The Influence

For I have a confession, Lara, I found it, and now it’s up to you to finish what I started because I have no idea what will happen to me, now they know. I know I shouldn’t have taken the money, but what choice did I have? This little black book, the one you are reading is the key to it all. Please, do forgive me for the words I am about to write, but I fear that it’s too late for me.

In the early days, they all laughed at me, no one would ever believe me, not with my reputation; they just couldn’t take me seriously, but now look at the world. Look what they did to us. I was in college at the time, it was 2010 and the world was so much quieter, summers were long and spent with friends no matter what the weather, phones where practically bricks and social media... It hadn’t taken over us, yet. Anyway, I was scrolling on Facebook and I just watched the infections take over, right in front of our noses. I felt like had lost all rational thought, I felt like I was the only one who could see this, and by the time they believed me, it was too late.

No doubt, It started subtly, people would disappear overnight, first in Australia, then Canada and most recently, my home, Cottingley, England. At first, people made jokes about it being the fairies again, but we all knew the truth, something was wiping out humanity and leaving a society of mannequins. Call it a hunch, but as I gazed over to the magical banks that healed the growing pains in my heart, I knew I had to take charge, my brother did always say “there’s no guarantee anyone will do it if you don’t, so stop waiting around”. I spent hours, actually, my therapist spoke to me about this, it was not hours, I’m lying to you, I spent four sleepless days scraping every breadcrumb off the internet, to the point where my greatest fears were appearing in front of me from the sleep deprivation. Oddly, as my body finally crashed at the climax of the movie playing in front of me, I figured it out, it was all thanks to a user on rebbit who pointed out my first clue: Who says that they didn’t already take over, the AI I mean, because.. if they’re smart enough to talk, they must be smart enough to lie right?

During my early stage research, the first wave began and the rebbitor made so much sense. It was on MyBook a few weeks after the first disappearances, it got shut down soon after, but they started being found. The lost had been found, only, they were different. Their faces were just as perfect as before, their language and words the same, but their depth, there was none. It was as if the weight of their humanity had been removed and all that was left, was the outline of whom they were supposed to be.

So, I got close after that, too close. That’s where I made my fatal mistake because now they know, and they have been at a checkmate. You see, I took the money because it got them to go away, but my heart will not let me keep it, I cannot go through with my promise to keep this quiet, so this is my request to you.

As with last time, I need you to jump blindly for me. Take the $20000 money they gave me and use it to bring our loved ones back, even if only their memories are left. You can find the coordinates of the money if you highlight my words. Everything you need is nestled in the pages of the book, I repeat, everything. Use what I taught you, keep as much as the truth offline, don’t let it get onto the grid, or it will be the end of you too. I cannot stress this enough Lara, if my words from this book find themselves uploaded, then I fear it is too late, I fear for how many more will get downloaded.

Make haste, I know this is sudden, I’m sorry, you won’t be able to trace or find me because if you can, they can. You though Lara, they won’t suspect you, you’re the perfect student, the student governor, too good for this world. They’ll expect you to be predictable, so do everything you always would, play the game, but don’t be afraid to go under the table and take down the queen. This infection is a disease, downloaded by our own mistake, we have become the very virus we tried to prevent. Though, maybe this was inevitable, a crux of our foundations. Stay safe, and please, don’t become ‘the influenced’.