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Post by Doctor Cyber on Apr 12, 2013 23:36:14 GMT -5
It had progressed to at least two weeks now and Matthew was wondering if he was beginning to lose his mind. For two weeks he had allowed a robotic voice to control his every movement, to force him to perform actions at its every whim. It was a voice far beyond human emotion and yet he was inclined to listen to it. But there was more to his obedience and submission, because what the robotic voice knew was that he had a five year old daughter living just a few miles away from his shady little apartment in downtown Manhattan and if he did not comply with the voice’s every demand then he would subject his daughter to unimaginable harm. Had it not been for that, then Matthew would rather have gone forward and killed himself – however the voice promised that if he even went that far his daughter would join him.
Motivated by fear and the perseverance of his little girl Katie, Matthew complied with every single one of the voice’s demands.
It began on a Monday evening when he had walked into through his apartment door from a long day at work. His cell phone rang with a blocked number. Carelessly, he picked it up with a generic greeting and was met with the bone chilling response of a faceless and distant digitalized voice.
“Hello Matthew” the heavy digitalized voice responded.
“I have been watching you Matthew and I need you to perform a few tasks for me. You are now part of an experiment Matthew, and you will comply with my every word.”
“Bull s&%t” was his response and he was ready to hang up to this prank phone call.
“I would take this situation a bit more seriously Matthew, especially since the life of Katie is on the line.”
For a moment his blood ran cold and he began to break into a light sweat. Paranoid now, he turned around in his apartment almost expecting the perpetrator to be standing somewhere in his dinky little apartment. He ran from the foyer to the kitchen and looked around slammed the lights on. White fluorescent lights blinked on and exposed the messy area. Week old plates in the sink, the stove stained with oil and previous ingredients used for his food, and the tiny foldable card table in the corner that acted as a dining table completely covered with bills and other random letters.
“What the f&@k? Who the f&@k is this?” Matthew spat into the microphone of his cellphone.
He slowly opened a small drawer and pulled out a kitchen knife. Turning around he tip toed out of the kitchen and slapped the lights on in the living room, his left hand holding up the knife and the right holding his cell phone to his ear.
“That is irrelevant to this entire experiment Matthew. What is relevant is your ability to comprehend the fact that I am now in control of your life and that you must oblige to my expectations of you or the consequences will be very grave.”
The bone chilling voice responded, completely unnerved by Matthew’s brash response.
“f&@k YOU! TELL ME WHO THE f&@k THIS IS. I’LL FIND YOU! YOU SICK MOTHER f&@ker WHO THE f&@k ARE YOU!”
Matthew continued to scream, moving on to the bathroom after finding no one in the living room. There was no movement behind the shower curtain, so he continued to the last room, his bed room.
“You will not find me Matthew. That is futile. But I can see you. In fact I have monitored you for some time now and I know you have nothing else to live for but your daughter. So if you wish to see her live, you will obey me. This is a warning Matthew, do not make me act upon this.”
Matthew paused ready to turn off the phone, maybe if he just pretended this never happened there would be no consequences. Suddenly the sound of his daughter’s voice filled his ears and he listened to a whole minute of Katie’s sing song voice through the phone. The realization that Matthew would not be able to find whoever was toying with him halted him in his tracks. There was a greater power at hand here and he stopped dead in the entranceway of the room.
“Do you… Do you really know where Katie is… How – how do you know me—why me?”
Matthew said, in an almost pleading voice, another realization was that he was losing hope in the situation.
“Yes Matthew. It does not matter how I know you. You are merely one out of many people that I am conducting this experiment on, and you are a good subject because your losses exceed your gains. You live for nothing else in life Matthew but that of your daughter. Your divorce from three years ago shattered your ego and state of security once you found your wife having an affair with one of your friends. Consequently, you killed both of them, which sent you to prison and forced your daughter into foster care. She knows nothing of your actions, but because of what you have done you can no longer see her, yet she means everything to you. It is very odd the way the emotional responses of humans are, but this fragility makes you a very good subject. You will lose everything Matthew, so you will obey my commands.”
The memory made Matthew whimper slightly and his anxiety began to turn into anger and frustration. He tossed the knife across the room and began to throw everything down to the floor. Everything on his bureau was thrown to the floor and he began to tear the sheets off his bed, red hot anger completely controlling him down.
“f&@k YOU! YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! f&@k YOU! I’LL- I’LL JUST f&@k’N KILL MYSELF YOU f&@k’N ASSHOLE! I DON’T NEED TO TAKE ANY ORDERS FROM YOU!”
Matthew screeched, his eyes searching around not frantically for the knife he had tossed.
“Even if you terminate your life Matthew you will still put Katie’s in danger. You will not kill yourself Matthew, your life is now mine. Everything you do will determine whether or not Katie will live. Remember Matthew, I know everything about you and you will not escape me. You will be part of my experiment or you will suffer the consequences.”
Defeat was etched upon his face and he stared out into the black sky, wondering just how someone was able to obtain as much information on him as this individual did. He considered hanging up the phone, pretending this had never happened. Considered throwing it down the toilet or out the window where he could no longer claim ownership over. But those thoughts were quickly eradicated as he thought of his blonde hair and green eyed little Katie and he knew that he could not find it in his strength to potentially jeopardize her.
“Alright…”
He whispered into the phone and in response the phone clicked and he was met with an eerie static infrared silence. Slowly, Matthew pulled the phone away from his hear and he stared at it, the sound continuing to echo inside his head. Tossing the phone on the floor, he found himself collapsing straight onto his misplaced bed and falling into a deep sleep.
The sound of the annoying generic ring of his cellphone caused Matthew to rise from his distressed slumber. Turning in his bed, he slowly raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun light that cascaded from the open blinds on his window.
**Ring Ring Ring**
The sound seemed to be emanating at a much higher decibel than normal.
**Ring Ring Ring**
He groggily pulled himself up and suddenly lost strength in his arm and rolled off the bed. Sniffing in slightly, Matthew realized that he had been crying the whole night. Shaking his head, he turned over on the floor.
**Ring Ring Ring**
“What.. the f&@k…”
Matthew muttered, the ringing now had reached near brain exploding levels. He lazily swept his arm across the floor, performing a week attempt at location his phone.
**Ring Ring Ring**
There it was again, and he grimaced in frustration.
**Ring Ring Ring**
Finally, his hand rested upon the vibrating plastic device and he gripped it and flipped open the receiver.
“H-Hello?”
He answered rather dazedly.
“You have five minutes.”
A robotic voice responded on the other end. It took a moment for Matthew to recollect his thoughts.
“What? Five minutes for what?”
He asked stupidly, turning over to look at the time on the phone. He wasn’t late for work just yet, let along due within the next two hours.
“A white truck will be in front of your complex, I want you to obtain the medium sized blue crate and return it back to your home.”
”What?”
Matthew said, still confused.
“You now have four minutes and 26 seconds.”
Then the line went dead. In that instant, Matthew remembered and as if fire had been lit beneath him he jumped up from the ground and ran for the door. Leaping out of his apartment door, he ran down the hallway, contemplating whether to take the stairs or the elevator. As he neared the end of the hallway, he could see out the side window, a large commercial white truck in the distance.
“What.. the… f&@k?”
He shook his head and bolted for the staircase door. Slamming the handling, he almost lost balance tumbled down the stairs. Fortunately, he did not and managed to grasp the railing and swiftly run down the stairs. Reaching the bottom floor, he kicked the door open and found himself in the lobby where a bewildered old woman stared at him in shock as he ran past her drenched in sweat with a 5 o’clock shadow threatening to take over the lower half of his face.
As he reached the main entrance, he paused as a loud pop, screeching of tires and the collision of metal radiated from outside.
Shaking off the moment of pause, he burst outside, and saw that the white commercial truck had miraculously crashed into a telephone pole. Running forward, he did not even check to see if anyone was surveying as he ran toward the back of the truck where the back doors had opened up allowing anyone entrance into the caravan.
Leaping in, he hastily looked around and grabbed a nearby blue crate. Heaving it over his shoulder he jumped out of the truck, the shock from the high jump and weight on him combining to create excruciating pain on his shins. Pausing for a moment to curse in pain he hobbled over to the sidewalk and jumped over the curve.
Like a maniac he ran up the stairs of his complex and then into the building, opting to take the stairs back to his apartment.
When he returning to the safety of his home, the cops were already surrounding the perimeter and Matthew breaking into a panicked sweat leaned against his closed bedroom door holding his head in his hands the blue crate sitting besides him.
**Ring Ring Ring**
His cellphone went off again, and instinctively he pulled out his cellphone and pressed the receiver to his ear.
“Okay, there. I did it. I f&@k’n did it. Now the f&@k’n cops are probably going to kill me or something. Are you happy? Are you happy you sick f&@k? I’m done, I’m done with your stupid experiment!”
Matthew spat into the phone, breathing heavily from a combination of frustration and fatigue.
“Open the crate.
Obviously not acknowledging the despair he was in, the voice responded in its usual emotionless tone.
Despite his anger, without hesitation, Matthew reached for the crate and popped it open. Inside, he found diamonds neatly stacked on sapphire velvet. Each one gleamed brilliantly as the sun hit it, causing a spectrum of color to spill on the floor and wall. For a moment, Matthew was completely entranced by the beauty- but then his senses caught him.
“What the hell?! Oh s&%t! What the f&@k! Are you crazy? s&%t! This is! This is illegal! I f&@k’n just stole-I can’t-“
He slammed the crate closed and backed away from it. He quickly got up and began to pace back and forth in front of the crate.
“What is in the box?”
The robotic voice inquired, still in the same tone that it had initiated this entire conversation in.
“Diamonds! … a s&%t load of diamonds!”
Matthew responded, his hand shaking as he tried desperately to keep the retriever against his ear.
“Good. You have done well. This is only the beginning.”
There was a click and the voice was gone, leaving Matthew to stare dumbfounded at the blank wall before him.
This was two weeks ago, and what had started as a theft had escalated to kidnapping, to ransom threats, and to what Matthew figured was murder.
The barrel of a handgun was pressed against his temple and he found himself slightly relieved by the cool metal and envisioned in his mind- pulling the trigger. Just putting an end to it all now. How much further did he have to go? How much further did he want to go? He didn’t care anymore, he had so many things that he would have never done at his own whim. He had been forced to do such lowly things that his sense of self worth and value and completely diminished.
He had done all this because a voice told him so. He had done all this because the voice had given him no other choice. If there was a God, this was voice it because for two weeks it controlled everything that he did. Every crime he committed was so conveniently set up and pre determined it scared him. The experiment that he had partaken in was like being a pawn in a chess game, the voice- it Knew everything. It Saw Everything. It Controlled Everything. It was Matthew.
“Hey a$$%*!e! Get over here!”
Matthew was forced out of his trance and he turned from the corner that he had hidden himself in and walked toward a group of three other men. They were just like him; they were men who had been controlled by a voice. Who had been brought here by a voice. And with the power of the voice, they had managed to kidnap the Mayor’s daughter who was currently sitting tied to a silver metal chair, her ankles attacked to the legs by crude rope, her mouth gagged and her arms crossed behind the chair.
Tears stained her cheeks and she looked up at Matthew with pleading eyes as he passed by. They seemed to say ‘Please let me go. Please don’t hurt me.’ He didn’t need to reaffirm that with a second glance, because he knew that he shared the same feeling. He had the feeling for two weeks and he could not tell any body about it. Katie’s life depended on it and the voice seemed to be aware of his every movement. It was almost as if the voice was right over his shoulder, monitoring every single one of his actions and watching everything he did- it made sure he did whatever it wanted him to do.
Now he found himself in an abandoned building on the eight floor, in a room with three other very different men. They were complete strangers, had never met or possibly even crossed paths and knew absolutely nothing about each other’s existence. Yet, here they were in a room, conceiving the same crime all through the omnipotence of “the voice”.
Matthew assumed his position, gripping the handle of his handgun very tightly and then releasing it to allow the blood to rush through his hands and his white knuckles to form color again. Around him, the three other men were silent and nerve racked each one glancing over to one another. There was a theory that one of them was the voice, but that didn’t make sense and they dare did not discuss the voice-not even amongst each other because that’s just the type of power it had managed to hold over them.
“We sent the message out again… still no response.”
One of the men said. It was strange, they had been working together for a week now and they did not know each other’s name. But maybe that was the idea of this whole scheme- this entire experiment. By disembodying everything and everyone the voice managed to maintain the power and perhaps the lack of connection between each man notated the level of loyalty they would have to prove to one another.
Matthew crouched onto an overturned plastic bin and sighed heavily. The Mayor wouldn’t give them their ransom money he was sure of it. Someone like that had enough power to track regular joes like them down. They weren’t world class criminals; they were merely regular men lead by a voice. But another part of him knew that he shouldn’t doubt the voice, he had in the past two weeks gotten away with so many crimes all thanks to the all seeing eye of the voice.
His hand moved up to the side of his head and he scratched out his ear. For a brief moment he unhinged the Bluetooth device that was attached to his ear and stared at it. The voice had managed to get him one so that it was easier for them to communicate. So that the voice was literally always in his ear.
Clenching it in his hand he thought about the liberation that he would accomplish if he ended it all now. But he was also deterred by the consequences that type of action could do. Relinquishing his hand on the Bluetooth device he prepared to place it back on his ear when suddenly, he paused and perked his ears at what he recognized as a foreboding sound.
“f&@k!”
One of the men said, his hands clenching his dark black hair as he began to pace back and forth in a panicked manner.
“s&%t! s&%t! s&%t! s&%t!”
Another one said, he was a tall African-American. He clenched his gun and ran for the nearest window where the reflection of blue and red lights lit up his dark face.
Matthew closed his eyes as the three other men began to go into a panic. The sound was all too familiar and at this moment Matthew was relieved by it.
“IT’S THE COPS! What the hell do we do?! What do we do?!”
A short balding man shrieked, running toward the Mayor’s daughter who stared at them in bewilderment as their plan seemed to fall apart. He looked as his phone expectantly and Matthew knew he was hoping for some sort of liberation from the voice. The wailing sirens grew louder and louder as they approached the abandoned building and Matthew did nothing but sat and watched the chaos unfold before him. Maybe this was the end, maybe this would stop everything. Maybe the voice would leave them alone recognizing that everything was over.
**Ring Ring Ring Ring**
All four men stopped and looked at each other for a brief moment.
**Ring Ring Ring Ring**
Immediately they pressed their Bluetooth devices and spat “Hello!” into them.
Matthew heard no response on his end, just the dial tone of an awaiting call. The two other men dropped their hands and looked at the small white man who was holding his hands over his ears.
“What…”
The tone of his voice expressed both bewilderment and anxiety. He turned slowly, his gun trembling in his hand. Matthew and the two other men watched him cautiously as he turned slowly and looked at each of them.
“What… what did it say?”
The tall black man asked, his hand clenching his gun as he cautiously surveyed the small man. The man did not respond and began to slowly raise his gun, aiming it in the air and then slowly rotating it to each man.
”WOW WOW WOW! What the f&@k!”
The black man yelled as he raised his fire arm instinctively.
“What the f&@k do you think you’re doing!?”
The Indian man shrieked as he raised his weapon as well. Matthew seemed to remain calm, listening to the screech of tires outside.
“It- it – it said. Only three of us can make it out of here. One of us must die.”
The small man said his hand shaking violently as he tried to keep it straight ahead.
“Motherf&@ker, you can’t kill us- What the f&@k?!”
The man responded and his gun clicked as he armed it and prepared to fire at the small man. The two stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity and Matthew began to feel beads of sweat form on his forehead as the rising anticipation seemed to encapsulate his entire being.
“Wait… Wait! Just Wait! We can’t just die, that’s not part of the game!”
The Indian man finally said, breaking the silence as he stepped forward, immediately both men turned their guns to him, but seeing that he did not have his weapon raised they turned back on each other.
“Look the cops are outside and I’m ready to get the f&@k out of here. All I know is that it told me to get rid of one of you!”
The small man shrieked his arm literally trembling as tried his best to keep the firearm at a steady hold.
“You stupid mother f&@ker, you better rethink firing that f&@k’n gun. You think that thing will help you? You’ll next! It’ll f&@k’n kill you too!”
Again the large African American yelled, his hand now yielding to his own calamity. Both men stared at each other, their glares almost able to kill. The Indian man unsure of how to react began to pull out his own gun, causing the other two men to instantly whirl around and descend the barrels of their own weapons upon him. Matthew on the other hand held his position, awe struck and wondering if this could very well be the end.
It was at this point in time that he began to contemplate the events that had transpired in the last few weeks. Perhaps he would be able to accept this as the end. Ultimately had it all been worth it. If Mathew were to die by chance his daughter would be safe and he could rest easy with that off his conscience. The prospect of it seemed to overwhelm and as he drifted into his own thoughts the voices around him began to fade away and his own weapon began to rise until the cool metal of the barrel rested on his temple.
As tensions began to raise to a point of climax the doors of the room of the burst open and the men were showered with a high intensity light. Everything froze in that one second and the only thing that could be heard throughout the room was the sound of New York’s finest screaming out at the group of men as they slowly averted their attention.
“FREEZE!!”
It reverberated throughout Matthews’s ears and he and the other men immediately dropped their weapons. Everyone raised their hands and looked at each other expectantly. Where was the voice now? Had it abandoned them in their time of need? Then again, perhaps this would have turned out differently if one of them had been killed. Matthew thought of picking up his gun and shooting one of the other men. For self-preservation, Matthew thought it would be worth it.
“MOVE AWAY FROM THE GIRL!!!”
Slowly, each man shifted to the side, moving away from the Mayor’s daughter. This was the end of the line for them, there was nowhere for them to run and they would be going away for a long time. The police would probably connect these men to the recent string of times, and some of the things they did were not as pretty as stealing a box of diamonds.
“Look, this isn’t our fault-“
The small man began, moving forward, but immediately stopped with the officers all raised their weapons at him.
“Get back in line!” the chief officer yelled. His weapon trained on the small man.
“No, I’m serious! It’s not our fault. There’s this thing – it made us do it, it’s a vo-“
**POPppPP!**
There was a pop and the small man immediately fell to the ground howling in pain. Matthew looked down at him to see the small man grabbing his left ear in pain. For a moment he was confused, and then he saw the deep red liquid beginning to seep through his fingers. His ear piece had exploded. The explosion wasn’t big enough to kill him, but it was enough to shut the man up. Clearly the voice wanted to stay anonymous. Realizing the danger that they were in, Matthew watched as the other men threw their ear pieces to the floor.
“Hey, hey, hey! HANDS UP!”
The officers yelled, averting their confused gazes from the small man to Matthew and the others.
“You can tell your story to the commissioner downtown!”
An officer yelled. They police force began to move forward and the men held their heads down, clearly defeated. They would have to do more than explaining, Matthew thought. When the officers were about five feet away, the men shifted closer together and looked at each other for what would be the last time.
CLICK – CLICK – CLICK**
The sound echoed throughout the floor and darkness followed suite. The lights in the building were one by one shut down causing a mass confusion. The three men bumped into each other and them jumped back, what was going on now.
“Don’t move!”
They heard an officer yell.
“We need back up, suspects are attempting to escape!”
There was the sound of feet shuffling in the darkness and slowly one by one the officers began to turn on their flashlights.
“There is an exit behind a false wall. It is behind the boxes that are East of you.”
There it was: the omnipotent and mighty voice. As promised, if one of them died then they would make it out of here. There was a wave of momentary relief for Matthew and he immediately turned left, even though he was blind he trusted in the voice’s ability to lead him home. He could hear the two other men behind him; they had heard the voice as well. They moved swiftly their hands in front of them waiting for the boxing, and somehow managing to avoid all of the officer’s lights. When they finally touched something solid there was a rise in their spirits and they began to move around it.
**CRASSssSSH**
Glass littered the floor and some managed to hit Matthew. Something had burst through the windows of the building and the men paused looking up. In that moment they were in complete defeat, because it was not something that had now entered the playing room. It was someone.
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