I straighten up, and nod my head
to tell him to proceed. This may help me buy some time to stop Chronos, and get
out of here.
“Marc and I go quite a way back. I
first met him in grade 2, when I moved to the elementary school he was
attending at the time. I was the first person to befriend him, and we became
fast friends by the end of that year.”
“So what split you guys up? What
made you…”
“Hate him? Well, even though we
were as close as brothers, there was something that always created a rift
between us. You see, his fellow students, the teachers, and the other student’s
parents loved him… He was the perfect child. Meanwhile, I was always in the
shadows even before he came. But when he arrived, I was probably pitched into
an abyss where no one would ever see me. I was able to ignore it for some time,
but by grade 4, I could see it wasn’t going to just stop.” His voice fades, and
he lapses into another bout of staring off into space.
“There has to be more to it than
that. I mean, we all feel under someone’s shadow at a point in their life,
right?” I certainly have. Numerous times, where I felt like I was overlooked
and forgotten. But my feelings have never become this…this twisted.
“You don’t understand!” roars
Lukas. He pounds the arm of his wheelchair. “It wasn’t just that. I tried
everything to make people look at me, to admire me as well. I thought I’d use
my good sense of judgment and stop bad things from happening. Instead, I get
called a whistleblower and everyone starts to avoid me. Eventually, I become a
social outcast. I was even forgotten by the teachers.”
“So…everyone abandoned you? Is
that why you’re so bitter?”
“It’s not as simple as that.
Indeed, Mr. Perfect, Marc, decided to stay my friend. And you know what? No one
hated him for it. Because they all thought it was because he pitied me. There’s
nothing more demeaning than being pitied and not taken seriously.”
“So how does Chronos come into
play?” I ask. Keep on going Kaya. Make him talk. Then maybe I can figure
something out.
“Chronos was the brainchild of
Marc and me. It started out as a tool to help those who were traumatized, or
brain damaged. Chronos would either erase memories, or help discover them
again. It uses waves that play around with the mind. I believe you discovered
that feeling with the Whisperer outside the door.”
“The Whisperer?”
“It’s that device you so
idiotically pressed while trying to reach me. It uses a slightly modified
version of the waves to create emotional images.”
“And let me guess, you and Marc
created it?”
“Actually, only I did. Marc had
already left by then.”
“Left?”
“Yes… even Mr. Perfect decided to
leave me. He told me that he thought Chronos would be too dangerous in the
hands of the wrong people. He abandoned the project and abandoned me. That was
the final straw.”
“So you changed Chronos.”
“Exactly. I spent so many days and
nights working on Chronos, fixing it to aid me. That was real, true dedication.
And eventually, the Chronos that is so powerful as to manipulate the minds of
thousands and millions of individuals came into being. Unfortunately, Chronos
needed a new way of powering itself. A thinking computer can’t just exist by
itself. I experimented with several components, and then I stumbled across it
one day. It needed a human, a living one to help it think. Of course, I
couldn’t just let anyone become Chronos’s companion.” He lifts up his arm, and
I see a multitude of wires that I hadn’t noticed before snaking down his
sleeve. I follow it with my eyes, and find it connected to the computer on his
lap.
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