Backlog 17
Date: October 19th, 2003
Ixias shot up in bed panting and heaving, still feeling the imprints of human hands on her shoulders and hearing the soft whispers in her ear. The blood was surging and raging through where the stranger's hands had once been on her body. In a half-conscious effort, she dashed to the bathroom and flung the switch on, standing apprehensively in front of the mirror.
She tore down the collar of her nightgown, expecting to find bright red handprints on the pale flesh of her shoulders. The dim lights revealed nothing. Almost nothing.
Her heart steadied and her breathing somewhat evened out at the first appearance of nothing out of the ordinary. Until she leaned closer. Upon intense inspection, Ixias' fears were deemed true, only reversed - there were, rather, white fingertip marks on the flushed red skin of her shoulders, only 4 of them barely visible.
She wobbled backwards, a feeling of helpless and hopeless confusion churning at a dizzying rate throughout her body, from the hair follicles atop her scalp to the callused pads underneath her feet. She slumped back against the freezing cold wall, her body a burning source of questions, bewilderment, and chaos. What was going on? What was happening to her..
She rose from the floor what felt like hours later, looking around the room through blurry and unfocused eyes in curious confusion, wondering why she was in the bathroom as opposed to her wonderfully soft and warm bed. She remembered what had happened.
Ixias steadied herself slowly and made her wobbly way back into her bedroom. She stood momentarily, debating whether to go back to bed and pass off what had happened as a product of a half-asleep/half-awake state, or search the Internet for the answers to her thousand questions. She opted for the latter, feeling that she wouldn't have a chance to get back to sleep anyway.
The computer hummed and blinked on, the monitor temporarily blinding her. Her eyes filmed over momentarily, a bright white aura lingering like sunspots, until her eyes focused. She quickly opened up her Internet browser and searched the Internet for websites detailing what was referred to her in her dream as "The Matrix."
Dreamstate.
She had been wandering aboard a metal ship ridden with cables, plugs, wires, tubes, tanks and switchboards. The ship was dark and musty, and smelled of sweat and rust. The cold, clammy and stale air pierced her skin realistically as she made her way down darkly winding tunnels and eventually came to the computer room, where the room was tinted a ghostly green. She crept forward slowly into the room before pausing at the front.
Three computer monitors were switched on, with frighteningly eerie code spilling endlessly down the screen. Greens of all hues and contrasts lit the room in flickering waves. She sat at the chair in front of the monitor and narrowed her eyes in puzzlement. What the hell is this?
Suddenly, a soft hand fell upon her shoulder. She froze like a deer in headlights, and debated for a split-second whether to turn around. If the stranger meant to kill her, she would probably be dead already. With that decided, she mustered all the bravery that she could and slowly turned around in the swivel chair, facing the person behind her.
The man with his hand on her shoulder was strikingly and ruggedly handsome. His eyes blazed a deep greenish gray, enhanced and enchanted by the code flowing down the monitors. His dirty blonde hair was tussled about his head, almost neat in its disorder. He had a few mornings' stubble on his chin, and was dressed in well-worn working clothes.
"So, we finally meet. My name is Jacob Floyd," he introduced himself, removing his hand and bowing before Ixias. "Your search has lead you here."
"What search?" She asked curiously. "And how do you know of me?"
"My group has been watching you for some time. Your path is a twisty one, Miss Majicka. It was only a matter of time before you came to your own rescue. And here you are, subconsciously aware of why and how." His riddles were already beginning to drive her mad.
"What am I doing here, isn't this but a dream?" She asked nervously. Jacob flashed her a knowing smile.
"Certainly, this is just a dream." He leaned back deviously, his smile widening. Ixias was not sure whether this person was a good or bad guy, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
"Of course, your definition of dream is as good as mine." He raised his eyes to her with an urgency. "You will soon learn of the truth on your own accords, and rightfully so. You remember, don't you? You remember the starry skies, and you will see them again soon.
"It has been a gnawing since you saw it, Ixias. You buried that memory long ago and passed it off as fancy, as childlike imagination. You cannot forget it, you cannot escape it. It was your fate that your eyes fell upon it. As far away as it is, you are closer than ever." She remembered, even in her dreams. The recollection loosened her insides and left a mark of slowly growing dread in the pit of her soul. Her eyes filmed over momentarily, the memory flooding back and overtaking all of her senses. His voice snapped her violently back to reality. "You want the answers? You are going to get them, my friend. I only hope you are ready for them." Ixias' face turned to an expression of frustration and distrust.
"You are just a figment, and when I wake up you will fade from my mind," she replied defensively, growing frightened and anxious for her own awakening. She didn't want to remember that which struck her deeply and emotionally in disbelief and fear, which was why - as he eloquently put it - she buried the experience deep within her mind, filled the grave with other thoughts and left the memory to decay.
As the vision danced through her dream mind, she was reminded of the glowing green and found the monitors and their code sickeningly disturbing. She almost keeled forward with nauseating nostalgia had hands not shot out and steadied her. Jacob's eyes burned into hers.
"You are so close, Ixias. If you want to find the truth, follow your heart. Only when you search for it will it find you." He leaned closer to her, his mouth inches from her ear. His hot breath steamed against her cool flesh as his grip on her shoulders tightened. "We won't be far." The dream slowly wavered into a watery mess.
Her search proved positively inconclusive. Many websites hinted at the phrase, but only one dared to actually describe the apparent phenomenon - the others seemed too afraid of the consequences of furthering the study. The one website she found was curiously titled Alice Follows the White Rabbit. She had never seen Alice in Wonderland and vaguely knew of the storyline, so she could only wonder what the title meant. The webpage hinted of computer programs in the form of government officials that dominated the realm of what appeared to be the real, that humans aren't free and are actually slaves to some greater power that subconsciously and subliminally controls the entire human race. Those who pursued the curious mystery of what the Matrix was would be contacted, in time, by those who would offer them the option of the truth. Jacob. Jacob fucking Floyd. All of it was too much for Ixias' head.
The fact that the stranger in her dream spoke of some ideology that actually existed and was apparently so hush-hush that even the anonymous users of the internet dared not divulge too deeply into its secrets scared the living bejeezus out of her. Could her dream have been something that really happened, on another plane in a parallel dimension? How could something so subconscious and seemingly random as a dream, a sick and twisted fantasy, contain actualities that she herself had never even heard of?
Ixias angrily shut off her computer and tried to steady her breathing.
In. Out. In. Out.
She stumbled to her bed and pulled the covers over her head. Tears threatened the borders of her eyelids with a vengeance, but she bottled up the confusion and slowly relaxed into the comfort of her warm, secure bed. The tears receded and Ixias eventually fell into a troubled sleep, littered with dark thoughts and lights flashing in the distance. She dreamed of a machine. She dreamed.
Ixias shot up in bed panting and heaving, still feeling the imprints of human hands on her shoulders and hearing the soft whispers in her ear. The blood was surging and raging through where the stranger's hands had once been on her body. In a half-conscious effort, she dashed to the bathroom and flung the switch on, standing apprehensively in front of the mirror.
She tore down the collar of her nightgown, expecting to find bright red handprints on the pale flesh of her shoulders. The dim lights revealed nothing. Almost nothing.
Her heart steadied and her breathing somewhat evened out at the first appearance of nothing out of the ordinary. Until she leaned closer. Upon intense inspection, Ixias' fears were deemed true, only reversed - there were, rather, white fingertip marks on the flushed red skin of her shoulders, only 4 of them barely visible.
She wobbled backwards, a feeling of helpless and hopeless confusion churning at a dizzying rate throughout her body, from the hair follicles atop her scalp to the callused pads underneath her feet. She slumped back against the freezing cold wall, her body a burning source of questions, bewilderment, and chaos. What was going on? What was happening to her..
She rose from the floor what felt like hours later, looking around the room through blurry and unfocused eyes in curious confusion, wondering why she was in the bathroom as opposed to her wonderfully soft and warm bed. She remembered what had happened.
Ixias steadied herself slowly and made her wobbly way back into her bedroom. She stood momentarily, debating whether to go back to bed and pass off what had happened as a product of a half-asleep/half-awake state, or search the Internet for the answers to her thousand questions. She opted for the latter, feeling that she wouldn't have a chance to get back to sleep anyway.
The computer hummed and blinked on, the monitor temporarily blinding her. Her eyes filmed over momentarily, a bright white aura lingering like sunspots, until her eyes focused. She quickly opened up her Internet browser and searched the Internet for websites detailing what was referred to her in her dream as "The Matrix."
Dreamstate.
She had been wandering aboard a metal ship ridden with cables, plugs, wires, tubes, tanks and switchboards. The ship was dark and musty, and smelled of sweat and rust. The cold, clammy and stale air pierced her skin realistically as she made her way down darkly winding tunnels and eventually came to the computer room, where the room was tinted a ghostly green. She crept forward slowly into the room before pausing at the front.
Three computer monitors were switched on, with frighteningly eerie code spilling endlessly down the screen. Greens of all hues and contrasts lit the room in flickering waves. She sat at the chair in front of the monitor and narrowed her eyes in puzzlement. What the hell is this?
Suddenly, a soft hand fell upon her shoulder. She froze like a deer in headlights, and debated for a split-second whether to turn around. If the stranger meant to kill her, she would probably be dead already. With that decided, she mustered all the bravery that she could and slowly turned around in the swivel chair, facing the person behind her.
The man with his hand on her shoulder was strikingly and ruggedly handsome. His eyes blazed a deep greenish gray, enhanced and enchanted by the code flowing down the monitors. His dirty blonde hair was tussled about his head, almost neat in its disorder. He had a few mornings' stubble on his chin, and was dressed in well-worn working clothes.
"So, we finally meet. My name is Jacob Floyd," he introduced himself, removing his hand and bowing before Ixias. "Your search has lead you here."
"What search?" She asked curiously. "And how do you know of me?"
"My group has been watching you for some time. Your path is a twisty one, Miss Majicka. It was only a matter of time before you came to your own rescue. And here you are, subconsciously aware of why and how." His riddles were already beginning to drive her mad.
"What am I doing here, isn't this but a dream?" She asked nervously. Jacob flashed her a knowing smile.
"Certainly, this is just a dream." He leaned back deviously, his smile widening. Ixias was not sure whether this person was a good or bad guy, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
"Of course, your definition of dream is as good as mine." He raised his eyes to her with an urgency. "You will soon learn of the truth on your own accords, and rightfully so. You remember, don't you? You remember the starry skies, and you will see them again soon.
"It has been a gnawing since you saw it, Ixias. You buried that memory long ago and passed it off as fancy, as childlike imagination. You cannot forget it, you cannot escape it. It was your fate that your eyes fell upon it. As far away as it is, you are closer than ever." She remembered, even in her dreams. The recollection loosened her insides and left a mark of slowly growing dread in the pit of her soul. Her eyes filmed over momentarily, the memory flooding back and overtaking all of her senses. His voice snapped her violently back to reality. "You want the answers? You are going to get them, my friend. I only hope you are ready for them." Ixias' face turned to an expression of frustration and distrust.
"You are just a figment, and when I wake up you will fade from my mind," she replied defensively, growing frightened and anxious for her own awakening. She didn't want to remember that which struck her deeply and emotionally in disbelief and fear, which was why - as he eloquently put it - she buried the experience deep within her mind, filled the grave with other thoughts and left the memory to decay.
As the vision danced through her dream mind, she was reminded of the glowing green and found the monitors and their code sickeningly disturbing. She almost keeled forward with nauseating nostalgia had hands not shot out and steadied her. Jacob's eyes burned into hers.
"You are so close, Ixias. If you want to find the truth, follow your heart. Only when you search for it will it find you." He leaned closer to her, his mouth inches from her ear. His hot breath steamed against her cool flesh as his grip on her shoulders tightened. "We won't be far." The dream slowly wavered into a watery mess.
Her search proved positively inconclusive. Many websites hinted at the phrase, but only one dared to actually describe the apparent phenomenon - the others seemed too afraid of the consequences of furthering the study. The one website she found was curiously titled Alice Follows the White Rabbit. She had never seen Alice in Wonderland and vaguely knew of the storyline, so she could only wonder what the title meant. The webpage hinted of computer programs in the form of government officials that dominated the realm of what appeared to be the real, that humans aren't free and are actually slaves to some greater power that subconsciously and subliminally controls the entire human race. Those who pursued the curious mystery of what the Matrix was would be contacted, in time, by those who would offer them the option of the truth. Jacob. Jacob fucking Floyd. All of it was too much for Ixias' head.
The fact that the stranger in her dream spoke of some ideology that actually existed and was apparently so hush-hush that even the anonymous users of the internet dared not divulge too deeply into its secrets scared the living bejeezus out of her. Could her dream have been something that really happened, on another plane in a parallel dimension? How could something so subconscious and seemingly random as a dream, a sick and twisted fantasy, contain actualities that she herself had never even heard of?
Ixias angrily shut off her computer and tried to steady her breathing.
In. Out. In. Out.
She stumbled to her bed and pulled the covers over her head. Tears threatened the borders of her eyelids with a vengeance, but she bottled up the confusion and slowly relaxed into the comfort of her warm, secure bed. The tears receded and Ixias eventually fell into a troubled sleep, littered with dark thoughts and lights flashing in the distance. She dreamed of a machine. She dreamed.