The Morphing Manipulators

Submitted into Contest #99 in response to: Begin your story with somebody watching the sunrise, or sunset.... view prompt

2 comments

Science Fiction Horror Mystery

         The Morphing Manipulators

A terrific bright light lit up my bedroom as I slept in bed. It was a summer sunrise around 6.a.m. I should've drawn the curtains before going to bed. But, wait a moment! I never draw the curtains before bed, because I’m up twenty-two storeys. More importantly, there never Is a sunrise on this side of my flat anyway. Just how can this be? The sun always rises on the other side of my flat, where the living room is, northeast. And my bedroom is in the northwest direction! "Am I losing my mind?

Anyway, I will not let this weird thing spoil my weekend break from my job as a freelance photographer. It’s such a lovely day I am going over the park. I plan on enjoying it by chilling out.

With the park only less than a mile away, I decided to walk it. As I got to the entrance, I spotted an elderly lady acquaintance walking her dog. 

”Hi, Mary. Is this your new dog?” I asked curiously because she was walking a Chihuahua instead of her little Scotch Terrier.

“No, silly! you know I always walk Sadie over the park!” I decided not to argue the point. There was no way I would win this argument.

“What’s wrong with you today, Pat?” “I’ve been taking her over the park for a good four years now.!”  She snapped.

With that, I walked on sheepishly. I was so sure Mary’s dog was a Scotch Terrier!  I pondered on how weird the day has been as I continued walking over the park.

After walking for some twenty minutes, I came up to the pond and went to sit down on a wooden bench.  Looking up, I saw an aircraft and heard its jet engines roaring. But, It seemed to be frozen In the air… “WTF!”  I shouted.  

Some twenty seconds later, the plane started to move again. Now I was getting worried for my sanity. Shortly before this, I was wondering if I may be suffering from dementia. But at the age of thirty-five, I would think It unlikely. And to see a plane stuck in the air Is another story entirely.

Indeed, Maybe I have a mental imbalance; whatever it is, I don’t like it. As I stared out to the pond, I noticed something else unusual I had never seen before at the pond. I was getting angry as I saw two pink swans; someone must have painted them. Why would anyone do that? 

As I made my way out of the park, I commented to an elderly couple how terrible it was that someone would paint two swans pink! They stared at me, then looked at each other, and laughed. “What did I say funny?” I thought. I just wanted to get back home and get this day over with, the weirdest day of my life!

After arriving back home, I thought I would google some things on my laptop. So I googled swan images, and some websites came up with swan images; every image showed pink swans! So I put up a standard colour for an adult swan it said - “pink!” Now I was unnerved. There was no such thing as a white swan. Now for the biggie. I googled ‘What direction is sunrise in Britain in the summertime?’Answer - northwest and set in the northeast. But how can this be? I always thought it was the opposite. 

“How could I possibly make such an error as that?” I learned this from an encyclopedia from the age of nine, some twenty-one years ago. How can I suddenly not know this now? More to the point, how can the sunrise physically change its position after all these years? 

I started to think, just what else has changed that I don’t know? Just then, the phone rang. 

“Hello, is that Ryan Gibbs?” “No, Mate, you’ve got the wrong number!” “Who the hell is that?” I pondered!”

 After such a trying day, I gathered up some goodies to nosh, ready to watch some television.

Sitting on the sofa, I prepared to switch on the TV to watch some comedies. But, just as I grabbed the control box, It felt warm and clammy, and my heart began to pound as I felt static electricity run through my left arm, which then faded after a few seconds. Soon after, in front of my eyes, the box began to morph, making me jump and dropping the control on the floor. After that, the control changed from a black rectangle to a  red square controller. 

I checked the control and saw all the buttons were there - standby, volume, same numbers, text, and so on. After composing myself from this inexplicable experience, I pressed the button for my channel. And there was my favourite stand-up comedian.

I had loved this guy for around ten years. His brand of comedy was so refreshing and clever he stood out from the rest. So I used to say to my family and friends, just watch some Ben Davidson if ever you feel down.

As I eagerly sat with popcorn in one hand and some juice in the other, I nearly choked on a kernel - not only was Ben’s jokes the worst ever, his manner was unrecognisable, and the clothes he wore were also completely different. 

 Finally, the compere said - “Wow wasn’t he good tonight.” Then, “Please give a big hand for - Joey Witson!” 

I felt stunned as I could feel the blood drain from my face; when I heard the compere give a  completely different name to someone I had been watching for ten years, known as Ben Davidson! 

By now, I had had enough of today and went to bed.

The following day, I planned to see my sister, Stacy, who lives in Dagenham. As I sat waiting for my bus, I caught sight of something fuzzy happening to a Jeweller’s sign across the road. The actual letters of the name of the Jeweller, Goldman, were morphing in front of my eyes, the name had changed to Bergman. Just then, my bus arrived. 

Sitting on the bus on my way to Stacy, I thought about this weird process of morphing and the glitch I saw with the plane yesterday. I have read information about this on the internet. Some say we live in a holographic world, a matrix. I didn’t believe all those videos of morphing and glitches of planes and people on the internet. But, I have no doubt these things are real and scary and are now happening to me! 

“Oh, there’s my stop!” After jumping off the bus,  I walked by some shops and turned into the road where Stacy’s home is.  But where is the road? I couldn’t see Elizabeth road anywhere! So I decided to phone Stacy for directions.  I had been here so many times; there was no excuse for me not to find the road.

“Hello,” 

“Hi, Stacy, It’s me, Pat!”

“ I’m near where you live, but for some reason, I can’t find Elizabeth Road anywhere!” There was a long pause.

 “I’m not surprised; there isn’t one here, you plonker!” She shouted and giggled.

“It’s Queen Mary’s Road, where I live.” 

“It’s just past the shops on your left.”

“Damn, the Morpher strikes again!” This is getting beyond a joke now!”  

As I turned into Stacy’s road, I checked the road sign, and it had changed from Elizabeth Road to Queen Mary’s Road.

Moments later, I knocked on Stacy’s semi-detached home.

Shortly after,  a large woman with black hair opened the door. At first, I thought I must have the wrong house, but on looking closer, it was Stacy, but double the size of the one I knew, and without her blond hair. I decided to just ride with this and just accept her as she was. I kissed her as I usually did and went inside. 

Everything seemed normal inside the house until I saw some framed photographs on the mantelpiece. 

I picked one of them up and could not think who the two people, bridegroom, and bride were. 

I obviously couldn’t ask Stacy, but luckily she said:

“That’s a lovely photo of Mum and Dad, isn’t it?” 

The weird thing is I had only visited Stacy a month or so ago, and I saw a completely different photograph of Mum and Dad. This couple was taller, larger, and were nothing like the Mum and Dad I knew and loved.                               I felt heartbroken for a moment, gritting my teeth, not to say anything to Stacy.

 Finally, after visiting Stacy, I walked to the bus stop to get my bus back home. As I waited for my bus, I started to wonder, “ How come, It seems that only I can see these morphing things and glitches and no one else?” “Am I being punished by God or something?” “It’s all so surreal!”

“Oh, no, that is ridiculous!” Suddenly buses came by on both sides of the road. But they were now the colour green instead of red! As my bus stopped, I jokingly asked the bus driver. 

“What happened to all the red buses then?” 

He looked at me strangely and said,

“I’ve been a bus driver for nearly thirty years, mate, and; we have never had red buses!” That told me.

Every day I experience a glitch or morph. I guess. It’s the normal thing now. And I better just live with it like someone with arthritis or something!

As the days, then weeks passed, I played a game that every day there will be a morph or glitch somewhere and that because everyone but me seems oblivious to these things I would pretend nothing happened. Then I would quickly re-examine the morph and it is not normal. When I first did this, I noticed a pattern occur; the more I ignored a morph experience, then showed I realised this is wrong, things started to break up. For instance, I pretended not to see a pigeon frozen in flight a few feet away from my balcony. I just imagined this Is normal, then realised it’s unreal, and within seconds, I could see the matrix start to show itself; instead of the sky, part of a grid system shows up. And instead of the pigeon flying away, It dissolved. 

Like Buddists say, “Self-realisation brings Enlightenment!” 

So I began to ponder, “what if there were more people like me that realised this world was an illusion?”Imagine hundreds, if not thousands of people, if they realised the truth! Then, the matrix surely would collapse in no time.

It was now time to scout for people like me to band together to fight the matrix. Whenever I am out, I will observe anyone see if they are alarmed at seeing a morphing or glitch. If so, then I would approach them.

Tonight is a total lunar eclipse, weather permitting; I plan on observing it and trying out an experiment from my balcony.

As I observed the moon, It became obscured by the Earth’s shadow, reflecting sunlight onto Its surface, causing it to become blood red. After accepting this as a natural event, Moments later, I quickly looked at the moon in disbelief. Then, I saw the Moon start to flicker as if it was a lightbulb ready to go out. So, then, the Moon is a part of the matrix! “Just imagine what a group of people could do?” I thought, eager to find non-believers in this world.

Tomorrow will be interesting as I put this mind trick to effect whenever I see another matrix anomaly. 

After going to bed, I was awakened by hearing

some strange noises in my bedroom; It was 2 a.m; I got out of bed and switched on the light to check it out. Then on the floor, I saw my passport opened. It had changed my name to “Ryan Gibbs!” I was flabbergasted, now the Matrix was making this personal! By now, I was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep.

The following day was sunny and beautiful. I planned a photographic trip around the city of London to see and photograph the sights for work. I would also try to take pictures of any morphing I saw. 

Sadly, I had to travel on those awful green buses instead of the traditional red bus. 

 Finally, I got off my stop and walked along the river Thames.

 As  I walked along the Embankment, some Japanese tourists asked me if I would photograph their little group with their camera; I agreed and thought it would be lovely to photograph them standing close to one of the large Egyptian Sphinx statues on the embankment. When I looked through their camera viewfinder, I felt my heart pound as I saw the Sphynx behind the tourist begin to morph; To my amazement, the Japanese were unphased when they turned around and looked at a large lion instead of the Sphinx! Annoyingly, I was unable to do my mind trick to interrupt the morphing process! 

Soon after, I went on the London Eye to get some aerial shots of the London landscape. There were only five people in my pod, so I had more space to maneuver for better angles when photographing through the glass.

Moments later, the wheel slowly began to turn. I was taking some good wide-angle shots, including the glistening water of the Thames and Big Ben. I took more pictures of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Just then, I was focusing on The Houses of Parliament when my camera lens seemed to go out of focus. As I refocused, the landmark was gone! Instead, in its place was a large park, full of trees and what seemed like some monuments. I felt stunned, to lose such a landmark as The Houses of Parliament is extraordinary!

As usual, no one seemed to blink an eye. But as I turned my attention to the middle-aged woman, she appeared visibly startled. She had been pointing her camera in the same direction as me. I walked over to her,

“It is a bit of a shock, isn’t It?” I said.

“Have you seen this sort of thing happen before?” I enquired. 

She looked up at me and said nervously: “I’m sa, sorry! seen, seen what happened before?”

She pretended nothing had happened. She was in complete denial.

 I tried to coax her: “Listen, you’re not alone; this sort of thing is happening to me every day!” I started to tell her of my experiences. She finally calmed down, told me her name was Sheila, and began to pay attention to me. 

After we got off the London Eye, we sat on a bench and

Sheila went on to describe her second experience of morphing:  

“It happened a few weeks ago!” She said, “she was about to post a letter into the post box when it morphed into a telephone box.” “People passing by her were oblivious to the morphing. Only she observed it.” She said.

I later explained to her what seemed to be going on, all about the matrix. And my plan on gathering as many people as possible who see morphs and how we can fight the changes. We arranged to see each other again next week.

When I got back home and rested, I thought about how difficult it would be to beat this morphing business.

Then I thought about the Houses of Parliament and just what the consequences would be if the Prime minister and MPs were in the building at the time of the morphing. I switched on the television for the news, and as I thought, It was as if nothing had happened.

 Later I checked Youtube on my laptop for any morph sightings; my heart suddenly jumped when I spotted a video. Several people in the Scottish Highlands claimed to have seen a helicopter frozen in mid-air for more than thirty seconds; then, it flew away.

It seems more and more people every day are experiencing glitches and morphing. People are becoming more aware of this Matrix.

After a few months, I had got in contact with thirty people who’d morph experiences. We were going out in groups of six, regularly scouting for new members. And would abort any morphing activity whenever we could.

Sheila, me, and four others had discovered a correlation with ley lines and grid lines of the Matrix, and we found a big one where London Bridge is situated. We plan to smash a big hole in the matrix above the bridge. 

It was a moonless night and a clear sky as we drove in a van to London Bridge. By midnight, a powerful time to work against the Matrix, we scaled up the bridge, and together all of us concentrated our thoughts on the Leyline coordinates. We imagined a hole in the sky, increasing in size. Suddenly there was a burst of light, and we could see a type of electricity around a massive gap. And finally, there above us were grid lines, holding the matrix structure together. We all cheered and got down and back into the van. 

It was a significant success, and finally, we finished the night off, drinking some champagne at my flat. Sheila stayed a while after the others had left. 

We chatted about our victory and how everyone did well. Then, I started to feel groggy; as I glanced over at Sheila on the sofa, her body began to pulsate. Then it flickered and started to morph, Sheila or whatever it was started to speak:- “Human, your victory is short-lived, you and your kind can never beat this World of Illusion!”

                                      End

June 25, 2021 13:14

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2 comments

15:53 Jul 02, 2021

Nice approach. A little underwritten. More telling than showing.

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Lee Kendrick
17:10 May 03, 2024

Bit late in my reply over 2 yrs! Sorry about that. Just did my latest story a few days ago after a long break from Reedsy. Best wishes Lee Kendrick

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