The market bustles with people. The scent in the air isn't one specific thing but composed of various smells that construct one entire aroma. It's a mixture of perfumes and colognes that have diffused into the air; a variety of fresh produce that makes my stomach growl with hunger, and the scent that freshly washed fabric and materials give off.
Palettes of bright, bursting colours flourish along each store, competing eagerly to catch my eye. I can almost feel the electricity crackling with the energy of the market. People are screaming and yelling, shouting from across for bargains and I can hear the muted laughter of children that is barely tangible in scattered banter.
It's all either defeaning or blinding. I don't engage in any of the conversations store owners try to lure me in. I don't buy anything, either. I just walk down the packed aisle, trying to find find an emotion that I can latch onto. But I feel oddly empty, as if Lex's words have robbed me of all feeling.
It's not bad to want Danger, is it? I shake that thought from my head, starting to feel horrified that I can even think of such a thing. Still, there's a voice in my head asking me why it feels like my values are holding my feelings hostage. Danger- the virus that revolutionised the world, the bug that drives us to live for death. Has it not bind us all with one purpose? Has it not created a platform where our inner monsters can now have a place in the world without being shunned or having to be locked away?
Lex's words ring in my ears, like a song that I can't stop replaying. Our monsters are only as real as the power we give them to control us.
No matter how hard my mind struggles to find a logic that defeats that view, I know that his words hold some truth in them. Then again, what if it's just one of his thousand lies? He isn't exactly reliable, either. I groan softly and try to think about something else. My mind wanders to Cooper and the Software I have yet to attain. The ceremony is sometime tomorrow, I think. If I have full control of his Software and assuming that Lex is correct about Cooper being one of them, does that mean I have access to crucial information?
It seems like all thoughts lead to Rome. I kick at a lone pebble that decks the road and watch as it skips across the uneven tiles, hopping like it's being plucked from the ground in random synchrony. What is it about me that is crucial to confirming a solution has been created to reverse Danger? I'm nothing special- just another killer whose dream is to be granted the title of an Elite Killer- the best of the killers in society.
It's not like I have a strange desire to stop Danger, either. The beauty I find in creating death for other people directly contradicts this. So what is it, then? Why me?
Maybe there's a way to find out. I make my way out of the market area and find a desolated spot down a nearby alley. Glancing around to ensure that I'm alone, I seal my eyes shut and let my thoughts wash over me.
When my eyes open, I find myself standing in my void. The same tall, grey buildings scrape the sky. Overhead, pale clouds pace a murky sky that foreshadows an oncoming storm. A bitter wind bites my cheeks and tousels my hair, weeping against the empty roads as I make my way down. I don't exactly know what makes a void or what creates the elements in a person's void. All I know is that everybody's void, like a thumbprint, is unique. Maybe it's indicative of a person's traits. My mind races to Lex's void and the darkness that swallowed the two of us, with beads of light to illuminate the empty space.
Maybe his void is empty because he's gradually being stripped of all he has ever known- Danger. That's probably why he's sprouting so much nonsense, too.
None of the buildings have a door. It takes me some time to realise that and when it does, the rain begins to sweep in. Transparent beads slam against my skin repeatedly and swirl in a grey vortex along concrete. They plaster my hair across my face and each dark thread becomes stringed with spheres of water. My clothes start to stick to my skin and I increase my pace but none of the buildings have a door.
I could always leave my void but this fact demands confrontation. It begs me to question it and I quicken my footsteps, nearly breaking into a run. The road stretches out for miles as far as I can see but every building alligned in my sight seems to fall into the same pattern- yellow boxes of light stamped by the sides with no entrance or exit. Topped with dark landlines, roofs glimmering with a curtain of rain, with the absence of a way in and out.
That's when it hits me.
Isolation takes advantage of the fact that there's no passage out of the body. So it eats us from within and kills us. Something like Danger, it can be channeled to be exhibited by a person. A person can die directly from spending too much time in his or her void because of that fact alone, but a person can't die directly from Danger. A person can only be killed because of the effects of Danger.
My body is frozen stiff.
Was everybody else like me? Were their voids tapered shut without exit and entrance? Would that mean if we turned to the passages that were directly being affected by Danger within our Software and ensured that there was no way the bug could leave, Danger would cease to exist?
The rain keeps beating down on me, like it isn't able to acknowledge this newfound information. I'm seeing Lex in my mind again, the webbed green structure just above his exposed layer of skin. The blood trapped before the strange substance that crawls over his veins. Surely, his team's hypothesis must not be far off from mine.
So what would they need me for?
I close my eyes and open them, finding myself back in the alley.
I need to find Lex. I don't want Danger to go, though. I've grown so used to its presence that it feels strange to think about demolishing it. Weird to imagine that I won't have the satisfaction of blood on my hands, a weapon in my closet. It seems like violence and death have grown to be my only friends and the megaphone to my chest is more difficult to pull away than to keep.
I picture Lex, the frustration on his face just before he left. I think about the way he speaks about life, full of theories and bursting with his perspective. If someone so confident can't be right, how can I?
Word Count: 1187
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Three Degrees Of Danger (2019)
Science Fiction[ 2019 ONC ambassador's pick and ONC shortlister ] The three degrees of Danger are as follows: Denial. You pretend that it's not there and you lie to yourself that it'll pass. It won't. The second stage is evolution. You tell yourself that the worst...
