Mark and the Machine

Part 6

Mark had a lot of trouble tracking down Wendy. He had tried texting and calling her, but the answering machine he got was for some guy with a thick Eastern European accent. He decided to visit her parents. He drove up to the familiar house, and it seemed similar to how he remembered it, though the front lawn looked less well taken care of.

He knocked on the door.

Wendy's mom answered.

"Hey, is Wendy around?"

Her mom had a look of sorrow. "Wendy doesn't live here anymore, she're probably crashing on someone's couch high out of her mind."

Mark's eyes widened. "You don't mean-"

"Yeah, the last I dealt with her, she broke into our house and stole some jewelry that had been in the family for generations in order to support her drug habit. I told her she could come back when she was clean, but otherwise I didn't ever want to see her in my house again."

Mark tried to process all of this. His girlfriend Wendy - on track to become valedictorian, had become a drug-addict on the streets?

"Do you have any idea where she might be?" he said, desperation creeping into his voice. His device could fix this, he was sure of that, but he needed to find her first.

"I don't," her mom said. "And I'm not really interested in opening up old wounds. I'm sorry, I need you to leave."

She tried to close the door, but Mark tried to stop it with his foot.

"Please," he said. "Just a hint, she was my girlfriend once and I care about her."

Wendy's mom looked sadly at Mark, shaking her head. "You don't want to get mixed up with her, but I can tell you this much. Last I knew, she had a job at the Centerfold Show Club on the edge of town."

Mark thanked her, and walked back to his car. He tried not to let the guilt of where Wendy had ended up eat at him too much. He had completely derailed her life - not on purpose, sure, Jade's interference had just messed with his plans. But he had been selfish, and he should have anticipated something like this could happen.

Mark drove to the Centerfold Show Club, and tried to prepare himself mentally for what he might find inside.

He turned off his car, and walked up to the bouncer.

"I'm sorry," the bouncer said. "We only allow 21 and older her, beat it kid."

Mark pointed the device at himself, and made himself look 30, then turned Global Awareness off.

"My mistake, " the bounder said. "Cover is $15."

Mark paid the bouncer and walked inside. He felt like was descending into the depths of the Earth, and the smell of tobacco and cheap liquor permeated the air. He could hear electronic music of some kind blaring over the speakers, the rhythm something he could feel in his chest. He heard a sleezy-sounding man say, "Give it up for Angel!"

Mark saw an attractive black woman strut onto stage, wearing go-go boots and lingerie. He tried not to get distracted, though his newly returned libido made that hard. He realized a few minutes had passed with him just gawking at her set, before he came to his senses and decided to ask the bartender. He pulled up a picture of Wendy.

"Do you know where I could find this girl?" Mark asked.

The bartender looked at him wearily. "Look, it's our policy not to make stalker's lives any easier."

Mark felt exasperated. He needed to find Wendy!

"Please," Mark said. "It's important, I think she might be in trouble."

The bartender sized Mark up for a moment, and then sighed. "She used to go by the stage name Lilith, but we had to fire her a while back when we found out she was fucking customers in the back rooms for cash."

Mark's heart sunk. "Okay, do you know where she might be?"

The bartender shook his head. "No, although that guy used to be a regular of hers," he pointed at a man who was in front of the crowd, clearly enjoying the show. "I think he used to be her dealer."

Mark thanked the bartender, and waited for the set to finish. The man stuffed some money in Angel's panties, and then made his way towards the bar. Everything about the man was sketchy. He looked like he hadn't bathed in weeks, and he had a greasy look with faded tattoos on him.

"Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, sir," Mark said. "Do you know where I might find this girl?"

He pulled up Wendy's picture.

"Yeah, Lilith. I know her, though she don't quite look like that anymore," he said. "What's it to ya?"

"I'm trying to track her down," Mark said.

The man looked shiftily around, but finally said, "She's staying on my couch, trying to pay back her debts to me. Owe's me a lot of money that one does," he said.

Mark gulped. "Can I see her?"

The man smiled. "Ah, a customer? Sure, $50 and you can have an hour with her."

Mark didn't want to take advantage of Wendy, but he had to find her to use the device on her. He agreed on the price, and the man told him to meet him in a few hours at a particular address.

When Mark pulled up to the location Google Maps led him, he couldn't believe how bad the neighborhood around him looked. Graffiti everywhere, trash bags and loose trash on every corner and the general feeling like the buildings were decaying right before your eyes. Mark walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell which seemed to be completely broken. No sound occurred. He knocked instead.

The same mane as before answered the door, although he looked a little out of it.

"Ah, I almost forgot about you, come right in!" the man said. "Lilith is over there."

Mark walked in, and he couldn't believe all the junk lying around this tiny apartment. Or the *unique* smell. Mark heard moaning in the direction the man had pointed, and curled up in a ball on the couch he saw-

"Wendy," he said, relieved that he had found her.

Her eyes had a faraway look, and she was holding a spray can up to her nose. She pressed the release valve, and her eyes fluttered with a strange bliss as she huffed the bottled contents. Her muscles seemed to loosen, and she lolled about like a rag doll seemingly too absorbed in the experience to notice anything goin on around her.

It was a little hard seeing her like this. She looked unheathily thin, with her clothing hanging off of her like a clothing hanger, she looked dirty and had tattoos covering her arms that did nothing to hide all of the scabbing and scars there. It was like she was wasting away before his eyes.

"Mark," she said, looking unsteadily at him, her head not quite able to rise enough to get a good look at her. Her voice sounded distorted, and strangely husky. "Why'd you come?"

"He's here to fuck you," said the man behind them. "He's all paid up, and I'm sure you wont mind taking a little time from your busy schedule."

She looked at Mark, and without another word started taking off her top, though it was clear she was struggling to find the coordination to do so.

She laughed a strange, almost maddened cackle. "You know who this guy is, Trent?" She was speaking to the man behind Mark.

Trent shrugged. "Who?"

"This is, like, my old boyfriend! He, uh, fuck... it's so hard to think. He's the reason my life turned out this way."

Trent snorted. "You ain't takin' enough credit for yourself missy. He wasn't the one that got you addicted to huffing and meth."

Wendy giggled. "No, you're right. That was you."

"Well, I'll leave you two alone," Trent said. He walked into the other room.

Mark looked down at Wendy. "How did this happen? You were so smart, you had your whole life ahead of you!"

Wendy tried to sit up, but soon gave up, instead rolling her head around so she could see Mark from the edge of her vision. "I wasn't smart, Mark. Not Senior year. It was, like, poof!" she made a sound somewhere between a cough and a laugh. "And then my grades started plummeting. I couldn't remember how to do anything in math, and I started slipping more and more. And you," she pointed an accusatory finger. "You fucked me, and then acted like it had never happened. You really hurt my feelings you know, but..." she laid her head back and closed her eyes. "But it doesn't matter much anymore. I thought that was going to be the worst pain I would ever have to endure, but I know better now. There's *so* much more pain one can experience on the way to the bottom."

Mark felt guilty looking at what Wendy had become. He had been trying to keep things together up until now, to not let the horror of what had happened to his parents and his girlfriend get to him, but it was so hard. He lifted the device, and pointed it at her. Soon. Soon, she would forget all about this, and he would be the only one who remembered all of her pain. At least that was what he hoped.

He pointed the device at Wendy, but noticed that it didn't recognize her biosignature.

"Wendy," he said, softly. "Did you get pregnant some time in the last year?"

She looked around at him, and gave a wry smile. "Yeah, my parents were so pissed. Their perfect little girl, pregnant. I'm surprised it didn't become the talk of the school."

"And what happened-"

Wendy shook her head. "I gave the little brat up. Look at me, I couldn't take care of it. I'm just thankful my drug habit hadn't progressed much further than crack at that point. The doctors said she was a healthy baby girl, all things considered."

Mark tried not to let her words get to him, but his eyes started to tear up. "I'm so sorry, Wendy. I'll fix it. I'll fix everything." He pointed the device at her, and connected her new biosignature to the old data about her. Then he pressed down on the device.

"26, 25, 24..." The scars on her arms disappeared, and her skin returned to a healthier color. Her dangerously skinny form filled out, and she looked like she had a year ago.

"23, 22, 21..." Her breasts started to shrink. Her height decreases slightly.

"20, 19, 18, 17" And she was back to normal - exactly as she had been a year ago. At least in her frame.

The tattoos she had gotten seemed to have survived the transformation process. Besides that, she still seemed quite out of it, though Mark hoped that was just because of the drugs still in her system and not signs of longer term issues she might have to deal with.

He then regressed her mind.

He erased the last year of hardship from her head, and then restored all of her memories from 15 to 17 that he had erased.

"Mark?" she said, looking at him. "Where am I? What is this place?"

Mark helped her to her feet, and sighed. "Wendy, I'm so sorry. I was selfish - I wanted to get back together with you, and so I used this device to make you think you and I were still dating, but it went horribly wrong. I'm hopeful that the tattoos are the only permanent side effect, but I can't guarantee anything."

Wendy looked at her arms, surprised. "What the fuck! These look so trashy, how did this happen?"

"It's a long story, and I'll explain everything soon, but we need to get out of here," Mark said.

Wendy nodded, and the two of them ran out to his car, and were soon driving away. When they got to Wendy's house, Mark pointed the device at her and clicked Global Aware. No one would notice her strange tattoos now. Then he went inside, and regressed her parents a year, so they would forget all about their daughter's downward spiral. It would take some paperwork and a few more uses of the device, but Mark was pretty sure Wendy would be able to finish out her last year of high school and get her life back on track soon.

He wasn't surprised when she refused to speak with him after that. He deserved it, for what he had done to her life.

* * *

Mark was feeling pretty exhausted when he finally got home. His parents greeted him, and he could tell that his dad had recovered greatly since he had last seen him. This comforted Mark a bit.

The doorbell rang after an hour or so, and Mark answered it. It was Jade.

"Hey," she said, looking almost as exhausted as he was. "I just came to give the device back to you."

"Jade..." he said. "How would you feel about staying for dinner."

She smiled slightly at him. "I don't think it would feel right. I stole your guy's lives away from you. Are you sure you would want me around?"

Mark shrugged. "I mean, I seem to have fixed the worst of it. And my parents grounded me and took the device away."

"Makes sense," Jade said. "Are you sure they won't use it the way I did?"

"No," Mark said. "But I think they'll think twice after everything that has happened to them."

"Well, I've still got a device," Jade said, looking at him, a spark in her eye. "What do you want me to do with it?"

Mark smiled. "I mean, if you wanted to you could upend our lives again like before."

"I won't be doing anything like that again any time soo-"

Mark surprised Jade by kissing her.

"Wait, what? Mark, this isn't right! I was your mother for a year," Jade said, pushing him back.

"You were never my mother!" Mark said. "And I can tell you feel the same way."

Jade's gaze softened. "I suppose I'm the only one who knows exactly what you're going through right now. I wreaked some real havok on the guys I dated."

"Why don't you tell me about it after dinner," Mark said.

He turned around, and leaving the door open for Jade to follow him. Mark didn't know what the future held. His parents might stay together, or they might split up. Wendy might never forgive him. Jade might eventually decide she didn't want to entertain a relationship with a boy she raised for a year. But Mark knew in that moment that no matter what happened, he was ready to accept it. What use was it trying to change the past?