Chapter 1

The young woman sits on a crowded train on a normal afternoon on her way home from work. Everyone around her talks to friends, either the ones sitting next to them or on their cellular phones. Everyone except her feels that this is all there is and accepts it.

God I hate my life. I can't believe that this is the result of everything that I've worked for in the four years that I spent at university. I hate my job, I hate the people I work with and I hate this stupid routine!

By day my name is Angelique Horton. I'm a "responsible" computer programmer with a 9 to 5, a tax file number and an apartment in suburbia. According to people who think they know me I like shopping and going to computer conventions.

By night I'm Devil; computer hacker extraordinaire. I've committed every crime on the net thinkable and had a damn good time doing it too. In essence it's one of the only real pleasures I get out of this shit heap that I call life.

Other than that I like going to heavy metal clubs with my actual friends and screaming my lungs out to the latest Manson, Deftones or Linkin Park song. Sometimes I even enjoy going up to the Hindu temple just a few suburbs away to meditate. It's in those meditations that I find myself in another world; a different world more turbulent than this. It's quite ironic really, especially when meditation is supposed to relax you.

I had been living like this for a year now when one night everything changed. And it happened in the way I least expected it to.

"Hey Devil you bitch open up!" I could hear Isis pounding on my door. I shook my head and laughed.

"Just a second." I yelled back. I closed the lid on my laptop and ran for the door. Isis stood outside all dressed to go clubbing. "Wassup?"

"What's up is that Nathaniel and the group are waiting for you downstairs and you are coming to Black Death with us."

"Oh come on I've got things to do tonight."

"You can rob the Reserve Bank another tonight. Get dressed. You're coming with us."

"Oh alright. Just give me ten minutes."

Twenty minutes later I was leaving my apartment dressed in my black mini skirt, fishnet stockings, knee high black boots, a black sleeveless knit and all sorts of jewellery. It was quite a refreshing change from the usual crap I had to wear to the office.

"Lets go people!" Nathaniel shouted from the driver window of his van. I grinned seeing the gang all excited. Black Death was the hottest new heavy metal rock club in the area. Maggie had gotten the passes for us all. She probably had to sleep with the manager (not that she wouldn't have minded) to get them. But seeing how it was none of my business I didn't ask.

Once inside I was positively thrilled to find the club playing one of my favourite songs. Rock is deader than dead And the shock is all in your head

"So fuck all your protests and put em' in bed!" I screamed out the lyrics to my hearts content feeling all the rage and irritation inside me pour out.

Good old Marilyn Manson. Always there when I need him.

We partied the next few hours away having the occasional drink. But I never drank too much when I was here. The music seemed to intoxicate me. I didn't care why. To me it just wasn't important.

It wasn't until about after one in the morning that the beginning of the end of my life as I knew it came. And it was in the form of a man strangely enough.

I sat down for a breather and sipped on a vodka tonic. Not my usual choice of drink but hey I was feeling "adventurous". I placed my drink down and bent over to adjust my boots. Man my feet were killing me.

"Need some help there?" A masculine voice towered over the noise but it seemed only I could hear it.

"No thanks I'm fine." I replied without looking up. Strange. I don't normally get guys hitting on me in these clubs. Most people are here for the music.

"I'm not making a pass at you if that's what you're thinking."

That did it. I looked up at whom I was speaking to. He had Asian features, dark brown almost black hair and was wearing a white suit with a black shirt and sunglasses. Wait a minute. How on earth did this guy get in the club dressed like that?

"You know you look a little out of place in this club." I commented.

"Why because I'm not Caucasian?"

"No because you look like a GQ cover boy. Everyone else in here looks like they just came off the set from an Orgy or Manson video."

"So what should I be wearing then?" He asked with a laugh. "Tight leather pants with a matching tank top?"

"Well yeah but you can also wear cargo pants too if you don't like leather or vinyl." I looked up at him. He was kinda cute. "So what's your name?"

"Ghost."

"I'm Devil."

He gave me an 'are you kidding?' look. "What kind of a name is Devil?"

I looked down to adjust my skirt. "Well what kind of a name is Ghost?" I received no answer. When I looked up he was gone.

"Weird." He had disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived.

I shrugged and kept sipping on my drink.

The next morning I awoke at ten with a blinding headache. Odd. I hadn't drank that much. My dreams had been pretty weird though. Besides dreaming about having something shoved into my ear, I kept seeing that man's face. What was his name? Ghost? What a weird name. Although my hacker alias was pretty bizarre it wasn't my real name. Actually come to think of it Angelique was strange name for me. According to my mother (a total git and a half if I ever saw one), it was derived from the word Angel. An angel? Me? How ironic. Devil suited me more. I was always a troublemaker and a problem child. Oh how the good old days have passed.

I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed to go running. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I sure as hell was not going to waste it.

I stopped at one point to drink some water from the drinking fountain when I heard a very familiar voice.

"Need some help there?"

I stopped dead. I turned around to see him. "Are you stalking me?"

"No not really." Ghost laughed. "Actually I do need to speak with you."

Was this guy nuts? How the hell did he even find me? My own idiot mother couldn't find me if there was a neon green sign over my apartment saying 'SHE'S HERE!'

"About what?" I eyed him suspiciously.

"I know this may seem strange to you but I actually am here to help you."

"With what?"

"With this?" Faster than I could see he had a gun pointed into my right ear. "Tell me Devil have you had any dreams of having an ear examination lately?"

"Yeah something like that." I said absolutely terrified. Good work Devil. Always attract the homicidal maniacs.

I felt something being sucked out my ear. Slime was dribbling down my neck.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I looked at him. In a glass cylinder a small bug covered in brownish fluid wriggling around.

"Was that in my ear?"

Ghost didn't say anything but threw the cylinder into the nearby pond. "Come on we haven't got much time. Lets go."

For once I didn't argue. He took my hand and we ran.

I found myself in the company of other spectacularly dressed people. Three other people to be exact. Two women and one man sat in the Pontiac Firebird. What in God's name had I gotten myself into?

Ghost gave me what I assumed was an attempt at a comforting look. Boy he needed to work on his facial expressions.

"We're here." He said as we pulled up outside an abandoned building.

"Where's here?" I questioned him.

He said nothing but smirked.

"Well answer me."

"You'll see."

I didn't know what to think. How can you think clearly when a parasite has just been sucked out of your ear? Or when a (cute) man you met for the first time last night might be potentially stalking you? I wish I knew.

We climbed several flights of stairs until we stopped outside of an old and battered door.

"Are you ready?"

"For what?"

"The answer to that one inescapable question you keep asking yourself."

"How do you know about that?"

"Just go in." He opened the door and pushed me inside.

"Hey watch it." I tried to open the door but it appeared to be locked from the outside.

"What the fuck have I gotten myself into?" I muttered.

"Good morning Devil." Another male voice greeted me. Great. Was I about to be part of some good old-fashioned gang banging? I really hoped not.

"I am Morpheus."

"And how is it that you know my name?"

"I know many things about you Devil. I know that your real name is Angelique Horton. You work five days a week at a promising software company. You live in a decent part of the suburbs and you like to go shopping." I shook my head.

Boy had he got me wrong.

"Devil is your hacker alias or as you prefer to think 'your real name'. You like going to heavy metal clubs on Friday nights and on Saturdays you hang your laundry out to dry all the while asking 'is this all there is?' but never receive an answer. Tell me why do you think that your question cannot be answered?"

Or perhaps not.

I was taken aback so much that I had to place a hand on the wall to steady myself. "Because no one else seems to feel the way I do. Everyone else is so content to have some routine to live their lives by. I'm not. This can't be it. At least not for me."

"Ironically that's not too far from the truth." He sat in one of the old armchairs by the fire. "Come now sit. What you feel is a recognition that this world is not a real place. It is a façade to cover up the real truth."

I leaned in closer. "What truth?"

"That you are a slave Devil. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. The Matrix.

"What is the Matrix?"

"Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

He held out his hands. "This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill you wake in your bed tomorrow morning believing that this was some elaborate dream. You take the red pill you begin the journey."

Oh bloody hell. I looked down. Well my life seemed to suck so blue was out of the option. I took the red pill from him and swallowed it down. He stood up and gestured for me to come with him. I followed him into the next room where those other people in the car were.

"Trinity are we ready?"

"Almost."

The other woman led me over to a chair. "Ghost could you?"

"Sure." He began attaching wires to my arms. I flinched when he touched me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but some reason I was afraid of him. It struck me as odd. I'd hardly ever been afraid of anything or anyone in my life. Added to the fact that I barely knew him it didn't make sense. Who was this guy? And why did he feel like death?

Feel like death? Was that even English? God I'm weird.

"The pill you took is part of the trace program." Morpheus said as he stood behind a computer console. "It's designed to interrupt your input/output carrier signals."

And I thought I wasn't making sense.

Not really knowing what the hell he was going on about I just nodded. I looked at the mirror next to where I was sitting. There was a crack right where my face came up to. Then the crack seemed to slide into perfection as if the surface was not made out of glass but liquid.

"Did you…" My voice trailed off. I touched the mirror. My fingers swirled around in the cool liquid. I tried to pull them out. As I did the liquid covered them and slowly started to envelope me.

"What the fuck is happening to me?" I cried out. "Is this-"

"Real? Feels like it doesn't' it?" Morpheus said behind me. "How's it coming?"

"Trinity shook her head. "Nothing yet. We can't trace her."

All around me I could hear a flurry of voices.

"Sparks we'll need a signal soon."

"She's going into arrest."

"We still haven't got her."

"Sparks hurry up!"

"Alright it's locked."

"Now Sparks."

The cold liquid engulfed me completely. All I could do was scream.

Then there was darkness.