Reverse Psychology

Reverse Psychology
By Robert Wilkins, III





[ 2006 – Small town; rainy day ]

Victoria returns home from school to continue her new online game, “Chess: 2008” as she is greeted by her favorite poster saying, “We ALWAYS Win!”, or so it seems.

She closes out of “Windows” and loads DOS. She is very impatient. The operating system loads and she “pings” a server.

The screen reads (with green ink on a black background):
“pinging… NSA
please wait…”

Victoria hears a car rumbling beside the house, but it can’t be her parents, they’re far away in France. So she ignores it.

The screen reads:
“Welcome to Echelon Mr. Joh******
Please enter your password…”

“Yes, I’m almost in!”

The screen goes black and the system goes off. She panics and the rumbling stops.

“C’mon load, stupid computer, LOAD!!!”

There is intense knocking and she begins crying. Suddenly, the screen says “Welcome” and shows the main screen. DOS loads again and resumes her progress. The door opens and flashing lights STORM IN.

She loads a password cracker and turns around to find a 40-caliber glock wedged perfectly between her eyes. She screams and turns around but the computer is not there. She closes her eyes slowly and discovers that she can’t move. When she opens her eyes she is in a small plastic room; isolated from society and closed up in a straight-jacket.

Along the chest, she sees something familiar… “Welcome to Echelon”. There is a sign directly in front of her saying, “We ALWAYS Win!”.