I

Useless Lights

I stood on the other side of an empty highway where the gods of cruel computerized matrices manipulated and twisted the houses of mindless, cobwebbed souls. The rooms were plain, consigned by meaningless trappings, old desks, bytes bemused from overclocked worship. God, it was a sight to behold, staring into the neighborhoods of tomorrow whose plastic, inbred fantasies were played out across miniscule screens, handheld, and addictive to the touch. Cities were now constructed inside virtual brain-tunnels where I saw billions in their useless lives flickering like dots on a screen; I never played, but it was amusing to watch. Standing on the other side of the static and black, bytes began crinkling in my ears as new cities were built and destroyed in front of my eyes; the screams of those artificial people muffled by shadows and entropy. Boy, was I having too much fun? Unfortunately, the game had to come to an end, and as the daytime stars fell across the pixelated horizon, I removed the mask from my face, throttling the screams of a billion useless lights.

II

Old Friends

When the other side crumbled into a tenebrific pitch, I couldn’t help but want to play again. The lessons from the past haunted me, though the ruins were clear and present while the highways were no more. Cartons and carrion persisted along the plastic bins outside my room, full new players waiting for me to bring them to life. Still, they were useless as the first. Fingers dry and delicate, buttons so old like the machines from a past century, the robotic ghosts bleeped and barked from their metallic coffins, begging me to feed them again. A few lights from the other side to quell the hunger of some very old friends, Static and Black ...*

III

Click, Game Over

The stars went out, one by one, and the forums decayed as I stared into days long since burnt and bled; seen through cyber-goggles whose virtual tube-machines plugged into my head spewed the anthems of
Static
     and
          Black
Static
and     
Black.          
The end will come through Static and Black, when the stars clicked off and the nights were swallowed by untethered rage. Falling deeper, faster, and without cushion through the arcades of blasted skulls I finally saw the other side.
The other
     side
          of them.
Louder with a damning concussive laughter, walls of nothing, black and strange crashed over the horizon that was something. Visible but unable to be touched, visceral with an inability to comprehend. I’d been here before, not in the city, or this game, but a lecture from long ago. Two depraved, wild thoughts who were anything but human. It was truly game over when the stars went out and my mind turned to ash as I spewed the anthems of
Static
     and
          Black
Static
and     
Black.          
The end will come through Static and Black.


(Note: This is a continuation of a previous story in Penumbric, Maxwell I. Gold's "The Static and Black Lectures," August 2k21, archived at penumbric.com/archives/August2k21/goldStatic.html)