𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 | 𝖲𝗉𝖺𝗆𝗍𝗈𝗇 𝗑 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞

The first thing you remember upon opening your eyes, is the bright flickering lights of a huge LED billboard above you. You are having trouble adjusting to the light, but after a blink or two, your vision clears just enough to look around. That's when the pain kicked in. A sharp pain right there, in the back of your head. The light of the billboard above you, which you could now see read "WELCOME TO CYBER CITY", only made it more difficult for you to regain full control of your sight.

You were confused. Where were you? How did you get here? Where...is here? You slowly stood up from the ground and looked up at the bright screen.

"Cyber...City?" you thought to yourself.

This was definitely a place you had never heard before. It sounded like a made-up place in a kids show. You tried to pinch yourself in an attempt to check if you were dreaming or not.  However, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't seem to get away from the feeling that you weren't dreaming, because there was pain right in the middle of your skull that was sharp enough to be real.

How did you get in this situation? The last thing you remembered was falling asleep in the library. You were supposed to be doing research and working on your university assignment that was due tomorrow, but you were so tired that you caught yourself drifting off as the hours passed.

The more you tried to think about it and recall the events that lead up to the present, the more you felt your brain ringing inside your skull, making you turn away from the bright billboard before you, in search of a quite place with less light.

No use. Whatever this Cyber City was, it was filled with bright lights, signs and LED billboards in every single corner. As you walked through the city, trying to get away from the lights with your head screaming in pain, you couldn't help but notice how busy the roads were. It was truly remarkable how many cars filled the place. You decided it was best to stay away from the roads, it would be impossible to cross in the state you were currently in.

Instead, you opted for the alleyways, which were definitely less busy and darker from the rest of the city. You didn't really know where you were heading, you just wanted to get away from the lights. It was as if a voice inside your head was guiding you away...

There! That's it! You spotted an alley darker than the rest. No light would reach you so easily there. You would have a moment of quietness, at last. Your tired feet carried you until you collapsed next to a dumpster.  You let out an exhausted sigh. Your head was killing you. Everything hurt. You closed your eyes, and rest your head between your hands, massaging your temples slowly in a circular motion. 

The lights were gone. The people were gone. The sounds of the loud bustling of the streets behind you ceased. There was only silence. The only thing you heard was the blood pounding loudly against your eardrums, threatening to burst out of your skull. You felt something running down the back of your neck and touched it out of instinct.

Blood. The thing you touched was your own blood. You were certain now, this could not be a dream. And you knew damn well it was the reason your head hurt like a bitch. This could mean either one of two things. Either you fell and hit your head really bad, or...

Before you could finish, your string of thoughts was interrupted by a loud voice coming from the dumpster.

* HEY EVERY           ! IT'S ME!!  EV3RY      BUDDY     'S   FAVORITE   [[Number 1 Rated Salesman1997]]   SPAM-

* SPAMTON G. SPAMTON!!!!

"Please make it stop..." you muttered under your breath. On top of the dumpster stood a man...at least you thought he was a man, as the light of the alleyway was not enough to make out his features and your blurry vision didn't help. The man who called himself Spamton looked in your direction.

* WOAH! IT'S A

* LIGHT    nER!!!

In a swift motion, he jumped off the garbage bin and squated down next to you. As he got down to your level, you could now make out his features. You were surprised to see a monster that looked somewhat like a human. He looked like a robotic ventriloquist dummy. His "skin" was a porcelain white and he had two red spots where his cheeks were, decorating each corner of his smiling mouth. He was wearing a long sleeved black V-neck shirt and white pants. A pair of pink and yellow glasses were obscuring his eyes.

You lived among many other monsters at your hometown, but none of them looked anything close to a human like Spamton did. Although it gave you some comfort to see someone so close to your own kind, at that moment you were shaken to your very SOUL. You were hurt, defenseless and lost, all in a dark alleyway with a stranger. Neither your fight nor flight response seemed to be...responding right now.

* IS THAT....

* BL00D COMING OUT OF YOUR [[head so good you might explode]]?!

You shied away from his hand as he went to touch the blood on the back of your head. What were you going to do? You were still feeling weak and dizzy, your legs would definitely betray you if you were to run away.

"And go where? Back to the lights? I don't know where to go." you thought.

The puppet man took a step back to give you some space.

* SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE [[All Alone On A Late Night?]]

* ALL YOUR FRIENDS [[Abandoned you for the slime]] YOU ARE?

* SALES GONE DOWN THE [[Drain] [[Drain]]?

* LIVING IN A GODDAMN GARBAGE CAN?!

Spamton turned around and punched the side of the garbage can. Hard. You flinched. The sound it made upon contact with his fist made your ears ring and your vision blurred again.

The next time he spoke, you could barely make out what he was saying. Something along the lines of [[Specil]] DEALS and [[Silly Strings]]. It was when he started yelling the words BIG SHOT where you somewhat snapped out of your trance. He seemed to be distracted enough with his monologue that he wouldn't notice you, as you slowly got up from where you were sitting and walked away from the alley.

You hadn't moved very far though, before you felt a hand clasp your own and tugging at you from behind. As you turned, your eyes met his glasses, which were now filled with...static?

* ....please...don't leave me....

What was wrong with him? Just seconds ago he was rambling like a crazy man and now he seemed so...lost. He looked miserable and showed to be genuinely sad that you were leaving. Before you could speak, the colors returned to his glasses and so did his personality.

* N-NO! IGNORE THAT! YOU CAN'T LEAVE! YOU ARE [[Hurt and Broken]]!!

* YOU SEEM TO BE IN [[Pain And Misery]].

He wasn't wrong. In all honesty, there was only so much that a human could take before their body shut off. You had too much for one day. Your vision, much like Spamton's glasses, was filled with static before you were engulfed in darkness and your body went limp.