The sky is falling. Literally in front of my eyes. Some aberration in my field of vision. Glitches. The sun eclipsed by alien hives, spilling urban shadows like black ink across the page.
Stumbling through darkness, but somehow I make it to her couch just as she walks in the room.
"Come on, Neal. Sit up! Hey, look at me. Tell me a secret, baby."
Her face comes into focus. A pretty face.
"Star... I need your help... My interface. Giving me errors in spatial displacement and image distortions. A deep hack, I think."
"Jesus. What do you want me to do about it?"
"Just make it right. I'll pay you."
"Yea, sure. What makes you think I want to spend my Friday night hacking neural code and risking a few years in jail?"
"Don't make me beg."
"Oh fine. But you'll owe me big for this one, buster. And you'll start by telling me the whole story. No lies like last time."
She grabs my arm and throws it around her shoulder. Basically drags me across the room. I think I throw up, but I can't be sure. Then I'm lying on a gurney looking up at the flickering lights.
She flips switches and presses buttons. Whirring sounds. A nest of synaptic cables.
I can smell her hair. Her feminine scent that has blossomed and ripened into womanhood.
"This is going to feel weird," she says.
"I hope so." I manage to crack a smile.
"Good old Neal with the quick wit," she says and shoves a bunch of wires in my head.
"Now comes the best part." She turns on the monitors, which show a composite of pornographic videos flashing on my remote visual field. Cortical impressions.
"Oh dear, tsk! tsk! Naughty, naughty. Got something on your mind, love?"
"At the Inkwell," I tell her. "I was there earlier this evening. Maybe someone spiked my drink and-"
"This is not your run-of-the mill code. Why go to all this trouble? You must have some valuable information in there."
"I'm just a poet."
"And all poets are a bunch of liars and thieves."
"It doesn't look like they stole anything. My wallet is intact."
She leans towards the screen. "What is that?"
With a wave of her fingers she zooms into the image of a woman standing on a rainy street holding an umbrella, dressed in a smart suit and a red fedora hat. The reflection of neon words on the pavement spell out a single phrase:
the last time I saw you
Star whistles and scratches her head.
"Look darling. I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, and frankly I don't want to know. This is some high level hack you got in your noggin. If this is deliberate, whoever did it is not someone you want to mess with. I certainly wouldn't. So, I'm going to stabilize you and then send you on your way home to get some rest. That's all I can do for you. Consider this one on the house."
"Thank you, love. You were always my favorite."
"Don't push your luck, smart-mouth."
She fills up a syringe with a honey-colored substance, taps it on the side, and then swiftly unzips my pants.
"This next part is going to hurt a bit," she says turning me over on my side. "If you have a god, now it's the time to pray to her."