Chapter
7 - Roller Coaster
"The confusion that was hers now belongs to the baby down the hall."
Matrix rubbed his
hands together, feeling the dirt and grit catch between his fingers. His conscience
had ceased to scream at him, finally, and all that its absence left was an emptiness
akin to the stillness left after the final echo of a concert has faded.
AndrAIa. He had
hurt AndrAIa. Not just hurt, even, really. Attacked. She had been bleeding,
moreover. If the guilt brought on by botching Megabyte's defeat was monumental,
then the guilt caused by his actions towards AndrAIa in the past few seconds
was enough to kill a sprite.
Grit covered him
from head to toe. The apartment itself was pristine except for the living room
where he had attacked AndrAIa. There, blood spattered the furniture and walls,
and stained the carpet. He had been completely afraid to enter the room after
he had woken up from AndrAIa's poison and dashed into their-- no, his
bedroom in an attempt to shut the whole event out.
However, the problem
was that it just never went away.
AndrAIa had undoubtedly
fled to his sister's place. How to face his sister now was a question
scratching at his mind. It made him hurt straight to the code to think of what
Dot likely thought of him.
Preoccupied in
a list of thoughts as long as his arm, reeling from start to finish as quickly
as time could allow, Matrix failed to notice the stealthy metal steps making
their way towards him.
In fact, he didn't
even notice anyone else in the apartment when the door to the bedroom was opened.
He hadn't even
noticed it by the time the intruder was standing right behind him.
Megabyte curled
his hands around Matrix's skull, immobilizing it, forcing Matrix to stiffen
in immediate panic.
But this author
is guilty of jumping ahead.
To the beginning.
---
AndrAIa woke up
for a second time in Bob and Dot's apartment. Or was it a third? She squeezed
her eyes shut at the unwelcome infiltration of light. Her arms, her shoulders,
her legs, her face, and oh, User, her back. Everything ached.
"Enzo?"
she managed to croak out. She was wrapped tightly in a spotless green blanket,
stretched out on the couch, or as stretched out as she could be under the circumstances.
Upon further inspection, she discovered that one of her cheeks was so swollen
it was difficult to open that eye, and that her nose had a lump in it, almost
as if it had been broken. She groaned inwardly, not out of pain, but out of
compounded embarrassment. Her knee was bandaged uncomfortably in some sort of
fleece fabric, stretched out straight with a piece of dowel on each side to
keep it steady. Is everything broken? she thought inwardly.
She heard the creaking
of leather on leather as Bob tiptoed towards her. "Bob, where's Enzo?"
Bob's eyebrows
twitched slightly as he eyed her in puzzlement. "He's out. With Frisket."
"Oh..."
she seemed so far away.
He reached his
hand out and placed it on her forehead. She was feverish too. "Enzo,"
she repeated.
"He's gone,
I said."
"I know,"
she snapped. "What does he know?"
"Well,"
Bob swallowed hard. "He saw you return bleeding. He knew you'd gone to
see Matrix."
"What did
Dot ... tell ... him?" she panted. She felt her chest go heavy. She dreaded
Bob's response.
"Now, that
I don't know," Bob conceded.
She pressed her
eyes shut tightly. What to think of Matrix? He'd tried to kill her. And the
worst part was, she didn't even understand any possible reason why. There was
no provocation. Nothing. It was almost as if he hadn't even seen her.
Bob sat cross-legged
next to AndrAIa, his hand on her forearm, in silence, until Dot came home. She
was flushed, and frantic. It made AndrAIa sink into the couch to guess what
could have possibly happened this time.
"Has anyone
seen Enzo?" she panted.
AndrAIa wriggled
herself upright. "You mean he wasn't with you?"
"Oh, User,"
Dot faltered.
"Megabyte?"
Bob volunteered.
"You think
he was kidnapped?" Dot asked.
AndrAIa struggled
to stand. Bob reached over to quiet her. "No, you don't understand!"
she snapped as she fought him. "You don't understand!"
Dot grabbed AndrAIa's
hand and asked in puzzlement: "What don't we understand?" AndrAIa
was feverish, Dot reasoned.
"You have
to get over to the apartment."
Bob rumpled his
eyebrows. "I don't understand why."
"Exactly,"
AndrAIa stated. "I'm not exactly sure what's going on but I have this sneaking
suspicion that it involves Megabyte and Matrix. He's not after you, Dot,
he never was!"
Dot's eyes widened
at the thought. Bob remained clueless. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying
that we're bound to find Megabyte wherever Enzo is. And I bet both Matrix and
Enzo, are to be found at my -- his -- our apartment, rather."
Bob didn't agree.
"I think it's a trap for Dot."
"Well, Bob,
trap or no trap," AndrAIa shifted, "If you want Dot to stay behind,
then you're going alone."
Bob mulled this
thought over for a moment, then conceded.
"Alright,
then. Let's head out."
And AndrAIa was
left in a quiet apartment, feeling useless and antsy. She narrowed her eyes
at the set of keys on the table ...
-
Megabyte smiled
toothily at Matrix as the man-sprite's eyes widened in fear. Complete powerlessness.
Megabyte was so giddy with the thought it was dreadfully detrimental to his
effort to appear aloof. Paralyzed with fear.
"Oh, dearest,
dearest boy. How we shall see now, who is predator, and who is prey..."
-
In the quiet of
night, a lone motorbike glistened. Idling like a kitten, its rider sat awkwardly
on its seat, but rode with a sense of purpose.
The roar of the
motor soon faded away into the eerie silence of the night.
-
The door to the
apartment was locked shut. It took a few tries for even Bob to get it open;
"Spammed high-security locks..." he cursed.
Dot's stomach did
flip-flops when she saw the imprints of carnage on the walls and carpet of the
living room, but the both of them could hear the sounds of a struggle inside
the bedroom. The door was slightly ajar.
Bob ventured down
the hall first.
-
Megabyte stopped
short when he felt a pistol pushed against the side of his head. But surely
this was impossible? A second? Megabyte narrowed his eyes; he was invincible!
This couldn't be true!
Defeated by a--
BLAM!
-
Dot stared in disbelief.
The sprite who now held Gun in his hand was almost sickeningly like his elder.
She found it difficult to discern between the expressions on the faces of the
two sprites, so alike in all the wrong ways.
AndrAIa limped
up behind, and closed her eyes tightly in dismay at the scene which lay before
her now. Enzo, holding a weapon which did not belong to him, and yet did, and
Matrix, staring at AndrAIa with so much shame in his eyes...
It was enough to
make a sprite's blood run cold.
"User save
us all," Dot mumbled.
Matrix stood up
and tiptoed warily towards AndrAIa. "Are you ... alright?"
AndrAIa turned
her head away instinctively, pinchingly self-conscious about her face. She forced
herself to look at him. "You ..."
"I'm ... I'm
so sorry, Andi."
And every fibre
in AndrAIa's body screamed at her to forgive him.
-
The couple sat
in a bedroom in Dot and Bob's apartment. The very bedroom AndrAIa had slept
in that fateful night, and woken up in that fateful morning. Matrix had spent
the entire night cycle explaining, and AndrAIa was silent. At least Matrix recognized
what he had done. And what he had caused.
One of her worst
fears was beginning to materialize. Enzo had begun to become Matrix in the worst
way, and at an earlier age even than Matrix first was when he had become stuck
in the Games. It was enough to make a sprite crumble. And crumble she did.
It would seem to
an ordinary observer, that Matrix had done something unforgivable. But to AndrAIa,
he had had a decidedly noble reason behind his actions. He set them aside as
Dot set them aside, and AndrAIa was left with no logical reason not to do the
same herself. Bob had taken Megabyte's shell to the decomposition chamber early
that morning, and their worst nightmares had ended.
She hoped that
quietude would bless them for a time to come, for she had discovered something
earlier that she had chosen not to disclose to Matrix during such a time of
turmoil.
She knew she loved
him. That had not changed. And with that love, she could only hope that becoming
a father would help Matrix recover from the Games, and remember himself. The
Self she fell in love with.
She knew he would.
---
Baby's black
balloon makes her fly
I almost fell into that hole in your life
And you're not thinking about tomorrow
'cause you were the same as me
but on your knees
A thousand
other boys could never reach you
how could I have been the one?
I saw the world spin beneath you
and scatter like ice from the spoon
that was your womb..
Comin' down,
the world turned over
and angels fall without you there
and I go on as you get colder
or are you someone's prayer?
You know
the lies that they always told you
and the love you never knew?
What's the things they never showed you
that swallowed the light from the sun
inside your room?
Comin' down,
the world turned over
and angels fall without you there
and I go on as you get colder--
And there's
no time left for losin'
when you stand they fall
Comin' down,
the world turned over
and angels fall without you there
and I go on as you grow colder
all because I'm--
Comin' down,
the years turn over
and angels fall without you there
and I'll go on to bring you home
all because I'm--
all because I'm--
and I'll become
what you became to me ...
Goo Goo Dolls
- Black Balloon
---
Comments, suggestions, and Oh Do I Love Hate Mail
animalspeaker@home.com
http://wrin.net/