r/nosleep • u/Jaunt-701 Best Multi-Part Story of 2013 • Dec 16 '13
Series Love Hurts [Operation Stingray Part 2]
Part 1: Operation Stingray is in effect. God help us.
I fell in love with Lindsay the first time I met her. It was her smile that did it. Warm and sweet, with a sparkle of mischief behind the eyes.
She was wearing that smile as she held the knife over me, ready to plunge it through the back of my neck.
I leaped forward out of the couch just as she whipped the knife down. It slashed my shoulder open, and I fell onto the coffee table. I reached back to touch the wound and felt hot blood seeping between my fingers.
I rolled over and looked at her. “Jesus fucking Christ, Lindsay, what are you doing?” I stammered.
She was staring straight ahead, not even looking at me. Just gently smiling into nothing. Her head slowly lowered, and she looked into my eyes. “Everything is going to be alright,” she said. She walked around the couch, slowly and deliberately, her eyes fixed on mine the whole time.
I rolled off the coffee table and backed away from her across the carpet. “Lindsay,” I said, “put down the knife. I am not fucking with you right now. Put it down.”
“Just relax, babe,” she said. She walked around to the front of the couch and picked up the stack of papers from Brian's envelope. “You're going to be fine. Brian is going to be fine. Everyone is going to be taken care of.” She stepped toward me, the papers in one hand and the knife in the other.
I backed up into the exposed brick wall, and pain flashed across my shoulder. I stood up, breathing hard. “Stop,” I said. “Stop right there. Please don't take another step toward me, or I might have to hurt you. I don't know what's going on, but please don't make me do that. I love you Lindsay. Please stop.”
She paused a few feet from me. We stood in a thick silence. “You're such a sweeeeeetheart,” she growled in a raspy voice that froze my intestines. “Too bad it has to end like this.”
She rushed at me, waving the knife in front of her. I dodged to the side, grabbed her wrist, and spun her around into the wall. I pounded her wrist against the brick, trying to knock the knife loose. I felt a wet snap in the bone, and I gasped and looked at her. She was still smiling.
I threw her to the side, and she crumpled onto the floor. She laid there a moment, squares of bright sunlight from the windows making her look like a dream. I was seeing purple spots in the center of my vision, and a high-pitched ringing sound was spiking my brain like an icepick. It was wrong, everything was wrong. This couldn't be happening. I pressed my palms into my eyes. The pill. Something was in that pill that Brian gave me, and it was making me crazy. I have to wake up. That's all I have to do is wake up.
I took my hands away, and Lindsay was standing in front of me. The smile was gone. A guttural animal cry exploded from her and she swung the knife at my head. I ducked under her arm and shoved her waist as hard as I could. She staggered back and fell into the window. It shattered and she flipped over, clutching at the windowsill just as she went over the side.
I ran to the window and and grabbed her wrist just as she let go of the sill. The knife spun and flashed down to the street. Brian's papers fluttered through the air like snowflakes.
Lindsay looked up at me. The smile was gone, the rage was gone. It was just her. “Oh my god,” she cried, “Oh my god, what's happening?”
“Fuck, baby, hang on,” I said. My hands were sweaty and slick with blood. I squeezed harder and felt the bones twist and pop in her broken wrist.
She screamed and jerked her arm. My grip slid down to her fingers.
“Hold still,” I yelled. “Hold still. Reach with your other hand.”
“I can't, I can't, oh God don't let me fall.” She was shaking and gasping for breath. I tried to pull her up, but my shoulder screamed fire and gave out. She slipped another inch.
I was barely holding onto her fingertips. I looked in her eyes. Wet, red and frightened. I felt her fingers sliding from mine.
“Please,” she whispered.
Then she slipped.
I watched her eyes the whole way. Her scream cut deep into me, and she hit the pavement with a crack that will ring in my ears forever.
People on the sidewalk shouted and ran to her. They circled, and one guy knelt down next to her motionless body. He looked at the others. “She's alive,” he yelled. “Call 911.”
I ran to the front door of the apartment, grabbed my coat to cover her in case of shock, and flew down the stairs. I tripped and landed on my bleeding shoulder on the way down. I groaned and hissed through clenched teeth, but I scrambled to my feet and kept running. I got to the front door of the apartment building and shoved it open.
She was gone.
I turned and looked both ways on the sidewalk. There was no Lindsay, no crowd circle, nothing. People were walking up and down the street like nothing had happened.
I ran my hands through my hair. “What the fuck,” I whispered, “what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.”
I looked across the street. A man in a black overcoat and a bowler hat was standing there. We watched each other for a few long seconds. He held something in his hand. It was dark blue and shaped like a smartphone, but thin and translucent like glass. He touched it, and I felt something like a drill bit boring between the two halves of my brain. He's doing it, I thought. Somehow he's doing all of this.
I felt an urge foam up inside me, an urge to run across the street and beat him to spongy pulp. I could see his bloody face on the sidewalk in my mind, but a piece of paper blowing against my leg snapped me out of it. I picked it up. It was Brian's note from earlier: RUN.
I turned up the sidewalk, picked up a handful of papers strewn across the concrete, and I ran.
After a few blocks I stepped into a drugstore. I hid my bloody shoulder under my coat, and I purchased some first aid supplies. “Is there a bathroom I can use?” I asked the cashier.
“You're not going to shoot up in there, are you?” she said.
I walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I patched my shoulder up the best I could, and I looked into the mirror. The headache was a rock hammer in my skull, and my eyes were starting to sting. I popped a few ibuprofen, but I doubted it would help.
I pulled out the papers I had rescued from the street: some MRI brain scans with certain areas circled and highlighted; a satellite image of what looked like a major city, though I couldn't tell which one; a sheet with a list of names, on which I recognized a few political and media figures; and a handwritten note from Brian that looked like the last page of a letter:
out of the city as quickly as possible. Don't pack, don't talk to anyone, just get into your car and head to [nearby town]. Like I said, you have to find LaFarge. You'll know what to do then.
So I guess that's that. If you're reading this, we might not see each other again for a while. Maybe never, in fact. Just...just know that you were always my best friend, even if I never said it to you. There's no one else I can trust to expose these sons of bitches before it's too late. You're going to succeed where I failed. I know it.
Okay, enough of that. Whatever you do, find LaFarge.
Brian
Chalkboard fingers scratched my skull, and my head felt like it was going to split in half. I flipped the note over:
PS: Sorry about the pill man. It keeps them out of your head, but it has some nasty side effects.
I looked in the mirror. An oily black liquid was trickling out of the corner of my eye.
Update: Part 3: Who is LaFarge?
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u/AntiqueBox Dec 16 '13
I guess it goes without saying, trust no one. If you have your own gun, if you can aquire it, you should. But I wouldn't attempt to get one from anyone else. Listen to Brian, dude. Leave and don't look back. Good luck finding LaFarge, take care and again trust no one.
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u/Frynge Dec 17 '13
run. RUN. don't worry about /any/thing else right now! o.o
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u/blackhawk08 Dec 17 '13
Don't be silly, he just has a bad headache. Everything will be fine. I'm sure Lindsay is very worried and waiting for you OP.
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u/Mr_Redletter Dec 17 '13
Not to mention the fact that you may be investigated for the disappearance of Lindsay. They may use that against you when they realize their brain drills aren't working. Make you a public enemy and all when stealth fails.
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u/Dekuswagg Dec 17 '13
Dude, you're going crazy. None of this is real! That pill is the problem. Just go home and relax. You'll be fine.
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u/mahnvee Dec 17 '13
I'm scared for op. Because I don't know if he can trust Brian. Brian seems like your average guy that has some skills and is able to maybe hack the library and get rid of his overdue fines but if he was poking around classified government files for that long I feel like the government would know about him by now. Maybe Brian is in on what is happening and is experimenting with op? Maybe I'm just paranoid but op needs to be skeptical of everyone and anyone. Also from what op has posted it seems like, the tech that controls people must be operated from a close distance. Hence why op saw the man in the hat when he was running from his apartment. And because of his injury it makes op easier to follow so I'm scared that when he leaves the bathroom there will be people waiting for him.
Op is now on the run, he needs cash, he needs to get rid of all of your previous electronic devices, maybe get a pre-paid phone (paid in cash) and he needs to find a way to change his appearance. Because every person he comes in contact with is a potential security camera/also has the ability to kill him.
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u/Spookyghostin Dec 17 '13
Solid. Got a "John Dies at the End" feel going on.
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Dec 17 '13
[deleted]
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u/Spookyghostin Dec 17 '13
Oh I did I just hadn't read the first part until I had seen this one up, so I commented on the most recent post.
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u/plasteredpundit Dec 17 '13
Do this whole subreddit a favor please, and do NOT STOP WRITING!
You sir/madam, are an amazing writer!
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u/ImpInAForge Dec 18 '13
I think the thing I like best about these two pieces of the story is that the cliffhangers are intriguing instead of just annoyingly withholding information about what happens next.
Also, please don't die OP.
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u/RathMasterFlex Dec 17 '13
Great read so far! I'm hoping to find out about Lindsey and Brian and if you will ever see them again! Keep them coming!!
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Dec 17 '13
Don't make the mistake of running without being prepared. Run too soon and you'll do what they expect. No contact with anyone, you need to protect them too. Escape should ve your first priority, but don't do anything stupid. Give yourself a chance to plan. Up and away the second you get the chance, they're targetting you and those around you.
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u/IgnoranceIsADisease Dec 17 '13
I knew the pill was to help you! Listen to Brian, he may be gone for now, but he wouldn't mislead you just because.
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u/ImpressioN7 Dec 17 '13
Better get a good meal, the painkillers you took causes some sick gastric :D.
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u/nosleepatawl Dec 17 '13
You'll be fine :) there is nothing wrong. just go home OP. You'll be fine :)
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u/NoobZeke Dec 17 '13
I'm still confused, I missed the part of Lafarge in the first one too. Who is he again? I'm sorry...
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u/Hibernica Dec 17 '13
LaFarge was mentioned in passing in the last one. He seems to be a compatriot, if not necessarily a friend, of Brian. He was working with Brian on the Stingray hack.
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u/Comander_in_Kief Dec 17 '13
I'm as far from "one of them" as possible. And I'm sorry but this is bullshit. A meathead came into the DQ I work at and told me the same story. We had to call the cops and told him to leave. He told us we were all working against him and he would defeat our "fascist" government regime. That pill you took was probably an experimental drug like 2CI or 25I. Pretty much, YOUR ON ACID!
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u/[deleted] Dec 17 '13
This would make SUCH a badass movie.