MiT:Line II, part IV

Stunned into silence by the insanity, Nate's eyes searched Beni's face for answers. She met his gaze, her eyes filled with a mixture of compassion and urgency.

"Do you believe me now?" she asked softly, her voice resounding mass of truth.

Confusion and fear surged through Nate's veins. Each passing moment, he deepened the enigma surrounding his existence. The weight of their words pressed upon him, his mind teetering on the precipice of acceptance and defiance.

Nate sat in bewildered silence as a woman in a business suit requested access to every aspect of his digital existence. He gave her all his login information and passwords— his decision to surrender to their plan settled upon him, amplifying the turmoil within.

A stray thought popped into his head: Password data breach found 421 years ago; it was all starting to come together, yet still not making any sense.

Feeling like he reached a point where death seemed like the only escape, he let go of his fear and accepted his fate.

"Fine. I'm ready, let's end this madness."

Just as Nate began to resign himself to the inevitable, the ringing of the well-dressed woman's phone pierced the air, interrupting the heavy silence.

A cryptic conversation unfolded, leaving him even more disoriented. "Let him go," she said, her words ringing with relief and confusion. It was as if the rules of this twisted game had suddenly shifted, casting doubt upon the predetermined path.

Perplexed by this abrupt change of course, Nate grappled with conflicting emotions. He had braced himself for the final journey, prepared to face whatever awaited beyond the veil of life. Yet, they had revoked his death sentence. What had altered their plans? What made this time different from the previous instances?

As the woman and her associates ushered him out onto the cold, unforgiving streets, a lingering sense of bewilderment clung to Nate's every step. The puzzle pieces of his existence seemed to rearrange themselves, re- revealing fragments of a larger scheme that eluded his grasp.

However, the outcome remained uncertain, for it was not yet time to unveil the next chapter of Nate's extraordinary journey. The future held untold possibilities, both daunting and wondrous, as the web of intrigue continued to entangle him in its intricate threads.

Gradually, with chaotic and cloudy thoughts, Nate entertained a new possibility. Perhaps he had been nothing more than a pawn in an elaborate prank, a puppet manipulated to dance on the strings of fate. But who were the orchestrators, and what was their ultimate motive if that was the case? The door to fate was left ajar, awaiting the next turn of insanity that would shape Nate's destiny and reveal the truth if he could mentally continue to endure all that lay shrouded in the shadows.

CHAPTER 10

In his search for answers, doubt began to creep in. Whispers of paranoia echoed in his mind. Could he trust his own perceptions anymore, or was a force conspiring against him?

Unbeknownst to Nate, every step he took was observed. Unseen eyes monitored his every move, shadows lurking in the periphery of his awareness. The line between reality and illusion blurred, causing him to question his sanity. Yet, he thought of a way to answer all the questions, his plan to create the final answer for every last one of them…Drugs.

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One evening, as Nate stumbled into the motel room he was renting, he was completely intoxicated. His mind was on autopilot due to the excessive amount of alcohol and drugs he had been taking all day. Tragically, this night would not end like any other night; he had something worse in store for himself.

He pulled a little glass vial from his pocket filled with a light blue powder.

He remembered reading a news article about a potent new street drug that people were dying from;

A few grains of fentanyl have the potency to kill a man within minutes after ingestion.

It was 11:00 pm when he took the full contents of the vial.

The last thought he had before the darkness set in was, I have this motel room for another twelve hours; that's all I need.

Then, the room slipped away in a soothing blur.

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His eyes began to open, and to his surprise, Nate found himself in a peculiar gaming room surrounded by two other men. They seemed oddly familiar, as if they were old friends of his. The room was a vibrant spectacle of neon lights, casting an otherworldly glow on the surroundings. The air was filled with the boisterous laughter and animated chatter of the men, their energy matching the pulsating atmosphere.

As his vision cleared, Nate noticed that each of the men was wearing a headgear, fully immersed in the virtual world displayed on their computer screens. The flickering lights danced across their faces as their hands swiftly manipulated the controllers, fully engrossed in the game before them. Bottles of alcohol were scattered across the room, and the sound of clinking glasses accompanied their lively conversations.

The men enthusiastically greeted Nate as if he had been playing them in their gaming session.

"Bro, play the damn game. We're going to lose. Plug back in, Natas."

A familiar-sounding voice said to Nate, urging him to grab a controller and dive into the virtual realm. Confusion clouded Nate's mind as he struggled to make sense of his surroundings and being called Natas.

He couldn't comprehend how he had ended up in this gaming room when his last memory was snorting six lines of fentanyl and blacking out.

Intrigued by the game being played by his newfound companions, Nate leaned over one of the screens to catch a glimpse of the virtual world they were immersed in. To his astonishment, the main character in the game mirrored his recent experience. He watched on the large holographic screen as a speeding motorcycle crashed into a road construction barrier. The character and his body soared through the air and landed back on the road.

"This is Deja vu. I've seen this before," he sputtered out as he tried to comprehend how, where, or when he witnessed the scene.

"Deja vu kinda sounds like Did-ya-view. Like, did you view it before?"

One of the strange men asked as he laughed manically.

As the virtual character's body hit the pavement in the game, a sudden

'Game Over' message flashed on the screen.

Nate's heart skipped a beat, his mind grappling with the uncanny parallel between the virtual realm and his own reality. A profound sense of unease settled within him, blurring the lines between the game and the events he had lived through.

The men in the gaming room noticed Nate's reaction. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the two of them transformed into pillars of pulsating neon of light, one red and one green.

Nate concluded that this most certainly is the afterlife.

The room's neon lights cast surreal shadows as he pondered the implications of this experience.

"I'm ready. End this game NOW!" Nate said, only his words didn't come from his mouth; they were expressed more like a vibrational feeling of communication.

Nate felt overwhelming negativity from the green pillar that had a masculine power when it vibrated, informing him that he could end his existence whenever he wanted to.

The red beam had a soft feminine presence when it vibrated a feeling of love and positivity, revealing to Nate that he and his upcoming work were essential and that he must choose existence or nothingness.

After the red beam showed his significance, Nate's vibration beamed for existence.

The red vibration issued an ominous warning: Those who go do not always come back.

Within seconds, Nate's vibratory light faded, only to wake up in his hospital bed with a tube down his throat.

His vision was blurry as if everything he saw had a vignette filter applied to it. He couldn't move or speak. He was completely frozen, and then he would lose consciousness and black out. The next time he opened his eyes, a nurse came in. She walked over to a computer station and typed something into the terminal before walking over to Nate's bedside to speak, but it was too distorted for him to understand before she walked away, and then he would black out again.

This sequence of events repeated countless times. He recognized that he was stuck in a boot loop.

After an unknown amount of these occurred, he awoke after the boot loop revelation. This time he could move his arm enough to get the nurse's attention.

"Would you like to tell me something, dear?" the nurse asked. Nate grunted and gave a thumbs-up.

The nurse handed him a whiteboard and dry-erase marker. When Nate tried to write, his hands wouldn't work. It was as if he was a toddler trying to write his name for the first time. He couldn't hold the marker properly, so he grabbed it in his fist.

The nurse offered to help steady his hand while he wrote. I WANT 2 TALK 2 GOD.

"What do you want to tell God?" The nurse asked softly as she erased the whiteboard, allowing him to write again.

Nate, struggling to create straight lines even with the help of the nurse guiding his hand, wrote.

NO MORE SUICIDE NO MATTER WHAT! PLZ END BOOT LOOP!

And right then, he lost consciousness.

When he next awoke, the nurse came in and said,

"We're taking the tube out today. Would you like anything to eat?". Nate gave the thumbs up, to which the nurse replied,

"I recommend the Angel food cake."

CHAPTER 11

He hadn't blacked out since the tube was removed from his throat.

The nurse called the doctor who then explained the circumstances that brought him to the hospital,

"Three days ago, a housekeeper found you unresponsive in bed when you were supposed to be checked out of the motel and called the paramedics. You had a very high amount of fentanyl in your system. What were you trying to do?"

The doctor's question seemed almost rhetorical.

Nate had experienced many things that qualified as unbelievable since his motorcycle accident. However, the fact that he was found twelve hours after using enough fentanyl to kill a party of people, let alone one, was the personification of disbelief.

Reminded of his previous response about how he wanted to die and where that led him, he wasn't going to make that mistake again. His response to the doctor was simple, "I just wanted to party."

"Certainly, there are better ways to 'party.' Nonetheless, we're going to keep you here for a few days until you can get back on your feet. You still have work to do, my friend." The doctor said with a wink before being abruptly called away to help another patient.

Nate soon found out why the doctor chose the words 'get back on your feet' because when Nate tried to get out of bed to use the toilet, it was like he had forgotten how to use his legs.

How can this be after only three days? This seems to happen to people after years of being in the hospital; the thought seemed to echo in his mind right before he blacked out again.

He opened his eyes to find he was tucked back into the hospital bed, found his phone on the side table, and started to search about his weird experience. He finally decided to research near-death experiences.

What he read gave him some piece of mind when he read up on the aftereffects of an NDE, helping explain some of the strange things he had experienced.

He discovered that only a few people worldwide have ever witnessed it. He found that some researchers propose that near-death experiences result from psychological and neurobiological factors. According to these theories, when the brain is under extreme stress or trauma, it may trigger a cascade of neurochemical, physiological, and even strange electromagnetic events that give rise to the subjective experiences reported in NDE. These experiences could be a product of the brain's attempt to make sense of and cope with the near-death situation.

Then, as if someone was controlling a light switch that connected to his brain, everything went black.

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When he next awoke, Nate found himself trapped in an ominous, desolate space. It was a place devoid of light, an impenetrably black abyss that even his body remained invisible to his eyes. The darkness was overwhelming, making it impossible for his vision to adjust or grasp any details. Uncertainty and fear flooded Nate's mind, leading him to ponder his surroundings with a racing stream of questions. Where am I? What is this place? What happened to the hospital? Could this be another realm of the afterlife? He thought.

As time ticked on, a glimmer of light emerged from the depths of the void, gradually taking form and shape. The luminous radiance spread throughout the hollow sphere, transforming into a mesmerizing sight of shimmering blue butterflies. Their delicate wings glistened, casting ethereal patterns that started to unite into a rectangular formation.

Nate observed in awe as the butterflies continued their dance, filling the space within the rectangular frame that became a door.

Nate's hand trembled as he tentatively turned the knob, revealing the contents behind the door. To his astonishment, the mysterious door transformed into the familiar entrance of a bathroom—an all-too-familiar sight that sparked a flicker of recognition within him. Memories from the past surged forward, though their clarity remained frustratingly blurred.

Just as Nate began to grasp fragments of his recollection, a voice echoed from within the bathroom. "Do you need more toilet paper?" it inquired.

Startled, Nate's eyes widened, and he swiftly swung the door open wider. On the other side stood his friend Scott, but there was an undeniable alteration about him—an inexplicable change that eluded Nate's attempts to pinpoint its nature.

Caught off guard by the unexpected encounter, Nate stumbled over his words, his voice faltering.

"Uh, no, I'm good," he managed to stammer, his mind racing to reconcile the familiarity of his surroundings with the enigma that Scott now embodied.

Scott and Nate proceeded to the living room, where there was a movie playing about Tom Cruise being in a coma. As they settled down, a palpable change in the atmosphere seemed vaguely familiar to Nate; this was a memory, he thought, yet he struggled to pinpoint the exact moments or circumstances that had brought him into this sense of déjà vu.

He was helpless as it washed over him, intensifying his conviction that this was more than a mere memory. It felt like a complex web of events was interwoven, linking each encounter and experience he had undergone.

As Nate's attention drifted to the paintings on the wall, an unexpected sensation brushed against his shoulder—a warm breath, too close for comfort. Startled, he swiftly turned around to find Scott standing there, his presence perplexingly swift. Confusion gripped Nate as he tried to comprehend how Scott had moved so silently and speedily without his notice.

The sudden transformation in Scott's eyes sent a chill down Nate's spine. In a surreal moment, his vibrant irises turned pitch-black, devoid of white—a magical alteration that defied logical explanation. The sight left Nate questioning his sanity and the authenticity of the person standing before him. As Scott's words pierced into Nate's mind like an arrow of insanity,

"I can see inside your head."

Before Nate could gather his thoughts, another friend, Fred, appeared like a figure plucked from the pages of ancient tales. His attire a flowing black robe intricately adorned with silver and gold symbols that Nate recognized as the Seals of Solomon, which contain powerful mystic knowledge.

A pendant bearing a pulsating gemstone hung from his neck, emanating an other-worldly aura, and hinting at hidden powers.

Fred interjected into their conversation with an enigmatic statement.

"His motherboard is fried; we need to find him a donor."

Nate was beyond being able to comprehend the events that were transpiring before him.

"I'll just bring him with me, we'll find a spell, and I'll teach him how to fly out of here," Fred cryptically declared.

Nate was utterly baffled by the obscure remark, struggling to make any sense of the insane words coming from his friend's mouth.

Nate was enveloped in a strange, bewildering realm where reality merged with fantasy.

He remembered what The Carpenter said about how He had merged the horror with the science fiction matrix, which could explain what was currently going on.

During the mysterious and disconcerting encounters with Scott and Fred, the atmosphere grew heavier with the arrival of devastating news.

Aubert, another friend of Nate, suddenly appeared and received an urgent call from a hospital. The expression on his face went blank as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. The news would devastate him—his beloved fiancé Alana, who had been in a coma after a car accident, had tragically lost her life.

Nate felt puzzled at the strange feeling that it was he who was at the hospital watching as they took Alana off life support.

A wave of sorrow washed over the room, thick in the air and leaving a lingering sense of despair. The weight of the tragedy hung heavy on Nate's shoulders; his eyes filled with unfathomable grief. As the words sank in, the reality of the loss began to unravel the fragile fabric of emotions, plunging him into a state of profound mourning for his friend's fiancé, a woman he didn't even know.

Nate witnessed the raw pain etched on Aubert's face when suddenly Aubert's face seemed to melt away, revealing Nate's underneath.

Suddenly, he felt a deep pain welling within him. The inexplicable events surrounding him became overwhelming, threatening to engulf his very being.

An ethereal fog began to seep into the room, and a mystical presence took hold, captivating Nate's attention. Through the swirling mist, a door materialized, standing as a portal to an unknown realm. Strangely, it seemed that Nate alone could perceive its existence. The others remained oblivious, their focus consumed by their thoughts and the weight of Aubert's tragic news.

Driven by an unexplainable curiosity and a desire to escape the perplexing situation, Nate approached the unusual door and gently turned the knob. The moment he opened it, an eerie silence fell upon the room. No one seemed to notice his departure or the door's presence. It was as if Nate had slipped away unnoticed, delving into a realm separate from the mundane reality that confined the others.

Uncertainty mingled with a glimmer of anticipation as Nate crossed the threshold, leaving the familiar behind. The door closed softly behind him, sealing off the room and its mysteries from his sight. Stepping into the unknown, accepting there could be a high probability of even more mind-bending situations.

The door through which he had entered closed of its own accord, disappearing into thin air, and appeared to leave with him without an exit from the small square chamber. However, he was relieved to find that he was the only one there. Taking a moment to gather himself, he noticed a peculiar white glow emanating from the back right corner of the room.

He approached to find an oddly placed item lying on the floor, which looked like a round red pill resting on a piece of white paper with a heart drawn around it.

Something told Nate this was meant for him. He grabbed the pill, popping it into his mouth, and then in an instant, everything became a fading blur.