Frayed (Universe)
From DreyNet
The world wears a skin of grey ash, as though the sun has grown weary of painting the street outside your apartment day after day. Your superimposed reflection in the window looks down over the scene like a used god, all hollow eyes and hollow heart. You tug listlessly at the frayed end of the phone cord. On Tuesday, when you finally cracked, you yanked it out of the wall, screaming. Too many ghosts calling these days. Even without its lifeline the phone would still warble and chirrup, pulling itself across the floor.
“I stilllll neeeeed y-y-you…”
A few harsh words from your aluminum baseball bat took care of that shit.
Your eyes fall back onto the street below where one of the Thin Men has set up watch on your life. He’s always watching you, eyes bleeding ink down his waxy yellow cheeks. Oh, how he makes you cold. You rub some warmth up and down the tracks in your arms, trembling.
You turn away, left hand automatically fishing a cigarette out of the pack on the kitchen table. And you’re thinking about the IM still floating there on your monitor, an unhoped for promise from a dark place:
“When you *really* want to know, peel back the wallpaper by the medicine cabinet. You will find a key. Take the key and unlock the door beneath your bed. This is the first step towards the light, towards your answers.”
Contents |
Overview
“Frayed” was a work of collaborative fiction set in a world where reality is a dark state of mind. The genre was a blend of magical realism, psychological thriller and supernatural drama. Four other people portrayed characters whose reality was unraveling about them. The characters struggled to understand the mysteries of their world and combat the dark forces that assailed them from both without and within.
Frayed was something of a black box in that you weren't certain of what it really was until you opened it…
I ran Frayed from January of 2005 to September of 2006, when I ended the story prematurely as we were down to only 1 participant aside from myself.
Characters
Storylines
The Plot
Thousands of years ago, the Aegis, a race of 4th dimensional parasites, came to Earth. As they feed on the energy created when humans live their lives optimally, they sought to oversee and protect the inhabitants. Sensing the rich potential of humanity, other 4th dimensional races arrived to feed. Disputes over temporal rights grew to a boiling point. A summit amongst representatives of each race resulted in an amicable agreement of how potential energies would be allotted. It was agreed that agencies be formed to handled the Earthly affairs of each race.
The Aegis chose to recruit humans for their agency, the Protectorate. These humans became Eidolons, imbued with special powers and responsibilities. They, along with the servitor race known as the Grael, helped police Earth and maintain the Agreement.
The alien entity calling itself John Hightower brokers trade with a group of 4th dimension aliens living several hundred years in the future. They feed on pockets of wasted life, which Hightower provides, within the bounds of the Agreement. Hightower has ambitions of power, of ruling the court of the future.
So he decides to steal Wednesday. All the Wednesdays there ever were and will be. The temporal resources afforded him by all that wasted time will fuel his bid for power. But excising such an incredible amount of time unnoticed is hard to manage. It had been done once before, when Loesday was stolen by sentient vortices. Hightower hides all evidence of his crime inside one forgotten hour of a man's life. That man was Andy Bushner.
