Hi! So I’m working on a ~sci-fi~ short story and I’m publishing part of the rough draft of it here as sort of a sneak peak but also encouragement for me to keep going. <3
This is a shift for me from satire (which I’m excited about!) The premise is: After a cheaply designed product kills her son, a woman works with an agency to infiltrate the billionaire CEO’s mind and get revenge. But upon entering his mind, she finds the child version of him there instead. Now she must choose whether to destroy him, or try to save him.
okay here it is! <3 <3 <3
“Congratulations, Tanya, the implant was a success.” A distorted voice tells her over the phone.
Tanya’s really glad Josh didn’t die, despite really wanting him to die. But for a couple hours there it seemed like a close call, Josh writhing and shaking on his marble floor after she pushed the syringe containing the tiny implant into the nape of his neck.
“So, what now?” Tanya asks, watching Josh lying there, unconscious. “Our brains are linked or something?” They’d explained it to her before, but she still wasn’t sure exactly how it worked. Tanya’s hand mindlessly grazes the back of her own neck, feeling the small bump of her own chip they’d injected into her a few days ago.
“Yes,” the voice said. “Whenever the patient’s asleep, you’ll be able to enter a space containing the most repressed version of him.”
“And I just…talk to him?”
“Just follow the script we had you memorize. You have one month to make him give away as much of his money as possible.”
“What makes you think he’ll listen?”
“Because you’ll be talking to the most vulnerable part of Josh. The part of himself that he’s hidden away from the world. Your job is to bring things to the surface. Thoughts he had as a child. Things he's buried deep inside. That’s the thing about the very rich – they've had to bury a lot to get to where they are now."
Tanya doesn’t know much about the agency, but apparently that’s how they operate. Even Lindsay doesn’t know much. She doesn’t even know who the founder is. Lindsay told her there’s rumors that it’s a very powerful billionaire, maybe even more than one, with infinite resources who wants to take the others out, for reasons unknown. But the reasons don’t matter to Tanya. She has enough of her own.
Tanya heard Josh moan as the voice continued, “And then once he’s at his weakest, that’s when we strike. It’s time for revenge, Tanya. It’s time to make an example of him. To destroy him.”
Tanya lay down beside Josh and closed her eyes, as instructed.
“Count back from 10,” the voice said. “It’ll feel like you’re falling asleep, but you’re actually going into a digital space where both of your subconscious will meet.”
It did feel like falling asleep. That familiar sensation of swimming away from reality, out of this world and into another. Tanya felt like she was underwater, as if she’d just gone diving into the ocean at night, hoping nothing too bad lurked beneath the surface.
It takes her a moment to realize that she’s falling. Falling through galaxies and Roman Empires and oceans and jungles and whatever else seems to be on Josh’s mind.
It was interesting to know she could exhale in this nothing space. That she was entirely in her body and wearing the same ridiculous dress and that it all felt normal. Which was strange, because this place was definitely not normal. She knew her physical self wasn’t here, that she was still lying on Josh’s marble floor, asleep. But yet it felt real, because she was here. Falling in the middle of outer space as Josh’s repressed memories move and shift around her, like a monster lurking beneath the surface.
Time didn’t make sense in this place. She kept falling for what felt like hours, or maybe only a few seconds, and wondered how much time had actually passed.
Finally the world around her stills, and she sees someone. It’s a small boy, a bit younger than Eli was, maybe five or six. He’s curled up and looks scared.
The boy looks up and their eyes meet. “Mom?”
Tanya swallows. “No.”
“Oh, okay.” Josh looks away and shakes his head. “You really look like her.”
Tanya looks at him, then crouches down and speaks quietly.
“Are you Josh?”
“Yeah.”
“Hi, Josh. I’m Tanya, and I’m here to help you.”
Josh doesn’t look at her.
Tanya speaks gently. “Listen, Josh, it's time to give some of your money away.”
Tanya waits, expecting a fight, expecting him to run away, kick or scream, or throw a temper tantrum.
But instead, little Josh turns and looks up at her. “Okay. How much?”
Excited for this!!