Sunlight, nothing but sunlight. It blinded my eyes, as things came into focus it all became familiar. The highway, what I was driving, the hot summer day. No, no! Not again! I don't want this! I tried to slam on the brakes but my foot would not move. My hands stayed locked onto the steering wheel, my hands. My human hands, my old body, it felt too real.
I kept trying to stop, everything was in slow motion. My mind raced, I didn't want to know if it was really a dream, I didn't want to know what was real, I wanted to stop! Why won't it stop! I look up and the cloaked figure from my coma and nightmares is soaring towards me, the faceless void, his spiny hands, a blood curdling shriek fills my ears as the spiny hand blinds my vision completely.
"NO!"
My eyes finally open, around me was the bedroom I feel asleep in, next to Lynette. I rest my hands onto my face. I feel my face again, my new face. My body, it was still the new one, white fur and all. Lynette stirred next to me, wondering why I shouted. "Russ, what's wrong? You woke me up," I take my hands away from my face, the room wasn't dark. The sun was still rising, it was still fairly early in the morning. I wasn't tired anymore. Lynette rolls back over and pulls the covers back over herself. "Russ, go back to sleep. It's early," she says.
I couldn't. My heart was still pounding, why is that cloaked thing appearing in my dreams still? What is it? I thought it was my mind creating something for when they put that thing into my old body, but I'm still having these dreams of him, even while awake! It had to mean something. But I had no idea on where to even begin on the possibilities. I dismissed it as my own imagination acting up. I pulled the covers off and slide myself to the edge of the bed. I feel my feet touch the soft carpet.
I look outside the bedroom window, a few birds sitting on the fence, the yard covered in snow that's been iced over. The sun was still rising so the iced over snow was starting to pick up glare from the sun. I finally get myself up and out of bed, I close the curtains to keep the glare from bothering Lynette. I look back at her, some of the covers were pulled away from her. I tuck her back in and get myself dressed.
*************
I made my way into the kitchen, the floor felt cool on my feet paws, almost refreshing like. I decided to dig around the fridge to see what I could snack on. The doctors and nutritionists back at the hospital were saying I had to have a lot of meat and protein in my diet, whether it was just meat in general or even protein shakes if I felt like it. But I wasn't feeling like anything meat like, I grabbed the orange juice instead. I was super happy when I was told I could drink most normal drinks.
Putting the OJ bottle on the kitchen counter, I dig through the cabinet for a glass. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a laptop. Closed and plugged into the wall, I assumed it was Lynette's. I slid it forward and opened it up. The screen lights up, the background was an old picture of myself with Lynette. I sigh as I still remember that sunny day by the bay. It was our first road trip together. We were only together for a year and she couldn't let go. I had a keeper, for sure. I see one of the internet icons that looked familiar to me, clicked on it. Before my accident, there was a social media site gaining popularity, I had a profile and whatnot, but was always skeptical of it and such.
But go figure, the browser starts up and it's in her profile. That site stayed relevant, I'll be damned. Not wanting any temptation, I logged out of her account. "Let's see, I my account should be there," I say aloud. I punched in my email and my password. Screen goes white as it loads, followed by some security screen. Said my profile was deactivated due to inactivity. Made sense, honestly, eight years and all. Something about revised guidelines and asking if I wanted to reactivate my profile followed. Well, might as well take the plunge back in.
I prompt it to reactivate. The same screen I saw Lynette's profile on was back up,but with people I added instead. Old friends of mine talking about their lives, their views, interests, not much changed. Or so I thought. Scrolling around and seeing what people were talking about, I noticed some rather, negative comments. Something about right wing this, left wing that. Pictures of black fella in a suit and tie with slander all over the image. Like, really vile stuff. More posts with patriotic sayings, these people I knew to be car enthusiasts, but I look at their profiles and it's littered with political messages left and right. It really left me confused about how society was. Was it that bad?
As I was browsing profile after profile and seeing what old friends were up to, I see something pop up on the screen, it was a private chat box. "People must see me active or something. I never remember this site having that," as I see who sent the message. It was my old buddy Mikey, we used to go to car meets and cars shows so much together. He helped me with my car, too. Good kid, honestly. I see the message that he sent next.
'Yo, who using Russ's profile? Did you feel like stealing a dead man's page or somethin?' the message read. I was nervous, I had no idea how to respond, anything I would have said he would have not believed. Soon, another message sprung up. 'get off my bro's profile man, not cool'
I just clicked on them to make them go away. I only wanted to lurk and see what was going on. This was backfiring really quickly. Before I could figure out what to do next, I hear Lynette come into the kitchen. "Really Russ? You haven't even been home for a full day and you're causing trouble already," she says with a very annoyed look on her face. "I'm getting messages from two of your old friends saying your profile is hijacked or something. I don't think you should be making it seem like you're alive yet,"
Standing in front of the laptop on the counter, I rest my elbows on the counter and buried my face into my hands out of frustration. What am I gonna do? It's not like I can just tell them 'Oh hey guys, I'm not dead anymore!' and everything will be fine. Hell no, I know how my friends are, they'll defend me as much as needed. But Mikey was a close friend, if I could trust anybody the most, I knew it would be him. "Lynette, call Mikey down here. At least one of my friends deserves to know,"
Lynette goes into the other room to call him on the phone. I go back to the laptop, the messages stopped. I go back to browsing profiles and seeing what else is going on. I wasn't the only one to have died, as I saw two friends had passed away in my absence. My buddy Dom who loved motorcycles, died in a crash. Looking at news articles friends posted about him and tagged him in, a drunk driver hit him late one night. He died at the scene. Another friend, Victor, another friend that loved imports like I did, he took his own life last year. His wife cheated on him and left him, depression consumed him. Other familiar faces graced my friendslist. They were just living their lives, I could only imagine most moved on, since only two people picked up right away.
Lynette comes back. "I told him that the car needs a go over, and that it was me on the profile. I said I found the info in some old clothes I found going through storage," she says, still with an annoyed tone in her voice. She went back to the bedroom, leaving me to continue just looking at people that I once knew. I truly felt like a ghost, looking at how people were just living their lives as I gazed through some window. I felt empty, but yet I felt satisfied somewhat. It was a good feeling seeing people I cared about still enjoying their lives. From marriage photos, parties, selfies, families, their cars, their activities. It was such a conflicting feeling of both happiness and emptiness.
***************
"Russell! Wake up!"
"Huh?" I was still groggy, I looked around and noticed I was on the couch. Guess I fell asleep, fancy that. Lynette stood in front of me. "Mikey is here, it's now or never," she says. I nod at her, "You may as well bring him in," as Inervously fiddle with my hands. I feel my tail twitch, same with my ears. I hear the garage door open and Lynette talking. I was wearing an old hoodie of mine, the custom one I had with logos on my car front and back, one that Mikey himself helped me get. I figured he'd need some sort of hint. I hear a door close and footsteps. I take a deep breath, I pulled up the hood as to not make myself look so daunting. As I look down at the coffee table and await Mikey, my mind races with the different possible outcomes. What if he doesn't believe me? What if he goes to the authorities? I don't know.
"Hey, what the hell?" I hear Mikey say. His voice really hasn't changed much. I look up, he wore a winter hat, a black leather coat, work pants and boots. "Yo, that's some sort of what, animal? Lynette what the-" I cut him off mid sentence. "It's been quite awhile Mikey," I say. His expression goes from anger to confusion. "H-How the?" he stammered. "Mikey, I don't expect you to believe much, but I'm not dead," I reply to him. I stand up. I used to be shorter than Mikey, but not anymore. I walk up to him slowly, and finish what I had to say. "I mean, who else is going to hate the crowd that is attached to the kind of car I drive?" I said, as I smirk and pulled down my hood.
Mikey's expression was pretty much of somebody that saw a ghost. I may as well be at this point. Mikey steps back, I can tell he's not believing what he's seeing. "Dude, what the hell? You're like some dog or somethin'?" he says. I love the guy to death, but I see he's still not so bright outside of an engine bay. "It's me, it's Russell. Which, by the way, this body is a fox," Mikey smirks back. "I know that smartass attitude anywhere," he says. I opened my arms for a hug and he comes forward to me. It felt good to have a friend back.
****************
Mikey was on the couch as I finished up telling him about happened to me. A few hours had passed already, I was sick of talking by now. "Mikey, for now, you can't really speak of me. The doctor, scientists or whatever that helped me, they actually planned some sort of debut for me. So as of right now, I still don't exist. Just say it was Lynette on my profile," I say, finishing up my talking for the morning. As I stand up, I completely forgot about the security we were supposed to have. "Crap! The security guys we had out-" Lynette cuts me off, "Russ it's fine. I told them he's here to fix the car. I told them you were staying in your room," I looked at Lynette with a bit of skepticism. "Really? That easy?" I asked. She giggled. "Well, I have my assets. They're convincing when the time comes," she says in a cheerful tone as she squished her breasts together. "Pfft, that figures," as I roll my eyes.
Mikey gets back up, "I'm get going. I can't believe you're alive, man. I mean, you're some fox dude now, but it's still you. I'm glad you're back," he says. Stumbling on his words like always, I smile and hug him one more time. "Go, get going. I'll contact you when things get more normal," I tell him. Lynette follows him to the garage. I sit back down, wondering who else would be still willing to want to see me again. I hear the garage open up again followed by a closing door. I get back up and walk into the kitchen. Lynette walks over to me and puts her arms out for a hug. I hug her back and held her tight. Things hopefully will return to normal.
"Don't get in anymore trouble?" she says. I chuckled, "Sure, no problem," as she walks away, I see the laptop was still open. I hit a button as the screen pops back up. I see a new message from somebody. "Hmm?" as I bring it up. My eyes widened, I had completely forgotten he was added to this profile.
My dad.
"Russ? Who's on this? This profile was gone for years"
I couldn't believe it really, my dad paying attention to social media. All those years of him telling me the internet would be my undoing and to fear so many things about it, but there he was. But unlike my friend, my father was not close by. I shut the screen, getting rid of the temptation to answer him. "Soon, dad. But not now,"
Severed: Chapter 7
Russell delves into social media, bringing back an old account that causes some commotion.
Story written and edited by me.
Story written and edited by me.
8 years ago
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Estimated reading time
10 Minutes
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