Mind Game

Opening

In a trance, flashing from black to the blurred image of two silhouettes talking, I know not what I see.  One of the figures is yelling at the other.  Again, another flash and the blurred image of a long, dimly lit alleyway gradually begins to focus.

I opened my eyes slowly.  The light burned my eyes even through there was barely any light around me.  As my eyes began to focus I noticed the formation of bricks solidifying around me.  Something cold ran down my face as I pushed myself off the ground.  I had been lying prone in a shallow puddle, but I am not sure how I got there.

When I got to my feet I realized I was standing at the end of an elongated alleyway.  At the other end, there was a bright light.  A dull rumble echoed down from the light, and the distant smell of smog floated past my nose.  Still unsure of my surroundings, I slowly ambled towards the light at the end.

"This place seems so familiar," I thought to myself.

By now, I could make out the blurred images of fast moving machines.  Cars.  That's what they called them.  Cars.

As I neared the opening of the alleyway, a long, thin shadow formed across the pavement, separating myself from whatever laid beyond the end of the brick corridor I was walking down.  This sight startled me, and I stopped abruptly.

The shadow grew bigger in front of me until the shiny black toe of a boot appeared from around the corner of the alley's exit.  Slowly, a tall figure dressed entirely in black stepped into the opening and faced directly toward me.  He was wearing black pants, a long black overcoat, and black tophat that shaded his face from my sight.

We stood facing each other for a moment.  I was both nervous and curious about this mysterious man standing before me.  The man reached slowly into his coat and pulled from it a long, black, shiny piece of metal and directed it at my chest.  Still stunned, I recognized what was in his hand.

There was a flash and a loud crack, and before the pain reached my senses I had lost balance and slumped to the ground.  My vision blurred as life seeped from my body, and the strange figure returned the device to his coat and turned away in a brisk pace towards the distance.