Read Identity Illusions: A RolePages Novella Page 7
3.5 #More #Compromises #RealityBytes
Location: The city of Eridon in the southern sector of the True Evolutionist Empire. Eastern Continent of the planet Hellifyno.
Out of time?!
How could that be? He'd only been in for... Joe glanced at a clock on the far wall.
"Two hours?! But... I gave you everything I had. The ring, the necklace... All of it. I need more time!"
The mountainous man tightened his grip on Joe's arm as he dragged him towards the Weave Den's door. Despite his struggles, he was no match for the brute's obviously genetically enhanced strength, and his frantic pleas were being ignored.
He couldn't lose the Weave! Not now! Not after all he'd given up for it.
"I can work. I-I can do things. Anything. I can make myself useful, I know I can! Please, I'm begging you! Just let me back in. Please! I'll do anything!"
The perversely muscled man-being slowed. Joe shifted to look directly at him and could almost see the cogs turning in his meaty head. He wasn't a thinker, but he knew what to watch out for. Something Joe had said had worked.
A glimmer of hope danced in Joe's otherwise dead, sunken eyes. "I'll do anything. I swear it. Whatever it is. Just tell me what I need to do. I just have to go back in. I need it!"
His eyes were now crazed and desperation was clear in his voice. Nervous sweat beaded his forehead and slicked down his face as he stood there, paralyzed by panic at the idea of losing his beautiful false world. His fantasy life.
"Anything?" The man's oddly shaped black eyes narrowed for a moment, and then seemed to take on a look of thoughtful amusement. Snickering, he added, "The Boss could always use a guy to clean out the crappers and, you know, give a little head here and there..."
Joe was shocked by the man’s words. Did that mean what he thought it did? The bouncer had laughed, but there was no mirth in his dark eyes now. He was serious.
As the implications set in, Joe's eyes slowly grew with horror. His lips worked, but he couldn't manage to get out a reply for several heartbeats. The large man just stood there watching him; impassive, almost patient, but always menacing.
Finally he was able to at least stutter. "Y-y-you m-mean... With m-my mouth?” A few of the other bouncers who had started gathering around at the display of Joe's desperation belted out into a chorus of laughter and snickers but, Joe continued in a rush. “O-on another guy?"
More laughter bloomed and Joe's voice hushed suddenly, his eyes shifting side to side as if he feared who might overhear. Nobody else cared. The majority of the crowd was composed of lifeless slumps gathered in piles as their minds frolicked in the Weave.
Oh gods, how did these people pay for their Weave time?
He couldn't stoop to this level. He had once been a great... a great... something. He couldn't remember exactly what at the moment. He could remember what it was like to be in the Weave, surrounded by beauty, pleasure, and possibility. The wonders he could behold there, that he could create even! And the power that he had. Nothing was beyond his reach.
It was worth anything. He had nothing to go back to. A mundane, mortal, cookie cutter life, with a mate constantly cheating on him in the Weave, and two dull and listless children. The work details, the mediocrity... The pain, the sickness, the death. He could escape all of that, dive into a world of boundless joy.
And to get there he just had to do this one thing.
Joe's body sulked, sagging in defeat as he gave up everything he had once known, everything he had once treasured. And now his dignity. Gone.
"Okay. I'll do it. Whatever it takes." His voice now matched how he felt inside.