Singularity Disorder

On a crisp foggy morning with light rain, nothing could be heard on the early streets of New Haven. Nothing but the rhythmic stomps of a pair of boots. “ Raye, Raye! Slow down! What's the hurry?” Mikey called out. “What’s the hurry? We have a true blue homicide on our hands! A double one at that.” Raye's eyes were only set forward, he was determined, he felt alive. “Homicides happen all the time, what makes this one so special.” Raye stopped and looked back over his shoulder at Mikey as the rain bounced off his transparent umbrella. “It wasn’t scheduled. The Bureaucracy had nothing to do with it.” Mikey stopped in his tracks and had to gather himself. This time he matched Raye’s pace.

Ever since The Bureaucracy took control in the 30th century, unscheduled homicides were rare. Maybe one every few decades. The Bureaucracy controlled everything. They controlled what you ate, what you wore, what you were named, who you married, and usually when you died. Individualism was a dead language only spoken by the mad. Everyone wore the same gray and black striped jumpsuit with their names embroidered on the left breastplate of their suits. Ever since the Great Race War of 2101, it was decided that to end prejudice all over the world a one-world government called “The Bureaucracy” would be set in place to regulate human behavior. Since then, media, fashion, food, reproduction, job placement, and euthanization was orchestrated by The Bureaucracy. Nicknames, personal items, creativity, any sort of individuality was illegal and punishable by incarceration and conversion. XR093 and YM791 who called each other Raye and Mikey were investigators. The call to the crime scene excited Raye beyond disbelief. An average workday usually consisted of towering stacks of paperwork on jaywalkers and other traffic-related incidents. Sometimes it was clean-up duty for a scheduled homicide, but this time they had a real crime scene with a real mystery. Raye was ecstatic.

When they arrived at the home they flashed their badges. Once in the front corridor, they stopped. The home was already filled with members of the precinct. “Assigned names from here on out.” Raye whispered to Mikey. “Do I look like an idiot to you?” Raye just rolled his eyes in response. They slowly walked about the blood-stained home as they took in the setting. There was blood everywhere, in almost every room. The sweet suburban home now gave off the appearance of a slaughterhouse. “I’ll inspect the living room” Mikey informed as Raye nodded his head, unable to remove his eyes from the trail of blood and broken glass that seemed to lead him to the bedroom. He cautioned slowly unsure what he’d find in this cursed room made for lovers. “Detective XR093!” shouted some young evidence technician. Raye grabbed his nameplate as he jumped and almost stumbled back. “Julius Caesar! Give a guy a warning!” “Sorry Detective, I found one of the bodies!”. On the hidden side of the war-torn, queen-size, bed frame lay a woman filled with stab wounds, decorated with backend bruises, a slit throat, and a clenched fist. Although battered to hell she lay there almost in a state of victory as the clenched fist laid above her head. The technician started to take photos of the carcass as Detective Raye’s gaze rested on the haunting closed fist. “What’s your name kid?” “BG395 Sir!” he said with a fresh out-of-training salute. “Do you mind getting Detective YM791 for me?” “Yes sir!” as he marched out of the room, Detective Raye crouched to get a closer look at the body. His gaze once again rested on the clenched fist, now he could see the bruised knuckles, and the blood under the fingernails. “This fight was two-sided. What was worth fighting this hard over?” Raye pondered. He reached to open the tightened fist that was only made tighter as rigor mortis began to set in. It felt as though she was still clenching as hard as she could long after she had died. Once opened, in her palm, laid a single golden locket shaped as an anatomically correct heart. It was stained with blood and with the reflection of the ceiling fan whirring in its metallic finish it almost looked like it was alive and pumping in the victim’s hands.

Raye had never seen jewelry from the 21s century before, he'd never seen any kind of jewelry ever. The closest thing they had were black rubber bracelets with a barcode that detailed their entire medical history in case of an emergency. This ancient artifact left Raye breathless. In an instant, he completely understood why someone would fight to the death for this object. It was beautiful, it was unique, and now it was his. Footsteps grow louder from a distance and Raye quickly snatches the item and shoves it into his breast pocket. When Mikey enters the room he can’t tell if it’s his own beating heart racing or the golden locket. “ Found the husband’s body in the kitchen, must’ve been one hell of a fight.” Mikey grimaced. “I think I prefer regularly scheduled homicides, people are so violent, and messy.” Raye nods sheepishly, as he shuffles past Mikey awkwardly and out the front door Mikey stares confused with Raye’s actions. He looks back at the body Raye had just left and notices the opened rigor mortis fist.

Back home Raye rushes through the front door as his assigned partner is cooking in the kitchen. “Hello, XR093, dinner is almost ready, I wasn’t expecting you until later,” announces AL002, but it falls on death ears as Raye rushes past her into the bathroom and locks himself inside. “Tonight's meal will be vitamin assortment C1!” she stated, unphased by Raye’s strange behavior. She was used to Raye ignoring her, after a while, she found peace in it. In the bathroom, Raye sat on the closed toilet crouched over with the golden heart cradled in his hands like a fragile robin's eggs. Instead of giving off the love and care a mother robin would give to her offspring, Raye was crazed, wild-eyed, and filled with lust, like a hungry fox about to devour its dinner. He felt the cool slick metal of the locket, tracing his thumb across every artificial vein. He eventually caught his reflection on the smooth surface. Raye stared long and deep into his own eyes through the looking glass of the metal heart. After a while his face was all he could see, gone were the veins and valves of the anatomically correct heart. Instead in the palm of his hands sat a miniature golden replica of his head. “ I’m yours forever” the tiny head cooed. “ I am you and you are me, we are one.” It continued. “You’re special Raye, you’re different than all the rest. I can tell. You’re unique and smart, you have amazing taste. You deserve to stand out from the rest. Don’t you want to be special Raye? Don’t you want to be the best?! Don’t you want Mikey to see you being the best?” “Yes! Yes!” Raye whispered frantically to all of the golden demon’s questions. Raye puts on the alluring necklace and stands in front of his bathroom mirror.

In a sea of gray and black stood a sparkling gold bulb right at the center of Raye’s sternum. “It’s perfect,” he sighed. A tap at the door startles him causing him to gasp. “Are you alright in there? I thought I heard you say something?” AL002 inquired through the door. “Don’t let her separate us.” forewarned the heart-shaped locket. “I’m fine” Raye barked, “I’ll be right out”. Raye took the necklace off and scrambled to find a secure hiding place. He knew that if AL002 was to find the necklace she'd want to report it. If she reported it, Raye would have to go back to being like everyone else. He would no longer be special. Raye decides to hide the locket in a nearby drawer, inside a medicine bottle. Once satisfied he joins AL002 at the table and performs his normal routine. They engage in small talk and pick at their plate of assorted vitamins. As AL002 tells Raye about her day he stares at his food with new eyes. He wishes his vitamins tasted better, that he didn’t have to wear the same jumpsuit every day, that he could share a home with someone he loved. As he begins to spin out a rhythmic thump can be heard from across the house. Th-thump, th-thump sung the locket. Its siren song calls to Raye’s very being. Th-thump,th-thump “Raye” Th-thump Th-thump,” Raye!” AL002 yipped, snapping him out of it. “ Huh?”, “I said, how was your day?” Raye heard the question but as he began to recollect his time spent, he became lost in the memory of finding the golden locket.

Frustrated, AL002 gets up from her seat and heads for the bathroom. Whenever Raye was in one of his moods and couldn’t meet her halfway she’d take a 5 min break in the bathroom to gather herself. When she got up from the table Raye was in such a daze he hadn't even noticed. In the bathroom, with the door locked behind her, AL002 takes a long look in the mirror. She spruces her hair and takes five deep calming breaths. Once finished she begins her mantra. “You are beautiful, You are worthy, You are enough.” She takes five more deep breaths and opens the drawer to her right. In the drawer is a nicotine patch and she lightly places it on her inner thigh after removing the old one. Right before she closes the drawer and begins to head out, in a pill bottle, a gold shimmer catches her eyes.

Several minutes have passed and Raye is becoming anxious. “What if she’s found it?” he feared. His frantic worrying is cut short when AL002 struts out the bathroom, happier than ever. She plots down in her seat and a golden locket meets Raye’s eye line straight from across the table. “Take it off!” Raye said without hesitation. “Did I ruin your surprise? It’s not really me nor is it legal but I appreciate the thought.” AL002 cooed. “It’s not for you, now take it off!” AL002's face starts to feel warm, she’s completely embarrassed and offended. “Then whose is it?!” She demanded. “It’s evidence from a crime scene, I must’ve brought it home by mistake.” He lied. “Well, then we should probably report it right away before anyone notices.” AL002 leaves the table to dial the telepad. “No!” Raye shouts after her, before he can think he lurches for the necklace pulling on it so hard it practically strangles AL002. “XR093! What’s wrong with you?!” She shouted. “My name is Raye!” XR093 roared. He began strangling her with the golden chain. It grew tighter and tighter as AL002 flailed beneath him. She makes a jab for his rib cage at full force and Raye releases his hold on the necklace. “You’ve gone crazy!” she cries as she desperately crawls away from him. She pulls the necklace from her neck. “All this for this stupid artifact?!” She looks to the golden shimmering locket once more, this time looking for an answer. “He doesn’t deserve you, He doesn’t deserve us. Kill him, kill him, kill him.” Her reflection in the locket commanded. AL002 now fully enraged, she marches towards Raye, and just as he begins to recover, she kicks him square in the chin. “This is mine now, you don’t deserve something so perfect and patient and precious.” She announced. Blood and a tooth shoot from Raye’s mouth as he stumbles to the floor. “I told you, Raye, I told she would try to separate us, don’t you want to be special.” The locket called from within the palm of AL002’s hand. In searing pain and disoriented, Raye looks around for ideas, he begins to crawl for the kitchen. AL002 runs to grab a knife off the table. Once in her hand, she doesn’t hesitate to bring the knife down into Raye’s back again and again. Raye’s cries of agony are only matched by the constant ripping and slashing of his flesh. After a while, Raye stops moving and his blood begins to soak the carpeted floor. AL002, out of breath and exhausted, rests with her back against Raye’s corpse. Her smile is from ear to ear. “Can you hear me now douche bag?” She mocked Raye as he laid there solid as stone. She puts the locket back on around her neck and gets lost in her own reflection within the chaotic little heart. Suddenly Raye rises behind her and pulls on the chain as tight as he could. With AL002’s rib shot causing no damage, she flails under Raye once again until the crunch of her spine breaking can be heard throughout the hollow household. Raye collapses on top of her and the two lay there defeated next to their precious golden heart. Their eyes still open stare directly into the hearts reflections getting lost in their own egos one last time.