»Behind the veil«

Behind the veil, the revealing melody and the death of a friend.

Josh rubbed his eyes as he awoke. He heard his mom calling from downstairs, telling him breakfast was ready. He was off to school in about an hour, something he was not looking forward to.

That’s very understandable considering he was every bully’s wet dream. A shy kid who never said no or made any attempt at resisting the crap he had to endure on a daily basis.

He slipped into his baggy jeans and put on his white Etnies T-shirt and black Zero hoodie. He quickly consumed his breakfast, put on his old, torn shoes, grabbed his skateboard and went out the door.

His feet connecting with the board and the feeling of the griptape was always the best part of the day before his arrival in hell.

He raced down the street while people were diving out of the way screaming at him. That was the second best part of the day by the way.

On his way to school he had a set of three stairs in a row, each stair had seven steps. He approached the first one and adjusted his feet. He ollied down the first seven steps with ease as always, nollied the second set, and the sound of the pop echoed through the air as he flicked his board into a huge kickflip down the third set.

He caught the board high above the ground and landed smoothly while bending his legs to absorb the impact.

He picked up his board and walked towards the same streetcrossing he always passed but he slowed down, almost stopped, as the familiar tune reached his ears. There was something in the melody that caught his attention besides the fact that it was extremely annoying.

He knew that the melody was used for helping blind people across the street, but there was something about it, it was like the tune was trying to tell him something.

He watched the crowd around him while the tune kept repeating itself, and he noticed something he hadn’t really thought about before. Everyone looked so empty and drained in a way, it was like they were sleepwalking or something. Josh felt almost dazed by the experience.

He stepped back on his skateboard and went to school. Everyone looked the same there, empty and hollow, just wandering around it seemed. He opened the door and walked through the corridors. The voices from the other students around him were just a low mumbling in Josh’s ears.

Then he saw someone who stood out from the rest of the crowd, who actually seemed awake. It was his best friend. Josh walked up to him and they talked for a short while before he was off to class.

Josh’s class started in 20 minutes but he was feeling so weird that he decided to go home. The corridors were almost empty when he got on his skateboard and rolled slowly across the smooth floor towards the door. He was about to open it when three big guys in black suits and shades beat him to it.

An eerie feeling shot through him and he held his breath as they passed him, he then turned and looked at them. The sun shone on them through the windows as they walked down the hall. It was like the three of them were one, they moved in perfect unison.

Josh thought that they must be FBI or something but right now he didn’t really care. He just wanted to go home. He decided to walk and eventually, he again reached the streetcrossing and the tune began to play once more.

He was hypnotized and just stood there, looking for something, but what? All other sounds eventually faded and the tune was all that existed.

Then suddenly a burst of green light flashed before his eyes and he snapped out of his trance and it was like he was looking behind the reality he was used to seeing. Everything he looked at was made of columns of flowing green numbers. The shock dropped him to his knees and he closed his eyes hard.

He drew a deep breath and when he opened his eyes again the numbers were gone, everything was back to normal. He understood why the melody had effected him the way it did. He and everone else were blind, blind from the fact that this reality wasn’t real at all.

Seconds after the realization someone roughly grabbed his shoulder lifting him up and then he blacked out.

When he woke up he was in a hospital with his mother sitting beside him. According to the doctors he had been in a car accident and had been in the hospital a few days but he was going to be alright. Josh didn’t remember a thing.

His mother had dreaded telling Josh about Karl comitting suicide. When he found out that his best friend had jumped off the school roof he completely broke down. He was never really himself again after that.

It was like the day of his friends suicide had been erased. Sometimes he had memory flashes but they didn’t really make much sense. And for some reason he had weird dreams about men in black surrounded by green light.

The months passed but there was something eating away at him, he doubted everything around him but he didn’t know why.

He wanted so bad to remember what happened that day but he couldn’t.

One night he went to bed leaving his computer on as always, falling asleep almost instantly. A few hours into the night he opened his eyes and starred at the roof, his body completely numb. He turned his head slowly and glanced at the computer screen.

I GOT OUT…

Hej, yipman...
This is a great beginning! I love how you represent Josh's backstory and details of his personality.
One detail I would change is Josh's thought that the agents he sees might be CIA. CIA dress like everybody else, not in suits and shades. They want to blend in, so very few people know who they are unless they tell you. A better thing to say would be "FBI", since they are known to dress something like that.
Great job!
holy_of_holies

Naw. The secret service agents dress like that.

F.B.I. try even harder to blend in with everybody else.

Thank you guys. I thought that CIA and FBI dudes sort of dressed like that. Sorry about that. What should I change it to? And I thought i would just leave it like this. I hope you understood that the melody thing was from the Animatrix episode Beyond and that Karl was the kid from Kid's story.

depends on what they are doing really, the CIA I agree wouldn't run around in suits, nor are they supposed to opperate in our own country... but one can never really know. The FBI field operative may be wearing normal atire with the FBI jacket you commenly see, may be in suit and tie. Secret service who protect the pres are always dressed up with the shades and what not though. But then again, we do call FBI people agents right? Or rather FBI agents lol. One point of the suit and shades and also being white, is to help better define themselves as figures of power. Who has the power, the rich white man lol! White men in black suits, we commently refer to them as "the man" and "they" lol. Anways, I think I've dribbled on long enough, good luck with the writing.

What can i say? As great as everything else that you have written and I have seen. About the whole FBI/CIA thing, we don't have that here in London but we do have MI6 which are equivalent to FBI/CIA and they try to blend in with the crowd for secrecy.
However, don't really matter, we all no what you mean, great start to a good fic. Can't wait for the next chapter. The suspense has a knife and it is coming towards me....

Thaaank youuuu.

Man I Like the fic . Why dont you continue the story, Like Kid contacts his friend, and then josh asks him abt the things that he saw, n he ,kind of, tries to get out of the matrix himself. Wat Say?

I'm glad you like it. I might continue on it when I have the time, and if I can come up with something good.

I like it, i like it lot... That should be part of the matrix comic issue3... Can't wait for the next chapter

Wow thanks. Like I said I will try to come up with a good way to continue it when I have the time. But if I don't ever take time how can I ever have time.

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