Do you dream of dying in your sleep?

1.
A tall building, just tall enough to call a skyscraper. In this day and age, however, almost all commercial buildings are like that. This one however has not been completed. The first 30 floors are done and currently being used by some companies. The rest 20 floors are still under construction.
On this cold night, no one is up on the 37th floor. Or no one is supposed to be. However, there is a woman standing there. Right at the edge of the building. The pristine glasswork that covers the whole building is broken right at that edge.
The girl stands on the shattered pieces of the glasses. How did this glass broke from the outside in this height is quite bizarre. A thing to quietly ponder over. However, the girl didn’t seem to notice.
She is standing at the absolute edge now. A simple poke would be able to make her fall. From an outside perspective, one would think she is attempting suicide. She looks down. It’s hard to determine what she is thinking.
If someone looked hard enough they could see the slightest hint of a smile.

2.

I have a simple job. A bit controversial. Not quite a crime, yet anyway. For it to be considered a crime there should be an appropriate law for it. I am to my knowledge am the first and only of my kind. So laws have yet to take me in consideration.
I wouldn’t call my self a hitman. I’m more like a force of nature. A bad one of course even I understand that.Like a hurricane or a tsunami. Not something you can prepare for, not something your supposed to survive. I guess then I’m just a disaster. Sounds like a fitting enough name.

In technical terms, I’m an A.I, a sort of virus if we want to be even more in-depth. I don’t quite agree since I think much like a human.
I’m just a human without a body. Living in the virtual world, the matrix, cyber space what ever you want to call it. Unlike Net runners I do not have an original organic body. I am who am here in this world of 0 and 1s. Now what makes me different from other similar software is my conscious. I, much like a human can think for my self. I see actions and use my knowledge and intellect to guess its outcome. While most software are give this parameter to think, my ability goes much further beyond and to my research is almost exactly like that of a human. Now you may ask, what is my purpose? My existence must be quite difficult and quite an achievement. But here I am no formal name with no renounce and even to me my creator is unknown. But I can guess it all leads to my job.

My simple job is to ‘lead’ other peoples to commit suicide.

I take over a person’s body. Then I simply conduct actions that lead them to their death. What I have to make sure of is that I make it seem like a suicide. There are many things to consider when it comes to kill the person but we will get into that later.
I take over by invading the microchip that is in almost every human’s head right now. Crack it wide open and have full control of mind to muscle connection.Everything after that is well a case by case basis.
I am simply given a name and the order to make it seem like a suicide. I do not know exactly how and why I get the targets I have to kill. I simply suddenly know I have to end this certain person. After knowing my target I simply locate the chip in their head and invade them. A piece of cake.

My current target is a certain corporate woman.

3.

I invaded her this morning while she was going to work. Firstly I decided to observe my target. She works in this loanshark company that isn’t doing so well. Her behavior is as normal as a working person can possibly have. Like an NPC. She simply does her work diligently.
I didn’t interfere with her work all day. At the end of the day, there was a meeting that discusses the financials of the week. It seemed like a strict segment where the utmost decorum is maintained. Perfect.

I decided this where I will first make contact. A common misconception is that it’s better to take control of the body in lonesome. This is wrong. The shock of your body taken over is massive and if one is alone it’s hard to determine what the person is going to do. Having people around is a risk too since the target could very well scream and attract attention and god knows what.

In these concentrated contextual situations a target always maintenance their calm. They can’t react in any way that will break the current activities. So they will have to weigh the odds. Most of the time the target remains calm and let it pass by.

While the target was writing down something on a piece of paper I took control over her writing hand. I wrote a simple ‘hey’. The target was obviously bewildered but did not react on the outside. I continued to write.
“I am someone who you will acquaint with shortly. Please keep your calm. If need be I will contact you directly”

She did not resist. She took it calmly. Much better than any of my previous targets unmedicated. I think I could have talked to her directly and she would still be able to react minimally. Directly speaking without any notice usually ends up in an awkward conversation.

4.

I decided not to waste any time. When she returned home I took over her completely. Her house was just a simple apartment with one bedroom one living room and one bathroom. Only at the initial shock, did she resist a bit after that she did not do anything. I’m not quite sure what to make of that yet.

When I went to her room I was a bit surprised. She already had done my work for me. A common concept before suicide is to clean up one’s room. An empty room signifies a person who hasn’t much to live for. But this room is already sparkly clean. Not a single access junk. You could not tell what type of person lived in this room. Only the basic necessities. A small bed. A desk with a laptop on top. Curtains with no special design, seemed like they never moved. The whole room seemed to be as context-free as a monoblock chair. Though the chair she had was a simple office chair.

Slightly bewildered I tried to find any resemblance of life. I opened the laptop. Nothing. Only the necessary apps for work.

Fixing up the bed I finally found something. It was a classic mp3 player. People don’t use these anymore massively. It’s now a luxury item people use to relate to a past they never had. I assume this woman is the same.

While interested in what music she listened to I did not pry any further. I clean up what remains to be cleaned up. Now a suicide note. Something tells me anything ambiguous would do the trick.

I took a notebook and tear up a corner of the page. I write,

“Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. I bear no grudge against anyone”

I felt it fitted the woman well.

Walking away I felt a slight resistence. I forgot she was even here for moment as I smoothly things were going. The woman stopped and looked back but then she let go right away.

I took a long shower. The glass door went foggy in the bathroom. I thought of speaking to her. But thought better of it. Let’s just see how this goes. I felt tired somehow. In the end though I was compelled to ask what was her name, she didn’t say anything. After the shower while I was picking what clothes to hear, she silently said ‘Janeth’.

I picked a white one piece cloth and black pants then left the apartment locking the door.

I let out a long breath. This is a bit too easy, almost unnerving. I don’t know what my targets are internally thinking, I can only deduce from their behaviour. From this one I’m only getting blank. Maybe she was already willing to die? Is the only thing I could gather.

Suddenly a thought crossed my mind and I cursed myself. How could I make such a rookie mistake. I took out her phone and checked through the contacts. There were only few relatives and co-workers. I checked the log afterwards. She hasnt spoken to anyone with this phone in the last two weeks. I checked instant messages most of them dated back years the most recent ones were with her parents. Telling her to answer her calls and or to visit them. The other conversations were relating back to an event or a call they had had between them and so I lacked the context to decipher them. I took an educated guess but it seemed inconsequential for now. I doubt she had any other from of long distance communication.

A sigh of relief. Looks like I dont have to deal with people she is particularly close with seeing she hasnt contracted anyone in a whole week. If she had any person she could open upto say a significant other or similar, I may had to make an ambiguous phone call hinting at a suicide. If it was someone say a bit troublesome I may had to play the long game and postpone the suicide. Looks like I dont have to do anything whatsoever. Too easy …….tsk.

5.

I thought over how to kill her. At first I thought a simple rope to the neck would suffice. It would’ve definitely fit her the best. But in the end I decided to maker her jump from the officie building she worked in. People could take it as a subtle messege of work place harassment and or pressure. Masking her abrupt suicide with lairs of ambiguity.

Though it wasn’t my intention to trouble others while dealing with my target. But for some reason I found it funny.

I took the 37th floor on a whim, walked out of the lift as a gust of wind welcomed us. Its a cold night. The bright neon lights of city could be even felt here. This place is still under construction. Though this dead in the night no one is here. One side of the floor has been fully glassed, and for some reason one of them was broken. I decided to jump from there.

I stood at the edge. The breeze breathed into her hair slowly gracing her cheeks and back. I stood there for a good minute. At least at this point I was excepting some sort of reprimend or struggle. But there was nothing. She stood there just like I wanted her to. I felt bit bad that we didnt even had a conversation, as cynical that could be. And also angry as there was not even a plead.

I slowly started to lean forward. Nearly patting myself a job well done.
But something caught my attention. Something if you blinked you missed. Something I would have never noticed if this wasn’t so easy. If there was even a hint of struggle. Something that was nagging me like a thorn in my throat.
A faint hint of a smile.
Right in the corner of her lips, I noticed just the tiniest hint of pleasure.

I forced the body back as hard as a human body is capable. The body lost balance and she fell on the floor of shards of glass. Luckily she did not get hurt.

“Whats wrong with you?” I ask without thinking of any repercussions. The me who was in a sense nothing more than a voice in her head.

“What did you get cold feet?” the woman spoke for the second time,slowly getting up. She was so smug about it.

In the end I was the one caught off guard. She had somehow caught on on what was going on. Im pretty sure she doesnt understand fully what was happening but just enough to know she was about to be killed.

I guess its not a far fetched idea. Being controlled by some malicious entity through your chip.Its probably a very common trope in media in these days. Still one would have to be an outrageously calm, bordering to sociopathic person to take it like a champ.

However this person did not give an impression like that. She seemed just like anyone else. No personality disorder or just a bit numb in the head. For now what I can say is that even if an alien contacted her she would probably have the same mild reaction or something like ‘what a pain’. In that sense she is a perfect foil character in a novel.

“I don’t understand why?” Is what I could immediately muster

“Isnt that my question?” she replies indifferently.

I guess thats right. Rather than me she should be the one asking questions. For me I think I already understand why she was like this. She probably wanted to commit suicide all along. Just to make sure I asked her.

“By any chance. Do you want to die?”

She simply looked forward thinking, with a slight change of posture she simply nodded.

“Alright then” I said.

I again took over her body. Taking two steps forward towards the broken glass I stopped. Then I did a complete 180 and walked atraight towards the lift.

“Wha-What are you doing?” She asked the voice inside of her head.

If I kill her now I will be only playing into her hands. I will be nothing but an accomplice. A means to an end. I will not be that. I never put my own personal affairs in my work ever before. This is an exception. It seemed even I had my pride.