TE21 Serbian Moments

M. Caterina Mortillaro

Virtual Truth

Cast your spell upon my lover Under this starlit cover Use all your magic charms…

Before he manages to conclude, two guys – one robust and the other in a doctor’s coat – burst in. Uh oh.

“What the hell…?”

Around them, starsspinat lightspeed.Overcomewithpleasure, Jack shuts his eyes; when he reopens them, he sees above him the deformed features of an alien in full armor. He screams until his throat bleeds.

They pounce on him. Jack fights with every technique he knows, but his body feels oddly weak and uncoordinated. Fucking plausibility. In the end he’s overpowered. He blinks three times, a moment before the man in the white coat gives him a shot with a hypo syringe.

*

*

SCENE SEVEN – INT. – DAY Jack is lying supine: he’s in a hospital bed, the smell of disinfectant informs him. Light hurts his eyes. He turns and sees it filtering through a window, shields his eyes with his hand. Perhaps he really has fucked up his brain. He must come off this shit. He blinks three times but the light remains, along with the smell of disinfectant. He tries to get up. A woman’s voice drills into his ear drums. “So you’re feeling better. I’m glad. But be careful. You’re still weak.”

SCENE SIX – INDEFINITE PLACE/TIME The kaleidoscope morphs into a vortex. Jack is sucked into it. He is burning inside an atomic mushroom cloud. He can feel his flesh melting. He screams. Dies. Then, it’s as if he were reassembling, piece by piece. He’s flying. He’s thrown onto a beach. He’s thirsty. Thewater is salty. He spits it out, his mouth bitter. “I want out!!!” No-one seems to hear him. The woman from the ball room appears. She climbs on top, rides him. Jack no longer wants to leave. He wants her to go on forever. She’s so beautiful. Naked in the moonlight. Moonshine. How did that old tune go? 224

“W-where am I?”

“On Astarte-1. At Kolchoz 24. Your final destination.” 225