likes Now I’m chasing wisdom, love, and hikes! Forget the scroll, delete the stress, My soul’s on airplane mode God, yes!” 🎵

And as she sang, the light grew stronger. Laughter returned not the fake kind but belly-deep, soul-freed laughter.

The sky above opened into what looked like space, but it was really spirit alive, aware, watching.

And then

She woke up.

Back in the forest. The fruit gone. The air still.

But her hands were dirty with soil. Her heart beat slower. Stronger.

Honor and Humility stood beside her, grinning.

"Welcome back," they said.

Aliyah giggled. "I went everywhere. And I mean everywhere."

"And you came back whole," said Humility. "Most never do."

Aliyah looked to the sky.

"Thank you," she whispered. "For reminding me who I really am."

And from that day on, Aliyah walked differently. She talked to people with her eyes. She prayed with her hands open. She checked her soul before she checked her phone. And she laughed oh, how she laughed.

Because now she knew the system.

And she was finally free.