Fantasy Phantom

Alanna paused for a moment. No. I mean, I think at first it was. I think... I think the reason I didn't Move On was my connection to the children. When they died, right in front of me, I felt their pain, their anguish. I felt the need to stay around, to help others in need.

Alanna felt sympathy competing with admiration within the Doctor's mind as he thought, If... if what you're telling me is the truth, perhaps I've misjudged you.

Alanna felt good hearing that. But also at the same time felt terrible, knowing full well that she had lied to him. She knew the real reason she hadn't Moved On, and it certainly wasn't that.
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********​

It was a dance at Wintergreen College, and Kelly Gray had ripped her dress. She had been walking by a snack table and the sharp corner of it somehow caught on her dress and ripped the back open. Even worse, a punch bowl slid onto her and splashed over the front of her dress.

Several of her classmates immediately laughed at her. One of them was Angie Fleming. "Seriously, dear, is wearing a dress so complicated?"

"I think it is for Kelly," said another girl.

Kelly felt terrible as she tried to dry off part of her dress with a napkins. But then she heard a catcall behind her and realized her ass was exposed from the hole in her dress. Kelly grabbed the back of her dress and reddened.

"Really, dear, what are we to do with you?" Angie asked. "I hope I don't encounter you living on the streets in ten years, like the other Mindless or a two bit sex worker. It would make me so sad, dear."

And as Kelly ran off, sobbing, she never forgot that night.
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********​

Of course, Angie did. After she graduated she got married to a four dimensional banker named Brad McGraw, and had a darling five year old son named Flynn. The first two years of Flynn's life had been difficult, as it would be for any new mother. The child was constantly squalling and squeezing a lot of wet, moist earthy excrement out of his anus at all hours of the night. It was a relief when he turned two years of age and slept through the night. So did Angie.

At least, she did, until about a week ago.

Suddenly, she found that she could no longer sleep. Oh, she could close her eyes, and time would pass, and it would seem like she was asleep, but when she got up she was as tired as she had been when she went to bed. Something was preventing her from sleeping soundly.

Something... or someone.

After a week of sleep deprivation, Angie looked into the mirror in her bathroom with bloodshot eyes. She was exhausted. "Why can't I sleep?" she cried.

Guilty feelings, perhaps?

"Who said that?" Angie said, looking around rapidly.

Kelly always loved it when she first made her presence known. Typically, she would "ghost" her next intended target for a few days, riding in their bodies without being detected, as the Three Laws intended, learning about the ins and outs of their lifestyle before making changes.

Once she made her presence known, her host would typically go through an array of reactions. The first would be rejection, which was understandable--who could easily believe that a ghost was riding around inside their body? The second would be disbelief, as they started to accept the fact but still resisted. The third was recognition--as they suddenly recalled who Kelly was. And the fourth was pleading or bargaining, or false attempts to be friends and to put the past behind them.

But Kelly Gray didn't want to put the past behind her. That's why she was here. Remember when you said that I would be one of the Mindless, roaming the streets? Well, we're going to see what it looks like when the same thing happens to you. I want you to open a link to your bank and transfer your entire account to the National Cat and Dog Association.

"No!" Angie cried. "Kelly, be reasonable. We have over two million dollars in the bank."

That could help a lot of cats and dogs.

"Without our account, how will we pay our bills? How will we pay our rent?"

I don't know. You might end up wandering on the streets, like the Mindless or a two bit sex worker.

"No, I won't do it!"

Only she did, two days later. Angie woke up that morning, after another night of non-sleep sleep. She had tried sleeping pills. She had tried everything. Nothing worked. "Please, Kelly. Please let me sleep. Just for an hour!"

Certainly. After you empty your bank account.

And so Angie, half awake, opened a link to the First National Bank of the World Government and set up the transfer. But her finger trembled over the holographic send button. "Please... please don't make me do this," she whispered.

You could be asleep in sixty seconds. I'll let you sleep all morning.

Angie cried out as she pressed the button. Then she literally dropped to the ground. She was snoring even as she hit the ground.
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********​

It took Brad two days to notice that their bank account had been emptied. He confronted Angie about it, with rage in his eyes. Angie, frightened, denied all knowledge of it, even after Brad did a trace, and found that her ID and holofingerprint had been used to make the transfer.

"It wasn't me, Brad, really! Our account must have been hacked!" she cried, trying to sound as outraged as he. Brad's eyes narrowed and he clenched his fist.

"What... what are we going to do?" Angie asked.

"What can we do? We'll be living from paycheck to paycheck for a while," Brad snapped.

Angie went to hug him, but Brad pushed her away. He really was blaming her for this.

Yes, I think he is.
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********​

"No, I won't do it," said Angie. "You want me to commit a hate crime on the holonet?"

It's only an opinion.

"A very sexist one. Do you know the kind of trouble it could get me in?"

Would I ask you to do it if I didn't?

"I won't. I won't do it," Angie declared.

But, after two more nights without sleep, she did.

Angie was sobbing as she posted the message on the holonet. She could never imagine writing such a hateful message. What she wrote was "Only women have vaginas."

The thought police came for her a day later.
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*********​

Her name was Margie Goldenfarb, and she was an Unsocial Worker attached to the local branch of the World Government's thought police. Thinking itself was not a crime per se (not yet, anyway), but actions motivated by impure thoughts were found to be aggravating circumstances.

Margie was very efficient and polite, interviewing Angie about her job and her situation before turning to the subject of the message she had posted on the Holonet.

"Margie, did you post this message on the Holonet at 9:24 AM yesterday?" Margie asked, showing an image of the message.

Angie winced with shame and embarrassment as she saw the message, in supersized letters:

ONLY WOMEN HAVE VAGINAS!!!!

Had she really added all those exclamation points? Somehow, that made it all the worse.

"Angie, did you write that?" Margie asked. She was so gentle, so kind, and yet somehow that made it all the worse.

Angie hung her head. "Yes."

"Do you realize how incredibly hurtful that is to men with vaginas?"

"I... I suppose so," said Angie. The World Government said that women could become men but even after becoming men, they still retained their vaginas.

"Do you realize how deeply you offended so many men?"

"I... I guess so."

"So why did post this hate speech, Angie?"

What could she say? "I... I don't know."

Angie and the thought police officers exchanged knowing glances. Angie would have given anything to know what they were planning.

"Please, I'm sorry! I did it without thinking. Forgive me, it will never happen again!" Angie cried.

Margie checked her Pad. "It says here you're a first offender. I think we can let you off with a warning and a self-criticism."

"A self criticism?"

"You must come to a struggle session, with other first-time offenders such as yourself, and denounce yourself to the crowd."

Angie grimaced. "All right." It could have been worse. At least Brad hadn't been home when they-

"And one more thing," said Margie. "Your husband and child must be there as well."

"What?" said Angie. "Why?"

"It's part of the therapy," said Margie. "You must admit your transgressions in front of your family."

"But my son... my son is only five years old."

Margie put a hand on Angie's shoulder. "It's never too young to learn about racism and genderism."
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********​

Explaining it to five year old Flynn was hard, but explaining it to Brad was even harder.

"Are you out of your mind?" Brad raged, clenching his fists. "Why, Angie, why did you do this?"

"I... I don't know," said Angie.

"Are you trying to embarrass me? Is this some kind of passive aggressive way of getting me to leave you?"

"No!" Angie cried, flying into his arms. She was trembling. "I never want you to leave me. Never!"

"I don't want to go to this, and I certainly don't want Flynn to see his mother humiliated like this!" said Brad.

"You have to go. Otherwise my apology won't be accepted," said Angie.

Explaining it to Flynn was only a tiny bit easier.

"Mommy has done a bad thing, Flynn."

"What bad thing did you do, Mommy?" The child's big blue eyes were so guileless.

"I... I said hurtful things about women who become men."

"Women can become men?" Flynn looked confused.

"That's right, they don't start teaching that until the First Grade, do they? Let's just say that Mommy said something hurtful, and has to apologize for it."

And so Angie stood in front of a circle of fellow offenders at the local World Government Community center and, with tears in her eyes, apologized for her vagaphobic comments. She didn't know what hurt her more, the confused look in Flynn's eyes, or the way Brad frowned, clenching his fists again and looking away, as if he were embarrassed to even be associated with her.
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**********​

But of course, that was not the end of things. Kelly made sure of that. She insisted that Angie post a second message on the Holonet, this one even worse than the first. Angie held out for three days and nights, but finally, with a pounding in her head from lack of sleep, she couldn't resist. She posted the message online, and waited for the inevitable consequences.

This time Angie was arrested in front of her husband and child. Her eyes were in tears as electrocuffs were snapped over her wrists, and her pants and panties were lowered so a government sanctioned anal monitor could be inserted into her ass cheeks, for her own protection.

"Daddy, what is that thing they put inside Mommy's-"

"Hush," said Brad, putting a hand over Flynn's eyes.

Angie, with tears in her eyes, was brought to the police station. Once there, a no-nonsense detective names Silwa interrogated her. "Ms. Fleming, did you post this message on the holonet?"

Angie looked at the message in big letters, all caps:

THE ICE AGES WERE REAL!!!!

"Yes," she whispered.

Agent Silwa sighed. "Why, Ms. Fleming?"

"I... I don't know."

"You realize that this is temperature hate speech, don't you? By perpetuating the myth of the ice ages, you're implying that there was radical temperature change even before industrialization, and that temperature change is caused by nature, not industry. You see that, don't you?"

"Yes." She shivered while cold blue eyes bored into her.

"This is the worst kind of temperature hate speech. What are we to do with you?"

What indeed?
​

********​

Angie was given a governor, a small microchip in her head which analyzed every action she was about to take, and made her think about it, really think about it, before she did. It didn't prevent her from doing anything she wanted, not exactly, but if Angie was to feel the urge to say or write something anti-social again, the chip would cause a flashing message in her mind and say, "This thought has been deemed anti-social. Are you really sure you want to do this?"

Brad almost stopped speaking to her except in the most essential circumstances. The romance between them was dead. Flynn was informed that his mother was a serial thought offender. He stared at her now with an odd look in his eyes, as if he were looking at an unfamiliar bug.

Angie knew her marriage was on her last legs. And so when another bout of sleeplessness hit her, she cried out, "Please, please, not again!"

Brad rolled over in bed. "Who are you talking to?"

"No one," Angie cried.

"Are you taking your medication?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. She could see it in his eyes. Gone was the woman he had married. Now he was married to a... sick person.

Angie fled, sobbing, into the bathroom, and slammed the door behind her. She slowly slid down onto the floor by the toilet. "Please, please, let me sleep."

You can sleep, Angie.

"I can?"

You can sleep, once you do one last thing.

And Kelly told her what she wanted.

"No. Oh no."

Yes .
​

********​

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS? The sound of the governor in her head was different from the sound of Kelly's voice. Really different.

"Yes," said Angie firmly.

IT IS NOT ADVISED.

Angie didn't care. She was so sleep deprived that life simply wasn't worth living. She would do anything, anything at all to get some sleep. And so, fighting the resistance within her, she pressed the holographic SEND button.

The World Government police came for her an hour later.
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********​

This time there was no excusing what she did. It was a third offense, an offense committed while she wore a governor. Angie had posted an incredibly vicious, hateful message on the Holonet, the worst one of all:

PROTECT FREE SPEECH.

Margie Goldenfarb looked at Angie sadly. "Don't you realize how hateful that was? Don't you realize what a call to violence you were posting? Angie, you were encouraging people everywhere, across the world, to say whatever they wanted. That's like encouraging the massacre of millions. Do you know how much harm you caused?"

Angie didn't speak. She was beaten down.

"Angie, do you want to be helped?" Margie asked softly.

Angie nodded.

"I have just the place."
​

********​

Angie was sent to a rehab commune in Berkeley, California. She got the notice of intent to divorce two days later from Brad's lawyer. He would take custody of Flynn, of course. When she recovered sufficiently, if she recovered sufficiently, she would be awarded visitation rights.

The rehab commune was actually a halfway house, with workshops and classes in the mornings and evenings. During the day Angie was free to roam the streets of Berkeley, which she did, often in a witless condition, from all the psychotropic drugs she was given. As she walked by a lamp post, a sharp edge cut into her shirt and ripped it open, along with a piece of her skin. She cried out, only semi-aware of what was happening to her.

Who's the mindless one now?

Angie heard the laughter, even as the glowing shape slowly oozed out of her body, flying higher and higher. Other people on the street saw it too, but since they were all high on Weed, they just pointed and laughed.
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********​

The Doctor, Alyssa, and Sophie were in a restaurant in Sacramento, California. They had been tracing leads, but so far come up with nothing. Alanna had been frustrated by their lack of progress, but the Doctor said, "I told you this is not an exact science. I'm used to tracking down ghouls in general. If you want me to successfully trace a specific ghoul, it's going to take time."

The waiter came by to take their order just as Alanna was formulating a response. "Are we ready to order?" he asked.

"I'd like a fair trade ecologically minded virtue vegan burger, please," said Alyssa Kleinberg, right after the Doctor ordered a steak. Sophie, catching his eye, had smiled and ordered a steak too. But when Alyssa ordered the vegan burger, the Doctor smirked and choked back a laugh.

Doctor, please be kind, said Alanna in his head.

"Does something amuse you, Doctor?" Alyssa asked, after the waiter had left.

"No, not at all," said the Doctor. He smiled, and Sophie laughed.

"What is it?" Alyssa asked.

The Doctor rubbed a hand through his curly hair. "Well, it's just... if vegetarians love vegetarian food so much, why do they so often order it in the shape of meat?"

"Society had been brainwashed to desire things that look and taste like meat. The World Government is working to fix that-"

"You mean, to do some brainwashing of its own," said the Doctor.

"Education," Alyssa corrected him. "Do you know how bad meat is for you, Doctor? More importantly, it's also bad for the environment. Eating meat is a leading cause of Temperature Change."

"Because before we ate meat, there was no temperature change, right?"

"99% of all scientists are in agreement that the world was a constant 72 degrees for three million years before-"
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