Connected

ARM

RYDER

I awoke the following day in an awkward position,half laying in my bed, half flopping on my floor.

What time did I go to bed last night? When did I even get in bed? I remembered sitting in the shower and that was it...

My neck ached, I'd fallen asleep wrong. My room was a mess. My clothes were scattered across the floor, the scent of clothing detergent stuck to them.
Had I washed my clothes? What...exactly did I do last night that I couldn't remember?

Something rang that made me jump. I could hear something vibrating against a rough surface. I searched around the darkness of my room, tripping and falling over the desk chair. Beneath my bed, I found a small phone. It had a strange design, as if it were made to fit precisely in the palm of my hand. When I reached to touch the screen, a holographic projection popped up. I ran my finger over the green icon to answer and Kingpin's face replaced everything else entirely.

It startled me so much I damn near dropped the phone-hologram...thing.

"Hey sunshine! Rise and shine! Haha!" Kingpin said, being a bit too positive for my liking. "There's my main Synthetic homie! Listen, I wake up today, and you know what the first thing I do in the morning is Ryder? Hm? Go ahead ask me. Ask me, 'King, what you do when you wake up in the morning.' "

I let out a sigh. Just answer. Answer and get it over with.

"King,what do you do when you wake up in the morning?" I asked, trying to sound as interested as I possibly could.

"Man! I thought you'd never ask! I wake up, and turn on my 60 inch tv that takes up a whole wall of my apartment. Now I turn on my tv, and I flip over to the news channel, to see what there is to see about our beautiful Neo City!"

Kingpin chuckled, and I watched as his hologram took a puff of a cigar, exhaling and blowing pixelated smoke into my room.

"News reporter said they found themselves a body this morning. Belonging to a Miguel Esquella. He was caught in a fishing net by some fisherman out in the water. News like that spreads quick, and Pablo Esquella's on the warpath. Everythings going according to plan. You did good my synthetic friend."

My throat went dry. I'd completely forgotten what happened last afternoon, and now all the images came flashing back into memory, Miguel's voice and his pleads for his life replayed in my mind.

"Yeah...I did it."

"You got my Macguffin?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have it someplace safe."

"Haha! You! You're a fucking genius man! A fucking A+ genius! Ryder my boy, you are going places. Come meet me at the Bliss club tonight, bring me my Macguffin, and the money, and I'll bring you your reward."

Kingpin's hologram vanished, and all I could do was stand there, stunned.

The device rang again, and I answered once more.

"Hey love, it's Demi."

Demi...what does she want?

"Hey Demi..."

"I heard about your job. Congrats, you'll definitely start making a name for yourself if you keep this up. Just be careful, Pablo Esquella's not going to be too happy about his son being iced. Keep your head low for a few days. I gotta go. Call you later okay?"

Demi hung up before I could reply, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Miguel Esquella haunted me. Every time I shut my eye's even if it were to blink for a few split seconds, the image of his corpse would fly into my mind.