The Cult

by Jordan Jones

  “Why do they always go to Jerry?” she asked as if I wasn’t there. She was picking up the house manically, as if she was happy but nervous. “Don’t listen to him.”

  She told me she was just checking up on me. I think she had spoken to Jerry and knew I learned she wasn't at the police station. When she left, I wished I had more kind. Who was Macy, really? Why did she tell me she loved me when she couldn't possibly? She had lied. I left the apartment. I decided to go to work and tell Daniel I was quitting, but I worried what Anne would think. What if Anne was just like Macy?

  The firm was locked. I had no idea where anyone could be. So, for the last time, I drove across town again to my Mom's, and found Macy, Anne, Daniel, Jerry, Mom, and Mika. Daniel spoke first after I entered the doorway.

  "Cat Lady Marketing has officially closed down," he said. He sounded very intoxicated. "It has achieved its purpose thanks to you, Adam, and we will be forever in your debt. Morrissey is on his way."

  I couldn't speak, once again. Morrissey was coming? I ignored Daniel and went into my room. Macy came in after less than a minute. "Adam, do you remember when you got the job after the wreck?"

  I started shouting. "What the fuck is going on, Macy? Why are all these people at my mother's?"

  “Your Mom was worried about you and eventually found Morrissey who found me,” she said. “We have something to tell you. After the wreck, your friends at the restaurant noticed something very worrisome about you. You were seriously mentally handicapped. You were getting better after a couple of days, but they were worried you might get in a dangerous situation and get yourself killed.

  "What? I feel exactly the same! I was just weird because of debian."

  "Adam, debian is a spaceship piloted by the alien named Arthesces. The medicine was given to the organization I worked for, but was created inside the ship. It has helped a lot of people. But the truth has to be told. That was your job."

  "My job was to help Daniel with the Articles," I said. "I worked for Cat Lady Marketing to help the client."

  She explained that Mika had rented a building during the time I worked at the restaurant. The firm was a cover. Also, she explained that the client was in fact a part of her organization, and that I was a front man for a very important mission for that organization. Or, if I preferred to think of it that way, I was on a mission for the “client.”

  "What mission?" I asked.

  "You'll find out later. We simply can't tell you everything right now. For now, Morrissey is going to take you to the airport.” Stunned, I agreed only on account of the trauma of the discovery that Daniel and Macy and possibly Anne were all lying to me about who they were and what they wanted me to do. Morrissey was in a jacket and told me I’d be alright.

  “It’s a little unsafe for you right now in the city. There’s going to be a big impact on the public, and you might be a target.  The flight leaves in three hours. I’m going to take you there and fly with you to Oregon. If you could do one thing for me, please. Pretend I’m your father once we get to Oregon, and we’ll have a much easier time. I don’t think anyone will ask too many questions especially if we lie low. I want you to know you’re safe with me. I’m trained at this sort of thing. Just think of how important it is that you stay with me. Your friends will be leaving, too, but you’re going to Oregon.” I thought, my friends?

  I tried to think of Anne and wanted to ask if she was lying too. Instead, I followed Morrissey out of house with the obedience of a child.

  I pretended Morrissey was my father.

  I boarded the plane without saying a word.

  I thought, realities are playthings to Macy and her captains.

  I felt struck with utter loss.

  Finally, the thought occurred to me that Macy was an anarchist, and that she wanted to cause mass panic. But why would she want to do that? Could she be a spy from another country? Or, what was the truth?

  I thought maybe I had created something which would hurt a lot of people. Would people take the ad seriously? If they did, then what would happen? Had I really been the person to announce to the world the presence of aliens?

  In the carry-on Morrissey gave me, I finally found the mp3 player with the Pens album I liked so much. Before I listened to the album, I noticed one mp3 file which stood out at the end of the list. It was titled, “To Adam.” It was a recording of Macy’s voice.

  “Adam, I just want to say that you have done an amazing job. I’m with Jerry and he agrees. I’m so sorry we all had to lie to you and I know how you must feel. Trust me. Anne really loves you, even though she does know about the plan. She told me you were one of the deepest, most lovable young men on the planet. Your part of the mission is over. You won’t have to live like a famous person, or anything, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m going to take credit for the commercials. I will tell the world I met you through your Mom’s job at the shelter originally. I am actually a government agent.

  “Remember what you learned in school about the war on drugs? Remember DARE? Well, that’s sort of my job. And one of the most devastating weapons the enemy has is Chem 1. I’ve struggled with it for years to try to understand it and there’s nothing I can tell you right now that can confirm we have any chance in overcoming it, the killer that it is. It’s taken many lives and hopefully will take fewer lives now because of what you’ve done. The drug itself has an occult importance among certain very important people who control the economy, the media, you name it. They are all under the influence of Chem 1, which they secretly take in pill form. The reality is much worse than you think. My agency completed an assignment on the origins of the drug and what we found was very scary, Adam. That’s why your job is so important.

  “Chem 1 was brought on earth to destroy humanity. It is the spirit of a being known as Arthesces, king of lies. He has lived on earth for as long as humanity had evolved. The only thing in this solar system that Arthesces fears is his ship, that has an artificial intelligence on board which interferes with his tinkering with the human population. As far we know, he is a criminal to his own kind. That’s how we won, Adam. That’s how you won.

  “His ship, called debian, is the key to fighting Arthesces. He himself is invisible but his ship we have found. By scanning the ship we learned how to create the medicine which, I must say, is a very technologically advanced little pill. It’s how you survived after the TBI. And that wreck you got into possibly saved the mission from total failure. You see, without telling someone of Arthesces, it was nearly impossible to show the world what we had learned. The alien’s puppets would make us out to be lunatics.

  “Of course, there’s also the possibility that any person could be killed immediately upon contact with us. That’s why we had to break up the first time. But when you injured your brain, we made the decision to move forward with Article 6. We got very lucky. It could have been years before we had another chance like that, and our medication was doing well in the media at that time.

  “Article 6 may never have happened if we hadn’t done this to you. We’re so very sorry but your Mom will be joining you soon.” I was sick from crying. “Don’t worry; you’ll regain your short term memory and cognitive ability by a very large degree someday soon. Just keep persevering, Adam. You taught me that. I love you.”

  The plane arrived in Oregon in just five hours. Morrissey said, “The flight attendant will take care of your cans. Let’s just get to the apartment and go to sleep.”

  I followed him across the walkway which eventually curved into the terminal, out of the airport and into a car which was parked under the garage. When we got out, I could see the whole sky. We weren’t near any city, and after driving a little ways out of the airport parking lot I could see every single star in the entire sky. And I thought maybe debian had followed me. And I wondered if Macy would die from taking Chem 1. Then I thought, what is this medicine that’s inside me? Orion itself was my comfort on the drive home.

  Epilogue

  Hello,<
br />
  Thank you for the chance to compete! I worked really hard on the novelette and thought this was a great competition. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of the prize money if I win anything, but some will go to the editor of "The Cult."

  I have a modest proposal for you all. I've been having a hard time moving out because of health issues, and it's something I want to do very much. I have always wanted to live somewhere that fits my interests and personality better than where I am now. One possibility is to live in the Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City. However, although I receive a disability check, I don't currently have any contacts there or even any chance of being able to afford renting my own house or apartment there by myself. So here's what I'm asking of this community.

  Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can get to the Paseo Arts District? Specifically, I want to stay there for a summer with no computers or television or anything, to absorb the culture of the community and to grow as a person, and also to determine if I'm capable of living on my own. What would help is if anyone lives in Paseo and has suggestions for someone willing to have a paying roommate for the summer.

  Thanks for any information regarding this! And thanks to the mods of /r/writingprompts for the competition.

  Since living here in the country, I've picked up a few stories to tell. Here's one of them.

  Jerry was responsible for my Mom's relocation to rural Oregon. I think they may have had an affair. Jerry wasn't legally married so I can't blame Mom, whose social awareness doesn't go much beyond lists and laws. When Mom came I became afraid she had HIV, and opted to be tested myself.

  I passed the test and so did she. We had somehow avoided yet another consequence of our addiction to Chem 1. The psychological dependence was easy to control with debian.

  I wanted to go back to Oklahoma City, but new Articles on television had revealed a few things that made it exceptionally difficult to travel. Most humans were clones. There was an uproar across the country. Unbelievably, this had zero effect on my outlook: despite being an archetype myself, I fully believed in the uniqueness of even the clones. The entire population of my town in Oregon had been cold-pressed into Chem 1 dependents; we could only hope the mutations caused by Chem 2 would improve co-morbidity rates.

  The organization began research on a kind of cure in which I was especially interested. It was the process of brain imaging. They discovered that one day, through brain imaging, we could understand addiction more completely. I volunteered immediately for tests.

  The images came back after two weeks with analysis: schizophrenic, depressed, damage from Chem 1 to frontal lobe, some additional brain trauma, and one very curious patch of activity in the right hemisphere. It seemed that the creative part of my brain was hyperactive because of debian. They said I shouldn't even have any cognitive problems and that my anxiety was simply because I could obviously see the world much, much differently than other people. This revelation was the only encouragement I needed to finish writing the memoir of my transformation into an archetype. Its title was THE CULT.

  THE END

  Interview with Jordan Jones

  What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?

  The most effective technique was personal inquiries for beta readers and editors. I paid one editor I met in IRC and that person gave me the most help. I also paid one beta reader and found a bunch of free beta readers in IRC.

  Any success I may have with my current book, "The Cult," is due to attention garnered from the contest which I've entered the story into. That contest was hosted by /r/writingprompts on reddit.com

  When did you first start writing?

  I started writing when I was 7 or 8. My first story was a Mario fanfic

  Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

  I grew up in Oklahoma City and went to a private school for the first years of schooling. I suppose this gave me a unique interest in books and space. I was in Space Club and went to Space Camp at 11 years of age.

  What motivated you to become an indie author?

  Reddit.com re-jump-started my hobby by providing great info on self-publishing, and a place to share my work

  I haven't had much success yet

  What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

  The duality of a motif, symbol, plot, character, or setting: if something can be both right and wrong, the answers become easier to accept

  What do your fans mean to you?

  I truly hope I inspire them to create great stories--non-fiction or otherwise

  What are you working on next?

  I'm working on a television series called Slow Meta. It's about drugs, surveillance, psychic powers and national politics.

  Who are your favorite authors?

  What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

  Narcissism.

  Published 2014-02-23.