It's Driving Me Insane

I

It’s Driving Me Insane

     “GET OUT OF MY HEAD,” shouted Graig. The voice of Graig came from a room in complete darkness.

     Just then, the lights came on to show a man sitting straight up in his Sleeper. Next to Graig still sleeping was his Lover - Penni. She turned over on her side and put her head in her hand. “Do you still have that song swimming around in your head?”

     “I can’t get it out of it,” said Graig. “It’s now invading my dreams.”

     “You still can’t remember what that song is,” said Penni. “It’s been almost a month since you started hearing it in your head.”

     “It’s on the tip of my brain,” said Graig. “At least I think I have heard it before.”

     “Sing it for me,” said Penni. “Maybe I’ll recognize it.”

     “You know I can’t sing,” said Graig. “I just work in that industry.”

     “Word it to me,” said Penni. “You do know the words to it – don’t you?”

     “I should, but I only remember some of it. You would think I would remember it with it pounding in my head twenty- eight/eight, but I don’t.” Graig laid back down in his Sleeper.

     Penni started to say something several times, but stopped herself. After about a minute of trying she said, “Maybe it’s one of the songs you have been working on at work.”

     “I thought about that, but it isn’t. This one is a song from my past,” said Graig. “Maybe even from my youth.”

     “That’s a break through right there.” Said Penni. “You haven’t mentioned it being part of you past – or your youth.”

     “No I haven’t – have I? What do you think it means? Maybe it means my memory of the song is coming back to me,” Graig asked then said.

     “It could mean that,” said Penni. “What else might it mean?”

     Graig suddenly sat straight up in his Sleeper again. “Stop doing that. I’m not one of your Problems on Monthith.”

     “You’re right,” said Penni. “Sorry about that. Sometimes I forget I’m one of the best, if not the best, Mind Masters in the universe.”

     “It’s okay,” said Graig. “I’m a little tense because of this song repeating in my head. Even while I am talking to you it’s there. It’s constant now.”

     “Let’s try to get some sleep,” said Penni. “We will figure out what’s going on when we wake up.”

     “I’ll try, but I don’t think I will be able to do it. Unless I use my dreams to stop the song,” said Graig.

     “What does that mean?” Penni asked.

     “Maybe the only way to get rid of it is to remember it,” answered Graig. “Dreaming about its meaning might be the answer to remembrance.”

     Graig returned laid back down in his Sleeper. Once down he pushed two buttons. One on each side of his Sleeper. After pushing the first one a vise came out from the sides to trap his head within it. It started squeezing shut, but only closed enough to stop the head from moving. Button two put a soft metal cloth over his body from shoulders to toes. The same thing happened to Penni.

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     In a large what appeared to be an old abandoned StorageHouse floating high above it was Graig. He looked like he was flying. Graig just floated above a very busy, active, room below him.

     There’s five rows of old fashioned Communication Systems below Graig. Systems where someone had to connect two connectors by hand by placing one connecter in a hole among the rows of holes on top of the system with a connecter hole along the three rows on the flat base in front of the human. That’s right, fellow humans manned those systems.

     Two humans walked among the rows talking to the System Operators. One of them was male. The other a female. Their names Graig overheard were Stanc and Addora.

     Graig could hear everything that was being said below him, but it was everyone talking at once. It got to be madding. He tried to stop the chaos by clamping his hands over his ears. That helped out a lot, but it was still disastrous. Graig couldn’t hear everything that everyone was saying. That’s part of the madness that was slowly driving him crazy. So he decided to concentrate on just two humans – the leaders Stanc and Addora.

     “Status update Jorre.” Stanc suddenly stopped and leaned over the top of one of the system boards. He looked down at a female.

     “Everything is working just fine. No problems,” said Jorre without looking up at Stanc.

     Stance moved on to his next communication a few boards down. That time to a male. Meanwhile, Addora was leaning over the back of a male named Pouric. “Pouric, is there a problem?” Addora asked.

     “A slight one. Another individual is trying to break the connection by dreaming.” Suddenly Addora looked up – directly at Graig.

     Graig turned his head slightly to avoid being seen. When he did he saw he wasn’t alone up there. There were several hundred other individuals, both male and female, floating above what was happening below them.

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     “It’s a takeover of Monthith – or it might be an invasion. Whichever they are they are trying to do it with that song. I think it’s off-world humans because the song isn’t from any individual or group on Monthith.” Graig had gotten up and started getting dressed while he said all that.

     “I know. There are several million individuals like you going through this madness. All of you in the Music Industry. They are using that to cover up what they are doing. Slowly weakening us, driving us crazy, for easier conquest. You are just Phase One. I saw it all within your dream too.” Penni had also gotten up and was getting dressed. “We have to warn everyone what is really going on here.”

The Word Count, including this line, is 994.