Passive

"Matthew Stone rolled down the window on his Honda Civic. A homeless woman commissioned him, beckoning him as she came over to his car. She inquired as to his well-being, nodded happily for the dollar and a cigarette, and returned to her position by the road. Not a word, and he noticed it immediately.

He drove on, unaware of his whereabouts, skeptical of the passersby as he reckoned his situation. Who was he in this town?  He had come around career success on a television show a few years back. And things had gotten really unusual for him in his hometown of Smithville.

Matthew pulled into his driveway, rolling slowly over the slight gravel as he noticed his father outside. Raking away in the garden, he seemed to request a conversation. Always morals. Drugs. Accusations. The usual passive-aggressive shit that got his father by in life. Matthew idled by, heading into the garage, able to get away with a brief acknowledgment.

His money still wasn't there. He knew the show was doing well, he had talked with producers and managers over the course of Bad Boys TV starting up. But the money just couldn't come through. There was something about this town...

The people were strange. Why not one mention of his show? Nobody happy to greet him, nobody recognizing him on the street, no one that would even admit Bad Boys TV's existence. Matthew couldn't put his finger on it.  Why the secrecy? Were these people insane?

He remembered the cameras. Satellites, little props placed around his apartment in his dad's house and around Smithville. Reality television, at its finest. He played himself, Matthew Stone, ushering in a new era of bad boy nonchalance. Debauchery, some called it, but he lived by one word, and that's why his life caught on and was put on television, with his inner dialogues put on the screen. Freedom.

Matthew shifted in his armchair, keyboard in his lap, activating a television computer hung on the wall. And that was another thing. No show in this area. Goddamn it.  All he got to see were specks on the internet and a little hearsay out of town.

Bad Boys TV had been on for four years. He had caught on, even done some music and movies, and become a big star. What the hell was up with this town? Why would his father not mention his success, or even admit to it, once? Strange old man, he fit into a town of people just like him. Smithville was turning into a chaos factory of lying lemmings who wouldn't admit to his success.

Puffing a joint, Matthew sat back and turned the screen to his favorite rock band, Constantine. He turned on Passive, one of his favorite songs, and let the cameras do the work as he got high. He could only make one conclusion in his mind.

Fuck those demons."

*based on the music video Passive by A Perfect Circle