Behind the Mask

Chapter 1

The Cassandra Syndrome: The curse that occurs when plausible warnings or concerns are disbelieved or dismissed.

“Beginning in Greek mythology, Apollo was infatuated with Cassandra and blessed her with the gift of prophecy. But, when Cassandra refused his advance in marriage; Apollo grew bitter, and revoked her blessing with a curse.

The curse was that nobody would believe her warnings, no matter how hard she tried to warn people of future events.”

Chapter 2

The Year 2013

Inside Sydney’s biggest psychiatric facility, a young woman is pacing a small fenced in enclosure of the hospital. Amongst the background noises of the inpatients insane outbursts and rambling pleas to be released, the girl hears a voice in her head for the first time.

“Go now, you have to run away. They’re going to kill you”.

“What! Who said that?” The girl thought back inside her head.

“You will see your chance soon. GO!”

At that very moment, a lady on the outside of the fence appears from around the corner and begins to walk towards the locked gate.

“It’s now or never” the voice inside the girls head spoke again.

The girl barely had time to question the voice in her head before she found herself pushing past the lady entering the enclosure. “Sorry” she called out as she shoved past her through the gate.

Freedom! Bare feet slapping the concrete and breathless, her heart was pounding with adrenalin. She could hear the alarms being raised in the distance as she was now down the street hurdling over backyard fences. She hadn’t felt this alive in a long time.

A kilometre away, the girl realised that she was now a fugitive, without a plan. “Now what?” she thought. Becoming aware that she had just escaped a government scheduling system, and only because she heard a voice in her head giving her an escape route. The girl began to panic. “Where did that voice come from…Hello...Are you there...Help?” She tried to think telepathically, expecting an answer back. “What do I do now…where do I go?” Reality was sinking in fast and the girl was realising that she had limited options. The sun was belting down on her and the air was thick in the midst of summer. Time was catching up and she began to feel the nuthouse’s sedative injection coursing through her body. The weight of gravity amplified and everything whirred past her.

“Water! I need water! I’ve got to wash this drug out of me”. Luckily there was a convenience store at the nearby train station. She purchased 1.5 L of water which she clung to for dear life.

Growing paranoid, the girl decided to get a taxi back a short distance to her home and stock up on supplies before really going on the run. Had she caught the train, technology is that good these days that she would probably be recaptured in minutes via security cameras on every corner.

Finally back home and having time to reflect on her breakout, she wondered how the voice got in her head. Could it really be possible? Telepathy? Or is it something more complicated and scientific? Had someone broadcasted a frequency via radio waves straight into her head like a walky-talky? Or was it just all a coincidence and she really has lost it?

The room began to spin with conspiracies and the injection from the psychiatric hospital finally had the girl doubled over on the couch. Eyes rolling back in her head and a sickly feeling had her hanging on for life.

“Sugar!” I need energy to counteract the shot.

On her way to the kitchen Sandra caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror on the wall. Stopping to get a reality check, she realised she didn’t recognise the person looking back at her. In the mirror was an estranged expression. Distant from even herself.

Cassandra Darke looked like shit. Acne flaring, long blonde hair greasy and frazzled, blue eyes tortured. Rock bottom. “What am I doing”? Sandra asked the mirror. “You’ve really lost it this time” The mirror thought back.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

“IT’S THE POLICE!” boomed a man in uniform.

“Uh oh… I can’t go back there. No way. They’ll kill me!” Thought Sandra out of site.

Another bang at the door had Sandra in a frenzy.

“Oh my god, the police are at my door!” she thought.

“OPEN THE DOOR” bellowed the police.

Sandra had never encountered any sort of trouble with the police in her life.

“Don’t answer it, Hide!” The voice in her head was back.

Before long the cops returned to their car and drove away. Relieved, Sandra took a deep breath and mustered up enough strength to get back on her feet. Sugar! Raiding the baron cupboard made Sandra realise she really had been neglecting herself. Eventually, she settled for jam on stale bread. Instantly, the sugar danced across her taste buds and she felt some colour in her cheeks return.

Time to pack. Where to go? What do I wear? Pack for comfort or to impress? These jeans or those jeans. Hey that saying pack sensibly makes so much more sense now. Ok I’m wasting time, the cops will be back. Think girl, think! What do you need to go on the run? A bottle of water? Check. Money? Check. Should I take my phone or will they track me down? Hell I’m hearing voices. I.am.hearing.voices. Oh my god I have lost it. How did I know to escape though? Get a grip girl.

At that moment her phone broke the silence and made her jump a mile in the air. It was her mother. The poor woman would be worried sick about her. I’ll reassure her I’m OK then I’ll leave. Remembering the horrifying glance of herself in the mirror, she answered the phone.

“CASSANDRA!!!!” screamed her mother’s voice down the phone. “Where are you!? What have you been doing!? I’ve been worried sick!?”

“I um...”

“WHERE ARE YOU!?”

“They’re going to kil…”

“CASSANDRA DARKE. WHERE ARE YOU!?”

“At… I’m at home...” stuttered Cassandra.

“Stay there Sandra, I am coming home right now, your sister will be coming as well” her mum hung up.

“Fuck! There’s still time to run away. Shit! Where to though? Help? Hello? Voice in my head?” Thought Sandra.

“I need to get out of here quick smart! They’re coming!” she thought to herself.

Hurrying to her feet, she suddenly blacked out and hit the floor with a thud.

Chapter 3: The Truth

“Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!”.

Cassandra’s body was falling through the darkness. She had no concept of up or down, all she knew was that she was twisting and turning through blackness.

Then, suddenly everything stopped.

“It’s working” said the voice.

“This is remarkable” said a different voice in Cassandra’s subconscious.

“Hello? Where am I” asked a confused Cassandra. All she could see was pitch black surrounding her. She felt as though she was being suspended in mid-air. Gaining some awareness of her body Cassandra could now see bright lightening being conducted in the distance.

“Am I dead?” she asked herself. She began floating towards the light, now swimming weightlessly through the atmosphere.

“Keep going towards the electric current” said a woman’s voice in Cassandra’s head.

As Cassandra came closer to the light, she could feel herself being pulled magnetically into the unknown. All of a sudden with a whoosh through her body Cassandra found herself now in a white room with a table in the middle of it.

“OMG I am in purgatory…I’m too young for this” thought Cassandra.

She found herself standing upright in a round room with no windows or doors. She walked over to the table and then all of a sudden a little black book appeared.

“Congratulations Cassandra” said the mysterious voice in her head again.

“God?” thought Cassandra.

“Ahaha, not quite…” chuckled the voice faintly. Cassandra could barely make out what she was hearing.

“…a mission….book on the table” the voice trailed off.

Without hesitation Cassandra strode forward towards the table and picked up the little black book.

“There is nothing in it” said Cassandra.

“Think of a question” said the cryptic voice.

“Where am I?” thought Cassandra. Then to her astonishment words began appearing on the page.

“:…Technically your body is still at home in the lounge room where you passed out”.

“So I am dead?” she asked the book.

“:…No, you are in an induced state of sleep, theoretically you are dreaming” wrote the book before her eyes.

OK thought Cassandra processing the reality of the situation.

Cassandra could hear a faint conversation in the distance but she couldn’t make out any words. It sounded as though they were underwater or in some sort of soundproof barrier.

“The voices! Where do they come from?” Cassandra fired at the book.

“Brace yourself…Back in 2007 when you had your knee reconstruction we inserted a device into your head.”

“YOU WHAT!?”

The book went on…”We have been able to transmit short messages into your skull to bring you to this point. In your subconscious state, the book is a tool for us to send more information to you remotely. Ideally when you wake up, the book should have been downloaded directly into your brain and so you will be able to ask it anything when you shut your eyes”.

“Like google in my head” said Cassandra?

The faint conversation was still going on in the background, she could make out bits and pieces.

“She can hear us!” said a woman’s voice.

“Do you think she is ready?” said another voice trailing off into the background again.

“She passed the first test” said the other voice.

“Ready for what?” Cassandra interjected looking at the book expectantly.

“Your mission…we don’t have much time left, they are moving your body now”.

“What!? Where to? What is my mission?” thought Cassandra frantically.

“You have to break the internet. Mankind has evolved too fast in the last decade and it is destroying society at an alarming rate. Human beings only have a short amount of time to live before the computers take over, completely”.

With another whoosh Cassandra found herself back in the darkness, falling through space and time again.

“Arghhhhhhh!”. Cassandra’s head was spinning so fast she felt like she was about to hurl.

Chapter 3

Questioning sanity

Waking up to a heavy thud on her sternum. Sandra had no idea where she was. Another thud had her sit upright in bed. “OUCH!”

“Are you okay?” Came a voice from behind a drawn curtain. “Hello?”

As her surroundings began to sink in Sandra realised she was in a hospital room. Again.

“Hello. Are you ok?” came the voice again.

“Um yeah I think so” replied Sandra. Checking the time groggily, it was 1am in the morning. Still confused she got out of bed to investigate her where bout’s further. She had a sickly feeling in the gut of her stomach.

“Hi, I’m Amala” came the voice again. Poking her head through the adjacent curtain, uncovered an Indian girl about the same age as Sandra.

“Hi, I’m Sandra. Where are we?”

“We’re in the psych centre, I overheard them saying you had a drug overdose”.

Sandra shut her eyes for a moment and then with a jolt to her system she saw a black book display a map and address of where she was.

Piecing her memory back together the last thing Sandra remembered was talking to her mum on the phone and then feeling really dizzy.

“A drug overdose?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard them say”

“What! That’s insane, I never...”

At that moment a nurse entered the room.

“Welcome back “said a man in his 50s.

“No! I can’t be here, I need to go home, no, no, no” Sandra began to panic.

“It’s OK, you’re going to get the help you need. Get some more sleep dear”. The man sounded genuine.

As the man left the room, the dream came flooding back to Cassandra and the gravity of the situation had her lie backwards.

“How can I break the internet when I’m stuck back in here?”

Cassandra shut her eyes and to her disbelief an image of a book appeared and began writing…

“$10 million dollars is being sent to your bank account now”.