Simulacrum

Oxford Dictionary Definition:

sim·u·la·crum

/ˌsimyəˈlākrəm/

noun

• 1.an image or representation of someone or something: "a small-scale simulacrum of a skyscraper"

Simulacrum is a story about a futuristic world in a simulation. The conditions for the simulation changes constantly, but a family bloodline is excluded from the changes. Whether the simulation director knows this or not is unknown, but everything in the world is synchronized with every change.

The Main Characters

Clarise is the primary protagonist who was raised in a broken home. Due to the family condition of not syncing with every change in the simulation, the toll on her parents were severely impacting their mental health. After she ran from home, she learned to look after herself and started a shelter to help other neglected children to survive.

Her dad was born with the gene, so he was immune to the mental problems the situation had on him, but after a while, he stops hiding it and the world thought he went insane.

Clarise's mother somehow contracted the virus-like condition, but to cope with the situation, she started using drugs. Being drugged out most of the time, she neglected her motherly duties and Clarise only saw the abusive part of it. Her mother secretly tried to commit suicide by over-using, and after the dad was admitted at the asylum, she struggled to pay the drug dealers and found alternative ways to pay for her addiction.

Clarise's sister Tracy, was born after Clarise ran away from home. Tracy is a product of their mother's alternative payment system for her addiction. As Tracy got older, her mother started renting her out as an unwilling prostitute, which caused Tracy to develop multiple personalities to cope with life. Each personality has different talents which help Tracy to get what she needs.

Martin runs a small shop in which he has a basket for shelter donations that Clarice empties every day. They are friends as they went to school together before things got ugly. The shop is a family business that helps support the bachelor, Martin as well as his dad with the same name and surname. Whether it's a lack of creativity or a way to keep things simple for the dad is unknown, but we suspect that they're trying to create a brand name.

In the extended story/ screenplay, the relationship between Clarise's dad and his psychiatrist, Dr. Ebertsohn develops on a more personal level where the doctor is can't explain why there's no signs of mental illness, but later finds that there might be a different reality than the one he is used to.

Summary

Clarise runs away from home while her mother lies on the floor from yet another drug overdose. She learns to survive life and starts a shelter for neglected kids. Tracy, Clarise's younger sister who she didn't know existed, flea's home after her mother. Drug dealers raped and abused Tracy all her life as payment for her mother's drug habit, causing her to develop a multiple personality disorder. Each personality help her with separate survival skills and later finds Clarise's shelter.

In the simulation their bloodline live in, they're the only ones who realize that the conditions of the world change constantly, because they're not synchronized with the changes.

Martin has good news about a better living space for them. He found a loophole to write the building of as a tax-deductible, which is more than the rent he would have paid for it. The shelter is excited to move to improved living conditions, but as they go to Martin to collect the keys, another change happens in the simulation, and Martin doesn't recognize Tracy and Clarise at all. The children changed with the simulation, so they're up to speed with what the new conditions are supposed to be, and only Clarise and Tracy feel distraught about what could have been.

Part of another story

I wrote a screenplay with the same name, but starts off with Clarise having an older brother who was sold to a Chinese drug-lord when she was young. He becomes a skillful assassin and the right hand of a leading crime syndicate. After news of his mother's death, he is granted permission to return to home. Nobody knows about his simulation condition, but he wants no other family members to suffer as he did, and takes off on a mission to end his bloodline by murdering the rest of the family.

This short story fits into this part, with a little less detail which wouldn't fit into that section of the story.

Their dad gets killed in the asylum but was aware of everything going on in the outside world. Every family member has the same problem of not being synchronized with the simulation, but each of them have different levels of intensity connection with nature, like birds and trees with which they can communicate. (Think Avatar. Everything is connected, but also serves as the spiritual remains of previous civilizations, warning of upcoming dangers.)

They actually move to the new building, but one morning the change cause the landlords to wonder why these homeless people took over their storage hanger. Tracy's individual survival talents help the kids, along with a irritating older girl who is bisexual, a thief and recovering drug addict, to survive a period when Clarise has a mental breakdown. The girl who is interested in Clarise goes missing, and they later find that she was murdered by a Chinese assassin. It wasn't part of the simulation change, but they notice a hooded figure is spying on them.

The assassin sees that Tracy struggles to take care of the orphans, and secretly starts helping them. He kills Clarise in his apartment and Tracy goes missing.

Interests

I enjoyed writing this story probably the most. I'm fascinated by the mind and how it adapts to a changing environment. Split personality usually happens when children are placed in a stressed situation where they don't see a way they'll survive, and create an alterative personality to protect them. It is an extremely sad situation, but the result is interesting. Trauma is bad, but somehow it is inspiring to know that life finds a way.

Warning

Before reading the story, be advised that the raw emotions of troubled minds get hardened by repeated abuse. It's like telling someone that they're ugly every day. After a while, they don't show the same distraught emotions as they had initially. It doesn't mean they're gone, but they don't show it. The story might be dark, but there is a side of the world that doesn't look and sound pretty. Children find themselves in these situations every day all over the world, but it is also a signal of hope. That you may lose everything you have, but there are also a bigger purpose that could change your circumstances without you noticing it.

It is also a reminder that your reality could sound insane to others, and visa versa. You might not know who is right or who is wrong, but we can always try to understand the other's reality before judging them. The result will lead to either being enlightened about something you didn't know, or you help someone else when they're in a place of darkness.

If you like to read the story, you are welcome to buy the book from our store page. It is available in eBook format at Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, as well as in a Print on demand paperback format at Amazon Paperback. In South Africa, I recommend buying from Takealot.