Latest / InkandNeon | Speculative Fiction Stories / The last resident of apartment Block S765

Transcript

The last resident of apartment Block S765 · InkandNeon | Speculative Fiction Stories

• 0:03
  Neon, please. This is important. I'll get to
• 0:07
  you later. Good evening, Coral City. Good morning,
• 0:13
  trenches. Tonight, we have the story of a young
• 0:17
  man. A man named Kale. Like most of us, he was
• 0:22
  discarded. Left here to rot. Well, he had finally
• 0:26
  taken control of his life. In a language I think
• 0:30
  a lot of us speak very clearly. This is the story
• 0:34
  of how Kale died and how the rat inside him emerged,
• 0:38
  jacking you in now. Alright Neon, come on. This
• 0:44
  is Kale, log one. I found the old recorder amongst
• 0:50
  the things as I moved my apartment. I'm one of
• 0:52
  the last left in this place, so I figured I would
• 0:56
  record. My psychiatrist a few years ago had told
• 1:00
  me that this would help. I guess it helps, but
• 1:03
  maybe it just reminds me of how alone I really
• 1:07
  am. I live in apartment block S -765. Psychiatrist
• 1:15
  was the only person who ever cared what I had
• 1:18
  to say. But when the elect kids moved in a new
• 1:23
  gang, he vanished. This city isn't nice to nice
• 1:28
  people. No one here is. Log 2. I'm finding my
• 1:36
  life hard to focus. But for the first time, I'm
• 1:42
  happy. I saw her outside my building. She was
• 1:48
  sifting through the trash. Her hair, the colour
• 1:51
  of rust, augments protruding from her body violently
• 1:55
  as if each one was fighting for dominance. When
• 2:00
  I locked eyes with her, I wanted to look away,
• 2:03
  but I couldn't. Then she waved, a genuine wave.
• 2:09
  An explosion down the road had caught my attention,
• 2:13
  and as I looked back, she was already gone. I
• 2:17
  can't stop thinking about her. On my way back
• 2:20
  from work, after the foreman had grilled me for
• 2:24
  hours, blamed me for the loss of a few lug nuts,
• 2:30
  I found a gun in the street. I will not relay
• 2:34
  where my mind went to at that time, but I worried
• 2:39
  about what was going to happen to my body. I
• 2:42
  wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone with the
• 2:45
  cleanup. But as I sat in the highest floor of
• 2:48
  the apartment complex, which was now my room,
• 2:50
  it had running water, which was amazing. I looked
• 2:55
  out from the bathroom window. I don't know what
• 2:59
  possessed me to do so, but there she was, under
• 3:01
  the silk clouds I could see her. Standing under
• 3:05
  a pale yellow light, she was holding a severed
• 3:08
  arm. It was fresh, augment fluid dripping from
• 3:12
  it. I waved down at her, terrified, but she turned
• 3:18
  and smiled, her sharpened silver teeth glistening
• 3:21
  under that light. And she went back to me. waved
• 3:26
  back with the severed hand, and then she ran
• 3:29
  into the darkness. But then she looked back.
• 3:35
  I think perhaps she wanted me to follow her,
• 3:37
  but I was too much of a coward. I did not. I
• 3:43
  decided to stay away from work today. I figured
• 3:48
  the foreman was going to slap me with an indentured
• 3:53
  servant notice. The lug nuts. He was still on
• 3:57
  a tirade about them. Five years I'd be serving
• 4:01
  now under him. Five more that he'd be making
• 4:03
  me work for free. I didn't think my life was
• 4:06
  worth a whole lot, but worth nothing more than
• 4:09
  a few bolts. It's making biting a bullet feel
• 4:13
  a lot easier. But then, as I was wallowing in
• 4:17
  my own pity, there was a knock at the door. A
• 4:22
  light tapping. At first I worried, I dreaded
• 4:25
  that perhaps the foreman had sent in forces.
• 4:28
  Someone to make good on the promise of the indentured
• 4:32
  servitude. But I could smell something behind
• 4:35
  the door. Something horrid. When I opened the
• 4:38
  door, it was the first time I had ever seen her.
• 4:42
  How tall she really was. That's to say, she wasn't
• 4:45
  really that tall. She was a head shorter than
• 4:49
  myself. Her body was slightly hunched over. The
• 4:53
  metallic, augmented spine that stabbed through
• 4:56
  her clothes in a violent, jagging motion went
• 4:59
  all the way down her body, touching the ground,
• 5:01
  moving slightly like the long tail I invited
• 5:05
  her in. She had brought me food. Foul -smelling
• 5:10
  food. But I ate it nonetheless, and once it was
• 5:15
  all gone, I noticed that she also smelt of something
• 5:18
  horrible. But... she smelled amazing for the
• 5:22
  first time in my life i had shared a meal with
• 5:25
  someone shared space with perhaps somebody that
• 5:28
  didn't want to yell at me or tell me what to
• 5:31
  do i had memories of the poor psychiatrist and
• 5:36
  i didn't want her to suffer the same fate and
• 5:40
  then something amazing happened within moments
• 5:42
  we were entwined i don't even remember the conversation
• 5:46
  now as i write this i tried to remember it was
• 5:50
  all a blur All that I remembered was the taste
• 5:53
  of her breath, the taste of aged diesel, and
• 5:57
  her body felt like a pillowcase stuffed with
• 6:00
  grease. At that moment, all I knew was there
• 6:04
  was no one in this life happier than I was. The
• 6:07
  next morning, I awoke to her playing with the
• 6:11
  gun I had found. She examined it, tapping it
• 6:15
  with an almost expert fashion. I asked her what
• 6:19
  she was doing, and... She replied to me. She
• 6:21
  asked me to come back with her down into the
• 6:25
  city below. She said I would be free. I was a
• 6:29
  fool for a moment as I just realised what she
• 6:32
  was. She was one of the rats. Those who had been
• 6:37
  told to me by everyone with a mouth. They were
• 6:40
  the boogeymen. But I wasn't scared. I had been
• 6:42
  scared of gangs and gangers all my life. Even
• 6:46
  though she was the most terrifying thing I had
• 6:48
  ever seen. I did not feel fear when I was with
• 6:52
  her. I felt empowered. I told her that I could
• 6:56
  not, that I was indentured now to deform it.
• 6:59
  Her mind drifted. Her eyes narrowed, and then
• 7:03
  she turned back to me, as if mirroring my own
• 7:06
  inner thoughts. Then let's kill the fat man.
• 7:12
  She spoke the words coming out of her mouth,
• 7:14
  almost difficult for her to speak, as if talking.
• 7:19
  It was a second language that she barely understood.
• 7:22
  I hate to admit it, but I wanted to do what she
• 7:26
  said then and there. I wanted to be with her.
• 7:30
  I'm not a killer. I've never wanted to kill anybody
• 7:33
  or harm them. I've simply wanted to live. But
• 7:36
  the foreman has given me no choice. He has taken
• 7:39
  so much from me now, that fear that he'll try
• 7:42
  to take her from me. So I must do as she asked,
• 7:46
  as she recommended. I have to kill him. I do
• 7:51
  not want this happiness to go. I want to be with
• 7:54
  her forever. I want to be with someone that actually
• 7:58
  wants me around. As you know by now, perhaps
• 8:03
  if you've read this journal, my name is Kale.
• 8:07
  I was augmented at ten years old, my memory wiped
• 8:11
  clean. I used to dream that I was a scion of
• 8:14
  a rich house, a powerful family. Discarded by
• 8:19
  mistake. That perhaps one day I would be rescued.
• 8:24
  This was a fantastic lie I told myself. This
• 8:30
  journal is my confession. Tonight I am returning
• 8:35
  to the factory. I'm going to kill the fat man.
• 8:40
  We're going to drag his lifeless corpse down
• 8:44
  into the darkness. It is time for him to feel
• 8:48
  like nothing but scraps. It's time for him to
• 8:52
  feed me. I'm not a cruel person. I just want
• 8:57
  my happiness. By the time anyone hears this,
• 9:01
  I will be long gone. I will be with her, with
• 9:05
  my new family. I will be one amongst the rats.
• 9:14
  is as unique as it is as old as time itself.
• 9:18
  To find a place where we belong is the dream.
• 9:22
  Often, our whole life is the simple pursuit of
• 9:26
  such a thing. I do genuinely hope that Kale has
• 9:30
  found a family, a place to belong. But I fear
• 9:36
  that perhaps it was all the guy's intentions
• 9:40
  of one person. creating a cooler person from
• 9:45
  within. Regardless, it gives us a lot to think
• 9:48
  about. Who are the rats? What do they want? Why
• 9:53
  will some strip you for parts while others wave
• 9:56
  at you? This has been Ink. This has been Ink
• 10:00
  and Neon. Hope you have a good night and good
• 10:03
  luck. Not that I can't hear you. No, don't.