Mind Taker - Part One

Wandering slowly down the stairs I balance my basket of dirty laundry under one arm, my strides slowing carefully with each step as to avoid any unintended trips or tumbles. My eyes dart anxiously as I make each footfall, shifting from my phone screen and the steps as I anxiously plod my way down to the laundry in the basement.

The sound of the creaking steps and the vague mumblings coming from the various apartments I pass are largely blocked by the small earbuds in each of my ears, the videos playing on my phone ringing out through the cheap set of headphones in a pathetically tinny fashion.

As I reach a landing I let out a sigh, watching as the video on my phone quickly switches to an unskippable ad. I slump a little, my dejected sigh causing my to nearly drop the wicker basket awkwardly wrapped up beneath my right arm.

"Come on..." I groan, rolling my eyes as the ad plays and the little bar at the bottom of the skip slowly creeps across the screen. "Why do you think I want to see this?"

Crisply and artistically filmed footage of people performing various tasks shift across the screen, soft piano playing as each camera pan passes over their given subjects.

An older woman playing piano.

A young man reading a thick series of text books.

A middle aged woman painting with a shaky hand

Each sit with a small back band clipped to the back of their neck, the sleek and slender device resting just beneath the beginning of their hairline and in some shots resting partially obscured by the wearer's own locks.

The older woman seems to play the piano with more and more confidence and finesse as time goes on, the artist's hand steadying more and more wit each cut back to her. The young man plugs his phone into the device along with a small card, looking of a small page of graphs and figures likely mocked up just for the advert.

"Help be the best you with Mind Trainer"

Mind Trainers had been around for a while, though not in the form that seemingly filled my ad-sense in such a way I couldn't avoid. Originally they were a mixture of various pseudo-scientific technologies crammed into a small little headband, blending TENS machines and magnets in a way they claimed would unlock your true brain power and enhance your focus.

While many joked about slapdash nature of the scam product, the Mend Trainer managed to sell enough through the weird world of online marketing to fund the addition of more and more emerging 'technology' regardless of testing.

It seemed like month after month there was a new model on the market filled with various new claims of functionality from being able to mental determine which way was north to improving one's night vision. Strangely enough however, some of these new claims appeared to work. Before long, more and more people sought out these niche devices as what was once just a simply headband shifted to the more sleek and sophisticated black clip as seen today.

Their main breakthrough came with their 'direct access' model, allowing to the device to interface with the nervous system transcutaneously for monitoring and supportive functions. The system rapidly developed seemingly weekly with more and more content updates being pumped out.

Monitoring mental fatigue, enhancing concentration, enabling pain or anxiety relief, and recording one's sleep activity were all quickly added in order to capitalize on the technology. Soon after interfacing with external devices was added as well, allowing for saving of activities for later playback and reinforcement.

While each stride quickly provided new and interesting features, the hasty implementation left much to be desired from a safety standpoint. While some complained of pain or mental fog thanks to the use of the device, the worst was yet to come thanks to a small yet dedicated community seeking to unlock the true potential of the Mind Trainer.

It didn't take long for the sophisticated mental monitoring system to be hacked, the function going far further than most had ever dreamed. With enough power behind it it could access the mind of the user at an impossibly deep level, essentially granting root access to the wearer's brain and consciousness. Of course, the small devices lacked the battery to run at such a high level, even the circuitry and housing would strain under that sort of load. However, it was still possible meddle with one's mind and was only a matter of time before people put it to use.

Rumors soon began to swirl online around Mind Trainers, people asking about some hearsay application called Mind Taker which could unlock the deeper functions of the device. While no one seemed to be able to find, or if they did they said nothing of it, the claims online were enough to force a product recall of various editions of the Mind Trainer in order to prevent misuse.

The claims were rather simple, thanks the improve thermals and hardware of certain limited edition models these specific Mind Trainers could be overclocked to terrifying results. While attached they could strip control of one's body away from them, intercepting the signals the device was merely meant to monitor quite easily with only a fraction of their enhanced power. While trapped inside their own mind the stuck individual could soon find themselves in all manner of horrible situations, the most common outcome being having their body's 'jacked'.

With a second overclocked Mind Trainer a person could link the two devices together, the cables needing to be stripped and remade to enable for the connectors not only handle the additional data but also to bypass the safety features within the wires themselves. With both minds linked it was only a small amount of effort to shift one's consciousness into the paralyzed form of their target. Before long the two minds would find themselves straining to share a single body, the device often times either burning out or shutting off to avoid any damage as the hacked in functions comes to a close.

While the new mind would rapidly asset dominance their former body would be left without much upstairs as a result. More often then not the body would be left with some sort of simple programming rattling around in its empty head, either enough to keep up appearances through following ingrained routines or to simply make itself disappear. Others would give up their former body to another, chaining together body jackings until one of their devices finally melted under the stress.

Inside their now shared brain the victim would rarely find themselves able to express much control as time went on, the mind of the body jacker quickly seizing control in part thanks to the device trying to repair the fractured consciousnesses. Many rumors ran rampant about what happened to the minds with no one ever being able to agree whether they remained an idle passenger in their own body.

Were they just a passenger inside their own body?

Could they somehow communicate with the body jacker?

How much of them was even there if anything?

Did the new mind fuse or consume the old one?

As the rumors reached a breaking point the company quickly shifted to prevent any of these horror stories from coming to pass. Hundreds of units were pulled from the shelves in quiet, each getting replaced with devices bearing far lower heat tolerances before they would cease to function.

However, it didn't stop those with enough time and money from seeking out second hand devices. Those who believed the rumors and desiring that sort of power being more than eager to test and tinker until they got the results they dreamed of.

As I approach the laundry in the basement the ad thankfully stops, the brief pause between the unskippable advert and video allowing me to hear the relatively quiet hallway through the cheap plastic of my ear buds.

The low rumble of the driers seem louder than normal, the rattling of metal on metal and the rubber feet against the tile floor causing me to remove my headphones. I cock my eyebrow as I listen to the machines from down the hallway, the discordant sound leaving me mildly confused.

"Are they all being..." I begin to mutter, freezing up as I hear a pain gasping and grunting coming from within the room. My heart catches in my throat, the dim flickering overhead light in the laundry and flowing out into the hallway only adding to the horror movie vibes that claw at the fringes of my mind.

As I approach I hear the gagging and gasping grow both louder and softer at the same time, the utterances growing weaker and weaker while I draw closer to their source. Steeling myself I poke my head around the corner, my heart skipping a beat and a cold sweat breaking out across my body as I spot...