Rebirth

Description: A man gets a horrifying message from the future.

Note: This was written for a contest where the theme was “Rebirth” and the limit was 1500 Words. Have fun reading.

Reading blogs, checking for likes, hoping for followers. His computer already knew where he wanted to go when he just typed w into the search-bar. Writing content, commenting posts, hoping for followers. That is all Jery did. All day, all night. Not thinking about the life around him. The life he was supposed to be living. Not seeing how it crumbled under his obsession. His heroin. Even when he got kicked from school and had to live with his parents again. Still he couldn’t stop. That blue background with that white w in front of it, sometimes he slept and dreamed of it. In his dreams there was always a star in the top right corner, and when he clicked it, he saw an unlimited amount of followers saying “We love you Jerry.” “You are great Jerry.” “Give us more of you Jery.” “You are better than everyone else Jery.”

It was Monday when he visited his WordPress account again. Monday fun-day, he thought. Maybe the day was fun enough for him to see another follower again, another like or eve somebody re-blogging his reviews. Monday fun-day, he thought. He could think of anything else. His brain was on autopilot, focusing all of his attention on his mouse and where it clicked. As the page opened he saw his deepest desire showing itself in a little white star on an orange background. “Monday fun-day.” He said. He kicked it and a pop up opened. His eyes widened as his brain sprung into action for the first time in many weeks. Something unexpected had happened. WordPress doesn’t have any pop-ups and he was supposed to see who had started to follow his addiction. At first the pop-up was white, but then black italic words started to write themselves unto the clear white background.

“Hello Jery, let me first tell you that I’m sorry, but this is for the good of everyone in this universe. I wish I could tell you more but this has to be quick, after you’ve read this you’ll need every second. My name is Frank and I’m what you people would call a time traveler. I have a device called the Zim and with it I can go back in what you perceive as time. However there is a problem, real time travel doesn’t function in the way you believe it does. I’ll try to explain it to you. History is split into timeliness, Renaissance, middle ages or whatever you can think of, and every time-line can only accompany a limited amount of souls. So to go back in time, one soul has die so another one can enter. I’m sorry again, but that soul will be yours. Your soul will die and enter the endless void so I can go back further and further in time, until I reach the first of our kind and undo the evil that our species has brought upon this universe. You don’t know about the future but humanity has actually traveled through the universe, discovered planets, suns and species’s you can’t even imagine… and then we enslaved them and killed them off to make place for more of us. It was a genocide on such an epic scale that you can’t even imagine it. Souls of living beings, dying under our guns and missiles. Pain and blood everywhere. Multiple infinity’s, fallen prey to our fanatic necessity for space and the illusion of peace and serenity. Now you can probably imagine why it is necessary that you die. For the good of every creature in this universe, you will die. I sent this message back in time so you can prepare yourself for the coming horror. Just hopping back and killing you didn’t feel humane, especially since we are of the same kind. However there is one thing left to tell you. Your death, it wont be peaceful. It will be gruesome and excruciating. It will feel like something ripping you apart from the inside, like a knife in your stomach, cutting itself free. That is my soul, severing yours from your body. However that wont be the end. Your soul didn’t die so it wont disappear, it will go to God or what you call heaven. You will serve as a life force for him until you’re dry. I should tell you now, your bible is a lie. A crude joke played by an omnipresent being, making you hope for serenity while you are walking towards damnation. He feeds on suffering and destruction, and he will make you suffer until the end of eternity, again and again until your soul is dry. You will never feel pain as deep as this, and your screams will only be one amongst thousands. There is no hope. Again I’m sorry. You have now all the information you need to make peace with your life, don’t. A last tip from my side would be not to panic, you don’t want to waste the precious time you still possess. Take all the energy you have to control your emotions and say goodbye to your family and loved ones, show them all the love and affection you have harbored inside you for them. Write it down or call them, whatever is necessary. You have now about five minutes left. I am sorry, but this what must be done. Goodbye, I’ll see you in heaven.”

Jery looked at it with tired eyes. He couldn’t believe he had actually read all of it. Usually he didn’t have an attention span which lasted that long. Cool, he thought, finally a pop-up that actually doesn’t make you close it right away; but shouldn’t it ask for his credit card number? Or that he should register to meet hot women? Whatever…then he closed the message and looked at his WordPress again, another little star had appeared at the top right of his screen. He felt satisfaction again, endorphins started to race through his brain. Like a miniature orgasm, making him feel satisfied. He kicked it.
Spanky-Ham is following you now.
Spanky-Ham has liked your post.
Spany-Ham commented how much loved your movie reviews.
Jery felt love, love for the only love of his life. The love of loving the pleasure and peace other users are giving him, pleasuring him in more ways than a women or a man ever could. He had to watch a movie now and had to review it afterward. More content means more followers, means more love, means more pleasure. And that is all he wanted, all he ever wanted. He opened a new window and went to a website dedicated to people that wanted to watch movies without paying for them. He opened a horror movie in a new window. He felt sweet serenity knowing that this will make more people love him. Then he felt a stabbing pain inside him, like his liver being punctuated by a needle. He curled into himself, pressing his hands on his stomach. This was only the beginning. He was experiencing the pain of a new soul entering his body. The death and destruction of his soul, and the rebirth of another.