markdown 我喜欢的Reddit短篇小说

Posted 2021-05-06

 **u/Subushie** 

 "'Yeah man I feel you; look, don't let assholes get you down. And Hey, keep the change.' Mark said, then handed the cab driver [Name: Dokar Milicevic, ref#, art.1266-pg.629-line.56] a twenty dollar bill." 

  This particular sentence caught my eye, having spent the last several hours skimming over my own life; I couldn't help but wonder what the cab driver might have thought of my gesture. I place the ancient text down onto the marble table in front of me. Leaning over I peer down the dark, seemingly endless, celing-high rows of book shelves. Taking a moment to study the article signs extended from the shelves, I find the article's shelf. I pull myself from the chair, stiff from hours of sitting; to find Dokar's story.

  Articles 1260-1275. I brush my hands over the large dusty books while I read aloud 

  "1260, 63... ah yes 1266. Here we go." I slowly draw the heavy book from it's place and return to the marble table top. I push my own tome forward on the cool surface and place Article 1266 down below it; echoing a quiet *plop* through the giant library's dark halls. The old text's spine cracks in protest as I gently coax it's pages open. I return my view to the cab driver's reference number. "Hmm, page 629, lets see." After a few moments of careful flipping I find the page.

  "'Thank you sir' Dokar replied to his fare [Name: Mark Argus, ref#, art.1034-pg.435-line.12] being the first tip Dokar had received in nearly three days, he could not contain the emotion growing inside of him. Driving away from the kind soul, Dokar began to think of that twenty. His thoughts had been focused entirely on his pistol waiting for him at home; but now his mind wandered somewhere else. 'There indeed is good in the world.' He thought biting his lip. The plan had been to tell his last fare how cruel the world can be, then blow his brains all over his cheap apartment walls. Now, this random stranger changed all that. 'How strange, that the person I planned to be my last fare would tip me such a large amount.' Dokar continued to ponder. 'Maybe this is a sign, from somewhere, that I should stay alive. Maybe my life has a purpose.' Dokar in that moment remembered his love [Name: Selika Dovkovic, ref#,art.1254-pg.982-line.23] and how much she did mean to him. Dokar looked to the passenger side to locate his phone; he found new life and was ready to tell Selika how much she meant to him. However, before he could find his phone- a loud horn pierced his ears. Dokar looked up in time to see the headlights of a 18-wheeled vehicle. A explosion of sound rang around him as everything turned white. [Dokar Milicevic's Death: 2019, April 12th, 3:43PM]"

  "Well, Fuck." I said aloud. I sat back into the old chair in shock. Astounded by the huge impact my small choice had made on Dokar's life. I sat in silence staring into nothing, and for a moment I almost lost interest in reading the Tomes of Time. Then i remembered I was to be stuck here after my own death for all eternity...

  "Might as well just keep reading about that time I could see into the girl's locker room." I returned to Article 1034 and unbuttoned my fly...

I wake and place my feet on the cold concrete floor, standing and stretching as high as I can until that satisfying *pop* sounds as my spine gives me what I want. Then it's a reach for the toes until my calves feel loose again.

I trot out of my small bedroom and begin jogging, as I have every single morning for a very, very long time. The air is stale but it doesn't matter much to me, you have to expect as much this deep underground. The prison is built to contain just one prisoner.

That would be me.

It's fully functional, even still, with the energy being drawn from core heat and everything built to last. They had to. They expected I'd be here for a long time. The cell I sleep in exits into a rectangular room, exercise equipment gathered in the center and a running track around the perimeter. At one end is the kitchen with a hydroponic farm and breeding pen for what sustenance I require. Food is the hardest thing to deal with now. The other end is a library, stocked at my request. I didn't expect I'd have this long so everything has been read more than a few times.

They did expect me to be here a long time.

Just...not this long.

As I finish running I stop and bend over, taking deep breaths to slow my heart rate again, letting the sweat drip onto the floor. As habit will do, I look up to the viewing station where the guards had once kept vigil. Not for years now. Many, many years.

I shake it off and make my way to the kitchen for breakfast. A single fried egg on a simple bread I have been making for millennia and a chicken breast. Delightful. Still tastes as good as ever, even if I've been eating it for what feels like eternity.

What I wouldn't give for...well I don't know. It's been too long I honestly don't even remember what food options there used to be.

I sigh and clean the dishes, pat the chickens for what small comfort they bring and head to the library. As I step I see something move out of the corner of my eye and I look to see figures in the viewing station.

Guards? After all these years?

A light comes on and I see them, tiny figures barely visible through the glass. I hear the *click* that I vaguely recall for the microphone.

"Who is it?" the voices say, along with other chattering and talking before they realize I can hear them.

"Who are you?"

How kind of them to pose it directly to me now.

"One of the great gods, has it been so long the mortals have forgotten that?"

"When were you locked in here?"

Now that is actually a good question. I think back to the day the mortals created this place for us, many thousands of years now surely. I do some quick math before answering.

"Nine thousand, seven hundred and eight three cycles. Around the sun, of course."

The murmuring again.

"Impossible," is the reply.

I laugh.

"No, just inconvenient. I was meant to be released after one thousand cycles but something happened, the guards disappeared."

Murmuring. Goodness these mortals do love to talk don't they.

"Perhaps you can release me? I'll be eternally grateful."

I chuckle at my own joke. One must become one's own entertainment I suppose. They don't speak for a long time. So long I begin to think they won't help me.

"I'm afraid we can't."

"Please," I say, hearing the begging tone slip into my voice, "please, it's been a very long time."

"I'm sorry."

Then the *click* again and the movements stop. I am ashamed to admit that I dropped to the floor and began to weep.

After recovering from my shameful display of emotion I found myself sitting in the library but unable to focus. There were mortals alive out there, that was something. Perhaps in a few more cycles they would release me. Surely, just a few more.

As I sit I hear something. This is different. Something I haven't heard in a very, very long time. The main door unlocking. I hear the *hiss* of the door opening and quickly make my way to the main room.

A young man stands there and looks at me, nervously. He holds up both hands in a sort of mock surrender.

"I just...I don't think it's right to leave you here."

I take a few great strides to him and he flinches but I simply wrap my arms around him and squeeze.

"Thank you," I whisper in his ear, tears filling my eyes, "thank you."

I release him and we exit the room together, hopefully for the last time. As I take my first step I am struck by several barbed objects that sink deep and then my body convulses. My muscles tighten and my jaw clamps shut and I collapse to the floor. A dozen men quickly converge and chain me with the restraints that must have been left in the guard room.

One of them, a burly man with a shaved head, stares down at me.

"Immortal, they said," he says it with a sneer, "thousands of years down here? Immortal. Well we'll see."

Then a thick rubber boot tread fills my view and it is the last thing I see before it is dark.


*****

I wake, slowly. It slowly swing my legs off the low, thin bed and rest my bare feet on the cold tiled floor. I try to stand but my legs refuse the call to action. So I sit.

The long scars that run down my leg remind me where they drew their fill of marrow from, bone marrow for their studies. I remember screaming as they cut into me, screaming for them to release me and threatening to burn their world to ash and finally pleading for them to cease.

None of that worked.

I remember his laughter as I faded in and out.

"Some god," he said at least once, "some immortal."

I wanted to explain that immortal does not mean invincible but I don't think he would have cared. They wanted to know how to fight aging and disease more than they cared about semantics.

"Hey," I hear the voice from the door to my cell, "I'm sorry."

I recognize him. The one who "released" me from my former prison, only to bring me to another.

"You."

"Yeah...I get it," I hear the door unlock from the other side, "I'd be pissed too."

The door unlocks and he stands before me, sheepish.

"It's not right, I'm sorry."

I find the strengh to stand on shaky legs and glare at him but...here he stands before me. Apologetic and perhaps releasing me.

"Is it day?"

He nods, with a confused look.

"Can you get me outside?"

He nods again and leads me into the hall, devoid of guards for the moment.

"I opened one of the other cells, they're busy."

"Which one?" I ask, thrilled at the prospect of one of my brothers or sisters on the loose.

"Don't know, names are all faded off the doors. What...who are you anyway?"

I don't speak but we close the gap towards a door, a door that leads to stairs. I glare at him for a moment and he shrugs in response.

"Only way up."

I grunt and we begin the arduous trek up the stairs. Each one sends pain shooting through my battered legs. I mumble some curses but continue.

When the door opens I feel it. The warmth of the sun. I take a deep breath and stand on my own as the warmth and light do their work. The only thing I really need. I can feel lean muscles filling out, my hair turning from gray to it's deep brown and the lines that crease my face disappearing. I feel...I feel like myself again.

We stand on a flat space with a large white H painted on it, overlooking a mountain range that I barely remember.

He steps away and looks at me with fear. Without the sun I was fading in that deep cell, even if I would never die of age there. Like a mortal in his fifties or sixties, not the powerful man I am now.

"What are you?"

I turn to him and stretch until I hear that satisfying *pop* of my spine. Turn my head for the same in a stiff neck. Bend down to loosen up my calf muscles on healed legs.

"What is your name mortal?"

"Derek. Are you going to kill me?"

I throw back my head and laugh, it feels good to laugh again.

"No Derek, you have earned my favour. And a favour from me does not come easily. Shall we release my brothers and sisters?"

He swallows hard and nods.

"Who are you?"

I open the door back into that staircase, down into the bowels of the facility they have built over our prison. It's different now though. I have my strength back. I pause to look at him, applying just the right amount of dramatic pause that these mortals found so pleasing all those years ago.

"The Titan Hyperion. Now come. We have work to do."

We made our way into the bowels of their laboratory quickly, Derek leading the way as I followed.

I had two goals and only two goals.

Kill the man who had captured me and free all my siblings.

I told Derek as much.

"The guards should be busy with the others and I know where the Colonel is. Come on."

Good, very good.

We race towards the end goals and I flex my fingers in anticipation. I do so enjoy mortal bloodshed, from time to time...it's a vice I admit. It is deep within the halls and rooms that they had constructed before releasing me that I find the first of my goals. The guard watching the cameras dies quickly, his neck snapped like a dry twig.

Derek vomits in the corner so I ignore him for the moment, focusing on the screens. Each is one of my siblings, pacing their cells. I see a brawl in one cell where my brother Iapetus flogs the mortal guards with ease, they are his children after all and he knows them best.

Yet more guards come and he is weak, too weak and they finally overpower him. The old guards had left weapons and tools behind, they would have to be destroyed or we could still be defeated.

My second goal arrives on screen, the Colonel. At least that's what Derek had called him.

He stands over Iapetus and gloats, I'm sure of that. Even though I cannot hear it.

"Come!"

I sprint off and leave Derek behind, rounding corners until I reach the door. The door to Iapetus' cell. It is heavy but I push it open, grinding the door on it's track.

With it open I find him!

No.

It's empty. That is odd. Only Iapetus' body laying in the center of the room.

I wheel about when I hear it but it is too late.

The door slides shut behind me, leaving me in this room. I shout and hammer but it is no good. The doors were built when I was at my peak of power and they will withstand it now.

"Damn you!"

*click*

"Well done, Hyperion, well done. Didn't expect you would be so easy to manipulate but...well here we are."

Derek. He and the Colonel stand in the guard post and stare down at the two Titans they have captured. Proud of themselves.

Fool! Me, not them. I should have known.

I should have known.

Damn.

I kneel by Iapetus, ignoring the laughter from the guards. He is thin, unlike himself. They all were on those screens. Our power does fade and his is weak.

"Brother Hyperion!" he groans, opening his eyes a little, "look how they fight back. I'm proud of them."

He winces as I move him.

"Furious and proud."

I can't help but laugh. I look around at the prison that I remember so well, identical in every way. I close my eyes and allow some of my energy to flow into his body, healing the wounds and strengthening him what little I can spare.

"Thank you brother," he says, looking fractionally better. He stands with me and we both look up to the guard post where Derek looks...perturbed.

Good.

"Any ideas?"

He nods.

"One, now that we're together. Tethys is near and I have a mortal under my sway. It nearly ended me brother but I have him."

I perk up at that.

"What do you need from me?"

He looks to the guard tower where both the Colonel and Derek stand, staring.

"I need you to do what you do best brother," he smiles weakly, "get mad."

*****

It's an odd request from any of my siblings. Usually they demand the opposite.

But, who I am to deny a request?

"You will suffer until the end of time!" I roar it at the guard post, shaking the room with the volume of my voice, "you will burn for eternity until the flesh peels from your bones and you beg for the sweet release of death but it shall never come!"

I use what energy I have left to bring forth a gout of searing flame that strikes the thick glass, with no effect. It does make the men stumble back though, which is something.

As they reel Iapetus closes his eyes and slumps, his mind leaving the room.

In the facility a maintenance worker jolts from his magazine, standing slowly and retrieving a toolbox from his locker. He walks through the maze, avoiding the running guards and ignoring the shaking that rumbles through the facility. He makes his way into a room, swiping his badge for access. Inside are dozens of pipes that feed water through the facility.

He pauses, looking them over for a moment. Then he raises an arm to point at one of the pipes, before taking a wrench from the box and using it to turn a valve to the on position.

Then he leaves the room. Once he is out he shakes his head and looks around in confusion, before shrugging and heading back to the maintenance break room.

Iapetus opens his eyes as I continue to lash the walls and glass with fire, shouting ever more creative threats. With every *hiss* of fire on concrete I feel my power fade.

"Brother, calm."

That's the request I'm more familiar with. I let the fire fade and take great heaving breaths. My power is almost spent.

"It is done."

*****

Tethys sits in her cell and listens to the shaking and shouting, even through the walls she knows who it is. She smiles at her brother, somehow he must have gained access to his beautiful sun.

She leans back and wonders when they will come for her, it couldn't be long. Then she feels it. Flowing behind her. It had once before but they had quickly realized their error. Perhaps the guards had left records and information on the Titans.

Except it was back.

She placed her hand against the wall and felt it, even through the pipes and concrete she could feel it. It refreshed her. Empowered her. She drew the moisture from the walls, as much as she could.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Soon, I will be there soon."

**u/chasnote** 
"Now look what you've done," says the dark haired woman at the head of the table. She sounds remarkably like Julie, but she isn't her. I know that much at least. She sounds surprised, but not angry. Excited in a good way, just not how I expected; almost like a clinical curiosity. My Julie doesn't do clinical curiosity. It had been a surreal week so far and things were only getting stranger. 

"Fascinating," says the blond guy to my right, sounding like my friend, Will, but once again, not Will. In fact none of these people are familiar.

"What the hell is going on," I say as my mind reels. This is not how this was supposed to go. This was to be a celebration. I could see again! The whole flight back from Hong Kong, watching the sun rise over the clouds for the first time in decades, I still kept thinking of finally seeing Julie and my loved ones again. But this wasn't right.

"Who the hell are you people," I ask, wondering if something had actually gone wrong in the surgery. 

"Steve, take a seat, please," fake Julie says to me, "You need to calm down."

"Calm down?" I respond. "Who are you people!"

The others around the table ignore my inquiries as they start talking among themselves. My confusion grows as I overhear snippets. He has vision, is that possible, one asks. I would never have thought this development would evolve so rapidly, another responds. I am starting to feel faint as I try and make sense of my surroundings. 

"Steve, we can explain," fake Julie continues, "but you need to calm down. Your heart rate is highly elevated." 

Fake Will is standing by my side now. He tries to put a comforting hand on my shoulder but I brush it off. 

"I don't understand," I say, maybe more than once. My heart is racing, and I barely register that fake Julie knew the same, but I can only think I am in a dream now. 

"This isn't a dream, Steve," fake Will says as he puts his hand on my shoulder again. "You were in an accident. Please calm down and we will explain."

This time I actually try and take the advice and take a few deep breaths. Why is he bringing up the accident, it was so many years ago. Unless he is talking about my surgery. Did they know about it? Julie was slightly suspicious when I told her the company was sending me all the way to Hong Kong this time.  

I let him guide me down into the seat as I look back to fake Julie for some answers.

"Yes, Steve," she says, "you were in an accident two weeks ago. A bad car crash."

"Two weeks ago," I respond. "That can't be right. I was with you...I was with Julie, we had a picnic out in the park." 

I could still feel the sun on my face from that afternoon. She had described the falling leaves and how the colors were changing with the season. I almost revealed my secret to her that day, so excited I would actually be able to see her and the foliage on our next beautiful outing. 

"No Steve," fake Will said, "you and Julie were in a car crash that day on your way to the park."

"The injuries were extensive," fake Julie said, "the doctors did what they could, but they had to put you in a medically induced coma to try and combat the swelling."

What are they talking about! I screamed in my head to myself. I was not feeling well. I wanted to keep asking them to explain this ridiculous story but I couldn't find the words. My thoughts were coming slower, as if in a fog. I looked at fake Will, desperate for clarity from my lifelong friend, but he just kept talking in an even voice like an adult stranger to a lost child. 

"When the company heard of the accident, the legal team got involved.  The doctors agreed you were probably never going to wake up, but they fought hard to not release you. But you had signed all the waivers, giving them the permission. They proceeded with the experiment."

"The interface worked better than we ever expected," fake Julie continued. "But they couldn't get the visuals working properly. Audio, tactile, everything working without a glitch, just not the visuals."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Experiment? Computer interfaces? None of this made any sense. My vision started blurring at the edges. Nausea hit me hard as the world started spinning.

"I'm not feeling very well," I was able to croak out as I reached out to fake Will to keep myself from falling.

"It's truly fascinating, Steve," he said as he grabbed my shoulders with both hands to steady me.

"It's not the computer visuals that started working, it's your brain. Your brain was able to bring your visual abilities back. It's truly remarkable."

"Remar..." I started to echo back, but couldn't finish. Something was terribly wrong but I couldn't make sense of what was happening. Fake Will sounded as if he was now speaking to me from a room far away.

"Unfortunately, Steve, your brain is now rejecting the interface. We have no choice but to disengage and put you back into the coma. You have really done a great service though. Our progression has been accelerated by years with the data we have gathered. We truly thank you, Steve. I'm sorry it comes to this."

Service? Coma? The thoughts are coming even slower now. I try and look around at the familiar faces as my vision continues to blur. As I look to fake Julie, or is it my Julie, I ask myself as I think back to that recent Autumn day. I feel the breeze run across my face as she holds my hand. 

Then I hear a pleasant voice from behind me. No, not behind me, from...from everywhere, as if it were God speaking from the heavens.

"Simulation ending in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

**u/sir_kickash** 
I feel that I'm a fairly unshakable person. People think of some filthy depraved shit from time to time, and, being privy to every little thought, I've heard most of the worst. So I thought that I was prepared for any thought that may pass through my headspace. 

The worst part is that it wasn't a phrase or an image. I can live with those. I've heard men plan out all sorts of terrible things to say to women and I've seen images of gruesome murders pass through the minds of strangers. I barely give them a passing glance anymore.

What passed through my head today was like no thought I've ever encountered. It carried a pure, horrid feeling with no words or images attached. 

All at once my mind was filled with a painfully intense desire. It was almost sexual, but the craving was for the most awful, sadistic violence that even I could imagine. It was such a pure, unbounded bloodthirst that I'm almost tempted to call it primal, but it was far too refined for that title. 

It was cold and calculated, calm and collected, like the most rigorously trained soldier. I could feel its inhuman intellect and I could swear that it was feeling me back. Maybe that was the worst part of it. Listening in on another person is always safe; never before have I felt something invade my mind like that. 

But no, that wasn't the worst. The worst feeling was the hatred. Words like loathing, disgust, and deploring all fall short of what this was. The profundity was so intense, I believe, because there was love in it as well. There was a complete understanding of human; accepted and cherished, and at the same time despised. 

Whatever projected these feelings didn't just understand mankind. It basked in this depth of empathy and used it as fuel for its ecstasy of hatred. It had taken human nature into the depths of its own soul and condemned that piece to rot. 

A hatred so black and unfathomable could only be attributed to one creature. I looked around to find the bastard. 


"Meow"