Cryptic As Hell (A Short Story Compilation)

Short Story #2: The New Red Screen Of Death

Vegas was awesome, but at the end of the night, I just wanted to rest my eyes, from those neon-filled streets. So I went to the hotel, and didn't even take a shower or anything. I just went straight to bed, and didn't even give a shit about that unnecessarily giant mirror right in front of the bed, which is funny, considering my parents were always rambling about some bullshit, regarding mirrors taking my soul.

I fell asleep, and for the first time in my life, I didn't have dreams. My brain went pitch black. I couldn't imagine anything. I couldn't feel an emotion. I couldn't visualize a single event.

All of a sudden, my phone goes off. I wake up creeped out, to my ring tone. Some random song, from some random artist or band. I don't even remember anymore... But why did it creep me out?

"Okay, something doesn't make sense here."

Why would my ring tone creep me out? Same melody I heard back in the days. Same song that used to cheer me up.And then I noticed... It was playing in reverse. And it seemed to have a message. Those happy, cheerful lyrics from my childhood quickly turned into "Hahaha, idiot, say goodbye to your soul", accompanied by the instrumental in reverse, which now had an unnatural vibe. I got a bit frightened. And then, I remembered.

"My soul? Wait... Of course! The mirror!"

I look at the mirror. It was reflecting the room, but without me. And it had a bright red filter all over it. Almost looked like the mighty Red Screen Of Death, from those PS2 consoles. Hell, even the message was similar. "Please insert soul™ or any form of humanity™ to proceed with the simulation."

I almost had a heart attack. I threw a bad punch at one of the walls, just to make sure this wasn't a terrible nightmare. Spoiler alert: It wasn't, and I was in pain.

The mirror's red filter was getting brighter at every second. My ring tone was still playing in reverse, and the final part of the song sounded like "Stop while you can, or you will regret it, silly."

"What do you mean, stop while I can?"

It's like it wanted me to get out of the room, otherwise something much worse might happen. But for whatever reason, I didn't. I felt a strong urge to destroy the mirror, and the phone for causing those troubles. So I grab my phone, and throw it so hard into the mirror, that both of them get destroyed.

Next thing I know, a bunch of tall, dark green dudes, with sticky fingers, no nose, and giant eyes take what seems to be a high tech VR set off of my face. And they were mad at me, and threatening to sue me. That's when I realized, two of them sounded exactly like my parents.

And that's when I look at myself, and saw that I was not human. I was just like those green beings. My entire life was nothing but a simulation. The parents warning me about the mirror, were simply aliens trying to keep me from glitching my way out of that trap. And now they're pissed. But little do they know, that so am I. I think it's time to send them straight to hell : )