RELAX and LISTEN, part I

Judith sat down at her desk. Yet another pile of letters from companies wanting to buy her out.

Including Greg.

“Like that’s ever going to happen,” the attractive woman said, brushing her long, black hair back The office was quiet. Everyone else was gone for the night, but this was when Judith enjoyed working. When she didn’t have to worry about noise, or people interrupting her. When she could…

She blinked. That box hadn’t been on her desk this morning. She checked it out and frowned.

The intern must have left it here when she’d been at the meeting. Judish reached down and opened the box up, noticing that someone had already checked it.

Inside were a pair of thick glasses. A cheery pamphlet informed her that this was a new VR system and her company had been chosen to test it out.

Judith was about to toss it to the side when she noticed the logo.

No Way.

Interconnected Systems was the largest tech firm in the city. They’d had some dealings with Judith, and they had pressed to buy her out, but she’d refused.

Could this be a peace offering?

She took the glasses out and held them up to the light. They were clear, a little thicker and she saw what looked like lenses and light emitters built into the frames.

Nothing about how to use them, save for a single small button on the frame.

Judith frowned, then touched it. The glasses flared, and there were words on them, but she couldn’t read them from where she was looking at the glasses.

She shrugged. Not like I don’t have a little time before I go home.

She put the glasses on and stared. The words were a little out of focus. Judith frowned, tapping the frames.

This wasn’t like Interconnected. They never put out something that wasn’t ready for prime time.

She stared at the words, but they were fuzzy, and now she was hearing music. Odd music. She’d never heard it before…

Compelling music.

But the words were still out of focus. Fuzzy.

Judith frowned. She moved to pull the glasses off, but…

Just a moment. The words were getting clearer.

RELAX.

“I am relaxed,” Judith muttered.

The word vanished. And then the music turned discordant. Unpleasant. Judith shook her head. She didn’t like it. Then she saw the word again, out of focus, fuzzy, but…

RELAX.

It blinked.

Judith took a deep breath.

The music returned…

And she sighed. She stared at the word.

RELAX.

She should relax. She liked the music. If she didn’t RELAX, then the music would go away and she didn’t want that. She wanted to RELAX.

Slowly, Judith’s form slumped in her chair, the glaeaming glasses on her face. Her lips parted slightly, as she stared at nothing.

RELAX.

TBC.