The Deal

The blink happened again. The umbilical cord disappeared. He could breathe again. He coughed and gagged to set his breathing back to normal, being on his knees. His eyes watered, and a line of spittle fell from his panting maw. The corpses were in their body bags. The enemies from his mind had also vacated the area. They were simply gone.

He waited and listened.

“Mr. Horsy,” Dr. Krone spoke, his throat trembling and giving way to his fear. Craig was proud to realize he’d terrified the man who’d delivered so much heartache and horror to him for the past three to four days—or God knows how long, he thought. “You made a smart play. You’re a special case. Mom was right. It wasn’t safe for you to roam freely. It’s not safe for anybody to be free in this mansion. Don’t you see why it’d be impossible to allow the world to enjoy this? It would simply spiral out of control.”

“Like it hasn’t already?”

“It’s ours and ours only to enjoy,” Dr. Krone said, staying hidden. “That could include you, Mr. Horsy. Would you like to experience only good memories? I could permit it.”

He’s trying to bargain with me. Why the fuck would I trust him after all of this? He’s crazy.

The hairs on his arms were raised. The electric impulses hadn’t ended. Blue arcs traveled up and down the walls and the glow encased each of the machines. He eyed one of the screens and noticed words were being typed out on it.

Craig cracked a smile. Ah, I see his game for what it really is.

He posed himself over the machine. “Would you really allow me to relive only the good times? God, I miss Katie every day. Could you make it so our child was really born?”

“Yes,” Dr. Krone replied, happy to hear Craig was interested. “A burping, farting, healthy little girl, she can be anything you want and everything you ever wanted her to be.”

He searched between the machines. He caught Dr. Krone’s shadow. The man was hunched over the computer screen. His eyes never left the console.

“You can fuck Susan into oblivion.” Dr. Krone’s fidgeted and couldn’t shrug the nervous ticks and tremors in his head. “You want Alice too? She’ll do anything to pleasure you. You can have them both at the same time, and they’d like it. You want to relive your regrets and make a change, then let’s do it. You know how to run the machine. Once you’ve been hooked in so long, you don’t have to be hooked in anymore to travel the memories of your past. The machine has memorized them already…you simply type in the change.”

Craig closed in for the finalizing blow. He leveled a fist into Dr. Krone’s jaw, coldcocking him, swinging like a prize fighter. “I want my life back the way it was before you tried to take it away from me!”

Dr. Krone landed as a helpless pile onto the floor. He waved his hands, pleading, begging, desperate to bargain for his life. Tears glazed over his eyes and wet his cheeks. He blubbered and whimpered, “It’s my machine, and you’re under my control. You do as I say. You can’t be doing this. No, you just can’t!”

He anchored his foot over Dr. Krone’s chest. “We’re in real life now. We’re no longer in each other’s minds. I have free will. You’re helpless in your own skin. I bet that’s a new feeling for you.”

Dr. Krone refused to make eye contact. He was a child in full temper-tantrum mode. His chubby and waxen skin cringed and frowned. He pounded the floor with his fists. “It’s my machine, and you do as I say! I’m in charge. You’re the patient, and I’m the doctor.”

“I’ve heard that shit before.”

The human pile scavenged about the room, expecting his parents or one of Craig’s memories to materialize, but Dr. Krone had ordered them off via the computer, and they wouldn’t be coming back without being summoned first.

“It’s your machine,” Craig shot back, “but you’ll do as I say.”

He throttled Dr. Krone by the neck. The man was covered in so much stinking sweat Craig’s grip was slippery. He managed to lift him up by seizing his collar. Craig forced him onto the chair of one of the machines. “It’s your turn to be introspected to death.”

Dr. Krone was at a loss for breath. “It’s…not your…not your machine…you…you don’t know…you don’t know how to use it…”

He leveled another punch across the man’s temple. The man was stunned by the blow, and Craig was able to strap Dr. Krone onto the machine. The doctor came back to life when he walked to the other side of the machine to type in his command.

“I know the machine better than you. There are so many intricacies, secrets, and better ways to produce the greatest memories. You want that? I can give it to you.”

Craig scoffed. “No thanks.”

“Tina followed her dreams in your mind and killed your dad. Do you want to know how she did that?—and why? It’s not as simple as typing in a command. The words have to be special. Specific. You can only learn from experience. My experience. I can teach you. I will, Mr. Horsy. I swear it. Release me. I’ll let you be my assistant. The more souls we collect, the realer they become, and we’ll experience every soul out there, and they’ll be unique and new and extraordinary in their own special way. The possibilities are endless. We’ll have millions of souls, Craig. Why stop? Why ever stop?”

Dr. Krone’s skin glistened with panic. He was terrified, and the doctor couldn’t mask it. And then his fear changed into scorn. Accusations. The words throbbed so deep and vicious Craig stopped thinking about what commands he’d enter into the computer. “You’re naïve beyond comprehension. The machine can drum up a command, but it reads what’s in your mind. It creates what you’ve thought in your subconscious and the subconscious of others. Deep down, your best buddy Willis wanted to harm you for what you inflicted upon him. The souls can tweak that reaction and exaggerate the impulse, but there’s a seed of truth in the people of your past. The machine knows what they were thinking and what they thought. Are you willing to destroy this marvel for the sake of revenge? So you were scared, it’s over now. You’re not hooked up to the machine. You’ll be on the side that has control. Anything you pleasure, it’s yours.”

He watched him with unblinking eyes. His registry of sanity and insanity and murder and life was obscured. The man didn’t flinch at suffering. The machine had warped those natural emotions, and Craig wouldn’t have anything to do with promoting his cause. Craig stared out at the bodies strewn against the wall in clear body bags. This wasn’t science. It wouldn’t better society. Some things in the mind weren’t meant to be understood, and people’s innermost thoughts weren’t designed to be spelled out to an audience.

“You haven’t saved any lives with this device. You tell Edith and the others like her what they died for? You believe in your machine, so then relax. Enjoy your family’s work.”

Dr. Krone sputtered and begged to be released, but Craig ignored him. He was exhausted, craving a cigarette, hungry, and most of all, he felt the urge to shower and rid himself of this place.

He poised his hands on the console. Craig couldn’t figure out what to type. It would be too easy to type in Die Dr. Krone. He wanted more than his heart to stop. Dr. Krone hadn’t been on the receiving end of terror. He enjoyed the fruits of his memories and others’ suffering. Now it was his turn.

Craig typed in the command.