Monkey Business

Things might get a little weird but don’t stop reading, I promise I won’t leave you hanging half… hearted

“This guy Marina, this fucking guy is driving me crazy. He’s just so…. boring, so staggeringly boring. Why on earth are we monitoring this Jerry in the first place?” — Alex was shifting around nervously in her chair while she was venting frustration at the poorly trained AI. She had been sitting in this exact same spot for 5 weeks now.

At first she was excited, the headquarters in Bavaria supposedly asked specifically for her to be on this assignment. It was of utmost importance that ‘Jerry Strauss’ was observed they said, all his behaviour needed to be concisely monitored and reported back.

Although they didn’t specify who it was or why they were interested, this kind of introduction would lead anyone to believe that the target was at least an interesting fellow right? After a few days of observing him the initial hunch that this guy might just be a thousand year old alien on top of a conspiracy trying to overthrow the king of Morocco in order to corner the transdimensional hashish trade already seemed a bit far fetched. But now, 5 weeks into the process the dullness was so overwhelming that it was driving her to the outer edges of sanity.

This guy was literally not doing anything else than any random slob at any given day. He got up at 8 in the morning; made breakfast with coffee; drove a car to his job as a data entry assistant; drove back; made a mediocre at best microwave dinner and dozed off to sleep after watching a tv show about people exchanging passive aggressive comments around a kitchen table.

Initially, her mind was still racing with different thoughts of adventurous villainy. She assumed this pattern to be a very disciplined and cunning smokescreen for Jerry’s actual heinous activities, but soon found that was impossible. Everywhere he went the nano drones were there taking videos; she had observed all his cellphone and computer activity; she even stared at this guy keying in the exact same time on his microwave every fucking day. Nothing, nothing of interest at all.

Dark cellars with old musky walls and a mysterious low mist. A deep slow bang was heard and thick dark purple oozy liquid came crawling from under the door. When the door flew open and a full wave was released she started running the other way. The halls stretched into an endless abyss, the liquid slowly but surely reaching there seemed no way out. Stains on the walls turned into distorted faces, the deafening screams of her dying mother were all around her, fractaling into her ears. The faces getting more clear, morphing into one big being with burning neon-lit pentagrams for eyes. “I SEE YOU” it howled, over and over and over again.

7:30AM — Rolling in a puddle of sweat on a cheap mattress. What was happening to her? Although dreams followed her all her life, these demented nightmares were getting more frequent… and definitely worse. It must be the boredom of staring a this loser all day. Enough she decided, she was going to take matter into her own hands. A quick heartfelt glance at the picture on her desk and she opened up her laptop.

After finishing and perfecting her dating profile she sent Jerry a ‘super like’, something sure to reach him. Although she normally despised this superficial excuse for social interaction the platform provided the perfect opportunity now. With all the information she had about Jerry she could present herself as the optimal match, not as boring as him but also not too intimidating. A nice mediocre girl for an utterly mediocre man.

She watched the video feeds, saw him grabbing his phone and following his ever dull facial expression she zoomed in. Flipping through her photos and reading her bio he was deciding. Suddenly there was this wave of anxiety awash on Alex’s mind. It was as if she was in the center of the dream again. However, the panic left as soon as it came up and she saw him pushing ‘like’. It’s weird how these things can keep fucking with your mind, I really need to get out more she said to herself.

Waiting a little bit for the appropriate time she made her move. Chatting for a while, monitoring his emotional state via the sensors, she invited him to a date for that same night. It needed to be something he would surely love. Lets go out bowling she said… fucking bowling.

Driving her bike through the cloudy neon-lit city streets she reached the bowling hall. She still couldn’t really shake the off-feeling she woke up with. She had monitored Jerry the rest of the day but there was nothing out of the ordinary, no sign of daydreaming, nervousness or even a glance. That’s a bit weird right? Then again this guy hadn’t shown much life-signs until now anyway so it was probably fine.

As she walked up the stairs she saw Jerry waiting near the door. Feigning confusion she asked him whether he was her date for tonight and he responded positively. Not just positively actually, but strangely charming he took her hand and kissed it. Something she normally thought was reserved for hat tipping neckbeards, but now seemed the most appropriate thing in the world. Even better there was an unexpected rush of strong and warm emotions flowing through her chest, rising up her spine. “Shall we go in?”, he asked gently. A bit startled but getting grip on the situation again she smiled and followed him inside.

Dealing with the shoe and ball related business they exchanged predictably empty pleasantries. She tried to weave in subtle questions about his past. Apart from the things she already knew from her files, he didn’t really reveal anything. She was however still surprised by his apparent charm, almost genuinely having a good time. He asked about her life and even though the persona she presented wasn’t hers, it felt right somehow.

They sat down at their lane, had a few laughs and threw a few balls. After a while a strange pattern started to arise. Without exception Jerry was throwing the exact same score as she had thrown, every single throw. The first four throws could still be explained as a strange coincidence but seven times? The damp tense feeling of anxiety started to creep up again.

Alex sat down and took a sip of her drink. The glass sticked to her lips and seemed to become liquid itself. Looking down at the glass there suddenly was a infinite depth of oozing bright black and white checker patterns, working it’s way on her lips, through her mouth into her throat. In total panic she looked at Jerry. His hair was flowing like wild purple and green ripples in reality and his eyes were staring right at her, ablaze with fire and clear neon-lit pentagrams for eyes…

It stopped as quickly as it came up but this confused Alex even more. At an instant she was transported to the dull bowling area again. Her glass was now broken on the floor, the gin-tonic not far away. From all over the room people were staring at her. Even though she had no idea what was going on, she had clearly made a scene. She stood up, quickly turned around and made her way for the bathroom.

“Ok, what the fuck just happened? That was fucking insane. Am I going insane? This fucking dream is really getting to me”. Even though the visual distortions were no longer there the feeling of panic was and the fact that everyone was seemingly staring at her was not helping.

She reached the bathroom, opened up the door and stormed inside. She looked in the mirror, saw her own distress written in her eyes and splashed her face with water. Looking up in the mirror again the visual distortions were back. Her face dripping onto the sink like liquid checkerboards. She turned around, splashing the walls with little bits of her face and saw that the door was no longer there. “WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?” she cried out.

Everywhere the pieces of swirling liquid landed it started to dissolve into endless repetitions itself. It wasn’t long before the whole room was one big spiralling goo of checker-patterns, Alex’s former body nowhere to be recognised. She could feel it though, while this was happening some definite sense of her still remained. And it was horrifying.

Almost getting used to the extraordinary fast switches in time and space she found herself back in the seat of the bowling lane again, taking a sip of her drink. She looked around, everybody peacefully going on with their business. Jerry coughed, when she looked up she saw him sitting across of her, relaxed and in control. Staring at her just long enough he started talking. “Who do you think I am? Why are you after me? Or better yet, who do you think you are?”

What was going on? This was surreal at best, was this some kind of joke? Either somebody slipped her the strongest acid in the world or she was definitely going crazy.

“It recently came to my attention that you were investigating me and it should be considered logical that I am interested in such activities. So you are part of the so called “illuminati”, correct? They haven’t really shaped up their game in the last centuries I see’. Alex tried to speak, she tried to stand up, to run away, anything to make this stop but nothing would work, she was completely powerless.

“So you want to know about my business hon?”. Alex’s face was forcefully put into a nodding motion. “I was quite amused to read your theories actually. The Moroccan hashish narrative was hilarious although not far from the truth. You see, I do come from… another world, another plane. Reality is far more vast and versatile than any of you dirt-monkeys would ever dare to dream. And I could know, because that is exactly what I come here to do: to dream.”

Jerry, still staring into her eyes, shifted into an even more dominant and annoyingly pleased with himself pose. “I have to thank you, your generation has made it so much easier. Modern society has created a mediocre daily experience that is so robotic it allows me to blend in without much effort. Just grinding at some dead-end job during the day like all the other Jerries. Even though I don’t require it, I see it as my sleep cycle while I am here, a bit of fun at the expense of your animalistic needs I guess. Better yet modern people have no idea about dreams or demons, they think it’s all fantasy, it’s just a movie. It makes them so easy to influence, dancing like little puppets.”

“I was especially interested in these little AI helpers littering the place these days. I realised there was probably a set of data sitting somewhere in an offshore bunker, containing all the sounds of every room on the planet. I found a nice young man, with very sexy dreams I might add, that ‘helped’ me implement some filters. To see if people are putting their nose where it doesn’t belong. And that’s how I found you, Alex. It’s so sad to see that the trust you place in your psych-AI was violated like this. I guess thats what you get when you choose convenience over confidentiality”.

“I’m sorry, look at me rambling. Is there anything you would like to respond to?”, Jerry asked with a smirk on his face. Alex stumbled, her mind hanging onto threads now. “Who are you? And why are you telling me this?” she muttered. “The who I can’t help you with… but why am I telling you this? Because you already lost. You think this is some stupid movie? I’m to reveal myself so some absurd super hero can swoop in and save the day at the last second? No Alex, my dear Alex. This is still the dream… or at least sort of.”

“Right now your body is in an ambulance. It’s 4:23am and your biometric device alarmed the local hospital that your heart had stopped beating, eleven minutes ago to be exact. Don’t worry, you’re not going to make it. In a few hours your coworkers will be notified of your passing. If it’s any consolation, Tina your friend from HQ, will be devastated by the news, for a time at least. I know this must be hard for you, but I do hope this means you can at least see your mother again”.

Folding a napkin, he wiped his mouth and put down his drink. Standing up he excused himself. “I’m terribly sorry but this is all the time we have. It was an incredibly fun game, but I’m afraid I am required elsewhere”. He turned around, took one step and Alex saw her chance. She conjured all the energy she could muster, calling upon all the force in her body, mind and soul she tried to run. Nothing happened, literally nothing happened, she was unable to lift even a finger. With the burning anxiety of a trapped animal Alex realised it was useless, she was doomed.

With a flick of Jerry’s fingers a fresh wave of distortions washed over the room. ‘Jerry’ himself turned into something visually incomprehensible to anyone in the far region of this reality. The rest of the surroundings was so quickly turned into a tornado of patterns made of dark red and purple fractals that the whole room morphed into a globular tunnel all around her. A dark and deeply alien voice shouted, “THIS WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL NEVER LOOK FOR ME AGAIN”.

The fractals rhythmically formed images of her mother’s last moments. All around here were endless repetitions of that single shot: being helpless on the backseat of the car; rolling down a hill; the battered and bloody face of her mom blowing out her last breath against the car-window. Again and again and again and again and again. The exact same feeling of her dream was bursting out of every one of her neurons, only a thousand times stronger now. Anguish, anxiety, despair, all hope was lost, maybe she should just give in, let it drag her away into infinity. What was the use?

After what seemed like millennia, even though the notion of time was sure to be irrelevant at this point, something miraculous happened. The moment she truly desired to give in, something started to glow in her energetic body. Or at least it felt like glowing. For a flashing second the never ending horror of her mother dying shifted towards that strange moment with Jerry on the stairs outside the bowling hall. A warm, golden glowing light started forming where before there was only darkness, it was filling up her soul with gratitude.

Why not give in? Her body was already dead but that didn’t even matter, she was obviously and utterly helpless. What does it even mean to not give in at this point? The glowing light became stronger and she could clearly see the images reforming. Again it was this singular moment of her mother dying. But this time something was different, she could see the look on her face as never before. The howling screams weren’t out of anguish regarding her own death, but it was for Alex. It was love. The last words she murmured were not curses against the gods, cursing them for her horrible fait. It was something far greater. They were words of gratitude, that even though she would not survive, at least her child was still alive. A life for a life. Love for Love.

The tunnel is now opal blue and completely formless apart from a net of golden eyes. Clearly having the sensation of rising, the feeling in her body became lighter and lighter to a point where she was bursting with so much love and gratitude that it would be unbearable if she hadn’t already given up any notion of resistance. The sense of identity became so far removed from her experience that all form started to dissolve into emptiness until at last there was One. One infinite mass of indescribable colour. No — Thing.

Waking up into this nothingness there was but a question: stay here or just one more?

Related posts:

This AMA session is based completely on questions from the CobinHood community. The CEO at SocialMedia.Market project — Dmitriy Shishov — answers the most popular questions concerning the nature and…

Tgrade is pioneering a new consensus mechanism, Proof of Engagement, which is founded on a written constitution. At the core of the Proof of Engagement is the community who are engaged with Tgrade…

Writing advice might be amongst the most irksome types of advice, perhaps right up there next to parenting advice. The difference is, at least in parenting there is a psychology to it. I have heard…