Be Holden

Prologue

You have forgotten all of the events before we sought refuge in this dark room. I think it is because you are traumatized from what we just witnessed but do not worry. I will go through every wonderful detail with you. No, you do not have to worry about this affecting me negatively. Sometimes, I must talk about some incidents aloud to cope and better understand it. The first thing you must know is that how we perceive one another is constantly changing. A lot of the time, the shift is caused by emotional shifts toward each other. So, when you are angry at me you would see an individual you despise. Hypothetically, you would see someone you care about if your emotions for me swing in that direction. Is this good? No! When you are comfortable and content, he is near and we do not want that because we are hiding from him. Out of all the individuals in this manor, I am stuck with you. I suppose being stuck with an optimistic cheerleader is better than being with an idiot.

Before we came to this place we were in a simulation...I do not know what happened before the simulation he never told me. Yes, I asked him about it more than once. He told me that we did not need to know that. In the simulation you are not supposed to eject yourself because the simulations are called lives and to have lived means that you are a trained individual. What are trained individuals good for? Well, they are great for following rules, commands, guarding, spying, and fighting without a cause. Yet, we are not like them because of near deaths and suicides. No, we will not be trained individuals using our skills without the true reason we acquired them. It is a bit sad because that means we cannot become one of those awesome assassins or spies from the glitzed shows and movies in the simulation. It is so hard to defy the rebel that is within us. When you are in the simulation you receive three warnings before you go to a manor. Three unidentified guards dressed in black will appear at different times within the sequence of the life to signify a near death or attempted suicide. Suicides that are successful are just individuals that synchronized with the simulation and need to be slightly modified. Are we defects? No, everyone is not meant to do the same jobs to avoid saturation. Our tasks are not really tasks at all. We are rebellious. We exist merely to assist overseers with whatever they want us to assist them with when they are not working. I just recalled something so uncanny from my life... Even in life we knew the overseers were there because we called them gods and goddesses.After the warnings, we were put in this place and locked in those life pods until he weaved himself into our... wait that is not right. He did not weave himself into our memories of our lives until we met him. Ouch! My head is hurting now. I should have known that he would distort our memories of arriving here and settling... I will endure the pain for a bit for your sake. If he is finished with me and disposes of me, you will remember, right? You must remember everything or at least most of it. Sorry, I have digressed from the important subject we were discussing previously. He introduced himself to all eighteen of us in the basement of this manor. We were out of our life pods and he shook our hands as he looked at the ceiling for some reason. Then he told us we could wander around the home. You chirped at his side like an obedient bird. From time to time he indulged you with conversation. You pushed those fingers of yours right into to his palm as you two strode to different circles talking about who cares and who knows what.Then he found a way to get a break from your clinging. I followed him to an area of this manor. It had light, brown wooden floor panels and I found an invisible door. It was heavy but I managed to open and close it silently. The room was empty when I looked around but as I walked around it there were things there that I could not see. I felt them all around me and then you appeared. Peeking in the door but we both know you are not the timid type. You ran towards me giggling and excited knocking invisible things over on your way. Then he pushed us out of there. I still cannot remember where that place was. Thanks. Then... are you paying attention. Static and white noise are all you can hear, now. The ink black room settles on a sweet Technicolor memory. You are at the beach digging your feet into the wet sand and a childhood friend calls your name."Ow!" You yell. You left me no choice you were not moving. Listen to me. I think we should go upstairs. I heard footsteps. They were heavy and I think it was him. I am not paranoid. It had to have been him because everyone else is... Hold my hand. A tug leads you through black spaces of varying sizes. The static and white noise return. You walk up wooden steps to see the one you were obsessed with for many weeks now. You two used to be close friends but middle school has really pulled you two apart but your heart still races every time you see them. Do they feel the same way? Your eyes meet and then you are yanked backward.