Networked: A gripping sci-fi thriller

by LK Chapman

Lily drank some coffee and shook her head. ‘I don’t want to go out.’

  ‘Look, I’m sorry if I frightened you yesterday when you wanted to talk to the journalists,’ I said, ‘but you understand why I did it, don’t you?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’

  I watched her swirl her coffee round in the mug and wondered what to say.

  ‘You just need to distance yourself from Interface, from Affrayed, from everything,’ I said in the end. ‘All we can do is stick together, right?

  Lily looked at Dan, and then she nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said.

  I thought that things couldn’t possibly get any worse, but before we’d even finished our coffee I heard more knocking on the door. I assumed it was journalists again and was inclined to ignore it, but then I heard the sound of the letter box being pushed open and Lily’s dad’s voice calling, ‘Lily, are you in there? Lily?’

  ‘You can’t be serious,’ I said.

  Lily ran down to open the door and I followed a few paces behind her, while Dan hung around at the top of the stairs. But the first thing I noticed, before Lily even opened the door, was that the two frosted glass panels seemed to have something red on the outside of them. And sure enough, once Lily had opened it, I saw that somebody had daubed the word “murderer” in red paint, right up the length of the door.

  Lily hadn’t noticed though. In fact, she seemed so taken aback by her parents and the group of reporters behind them that she took a step back and collided with me.

  ‘Lily!’ her mum said, with a mixture of relief and chastisement. I could tell she was angry. She was even standing aggressively, her shoulders thrown back, a pair of gold heels bringing her almost up to my height. She was dressed in smart white linen trousers and a voluminous yellow, gold and white top pinched in sharply at the waist, and as she fixed her eyes on Lily she pushed a pair of large, showy sunglasses up into her dark hair. Just the expression on her face was enough to make me place a protective arm around Lily’s waist. But if anyone had come looking for a fight, it was Lily’s dad. He looked every bit as unpleasant as he always did, his body stuffed into a short-sleeve striped shirt that strained around his thick neck, and his head was red all over, his eyes glinting in his fleshy face. I noticed he’d placed one of his big, rough hands on the door frame, like he was expecting me to shut the door in his face and was already trying to stop me.

  ‘I don’t want any trouble,’ he said, which seemed like a really bad start, ‘but we think it might be best if Lily came to stay with us until all this,’ he waved his hand at our front door, ‘dies down.’

  With his gesture, Lily turned for the first time to look at the outside of our front door, and when she saw what was written there she let out a sort of wail and buried her hands in her hair.

  I could see we were making a real scene, but Lily’s parents loved Lily’s distress- I knew they did. They didn’t care how much pain it caused her, they just wanted to turn her against me.

  ‘Let’s take this inside,’ I said.

  I was worried they’d refuse, but thankfully they stepped indoors, and Dan darted back into the living room. When we joined him I could see he was hiding the pad containing the drawings of Lily, and I remembered it had still been open on the desk. Inwardly I heaved a huge sigh of relief. If Lily’s parents had seen those images, I had no idea what they would have done.

  When Lily’s parents saw Dan they stopped for a moment, surprised to find him there. They’d met him before, but not since mine and Lily’s wedding, so he started gracelessly saying hello and reminding them who he was. But I could see they were looking round at all his stuff heaped in the corner of the room and the duvet and pile of clothes on the sofa.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘let me just...’ he started shifting the stuff off the sofa so they could sit down. But neither of them made any move towards it.

  ‘Are you living here?’ Lily’s mum asked him.

  ‘Yeah, I... just for a few... uh-’ he looked at me desperately.

  ‘Mum, don’t,’ Lily said, ‘Dan’s just staying with us for a little while until he gets himself sorted out.’

  ‘Why can’t he live with his own family?’

  Lily threw her hand over her mouth as if it was her who had said it and looked across at Dan who was frozen to the spot, with no idea what to do with himself.

  ‘Why don’t you sit down?’ I said to them, trying to diffuse the situation. ‘Can I get you a coffee? Or a tea?’

  ‘It’s alright,’ Lily’s mum said, ‘we’re not staying.’ She turned to Lily, who was standing against the wall, halfway between me and her parents. She had her arms folded tightly across her chest and was staring resolutely down at the floor.

  ‘Lily, wouldn’t you prefer to come and stay with us for a few days?’ her mum asked, ‘you don’t want to be here with all this going on, do you? You won’t even answer our calls. We’re worried sick about you.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Lily said.

  ‘Well, you don’t look fine,’ her dad chipped in. He walked over to her and tried to pull her away from the wall, and as she tried to push him away from her she ended up inadvertently showing him the back of her left arm, where the new cut from the night Dan had drawn her was plainly visible. It was just a little line of red, no more than two or three centimetres long, but to Lily’s parents it was all the ammunition they needed.

  ‘Did you do this?’ he asked her.

  Lily’s mum walked over to see what he was talking about, and the second she saw Lily’s self-harm she looked at me and said, ‘look what you’ve done! Your stupid game has made her ill again.’

  Lily snatched her arm away from them.

  ‘It’s nothing to do with Nick!’ she said, ‘why do you always blame him? It’s not his fault, it’s me. This is what I’m like!’

  ‘Are you happy with what you’ve done?’ Lily’s dad said to me, ‘you’ve messed with my girl’s head from the day she met you. Look at the state of her!’

  Right on cue, Lily burst into tears, and I exchanged a look with Dan. He was still standing in front of the sofa, watching everything unfold. I’d told him before how Lily and her parents wound each other up something crazy, and I could see he found what was happening as ridiculous as I did.

  ‘This is never what you used to be like,’ Lily’s mum said to her, ‘you were always such a happy baby.’

  I almost laughed in disbelief. Lily was twenty-six years old for fucks’ sake.

  ‘Look,’ I said, ‘If Lily wants to spend some time with you, that’s fine. But if she wants to stay here, I’d appreciate it if you could respect that.’

  Lily’s mum spun round to face me. ‘Are seriously suggesting she’s better off here, with you?’

  As always, my first instinct was to say whatever it took to calm the situation down, but this time I’d absolutely had it with them.

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying,’ I said.

  Lily’s mum stared daggers at me for several seconds, then she turned back to Lily with a dismissive little laugh.

  ‘Lily, come on,’ she said, ‘can’t you see this isn’t good for you? Look at what you’ve done to yourself. All this stress would be hard enough for anybody.’

  ‘I’m not leaving Nick,’ Lily said.

  Lily’s mum was impatient. Things weren’t going her way and she stood in front of Lily, one hand on her hip.

  ‘For God’s sake, we’re not telling you to leave him, we’re saying you need a break. Why’ve you got to make everything into something it isn’t?’

  It was quite obvious to me that Lily had only meant that she didn’t want to leave me for a couple of days not forever, but Lily’s mum had just interpreted it in whatever way meant she could have a bigger argument.

  ‘Well that’s what you really want, isn’t it?’ Lily said, ‘you’ve always just wanted to get me away from him. But he’s my husband and I love him!’

  She rushed over and put her arm around me, looking back at her parents. ‘I don
’t want to stay with you,’ she said to them, ‘I know you’re looking out for me, but I want to stay here.’

  ‘I always said no good would ever come of this whole games thing,’ Lily’s dad said, looking me up and down. ‘If you’ve got any kind of decency you’ll let Lily come with us. She can hardly be expected to live in these conditions, with the press hanging around outside and people writing graffiti on your door. What’s going to happen if it’s bricks through your window and death threats?’

  ‘Lily,’ I said, ‘what do you want to do? Do you want to go with your parents or do you want to stay here?’

  ‘I want to stay here.’

  I looked at Lily’s parents. ‘You heard her,’ I said.

  They wouldn’t have it though, and continued to argue. If it was my parents, I’m pretty sure they would have just asked me something, listened to my answer, perhaps had a bit of discussion and we would have come to a nice, calm decision. But not so with Lily’s. In the end both her and her mum were in tears.

  ‘I think you should leave,’ I said, when Lily was practically incoherent and I was worried she’d agree to go with them just to make it stop.

  ‘Not without Lily,’ her dad said, and he took hold of her arm.

  ‘Let go of her,’ I said, and I noticed that Dan came round from the other side of the sofa to stand by my side, presumably to back me up, if necessary.

  ‘Please!’ Lily said, ‘I want to stay. I don’t want to upset you but I want to stay.’

  Lily’s parents carried on pulling her towards the door and I could hardly believe what they were doing. Were they actually going to drag her kicking and screaming from the flat?

  Dan and I followed them out into the hall, where Lily’s dad let go of her and she sagged against the wall.

  ‘You really want to stay here, do you?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well that’s fine then. You stay here.’ He gestured towards Lily’s mum, who was still in tears. ‘Look how much you’re upsetting your mum,’ he said, ‘I can’t think how many times I’ve had her crying over you. And your sister’s in a right state as well, we’ve had her on the phone, practically hysterical. She’s seven months pregnant; all this stress you’re causing is going to make her ill. Not that you care, do you Lily? You’ve never even bothered to call us and tell us what the hell is going on. I would say that I can’t believe how thoughtless you are, but I can believe it. Never happy unless you’re the centre of attention, are you girl?’ He gestured towards the scars on her arm. ‘They say all this is because you’re unhappy, because you’ve got problems, but what about us, huh? You think this is fun for us, having to run round after you all the time, like we don’t have our own lives? There is a limit to sympathy, Lily, and the way you carry on you’ve just about-’

  ‘That is enough!’ I said, ‘you can get out. Right now. Both of you.’

  I took a step towards them and Lily’s dad took a step towards me.

  ‘Stop it,’ Lily said, quickly putting herself between us. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said to her dad, ‘is Poppy okay? I’ll come, if you want me to.’

  She took a step towards the stairs.

  ‘No, Lily,’ I said, ‘you’re not going anywhere with them.’

  ‘I don’t want to upset anybody,’ Lily said, ‘I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Lily, you come home with us now, or we’ve had it with you,’ her dad said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Lily asked.

  ‘I mean that I don’t want you messing up our family anymore. You stay here and take your chances with Nick if you want to. But if you do that, I don’t want to see either of you at our house again, you understand? That’ll be the end of it. I’m absolutely sick to death of you and all your dramas.’

  Lily let out a little cry, and I could see this was a step too far for Lily’s mum, as well, but the words having been said, she couldn’t really stop it.

  ‘Make up your mind, Lily,’ her dad said.

  Lily rushed back over to me and clung to my hand. ‘I choose Nick.’

  He looked at her closely for a few seconds. ‘You always were a stupid girl,’ he said.

  He took another quick look at me, face full of contempt, and then turned back to his daughter. ‘I hope the two of you are very happy together,’ he said.

  He strode off down the stairs without a backward glance, and Dan and I had to grab Lily when she began falling to her knees. For a little while, her mum stood looking at her, not wanting to go.

  ‘Julie, come on, we’re leaving,’ Lily’s dad said.

  Chapter 42

  ‘That was insane,’ Dan whispered to me. Lily was lying on the sofa with her arm flung over her face, and in the absence of any better ideas of how to make her feel better, I stood in the kitchen making her some breakfast. ‘Are they always like that?’

  ‘They have their moments.’

  ‘Fuck me,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘It’s like being back at my house again.’

  Lily had gone through so much trauma that I was beginning to get quite scared for her. She ate a little of the toast I’d made her then threw the plate down and ran into the bathroom, though she wasn’t actually sick. I went and joined her as she sat crouched by the toilet, her back against the wall, and a few seconds later Dan came in too.

  ‘I’ve lost count of how many times my mum has threatened to disown Robyn,’ he said, ‘but she never means it.’

  ‘They hate me,’ Lily said, ‘you heard them. Dad said I’m stupid, he says I’m ruining their family. And it’s true. I’ve been an awful daughter. They’ve had nothing except pain and disappointment from me.’

  To be honest, I was so enraged by how they’d treated her that I’d be happy if I never saw either of them again. But they were her parents. No matter what they did she’d still want them in her life. So I swallowed my own feelings and tried to reassure her. ‘It’s me they really don’t like, Lily,’ I said. ‘And I’m not all that surprised. Look at what’s happened because of me.’

  ‘It’s not your fault.’

  ‘Look,’ I said, ‘I know they’re angry right now, but I think when this has all calmed down they’ll soon come round.’

  ‘I want to play Affrayed,’ Lily said, and it was as though she’d taken a knife and stabbed me.

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘To forget,’ Lily said, ‘to make all the pain go away.’

  I eventually persuaded Lily not to play but she soon became withdrawn, and instead of the three of us growing closer through what had happened, Lily and Dan disappeared into their own little world, stupefied by distress, and seemingly unable to do anything except huddle together on the sofa.

  Meanwhile, I tried to keep it together. There had to be a different way of figuring out what the Network was. I told myself over and over that there would be a clue in the stories about the suicides, that if I kept reading anything I could find that related to them then eventually there would be something, some missing piece that would make it all make sense. I felt like I was close, sometimes, like all the components were there, and that suddenly they’d shift and I’d see the full picture.

  But the stories contained very little about the player’s experiences with Affrayed. There was stuff about the circumstances of the suicides- every single person had died by jumping from something- cliffs, bridges, and most frequently from tall buildings. They’d all done it at the same moment, as far as anyone could tell, and yet there was no evidence of communication between any players that was to do with arranging the time or the method.

  Aside from that, I looked at the obfuscated code again and I looked at Dan’s picture again, but I didn’t want to risk playing the game and finally I had to accept there was nothing. The only thing we could possibly do was try to communicate with Interface, and since I wasn’t keen to do that myself, I had to try to get something useful out of Lily.

  ‘You’ve talked to Interface,’ I said to her, ‘he’s shown you things. I know not much of it made sense
, but what about your dream, at least? Can you try to explain it to me? Or draw it, if that’s easier?’

  She looked at Dan and then she drew her legs up onto the sofa to hug her knees. ‘I don’t think I should tell you,’ she said.

  ‘Why not? For God’s sake Lily, you and Dan are in danger. Other people are in danger.’

  I could see I was reaching her.

  ‘You won’t... you mustn’t be angry,’ she said.

  ‘Angry about what?’

  ‘What I tell you. I don’t know what it means. I don’t think it will happen-’

  ‘What, Lily? Just tell me!’

  For a little while she looked at me and I was scared she’d refuse, and then, almost imperceptibly, she nodded. But just before she opened her mouth I saw her eyes change, and she became dreamy and distant.

  ‘You’re not ready,’ she murmured, ‘that’s why I can’t tell you. But you will be. If I trust him, you will be.’

  I was so appalled I shook her.

  ‘Lily, don’t listen to him! Just tell me what it is!’

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘we’ve all got our journeys. Mine and Dan’s is just a little different to yours. But one way or another, we’ll all end up at the same destination.’

  ‘Stop it,’ I said. I could see now that it wasn’t only Lily who was with Interface, Dan was too. He was with her.

  ‘No!’ I said, ‘stop it, both of you! What are you doing?’

  But it was useless. Without my even being involved in it, without a single word of discussion, they’d both made their commitment to Interface, and as long as they carried on, any chance I had of reasoning with them was over.

  …

  With the two of them no longer able to have a sensible conversation with me, I had no choice but to watch helplessly as Dan picked up his laptop, Lily picked up mine, and they logged in to Affrayed.

  They played for hours on end with barely any breaks. Sometimes I watched them, though the sight of them was disturbing and I didn’t like it. Both of them had the same vacant, glassy-eyed expression that I’d come to associate with the game, but it seemed even worse now, like they were in even deeper. They seemed to be involved in some mission against the Renegade Shadows, and although I felt the least interested I had ever been in playing Affrayed, it did strike me how Lily and Dan not only had their hands completely still, but that they appeared to be coordinating their actions very efficiently without speaking a single word to each other. Not only that, but a few of the other people they were working with from Outbreak seemed similarly well choreographed- the whole thing so clean and well organised- their attack on the Renegades like a beautiful, serene dance.