Breaking the Fourth Wall

Written by Anakin McFly

Lafayette Hotel. Neo sat in the squashy red armchair opposite Morpheus, listening to the other man talk, trying to grasp the meaning of the words he was speaking.

"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes..."

Neo reached out, when Morpheus spoke again, interrupting him:

"Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more."

Neo took the red pill. He washed it down with the provided water, then waited, wondering if something was meant to happen.

Morpheus sat in the other armchair, unmoving, just staring straight ahead ino nothing as if he were frozen.

"Morpheus?" Neo asked.

No reply.

Neo made to stand up, when suddenly a force slammed against his head and he fell back into his chair, hard. He winced, eyes squeezing shut in pain.

Neo put a hand to his head and tentatively opened his eyes... and at once he knew things were different.

Bright lights shining at him from somewhere. Something dangling a little way above his head – a microphone, and his dazed eyes followed it to where several people – people who just a second ago had not been there – stood at various positions around cameras and computers and...

"Keanu, are you all right?" someone asked.

Neo's fingers gripped the armrest. His head hurt, it hurt, and things were spinning, his whole body shaking, and...

He keeled over and threw up all over the floor.

Someone running over. Voices. The smell of coffee wafting around in the air from someone's cup.

"What's going on?" Neo gasped out, and he wasn't sure he got an answer. His pulse raced, his head throbbing with each beat of his heart, and he didn't know what was going on, what...

-bamf-

And suddenly the people were gone, the cameras were gone, the vomit was gone, the pain was gone, and Morpheus was standing up.

"Follow me," Morpheus said.

"What was that?" Neo was going to say, but then the space-time continuum did a little adjusting, and Neo's short trip out of his universe was forever erased from his memeory, leaving behind nothing more than a lingering feeling that not all was quite right with his world.

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