Wednesday's Three Word Wednesday

The words over at Three Word Wednesday are incubate, nightmare and vanity.

Lurid
Buddy of mine has a nice little cottage industry going.
He’s a nightmare miner.
And in these troubling times, he’s got more work than one man can handle.
So I go to work for him, part time.
He’s pretty anal about the boost. He wants the fear to incubate, bubble on the stove, so to speak. He likes to mine the feed at the crescendo of dread, as people wrestle with their personal demons, thrashing as they do in the gloom with a light sheen of sweat in twisted sheets.
I don’t mind jumping the feed, watching along as people’s shit gets weirder by the second.
Used to be, when my dad was a kid, a buzz meant beer and some weed. We’re way past that these days.
We sell the nightmares to kids looking for an adrenal thrill. They’ll take a hit of neurotrin and boost our ill-gotten feeds from their handhelds.
A good, terror-filled feed is worth a shitload of credits.
He discovered this early, like right when we all switched to state-run wireless, that the wall units were amplifying people’s emotions as they went about their pointless lives in concrete-boxed housing. All those units, all those feeds, it was just a matter of time before someone wrote a program to jump the feedback.
And you’d think that joyous, happy feelings would be a good seller. Pure bullshit. No spikes from the pineal gland, which is just too small and under-developed in us humans.
No, there’s nothing like when some dumbass takes a load of neuro-exciters and watches someone else’s nightmare while their adrenal gland pumps dose after dose of adrenaline into their bloodstream.
Or so I’ve heard. I’m not that stupid.
I’m in it for just one thing.
Jump a feed early, create a new stream and you can dump a double whammy back on the person. You’ll create what I can only describe as cascading terror, a waterfall of darkness that’s just pure hell on the recipient.
So far, I’ve gotten three people to swallow their tongues. Cops can’t figure it out.
And it’s not like I’m fucking up a good thing, either. Some people’s nightmares are so pedestrian. Yeah, I’ll say it. Some people are as fucking boring in their made up worlds as they are in real life.
And I’d been waiting for weeks on this one. A woman in my buddy’s office, you know the type. Flush with vanity, she never finds it necessary to talk to mere mortals like us. Bitch.
I’ve watched her feed for a couple of nights now. Her terrors?
Wrinkles, liver spots. Gray hair. Sheesh, people.
Oh, you bet I’ll be giving her a double shot of geriatric inputs.
Should be a hoot.

Comments

Kristy Worden said…
I can't decide if I think this is funny or horrifying... sticking in my mind, and that's a good thing,
K
anthonynorth said…
This makes the reader so uneasy. Excellently done.
Anonymous said…
I didn't find that dark at all, I found it to be a riot! Good original piece.
Daily Panic said…
so that's where nightmares come from...

this was very thought provoking - a look into the way that cyber life is going to affect humans in the future.
Erie and good.
Anonymous said…
I don't find this dark either - but it is freaking halarious!
Steel Magnolias meets Reanimator via The Matrix! That was a shot and a chaser, Thom. Slow burn and a quick buzz...
Mads... said…
nice read..:)
Zouxzoux said…
You never disappoint. Perfect nightmare fodder. All thumbs up. ;)
Tumblewords: said…
Crap. I might be the one who got the geriatric inputs. Please be more careful. :) Wild stuff here, Thom, which makes for a breath stopping read!
Ann (bunnygirl) said…
Twisted stuff, as always. I do wonder, though, just how far we'll end up going with our artificial realities. You may not be too far off.
Pblacksaw said…
well that is just a little scary.. but I think there would be a lot of folks who would buy the thrill of meeting their worst nightmare..virtual reality in overdrive!! I'm a chicken.. I'll pass!
Patsy
lissa said…
hi-tech means low-tech (the mind)? it's a bit scary to think how much harm we do to ourselves and this piece makes me think about drug users and how very hard it is to quit but very easy to slip back into using - I shouldn't really read so much into this but one can't help but being provoke to think when reading your stuff
April said…
I love this...there is never anything mundane about your writing, but this is especially creative.
Anonymous said…
Yes, perhaps not too far off from reality. Well done.
Dark is so real or should I say at times real is so dark..

the waiting
PJD said…
Oh. Brilliant on so many levels, in so many ways. I don't think I'll sleep tonight.
Dee Martin said…
I would buy this book... in fact I would go see the movie.
Anonymous said…
Gruesome feeds...very interestingly written Thom.


Thanks for the 3WW words for this week.
Grace Alexander said…
Very fast paced, almost rapper fast - I love modernistic scifi type stuff with rhythm and a punch.

Well done!

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