2.1.53

Chapter Five : Killing Machine

I poured the water into the glass, carefully placed the glass on a tray and made my way into the drawing room. The man with the big hat and sunglasses was sitting on the couch. His position was almost too still. I placed the tray on the table in front of him. He took the glass and drank the water in a haste and kept the glass in his hands.

I noticed the face of the man, he seemed so familiar but I was certain I haven't seen him anywhere before. It was almost unsettling how he was looking straight, his gaze fixed and more so, because he didn't take off his sunglasses. There was a scar halfway between his chin and his collarbone, right in the middle of his throat. There was something eerie about his presence and his behaviors indicated in the same way.

When I opened the front door a few minutes earlier, he almost just barged in but suddenly stopped and asked politely, "May I come inside?"

I nodded and made way for him to enter. He followed me into the living room and sat there on the couch before me telling him.

"Hi Sir I am an executive from Esmeda. Your order has arrived. Before I explain the procedure can I have a glass of water please?" he said.

And so, we were sitting there; the man with an empty glass in his hand on my couch, and me, on the chair beside him, with a mind filled with questions and dread.

"So..." I broke the silence.

"Oh yes, yes. Apologies. I am an Rino. I am one of the Executive working for Esmeda. I guess you know why I am here?" He said, his tone resembling the robotic salesman that annoys people in the afternoon, selling loan plans and other products in the neighborhood.

I nodded. He was looking towards me. To avoid it, I looked down at my wounded hands, there were still some drops of blood popping out from where the glass shards had pierced me. I rubbed a drop of it with my fingers, smeared it in my skin but another drop appeared. 'Like regrets, one after the other' I wondered

"We know that perhaps there are something in life that you want to change, some decisions you regret, some actions that you didn't take but unfortunately life isn't so merciful that it will give a second shot" Rino's voice filled the otherwise silent room.

Everything. I want to change everything about my life. I want to choose my family before my ego, my trust before my insecurities. I want to live, happily.

Rino continued, "But we at Esmeda will provide you a chance of living your death before you actually die and choosing carefully the best one for you"

The air around us felt gloomier, experiencing death and choosing from it seemed like an absurd idea.

"Living the death?" I was surprised.

"Yes. You will get to experience your death and choose a suitable death for yourself" He said, his tone still remained ice-cold.

"I don't understand, I thought the 'choosing your death' part was some false marketing scheme that you invented" There was a lot of things I was imagining about their process, none crossed my mind involving experiencing my own death.

"No, not at all, in fact it is our selling point" He said and I couldn't agree more, it was that very line that interested me, "Esmeda combines the power of technology with the power of nature and lets you choose the way you want to die"

"To elaborate, we will put you under the influence of a machine we invented. It will make you experience your life some time prior to your death. It is kind of like a super virtual reality machine, but all the information fed to the machine will be coming straight from your brain, to be precise your memories. You will meet the people you have known throughout your life, visit places you have already been to, feel everything that you have felt at least once throughout your entire life and then you will die in a random way generated by the machine. You will have a faint memory of being in a virtual reality but it won't be clear to you until the very last. You will feel everything- the pain, the agony, everything but then you will be given one last chance to choose that death or try the next one" Rino paused for a breath.