Matt slept and remembered…..
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Matt. A toddler crawling for the very first time.
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Matt. A boy, around five or six years old, relaxing in a wooden chair after a hard first day of school, a bruise upon his neck.
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Matt. Boy again, now 8 years old, chair and desk at hand as he looked over white paged test results, the result of years of hard-won labour, tears of joy in his eyes.
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Memories came and went with the wind with every second, every image, every sound that went by, remembering more and more of what he had lost…..
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Matt. A young teen of 12, bed bound to a blue-white hospital ward bed, layers of leather chains covering his hands and feet, fear and confusion filling him as he looked around the classic mental ward space.
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Matt. Teen, 14 almost 15 years of age, looking up, eagerly nodding,filled with excitement, as a man named Morgen, a name that was ever so clearly stated upon his name-tagged lanyard pass that hung his neck, injected a small vial of black goo into his arm.
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The boy, a boy no longer now a young man of 20, sat as the person who had saved him so many times already gave a lecture about insects of all things. Types. Races. Cultures, he talked about it all, making it all sound so simple as explained the many different ways that Insects could be useful to humanity and nature alike.
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Matt remembered all this and more, remembering more and more with every moment that went by. Till finally, he remembered it all.
How he been in and out of hospitals all his life.
How had he been saved by Morgan, his mentor, twice over, first from his unknown mental Illness, and then afterwards from the tender mercies of the foster care system by convincing the social worker assigned to his case to allow him to become his foster father, only to then later adopt him altogether.
How after spending 4 dulling years of careful study under a variety of different tutors Morgon had hired just for him, his adopted father sharing with him his research and fascination with insects in the process, he was sent to Cambridge to finish his studies.
How four years later, after training in the medical arts, he met his beloved. Elysa Benet. The jewel of the whole botany department, something that was obvious to him at first sight.
How they had had a wonderful ten years of life together before all in the blink of an eye he lost her giving birth to Liam, their one and only son.
How he spent years in morning, greaving her loss and bringing up their son alone, before finally agreeing to marry again. Marrying this time less out of love but more for the door's her family could provide him.
And how after 10 years of this faithless marriage, her bearing him 2 beautiful children as a result of it, he had died at the good old age of 72 years old.
‘Bob, why, why, he, He had no right to keep this from me, no right at all!’ Matt fumed, furious at Bob for keeping such things from him.
“BOB COME OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!” Matt ragefully yelled, filled with outrage over Bob’s betrail.
“Yes, master”, Bob suddenly said, his voiceless words appearing out from nowhere like they always did.
“Why Bob, why?” Matt yelled, demanding to know why this had happened to him.
“Why...Why what, master?” Bob curiously asked, seemingly intent on acting like he knew nothing of what had happened to him.
‘How dare he!’Matt thought, fueled by red rage the likes of which he had never felt before. ‘He thinks he can get away with it, lie to me, well I’ll show him!’. He was enraged by the very sight of Bob's seemingly innocent words.
“Master, I don’t understand?” Bob said, seemingly intent on keeping up the ruse for all it was worth.
"Oh don't lie Bob the jig is up". Matt said, angry as could be.
“What master? What jig? I’m sorry I just don’t understand?” Bob said, seeming generally confused as if he really didn’t know what was wrong and yet he had to have known. Right. How could he have not.
“Yes, You do, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t you Bob!”, Matt shouted, having no doubts as to Bob's guilt.
“No, Master, I’m sorry I don't know what you're talking about.”
“My memories, Bob, my memories, the system took them from me and you never said a word? Why, Bob, why!” He shouted as loud as one could, full of anger over what had been done to him.
“Oh, that,” Bob said, sounding surprised.
“Yes, that!” He said, still fueled by anger and rage alike, with a slight wisp of joy springing through the cracks at the sight that things might finally be looking up.
“Master, I promise you we didn’t do it.”
“We?” Matt asked, still filled with anger, wondering what trickery Bob was attempting.
“Yes, we. We are the system and me. And I can assure you that we did not take your memories, master”, Bob sent back.
“If the system didn’t take them, who did?” Matt asked in a part accusation/part questionable tone of voice.
“That Master is a mystery. We may never truly know, Master, but I promise you we did not take your memories!”
"Why should I believe you?", Matt asked.
"Because it's the truth!"
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They stood there still for several long, hard, seconds in awkward silence till finally Bob broke the silence and spoke.“Master, I think maybe it’s time you looked over your notifications. You've received quite a few, Sire.”
“What notifications?” He asked, curious as to what Bob was talking about. Surely he would have seen any notifications awaiting him before now. wouldn't he.
“These notifications,” Bob said and suddenly they were somewhere else. A large cinema-like screen standing over him.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
‘What, what, what the hell, I can feel...’, Matt thought dumbfounded, suddenly feeling weight where there had been non. Instinctively looking down, filled with sudden awe as he looked down and found the sight of his old human legs, arms and belly.
‘Wait, I’m human again’ He thought, astounded, immediately standing up, unwilling to stay still for a moment longer than he had to, instantly spotting the Red Churchill chair that he had previously sat upon as he did so. ‘Wait, I know that chair, In fact, I know all these things' Matt thought looking around the gigantic warehouse theta-style room, instantly recognising the huge variety of items within his line of sight from one favourite memory or another.
“Like it, master?” A voice suddenly sounded out to his right.
“Bob!” Mat shouted out, turning to his right without a moment's delay, suddenly spotting a black man dressed in the classic old timy butler uniform. ”Is that you?” Matt suddenly asked, making an educated guess as to this unknown stranger's identity, as only one person, or magical AI as it were, who would call him master.
“Yes, master,” The pale black-skinned human who seemed to have come out from some old-time cowboy movie answered with a sharp yet creepy, computer-like smile.
“Ok, so, where are we, what is this place?” Matt asked, looking around shocked at the large theta-like room, imagining that he knew the answer to this question already, recognising as he did at least half the objects in the room from one memory or another and yet not wanting to make assumptions, the recent situation had already proven he could always be wrong.
“It's a mental space, master, Like it, master. You should, I used your most memories to create it, after all, I thought it would be a good place for you to recover from the terrible ordeal that you just endured." Bob answered.
"What memories!" Matt curiously asked Bob looking around left to right as he did so, asking for mere curiosities sake, not angry in the least about how Bob had created this place. A bit annoyed, sure. But angry, no. Something he knew should have bothered him, but it just didn't though.
In fact. The only thing that he could feel, right now, looking around this mental construct that Bob had created for him was a strong sense of curiosity, with a bittersweet hint of sadness/happiness to go with it. A consequence of regaining his memories he guessed.
“Your favourites.”, Bob said, suddenly pointing towards his right where a large screen Tv sat on the wall, seeming out of place with the small desk stool that Bob sat upon, in way of explanation.
'Hold is that...' he thought looking around the large theatre-like cinema. Looking over to the right of Bob and instantly recognising the large flat screen Tv as his home tv where he’d watched many a movie/Tv show with Liam, Tomy and sera.
“Wait, that sign, I know that sign”, matt muttered, suddenly spotting a small wooden sign hanging above the tv, small lettering stuck to a half-full bear pint glass picture spelling out the words cheers. 'That's the cheer's bar sign where I first kissed Elysha's, and that picture....'
And so. On and on and on, it went. Matt, moving his eyes over the room, coming to recognise more and more things with ever second that went by only to finally give up, having seen all that the room had to offer, and turn back towards the long-awaited cinema screen where he, at 7 years old, had first watched Pirates of the Caribbean hoping beyond all hope, that he would have the opportunity to watch it all over again only to instead be disappointed.
Looking up only to find instead of the opening scene of the great, scallywag pirate, captain Jack sparrow escaping the hangman's noose, kidnapping the princess-like Elizerbith, dozens upon dozens of notifications awaiting his attention, a fatal reminder of the reality that awaited him outside of this Mental construct that Bob had so kindly created for him.
Congratulations you have unlocked your memories. Seriously congratulations dumbhead. I mean how did it take you this long. Poor Bob here has been dropping hints for ages. I mean what do you have to say for yourself?
Now onto your notifications...
The strange notification-like message said on the big screen with another dozen or so of its kind.
'Thanks, I think.’ Matt thought, dumbfounded at this strange message, moving his eyes down the cinema screen, going through the strange blue Text boxes one by one.
Congratulations you have unlocked the mental realm. You may now exit and enter it as you please. Well as soon as your timer eclipses. Sucker.
Congratulations due to intense mental stress you have gained access to the hidden Statt (mental health) and are now better equipped to fight off mental type attacks.
Congratulations due to intense mental stress you have unlocked the dungeon trait of Mental resistance:
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(Trait)Mental resistance:
Mental resistance gives the users monsters a 50% chance to resist a level 1-5 mental type attack.
Warning this trait may have unintended consequences on the user's development. Extreme caution is advised at all times.
Congratulations due to the completion of a hidden quest (Unblock those memories dude) you have been rewarded 1000 EP.
Congratulations you have levelled up. you are now level 2. You have gained 5 free attribute points.
“Huh,” Matt sighed, instantly moving his eyes to the left, spotting a small digital countdown clock that abruptly grew bigger the very moment his eyes came upon it.
04:50:00
“Bob is this what I think it is?”Matt asked, curious as ever, wondering what this strange countdown that continued to count down in the background was.
“It's your skill timer, master, skill timer is a timer that…..”, Bob simply said, attempting to go into another of his dreadful rants
“So it tells me when I can get out of here?”, Matt asked, stopping Bob before he into yet another of his dreadful rants.
"Yes, that's basically what it is master”
"Ok, good"‘Aghh, Why couldn’t you just say that?’ Matt thought, filled with annoyance at how obtuse Bob could be at times.
“Why would I?” Bob suddenly said with obvious bluntness, seemingly having read his mind yet again something that shouldn't be possible now that he had the shield or so he'd thought at least.
“Bob!”. Matt yelled annoyed at the sheer audacity that Bob had to read his mind out of the blue like this, a thing that he had so obviously done as how else could he have gained the information needed to say these words out loud.
“Sorry, sorry old habit, won’t happen again”. Bob said the words as if it would make things everything all better, it didn’t.
“Just please don't do it again”. Matt said, hopeful as one could be about something that had yet to happen. "How did it even happen, anyway? I thought the shield was supposed to protect me from this sort of thing?" Matt asked, not wanting yet needing to know if he had gone through all that efert for nothing.
“Ok, Master. I really am sorry though,”. Bob said, sounding sincerely apologetic like he really meant the words this time around though Matt was uncertain. "As for the shield, it's not fully installed yet so it can't protect you yet, master.", Bob said a few seconds later.
"What, really?" Matt asked.'I would have thought it would work straight away, but I guess with something as complexe as this the more time it takes the safer I'll be'.
"Really sir", Bob sent back in confirmation.
"Ok, so when will it be installed?" Matt asked hoping it wouldn't be that much longer, wanting as he did to just have this whole ordeal over and done with.
"When the skill timer reaches zero, Master." Bob sent back, Matt quickly checking back up on the timer as he said the words.
03:20
'Huh, some time to go still' "Guess all I can do is wait," Matt muttered settling back down into his favourite old red leather Churchill seat.
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00:00:03
00:00:02
00:00:01
00:00:00
‘Finally’, Matt thought as the timer hit the last few seconds of what had been a dreadfully long few hours of waiting.
Congratulations your time is up,
The skill mental shield has finished its installation. You may now safely exit sleep mode at your pleasure.
Exit sleep mode:
Y/N
“Yes”, Matt thought/said as fast as one possibly could and then suddenly before he knew it he was back. Back in the same old grey-blue Diamand-rock-core-infused body that he hated so much.