Erisha dreaded the night. For it was in the night that she would have the dreams. Strange dreams that no one else she knew had.

She read the display on the holographic clock: '17th September 2015'. Erisha's head sank into the tiny, soft pillow, the only item she had kept with her for almost 18 years, since she was an infant.

Her thoughts wandered as she placed her hands under her body, sheltering them from the cold in her tiny bedroom. Ever since her parents had passed away four years ago, she had been living alone, collecting scraps of food from the junkyards and if she were lucky, find valuable items that she could sell.

Before she knew it, her eyes had closed and the darkness sped towards her like an oncoming train. Erisha could feel herself falling into a bottomless pit, entering the dreamworld that every human on Earth would visit when they sleep.

Then, before the blackness could consume her, she was fully awake, jolted out of bed by a tingling sensation in her spine.

Erisha rose from her bed, staggered out of her room and entered her kitchen. With each step, she became sober. She needed to take a piss, thats all. It always happened when she had drunk too much water before she went to bed.

Swearing at herself for her stupidity, she looked into the mirror, noticed how dark her eyes were. She had been deprived of sleep for so long, as she spent endless nights in the junkyards.

It was then that Erisha noticed how different she looked. No, she had the same face she had grown to recognize over the years, but it seemed alien to her now, as if she could not believe it was her face.

Dismissing it as her mind playing tricks on her, Erisha stepped out of the toilet after she was done.

Suddenly, before she could react, something dark darted past her field of vision and hit her in the back.

Erisha opened her eyes. She was in bed again.
"How did I get here?" she wondered, knowing well that she had closed the windows to keep out the cold and locked the main gate to keep out intruders during the night.

I must be dreaming, she thought. Only when she stole a quick glance at the clock did she realize something was terribly wrong. She did a double take, and her eyes focused on the bedside item one more time.

The display now read: '25th January 2099'. Erisha could feel goosebumps appearing on her skin, as the moonlight shone through the windows onto her bed.

She felt eyes staring at her, as if she were being watched. Turning her head to the side, she saw her father.
"No, this is impossible!" Erisha exclaimed, shaking her head violently.

He was supposed to be dead. How did he get in here? Reaching out, Erisha touched the his hand. But when her eyes moved up his body, she screamed. Daddy had no face, only a white sheet on his head, as if his face never existed or had been wiped off his head .

Erisha opened her eyes again. Weren't her eyes already opened? She blinked a few times to clear the fluid that has accumulated between her eyelids when she slept. At first she thought she was dreaming, because what she saw before her was so incredible she remained speechless for a full minute.

She realized she could not be dreaming, because for the first time, she could feel. She had never felt anything in her dreams, never ever. She felt the cold, hard metal and silky liquid around her.

Then she brought her eyes up, and stared around in horror.
"What the hell is this place? Where am I?" she wondered aloud, the fear and uncertainty apparent in her expression.

Her eyes travelled in a wide circle around her. Erisha saw hundreds, no, thousands of red objects around her, each of them neatly stuck in the sides of colossal towers that stretched hundreds of meters into the sky. She craned her neck skyward, but the dark, purple sky covered much of the tops of the towers.

"How did I get here?" she trembled, her body freezing in the extreme cold.

Erisha swiveled her head around. Flanking her on both sides were other pods, each as red and large as any other. Within each pod lay a human being, eyes shut, wires plugged in every part of the body as they lay in a cryogenic substance. They were asleep, Erisha was sure of that.

The girl looked down at herself. She was in a 2-meter long pod, where thick coils of wires protruded from the walls surrounding her and were embedded into her naked body. Her head had the most wires, and they emitted a humming, sometimes ringing, noise. Erisha screamed silently as she floated in the semi-solid liquid.

Soon, she had calmed down enough to unplug herself from her personal pod, and peered down the edge.

"Oh...no..." she gasped. It was impossible! A minute ago she was asleep on her bed and now she had been transported to a world unlike her own.

Something was crawling up the side of her pod. She could not believe her eyes, but it was a large, squid/spider-like thing that moved on its twelve long, spindly legs, each one segmented and ended with a three claws. The face of the creature - no! it was a machine! - had sixteen red eyes that lined its oval-shaped head.

It was a nightmare come true, Erisha thought, I must be dreaming!

But when she felt the pain as the squid-machine prodded her body, she knew she was lying to herself. This is no dream, Erisha, she told herself, this is real.

It was then that a hint of recognition appeared on her beautiful face. This 'thing' in front of her, she realized, had appeared in her parents' dreams the night before they died. Her mother had told her about it, about how weird it seemed. Then hours later, she was dead, when she and Daddy jumped off the building, killing themselves instantly.

They had never left a note, nothing to indicate why they had committed suicide. But now, Erisha knew. The reason was obvious. Seeing thousands of her fellow humans sleeping motionless in the towers of pods around her, it would take the bravest of men to keep his sanity in check. And she was a girl.

No, no, no...she muttered to herself over and over again, refusing to accept this reality, however real it seemed. The machine moved towards her, raised upright on its legs which looked ready to impale her at any moment.

The red eyes glowed softly, and one of the legs reached for her, grasping her arm, while another of its appendages wrapped itself around her torso, squeezing.

"Oh God...no..." she whimpered.

"Warning! Pod S-6291 is open. Captive awake and active." a robotic voice sounded in the distance.

Erisha's eyes widened, her legs kicking at the machine, splashing the liquid at the thing's body. More appendages held her in place, some of them grasping her so firmly it hurt.

The machine seemed to know what she was thinking as it tilted its head to the side, watching her intently, waiting.

"What...are...you?" she breathed heavily.

"Do you see the truth now?" it 'spoke' in a computerised voice.

"What truth?" she demanded, sobbing.

"The errors, or rather, the intelligence of your species created us, the perfect killing machines. It was Man's sin that caused your destruction. You are the architect of your own demise, human," it replied.

"What are you talking about?" Erisha asked.

"Go back to sleep, S-6291. There is no need to worry about unnecessities. Soon, you will forget this incident. Return to the Matrix, and sleep well..." the machine answered.

Before Erisha could ask another question, the machine forced her back into the liquid and replugged her, after which the cover of the pod snapped shut, and she could no longer keep her eyes open.

Falling into a deep sleep, Erisha awoke hours later, when the morning sun shone brightly through her windows. She had strange dreams, as usual. But they never really bothered her anymore. They were, after all, harmless. Weren't they?

©2006 ~Ashiene

WHY NO COMMENTS????????????????

Don't take it personally, Ashiene. I'd pay closer attention to the number of views than the lack of comments. Think of it in terms of displaying art in a museum. People gaze upon the work, but seldom toss bits of paper in the suggestion box to applaud painters and sculptors.

Your story was well written, but it's safe to assume that the world overdosed on "The Matrix" after two sequels, neither of which lived up to the brilliance of the original.

You have imagination and ability well beyond your years, and I look forward to reading future samples of yours in the Sci-Fi / Fantasy genre.

well thanks have you read my other piece of writing, First Contact: Horror Unleashed?

I certainly did... Compelling to say the least. I was knee deep in blood, guts, and alien goo by the time I finished.

One suggestion I'd make is to extend the description of Blaine's ordeal in freeing himself via amputation. Sawing through bone is excruciating, and not a rapid process with a pocket knife. Something I've noticed from every one of the testimonials among those who have amputated a limb to save their lives was the hesitation, second guessing, and general inhibition: mostly due to the optimism of being rescued by conventional means, but also halting the cutting process multiple times as a result of extreme pain.

Since it is a futuristic novel, and you may not wish to have amputations upstage the horror of an alien presence, the character could instead wield a gun or a laser implement to render the act much simpler.

Hey Ashiene, good piece. I'm an accomplished writer and editor of mostly historical stuff but found your story rather compelling. I had forgotten the thread heading about the Matrix and was compelled to see what was going on with your character. Nice twist on an established subject. Try something completely your own next.

dont think that no replys means it's not good. my story Seedless Valley has gotton more viewers than any christian-hating person would've predicted. I have prooved my enemys wrong once again!

thats great. since we're both working on novels at the same time (mine's First Contact, yours Seedless Valley), we can collaborate on writing a story together once we're finished with our work. or we can start right now

thx for the suggestion i'll take that into consideration. this is only a draft it isnt the real thing. im writing these 5 chapters to let me get a rough idea of what im working on before i expand on my work and go in-depth into character development and action scenes.

Ya i've also done Chapter 1 of First Contact (releasing chapter 2 next week) and you can check it out here:

First Contact: Horror Unleashed

1st Contact was excellent! I enjoyed it. I have only 2 things I would fix. The part about- "Reaching for his automatic pistol, he slammed a clip into the weapon, loaded it, and leveled the gun at the alien a second later." Anyone reconoitering in a hostile environmment would already be "locked and loaded" as it were. I'm knowledgeable of weapons and tactics, but that's minor.

The part about the crewman cutting off his legs is over the top some especially sawing through the bones with a knife. I'm certain he'd passs out from shock and blood loss before he could finish his task.

I'm not being picky just an editor reading for consistancy I enjoyed it and got swell mental pictures though! You have a nicely developed style if you are just 16.

thx i'll take that into consideration.

Nice.

A couple of suggestions:
1. You could write another night and strange dream to preceed the one you already have. You say she has strange dreams on a usual basis, but then only write about the dream that really isn't a dream. Erisha seems convinced that they're just dreams, and you need to convince the reader that they are. Once you've convinced the reader, you pull a fast one and show why this "dream" is different, why it isn't just another weird dream.

2. No offense, but this title (and the other one too) are kinda um...blunt. It probably would be more interesting if the title was more mysterious or vague. As big a Matrix nut as I am, just the fact that the Matrix name is part of the title made me uninterested in reading it. This is probably because it is a very common thing with fan fictions. Meanwhile, more professional "side-stories" in already established universes may not include the franchise name in their titles. (e.g. The Killing Joke (Batman), Second Renaissance (Matrix))