Chapter 8 - Action Packed

Ram found himself standing on top of a bus traveling down a highway at a speed he could only guess was probably above 50 miles per hour.  Seemed a bit unfair really, given that he'd only had a brief moment to open his eyes to realize that that wasn't the worst part.  The bus was heading down an incomplete highway to a section that had not yet been completed.  All that was in front of him was his impending death. A 50 foot gap. Or a 50 foot drop.

As the bus edged the gap, Ram initiated his surfing stance, he wasn't sure why but moving his body was the only thing he was in control of, barely, so he thought he'd do something with it!

The bus shot the gap, and in some miraculous defiance of gravity, flew across the gap and managed to make it to the other side of the unfinished highway.  It was impossible, but it happened.  After another minute the bus began to slow and ease to a stop.  The door 'chsssd' and out strode wonder boy still dressed in white.

'What the fuck are you doing?' Ram asked.

'Well...  Itfews a little dramatic and unrealistic I know, but I have created this dream scene to teach you you're first lesson.  Once you can tell me what that lesson is, we shall move on.' Keanu replied.

Ram calmed himself down.  'Is the lesson 'don't piss off the guy with the whip?' '

'No'

'OK, well before you attempt to kill me again, if I die here do I die in the real world?'

'The body cannot live without the mind'

'Fuck.  OK, next time give me a chance to react would you'

'Noted.

'Gosh you're real talkative now that we've come here.  Is the lesson 'keep yourself alive'?' Ram asked.

'No but I'll give you a small hint, the lesson has something to do with your ability and your outlook on life, and in that note I'll be leaving. If you think you've got the answer just give pick up a telephone, I'll always be on the other end' Neo said before stomping his foot on the ground with enough force to shoot himself into the sky and out of sight. 

Ram was left standing in the empty highway with no idea what he was supposed to do.  As he started on his way down the highway the sky darkened slightly and the world slightly changed color as well, a slight Green tinge seemed to have covered the entire city.

Ram reached the city and decided the first thing to do was to find a phone and get onto Neo again, he didn't want to spend any more time in this joint.  So far there had been nothing out of place in the city, apart from there being no one in it!  He found a pay phone booth next to an OKs dilapidated building and picked up the receiver.

'Mr. Wizard here, how can I help?'

'That had better be you Keanu, if I'm to answer your lesson I need at least some idea of what I should be doing!'

Duurrrrt duurrrt duurrrt....

Ram was incredulous, the jerk had hung up on him. Well if that's how he's going to act it's time I stooped down to his level. Ram was starting to have an idea when headlights shon upon his booth, there was a garbage truck heading straight for him. Ram just managed to get the rusty both door open and jump aside before the booth became a part of the inside decorations of the empty building.  He decided this was no time to be standing around waiting for something to happen so ran off to find a safe place to think for a few minutes at least.

An empty mall seemed like a suitable place to think for a while.  He thought back to the incidents that had taken place over the last few hours.  He could have sworn that there was a man in a black suit wearing sunglasses driving that garbage truck and the whole situation felt a lot like a scene he had watched in the matrix a few months back.  Matter of fact the bus scene also felt slightly familiar. Although he couldn't quite put his middle finger on it...

Aha! he stoked, these visions are created based on Keanus imagination.  So that's why the scenes felt so familiar, they must be based on movies that Keanu remembers most fondly.  Maybe he's trying to give me a movie history lesson...  Nah, that doesn't make sense.  Hmmmm..

The next moment Agent Smith appeared from around a corner. 

'Mr D'Arcangelo!  Prepare to meet your doom. It is inevitable..'

Ram decided he was sick of running in fear in this dream and instead decided it was time to face the issue head on.  Her raised his fist to enter the agents face only to be punched in the stomach before he even had a chance to strike. 

Fumbling on the ground trying to get up something occurred to him, if this is just a dream then maybe it's more like the matrix than just looks...

Looking past the agent he saw the glint of an emergency Axe on the wall.  Given his chances of winning this fight Mano é Mano, he thought this wild guess, if successful, would level the playing field a bit.  He concentrated hard on the Axe and imagined flinging it through the air into the back of the agent. It wobbled on its frame for a moment and without a second thought it zipped off the wall at a ridiculous speed and sunk deep into the back of the agents head.

Well, this was going to make life in this vision a whole lot easier he thought.  Ram strolled over to a payphone and picked it up.

'Operator..'

'Is the lesson to trust your instincts?'

'Well.. Close enough.  What I am trying to tell you is you need to start taking control of your destiny, stop letting it lead you around like you've allowed for the last two years'

'Easy for you to say buddy, go suck on a frog'

The Vision shifted.

Chapter 7 - Whiplash

This is where the real story begins, all the stuff you just read, really didnt add shit to the story.  Get ready.

Ram turned again, only this time instead of empty space, Keanu Reeves was standing there in a trench coat of pure white holding a strange whip with a black ball on the end of it.  Oh yeah, I must be dead, Ram thought, because this is ridiculous.  Why else would Keanu Reeves be standing in front of me.

'Are you God?  Because that would be very ironic given the movies you've acted in.  Also what is this place?' Ram inquired. 

'No, I'm not God and you're not dead. I am the one and only Keanu Reeves.  What is this place?  Well, I presume you've seen The Matrix?  I mean who hasn't, fucking good film.  Anywho, imagine this place is the same as The Matrix, only instead of being computer generated, this world is built from my thoughts and can be change to show whatever I want it to.  pretty awesome eh?'

Yeah, An ability like that could come in handy, how did we get here, why you and why me?

'Let's start with why you.  I've been watching you a while and you are heading down a dangerous path that it seems I barely saved you from.  It seems that it is in fact you that needs to be taught a lesson.  Which is how we get to Why me?  Because I hold the whip, thats why.

'How'd we get here?  it's this whip.  Bet you thought I was gonna do some kinky shit to you, but no, there's more to this whip than meets the eye.  It's a bit of a long story, but this whip has a lot of historical merit.'

Keanu brought the whip closer (though not grabbing distance) to give Ram a closer look.  It had an old world look about it, it was made from what looked to be 3 strands of woven leather.  The strands were black, white and red interwoven until the reached the end of the whip where they ended inside what could only be described as a stone of pure black.  The stone reflected no light and if Ram wasnt mistaken, had a slight gravitational pull?

'Take a seat, there's a lot to tell' Keanu said as he began to sit down on an old leather chair that appeared underneath him. an identical chair had also appeared directly behind Ram.

'I picked it up at this estate auction in London a year back because I thought it made me look cool.  Turns out the estate was an old residence of Sigmund Freud the Neurologist.' Keanu said.

'From what Ive been able to gather, the whip is officially named 'The Chandra-Freud dream initiator', although I just call it my Vision Whip.  '

'Apparently the stone on the end of the whip creates a miniscule temporary black hole when flicked, which causes time to stop in the real world until this vision is complete.  I can't exactly explain how the vision works but I presume Freud found a way to integrate the temporal black hole with the spiritual/dream section of the mind by connecting the two by touching the whip.'

'The Vision Whip is a culmination of Freud's work on dreams and the work of another chap named Chandrasekhar. '

'Chandrasekhar was this Indian chap who is most famously known for his detailed calculations in 1930, on what is now called the Chandrasekhar limit.  As a quick explanation, the Chandrasekhar limit describes the maximum mass that a star can reach before it becomes so dense that it collapses on itself and forms a black hole.'

'It seems that our Indian friend managed to create the done that sits on the end of this whip, which uses some manner of the same calculation in order to create a black hole at a miniscule level.'

'After more a more digging, it turns out a chance meeting between these two industrious folk happened in London around 1950 which must have gone well because well, ahem, look at this whip!'

After a few more trivial bits and pieces of information Keanu jumped up and said 'Right, well, it's time I took you on a journey to get you back on your feet!' And with that the white wonderland around Ram began to rapidly fade to black and then back into a world he never imagined.

Chapter 6 - The Pizza Shop

"The pizza shop was just as it had been,

Despite the night he still returned to clean.

He shed a tear and watched it fall and gleam,

He wished that it had all just been a dream."

Ding ding jingle jangle ding jingle jing...  So much for the stealth approach, Ram thought as he miserably attempted to sneak into the pizza shop.  Instead a set of cheap Christmas bells whipped against each other notifying the owner of a 'customer'.  Let's be honest, it's not like Ram did this sort of thing every day, mistakes are inevitable.  Mistakes can also be corrected..

Lets be very honest, there really was no reason for stealth, the crowbar in Ram's hand was a testament to that.

What am I thinking, making noise was fucking inevitable.  No one had seemed to hear the shitty bells, so Ram rushed to the counter and without a second thought took a massive swing at the till with his crowbar to get some attention.  The pain of the connecting reverberations was probably not worth the damage dealt to the old metal box, but it made enough noise that the owner would have heard the commotion and come looking even if he was out the back in a locked car committing suicide by asphyxiation.  That may seem like a strange image to conjure up in this situation, but the last few days had not exactly been normal, and that image, given the last few days, was a possibility.

3.75 seconds later..

clip, clop, clip "What the fuck do you think you're...  Ramiel!???  I told you if I ever... What the fuck are you doing!?!?"

...

"You've changed Mario.  I've seen what you're capable of and a lesson must be taught.  Class is now in session" Ram said.

"Of course I've changed you conniving little shit, how could a man not.  You're lucky I'm so forgiving, but these things do not last so, Get the fuck out of here.  NOW!!" Mario the pizza shop owner replied.  He was visibly trembling as he said this, but fear was not the cause of the trembling, it was rage.  Fury.  Bordering insanity.

Ram could feel it, without even looking at the man, an invisible force pushed against his skin telling him what mood the pepperoni coloured jerk was in.  "Unfortunately, I will not be leaving just yet..."  Ram said in a tone that conveyed resignation in the task he had set out to do, as well as a sense of calm that showed years worth of tension being shed as each subsequent second passed.  Decisions should not be made lightly he thought, but they must be made...

Ding ding jingle jangle ding jingle jing...

CRACK.

Rams world went black, then quickly faded to pure white.  He felt alive here, but where was here? He looked left and right but saw nothing but white.

Chapter 5 - The Funeral

The day before the Pizza shop incident...

Gail's funeral was looking to be a very glum day.  It was raining, Ram was now in a more depressed state than he'd ever been and to top things off now he had to console the parents of the very girl he technically got killed.  There was no way of knowing if the visions would ever have come to fruition if he hadnt told her about them, so why did he have to tell her..

As the coffin was being lowered into the grave, Ram looked up at Gail's father and received a splitting headache.  He's vision changed.

Ram saw Gail's father in another light, a darker, clearer light.  Gail's death had changed the once pleasant man.  He held a fury in his eyes, murderous fury.  He was walking down the street when he approached an undesirable (another thug).  Before they had even exchanged words Gail's father flicked a knife across the mans throat and continued on as if nothing had happened.

It seems Gail's father had turned into a killer, exacting his revenge by killing anyone he thought didn't deserve to live.

An instant later Rams vision returned and he was looking at Mario in real life again, and Mario was staring back.

When the procession was over Ram went to speak to him.  'Mario, I cant tell you how sorry I am for what happened.  I understand you're angry but please don't take it out on anyone el..' Smack.  A punch straight to the face was received.  Right in the kisser.  Straight to the ground Ram fell.

'You should be sorry, it was you who caused this.  I know about your little dreams, I know you brainwashed Gail.  Don't even try that shit on me.  If I ever see you again I'll kill you.' Mario spat.  And left Ram on the ground.

Ram didn't get up, he sat there, having to make another choice.  He could leave Mario to his own devices, possibly causing many deaths.  Or instead he could act on a vision for a change.  He could risk no more innocent blood on his hands.  He had to kill Mario.

Chapter 4 - Curiosity killed the Kea

Mere days before the Pizza shop incident...

It was cloudy under a setting sun, looking at the ground from the sky, Ram saw a crisp young lass that he recognised as Gail, who he'd been seeing intimately.  Her facial expression was one of depression, having achieved nothing in her life.  She had left her house to put the rubbish out, when she was accosted by two ghoulish looking characters who didn't have a very friendly feel about them.

One snapped his arms out to grab her but she zipped just out of his grasp and went to run back inside, only to find the way blocked by a third undesirable.  She turned and ran for the neighbours house.  It was too late, they had her surrounded.

She screamed but no one came to her aid as they dragged her behind the house and penetrated her.

Fuck... Ram thought as he awoke from this round of visions.  He usually only recieved one constant vision of any particular person.  This was the 5th vision of hers that he had witnessed and none of them bode well for her happiness.  A mugging, a rape, paraplegia, accidental death and suicide.  As usual, it didn't make sense and Ram obviously had decided not to tell Gail about any of the results.

He turned his head to look at her, she was perfect for him.  Originally from the country, she had an air about her that showed confidence in herself and was very content with her life.  She was simple.  On top of that, she understood Ram and knew quite well his ability, his passed successes and failures.  She understood that he was unwilling to present her vision to her and never pushed him for it.  Why should she, in her mind, life was good and no story or vision would change that..  

But...  There was a curiousity, a feeling she was not accustomed to.  An itch that would would offer no reprieve until it had been scratched.  Really scratched (Then usually regrettably scratched).

Gail woke to Ram staring at her deep in thought and looking concerned.  This time it was Gail who came to a rash decision, by trying to force the details out of the Ram.  

And things were going so well... 

'I need to know Ram.  Every day you give me that look, like your torn between what is, and what may be.  This is my life you are concerned about, do I not have a right to know why?  I promise that if you tell me I wont act on anything you say, I will do nothing differently' Gail plied.  

After more tension and thought, Ram decided that it was not his choice to keep the information from her.  Additionally, Gail was the first person for which he had witnessed unfortunate events occur in the vision.  There were two positives from telling her.  1) it might have the opposite effects of the last two results, given the information was opposite in nature.  2) if nothing else it would advise her of what could happen and to be avoid situations where the visions occurred. 

He explained the visions as lightly as he could.  Her appearance went from plain, to shocked, to sad, to angry as the story of the visions progressed.  When Ram was finished, she exploded 'What a load of absolute hogs-wallop!  You picture me as some boring girl from the country with no goals in life except to cry and get raped and killed, fuck you!" And with that leapt out of bed and stormed out of the house.

Ram was, to say the least, pretty fucking concerned.  He couldn't get in contact with her all day and that very night on the news he saw a young scantily dressed girl lying dead on the floor of a nightclub.  Apparently she had her drink spiked with asbestos and died instantly.

Later the next day Ram had found out that after being given the information, she decided to prove him wrong, confident that what he said could not be true.  

On a side note, who knew asbestos was so dangerous!

Chapter 3 - History has a habit of repeating itself

One year before the Pizza Shop incident...

It was cloudy under a setting sun, looking at the ground from the sky, Ram could see a large line of ragged looking folk winding around an entire city block.  One would have guessed it to be another one of those iFailure releases, though the people in this line didn't exactly look like your typical apple fanatics.

After zooming in for a closer inspection Ram noticed the line was filled with homeless people eagerly chattering away and patiently waiting.  It took some time to figure out where the line began.  It began inside the foyer of a very posh looking building, it was the building of a successful and very influential marketing company.  At the forefront stood a stylish bearded man in a suit staring out at the line with timeless eyes.  He was handing out packages that looked to contain a variety of things, one of which being a wad of cash that if Ram was to guess was about 10 G's.  The bloody Tom Hanks' Cast Away lookalike was giving away money to the homeless for nothing, and he couldn't have looked happier!

Ram took note of King Leonidis' face and decided he would keep an eye out for him during his everyday travels around the city.

It had been one year since the unfortunate events of, well, last year.  Matthew's life hadn't gotten any better, nor had his relationship with Ram.  During that time, Ram had decided not to test his visions again until he figured out what went wrong.  He wasnt even slightly nudging people.  He was becoming depressed.

One lazy day after the bearded charity dream Ram was busy ignoring everyone on Sydney's footpaths (because that's what you do in Sydney) when he accidentally caught someones eye.  Someones timeless friggen eye.  It was Gandalf the Generous, sitting on the steps of a building, one hand patting a scraggly dog, the other holding a cardboard sign saying 'I need a dollar, dollar, a dollar is what I need'.  Now that recognition of the man had occurred Ram realised the man had occupied this very spot for months, he had always just ignored him.  

Ram had stopped dead in his tracks, then modified his direction, walked and sat beside the Nighthawk.  What was he thinking, he can't risk ruining anothers life, he hadn't yet figured out why Matthews vision didn't work out.  But, he was depressed, he needed some excitement in his life again, he needed to feel like his life meant something, that he wasn't just another animal roaming the earth for a short period.  Anyway, what could this man possibly have to lose?  His cardboard sign?  

Within a lickity split of time (the time it takes to sit down and gather up the courage to speak to a stranger) Ram had talked himself into putting his visions into motion once more.  

And talk he did, through the spiel he went once more, explaining his talent, and the specifics of the vision.  As it turned out, Conan the Barbarian was quite business savvy and if not for a turn of unfortunate events may well have reached his true vision on his own.  Not only that, but he also possessed an understanding of one potential market that remained untouched, the homeless.  Ram was confident.  He handed Beardface $100 dollars and a number to contact him on so they could catch up and see if anything had changed.

Ram never saw the man again for over a month when his mobile rang from a private number (ugh private numbers).  It was Beardface, wanting to catch up to thank Ram for his advice.  When Ram walked into their meetingplace he found a healthy looking beard with a very smug looking face behind it.  

Turns out Beardface had indeed created for himself a very succesful business.  Hiring his employees/thugs out to clients to complete their dirtywork for them.  Not exactly what Ram had in mind for such an industrious character, but it seemed to Ram that he had given The Beard a chance of success when he was still too bitter with the world to be grateful.  It hadn't exactly backfired, but he had just inadvertantly created a new mafia figure in Sydney, with the business creative mind of a CEO and the street smarts of John Gotti...

Chapter 2 - It's all downhill from here

It was cloudy under a setting sun, looking at the ground from the sky, Ram could see 10 small green tables, only one of them occupied.  There were five people around the table, two were deep in thought, two were just there for support standing slightly behind one of the players, the last was waiting for orders.

At the table, there was the dark sunglasses toting wannabe, there was the dealer and there was one other he could not make out just yet.  As he swooped down he noticed that the third person had the strongest position, chips towered high, with two blonde beauties behind him.  A grin began to form on the man with the posse, he knows he has won.  During the final moments of the dream a beam of light flickered over the face of the last man, It was Matthew Neate...

Meet Matthew Neate.  One of Rams friends in the big ugly city he currently presides in, Sydney.  If Matthew had any friends, they'd nickname him Mathfag, or or, Pyfagorus or... that's all I've got.  But as it is, he's never been that great at making friends.  The reason for this is he is a mathematical genius, think Good Will Hunting, only a lot less smug or sociable.

The two unlikely compadres met at University when Ram was attending a lecture on astrophysics, and by attending I mean he just walked into university and stumbled on a course that piqued his interest because no one should ever pay to go to university.  Anywho, what sparked Ram to pay attention to Matthew was how confident and infinitely happy he was talking about math.  This complete love and surety of math confounded Ram, he had found someone who knew exactly what they wanted to do in life.

It just so happened that Matthew would only need a small nudging to push him onto the perfect path that Ram had visioned in his dreams.  You see, despite Matthew being really very happy with the maths he delved in, the problem was he was very lonely and wished he was as popular as Ram.

Ram met Matthew in a quiet hipster bar to explain his 'theory'.  The idea behind choosing the hipster bar is that most of the patrons were pretending to be stoned and listening to themselves speak which made them much to busy to pay attention to what was being said in the booth beside them.  

'Hey algebrother, whats the hizzyhap?' Ram asked.  

'Well, good, bit bored though to be honest.  Although I do wonder why you've brought me to this place.' said Matthew.

'Without going into the nth degree of detail, I have something very important to speak to you about and I don't want anyone else to hear.  These folk are busy pretending to have puffed on Green's theorem (told you) and speaking about their wacky ideas to listen in to our conversation.  So before you start theorizing on the irrationality of the square root of 2, I would appreciate it if you would postulate on the following wisdom I am about to grant you!'  Ram rambled.

Ram didn't really have to ask Matthew to listen closely, they had been friends for quite a while now and Matthew knew there was something interesting about Ram.  He knew Ram had some special skill that allowed him insight into peoples lives but he just presumed he had some Sherlock Holmes-like deduction skills. He also trusted Ram completely.

- No reply from Matthew - He was definitely listening then.  Good.

'Alright.  Euler' going to enjoy this.  so here's the deal, I know how you can have everything you've ever dreamed of.  Poker.  I've seen it Matthew, you don't know it yet, but you could be a Poker champion.  You could have your Pi and eat it too.  I can't explain how I know, nor can I show you what I've seen, all I can do is explain what I've seen and you will have to do the rest'.  Ram went on to explain the vision he witnessed and how he had signed Matthew up to a local poker tournament scheduled for that afternoon.  It took some convincing, but Matthew eventually agreed given the past miracles he had seen from Ram.

The tournament ran for three hours and of course ended with Matthew the victor. He was beaming, the vibe was ecstatic, no one had seen someone wipe the competition clean so quickly.  Ram was happy too of course, his vision had produced more solid results, but something didnt feel right..

The next day Matthew, still exalted by his win, had no hesitation about his poker 'powers' so strolled down to the bank and got a personal loan for 50 G's.  much more than he could ever afford to pay back.  He continued his swagger to the Casino.  He bounced right up to the high rollers table.  He received deuce aces on his first hand.  He went all in.  He fucked up.  He got beaten by three twos on the river.  He couldn't speak.

Ram didn't hear from Matthew for a week an when he did, it wasn't good.  The dickhead thought he had some kind of poker superpowers.  All the mathematical equations in the world couldn't save someones blind wish that he was special.  Now Matthew was being chased by money lenders, hated Ram intensely and proclaimed that it was Ram who had ruined his life.