Story Mortal Theater

[Ronin Ezekiel]

"I don't remember having fallen asleep... where am I? Ergh... my head. What did I do last night? I don't think I got drunk... or at least, not enough to black out." I opened my eyes to find myself in a dim room. The only exit to the room I could find was a doorway leading down a flight of stairs. The doorway was blocked off by one of those velvet ropes you see hooked to metal stanchions at movie theaters, and there was a man standing behind the rope.

He was an odd-looking one, to say the least. His slick hair was entirely black aside from one out-of-place streak of blonde hair on the left side of his scalp. His piercing blue eyes somehow complimented his pale skin, and he had what looked like a Japanese character tattooed underneath his left eye. He wore a jet-black peacoat and grey slacks, but decided to pair that with a pink scarf for some reason. And with how intently he was staring at me, I almost felt it pressing against my chest.

"Hello there. Have a nice nap?" he asked as he leaned on one of the stanchions.

As I approached the man behind the rope, he let out a slight smile. "Who are you? Where am I? What do you want with me?"

"My name is Andy, you're in a dark room, and I want to show you something fascinating," he answered without missing a beat. "If you're implying anything sinister, rest assured that you are more safe than you have ever been. Why exactly you're here will be made clear soon enough. For now, I'm just going to ask you to follow me," he said as he unhooked the velvet rope and gestured me to follow him down the stairs. Against my better judgment, I did exactly that.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we emerged in what appeared to be a large movie theater. Every seat was empty. In fact, all of the rows aside from the front row were cordoned off. As I made my way down to the front row, Andy pulled out what looked like a TV remote and gestured for me to sit down.

As I nestled into my seat, Andy sat down in the next seat over, leaving a vacant seat between us. "Before you start, do you have any questions?" he asked.

"None that you answered to my satisfaction when I asked. Truth be told, I have too many questions to even ask any of them. If I watch your stupid movie, will you give me some answers?"

"Gladly. I will answer any question you have honestly and in detail. Now... are you ready?"

After several seconds of staring at the movie screen... I said yes.

As he started the movie, my heart suddenly started racing. Nothing had even happened, and I didn't even feel particularly nervous. But my heart kept racing faster and harder. I felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. And then, as soon as it happened, the beating slammed to a halt. I looked up at the movie screen to see... me. Laying on the floor. A heart monitor was beeping in the background. After what felt like forever, it flatlined.

"What you just felt was the stopping of your heart. If you are watching this, you are now dead."
-- -- --
(I'll post the next part tomorrow, it's really late and I need sleep.)

 

[Ronin Ezekiel]

I stared blankly at the movie screen. The flat-line kept ringing through the theater as the scene of me laying on the ground slowly faded to black. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. I can’t be dead. I can’t.

...

As the next scene faded in, it showed a date in the top right corner: June 20, 2014. That was my 31st birthday.

The scene was set in a messy car, the point of view in the passenger's seat. The person driving was my best friend Jared. I remember that day. We had just finished celebrating my birthday, and I had gotten a little drunk. Not staggeringly so, but Jared was responsible enough to not let me drive.

We were driving along and having a great time, but Jared had a lapse in attention. He accidentally ran a red light, and…

I was no longer watching the screen. Every event playing on the screen was now playing in my mind. I was no longer a spectator, I was there. I was in the passenger seat of that car.

From there, I saw a bright light racing toward us from the window of the passenger door. Then, in an instant, everything went completely black.

We had been hit by another car. Jared survived the crash, but I didn’t. It was too surreal to be fake. I was actually dead.

As I snapped back to reality, I frantically looked over at Andy hoping for him to say something. The Japanese character underneath his eye had changed. Before, I couldn’t understand it.

It now said “The End.”

He looked at me with a piercing gaze. “Before we go on, know that nothing you could have done would have prevented this outcome. It was your fate to die that day. But whether we are in control of the outcome or not, every action has a consequence. Time for act two.”