Don't Break the Code

Tangent University Round 5 Entry ~ Musical Prompt: "Toxicity" by System of a Down

         He sat in his comfortable office chair looking out the bank of windows at the rapidly falling darkness without.  Mason couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually stepped outside the walls of this building, felt the air on his pallid and pasty skin or moved his bloated legs farther than from his cubicle to the bathroom and back.  Darian and Vivica brought him food and drinks… whatever it was that he wanted, including his favorite snack, sunflower seeds, which they brought in five pound bags.  They only came around at night and they always took care of his needs as long as he continued to write code that would continue to improve their gaming system.

         Mason didn’t understand why they were so fixated with the Royalty of the Dark game, it was good, but really, he’d played better… heck, he’d created better.  But Mason didn’t really care anymore.  He’d long ago abandoned the childish notion that he would find a girl who liked him, he was much too obese and indifferent to the world beyond the gaming community.  Mason had discovered his gift for writing game code at the age of ten when his Commodore 64 game had developed a bug that stopped the game from proceeding to the next task.  He’d been incensed that he’d spent thirty dollars on the stupid game and it didn’t even work!  With a grunt of disgust, Mason had figured out how to break into the code and had repaired the bug.  It had taken him all of thirty minutes. 

         By the time Mason had been fifteen, he’d been arrested for hacking twice and at the age of sixteen, Darian had found him.  So now at eighteen, Mason was almost permanently ensconced in the offices that Darian rented for the headquarters of Royalty Games and was working on the seventh version of their game.  His world was now sitting in his cube, writing and testing code for hours on end and munching his sunflower seeds.

         But as Mason sat this evening, he was distracted by the city without.  When had Burroughville become so grey and unattractive?  Two years ago, Burroughville had been a bustling metropolis, a suburb of a major city, growing with leaps and bounds.  It had been a beautiful place with lots of trees and people who liked to keep it beautiful.  Now as Mason looked out the window, he had the vague thought that it seemed like some grey toxic cloud had settled over Burroughville and he couldn’t even recall the last time he’d heard so much as a horn honking or a siren blaring as it passed. 

         Mason rubbed his tired eyes and poured a handful of seeds into his mouth then sucked the salt thoughtfully.  Maybe he should get out more… nah… he thought to himself.  Why on earth would he leave the comfort of his place here at Royalty?  Darian made sure he had all of the space, peace and quiet he needed to work on the game… even if it was a stupid game that was about vampires taking over the world and holding humans in cages like veal until they were needed for food.  Mason jumped when he heard Darian speak behind him and almost choked on his seeds.

         “Wasting my money, Mase?” Darian sneered.  As usual, he looked like an old-fashioned prince from some obscure country.  Darian’s hair was black as midnight, combed back away from his forehead, prominently displaying a deep widow’s peak.  He was as pallid as Mason only he looked much healthier; slim and muscular.  Mason, as always, felt extra self-conscious as he ran his clammy palm over his ratty sweat pants while he looked at Darian’s immaculate if dated clothes that were, as usual, black.

         “Nope, just taking a short pause,” Mason said around the seeds.  He spit an empty shell from his mouth into the bottle that he was using for the shells now that he’d finished the soda from it. 

         “We aren’t paying you to pause,” Vivica’s waspish voice cut through the silence that had fallen between Darian and Mason.  Mason frowned in distaste as Vivica strode around the edge of the cubicle.  Haughty and coldly beautiful, Vivica was the principle reason that Mason had long since given up on women.  She, in his mind, personified the entire female population and she was little more than a bitch.

         “Shut up, Viv… Mase does what we need him to do, so don’t snap at the hand that feeds,” Darian scowled.  Vivica rolled her eyes and snorted contemptuously, crossing her arms over her chest.  “Did you take care of our shipment?”

         “Of course I did, do you take me for a fool?” Vivica snapped.  Mason watched the two of them with little more than mild interest.  “They… it is in storage.”

         Mason maintained a studiously bland face even as his mind began to wonder at her odd choice of words.  She had sounded remarkably like the vampire characters of the game.  But why would she sound that way?  It wasn’t as though his bosses were vampires using the game to corrupt the minds of the players, making them leave their consoles to mindlessly flock to Burroughville.  Mason spit a few more shells out into the bottle and chewed.

         “You locked the storage room, too?” Darian confirmed.

         “Darian, I’m not an idiot!  Yes, I locked it.” Vivica snapped angrily.

         “Can’t prove much by me… the last time I trusted you to lock it, you forgot,” Darian snarled.

         Mason turned his chair back to his computer and tried to ignore the sniping between his bosses.  He knew they stored things in the back of the building but had never gone back there, figuring he didn’t care enough to know what they put there. He spit some more shells into the bottle and began typing code for the next stage of the game. 

         “Hey, Mase, here’s a new direction for this version that I’d like you to add,” Darian said, putting a folded piece of paper on the desk next to the keyboard.

         “You got it, Darian,” Mason muttered around his dwindling mouthful of seeds.

         “When do you suppose the seventh will be available for beta?” Darian asked.

         “Oh, if this new bit doesn’t take too long to work out, I’ll be alpha testing sometime next week,” Mason replied.

         “Great.  Is there anything we can get for you?”

         “I need more shampoo and soda.”

         “We’ll bring it around tomorrow.”

         “Thanks,” Mason said absently as he continued to type and spit shells. 

         “Later, Mase,” Darian said.  He turned and grabbed Vivica roughly by the arm, leading her from the building.  Out of the corner of his eye, Mason saw Darian and Vivica walking along the sidewalk in front of the windows, arguing.

         He picked up the paper that Darian had left and opened it.  Mason choked on the few remaining seeds in his mouth as he read what Darian wanted.  Really?  This made it look like Darian wanted him to use hypnotic suggestion embedded in the code.  How absolutely bizarre!  It was especially weird after the conversation that Vivica had had with Darian. 

         Mason stood on his stocky legs and shifted his pants.  He wiped his sweaty palms on his XXXL tee shirt and waddled laboriously to the bathroom.  When he walked from the bathroom he looked down the hall to where he knew the storage was then looked down the other way to where his cubicle was.  Mason stared down the storage hall again for a long time before slowly, nervously turning to walk down it toward the closed door.  When he finally arrived at the door, he was shocked to see it ajar.  Hadn’t Vivica assured Darian that it had been locked?

         Mason swallowed hard over the lump in his throat and reached out with a trembling hand to push it open.  He felt dizzy and disoriented as the door swung open to reveal a room that was remarkably prison-like.  Two cells were on each side of the room with an aisle between for access.  The two farthest cells housed six people each.  The one on the left was all males and all under the age of sixteen by the looks of them.  The right cell had a girl and five men all of which seemed to be over twenty.  Mason would have feared for the safety of the girl if the occupants hadn’t all had the same blank expression on their faces.  They all sat in the cell on the floor against the wall, spaced evenly as though in front of computer consoles.

         With a jolt of horror, Mason heard Darian’s voice as it neared.  He turned in the doorway of the storage room and swayed in fear.  Darian looked murderous and Vivica looked triumphant. 

         “What is going on here?” Mason’s fearful and hoarse voice asked.  He kept his eyes on Darian, but could almost feel the vindictive excitement emanating from Vivica.

         “I told you the little piggy boy would snoop,” she smiled viciously.

         “Only because you accidentally on purpose let your tongue slip.  Now what the hell are we going to do for a programmer?  Do you have any idea just how hard it is to find ones that don’t ask questions?  Damnit Viv!” Darian snarled angrily.

         “I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t care… please don’t hurt me…” Mason pleaded fearfully as he backed away.

         “You know too much and I really hate to do this, but I must,” Darian said almost apologetically. 

         Mason watched in horror as Darian’s canine teeth grew alarmingly long as the tall, thin man approached.  Mason continued to back away until his back hit the wall and he pressed himself against it, trying to go through the thick cement.  Darian shot his hand out and caught Mason by the neck, just under Mason’s third chin.  With amazing strength, Darian lifted Mason until Mason was pressed against the wall looking Darian in the face.  Mason swallowed convulsively as Darian moved ever closer.  Mason couldn’t stop the piercing scream that erupted from his lips as Darian sank his teeth into Mason’s neck.  Mason felt the warmth of life leaving him as light faded from the world and all went dark. 

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