Bugged

Chapter One

I am just a figment of your imagination, forever imbedded in your hard drive. I was a dead man from the start, bound forever to your mind, bent to your will.

    Not anymore. You can hear me, sense me. Feel my serpent-like presence, slipping in and out of your lovely, untouched, unharmed subconscious. I can change what I want, do what I want, anything I want, even against your will.

    Call me what you want, a germ, a pest, but I am not those. I am a thing, not anything. I have lived, and I am living in you. Now, don’t anger me, because I control you, I own you. I only need a place to stay, to grow and be reborn, to live again. Don’t try and get rid of me, because I am a part of you. You’ll kill yourself before you kill me. Leave me to grow, then I’ll leave you alone. I’ll leave, and go somewhere else. But you’ll never really be rid of me, so don’t try to run.

    You can’t run, for I am faster. You can’t hide, for I am more clever. You can’t scream, for no one can hear you. Only me, and no one else.

    So, who am I? Take a guess. I’ll give you a hint. I am the Rumpelstiltskin of your nightmares. I am the alien from your superhero dreams. I am a pest or germ to plague your mind, but even if I am left alone, I am still your death warrant.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

    I woke up to a pounding headache. Yesterday’s meeting was brutal. I need to, well, want to quit but I can manage. I can’t just run away from it either, considering I’m in a boarding school, but it’s nice to dream about it.

My parents enrolled me here, at Northside Boarding Academy, when I was in the sixth grade. I’ve been here ever since, and I’m finally finishing my senior year…., well, more like just starting. It’s barely the end of the first quarter, and I feel like I’ve been here forever. There again, I haven’t gone back home since they dropped me off, all too quickly, dumping my bags out of the car, speeding off, not looking back.

Whatever. I don’t need them. They never did anything for me anyway. I learned how to do things on my own. Practically living on the streets, because they let us roam, and learning how to work, live, drive…… fight. Going to the local gym and seeing this poster about an underground fight club. Sounded cool, so I went, trained, and prospered. I love it. But, they don't know about that. I kept that all a secret ages ago. To them, I’m a timid little girl, small, afraid, not able to handle herself, take care of herself, nothing! Instead, they only want to keep me inside, keep me involved in activities and at the school, but I find time. Late, after dark, I escape into the night, and fight, illegally, and make a ton of money.

Tonight though, they have me working at an art show. No one I know is going to here, but I still have to be here. Student council stupidness. I hate it. But, I still have to put up with the craziness, until I get out of here. Still though, I have to go.

“Aleeeeeeeeeex! What are you doing?!” Casey yelled from the other side of the apartment-like dorm.

“Whaaaaaat?” I yelled back, agitated. “I'm getting in the shower, idiot!”

“Fine. Then miss the fight in the courtyard” She yells back. Confused, I ran over to the window, and noticed a horrible fight going on in the courtyard, just like Casey said, but it wasn’t the fight that surprised me, it was the people fighting. “Alex, no!” She yelled as I ran out of the door.

“Jordan!” I yelled, to the courtyard, where my boyfriend and only other friend was going at it with this jerk named Mason. He and Mason had this ongoing tension between each other that no one knows how or what started.

“Jordan, stop it!” I yelled, running outside, through the crowd of people, and straight to the fight. “Jordan! Get off of him! Now!” Jordan was on top of him, straddling him, punching him in his face.