Game On Level 0.1

Long had I forgotten about sweltering desert as we sat in the soothingly cool cave. His head was on my lap and my hands were clutching the yawning wound in his torso. My vision was blurred from sand and tears.

“It’s no use,” he gurgled. “This is it.”

His head turned towards the limp body of the monster that did this. Since causing its demise I hadn't gathered the strength to observe it myself.

“Don’t speak like that,” I whimpered. “You’ll be okay. We all promised remember.”

He made a wheezing sound and I pulled him closer. “I’m sorry…I’ll need to b-brea-”

Blood spit from his mouth as he violently coughed. My heart sunk deep into my gut. The tears I had held in for so long burst through the flood gates.

“You can’t…don’t leave me!” I almost screamed, pulling him into a deep hug.

His breathing was slow and shallow. We stayed together like this until his end. Once his chest failed to rise again I lay his head on my lap. He looked so peaceful, so innocent, and so young. Maybe he was just sleeping? I put my hand on his shoulder trying to wake him up. That’s when I heard the wet laughter behind me.

~

Round and round and round.

The fan above my head was lazily spinning and making a bad attempt and cooling me down. Blankets were tangled around my legs as I glared at the ceiling. I tried to will myself out of bed but the blazing Arizona heat sucked the life from my bones. My body was comatose. It was going to take a divine miracle to get me out of bed.

That divine entity came in the form of my tornado like mother. She blew down my room door and forced her way towards my bed.

I lay completely still, the fan still spun.

Mum held a basket of dirty clothes under her arm. The sun had gotten to her too; beads of sweat were ruining her make-up; her deep red dyed hair clung to her forehead as if life depended on it.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she asked, putting the basket on my bedside table.

“Time for my demise,” I said.

“Enough with the gothic stereotyping, it doesn't look good on you,” she said, picking up my clothes from the day before. “Remember you were supposed to meet up with your friend this morning-”

“Wait! It isn’t morning?” I asked, grabbing my phone from under my pillow.

Well done you moron, its one p.m. said the little Alison inside me.

“Come on, Alison, it’s too nice of a day to spend it playing games,” Mum said, chuckling the clothes into the basket. “I called Jason this morning and said you’d be at his for half past. Now get dressed.”

The tornado left leaving less destruction that I first thought.

I made a noise half way between a whimper and a groan. I rose from my coffin of a bed and stumbled to my feet. The shirt I had on was stuck to me like paste.

You are the height of ladyness y’know that? moaned little Alison. I mentally shh’d her, not wanting her antics. She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at me.

Once I reached the bathroom I made myself ‘presentable’. Rubbing a towel into my wet scalp, I strolled downstairs and into the kitchen. I let the towel hang on my shoulders as my wet brown waves rested on the white cotton. Mum stood beside the fridge, making me ‘breakfast’. She turned around and handed me a plate of wafers, a latté and a bowel of ice-cream. I climbed onto the breakfast bar in front of her.

“I put a good amount of coffee into that, enough to wake even you up,” she laughed, taking one of the wafers and used it to scoop up some ice-cream.

I detested the taste of coffee; recently Mum had started to buy lattés which I actually found enjoyable. I gulped it down and forced myself not to gag at the overwhelming taste of coffee. I set down the mug and found myself panting.

Mum bit her bottom lip. She swiftly turned her back on me and I watched as her back vibrated with laughter.

“Hey stop laughing!” I said, rubbing the line of latté from my upper lip.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” she giggled, fanning her face.

I grabbed the plate of wafers and proceeded to devour the ice-cream with them. The soothing ice cooled down my temperature. Once I was finished I sighed in delight.

Mum took away the dishes and dumped them into the sink. She looked rather down that day. Normally she’s extremely hyperactive and chatty. I can almost never eat my breakfast in peace in the morning. However, that day the two of us sat at the breakfast bar in a chilling silence. She held her mug of steaming coffee in her hands, not even taking a single sip.

“Maybe I should just call and say I can’t-”

“Mum, this trip could pay for three college tuition's. To Harvard!” I said. “You need to go.”

“I don’t want to leave you all alone – for a whole week too,” she said, looking down at the counter.

“I’ll be fine. Plus Mr. and Mrs. Dot will check up on me-”

“It’s not you I’m worried about,” she looked up and laughed. “I don’t think I’d be able to spend a week without my baby!”

She rushed over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. Red kisses lathered my face and her embrace made me chock. Once I was blue in the face, she let me go.

“I know you’ll be fine,” she rubbed my head. “You’re more mature than most other fourteen-year-olds…much better than me.”

The two of laughed. It was an uneasy laugh. There was something strange about her laughter. It almost sounded painful. Mum was always a person who’d hide her pain with laughter. That was one of our – rather little – similarities. Unlike her I hid pain with a blank stare. We always lied about our emotions, but never to each other.

I was about to question her fake laughter when she squeaked about the time. Apparently, she was about to be late for some meeting. Before she zoomed out the door she planted another red kiss on my forehead and handed me twenty dollars to add to my already full wallet.

“I love you too!” I called out the window as her car drove out.

For a long time I just sat on the couch. I convinced myself that I was waiting for my hair to dry. In reality, I just wanted my Mum. For some reason there was a lump in my throat. The thought of her leaving for a week scared me. I knew everything would be fine, parties scared me, plenty of money was in my bank account and I’d most likely spend my days glued to a TV screen.

You’re so depressing, y’know that, Little Alison said.

I was about to hush her again when the phone rang. In a panic I answered it.

“H-h-hello,” I stuttered.

“Yes, is Miss. Daphne Amell there?” said a loud voice.

“You just missed her, this is her daughter, can I leave a message?” I tripped over my words and rolled my eyes when I said the word ‘leave’.

“Actually it is regarding your two dogs,” the person said. “Unfortunately, we’re over booked, I’m afraid we’re going to have to return them today.”

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. This type of situation was out of my depth.

“Um..uh…o-okay. W-what time will they be back at?” I asked.

“Someone will arrive with the dogs just after six.”

“Okay then, thank you.” I quickly slammed down the phone.

I was never good at talking on the phone.

Beside the telephone was a pad and pen, I left Mum a note explaining that the dogs would be coming home early. We put them in a kennels for a week. That way I didn’t have any responsibilities for that week. I had a sinking feeling that Mum would definitely be mad at me for giving in so easily. So I quickly grabbed my wallet –along with a small over-the-shoulder bag - and left the house.

The Arizona summer heat set my skin a blaze. As soon as I left the cool indoors the outside rays of sunlight directly attacked me without mercy. I let out a deep breath and fanned my face. I was glad that my hair was still slightly damp as it cooled down my head slightly.

The houses on our street was pretty large – ours was actually the smallest. My house in general looked out of place. This was mainly at the fault of our garden. Neither my mother nor I cared for planting. Everyone else on the street, however, seems to think they’re Helena Rutherfurd Ely. When we first moved here from Scotland someone asked about native Scottish plants and were very surprised that we hadn’t heard of any one of them.

The grass desperately needed to be cut but it would be week before Mum would get around to it.

I unlatched the white picket fence around our house. I crossed the road and reached the back garden of another house. Jason’s house.

When I first moved here Jason’s family greeted us - it turned out Jason went to the same school as me but was in the year above. Since then Jason was always put with me. I knew he really didn’t want me around when we first met, but as we reached our teenage years the two of us started to actually become friends.

I knocked on the backdoor. A blonde woman with the brightest blue eyes opened it and greeted me with a smile.

“Alison!” she exclaimed, gesturing me to come in.

“Hey Mrs. Blue,” I said, nervously smiling and stepping into the house.

As much as I liked the Blue family they always creeped me out. The way they always smiled and never seemed to have any problems scared me. They were eerily perfect.

“Jason and his friend are upstairs, just head on up,” she said.

I nodded and scurried towards the steps when she called me back. “Oh, could you also give these to Jason, I keep forgetting.”

She handed me a block of letters. I took them and continued to go up the steps. I took my time going up them. My curiosity held me by the neck and I couldn’t help but look at the letters. Many seemed like they were from family members who hadn’t understood the creation of e-mail. Then there was one letter which made my heart almost stop.

About a month before Jason and me had entered a competition. I had seen it in a gaming magazine. The prize was first access to a new game which was supposed to be rather revolutionary. I told Jason about this and he suggested we should both enter. Of course I never thought either of us would win.

That isn’t very fair now is it? Little Alison whispered. You were the one who seen it first and you’ve been collecting this magazine for longer than him surely he shouldn’t get this prize.

I gulped. It wasn’t fair at all, she was right about that. Jason hardly even played video games, so why did he win and not me.

In a fit of jealous rage I swiped the letter and shoved it in my bag. I took a second to compose myself before knocking on Jason’s bedroom door.

“Come in!” said a cheery voice.

I entered the room. Two boys sat on a single bed facing a flat screen television. The one on the right was Jason. His hair was a rich chocolate colour and his eyes were the deepest blue I had ever had the pleasure of looking at. Before, he used to have a cute baby like face but in recent years he had slowly started to mold away from that childish look.

Why is your heartbeat getting faster? I mentally kicked Little Alison.

“Hey, Ally!” said the boy on the left.

That was Kern. I’d most likely consider him my best friend – if I was his is another story. When I was eating lunch all alone he was the first person to talk to me, in class he joked with me. His company was something I needed.

“We’re just watching the end of this show,” Kern said, pointing to the TV.

Normally Kern shaved his dark afro like hair, but that day I noticed it was becoming bigger. The heat was taking a toll on him also as I noticed heavy beads of sweat shone on his dark skin.

“The answers China you egg!” yelled Kern.

“What is Russia,” answered the contestant on the television.

“Aw come on!” yelled Jason and Kern at the same time.

The show ended without a winner to the dismay of the two boys. They turned off the TV with bubbling rage.

I handed Jason his letters and he accepted them with a ‘thank you’. For a brief second our fingers touched and Little Alison mocked me.

What, are we in a tween romance flick?

Suddenly my excitement at Jason’s touched turned cold when I remembered the stolen disk in my bag. Guilt set itself in my stomach lathering a stale taste on my touge. I was about to confess when Kern exclaimed.

“Alright then!” he stood up off the bed, slapping his knees. “Let’s hurry and leave before I melt into the sheets.”

Jason chuckled and stood up. “Don’t worry, the car has aircontitioning so we ‘hopefully’ won’t melt into Kern and Alison flavored ice-cream.”

“Oh, on the way there can we get some ice-cream too?”

The two boys started to walk out of the room with me trailing behind. They were laughing but the hilarity seemed so far away from me. I was scared, I had done some horrible.

Don’t get all anxious, Alison, Little Alison tried to reassure me. He didn’t deserve it and would have most likely just given it to you anyway. So stop worrying you cheesecake!

She was right. Jason would have just given it to me. I tried to make myself feel better with that logic but the remorse was still lodged in my gut.

The three of us buckled into Jason’s car.

Sometimes I think back to how everything could have played out if I hadn’t taken that disk. I was a terrible friend back then.