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11.05.2102.
‘Who were you talking to?!’
His voice in Josie Silvera’s ear was like a burst of white noise static. Harsh, invasive, an assault on the nervous system. He was different these days. Nothing like the guy she used to love.
‘What?’ She slowly removed the plugs from the metal inserts implanted at her temples and climbed slowly out of the virtual reality cradle, shaking her head to clear the little rush of yellow-white lights from her vision. What had she done wrong now?
‘I said, who were you talking to? That guy with the neon blue eyes?’ He said this last as if it were some crude sexual slang, suggestion mixed with anger. ‘That guy I can see on the screen right there?’
‘Morella? He’s my comrade, nothing more. I was just playing Coldblooded 2.0 on the interwebs.’ What is wrong with you? Why are you so jealous of an avatar on a screen? He’s probably not even good looking in real life. She didn’t say these things out loud. She never did. She couldn’t. It was as if some reflex seized her mouth shut.
‘Oh, funny that. You seem to spend a lot of time playing about in the VR matrix with this...uh...Morella.’
This time she opened the floodgates, spat out the words before she could go through her usual routine of feeling indignant, questioning herself, and deciding that he might be right, that she had probably been unreasonable and didn’t have much right to be angry. ‘It’s a military game for fuck’s sake. You know, Kevlar, explosives, shooting enemies in the head? Nothing remotely sexual about it.’
She immediately regretted it. His eyes widened then took on a dangerous look. He stepped slowly forward, his posture springloaded, dangerous.
‘Who are you talking to, Josie? Because you couldn’t be talking to me. Not in that tone.’
Something cold hit her bloodstream. She wasn’t safe. ‘I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to be rude – ‘
‘It’s okay. Just this once. I don’t wanna hear that tone again.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she stuttered again. Words of ages wanted to come out, hurt and anger she’d been keeping to herself all this time. But all that found its way out of her mouth was a pitiful ‘I’m sorry.’
My sister wouldn’t have this trouble. My sister would handle you like a fucking rag doll.
He made up for it later, of course.
‘Hey, you ok?’
Josie nodded very slightly, apologetically, as if it were wrong to disturb other people’s air molecules by moving her head about.
‘I’m sorry about getting angry.’
‘It’s ok. We’re all only human.’ She found herself meaning it as she said it, feeling for him. Anyone could have flipped out. It wasn’t his fault he was born with a volatile temper. No, and it wasn’t his fault he chose to lash out but could control himself when he wanted. Some people just weren’t naturally wise and collected. All he needed was some understanding.
‘I got you some of your favourite poison.’ He held out some little vials of Liquid Nitrogen, her favourite stimulant drink. ‘Adrenal fatigue in a bottle.’ They both chuckled. ‘You like the green one, right? The one that kind of tastes like piss?’
Josie burst out laughing, and then they were both off. They hadn’t laughed like that in ages. She gave him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. ‘Yeah, thanks. That was really kind of you.’ She felt really bad now. Just hours ago she’d been calling him all sorts of names inside her head, hating him, wishing she had some martial arts skills like her sister so she could smack him around the head next time he took that intimidating tone. How could she even think of actually hurting him? She was a monster. She would never allow thoughts like that into her head again.
‘Do you want to play Coldblooded for a while? We never play together any more.’
‘Sure! I’ll tell Morella to get lost, too.’
‘Oh no, you don’t have to! I don’t mind if he plays with us.’
‘No, really. It’s not fair on you.’
They exchanged a long slow kiss, then climbed into the VR cradles and entered the battlefield.
She never did play with Morella again, or talk with him in the chat rooms. That sucked; he’d been a good friend of hers.
Deja vu, really.
26.05.2102.
That voice again.
That voice that was nothing like that of his old self. The man she used to love.
That voice that stabbed right into some vital nerve nexus, made her want to cry, curl in a fetal position, crawl into a hole for safety.
‘Did I say you could wear that dress? You look like a whore.’
‘Please, don’t be so angry. I only want to go see my sister before she leaves to fight in the world championships. It’s not like I’m going off alone meeting other men.’
Her sister, Adrienne Silvera, was virtually her diametric opposite, a rough and ready Muay Thai fighter with a record of 19-0-0. Josie would have loved to have her sister’s disposition. No fear of physical pain, no fear of failure. It must be liberating to be that fearless.
‘Ah yeah, your sister. That’s her in that picture in the corner, right?’
‘Yeah.’ Josie suddenly felt like crying. She hadn’t seen her sister in so long. She was always suggesting that he meet her, but he always found excuses as to why they couldn’t go. They needed to be somewhere else. He was busy. He needed attention for some reason or other. Damn, Adrienne, I’m sorry I left you out of my life. Did you ever get that scimitar tattoo you were on about? Do you still feel like solid metal when I hug you?
‘Are you sure she’s a sister not a brother? She looks heavier than me.’
Josie’s heart started pumping about six times harder. She wanted to yell, Couldn’t you try not being an asshole for once?
She said nothing.
‘Little sister!’ Adrienne exclaimed, wrapping Josie up in one of her patented crushing hugs. She didn’t look at all different. Same smooth mahogany skin that never seemed to get cut when she fought, same raven-black hair and ice-blue eyes, same delicate heart-shaped face that looked somehow at odds with her powerful frame. ‘Oh, and is this your boyfriend?’ She held out her hand to shake his.
He didn’t take it. Just asked hostilely ‘So you’re the Muay Thai monster Josie’s told me about, yeah?’
Adrienne laughed awkwardly, slowly let her hand fall back down.
He looked her up and down coldly, neck, shoulders, those thick obliques that powered her dangerous kicks. Then finally directly at her eyes.
‘Someone needs to accept that she wasn’t born with a dick.’
Their mother gasped. Their father’s eyes went very wide. Adrienne locked eye-contact back and said coolly, ‘I like you too.’
Josie felt about a million different reactions welling up in her brain. She wanted to cry. She wanted to slap him for being so rude in front of their parents. She wanted to break down and apologize to all her family.
And instead, she locked her eyes on the floor, inert, and said nothing.
30.05.2102
21:22 Josie19: How did you do, sister???
21:23 demonessX: I won, I fucking won!! I can’t quite believe it yet...
21:23 Josie13: YAY!!!! Congratulations *hugs*
21:23 demonessX: I totally destroyed the American girl with my round kicks...And she had the height advantage on me, too. You’ve gotta see. I’ll send you some of my memories. I’m downloading them direct from neural plug, should only take a minute.
21:23 Josie13: That’s so awesome!!! My sister, the world champion fighter!!
21:24 Josie13: Oh I got those files...where are we..Computer...Media...here we are
Josie hooked herself up and hit Play. She saw Adrienne’s body as if it were her own, inside that fighting ring that seemed tiny, tunnel vision locked on the blur that was her opponent. The virtual Adrienne ducked under a kick and delivered one of her own that scythed her opponent’s legs out from under her. Then the screen went blank again.
21:24 Josie 13: That was short
21:25 demonessX: ya it takes up so much memory, all that sensory information. Look at the other one where I knocked her out XD
Josie went to open the file, but by accident clicked on one that belonged to him.
Her viscera turned to ice.
The clip was of a delicately built woman of about mid-twenties, screaming and kicking while being pinned down by a much larger male. What came after didn’t bear describing. She hit the close button.
There were more of them. A list several screen lengths long.
She panicked, reacted reflexively, shut off the power as if it would erase all that terrible material, make everything okay.
21:26 demonessX: are you ok?
21:26 demonessX: Josie?
21: 27 demonessX: Dammit girl, are you there? Just tell me if you’re ok
31.05.2102, 1am Greenwich Mean Time
‘What the fuck is this?!’ Josie screamed at him, gesturing wildly at the computer screen.
‘It’s just some porn, that’s all. Those aren’t real, you know. Just actors doing scenes. No one is actually being raped, Josie.’
‘And you know that how?’ Josie yelled. ‘You sick fuck! It’s over. I’ve eaten a world of shit from you. Now I don’t want to know you any more. You’re a fucking monster. Get out of here right now or I’m calling the police.’
‘Oh, no you’re not.’ He strode over to the phone and wrenched it clean out of the wall. ‘Oh and look, what’s this?’ He snatched Josie’s cell phone off the mantelpiece and threw it out of the open window where it fell some twenty feet on to concrete. ‘Now what are you going to do now?’
‘Please – ‘
‘Shut your mouth.’ He raised his hand. There was a sharp impact to her head and a jolt to her sensory system, and she found herself on the floor.
Then he strode out of the room, and minutes later she heard his car zoom off.
She’d lost her resolve again.
‘I don’t want to press charges,’ she’d sobbed to the tall police officer with the low reassuring voice. ‘He needs help, not punishment. He’s a good person with a sickness.’
She was jolted out of some vague and morbid dream by her cell phone ringing. She shook her head to clear her vision and looked at the screen. He was calling. It was 3am.
‘Hello?’
‘It’s me. Look, I’m so sorry. Please take me back just this once. I swear I’ll work on these issues. I’m so sorry for being an asshole.’
‘No.’ She forced the word out as if it weighed a hundred kilograms, as if she were failing under its weight. ‘I’m sorry for you and you need help. But I can’t help you. I’m not a psychiatrist. Please just leave me alone.’
He switched, became the monster. It took less than a second.
‘You’re gonna be sorry for leaving me. You’re a cold blooded bitch.’
She hung up, and after some hours of shaking violently and trying to soothe her nervous system with some slow electronic music, she fell asleep.
01.06.2102.
Josie slowly stirred awake. She checked the clock on her bedside table: 9pm. Well, that was kind of reasonable. She’d been so shaken, she hadn’t managed to fall asleep until seven in the morning.
She went to the kitchen to get some coffee, then noticed one of the local alley cats mewling at the window. He wasn’t hers, but he’d adopted her as his human anyway. She reached for the back door handle to go out and see him. It wouldn’t turn.
She tried the front door and windows. They were locked from the outside.
He’d done this. He must have. He was the only one with access to the keys.
She suddenly felt very endangered. She still hadn’t replaced the phone, and her cell phone was broken into several pieces. Her only line of contact with the world would be the internet.
Then she noticed her computer open on the table.
What she saw on the screen almost killed her outright from shock.
www.redzonexxx.com/forums/thread124
josiesilvera @ 5:30: i would love to do a rape scenario
nowak @ 5:31: safe word??
josiesilvera @ 5:31: no need for one, lol. You can do whatever you like to me
josiesilvera @ 5:31: all six of you
molina @ 5:32 : ok what time
josiesilvera @ 5:33: any time
ashton @ 5:33: ok we’ll come in a few hours...about 9pm or a bit after...i’m hard already lol
molina @ 5:34 : your address is 34 raven avenue right
josiesilvera @ 5:34: yeah
He’d used her name and pretended to be her.
No way to call the police from the internet. And no way to reason with these guys, to explain what had really happened. Asking them to stop would be useless. They’d see it as part of the game.
Panicking, ice forming in her blood, she threw everything around the room trying to find her old cell phone so she could call the police. No go. The adrenaline in her blood surged faster as she remembered that she’d thrown it out last month.
Tears erupted from her eyes. How could any human being be so heartless? Why do this to her? How could it help him in any way?
She had to get out. She reached for something heavy to smash the window.
And then she saw someone’s silhouette climbing over the wall.
9:30 Josie13: Adrienne
9:30 Josie13: Need help
9:30 Josie13: Look at this page
9:30 Josie13: HE’S PRETENDED TO BE ME
9: 30 Josie13: NO SAFE WORD NO WAY OUT
9: 30 Josie 13: i can break the window and run but they’re outside right now and there’s six of them
9: 31 demonessX: oh shit oh shit oh shit
9: 31 demonessX: don’t worry i swear i’ll think of something sis its ok im gonna get u out of there
9: 31 Josie13: SHIT THEY BROKE DOWN THE BACK DOOR
9: 31 Josie 13: ITS THEM GUY WITH SWASTIKA THERES SIX OF THEM
9: 32: demonessX: Link with me. RIGHT NOW
9: 32 demonessX: Use your wireless neural plugs DO IT NOW
9: 32 demonessX: use the program Meld103
9:32 Josie13: why
9:32 demonessX: DO IT DO IT NOW
9:33 Josie 13: done
9:33 demonessx: right link with me and i’ll control your motor functions
9: 34 Josie 13: what????
9: 34 Josie 13: OH!!!
9: 35 demonessX: gonna take 2 mins
9: 35 Josie13: FUCK THEY BROKE THROUGH THE WINDOW THEY’RE INSIDE
9:35 demonessX: 1 min 20 sec
9: 35 Josie13: HURRY THIS DOORS LOCKED BUT ITS THIN WOOD
9: 35 demonessX: 40 seconds
Someone was in the kitchen. There was the noise of shattering glass and a male voice yelled ‘Come on out, bitch!’
9:36 Josie13: HELP
9: 36 demonessX: Got ya!
Her senses felt strangely dull. She felt Adrienne’s high-charged calm, heard Adrienne’s voice in her head say, All right, you're good to go. You might get sick afterwards since you’ve never done a neuro link before, but it’s usually only mild.
She felt her body move with Adrienne’s posture. Felt her leg muscles tense, her fists raise in her sister’s fighting stance. Her sister’s focused aggression instead of her own flood of panic.
She heard one of them yell ‘She’s upstairs! I hear her moving!’ Some of the panic returned, but she heard Adrienne’s voice in her own brain laughing. Don’t worry. They’re thugs. I could destroy them in my sleep.
Someone kicked in the door. A huge heavyset guy with a swastika tattoo and predatory eyes. Cold arrogant eyes, waiting to hear ‘help’ or ‘don’t hurt me’. Expecting prey.
The moment didn’t come. Instead her body coiled under Adrienne’s command, reared up, whipped her leg around and smashed the guy’s skull with the hard ridge of her shinbone. The shock reverberated throughout her body. She felt the delicate bone wall of his temple shatter. He slumped to the ground and didn’t move.
Two more of them shoved their way into the room, but her body was in motion already, wrapping one of them up so he couldn’t hit or kick and knocking the other one down with a scything kick across the face. She felt Adrienne’s rage resonate through her blood, felt the jack-knife motion in her core as she held the thug still and drove her knee explosively into his nose and mouth, once, twice, another one to finish him off. The other guy was still moving. Her foot stomped on his face and he lay still, but she fell backwards as she did and hit her head against the bedpost, knocking one of the neural plugs loose. Her vision blurred and she felt Adrienne’s influence start to leave her. The other three charged up the stairs. Her heart and lungs exploded with terror. She couldn’t fight off three men. Struggling not to black out, she pushed the neural plug back in place. Adrienne! Are you there! SHIT! I can’t see-
I’ve got you! Come on, little sister, stay with me! Don’t black out!!
Two of them lunged for Josie and held her down yelling ‘Come on, we’ve got her! You can go first!’
She felt Adrienne’s cold anger swirling in her blood again, felt her sister’s easy fluidity in her body. She launched a kick over her head at one of the men who was holding her down. Another kick, and she somehow managed to hit him square on the temple and knock him unconscious. The other one had dodged out of the way. Her sister threw her body into a spring motion and drew her easily to her feet.
They were on either side of her, scoping out her movements, judging when to come close.
Her body lunged in, paralyzed one man’s leg with a roundhouse kick then cracked her elbow across his face. The other one immediately wrapped her up in a sloppy headlock. She resisted being choked by lowering her head to the side, then used her position to kick the other man in the face. He went down.
Someone else was coming up the stairs. She threw the guy off easily – how was Adrienne managing that? Josie wasn’t strong at all – and put him down with a knee strike to the face.
The seventh man walked in the room. It was him. He’d come to join in, or to laugh.
His eyes went very wide. What had happened here? How could this delicately built female possibly beat the shit out of six guys? Had she somehow morphed into her sister?
She felt Adrienne command her body back into fighting stance, and a terrible wave hit her blood, flooded quickly to her heart. He was still in there somewhere, behind those eyes. The real him, the man she used to love. She heard his voice, dimly through the field of Adrienne’s awareness, shouting ‘You little bitch’.
It’s not him. He’s a good person under all these problems. He needs help.
Adrienne didn’t wait for him to come close. Josie’s body lunged in with an incredible alien fluidity and kicked his legs out from under him. He groaned and struggled to get up.
Adrienne! No! Don’t hurt him!
He’s trying to hurt you.
He needs help!
He got back to his feet screaming ‘You little cunt! I’m going to kill you!’ She felt Adrienne’s nervous system shout orders to her own body, felt her own arms pull him close and smash his face with an elbow.
Adrienne, stop!
He’s mad. You want to end up dead?
Please don’t hurt him! I’ll talk him down, anything, he’s a good person really, he needs help –
Can’t let him destroy you, little sister. Her body coiled with that liquid dangerous ease that wasn’t hers. Her fist smashed his mouth and nose. Then wrapped him up too close for him to hit or kick, and shoved him towards the window.
Let go, Adrienne.
He’ll hurt you. They both stumbled. His head drove into the glass and made a spider’s web of cracks. He struggled for balance.
If you don’t let go you’re every bit as bad as him. You’re taking me over, controlling me. Just like rape.
Adrienne recoiled as if stabbed. The sudden weak feeling told her Adrienne had detached. She was on her own.
‘Please, we can talk through all this,’ she pleaded. Locked eye contact, tried to connect with him.
‘You’re coming with me, you bitch,’ he growled, and used his body weight to finish what Adrienne had started.
They fell twenty feet on to concrete, rolling over each other in midair.
Then the world went black.
‘Little sister?’
The voice seemed very far away, as if issuing from a distant mountaintop. But it wasn’t a shout. It was very soft.
Someone was gently toying with her hair.
‘Are you ok?’
Josie’s eyes flickered open. Just lifting her eyelids seemed to be an effort.
‘What happened to me exactly?’
Laughter. Cool celestine blue eyes.
‘You have a severe concussion. Asshole has a severed spine.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Adrienne frowned. ‘For what?’
‘For when we were linked and I said you were as bad as him. You saved me.’
‘It’s okay,’ Adrienne said softly. ‘It’s very common. You were still bonded to him even though he’d done you all that abuse.’
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Yeah?’
‘When you used my body to throw him across the room. How did you do that? I’m not that strong.’
Adrienne laughed. ‘I’m not sure, but very crudely put, strength isn’t just about muscle mass. It’s also to do with how loud your nervous system is yelling when it tells that muscle to contract, so to speak.’
'Oh...I didn't know...'
'So in a way, it was your own strength'.
It was a beautiful thought. That she had strength that was her own. She almost cried, but found that she didn't really need to.
The hard part would be learning to use it. But she could do it. She was free now.
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