"If you could choose between a prison for your body and a prison for your mind, which one would you choose?" Mr. Mayer asked Thomas, who was lying down on a couch with his eyes closed, mouthing the words to the song he was listening to.

"Prison for my body," he replied without a moments hesitation and without opening his eyes.

"Why is that?"

Thomas paused for a moment, and thought. "Because the mind controls the body. If the mind is free, then so is the body. But if the mind is imprisoned, then so is the body."

"Interesting answer," Mr. Mayer murmured while jotting down some notes. "Now your mother said to me that you recently lost a friend. Would you like to talk about it?"

"I didn't lose her," Thomas said. "She disappeared. You say it like she died."

"You know that a lot of people that disappear aren't found."

"But there's always hope that she will be."

Mr. Mayer sighed and flipped through some files that were on his desk. "Were you with her the day she disappeared?"

"Yes."

"Did she seem depressed, or overly excited."

"No."

"Did she say anything to you before she left?"

"Yeah, she said something about a matrix."

"Really?" Mr. Mayer looked up from his files, looking very intrigued. "What did she say about it?"

"Nothing much, she just said the phrase 'What is the Matrix?' and ran off."

Mr. Mayer shuffled the papers on his desk into a neat pile and put it in his briefcase. "I'm sorry Thomas, but I'm going to have to cut this session short today."

Thomas sat up and turned off his headphones. "Why? Is there something about the matrix that you know about? What is it?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about. She probably forgot about some algebra homework she had to do. Goodbye Thomas." The door shut behind him leaving Thomas alone in the room. He looked over at the clock. There was supposed to be an hour of the session left. He left the room with the question Rachel asked burning in his mind.

---

At one in the morning, Thomas sat in front of his computer. He had been looking up words containing the word matrix for hours. All that came up were sites on how to solve equations using matrices, and hair styling gel. He typed in 'What is the matrix' once more into the search engine and got the same results he had gotten the other times he typed it in. Thomas groaned and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. What did Rachel mean by the matrix? He knew it had to be more than a forgotten homework assignment. Suddenly, he heard a ping on his computer screen. Someone had sent him a message.

"I take it this isn't a homework assignment. Where'd you hear about the Matrix."

"A friend"

"Is your friend with you now?"

"No"

"He disappeared didn't he?"

"She. And yes. How did you know that?"

"Personal experience. I myself am searching too. You might want to try looking for Morpheus. I heard that he knows more about what we're looking for than anyone."

"How do I find him?"

"."

There was another ping, signaling that whoever was talking to him had signed off. "Thanks a lot," Thomas muttered sarcastically under his breath. He leaned back in his chair again and closed his eyes. He heard his parents come in the apartment and head straight to their room. Thomas wondered how they could function normally with the minimal hours of sleep they each got every night. Thomas's eyes got heavy and he closed them, not intending for sleep to take him, but it did.

---

Sunlight poured in Thomas's room, waking him up from his sleep. He was still in the same position he was in at one in the morning. The clock said 7:24. He had to get to school in six minutes. He moved the mouse on the computer table and woke up the computer from its slumber. He went to the start menu, intending to turn off the computer, but as he did it, the cursor moved across the '.' that the person had wrote to him. The cursor made the hand symbol for a split second, but enough for it to catch Thomas's eye. He moved it over the period again. The hand popped up again, signaling that the period wasn't just a period. It was a link to a website. As soon as Thomas clicked on it, his monitor was bombarded with popups, each containing a headline that had the name Morpheus in it. 'To hell with school,' Thomas thought. He was going to read each and every one of the messages, no matter how long it took.

---

sorry its been so long. i'll try to keep this story going, but the updates wont be very close together. the wait probably wont be this long either