Authors: Thom Parsons
Manipulator (50 page)
"Owen," she said seriously, staring deeply into his eyes. "Who is this?"
Owen sat upright once again and picked up the photo from the table, holding it out in front of him so that he could see it properly. His expression changed slowly as he eyed up the photo. "That's my wife," he said awkwardly as he stared at the crystal clear picture in his hand. He raised his eyes above the photo and looked back at Victoria, confused as to why she would ask him such an odd question. "That's Annie," he said to her.
"No," Victoria said, speaking softly. With one single word, she managed to shatter Owen's perceptions. He moved his lips to reply back to her, but nothing came out of his mouth.
"No, it isn't," she said again, reinforcing her statement as she saw that Owen was unable to reply.
Don't believe her Owen.
He said to himself.
It's another one of Veridian's mind games.
"There was one last trial we ran on you," Victoria admitted, bringing something entirely new to the conversation. "We used PRoGRaM to change your entire perception of Annie Archer. You think that this is her in the picture?"
Owen nodded to her, still unable to summon the words to reply.
That's why all of the photo's of Annie in my apartment were gone. I didn't smash the place up after all…
"You're wrong," Victoria told him forcefully. "Of all the different things that we did to you, I thought that this one would be the one that failed. But I was wrong. It worked… and it worked well."
Owen threw the photo of the woman that wasn't Annie down onto the table, immediately noticing that Victoria now had her hand resting on top of the weapon that sat between them. He quickly looked up at her and suddenly something inside him
clicked
.
A tear began to run down Victoria's face as she spoke emotionally. "Owen, you don't even recognise your own wife anymore… even when she's been sat in front of you,
this entire time
."
This is the end.
“Goodbye, Owen,” Annie Archer said before raising the weapon and pulling the trigger.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Author’s Note / Special Thanks
Well… how about that?
I’ll start on a more serious note. I’d like to say thanks for buying and reading this book. I seriously hope you’ve enjoyed this story. It’s been an epic journey in writing. I don't write full time, it’s just a hobby. That’s probably why it’s been well over four years in the making.
Four years!!
So for now, I’m going to sit back and enjoy the fact that it’s finished. Self-published authors like me with small time books sink or swim purely based on reviews. If you've made it this far, I'd love it for you to leave me a review on this book's Amazon page.
Also, I’ll tell you another thing for sure. A sequel is looking possible, but don’t get expecting it anytime soon! (Lets call it two years?)
Thanks to everyone who read all the different edits of the novel along the way. A big shout out to the following people. You all contributed in some way to the final book, whether through editing it or just plain reading the different versions along the way.
Georgina Harper
Natt Wilcox
Emma Bourne
Katie Bourne
Nicola Dann
Tomo Armitage
Also, Thanks to the following three members of the coolest band in the world (Ash) for letting me use some of their song lyrics as an introduction to Part One of this book.
Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray
Finally, I'll admit that I'm curious to see who downloads and reads this book. So… if you don't know me, and you read (and enjoyed) this book, follow me on twitter? Or drop me an email? It would be really cool to hear how far out this story has gone.
@thom_parsons
Unit next time…
Thom Parsons
September 2014
Artwork
That cover is pretty cool right? I can't take any of the credit for that. It was actually made up for me by a group called
Aliseiro Designs.
The guy who runs it is an old friend of mine, a professional graphic designer called Matthew Southall. He does loads of cool things with photoshop.
Need something designed? A poster? TV graphics? A DVD cover? Contact him and see what he can do for you.
He had to put up with my constant tweaks for the cover, and won't settle until it's perfect. Contact details below!
https://www.facebook.com/aliseirodesigns
About the Author
Thom Parsons is a self-published author from the West Midlands. He works full time at a computer company where he likes to argue about chairs. He writes as a hobby in his spare time, but only when he’s not forced to do the washing up. Manipulator is his first novel, yet not his last.