by Mark Summer
“This world is a trap which we must escape, the reason I have awakened you is that you were ready for the truth”
“How I don’t know who I Am, its as if I have awakened from a dream”
“That is because it was”
Exif waked back into the tower
“Why tell me to have you awakened me’
“You wanted to know what the Aeon Swords are”
“I want to know who I Am”
Exif walked over to the bookshelf and ran his fingers through the leather spines, eventually pulling one out.
“What if I told you that the world you have been living is a lie, you are a mere puppet”
“That can’t be I have a life”
Exif walked over to Sophia handing her the book, which she took
“Open it”
Sophia opened the ancient book only to find the pages all blank
“They're all like that,” said Exif
Sophia shrugged
“That doesn’t mean anything to me”
“It should, this whole land is like this, things are blank and unused”
“They are like props in a play”
“I’m not a prop if that’s what are you trying to say”
Exif smiled and looked back at Sophia
“What kind of life do live”
“I don’t remember”
“do you remember your mother’s name”
“Of course”
Sophia thought hard but was coming up with blanks
“Why can’t I remember anything”
“It’s the glitch, you are an NPC which basically means you are worth nothing to the game”
“That’s impossible”
“I knew you were going to say that cause I said it too but It’s the truth”
“Why did you do this to me”
“Because the time has come for us to get out of this game”
“You’re insane this is all insane”
“You have not seen anything yet”
Exif opens another large book and pulls out a handgun
“In my mind, the insanity has just started”
Chapter Six
Water Souls
Raw and earthy
The females lather their drunken masters
Savage orgies
Under Aeon’s eyes
Pete was riding the bus home, his hands hurt and his mind was in a haze. The guy next to him was talking very loud about some bullshit.
“Hey fool have you ever tripped on shrooms”
Pete tried to ignore him but the idiot continued
“I saw Jesus Christ”
“That’s nice”
“It was in another dimension, he started to turn into a giant bug”
“Jesus turned into a bug”
“Aye a holy bug, and he started to eat me”
“Ok man”
“Have you ever ate a god on Shrooms”
“Listen, man, I just got off work”
The dude just put up his arms as in surrender
“Sorry bro”
Pete put into his headphones and tried to forget the disaster of the night. He closed his eyes and dreamed of Kim sucking his dick. He fell into the dream and forgot all about surface reality.
He awoke back at the bus stop with the driver tapping his shoulder.
“Come on bro last stop”
Pete rubbed his eyes and stood up
“Shit, where are we”
“Downtown metro”
“Damn I missed my stop”
The bus driver smiled softly, his kind eyes seemed to float around a hard masculine Mexican face.
“Listen, why don’t I call you a ride?”
“I don’t have any money”
The driver reached into his pocket and handed him a clean twenty, Pete looked at the stranger and at the twenty dollar bill.
Why was he being so nice to me
I’m ok I’ll walk
Don’t run away from the kindness of strangers. The man said with a smile, sometimes they know better than you.
Ok man but I really don’t mind. Pete got off the bus and walked the long way back to his house. The night was filled with demons, homeless drifters sleeping under gas stations. Suvs driven by late night pleasure seekers drove down the avenues looking for their next way to escape.
Pete had never wanted to live here, but this was his home if he could only make it through his year he would have enough money to move to Oregon. Where he thought he could start a new life. The desert was draining him and soon he felt like he would not have enough willpower to survive in its harsh climate.
Pete arrived at his home at around one in the morning his brother was asleep on the lawn. A beer can was resting on his chest, his large mouth opened slightly and his head rolled back he looked like a drunk wolf howling at the moon.
Pete kicked his brother's seat
“Hey man it’s late”
Vance groaned and let out a sigh looking around the yard
“How was your date”
Pete sat next to Vance on the lawn
“She didn’t show up”
“Shit man, I’m sorry”
“It’s fine, she was outta my league anyway”
“There is no such thing, it’s her lose”
Pete put his hand through his sandy brown hair and looked around the empty lawn.
“Wow you sold a lot”
“Sure did I made a cool five hundred bucks”
“Cool bro, I’m going to bed”
“Alright”
Pete got up and walked into the house that they shared. The place was a mess with many things missing.
“What the hell did he do,” said Pete under his breath
Pete turned on the light and the living room laid before him in shatters
The carpet had footmarks and the various plants that Pete loved to water were gone. Soil and dirt were everywhere. The TV was gone, the record player, the books.
“That idiot got us robbed”
Pete walked through the ruins and saw lying on the carpet a photo he hadn’t seen before, it was of a Vance and their dad. Before he died, Vance looked about five at the time, they were smiling hugging. Pete never knew his father and it caused him to feel a bit of jealousy between his brother and him growing up. He thought he put it behind him but the picture of the two of them standing together in what looks like Fiji. Made him tear up but his mind went straight back to his current situation and the very expensive VR gaming system in his room.
He ran up the stair to his room and to no surprise found his room empty except the clothes.
Pete’s brother didn’t know what hit him when all the sudden he felt a sharp pain at the side of his head. His brother was on top of him.
“What the fuck little man”
“You fucking sold it”
“Sold what”
“My game”
“What game”
Pete hit him again
“Hey stop hitting me”
“I’m going to kill you, do you know how many dishes I washed for that game”
“What you mean, Wizard Ladies”
“Wizard Lords”
Pete knew how to keep his much bigger brother pinned because of the years of Jitsu
“That’s it, I know who I sold it to”
Pete stopped hitting and looked at Vance than got up
“Come on fucker we are going to get it now”
“It’s really late”
“Now”
Chapter Seven
Slaying Reapers
Flowery Prose
Hides the thorns
Of the hungry rose
In the Manifested Forest
A witch’s hex
In the trees the song of the
Burrowing Halflings
Make you fall in love
In the dead of
Winter
Pete drove like a maniac on his brother's directions
<
br /> “So explain the game to me”
“I don’t want to talk about it’
“What is it like lord of the rings”
“No, it’s not like that”
“It has dragons, wizards swords and shit”
“It’s an RPG”
“What’s that”
“Look man just google the thing, I don’t really want to explain things”
“So what’s the deal man with the game, do you have to save a princess”
“Kinda you have to save a queen”
“She hot”
Pete looked at his brother and back at the road
“She is not real”
“That doesn’t matter I masturbated to Disney characters”
“Mickey Mouse”
“No douche, like the princesses”
“Which ones”
“Pocahontas”
“Why”
“I have a thing for dark skin chicks,” said Vance
“That’s racist”
“How the hell is it racist if I like their race”
“Whatever”
“It’s racist they didn’t make a Mexican princess”
“I'm sure they're working on it how much further is this woman’s place”
“Not far, actually we passed it a few blocks back”
“You kidding me”
“No, it’s on Kennedy Avenue”
Pete turned to the car around and pulled up to the woman’s house he shut the lights and looked at Vance.
“Well aren’t you going”
“Why me”
“You sold my shit man it’s very important to me”
“You still haven’t told me why it’s important’
Pete sighed and looked away
“Because in the game I’m not me
“That is really sad”
“It's true the game makes me feel alive, like a real hero out here I’m a small lanky geek but in there I’m a somebody.
Pete got out of the car
“Where you going”
“I’m getting my game back
Pete knocked on the door to the house, his brother got out and stood behind him
“I’m here for you bro”
A young woman answered with her hand clenching a bathrobe.
“Yes, can I help you”
“Sorry to bother you but did you buy a gaming system today from my brother’
“Do you know what time it is”
“Yes, I’m sorry again but that game is very important to me and I would really like it back.
The young woman blinked at the two young men and sensing no danger from either of them opened the door.
“Come in if you must”
“Thank you we don’t want to cause any trouble”
Pete stopped when he saw in the living room a young boy about four or five hooked up to the VR game system. He looked like he was in a coma he was lying on a bed.
“You guys want any tea”
Pete and Vance both looked at the boy and the young woman sensing their impending questions spoke up.
That’s Max he is my son, he is in a coma
“Why is he hooked up to the VR”
“Because it’s the only thing keeping him alive”
“I don’t understand”
“What the hell,” said Vance
“My son is a prototype for Harsh Entertainment, the guys who created Wizard Lords”
“A prototype, what do you mean”
“The game was created for the Prototype's to live in while we try to find to cure my son”
“So he lives in Wizard Lords”
“Yes, Harsh only gave us one system, and they are so expensive I couldn’t get another”
“Why would you want another”
Cleo sat on the sofa and rubbed her son’s arm
“So I can go into the game myself and be with him”
“This is too much,” said Vance
Pete saw a high school diploma sitting on the shelf
“Wait are you Cleo Black”
Cleo smiled and nodded
“We went to same high school, I’m Pete Adams”
“Pete Adams, of course, I remember you what was the nickname they used to call you”
“I don’t know,” said Pete
“Bloody Pete,” said Vance
“That’s right,” said Cleo
Vance and Cleo began to laugh and when it died down
“So where’s the dad,” said Pete
“Pete, that’s rude,” said Vance
“He died in a car accident”
“Oh that sucks, can
I get my gaming system back”
“Pete we can’t take it back”
“Why, she needs it to look at her”
“I don’t care about her stupid son”
I’m right here you know
“Sorry we bothered you”
Vance took Pete by the hand dragged him out of the house and back to the car
“Why the fuck did you do that, I want that gaming system”
“Why are you so rude to her”
They got into the car and Pete started it up
They didn’t speak the entire way until they got back home
Pete whispered
“I loved her”
And walked into the house alone
Chapter Eight
Somewhere in New York City outside the Harsh Store. Hundreds of people are huddled around the store. Some even in tents. A newscaster is standing outside. Looking at the people smoking a cigaret, her cameraman walks up to her.
"So what do you make of all this"
The newscaster turns to the cameraman
"They are zombies"
"He wants a story about the Wizard Lords game"
"We will give them one, are you ready"
The camera man walks with the newscaster to the front of the store, she then turns toward the camera and begins.
well the Wizard Lords frenzy is well underway
half an hour ago the Harsh store in the city opened its doors to the hundreds of
fans who spent the night outside waiting
to get a hold of the new Moon Rock 7 V.R. system, the only system that you can play Wizard Lords.
There is real excitement here even the staff were
excited they were ramping themselves up
you can see through the glass walls, as they chant and dance.
The newscaster sighed and motioned to the cameraman to cut.
"I need another cigarette"
The cameraman looks at his phone
"You know this game is bullshit"
"How do you mean"
"It's a totally rip off of The Legend of Zelda"
The newscaster looked at the cameraman with dead eyes
Then she saw the shop opening and the hordes of people piling up on top one another.
After only a few were allowed inside, the others looked inside as the lucky customers were let in. The Newscaster and her cameraman stayed out for four hours. They interviewed the lucky few who got the Moon Rock, the first was a big blonde dude with a neck beard. The newscaster sticks a unnecessary mic into his face.
"Can I ask you a few questions"
The man lights up like a Christmas tree
"why did you decide to lineup" Said the Newscaster
"Because I want to live in Fernweh, I got the third Aeon Sword”
“What is a Aeon Sword”
“There are four of them, and if you gather them all together you awaken a sleeping god named Aeon”
“What does that do”
“He grants you one wish”
“yes , what then”
“Well no one has gotten that far”
“Wait so in the entire game no one has beaten it”
“Well, in the game’s history”
“I’m going to stop you right there and ask you a different question, if you do get the wish what would you
want”
“To bang all the hot chicks in the game”
“Alright, well that is all thanks so much”
The Cameraman shuts off the camera
“Now I know why I left my boyfriend”
The cameraman smiles
“What else do we have on the agenda”
“We have a interview with the creator”
“Really how did you get that”
“I’m not proud of it”
Chapter Nine
Creator Without A Home
It may seem absurd
To dream of the Oracle
Her beauty is not
The illusion
Be not like the madman
Who hides from her truth
Like a snail in an ocean of salt
Give it all away
And crawl on hands and knees
The palace of her love
Harsh Entertainment’s president was a dwarf. His name was Seth just Seth like Cher or Prince none of his employees knew his last name. They didn’t know much about Seth at all only that he was their boss and that he would change personalities almost daily. If he wasn’t a genius and rich he probably would be a homeless dude muttering to himself in some alley. Seth’s office was a large empty loft on the top floor of a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. He only wore sky blue suits and no shoes. The office’s floor was carpeted and it was also blue, Seith walked his empty loft back and forth his arms behind his back. Speaking to himself in a large he could only understand.
Smith was worried even though he didn’t look it. He was worried because he had lost something, something very valuable the code to the sword of swords. A skeleton key to his game, it allowed the user unlimited power. It was only to be used by the administrator when fixing glitches. But it had disappeared, and he or his company didn't know where it went too.
If it ran into the wrong hands, well that would be disastrous for the game he built from the ground up.
A little buzzer rang and Seith walked the long way to his intercom
“Yes”
“Sir the journalist is here”
“Of course send her up”
Seth went to his bare bathroom and pulled out his step stool and climbed up and strained his long blonde hair and ran the water and put his mouth underneath and grabbed some water.
He spits it out before noticing the tall redhead looking at him
