Maniac’s Mayhem-Chapter Thirty-Three: Final Message.

Maniac’s Mayhem-Chapter Thirty-Three: Final Message.

Our toxic work environment has not only forced our people into unreasonable work hours, but it has also broken their spirits. I sit down with full-blown adults in their thirties and forties who don’t even know how to process the most basic emotions properly, so tell me, what do you think will happen with those people if they are subjected to a situation with high emotional intensity?
They do not respond all the same way; some become violent, some become suicidal, and some come to work with a gun to shoot up the place. No, this is not healthy, and something has to be done.
--Psychologist Katherin Noir, in an online video, after it was deemed that therapy and mental health were not a necessity and basic mental healthcare was removed from all health insurance
As Maniac dives into the local node of Cierra's office, I am almost violently torn away. I stumble and blink in surprise. As I look around in confusion, I find myself in a small room, some kind of office, with a basic desk and chair and no windows. There are some files on the desk, and I am about to walk over and look at them when somebody suddenly starts speaking.
“So it does work. Kind of, I didn't mean to bring you along, but I would call it a success, don’t you think?” A metallic voice says.
I whip around, only to find a floating sword behind me. The sword is black with golden cracks running all over it.
“Uhm, what? What's going on?” I ask, feeling slightly freaked out.
“Right, explanations, those are important. When Maniac decided to dive into the mesh to talk to Cierra, I thought my time was better spent going to the cube and finding the blueprints. I tried to separate my thoughts and put them into a different node, and now here we are.” The sword, that turns out to be Crow, says.
“Right, so we are in the cube, while Maniac is having her conversation.” I say, trying to gather my thoughts.
“That's what I just said, the only thing I am unclear on is why you came here with me instead of going with Maniac.” Crow continues to drone on.
“Crow, we have been trying for two weeks to figure out how to split our consciousness to do two things simultaneously, and you just did it. This is amazing. I would hug you, but you look a bit sharp, so I'd rather not.” I gesture at the blade.
“It seems like this form has some issues.”
“Why are you a sword anyway?” I ask.
“Maniac has been experimenting with her look, I thought it might be a good idea to do the same.” Crow answers in the same monotone.
“You know that we don’t mind having the same face, right? Also, a sword is an odd first choice.” I say, examining the blade. There is a bright purple gem in the hilt that looks interesting.
“We tend to be associated with swords, I thought it was the logical first choice, what would you have picked?”
“I don’t know. A human for one, but if I were you and I did not want to be human, I would pick a crow; it is your name.” I say. Talking to Crow is interesting and honestly does wonders, making me feel way less stressed, the almost blatant disregard for normality is nice.
“I'm not good at humour, but wouldn't people think that the person who named me Crow was making fun of me, if I were an actual crow?”
“Crow, you named yourself.” I smile at the sword “Anyway, it doesn't matter. You can be whatever you want to be. As long as it makes you feel comfortable, it's fine.”
Crow stays silent for a while before speaking again, “I don’t think I have a preference, what do you want me to look like?”
I look the sword up and down “I really don’t know, it doesn't really matter; but if I can make one suggestion, it would be that you become something that is easy to talk to, it's kind of hard to tell where your eyes are in this form so maybe have a stylised face on the cross guard or something. I do like the black and gold, maybe throw in some more purple as well.” I say, trying to instill as much care as possible into my voice.
“I will keep experimenting then. In the meantime, should we check out those messages?”
“What messages?” I ask, confused.
“The files on the desk.” Crow points her blade tip at them, “They're labelled as important messages.”
I look back at the desk, at the stack of files “Right, well, let's check them out, but be ready if anything explodes, so we can start fighting at any moment.”
“My analysis shows that you are not particularly good at fighting.” Crow says without missing a beat.
I pause on my way to the desk, “I can do anything Maniac can.” I defend myself.
“The data says you’re too nervous and tend to overthink.”
“Bullshit, where are you even getting this so-called data from?”
“From our collective brain.” Crow simply says.
“Ugh, whatever, you just protect me then, I guess.” I say, trying my best not to be upset. Crow doesn't have any malice toward me. Crow just does not understand emotions.
“That I can do.” Crow says before she… they? float above me like the sword of Damocles
“Crow, what is your gender?” I ask.
“I don’t understand the question. We do share the same female body, even though we can separate like this in mesh space.”
“Sure, but do you actually feel like a girl or rather as something else?” I ask, trying my best to be gentle.
“I don’t know; there is more to investigate.” Crow states, like it is just another thing to add to the list.
“Sure, just tell us when you know the answer, okay?” I say with a smile.
Then I pull my attention back to the files and open them. Inside are several videos, with just dates as their titles. That is strange,for sure. Among all the video files, there is one text document attached. I quickly open it and read what it says.
{Hello Evelin or Maniac, I am not sure how your whole thing works exactly. Anyway, Eva, John, Davis and I are fine. When you didn't show up for a while, we decided to bounce and leave the city. But going back seems rather dangerous, so we just decided to do some side work and look into your situation a bit more to see if there was something we could do to help you out.
Anyway, long story short, we found something, so you better pay us a bonus when you get back. We are currently working on acquiring the target and will probably engage in 3 days, so if you are going to show up and help, we will be at the address provided in the meantime.
There is no good way to prepare you for what's in the videos, so I am not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to recommend that you are somewhere safe when you watch them.
Peace, out. Your friend, the best hacker, Mio}
Well, that doesn't make me feel nervous at all, Mio, thank you. I quickly organise the videos inside the file and select the video with the oldest date. My breath suddenly hitches as my brain suddenly stops comprehending what I am seeing.
In the little video player, I see Jacob. He looks a little bit haggard but still healthy, which is exactly how I remember him being. I quickly check the date of the video and realise that it would be a month after our court hearing. Then, with a beating heart, I press the play button.
“Hey Vivi, I'm unsure how I am going to ever get this to you, but I hope you are doing well.” the recording of my brother says. I already feel myself tearing up.
“Well, I'm here working now, nothing special really, the work is hard, but I can get through it. Just sit tight and I will get you out of this.” He explains a bit further about what his job is like, and then the video ends. Without thinking, I select the next one, dated a month later.
“Hey Vivi, how is it going? Work here is still tough. I guess we're lucky that you're smart; they probably put you in some office writing fancy programs. Maybe when we get out of here we can put that talent of yours to use and get a fancy office somewhere nice.”
I laugh, “Well, I don’t really have an office yet, brother, but I do own an entire building and have my own company now, life is good” I wipe the tears from my eyes.
Once I play the next video, I am surprised to see that my brother looks a lot healthier than before.
“Hey Vivi, I feel like I finally managed to settle into this place and make some real friends. Who knew that the work would be so much easier with good friends. We have been bantering about a lot of different topics, from creating our own companies to going out into the wild to create our own arcologies. I hope that you are doing well too, and that you made some friends.”
After this video, I feel a thousand times lighter. I know my brother is dead, but instead of it just being pure suffering the entire time, it seems like he managed to make some friends and actually have a somewhat good time.
In the next video, my brother is not alone. A large black man with a wide smile and dark curly hair is standing beside him.
“Hey Vivi, you must be wondering who this mountain is standing beside me. This is Lemar, and he basically became somewhat like a brother to me here. Don't let his size fool you; he is basically a big teddy bear. I hope the two of you can meet someday. I feel like the two of you have a similar style of humour.”
Then the big man clears his throat, “Hey kid, don’t worry about anything but keeping yourself safe. I promise you, your brother won’t come to any harm as long as I'm here.”
My brother looks up at him. “Hey, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, you know.”
I laugh, that's just like him. I wonder what happened to Lemar. If he is still at the work camp, I should break him out as soon as possible.
I watch more videos of my brother explaining his life, sometimes alone, sometimes with Lemar or one of his other friends. I am both smiling happily about it and crying my eyes out. And suddenly, he changes, a different person standing next to him as he wears an expression I've never seen him wear before. However, I am not really that unfamiliar with it.
“Hey Vivi,” he says, with a bright red face, “This is Angela.” he says, gesturing at the red head standing next to him. She is quite pretty, with bright green eyes and a gentle smile, but also strong. I can see the hints of muscles in her arms. “She is my girlfriend. I hope that the two of you can get along once we meet again. She is quite honestly the best thing that ever happened to me, and I am unbelievably happy right now.” He puts his arm around the woman's waist.
“Hey, Evelin,” the woman says, “as Jacob said, my name is Angela, and I am so excited to meet you. I always wanted a little sister. We can have so much fun together, doing each other's hair. I heard you have beautiful caramel brown hair,” she laughs, “Don’t you think it would look good? Red and brown together. We can also do our nails, but I'm not good at that, so I probably need to learn more.”
More videos follow now, with Angela being a frequent star in them. They look happy together, which makes my heart swell with pride, and then a message comes that I didn't see coming, Angela and Jacob standing next to each other, giggling like teenagers.
“Hey Vivi, great news, you're going to be an aunt. I know this will just make everything a lot messier, but there is a program for pregnancy. Though it will mean that we will spend longer at the work camp, our child will still grow up happy. So I hope that you will forgive the delay.”
I feel my brain stall for a bit. A child? Where are they?
More videos follow with possible baby names and the like, and then the tone shifts. Jacob is alone and almost looks broken; he has a black eye and several bruises, but his eyes look fierce.
“I did it, Vivi! I did it!” he starts to cackle “I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before, but we had plans to break out to give our child a better chance. Once we were out, we would recoup enough money to get you out too, and live happily and it worked.” he pauses, looking sad. “Partly. Everything went smoothly but we got caught. I played the distraction and was brought back, but if their interrogation is anything to go by, the rest made it out just fine. Vivi, sit tight there, they're coming for you.”
Once the video ends, I just stand there looking at it in silence.
“Crow?”
“That's me”
“I need you to find them right now.”
“They're in Rome.” she simply answers. “I'm pretty sure that's the target Mio was talking about.”
I smile, “Right, that makes sense, let's go right now.”
“Don’t you want to watch the rest? It’s your brother.” Crow asks.
I pause, I kind of do, and if anything happens, the team has this covered.
“He's your brother, too, you know, but yeah, let's watch the rest.”
I sit back down and watch the rest. To say that it was hard to watch is an understatement. I see all life leave my brother as he trudges along now completely alone and isolated. And then I arrive at my brother's last video messages.
“Hey Vivi, how are you doing?” he coughs a loud and dry one. “I'm not doing so well; I'm not sure if I am going to last much longer. I hope that you are out of the company now, somewhere safe with Angela and my child.” His voice breaks at the end, as tears stream down his face. “Evelin,, please make her happy in my stead, take care of the child; you're a good kid, I know you can do it.” he coughs again, this time louder, and as he pulls away his hand, I see blood. “Vivi, I want you to know something.” He swallows, “I forgive you for stealing; it wasn't your fault, you were just trying to help, and I don’t blame you for that.”
“Goodbye, Evelin, I love you.”
The video ends.

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Chapter Thirty-Three: Final Message.