The Living Read Free Page B

miniature hearts and his blood has scattered them through his body.
    perhaps you are frightened?
    – the autodoctor chirps up.
    Perhaps. But that’s none of your business.
    When Ef turns on to Harmony it starts to rain – suddenly, without any warning splashes, as if an automatic disinfection shower had been turned on to full power.
    The pale pink marble is soaked and turns the colour of raw liver. In the light of the pavement’s built-in lamps the raindrops look like clouds of golden insects swarming together at the scent of blood.
    cleo:
tech support checked the link you’re just in invisible
    The raindrops tickle the naked plastic bodies of the electronic cleaners, and the cleaners groan dutifully. The raindrops drum softly against Ef’s mirror mask, bringing no relief. Bringing no freshness. If only he could take it off. If only he could take it off and feel the cool moisture…
    ‘Tremble, for he cometh… Tremble, for he cometh… Tremble, for he cometh…’ Lanky Matthew shuffles from one bare foot to another right on top of a lamp, in a golden column of light. Streams of gold pour down his face, his long grey matted hair and neck.
    ‘Men without voices!’ The old man comes to life when he sees Ef. ‘Men with mirror faces!’
    Ef slows down.
    ‘No death, Matthew. You’re all wet. Go home.’
    He would like the words to sound soft, but the chatterbox chews them up and spits them out as an order.
    Matthew opens wide his misty blue eyes and bursts out in squeaky laughter, revealing his teeth, which are long and rotten like a horse’s. Then he whimpers and squats down. He trails a bony finger across the wet shiny marble:
    ‘Do you see what colour the ground
really
is? Do you see what colour it really is?’
    ‘Go home,’ Ef says again. The he turns off his chatterbox and adds, ‘I see.’
    cleo:
why are you like this?
    ‘There are voices inside you,’ Matthew whispers, and his gaze clears up for a moment. ‘Other people’s voices, right?’
    ‘Yes. Of course.’
    ‘They are demons!’ Matthew clasps his knees in his arms and sways from side to side. ‘They are demons. Disconnect. Demons. Disconnect. Demons. Disconnect…’
    disconnect from
socio
    are you sure you want to disconnect from
socio?
    yes no
    confirm:
    ef:
yes
    caution: when in disconnected mode you cannot see your list of
socio
contacts, or use
socio
to chat and find and share new information. Continue with disconnection?
    yes
no
    caution: when in disconnected mode you will not be an active part of
socio
. Continue with disconnection?
    yes no

    Yes
    you are no longer in
socio
    Don’t worry, you can reconnect to socio at any time.
    Connect: interrupting connection with
socio
for longer than 30 minutes is not recommended. If you do not re-establish connection independently, mandatory remote connection will take place after 40 minutes.

Zero
    …I just want to be like everyone else. I don’t have ideas above my station. I want to be like everyone else. I can’t now, so it’ll have to be later. After the Pause. Hey, you! Hey, you there, in the future! I hope you will actually exist. I hope that you will be me. I hope that I will exist. If you are my continuation, if I am you, then sorry for this stupid incode that you’ve got from me… Personally, it ruined my life, but I really hope you find a way to deal with it somehow. That I’ll deal with it somehow there in the future. In eight years’ time… Because you’re eight, aren’t you?
    It’s probably cowardice. It’s running away. It’s not fair. But if you will exist, if you do exist, forgive me for what I’m about to do. Sorry if I’ve ruined your (or should I say ‘my’?) mood. Sorry if I’ve created any problems for you (ha-ha, for me!!). I want you to understand. I’m planning on killing myself – yes, yes, sorry about that, sorry once again, I shouldn’t say that, I should put it differently. I’m planning on ‘temporarily ceasing to exist’, ‘taking a