Eine Botschaft Aus Dem Jenseit (German) = A Message From The Other Side
25. Eine Botschaft Aus Dem Jenseit
Thomas hears a knock from outside.
"Hey, Dad," Alice called, stepping inside his office while carrying a lunch box. Unlike the usual day, she wears a casual dark blazer with a grey tank top above her body while wearing blue jeans and blue converse below. Her golden hair was tied into a ponytail while a black beanie hat sit atop of it. "How's the meeting today?"
"Boring. And embarrassing," he admitted as she puts the lunch box on his desk. "How's the cafe?"
"It was kinda complicated at first, but the school would compensate the damage, so win-win solution. Although," she glances around the room. "I didn't expect one of the girls as Tiffany's daughter."
Thomas stares at her. "What?"
"I know. It's so weird and awkward, I need to get a grip on myself. Especially with Tiffany keeps apologizing to me. She looks exhausted. I don't want to burden her more."
The man nods, recalling his conversation with Tiffany in Simulatte before.
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"I remember wanting a family, but was that because that's what women are supposed to want?" Tiffany asked as he drank. "How do you know if you want something yourself or if your upbringing programmed you to want it?"
"Mmm," he nods. That's a good question. Something that Alice might love to discuss. "I pay my analyst a lot of money to answer such questions for me," he replied instead.
"Smart. I should get more therapy but honestly, I'm too goddamn tired. Kids are exhausting, you know?"
He smiles fondly, recalling several times Alice made some fuss when she was a child or as an adult now. "Yeah."
"I just met your daughter before coming here," Tiffany confessed after taking her cortado. "She's a lovely girl. Very kind. I like her." She sets her palms down flat to the table. "Took me a surprise that she wrote Cloud Atlas. I always love that book."
"I'm glad you like it," he gratefully said. Most people usually feel discomfort when talking about Alice, knowing her past and stuff she's struggling with adapting now. It feels nice to hear someone speaking about her without any of that remark, even praising the book she wrote as a young child that not many people appreciated.
"So, what's it like being a world-famous game designer? Must be amazing."
"Uh... A lot of hours. Sometimes it is amazing. Most times," he stops for a moment, thinking of many praises he gets about that game. "I don't know."
"But you made The Matrix with Alice. Even I've heard of that."
"Yeah. We kept some kids entertained."
"So, worth it?"
He chuckles as they clink their cup before drinking it.
"Can I ask something about your game?" Tiffany asked.
"Sure."
"Did you base your main character on yourself?"
His mind flashes with his main character, Neo. How he starts as a shy programmer before coming out as a badass hero. "There is a lot of me in him," he admitted, cringes a little when remembering a scene at Reloaded with the Architect. "Maybe... a little too much," he added shyly. That's one of many reason he let his hair gets longer and growing his beard.
"Can I ask you something else?"
"Please."
"There's a woman in your game."
He nods. "Trinity," he muttered with fondness.
"Which is a weird coincidence also, right?" Tiffany pointed out. And Thomas knows what she means. From their similar name to their physical look.
"God, yeah."
"I like her," she confessed. "I like Trinity. I like Enigma too, find her precious, but I like Trinity more. And I dig her Ducati. Another coincidence. I love motorcycles. My friend Kush and I actually build them."
"Really?" Thomas asked, surprised.
"You have your analyst, I have my bikes," Tiffany shrugs. "So, I was looking at images from your game. At Trinity. Well, I showed Chad a scene, and I was like, 'So, what do you think?' He didn't get it until I said, 'Don't you think she looks like me?'"
He quietly listen to Tiffany's words, knowing what she means as his mind recalled how Alice also make that remark when they saw her in Simulatte for first time. Something he noticed as well.
"You know what he did? He laughed."
Thomas stops smiling, thinking of Chad's reaction as an insult. He remembers how Alice loves Trinity and how she cosplays as her last Halloween. Heck, he even met fans - boys or girls, man or woman - who adores Trinity and wanted to be her.
Tiffany takes another cortado, visibly upset like him. "And I laughed too like it was a joke. How could it not be, right?" He can see her jaw tightening and her blue eyes burning with fire. "Made me so angry. I hated myself for laughing. I wanted to kick him so hard." She frowns. "Not too hard. Maybe just... hard enough to break his jaw off."
People might find that scary, but for Thomas, he finds that relatable. Enigma sometimes admitting to him how she wants to kick someone's arse or smashing their head into a wall whenever someone or something interrupted their father-daughter time at home.
She smiles again with his chuckles. "And right now, you're probably regretting sitting down with me."
"This is the best thing I've done in a long time," he confided after these past two weeks of forcing himself into stressful meetings. He feels in peace with Tiffany, something that only Alice can do to him.
Suddenly, a phone rings. Tiffany gasps. "I have to take this," she awkwardly told him before picking it up. "Hi, this is Tiff," she spoke as Thomas briefly looks at the table, nearly stumbling back when the reflection shows a different woman and not Tiffany. He looks back and still sees Tiffany as usual. He must be losing his mind now, since he also saw this with Alice's, around the time she was still hospitalized. "Oh, God, no. I'll be right there," she ends the call. "My, uh, youngest stuck a Lego up his nose."
"Oh," he reacted, not going to ask how's that even possible.
"I... I gotta go," she meekly said as she stands up. "I hope I see you again."
He didn't say anything, merely watch her until she left.
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"Yeah," he nods, agreeing with Alice's reason.
And then, from outside, they heard an alarm blaring. Confuses, both leave the room, finding all people already moving in a hurry. "What's going on?" He asked one of the coworkers outside.
"We probably just got swatted by some 14 years old," he guessed.
"Yeah, someone pissed about the latest update," another added.
"Or they're just a dick," the third man shrugs.
"Please move to the exits. Building's being evacuated," a policeman suggested from afar.
From his phone, Thomas spots a new message. Curiously, he checks it and he and Alice read.
Unknown: Hello Neo. Hello Enigma
Unknown: If you want answers to your questions, go to the end of the hall
Unknown: Go now!
Something just comes to her mind. A scene from The Matrix that feels like a memory.
"When I tell you, go to the end of the row, to the office at the end of the hall."
"What the heck?" Alice mumbled, touches her forehead, trying to ease away the headache as Thomas replies. Who is this?
Unknown: You know who
Both look at each other and they already made their choice. They quickly go into the end of the hall and quietly enter a toilet.
"Jude?" Her father called, checking him while Alice looks at the door in case someone was coming. "Jude!"
And from a stall, a man in a flashy yellow-orange suit with sunglasses exits. "At last," he said, confusing both. He chuckles. "Ah. I wasn't too sure about the callback, but, you know, it was hard to resist."
"What?" Thomas asked as Alice stepped beside him.
"Morpheus Uno. Reveal at the window. Lightning, thunder, and theater," he continued and check the mirror. "At last. All these years later, here's me, strolling out of a toilet stall," he looks at them. "Tragedy or farce?"
"I know you," Alice pointed out. "But at the same time... not."
"Not every day you meet your maker."
"Oh my God," she realized, looking at Thomas who starts fidgets and shakes his hands. "Dad, he's from your modal, right? The one you showed me before."
"This can't be happening," he mumbled.
"Oh, most definitely is."
"You're Morpheus," Alice added, her mind getting dizzier than ever. "From Modal version."
"He can't be a character I coded!" Thomas insisted, panicking.
"100% natural," he simply said, raising his arm, gestures both to touch it. Slowly, Thomas and Alice touch it, feeling how real his hand is.
The blonde girl tucks her left earlobe. "Is that even possible?"
"All the explanation you need," he said, showing a red pill.
Thomas looks horrified now. "Oh. No," he disagreed, shaking his head while Alice's eyes dart left and right. This is too much. "No! No! No!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Morpheus stops him as he's about to leave with Alice. "What do you mean no? You wanted this, you did this. This was your idea."
"It-It-It-It was a test. An experiment," he reasoned, hesitation can be detected at his voice.
"An experiment? You put me in a tiny-ass Modal, left me to bang my head till I nearly lost my shit searching for you two as an experiment?"
"The exit's breaking down," a man wearing high-tech glasses suddenly shows up, startles Alice as she stumbles back.
"What the fudge?!" She reacted. "Who the hell are you?!"
"Wait, she can see me?"
"Apparently she is," Morpheus shrugs, not bothering with his confusion. "And they haven't taken the pill."
"What?" A woman also appears beside him. "There's no time."
"I know, I know. They're having a moment."
"You'd think?!" Alice yelled back as she helps her father in the sink, knowing that this might trigger his mental state and thought. Her mind's in a jumbled mess now. Weird memories and visions overcome her like a bus hit her several times, she barely can cope with herself from having a blackout. She holds his grip so he knows he's not alone in this.
"Do they know how hard it was to hack that mirror?"
Morpheus put his arm inside a mirror and it ripples just like in the first game. "Still open," he told them.
"This," Thomas points out at him and the mirror while holding Enigma. "This can't be real!"
Then suddenly, they hear a voice outside, followed by a loud noise. "Target acquired. We got him," a man said. In a flash, Thomas quickly shields Alice from the bullets that fire at both sides. They stay without movement before finally finding an opening and getting out of the toilet in hurry.
"This isn't happening," he mumbled, gripping more tightens. "It's in my mind. It's in my mind."
"I don't think it's in your mind," Alice whispered, flashes between memories and realities attacking her brain like crazy. She had never experienced this before. Sure, she had weird dreams, but those dreams just come by one by one, not all at once.
"Hey, you two! Stop! Hold it!"
Suddenly they feel an explosion coming from the toilet, pushing them forward and landing on the floor of the building with a bang, followed by the sprinklers going on and scattering the water all around them.
"Alice!" Thomas cried, cups her cheek. "Are you okay?"
She nods and hears more SWAT members approaches them, fire their gun. "Freeze! Don't move!"
Quickly, Thomas helps her as bullets fire again. Not far, Morpheus comes closer, carrying two guns while firing SWAT members. "Neo! Enigma!" He called.
"Come on," Alice drags her father into hiding below a nearby desk, unable to think clearer wish visions keep attacking her mind. Neo and Trinity take out their gun and fire all policemen in a lobby. Morpheus, Trinity, and Seraph fire some people in dark clothes while on the floor or even a ceiling. Mifune fired the APU despite all Sentinels coming to him, slicing his body brutally. My God. What's happening to her? Why do those cutscenes from the trilogy feel like her memory?
From the corner of her eyes, she sees her father's boss enter the place. "Oh my God!" He cried, then looks down.
She feels her hand pulls down by Thomas. He guides her into a near desk, helps her stand up, faces as confused and shocked as she's now as they watch Morpheus kill all SWAT members. "Neo! Enigma!" He shouted again.
This time, Alice looks at her father's boss. He cracks his neck, holding a gun, then slowly eyeing both with familiar glares. And then, he screams two words with utter hatred. "MISTER ANDERSON!"
Flashes of old memories enter her mind. Smith points his gun at her head. Smith as Bane holding Trinity, her hands tied back while he holds a knife at her throat. Smith stabs into Neo's chest while another grabs Enigma's neck.
"No," Thomas muttered in disbelieve. "It can't be!"
Smith fires at them. In instinct, both Thomas and Alice duck their head, avoiding the bullet as Morpheus shouts at them, tells them to go away as he keeps fires at SWAT Team.
"He can't be here," Alice trembled. Her mind's replaying Smith over and over. "He's dead... He's dead... He's dead..."
Their eyes meet each other. He smiles maniacally. "I've missed you," he claimed, like how he claims we missed you before with wet over the rain, just like this too.
As they avoid his bullets, they find a black cat stands not far from their position. Thomas sits down while Alice kneels, still grips her father's shoulder in a stupor. "It's in my mind. It's in my mind," he repeated, touching the water as Smith stands in front, points his gun at his forehead.
Neo opens it... and finds Smith inside, pointing his gun at him. He fires it.
"NO!" She shouted, standing in front of Thomas as Smith fires the gun.
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She gasps, opens her eyes, and found Thomas and his therapist beside her, kneels. "See? She's okay," his therapist remarked. She should remember his name, but for some reason, she can't, despite he knows her and her father for quite some time.
"You're all right?" Thomas asked, helping her sit down. She glances at her father and she can see fear in his brown eyes.
"Just a nightmare," she assured them, touching her chest, frowns. That dream feels so much more real than ever. She swears she can feel that bullet Smith fired had entered her body. "I think I'm too tired," she added.
"I think you're not tired, Alice. I think you had a blackout," the therapist said. "Suddenly shows up in the middle of the session and then collapsed. Caused your father into panic attack."
She shook her head. "Can't be," she argued.
For a year, Alice tries her best to avoid getting blackout by distracting herself into something else that won't cause pressure inside herself. If she had another blackout, Thomas would have to take her to the doctor and Alice would have to undergo some sort of treatment again. She doesn't want to face all that again, and neither does he.
"You'd never know. Best ask a doctor," he stands up. "But now, I think you need some sleep. Use my sofa behind the room. Your father and I need to continue our session without any interruption."
"Sure," she responded and stands up. "Sorry." Rubbing her eyes, she kisses Thomas' cheek and walks into another room, letting Deja Vu, the therapist's cat, follows her like an obediant pet. As she closes her eyes, she feels Deja Vu's fur on her fingertips while hears the therapist's voice speak to her father one more time before falling asleep.
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As soon as he's sure Alice was asleep, Thomas takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself from the fear of seeing Alice unconscious on the floor.
"You feel like you can talk about it?" His therapist asked quietly. "When we started working together, you had lost your capacity to discern reality from fiction. You came to me after trying to jump off a building. You said you wanted to... fly away."
Thomas looks out the window as his head spun the memories. His hands held a trophy from his colleagues for the 10th year release of The Matrix. Many people laughed and smiled. The feeling of emptiness at the thought of Trinity who died at Logos and the condition of his daughter who was still in a coma. Party decorations that mostly related to The Matrix. His desire to fly freely grew stronger and stronger that he was determined to stand on the cliff of the building, ignoring the screams as he stepped into the air.
"We have made a lot of progress since then, but you seem particularly triggered right now. Can you tell me how it started?"
"He texted me," Thomas began.
"Who?"
"Morpheus."
"Ah," his therapist responded and takes his pen to write. "So, he's back."
"It wasn't actually him. It was a program I coded for a Modal."
"And this 'Modal', Morpheus, came to help you and your daughter escape from a virtual reality called The Matrix."
"...Am I crazy?" Thomas quietly questioned, trembles and scared.
His therapist shook his head. "We don't use that word in here."
"What word should I use? What word explains what is happening to me?"
"Can I see the texts?"
Thomas exhales. "They were erased."
His therapist slowly nods, writes something on his book, and looks at him. "If we got in my car and drove to your office, what do you think we'd find there?"
"Nothing. Because there was no attack. No one was killed. No one texted. My mind made it all up," he answered, knowing very well how this work. "Is that what I'm supposed to say?"
"Is that what you believe?"
Thomas could still remember Alice standing in front of him as his boss - Smith - shot a bullet into her chest. Just like when he - Neo - was shot by Smith in that dark corridor. "It felt real," he cried, fear of uncertaincy.
"Of course," his therapist leans forward. "It was your great ambition to make a game that was indistinguishable from reality. To achieve this goal, you converted elements of your life into narrative. Your sublimated anger toward your business partner cast him as your nemesis. A married woman named Tiffany became the 'Trinity' of a doomed romance. The love for your adoptive daughter created the kind 'Enigma' who cherishes her parents so much. Even your dislike of my cat made it into your Matrix. There's nothing wrong with that. It's what artists do. But it becomes a problem when fantasies endanger us or other people. We don't want anyone to get hurt, do we, Thomas?"
A large truck approached their car at incredible speed. Blood dripped from Alice's head, mouth and neck as Thomas struggled to unbuckle his seatbelt. The siren of the ambulance carrying him and Alice as his consciousness faded. Various wires covered Alice's small body as the oxygen mask covered her mouth and nose in a rhythmic motion in tandem with the sound of the small monitor screen.
He felt irons pierce her body, heard the breath of the woman he loved grow weaker as his daughter held herself back from crying loudly. He tasted the blood from the kiss he gave her as a painful parting gift. And as soon as the breath didn't move and the grip of her hand disappeared, his heart shattered to pieces, accompanied by the sound of the cry of a little girl who had lost her mother.
He swallows his saliva and quietly nods.
