The Soundscape

 Part one. This is gonna be good.


*****
Headphones in. Volume maxed. Good to go. I plugged in to my laptop, flipping up the screen, and tapping my fingers impatiently as the home screen slowly came to life. I'd turned off the system sounds, of course: everyone with half a brain did, if you knew how to work a PC.

It was just how I'd left it: music folder open on one side, and email on another.  The regular schedule was to refresh, just to see the hundreds of spam emails, filtering past my most devious blocks. I guess I just needed to stop signing up for websites. Maybe I was on the internet too much.

Dum, dum, dum... Select them all, erase--Wait. A single, quiet message caught my eye. It wasn't trying to sell me male performance boosters, car insurance, or a blue whale. All it said was "This is a matter of the utmost importance to any audiophile." The sender was unknown, which was weird. Naturally, my curiosity got the better of me. What was I supposed to do? Music was essentially my life.

I clicked the email.

The message was short, too.

Download the file, and listen to it. You won't regret it.

I should have just deleted the email, right? I should have just discounted it as another spam sender, trying to trick me into downloading a virus or something. I should have gone about my business.

I downloaded the file. It had a cool name, the song, or whatever it was: Mind Lift. And it was in a high quality file format, too. To someone like me, I couldn't leave it alone.

I clicked the file.

The song started to play. It was catchy, in an odd sort of way: almost like there was an inaudible bass beat behind it all. It was an ambient piece, and sounded a bit like ocean waves mixed with a light-hearted synth. Nothing too life-changing. [i]Yet another spambot.[/i] Strange reason to spam though, just to put a normal music track in an email and send it to a random guy in college.

Well, the feel isn't not working for me. Good bye, spam sound.

But my arm wouldn't move. I could feel the muscles tensing, slightly, and I could see myself moving the arm, but the arm itself wasn't moving. What? What kind of witchcraft sorcery was this?

The exhaustion came next: I couldn't even keep my eyes open. That song was still playing on the screen, and I realized that it had to be the music. It was the only new thing in my dorm, and this had never happened before. Basic logic, sure, but it was a struggle to think.

Mind shutting down. I tried to call out for help, but I couldn't do that either. I was completely immobilized. It was uncomfortable, but not scary. I felt perfectly safe, just a bit annoyed, and a lot tired.

Maybe if I shut my eyes, it'd help with the tiredness. I could escape the music too, so that could help. When the song ended, I'd probably be fine again. I mean, I couldn't think that clearly, but it seemed to make sense, right?

I stopped fighting, and let myself sink into the sleep. Good night, world.

--------------

"He looks so peaceful. The Lift really worked well for him, huh." Girl's voice. Or maybe a woman's. Or whatever.

"Like a baby. Did you have to up the backsound so much? He's been out for hours now." That was a man's voice. Definitely an older guy.

"Oh, shut up, Brax. I didn't change anything."

"I know a level three backsound when I review it, Violet. This guy didn't need that. It's a miracle his mind hasn't melted."

"Oh, hush." Violet's voice was teasing, but firm. "I needed to see how tough he was."

"You could have killed him, Viol. That's not cool."

"Braxton Tromel, I could swear you sound almost worried about this poor guy."

"Violet Kass, I could have sworn that you were even more insane than usual with this poor guy."

I decided to open my eyes. They worked: hooray. The two figures standing over me were...interesting. One was a smaller man, with dark skin and a near shaved head. The other was a young woman, probably around my age, with silvery blue eyes and brown--purple hair. Some kind of Asian ethnicity. Maybe Asian-American.

That was the first thing I noticed. The second was their clothes. Or rather, their sort-of lack thereof. They weren't wearing clothes, specifically, but some kind of shimmering material covered most of their bodies. It was loose fitting for Braxton, who wore a dark blue...something.

Violet had a more conventional looking outfit: gloves, that was iffy, but a normal T-shirt (well, it was tight fitting, but it was a shirt, I guess), with something like Jeans. They were made of the same half-glowing, half-vibrating material, but at least I could understand it as clothing.

I sat up. The two instantly looked at me.

"Oh, hey!" Violet's eyes lit up. "Look who's awake!" She turned to Braxton. "Suck it." Then she hurried up to me, carefully patting my head with her hands. "Doesn't look like you have any major trauma or brain melts. Good start."

I swatted her hands away. "Please tell me what the hell is going on, Violet."

"You know my name, that's good. Call me Viol. That's Brax." She pointed, and the glowing guy nodded his head. "Nice to meet you, Max. Welcome to the soundscape."

"Soundscape?" That didn't sound good.

Brax chuckled. "Look around. Does this look like a real place? Like, even in the very slightest amount?" The question sounded rethorical. He waved a hand to his side--a window.

I glanced at him, skeptically, but then decided to follow his instructions. After all, he seemed to have an idea as to what was actually going on.

I poked my head out the window, and almost choked. This was definitely not home. Or Earth. Or the Solar System. Or reality.
*****

Part Two coming eventually.