HOME | DD

Description
"Hello?"

The clicking stopped. Thalia looked over at the window half expecting to see a tree branch dragging scross the clouded pane, but of course there was nothing. The amber lights of a passing 8800TTS Hoverplane glazed her vision for a moment before bending organic geometry across her walls.

Get it together Thallie.. This place isn't haunted. Right? Good.

She turned off her laptop and turned, placing both feet firmly on the floor. The clicks were coming from the far corner of the room where her metal coat rack was, as if her soft wool trenchcoat and heavy black and green striped scarf were now cozy mouse condo's. She tried to imagine the fuzzy little rodents snuggled in small pretzels in her inside pocket, or burrowed deep into the zip-in liner all piled on top of eachother. As cute as the pool of fur would have been, she knew where there was life, there was shit, and a fair pile of pellets and urine would be lining her coat as well.

"Shit… last thing I need here is fuckin rats.."

Grabbing a spiked mace off it's "Dragon Con 2040" holder over the bed, Thalia slowly walked towards the coat rack. A few clicks punctured the silence, then a dragging scrape. Maybe they were not rats, but heaping piles of roaches? It had been months since she wore that jacket last, if she left a snack bar or some candy in her pocket who knows how many roach babies would be swarming onto each other for sustenance?

        She lifted with both arms and swung the heavy mace. Her coat fluttered lifelessly onto her desk chair, the  rack dashed over onto the floor with a loud Clang, smashed into a gnarled "L". Watching the ground, she saw nothing. No rats. No mice. No eight inch roaches skittering to the shadows. From her side, movement sparked her periphery and she blindly swung at it, leaving a deep violent gash in the plaster wall.

"Aww… fuck.."

Removing the mace from the hole, a cool wisp of air pressed her knuckles, showing her the damage was substantial. She smirked. If that was someone's chest, she'd have them on the ground coughing blood and begging for their life as she brought it down once more on their face with a satisfying wet thud. As it was, if it had penetrated the drywall a few more inches she might have lost her grip and the mace would be flung out into traffic, likely smashing some poor tired cabby's face in as he snored over his pastrami.

Again movement darted just out of her vision. But this time she saw more of the solid shape, shifting from the corner by the bathroom towards her bed. She looked at it, squinting. The silhouette was impossibly large and wasn't from anything in her apartment, but rather outside on the fire escape, looking in. She gritted her teeth and moved along the wall, sidling up to the edge of the window frame, raised the mace high, then planting her right foot firmly, pivoted, and swung at the glass with all her strength.

What followed should have been a loud explosion of glass, metal and sparks as the mace detonated the pressure treated glass; the apartment exhaling its stale breath and flinging the shards out against the thin metal bars and scattering out onto the fire escape. The neighbor or landlord would be pounding on her door, possibly with some police, yelling to see if she was ok and if she needed help. If she didn't respond she might even see the door smashed in or a mini police hover outside spotlighting her window to verify her safety. Then she would be lead out of the building in cuffs and her face would be national news for the next three weeks.

         Instead, she was treated to the fading echo of her strained war cry as she fell into the window face first, the heavy mace no longer in her hands. Catching herself on the sill, she shook her head and looked out, seeing no one and no thing on the black metal exterior stairs. From behind her was the heavy weight of a mace hitting the floor and what sounded like an impatient sigh. And then a deep vibration thundered up from her chest. Her lungs felt tight, her stomach queasy, and her vision swimming. She blinked a moment, shook her head a few times, but her vision only got worse. The vibration began to move. From the center of her chest, just behind her heart, up along her spine. Her throat struggled to stay open as she tried to cough and sputter for air. Her teeth ached, her sinuses washed throat in drainage, her nose running wet and slightly bloody. The aching resonance finally settled in the center of her head, lowering and quieting it's thrumming as she dropped to half sit, half lean on the window sill and face her bed. Bleary eyed, nose still bleeding, she tried to look at what stood in front of her.

          Neo.. Try to relax.

         The sound was again coming from in her head, replacing the thrumming. Nothing seemed to come from the dark shadow in front of her. Thalia wiped her eyes, un-clenched her jaw and opened her mouth to speak,

Shhhh.. I know what you'll say. Who are you? What are you? Ghost? God?

"How the fuck… did.. " Her words cut across the empty silence with a harsh clatter. Compared to the deep chocolaty voice in her mind, melting through her  consciousness like so much ice cream, her own voice felt sharp and crystalline.

Neo… I can hear your mind. You speak it so well. I know you. I have been with you for some time now.

"But…"  Cutting herself off, she tried to clear her mind and think of her next words before she spoke. So you know me and you know what I am thinking. Great. SO answer the very questions you already admitted I had, asshole.

No

"Huh?" She tried to wipe the bloody mucus from her mouth and chin.

No, I am not going to hurt you. I can hear your thoughts and feel some of your emotions. Listen Neo, I am a creature not of your world. My name is Tsu, Prince of Queen Zalia and soon to be leader of the Zalian Fifth Regiment. I have been watching you and helping when possible for the last few months.

"Why? Who am I and .. If you are not from earth, where are you? What are you?"

We are a people who have watched mankind since before you had a name for yourselves. We are why you have religion. We are why you have ghosts and exorcisms and legends of dragons and demons and sea monsters. We have crafted your civilization from the first campfire to the largest cities and airplanes you travel in. We helped you reach space. We pushed medical science. Us. The Zalian Empire.

"Yeah.. I'm being invaded by aliens… this is just splendid. " Thalia grabbed a towel from the basket by the bathroom and began cleaning her hands and face. "Is this where I get probed?"

The voice groaned in her for a moment, purposefully impatient. No, Zalians. Your people have been obsessed with Alien life because of my cousin Greenzvallo, wet back that he is, trying to get to know a group of humans about 100 of your years ago in western North America. Around what is now known as the Republic of New Mexico. In reality it was just a misunderstood word. We are from another world, but we are not so much Alien to Earth, as we are kinfolk to it.

"I don't understand. You live here but you're not here? Why Can't I see you?" She tossed the towel back into the basket, Her eyes were finally clear again, Tsu's voice no longer feeling as loud or penetrating. Thalia stood up for a moment, still watery in her legs, and tried to walk towards the shadow. Yet, the closer she moved to it, the harder it was to see.

I am actually in my world. I believe you have a term for this.. Dimension? Yes, I am in another dimension then you, another plane of existence. Through meditation I have been able to watch and help you.

"Ok that's pushing it. Who is this really? Have I been PIN hacked? Huh? Let me guess Opal_Budgie99 put you up to this? Or maybe Jesus_Freak69? " Thalia walked through the last visible shadows and fell into her bed, face in her pillow, "I am too tired to care. You know," she paused, turning her head to un-muffle her speech, and chuckled "..that was good. You almost had me going there. I was all confused and disoriented in the dark. But I ain't no dope. See, you should have said you were a ghost or something. Maybe the ghost of my dead boyfriend? Not some Zalian from dimension X bullshit.. That I can't buy, not at all. Now fuck off, I am too tired to play these games. "

Thalia poked her freckle to turn off her active browser, pulled the power cord from her laptop, and curled up into her comforter, away from the shaft of cold still pouring in from the hole in her wall. She closed her eyes tight, relaxed herself a bit and tried to imagine her body pillow could hug her back.

Neo.. I am not any of those names. I don't know what you mean by 'PIN hacked' but I am telling you the truth. My name is Tsu.

"I'm.. not.. LISTENING!! Go try and fool someone else. Let me sleep and go invade someone else's interwebs."

         It then occurred to her that she turned had just off all her outside Winternet feeds. The voice should have vanished. And since when could her PIN read her thoughts? She propped herself onto her elbows, staring down at the dark imprint left by her head in the pillow.

There you go. You are finally beginning to understand.  This is good-

"I get it.. I am going insane and you are the voice of my conscience. Or my shadow! Yeah, I read a lot of Carl Jung when I was bored a few years ago. You are my shadow because I repressed you when I was a kid or something…" Despite feeling completely stupid for talking to the darkness, there was a strange comfort in knowing the voice was in her head and not some ghost or hacker. It was something in her she could fix and no one had to know, no one had to deal with. "So now that I know you are here and we are on the same level, does this mean you can go away? If I accept you into my heart and choose to never again ignore my inner feelings?"

No. Neo-

"Why do you keep calling me NEO? Do I look like some some stiff millennium era actor to you? God at least mistake me for Trinity or something sexier…"

You log into your computer there under Neopopgal. I was shortening it.

"I can't believe I am correcting my own subconscious. Am I really this fucking nuts? OK breath … My name is Thalia. My friends call me Thallie. I live in the slums of New York City. I work in China Town. I am not totally insane. I am not totally insane.. I am "

Not insane. Yes I agree.

"Thank you. Great now the insane voice in my head is telling me I am not crazy…" Thalia turned and sat on the edge of her bed again. The clock was now showing 2:20 AM. She began calculating how much more arguing it would take before she could stop, go to sleep, and still be ok for work the next morning. The checksum seemed to be failing.
She never had a hard time balancing her real life with the one she had on the web as Neopopgal before. Why was her alter ego suddenly a voice in her head? But the voice called her Neo. So the voice is actually her and she is the figment? Thalia groaned, face buried in her hands.

Thalia, you are tired and this first contact is usually very exhausting. You should sleep. It was not my intention of contacting you like this yet. Just go to bed and tomorrow forget I ever spoke to you.

A strange warmth surrounded her, like so many embraces she longed for in the past months. She curled into herself, felt it, despite it's strangeness, and calmed down a bit. Even if this was her subconscious talking to her, it seemed to be a voice that knew her and loved her. Thalia sighed.

"Sleep sounds swell Stu-"

Tsu, like Tsunami.

"Ok Salami. I am going to sleep. I accept that you're a bad dream inspired by my monthly need for chocolate on my pizza. And tomorrow, life goes back to normal. Kapish?!"

        The room, and her mind, fell silent.

        "KAPISH?!"

The warmth around her faded away, leaving her realizing she could now see her breath in the cold that had entered. She grabbed the dirty towel, stuffed it in the hole, then returned to her bed. She tried to think about the conversation, of her inner voice and the sound it made as it emerged from her insides. Of the fact even if it was her own lapse in sanity, at least she didn't feel so alone in her apartment. But she was again alone, she chased the voice away. It didn't answer. It didn't respond. The warmth was long gone.

        Thalia began punching her pillow.

Description
"Hello?"

The clicking stopped. Thalia looked over at the window half expecting to see a tree branch dragging scross the clouded pane, but of course there was nothing. The amber lights of a passing 8800TTS Hoverplane glazed her vision for a moment before bending organic geometry across her walls.

Get it together Thallie.. This place isn't haunted. Right? Good.

She turned off her laptop and turned, placing both feet firmly on the floor. The clicks were coming from the far corner of the room where her metal coat rack was, as if her soft wool trenchcoat and heavy black and green striped scarf were now cozy mouse condo's. She tried to imagine the fuzzy little rodents snuggled in small pretzels in her inside pocket, or burrowed deep into the zip-in liner all piled on top of eachother. As cute as the pool of fur would have been, she knew where there was life, there was shit, and a fair pile of pellets and urine would be lining her coat as well.

"Shit… last thing I need here is fuckin rats.."

Grabbing a spiked mace off it's "Dragon Con 2040" holder over the bed, Thalia slowly walked towards the coat rack. A few clicks punctured the silence, then a dragging scrape. Maybe they were not rats, but heaping piles of roaches? It had been months since she wore that jacket last, if she left a snack bar or some candy in her pocket who knows how many roach babies would be swarming onto each other for sustenance?

        She lifted with both arms and swung the heavy mace. Her coat fluttered lifelessly onto her desk chair, the  rack dashed over onto the floor with a loud Clang, smashed into a gnarled "L". Watching the ground, she saw nothing. No rats. No mice. No eight inch roaches skittering to the shadows. From her side, movement sparked her periphery and she blindly swung at it, leaving a deep violent gash in the plaster wall.

"Aww… fuck.."

Removing the mace from the hole, a cool wisp of air pressed her knuckles, showing her the damage was substantial. She smirked. If that was someone's chest, she'd have them on the ground coughing blood and begging for their life as she brought it down once more on their face with a satisfying wet thud. As it was, if it had penetrated the drywall a few more inches she might have lost her grip and the mace would be flung out into traffic, likely smashing some poor tired cabby's face in as he snored over his pastrami.

Again movement darted just out of her vision. But this time she saw more of the solid shape, shifting from the corner by the bathroom towards her bed. She looked at it, squinting. The silhouette was impossibly large and wasn't from anything in her apartment, but rather outside on the fire escape, looking in. She gritted her teeth and moved along the wall, sidling up to the edge of the window frame, raised the mace high, then planting her right foot firmly, pivoted, and swung at the glass with all her strength.

What followed should have been a loud explosion of glass, metal and sparks as the mace detonated the pressure treated glass; the apartment exhaling its stale breath and flinging the shards out against the thin metal bars and scattering out onto the fire escape. The neighbor or landlord would be pounding on her door, possibly with some police, yelling to see if she was ok and if she needed help. If she didn't respond she might even see the door smashed in or a mini police hover outside spotlighting her window to verify her safety. Then she would be lead out of the building in cuffs and her face would be national news for the next three weeks.

         Instead, she was treated to the fading echo of her strained war cry as she fell into the window face first, the heavy mace no longer in her hands. Catching herself on the sill, she shook her head and looked out, seeing no one and no thing on the black metal exterior stairs. From behind her was the heavy weight of a mace hitting the floor and what sounded like an impatient sigh. And then a deep vibration thundered up from her chest. Her lungs felt tight, her stomach queasy, and her vision swimming. She blinked a moment, shook her head a few times, but her vision only got worse. The vibration began to move. From the center of her chest, just behind her heart, up along her spine. Her throat struggled to stay open as she tried to cough and sputter for air. Her teeth ached, her sinuses washed throat in drainage, her nose running wet and slightly bloody. The aching resonance finally settled in the center of her head, lowering and quieting it's thrumming as she dropped to half sit, half lean on the window sill and face her bed. Bleary eyed, nose still bleeding, she tried to look at what stood in front of her.

          Neo.. Try to relax.

         The sound was again coming from in her head, replacing the thrumming. Nothing seemed to come from the dark shadow in front of her. Thalia wiped her eyes, un-clenched her jaw and opened her mouth to speak,

Shhhh.. I know what you'll say. Who are you? What are you? Ghost? God?

"How the fuck… did.. " Her words cut across the empty silence with a harsh clatter. Compared to the deep chocolaty voice in her mind, melting through her  consciousness like so much ice cream, her own voice felt sharp and crystalline.

Neo… I can hear your mind. You speak it so well. I know you. I have been with you for some time now.

"But…"  Cutting herself off, she tried to clear her mind and think of her next words before she spoke. So you know me and you know what I am thinking. Great. SO answer the very questions you already admitted I had, asshole.

No

"Huh?" She tried to wipe the bloody mucus from her mouth and chin.

No, I am not going to hurt you. I can hear your thoughts and feel some of your emotions. Listen Neo, I am a creature not of your world. My name is Tsu, Prince of Queen Zalia and soon to be leader of the Zalian Fifth Regiment. I have been watching you and helping when possible for the last few months.

"Why? Who am I and .. If you are not from earth, where are you? What are you?"

We are a people who have watched mankind since before you had a name for yourselves. We are why you have religion. We are why you have ghosts and exorcisms and legends of dragons and demons and sea monsters. We have crafted your civilization from the first campfire to the largest cities and airplanes you travel in. We helped you reach space. We pushed medical science. Us. The Zalian Empire.

"Yeah.. I'm being invaded by aliens… this is just splendid. " Thalia grabbed a towel from the basket by the bathroom and began cleaning her hands and face. "Is this where I get probed?"

The voice groaned in her for a moment, purposefully impatient. No, Zalians. Your people have been obsessed with Alien life because of my cousin Greenzvallo, wet back that he is, trying to get to know a group of humans about 100 of your years ago in western North America. Around what is now known as the Republic of New Mexico. In reality it was just a misunderstood word. We are from another world, but we are not so much Alien to Earth, as we are kinfolk to it.

"I don't understand. You live here but you're not here? Why Can't I see you?" She tossed the towel back into the basket, Her eyes were finally clear again, Tsu's voice no longer feeling as loud or penetrating. Thalia stood up for a moment, still watery in her legs, and tried to walk towards the shadow. Yet, the closer she moved to it, the harder it was to see.

I am actually in my world. I believe you have a term for this.. Dimension? Yes, I am in another dimension then you, another plane of existence. Through meditation I have been able to watch and help you.

"Ok that's pushing it. Who is this really? Have I been PIN hacked? Huh? Let me guess Opal_Budgie99 put you up to this? Or maybe Jesus_Freak69? " Thalia walked through the last visible shadows and fell into her bed, face in her pillow, "I am too tired to care. You know," she paused, turning her head to un-muffle her speech, and chuckled "..that was good. You almost had me going there. I was all confused and disoriented in the dark. But I ain't no dope. See, you should have said you were a ghost or something. Maybe the ghost of my dead boyfriend? Not some Zalian from dimension X bullshit.. That I can't buy, not at all. Now fuck off, I am too tired to play these games. "

Thalia poked her freckle to turn off her active browser, pulled the power cord from her laptop, and curled up into her comforter, away from the shaft of cold still pouring in from the hole in her wall. She closed her eyes tight, relaxed herself a bit and tried to imagine her body pillow could hug her back.

Neo.. I am not any of those names. I don't know what you mean by 'PIN hacked' but I am telling you the truth. My name is Tsu.

"I'm.. not.. LISTENING!! Go try and fool someone else. Let me sleep and go invade someone else's interwebs."

         It then occurred to her that she turned had just off all her outside Winternet feeds. The voice should have vanished. And since when could her PIN read her thoughts? She propped herself onto her elbows, staring down at the dark imprint left by her head in the pillow.

There you go. You are finally beginning to understand.  This is good-

"I get it.. I am going insane and you are the voice of my conscience. Or my shadow! Yeah, I read a lot of Carl Jung when I was bored a few years ago. You are my shadow because I repressed you when I was a kid or something…" Despite feeling completely stupid for talking to the darkness, there was a strange comfort in knowing the voice was in her head and not some ghost or hacker. It was something in her she could fix and no one had to know, no one had to deal with. "So now that I know you are here and we are on the same level, does this mean you can go away? If I accept you into my heart and choose to never again ignore my inner feelings?"

No. Neo-

"Why do you keep calling me NEO? Do I look like some some stiff millennium era actor to you? God at least mistake me for Trinity or something sexier…"

You log into your computer there under Neopopgal. I was shortening it.

"I can't believe I am correcting my own subconscious. Am I really this fucking nuts? OK breath … My name is Thalia. My friends call me Thallie. I live in the slums of New York City. I work in China Town. I am not totally insane. I am not totally insane.. I am "

Not insane. Yes I agree.

"Thank you. Great now the insane voice in my head is telling me I am not crazy…" Thalia turned and sat on the edge of her bed again. The clock was now showing 2:20 AM. She began calculating how much more arguing it would take before she could stop, go to sleep, and still be ok for work the next morning. The checksum seemed to be failing.
She never had a hard time balancing her real life with the one she had on the web as Neopopgal before. Why was her alter ego suddenly a voice in her head? But the voice called her Neo. So the voice is actually her and she is the figment? Thalia groaned, face buried in her hands.

Thalia, you are tired and this first contact is usually very exhausting. You should sleep. It was not my intention of contacting you like this yet. Just go to bed and tomorrow forget I ever spoke to you.

A strange warmth surrounded her, like so many embraces she longed for in the past months. She curled into herself, felt it, despite it's strangeness, and calmed down a bit. Even if this was her subconscious talking to her, it seemed to be a voice that knew her and loved her. Thalia sighed.

"Sleep sounds swell Stu-"

Tsu, like Tsunami.

"Ok Salami. I am going to sleep. I accept that you're a bad dream inspired by my monthly need for chocolate on my pizza. And tomorrow, life goes back to normal. Kapish?!"

        The room, and her mind, fell silent.

        "KAPISH?!"

The warmth around her faded away, leaving her realizing she could now see her breath in the cold that had entered. She grabbed the dirty towel, stuffed it in the hole, then returned to her bed. She tried to think about the conversation, of her inner voice and the sound it made as it emerged from her insides. Of the fact even if it was her own lapse in sanity, at least she didn't feel so alone in her apartment. But she was again alone, she chased the voice away. It didn't answer. It didn't respond. The warmth was long gone.

        Thalia began punching her pillow.