Hacked

Is The World Ending?

When I opened my eyes, the taste of my blood still lingered in my mouth. There was a gag between my teeth, my ankles and wrists were bound.
And I was being dragged.
Dragged from the feet across rough pavement in the dark of night.
I gagged and shouted, but knew if I moved in any way that I could easily knock myself out again.
I looked up at Pj...well, Phil.
Pj's body. I could see the wires sprouting from his neck and I wondered when had Phil been able to do that and how?
But it didn't matter because Phil had killed Chris and violated my best friend.
And I was almost certain that...that he was about to kill me.
So, to savor that small delay, I closed my eyes.

...

"Wake up Danny," Phil said, "time to go inside."
I opened my eyes and looked up at Phil as he used Pj's hands to lift me up and drag me through an open door.
As the door snapped shut, I quickly recognized Cat's apartment.
The young woman had cleaned her self up and the room as well. Instead of stacks of papers everywhere, there was a neat piled of trash bags filled with some sort of black substance.
Ashes.
She had burned every paper.
She was dressed in a pink blouse, black jeans and boots, and a white blazer with cut sleeves. Her white hair was brushed and on the floor next to her were two suitcases.
The gun was in her pocket.
Phil tossed me to the ground in front of the old, cracked computer, and stood perfectly still.
The computer screen shuddered and Phil's face appeared, smiling.
Pj was normal once again, and fell to the ground, gasping.
"Dan," he wheezed, "Dan I'm so sorry. Please, it wasn't me, please forgive me Dan, I-"
"QuIEt, pJ. iT is aLRigHt."
Pj got to his feet.
"nO. IF yOu leAVe, CAt hAs ordErS tO kiLL bOth OF yOU."
Pj's green eyes widened and he slowly sat back down.
"CAt, plUg hIM iN. ANd reMovE tHe GaG."
I watched as Cat left the corner and ripped the gag from my mouth. I gasped in pain, and then screamed as I felt the tips of wires inserted into my scalp. I struggled, but the wires held tight. I felt Cat wrap bandages tight around my hair to keep them from coming undone.
"Wait," Pj said, his voice wavering, "what are you-"
He lifted his arm to reach out for me. Within a millisecond, Cat had the gun pointed at him.
"Don't you dare." Her voice was constructed; clogged with tears. "This is my chance. Our chance to start again and come back from...from everything. And I won't let you ruin it for us."
"Phil," I said, gritting my teeth, "tell me what she means."
Phil proceeded to tell me everything. His plan.
All along, I had been a piece in his game. A cleverly placed pawn.
All this time he had been waiting for someone to find and fix him.
To bring him back.
And it was me. And I did everything he had asked me to because I, oblivious and heart-eyed, had fallen in love with a virus.
"aND so YOu sEe, evEry FILe I hoLD iS noW beInG traNSfeRReD tO yoUr mINd. iN a FEw hOUrs, yOull bE goNe. onLY iLL reMAIn."
I bit my lip in an attempt to stop the tears from streaming down my face.
"You were a good thing once, Phil."
Silence.
"...whAt¿"
"You could have saved that little boy and they didn't let you. You saved Cat and she had to deal with that for her entire life. But I know that...you have to know, Phil, that Elliot is somewhere better. He was suffering."
"SToP."
"And you loved him like a son. A little brother. I don't know...but you loved him. But you can't let one lost life define you when you saved so many others!"
"sTOP."
"Break him, Dan," Pj whispered, "break him."
I kept going.
"He was innocent and loving, and so were you. You can still move on. You can come back. I've seen you as you once were and you were kind and beautiful. You can be that again, and-"
"caT, nOW."
I didn't even see the bullet before it went through Pj's head.
I yelled louder than I ever had before as I watched his eyes glaze over, blood dripping down his forehead and the bridge of his nose. He toppled over, unmoving.
I yelled again.
So loud that I could feel my lungs bursting and my heart exploding through my chest.
"Oh god!" I howled, choking on my own tears and blood. "Oh god, Pj!"
I could hear Cat sniffling behind me.
"Pj, oh my god..." I fell onto my back and stared up at Cat.
"You work for a monster. A cold hearted monster."
She stared at me with wide eyes and shook her head, over and over and over.
"cAT," Phil said, "gIVe dAn aND I sOME sPace PLeAse."