9-30-2020 - Into the Woulds

 Into the Woulds

IDEA - 9-30-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,665 Words

When you're young, you've got an idea of happiness, an idea of a good time, and an idea of what friends are; when you grow older, you start entering the "I would, but ..." stage of life. I would have a drink on Thursday night, but I've got to work on Friday morning; I would be with a different girl every night, but that costs too much money; I would help you move, but you just call when you need something. This realization occurs quickly; maybe it's the added responsibility of adulthood, maybe it's maturity finally seeing the forest through the trees, or maybe you've finally developed your bullshit detector. It's funny how high our bullshit tolerance is when we're younger; it's like the ends always justify the means, even though you're spending a dollar to make 15 cents. Isaac finally entered the woulds; he would prefer to stay home every night of the week, watching a movie over engaging with the human race. Isaac is also well conscious of the transition; it makes him happy to be alone, no one to impress; he doesn't have to be "on." Experts would say that Isaac needs psychiatric help; they would question, "Why wouldn't someone want to engage with other people?" It also aligns with the American interpretation of "sad, lonely, life-hating, and depressed." One of the youth's traps is the constant prattling and dwelling on what other people interpret you as. "What did they mean by that? How do they see me? Am I cool? Am I someone people want around?" The version of you trapped inside their head will inevitably remain well after you're gone. It's with this mindset that Isaac finds himself the winner of a contest. He doesn't remember signing up, but it's a chance to win a million dollars, so refusing would be foolish. As he arrives, his cell phone is collected, and he is taken to the green room where two college-age girls are also waiting. They wait for a half-hour in silence, and Isaac finally gets irritated and tries to open the door, but it's locked. One girl begins to panic, "I need my phone; this is bullshit!" The other girl is childlike, smiling in the doorknob at her distorted reflection. Isaac attempts to calm them down, but the girls keep irritating him by voicing their priorities that remind him of his life before entering the woulds. The three continually harass each other for hours before all agree to remain silent. That worked for about ten minutes before Isaac started lecturing girls how insignificant their priorities are. The girls take offense, and arguments follow. It's been around three hours, and one of the girls attempts to seduce Isaac, but he can't overcome his frustrations with who she is, and that what she cares about is so trivial. After more hours, they start behaving hysterically. Isaac wonders how they could have gone this long without being hungry, thirsty, or using the bathroom? One of the girls suggests that they might be dead, stabbing herself in the stomach with Isaac's swiss army knife he used but failed to open the lock. Isaac and the other girl look on horrified, but the stabs were ineffective; she was still alive and felt no pain. Isaac concludes that this is hell,  and past versions of himself are torturing him. Nothing is more tormenting than living with your past self, a self you've run from your whole life.

9-29-2020 - Childhood Movie

 Childhood Movie

IDEA - 9-29-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,569 Words

Alfred's relationship with the world was impacted by his time in front of the television as a child. That time was significant, considering that his parents were always looking to keep him quiet or entertained. Alfred's understanding of complicated subjects grew throughout the years as he spent most of his time watching sitcoms, not that something was wrong with how those subjects were covered. Unfortunately, the half-hour format led Alfred to assume that it was possible to solve most of life's problems in 30 minutes. Later in his life, Alfred was full of one-liners and canned laughter in his head day after day. I can imagine worse ways to go through life, to laugh, and to tell jokes. It's as if there is a movie on a loop, and he can access any scene at any moment, having committed these childhood comedies to memory. The real tragedy comes when he runs out of material. Heather, his girlfriend of two years, someone Alfred would say was a recurring character in his movie, was assaulted a few years ago. Accessing dialogue from The Facts of Life episode where Natalie was assaulted, he knew just what to say, and he was the hero for one night. Nonetheless, Alfred woke up the next morning and expected everything to be fine, on to the next storyline, but it wasn't, and it ruined his relationship. On and on, Alfred's internal movie offers a glimpse of what is exactly required, but then, eventually, the letdown. Alfred meets Jennifer, and this season's plot is written in his head. Jennifer is a fan of past sitcoms, but she appears to be a little more grounded than Alfred. For the first couple of months, with skilled screenwriters writing the dialogue, love is in the air and their eyes. However, the superficiality comes faster than it usually does, since Jennifer recognizes Alfred's shows.  Jennifer calls him to task on the superficial way he lives his life. In a meta moment, asking if she'll ever meet the true Alfred! He becomes fractured with no plot or dialogue to add to the scenario. He's been reciting and acting so long he doesn't know who he is inside. Will Alfred be good enough for Jennifer?  He knows he needs to risk everything to find true happiness, but in a true twist worthy of the best sitcoms, Jennifer's ex comes back into the picture.  A charismatic, good-looking, charming guy with the intention of sweeping Jennifer off her feet. Accessing his childhood movie is the only way to compete; it always knows precisely what to say and do. But the story is familiar to Jennifer; it will require Alfred to create original material for the first time in his life, a challenge greater than anything he has ever seen on TV.

9-28-2020 - Who Killed Becky Jupiter

 Who Killed Becky Jupiter

IDEA - 9-28-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,552 Words

Becky Jupiter had several friends, earned straight A's, and joined various clubs and teams. That's why, when her body washed ashore in a nearby lake, the whole community was shocked. Becky had just begun her senior year, aiming to be valedictorian and go to an Ivy League college. As detective Roger Murphy arrived at the scene, he found quite a few onlookers had arrived. The detective called over a Sargent staff and asked him to gather everybody's names, and if anybody does anything atypical, make a note, and we'll discuss it. As interviews start and the investigation begins, they soon discover that Becky had a summer relationship with Jayden, a student who graduated last year. It supposedly ended with a huge fight at a party in late summer, though. Jayden became the detective's number one suspect. Detective Murphy visited the State University to question Jayden in his dorm. "Yeah, we were hanging out a little, but we weren't exclusive or anything, I haven't seen her since that party." When asked about the fight, Jayden answered, "It was the strangest thing, the fight was about nothing, she showed up to the party all pissed off and took it all out on me." Once Jayden established an alibi, he was playing pool with friends on campus, the detective's suspicion began to diminish. There were quite a few investigators on the case, as Becky's parents have money and won't rest until they bring the murderer to justice. One investigator found something unusual about her social media accounts; she has lots of friends and lots of posts with friends, but the posts are superficial when examined. There was a photo with a group of girls posted two weeks before her death; when he questioned the girls, they didn't even recall her being there. One girl recalled, she showed up to the party two hours late, took a few rando-pics, like this one, and jetted. Another girl claimed to be in the same math class two years in a row, and they would text each other about assignments and correct answers but never hung-out in person. In reality, none of her social media friends claimed to be her actual friend; they said she was cool, but it never went beyond hello in the hallways. As Detective Murphy stepped back from her social media, it seemed to exist to keep up appearances.  There was no inclination about what her life was like outside school. So there he was, a dead end with the ex-boyfriend, dead-end with her so-called friends, and her parents knew absolutely nothing about her life.  Detective Murphy wanted to return to the transcripts. After hours of interviewing, only one thing stood out; she was an ambitious kid; she would do anything to get a good grade. They interviewed 22 present and former teachers, and 20 of them said something similar. Rather than concentrating on the 20 that agreed, the investigator wanted to look at the two who didn't. One was her new Foreign Language teacher; the other was her sophomore year Biology teacher. Come to find out, the Foreign Language teacher was out on maternity leave for most of the quarter and was just starting to get to know her students.  He turned to the Biology teacher. Looking at her report card, A+ is straight through every year, except for Biology, the first quarter was a B+, then the rest was all A+'s. The detective wanted to interview the teacher again. Suspicions emerged again when he didn't throw universal adulation towards Becky. Rather, nitpicking about poor writing and insufficient ambition. Why was he agitated about Becky?  He had her two years ago; why say these things now, unless there was justification to say them. Toward the end of the interview, the Biology teacher said something that might have blown the case wide open. "I'm sorry not to say this the first time, but there was a student Becky didn't get along with, the class's former number one student, Miranda Fells." Miranda was the number one student in the class before leaving halfway through her sophomore year. Miranda supposedly moved to San Francisco, but there's no record of that student anywhere in the U.S. I suppose she may have attended school outside the U.S., but why was the Biology teacher the only one to mention it? Looking further into the Miranda case, the last two outgoing messages from the mother's g-mail account were to her work, resigning, and the school unregistering Miranda and demanding her transcript. Both emails suggest they're heading to San Francisco, as the teacher said, but they never did. If you're close to someone, it's easy to hack their email; they keep it logged in on computers, phones, and other internet of things. The Biology teacher had a thing for the valedictorians.  When Miranda threatened to turn him in for an inappropriate relationship, he murdered both the mom and the daughter, sealing the deal by moving them halfway across the country. Continuing messages and paper trails, he covered his tracks. Digitally moving the mother and daughter to San Francisco, without suspicion, took a month. When he started to focus on Becky, she was open to his advances, and a relationship began. It ended suddenly in a fight, and she tried to turn him in. He was sloppy, overconfident, and lazy this time. Trying to pull off the same murder by chaining Becky to weights and forcing her to drown a mile out in the lake. On his way to murdering her parents, Becky slipped through the chains, and late-night joggers noticed her body. Upon arrival at the house, the principal texted the whole faculty and staff about Becky's body washing up on the lake's shore. He abandoned the second half of his plan and attempted to cover-up his relationship with the student instead.

9-27-2020 - The Missing Children

 The Missing Children

IDEA - 9-27-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,465 Words

We all walk by the posters; they're in box stores, the post office, and the laundry mats; the missing children posters showing a photo of the child, how long they've been missing, and what they would look like today. What people don't know is that there's been an increase in the number of children missing. In reality, child services do not bother with the most recent posters any more; they change them every couple of weeks. A conspiracy is taking place; in a joint operation with the Chinese and Russian secret military projects program, over a thousand children have been abducted in the past year; all of them are between one and three. The children were enrolled in the elite camp. They were educated in American culture and diction, programmed with skill sets that included discipline, memorization, reading, math, and subliminal allegiance to the Chinese and Russian governments. Primed and ready to return and become the next generation of the American elite. In fact, twelve years later, the biggest child trafficking ring ever was uncovered, and more than 500 children were returned to their parents after they had been missing since they were one. The other five-hundred of them were sent back in drips and drabs. The missing children have been exceptionally competitive at education, sports, and leadership; as their preparation over the past twelve years has led them to this success. Flash forward another 15 years, and the missing children have infiltrated every part of the U.S. government and military-industrial complex. The Chinese and the Russians have secretly produced spies with American credentials within the U.S. government, ready to activate and destroy the U.S. from within their own organizations. Mixed up in all this is Larry Brownstein, not one of the missing children, he was the son of a military war hero who had been passed over for his last promotion. Larry also found it difficult to get promoted with Chinese and Russian spies sufficiently solidified into power positions, despite his incredible record and exploits. Larry's friend Conor Sanchez and his wife were both missing children in the Chinese camp. One night, when he was having dinner at their home, he stumbled upon a message from the Chinese government, transported discreetly with dots and dashes. Larry notices the beeps and investigates; he knows the mandarin and can obtain the full message. Conor walks in on Larry, and he quickly realizes that his cover has been blown. Larry had to fight Conor, then his wife downstairs, narrowly escaping with his life. Once he left the house, he was blacklisted and forced to live in the shadows. But he's inspired by this conspiracy; he doesn't know how large it is, who he can trust, or even know about Russian involvement; he sets out to save the United States.  It's just 1,000 vs. 1; his chances don't look that great.

9-26-2020 - Posthumous Adulation

 Posthumous Adulation

IDEA - 9-26-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,713 Words

It's the middle of the workweek in Santa Cruz, California, and Phineas receives word that his father died in Nova Scotia. Most people will receive this information by e-mail, text, or phone. However, Phineas received it from a personal messenger. His father left when he was 14 years old; never looking back, never checking in, never seeing him again. But the messenger would not go until Phineas had come with him to his father's services. At first, he refuses, he ignores the messenger and proceeds to work. A few hours later, the boss visits Phineas to complain that the man who came to pick him up was sitting in the waiting room, singing Danny Boy continuously and annoying everyone in the room. His boss asked him to deal with it. Phineas agrees to go to his father's service if only to save his job. The messenger drives an extremely compact car; Phineas can barley get his legs in. The much shorter messenger has no issues and says this car will get them from here to Nova Scotia without charging. Phineas doesn't know what to focus on first, the fact that they're driving the whole way, the legroom, or the impossible car that can drive across the country without fuel. Instead, he dismissed all of his worries and made the best of it. His boss said he was going to pay him for the time he was away. So started what was intended to be a four day trip to Nova Scotia. The messenger had all kinds of stories about his dad. They made stops along the way, celebrating the life of a flawed man, from the time he left his family to Nova Scotia, where he died. The trip's start was no surprise to Phineas, his father, the dirtbag, tricking people out of money, running scams, and living a life of crime. But the more east they traveled, the more interesting the stories got. On this pilgrimage, he had a chance to see his father's transformation he had known to father Phineas he wished he had. When they get to the east coast, his father has completed his transition and became a productive member of society. Phineas also discovered that his father never stopped loving him; works of art were left behind as testaments to a man who wanted to start again. When they arrive in Nova Scotia, Phineas starts to see how the opportunity to reconnect never happened to his unexpected death. At the end of the day, Phineas understood why his father had to leave; he ran away from himself, running away from the person he used to be. All that was left behind was little signs that he was there, like carving initials into wood, that's all he had to show for his 58 years on Earth.

9-25-2020 - Do No Harm

 Do No Harm

IDEA - 9-25-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,558 Words

Some people become nurses to help the sick, others like the job security and the health plan; there’s only one who became a nurse because she likes to see people die. At first, Michelle Connors enjoyed the exhilaration of watching the instruments expire. But as time passed, there were not enough deaths at the hospital to feed her addiction. While nurses take a pledge not to harm, Michelle had created another pledge, only for her. She would only kill people who were close to death, she would never kill someone under her care, and she would never let anyone else take the blame for her murder. Michelle works the graveyard shift, where most of the patients asleep. All that can be heard are the beeping and pulsing of machines providing care and life. It had been a while since someone died, and Michelle was getting the itch. She knew the graveyard nurse on the 5th-floor nurse dozed off here and there throughout the night. When it was time for her break, she made her way down to the 5th floor and started to go room to room—eventually winding up in Parker Morrieson’s room, an 87-year-old with pancreatic cancer. As he began to struggle under the pillow she was applying pressure with, she saw the heart rate spike and then drop, the flatline, that’s her money shot. No time to wait around, she replaced the pillow under his head and ran out of the room. As she was making her way back to the ward on the 7th floor, the code was called, and on-call doctors and nurses ran past her on their way to pronounce what she knew was death. That night, Michelle had discovered a new method for getting her fix, and she could do anytime she wanted. Over several months, the death rates at the hospital were slightly elevated. It was a big hospital, but with a serial killer executing patients every so often, her actions would affect the aggregate. It was a data scientist employed at the hospital that first became suspicious of the elevation. Instead of reporting the anomaly, Allen Tinker decided to launch an investigation. He had cried wolf before, so he wanted to confirm his theory before taking it to security or the police. He had a list of 100 names of potential suspects; Michelle was number 64. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse, where first, Michelle becomes aware of the investigation when she sees him snooping around at night. However, then she becomes suspect number one when he almost catches her in the act. He knows it’s her; he just has to prove it. He better prove it quick before he becomes a suspect himself.

9-24-2020 - Underground Statues

 Underground Statues

IDEA - 9-24-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,546 Words

For 30 centuries, the Egyptians were the preeminent power in the world. Most people would agree, a civilization that ancient couldn't possibly have the knowledge and abilities of our modern world. However, with today's discovery, six statues buried in the middle of the desert, it's calling all of that into question.  Three of the statues were of human Egyptians, looking at what looks like a computer tablet, connected to the head of the group leader. The leader is sending the information telepathically to the other two humans. About 100 yards away, they found another three statues that look like aliens, big bug-like eyes, long arms, and skinny fingers. They, too, were looking at a tablet and exchanging information telepathically. The statues were found completely by accident; a space satellite initially designed to map the ocean floor was accidentally left on as the satellite passed these humongous objects buried in the sand. But what happened to this technology? What type of power source do they use? And do modern humans possess the ability of telekinesis? One researcher, Martin Robinson, sent to explore the site, had some theories he'd like to explore, but officials at the site would not allow researchers to touch or manipulate the items; they could only inspect them. Even inspection was fascinating, but after the site had been open for about a month, it was announced that it was closing and would not allow any researchers to the site anymore. On the last day that researchers would be allowed at the site, Martin was convinced that a necklace around the Egyptians leader's neck was playing a major role in using the technology. He even made a 3D printed replica to swap out, but security was intense, and he never had the opportunity to get within ten feet of the statues. As the researchers were being escorted from the site on the last day, another team of researchers had the same idea as Martin and tried to steal the necklace. One thief almost made it to the tunnel leading out of the excavation site but was tackled by security. Their actions would land them five years in prison. Regardless, when the thief was tackled, the necklace was dislodged and landed right at Martin's feet. With the replica unused in his backpack, he quickly made the switch. As security arrived, they screamed not to touch anything, and Martin and others put their hands up. The replica was picked up and returned to the statue. It's been three months since Martin gained access to the necklace, and despite running various tests, there is no sign that it does anything at all. He submerged it underwater, added electrical current, wore it around his neck, and took X-ray/MRI/PET scans. He even took the necklace to the desert, above where the statues were; in the cold, he waited hours for nothing to happen. It wasn't long after that Martin heard that they discovered the replica; figuring it was only a matter of time before they connected the dots, he started to work on the necklace day and night. He usually locks the necklace up at night before going to sleep, but one night he worked through the night and fell asleep with the necklace on his desk. When he awoke in the morning, his five-year-old daughter was wearing it and moving objects around the room. Chairs went flying, even objects, as big as a couch, were sent flying into walls. Martin dodged some debris and eventually got the necklace off his daughter. When asked how she got all those things to move with her mind, she said that she wasn't thinking of anything and a man appeared, "he was silly, daddy, he had the face of a doggy, big ears like Millie." Millie was their German Shepard, with ears like a jackal, or the Egyptian God of the underworld, Anubis. Being a scholar in Egyptian dynastic rituals, Martin knew that Anubis was associated deeply with embalming. To say the prayer of Anubis, you must clear your mind in a meditation ritual. Martin sent his daughter upstairs to his wife and started what he knew about Anubis meditation with the necklace. He had to clear his mind, like a child, with no complex thoughts. After ten minutes, Martin could see all of the thoughts and visions from Egyptian time. Those statues were of aliens who worked in solidarity with the Egyptian people for over 100 years. But in 2975 BC, the Egyptians and the aliens disagreed on major tenets of religion, and the Egyptians attacked their friends in the middle of the night, casting them out of Egypt. The aliens vowed to return with an army and wipe the humans out. Martin could see it all, science, technology, and even the star system the aliens originated. Once returning from his trance, Martin performed some calculations, and it would take the aliens approximately five-thousand years to travel to their planet and back, given the speed and schematics of their ship. They would be arriving in 2025. Martin did not know what to do with this information, was it real? The doorbell rings, Martin sees on the monitor; the police ane here to get the necklace and arrest him for theft.

9-23-2020 - Mood Booster

 Mood Booster

IDEA - 9-23-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,598 Words

In the future, after decades of research into phytochemicals, pharmaceutical companies have finally created the right mix to mellow everyone out. It is healthy, non-addictive, and creates an atmosphere of peace, harmony, and togetherness. Everyone is in a good mood, and production is way up. First, they began marketing the mood booster as a vitamin, then as a drink, and eventually as a food additive. Eventually, the government allowed the drug to be placed directly into the water supply; that's when things began to change. The comment section on the Internet became a happy place. Political demonstrations and protests have disappeared. Just because people were not in agreement did not make them mortal enemies, determined to destroy one another. Of course, the mood booster had its opponents. Eli Barton was an avid conspiracy theorist, sourcing his own water, growing his own food, and holding stocks of a chemical that counteracts mood boosters' effects. He found that the government has introduced additional additives to water and food in America through his research, such as fluoride, to avoid tooth decay and vitamins and minerals to improve health. In a violent demonstration at the food and drug federal building, he smashed windows and set garbage on fire before the police arrived. Eli ran as the police approached. Eventually, happening upon Evan Burke, waiting at a stoplight, humming along to Air Supply. Eli jumped into the passenger seat and pulled a gun, "drive!" Evan panicked and sped through the red light, a flash from the police camera reflected brightly in his windshield. Eli took Evan to his underground bunker in the warehouse area. He explained why he was so upset, showed him facts, and gave him an antidote to the mood booster. As the real personality of Evan began to emerge, he liked the feeling. "This is the first time I feel real." Evan started to get upset about all kinds of things, his girlfriend's "guy friend" was sleeping with her, he was underpaid at work, while the manager's buddies were getting all the overtime, and the last season of his favorite show wasn't that good. Both Eli and Evan's photographs are published all over the news for violating the disturbing peace ordinances that were strengthened a few years earlier. Eli explains that he intends to spike the water supply with a mood booster antidote, which happens to be three times more powerful than a mood booster. Evan acknowledges that all people should have the opportunity to see what it's like to be off the mood booster, but he was afraid that his life would be totally ruined. In the last attempt to persuade Evan, he took him to a disgusting nursing home; the walls were moldy, it smelled like urine and trash, and the workers were hanging out in the office, texting on their phones. "You see, complacency leads to inadequacy, if no one complains about it, then issues don't get solved and living standards decline." Evan agrees to help, and Eli reviews an ambitious mission impossible style plan to sneak into a water treatment plant with top-notch security. The plan failed tremendously; however, a security guard named Karen was given a dose. A few days later, she would turn up at the warehouse and take over the operation. Karen's guidance and a little support from her two best friends, also named Karen, sent a loud and compelling message to the American people about the mood booster's risks. They never convinced everyone, but enough people to vote out the politicians enabling the pharmaceutical industry and mood booster was taken out of the water and food supply. The comment section returned to being a dumpster fire, political debates at Thanksgiving resumed, and citizens were able to get angry again and take it out on the wrong people. Yet, we are human, which is better than going through life stoned on mood booster.  

9-22-2020 - Secret Weapon

Secret Weapon

IDEA - 9-22-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,464 Words

The African nation of Deinatou has been devastated by colonialism for decades, targeted by its neighbors because they practice a different religion, and remained a third-world country because of aid distribution politics. About 40 years ago, in a bloody war that scared its citizens and bankrupted the government, the country gained its independence. A child was born in a small village just outside the capital city about 20 years ago. Her name was Nehanda, "strong and powerful" because the villagers saw that the child had special abilities, could run faster than a car, leap over buildings,  she was indestructible, and could shoot fire from her fingertips. The villagers kept her a secret, inundating her with stories from the past of oppression, imperialism, and war. The child's contempt for outsiders increased and was revealed to the government when she became an adult. This was their opportunity to get vengeance and to put things right. With the purpose of stealing, pillagers from the neighboring countryside snuck into Deinatou. Nehanda was sent to the village by the government, and she had no trouble stopping them; her rage bubbled up when they fired on her, and her hands' energy killed all the intruders on the spot. Word spread rapidly and Dienatou had the respect of their neighbors for the first time in a long time. It was not long until Dienatou was on the defensive; counties surrendered quickly, usually without a shot being fired, most of the time, Nehanda's reputation proceeded the invasion. Dienatou took over its six neighboring countries within six months, confiscated the riches looted from them, and became the region's dominant power. Peace was prevalent until a larger nation came to collect tax for using a seaport that straddled the border. They argued that the main building was on their side of the border, so they were entitled to collect taxes on the seaport's use. Dienatou ignored the numerous attempts to collect taxes, and the larger country sent troops to collect the money it owed. Shots were fired, and Nehanda was sent to squash the attack, which she had done without difficulty. The rulers became angry and proceeded to suppress the larger country's capital, which fell in one night. Dienatou became the largest country in Africa and power to be reckoned with on the international scene with this larger country's annexation. Even countries outside Africa have begun to turn up looking for security. Dienatou became cocky, threatening war with nations that were not complying with their demands. It was called the "summer of blood." They took over the whole continent of Africa and a couple of countries in the Middle East in one summer. World powers started to become worried, stating that World War III could result with continued growth. The leaders of Dienatou consistently claimed that the only people they care for were the original citizens of Dienatou. In the fall of that year, the world war began and would be over in the spring. Nehanda had become too powerful to be stopped. Desperate and defeated, the United States snuck into Nehanda's birth village and abducted her birth mother and kept her hostage in the act of espionage. If they did not release her mother, Nehanda threatened to destroy New York, LA, and Chicago. Nehanda started her devastation. After destroying half of Manhattan, she was told that, in a violent outburst, she had killed her mother. Overcome by anger and sorrow, on May 22nd of that year, Dienatou officially conquered the world.  The world would be one country, one government, and one leader for the first time in the world's history, and Nehanda was the all-powerful ruler of the world, but it cost her the person she loved most to get there. Nehanda returned to her village of birth to bury her mother while the rest of the world waited for the right time to attack.

 

9-21-2020 - Forgot to Forget

 Forgot to Forget

IDEA - 9-21-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,619 Words

Socrates said, "the unexamined life is not worth living," well, certain lives should not be looked at too closely, either. Fred Crawley has trouble sleeping; despite resorting to prescription medications, various sleep apnea apparatuses, numerous meditations, and eastern remedies, Fred will still be up all night. He spends most nights looking at his family's genealogy, collecting details about his family tree, immigration to the United States, and birth and death records. Fred was intrigued by his great-grandfather, who lived the last 30 years of his life in an insane asylum. He found that the family had seven children, but three were killed in three separate fires. Looking closely at the fires' timing and the commitment of his great-grandfather, he formed the theory that his great-grandfather killed three of his children. Someone suggested that Fred go to see a therapist, perhaps it was a mental block that prevented him from sleeping. At his first appointment with the shrink, everything was as expected until Fred, under hypnosis, confessed out of nowhere that he had killed a random person outside a bar in Wyoming and just drove away. It was such a shock that Fred even stunned himself. Saying after exiting the trance, "I never did that, I don't know why I said that." Of course, the doctor wanted to discuss that admission further, but time was running out. Thoroughly perplexed by what he said, he spent the night investigating murders in Wyoming outside bars. His great-grandfather was a truck driver, and he would sometimes drive across the country. His routes would take him across Wyoming, often. There have been several murders that his great-grandfather may have committed, but which ones? His research concluded as inconclusive. That same night, he fell asleep for the first time in three days, he slept three hours before a nightmare woke him. From a first-person viewpoint, someone wandered around an unknown darkened home. Children fast asleep, the intruder makes his way to the kitchen and extinguishes the pilot on the stove, turns the temperature up filling the room with gas, and drops a lit match as he leaves the house. Fred became convinced that he just witnessed one of the murders of his great-grandfather. Somehow there was a shared connection between their memories, a common connection to a madman. Every night, a vivid re-enactment of a horrific murder took over what little sleep he was having. Night after night, his mind started to become poisoned, obsessed with murder and the exhilarating feeling of witnessing insanity. He remained tired all the time, his appointments with the shrink began to become a game; he would create scenarios a professor would call textbook. The shrink enjoyed his superiority,  talking over Fred’s head by tossing out diagnosis after diagnosis. Fred had no idea how he knew what to say and what to do to get the doctor to respond, but he enjoyed it. Without a doubt, Fred was experiencing the memories of his insane great-grandfather. Fred’s fixation with arson and murder reached a breaking point where the allure of voyeurism was no longer enough for Fred; he wanted to share in the murderous act with his own hands. Thus started a murder spree, killing ten people in a month, all brought on by an epigenetic propensity for killing shared with his great-grandfather. Fred became a psychopath, killing at will and feeling no remorse. His family began to become suspicious, and his daughter was the one to turn him in. Like his great-grandfather, Fred ended up in a mental institution. Fred's son, Ben, was angry with his sister for turning their father in, and so begins another descent into madness; proving genetics to be a powerful device.

9-20-2020 - Losing My Mind

 Losing My Mind

IDEA - 9-20-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,676 Words

Is life meaningless? When Kiara returned home from her mother's funeral; the third funeral in two months, she also attended her father's and her uncle's; there was this needling question in her head. She tried to work through a relentless reminder of the meaning of life, but it just distracted her into a daydream. She tried to suppress these feelings, but it only gave her a headache. Then she tried to sleep through the residual depression of the question's context, but the effects were represented only in her dreams. She couldn't get out of the issue, so she decided to embrace it. Kiara was raised as a Catholic, so she decided to seek an answer at the church, but she was surprised that, as an adult removed from religion for so long, she saw through the veil that it was silly their answer was faith. A construct that fails to satisfy the question, the excursion produced more questions than answers. The universe is organized chaos, and the brain, or, more precisely, the neurons become the librarian of chaotic environments. Neurons place a name on everything, attach value to artificial creations, and construct navigations to avoid knowing the reality that life could be meaningless. Without the neurons to assign a curtain of significance, everything would be the same, stardust. All the atoms were forged in the heat of the sun, so we are all made of the same material. Watching a football game is watching stardust play stardust, with stardust, for stardust. Two people having sex are stardust combining with stardust to shape more uniquely arranged stardust. These thoughts started to replay themselves in her mind. Kiara decided to smoke a joint that her friend, Rodney, had given her to cope with her parents' death. She hadn't smoked weed since college, but she wanted something to take the edge off. She inhaled in and leaned back on her sofa.  She was transported to a world of play-doh, play-doh people driving play-doh cars, play-doh from houses to play-doh jobs, so they could earn play-doh money to buy play-doh stuff to make them happy. When she came down from her high, she realized that this was another diversion from the real question, was life meaningless? At that point, Kiara decided that her life experiences alone were not enough to address this issue. Is the question even answerable? Kiara was visited by Heather, a friend she hadn't seen since high school. They used to have sleepovers and to watch movies together. She dropped by to offer her condolences, but Kiara strongly felt that there was another reason. She persuaded Heather to take a road trip to the desert to see a man who might have answers to the question. The videos of his preaching coincided with the solutions Kiara had sought. As they arrived, peyote was offered, Heather rejected, but Kiara participated. As the "priest" started to preach, the effects of the peyote began to kick in. Our minds categorize stuff on this rock, and everything that can be seen from this rock. This rock moves relative to a giant helium and hydrogen clump, which moves relative to other spiral clumps, and the spirals move relative to other spirals. All of which are moving away from each other at an ever-increasing speed. We happen to live in a time when our brains can see and organize this stuff; even if it was a different time, nothing could escape the horizon of light, and the sky would be dark. We're all the results of our environment. Asking if there's any meaning is like asking, what time is it? It's subjective to the individual; if I say it's 3:34, that might well be right for us, but not for most people on the planet. After driving all the way here, all she got was the very distractions she was trying to avoid.   As Heather is driving back, Kiara is beginning to hyperventilate in the passenger seat. She pulls over, and in the middle of the night, Kiara gets out and runs into the desert. Heather is not pursuing her as she strongly believes that Kiara has lost her mind. Kiara runs until she comes to a mobile home in the desert; her mother, father, and uncle all appear in front of her. It seems that the three most important people in her life, having just died, are challenging her reality. They tell her that life is meaningless; most of the things you do and make will not be remembered one or two generations from now. But that doesn't mean that life is empty, that you pursue your reason, and that you live for yourself! No one will care about your life as much as you do; your goal must be yours. As Kiara returns calm to the car, Heather is waiting. "You've been waiting?" "Well, I was about to leave ten minutes ago, but I didn't want the burden of your death on my conscience." Over the next few weeks, Heather and Kiara rekindled their forgotten relationship, and Kiara persevered. Now she knows that the meaning of her life is inside her, and that's all that matters.

9-19-2020 - Minor Inconvenience

 Minor Inconvenience

IDEA - 9-19-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,497 Words

The zombie apocalypse has started, but, in the real world, zombies are relatively easy to corral and contain, unlike movies. They're not quick, they're not ultra motivated to eat humans, and they mostly sit around, grunting. They'll bite you if you get close enough, and if you're bit, you'll eventually transform into a zombie. In movies, the world is typically presented as dystopian with dissolved government and commerce. How can the world work with the zombie apocalypse happening right outside the door? Quite easily, in fact. People are still going to work, paying bills, and buying things. Like the non-zombie apocalypse world, everything is politicized; one group campaigns for zombies' humane treatment, and others want them to be rounded up and killed. Elections are won and lost on zombie issues these days. The most dangerous zombies are those that have been bitten and are in the process of transformation. The transformation takes about a month; the closer you get to a complete zombie, the more you have the desire to bite, but you don't show any outward signs. That's what happened to Aiden's mom; when she was shopping at a department store, a woman who looked perfectly fine, jumped her and bit her on her arm. That was last week, and like a responsible person, she went through the process of self-reporting. Without having any overt signs of becoming a zombie, she underwent torturous testing and treatment, electro-shock, chained in her cell, and placed in a large room with real zombies. She was a bit three more times, being in close quarters with so many zombies for an extended period of time. The reality was that they didn't have enough room to cope with the increasing number of zombies; they stopped aging, they were no longer active members of society, and they couldn't die unless you destroyed the brain. They're just taking up space. Eventually, Aiden's mom turned into a full zombie, which was a sad day for him. Aiden was disillusioned, watching his mother go through the change, the treatment she received from the living, and then seeing the circumstances under which she was forced to live as a zombie. Aiden's anger started to bubble up, visiting terrorist zombie sites, and reading anti-zombie literature. The first time Aiden blew up a zombie prison that sealed his fate, he felt as if he was finally making a difference. Aiden would turn up on the most wanted zombie terrorist list, an outlaw; he lived in the background, waiting to kill more zombies, purging the earth of this minor inconvenience.

9-18-2020 - Living Up to the Past

 Living Up to the Past

IDEA - 9-18-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,618 Words

It's one of the greatest love stories ever told; a 2003 Iraq War officer was injured and sent back to the United States, where he was cared for by a caring nurse who worked extra shifts so that the officer would survive his injuries. He may not have survived if she didn't care for him around the clock. They fell in love, but when he was healed, and he had to go back to war. She was worried day and night that he would be killed, and he missed her and would message her always. They could not wait to see each other again. But she got ill and had kidney failure; she was afraid to tell him because she didn't want him to worry. The condition became severe, and she was hospitalized. On leave from Iraq, he immediately found out that she was in the hospital, went there, and offered to donate a kidney without hesitation. It was a match, and the transplant saved her life. It turned out that he did not have to return to active war duty after surgery. They decided to marry and start a family. This isn't their story; this is the story of their son, Nick, who's been hearing this heart-warming story all his life. When he was a little kid, he wanted to share in a relationship similar to what his parents had, such that two people would be so committed to each other that they save each other's lives. Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of luck in love. A handful of high school girlfriends all turned out to be shallow and dissolved quickly. He wanted to join the military, but he had minor hearing loss in his right ear when he took the hearing test, just enough to disqualify him. He went to college and tried to find his soulmate there, but his expectations were still too high, and it never ended up happening. College women were career-focused and saw the talk of marriage and sacrifice as a red flag. When he started work, he worked a ton of hours, never finding time to seriously take a relationship. Eventually, he concluded that he would never be able to live up to the past, and he returned to his pedestrian love life of sporadic hook-ups and sliding into DMs. The reality was, Nick was jaded on the concept of love. That was until Madison started at the office.  He was keeping it casual, trying to learn his lessons. It turned out that she had a boyfriend, but they could become friends. But secretly, the pull of the past was still inside him. He was infatuated with Madison, but is he already friend-zoned? Madison keeps talking about how horrible her boyfriend is, but she never speaks about leaving him. Nick's rose-colored glasses are at it again; he feels that a grand gesture would convince her to leave her boyfriend and be with him. It's a losing situation, and this could be the one that sends Nick spiraling.

9-17-2020 - While I Sleep

      While I Sleep

IDEA - 9-17-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,497 Words

Every time Fred Jones goes to sleep and wakes up in the morning, the world is different. It's not like the typical passing of time; Fred is waking up in other places, times, universes, and planets. In a secret military experiment, Fred was a researcher working on a quantum mechanics project. According to the documents, Dr. Jones was performing the first test, and one moment he was there, and the next he was gone. The military jumped in quickly to cover up the calamity, making more people vanish than David Copperfield. But from Fred's point of view, he was in a nightmare. Fred believes that if he can appear near his own time and universe at some point, he can either persuade himself or others not to run the experiment. 'Fred claims that his consciousness holds the wormhole at bay, that's why teleportation occurs when he sleeps. Fred is convinced that the NREM sleep Theta waves are the ones that activate the teleportation. He knows this because he once teleported to the 1980s, where he met his college-aged wife before they met each other. Fearing what would happen if he interacted with his own life, he only admired her from afar. He tested the sleep deprivation limits, resisting NREM sleep for almost a month, before he couldn't prevent it, falling asleep without his alarm. He popped up in her childhood, held on for nearly a month and a half, never spoke to her, but the familiarity made him happy. At last, he skipped to a time right before she met him; he had held on for almost two months, crawling to her door, with bloodshot eyes, he could barely hold them open. He's decided to tell her about the experiment and the journey he's been on, damn the consequences. The next morning, he woke up in the desert, millions of light-years away, his confession had not succeeded. It wasn't until he traveled to the future and saw a toy that can teleport things around a room. Upon review, he found that the toy used the principles of his experiment. It was a ubiquitous technology of the time. When Fred realized that he did exist in this reality, there was a possibility that the wormhole might carry him to a desired time in the universe. Using the toy, he was able to limit his jumps to that reality. It took 37 jumps to get close enough to where the experiment could be halted. He told himself about the implications of the experiment, hard to believe, keeping what looked like a baby toy in his hands. Just as he's about to leave, his wife comes out of the kitchen; she immediately recognizes him, and he fades away, his nightmare is over.

9-16-2020 - Duality of Carolyn

 Duality of Carolyn

IDEA - 9-16-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,489 Words

To one man, she's a saint; to another, she's the devil. Carolyn is with Myles; they've been together for over a year, but Carolyn can't get over Damon. To say that the relationship ended badly with Damon was to put it lightly; it was the love of her life, but Damon had a hard time with monogamy. It ended once and for all when Carolyn came home to see Damon in bed with her little sister. The picture was chiseled in her mind. The pain was unbearable; she thought of jumping off the bridge, but then she met Myles a few days later, and the pain dug deep into her subconscious. That day, Carolyn vowed that she would do whatever it took never to have that happen to her again; she became a model girlfriend, and Myles fell in love with her. Little did he know that she had his phone mirrored, that she had a GPS tracker on his car, and that she had hidden cameras set up around their house. Also happening without his knowledge was Carolyn's crusade to ruin Damon's life. Some revenge schemes involved keying his car at work with the words, 'child molester,' secretly posting derogatory stuff about him on social media with his photo attached. Whenever she had the opportunity, she would steal his Amazon packages and throw them into the river. These episodes of acting out made her feel better in the short term, but the pain always returned. Carolyn could no longer bear it; she decided that the only way to move on with her life was to remove Damon from Earth. She formulated a plot to burn down his house in the middle of the night. She knew he was a heavy sleeper, and would sleep through it. Tonight was the night, but it so happened that it was the day that Damon met Myles. Myles joined a new gym and Damon was his trainer. After the training session, they had a beer, and Myles showed him a picture of Carolyn. Damon warned him she was crazy, but Myles didn't believe him. Despite being completely sure that Damon was wrong, Myles began to think about the notion. When Carolyn left to burn down Damon's house, she was followed by Myles. With the tracker in his car, she saw right away that she was being tracked and quickly pulled into a convenience store, Mission Arson aborted. Carolyn began to see the messages between Myles and Damon that night. She totally lost her mind; she decided that killing Damon was even more important than her relationship with Myles. Keeping up appearances, Carolyn was behaving as an ever-loving girlfriend; secretly, she was planning to kill him and her ex. Myles, a good poker player, began to see some of the red flags that suggested that Damon wasn't so crazy after all. He didn't understand the extremes of Carolyn or Damon for that matter. As the war rages on, is Myles going to make it out alive?

9-15-2020 - Imrama

 Imrama

IDEA - 9-15-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,463 Words

When Madeline was three years old, her father was given the opportunity to become the starship captain, Imrama. The fastest ship ever constructed could hit the end of the solar system in just six hours. In a very public and well-documented trip, the Imrama broke free from the Earth's gravity in search of alien life. It is now 22 years later, and the ship's discoveries have changed the way humans see the universe; they have found not just one alien species but several. It takes months for the exploits to get to Earth from the ship, but Madeline's father, Captain John Shapiro, records every day in a digital journal and sends the most exciting material back to Earth. Technology has also evolved after the ship left; humans developed a ship that could reach the Imrama in one year, using a newly discovered wormhole beyond the solar system. Madeline, who is now part of the astronaut training program, has been chosen to join the mission, which will reunite a daughter with her father. Unfortunately, on a relatively short journey, her father was murdered by aliens from the planet, LB-641, or now called Junipero, due to a giant red spot like Jupiter. Even though the ship has moved on with a new captain and a new alien target, there is an increasing desire for the ship to return to Junipero and seek vengeance for their captain's murder. With his daughter's arrival, the atmosphere has reached a mutiny level, and the new captain decides to turn the ship and head back to the planet. It will take a month to get there; Madeline has become a leader on the ship with her father's charisma and the benefit of advanced techniques. When they arrive at Junipero, she is elected to a delegation of three and two bodyguards to descend to the planet and meet with the suspected murder species. The alien species has great regard for the process of mourning and welcomes the delegation with open arms, sincerely apologizing for the unfortunate incident. They also sent the guilty ones to the Death Point, the red spot, or the giant active volcano, where they send people to be executed. As the visit wraps up and looks like a war has been prevented, the Junipero species leader pulls Madeline into the side room and expresses deep concern for her life. He admits that their species did not murder her father, but rather, it was someone on the ship that committed the murder. A few days before she arrived, they received a message from their ship that they would destroy their species if they did not acknowledge that they killed their captain. Having seen the advanced technology, the leaders agreed to the ploy, but he grew to like Madeline during the visit and could not allow her to leave without knowing the facts. Madeline returns to the ship with a mystery in hand, the first suspect being the new captain, because he was hesitant to return to Junipero, but she couldn't have been more wrong.

9-14-2020 - An Older Woman

 An Older Woman

IDEA - 9-14-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,575 Words

After 32 years of marriage, Lonnie got divorced because her husband was caught having an affair with his secretary. At the age of 60, she'd be single again. But she didn't find it too hard to find a date; one weekend after her divorce, she met Liam, a 32-year-old bachelor, and the two of them hit her off. Her friends were astounded by the age gap, but she tried not to worry too much about it. After being hot and heavy for about a month, Liam asked her to take a vacation with him. That's when Cheryl, a friend of Lonnie's, expressed concern, but Lonnie insisted it was genuine. "Liam didn't have any ulterior motives," she didn't have any significant money, he didn't need a green card, and it wasn't a fetish, "believe me, at first, I thought it might be." Cheryl replied, "Just be careful, he's young, good-looking, and you hardly know him to be going on vacation together" Cheryl had gotten into her head a little bit. Still, she shrugged it off and went on a cruise that would take her to Jamaica, Cayman Island, and Belize. When the cruise arrives in Jamaica, they both are relaxed, in a romantic mood, and have a nice time. After one night at the hotel, Lonnie wakes up at 5 a.m. and discovers that Liam is gone. She goes to the balcony, where she sees him on the phone, very furious, agitated, almost screaming. She wanted to ask him about it, but she didn't want to ruin the trip, so she avoided the topic. When they're on Cayman Island, they rent scooters and zoom around the island. As they pass by a shady bank, Liam tells her he has to make a withdrawal and asks her to wait in the lobby because it's hot, and it could take a while. It's a sketchy situation, but Lonnie does what she's supposed to do. Liam is in there for about half an hour, and he frantically comes out, Lonnie heads for the scooters, but an SUV pulls up, "Forget the scooters, I called us a car, we have to get back to the ship before it leaves." The car ride is terrifying, Liam and Lonnie are back, and two gangsters are upfront. When they arrive at the port, Lonnie asks what's going on, because she knows the cruise doesn't leave for another three hours. Liam lays his cards on the table; he's not leaving on the cruise. He told her that she looked like a lawyer at a large crime syndicate, and she just helped rob their money. The lawyer was supposed to be in hiding, but at this very moment, I'm sure they're sending an assassination squad. Get on the cruise, go to Belize, but you're on your own from there. The police and the crime syndicate are going to be coming after you. If you make it back to the United States, you'll have a fighting chance. Make sure you avoid airlines and tourist ships; your only option is to travel with the immigrants looking to sneak into the United States, "Good luck, they probably already know your real name." Liam climbs back into the SUV, leaving Lonie back on the cruise ship, that when lands in Belize, will take her on a dangerous life-changing journey back to the United States.

9-13-2020 - ISP

 ISP

IDEA - 9-13-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,534 Words

In the near future, a conglomerate, which had already made trillions of dollars in the medical and military technology sectors, has found a way to give everybody on earth a fast, reliable internet without throttling or showing any preference whatsoever. Access no longer needed a device; all people had to do was close their eyes and concentrate, and the satellite would communicate with their brain waves. To type, they just needed to talk; to make a video, they just had to look at what they wanted to shoot and say the word record, a person could look at a mirror to film themselves. Finally, they also provided free cloud software that translates text and video automatically and instantly. They developed the platform to bring the world together; they said it would be free forever, and there would never be ads; they believed that access to the internet was everyone's right. It caught on a wildfire. World knowledge expanded as education became more available, governments were kept accountable, and citizens who had never been free learned how to overthrow their oppressors. After decades of conflict and inequity, the world was at peace, and resources were open to everyone. At this point, the conglomerate praised for the most significant innovation in human history, set out to protect inequity by using artificial intelligence to classify hostile individuals in the human population. This initiative reduced the crime rates by 80% and provided people with a full picture when making choices at the voting booth. They called it the dark list; it included people who were trying to harm, scam artists looking to swindle, and those who were hoping to persuade by lying, falsifying facts, and promoting conspiracy theories. It was the ultimate closed system; it was around a billion servers, all underground and inaccessible to anyone. But one day, as Tristan Maher discovered, you're on the light list and it's all peachy, but have a little fight with your wife about privacy and say that all it would take is for someone to be able to hack into one server and the world's information would be there's, you end up on the dark list, and your life will never be the same again. Tristan was placed on the dark list because he was a top software engineer who graduated from MIT at number one in his class. He has always had strong views about the free internet, we have a right to privacy, even if our information is only available to an AI. Now on the dark list, all the talk about taking down the ISP can turn into action. On the street, Tristan is ready to take it down, and others feel as he does, but he's the first person who might be able to pull it off.

9-12-2020 - Paint By Numbers

 Paint By Numbers

IDEA - 9-12-2020

by

Patrick Ryan

1,616 Words

Alfonso Romero, a world-famous artist, has a secret. He is a serial killer known as the San Salvadorian Monster in the Spanish-speaking world and the Four Pints Killer in the English-speaking world. Starting in El Salvador, a struggling painter killed his first woman when he picked her up as a hitchhiker. She came from Spain, and nobody knew she was on holiday. Running the numbers in his brain, he knew that it would be difficult to solve the case if she was killed. Being a good looking man, Alfonso convinced the young woman to come home with him, where he cut her throat. He kept the floor clean while the blood dripped on his canvas; it was the most beautiful art. Then he took some mason jars and began gathering blood; he collected what turned out to be about four pints in the imperial system. He was inspired by the murder, painting through the night; it was a masterpiece. Leaving the dead body on the side of the road with no connection to him, he'd get away with the murder.  The artwork turned out to be worth a lot of money, and Alfonso's days of struggle were over. The artist tried to return to his traditional painting style, but he could not be motivated to create a successful follow-up like the blood painting. He decided to kill again, not because he had an urge, but because it felt lucky. Alfonso drove hundreds of miles, picked up a woman, subdued her, drove her hundreds of miles back to his studio, cut her throat, gathered about four pints of blood, and then drove her hundreds of miles back to where he found her. He tried to make it seem like an accident, but the murder ended up being the front page news anyway. Alfonso has never been deemed a suspect. His second murder painting validated his inspiration; it was a colossal success. So, over and over, he'd repeat this process, and his reputation was growing in the area. He developed so much fame that after about ten murders, someone realized that he was at the scene of the crime. He decided to move to the United States in a panic. He had the resources and the artistic cache to make a move, and his investigation stalled. He'd pursue his spree of murder in the United States, but he wasn't as famous there. Two serial killers, one artist, and a collection of paintings that contain the DNA needed to catch him.