BEWARE OF DARKNESS

Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material.

Note: Inspired from "Meroveque" written by Matrix Refugee and the unrated film IRREVERSIBLE by Gaspar Noe.

04:22.

It was dark, yet the dawn of a new world was fastly approaching. Soon it would all change, just as it had before. It had to. But before peace could arrive, there had to be conflict.

There was no light in the sky. The sun had gone, like it always did, like it was meant to do. But in this instance, it had left behind a terrible emptiness that encapsulated all below. On the street level, crumbling slums shone with a odd beauty as most of the internal lighting glowed from within the structures. One window in particular blunk vibrantly against the starless night, leading down a hallway and eventually into a room filled with muttering chatter.

"You know what?" spoke a gruff voice suddenly.

"What?" asked another, taken out of a daze.

"None of this is real," he replied simply, slouching his moist back onto the wall.

In the dank, barren apartment, fluorescent bulbs twitched along noiselessly. The overwhelming gloom between the two men was merely punctuated by their disconnected, desperate conversation. But something wasn't right. There was death in the air.

"What isn't real?" the man asked, looking up from his crouched position on the rotted wooden floor.

"Everything... Nothing is real." He scratched at his bare leg, the body fat rippling with the vigorous motion. "No, I am wrong. Our minds... they do exist."

"Then what is all of this, around us?" he questioned with open curiosity.

The heavy-set male sat up on the stained mattress. "This... is just all a constraint. A prison. You see, our minds are linked unwillingly to a kind of system. This system is what makes me talk to you, and you me."

He scoffed. "How could you possibly know of this?"

"From the system," he answered. "I can see this world without the confines of time. It goes without saying that the very structure of chronology is flawed."

"I do not understand."

He raised his arm, and an odor abruptly filled the room. "We as beings have to suffer the consequences of our horrible actions, but only because of time's presence. Time is the cause of our destruction."

A faded voice called out from another room. "Hey," it said, "I'll have some of what you're smoking, please..." Laughter echoed outward from the same location, augmented by the sharp corners of the building, and gaining up to a crescendo as sirens swelled.

"The police...?" yelped the man on the floor, uncrossing his legs.

"An ambulance," the one on the bed corrected. "Another murder, perhaps."

"Ah," said the other. "They will never learn, those ravers. How can anyone not go into that club without guns?"

"Quite true," The man said, smiling and raising an empty cup. "To hell!"

"Yes, to hell!" agreed the other and fell backward onto the floor, passing out.

Outside, the sirens grew into a disturbing wail, mixing with the pumping rhythm of the nearby club and angry yells of party goers. Armed guards threatened the group to back off of the paramedics' vehicle, but it was a futile task considering how much they were outnumbered, not to mention how skilled the ravers were in the deadly arts.

A body bag was quickly tossed into the back doors, soon followed by a stretcher wobbling dangerously as the workers nervously carried the injured man into the ambulance. The metal doors closed, and the resonant banging and clanging of loyal minions could be heard from inside. Distancing themselves from the problem, the vehicle swerved violently to the left, propelling the paramedic onto the side. "Oof! Damn it!" he uttered.

"Do not swear in front of this man," spoke the driver. "Do you not know who this is?"

The paramedic gave him a look through the rearview mirror. "I am not an imbecile. Clearly this man is as important to us as a mother is to her newborn child."

"Then tell me whether or not he's still bleeding!" the driver exclaimed, wrangling the steering wheel in frustration.

The other lifted the torn flap on the fallen man's triple breasted suit. "It's dried up considerably." He wasn't exactly the best faux diagnoser.

"Good. Then we should get to chateau as quickly as possible." His foot cranked on the acceleration and the vehicle sped off into the darkness.

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