It's Only a Game

Our tale begins in a house like any other, in a neighborhood like yours or mine. Meet Kevin Mintz, or Serpentine, as his fans know him. He was a streamer, playing all the latest and hottest videogames released, some solo, mostly with his online friends. Now he wasn't exactly the face of health, having what could be described as a pot belly, despite being skinny all over, with a beard that was long enough to cover his neck, and wore green clothing to keep the snake/reptile theme he had built.

“Come on, one more push…” He spoke into his headset’s mic as his in-game reptilian avatar ran ahead and started a team fight against the enemy team. His streaming chat went by fast, a mixture of messages ranging from a cheer for him to win, some folks saying he's gonna lose, and others saying inappropriate jokes that'll lead to a ban. Serpentine’s allies joined, aiding his character, 84% of his health remaining, being tanky from the others.

RING… RING… RING…

“Oh! Give me a second, guys.” Kevin pulled out his cellphone, answering it immediately, knowing who it was. “Uh, hi, mom. I'm sorta in the middle of streaming at the moment.”

“Kevin…” her mom's voice spoke, a bit raspy from old age and smoking cigarettes. “You know those video games are violent.”

“Mom, I'm 26 years old. This is my career! And this is all fake; I'm not hurting anyone.” He said, as his avatar ripped off an enemy player's head, blood pouring everywhere like it's an out of control hose. “Oh! We're nearly there!”

“Kevin! Pay attention to me! Your father and I are worried about your health. Now leave your game and-”

“Yeah, love you, bye!” He hung the phone. His chat laughed at him for that. “Hey! We're still winning! Only way they could win is if-” his videogame avatar, and his allies, all let out a scream of agony, before bursting into bloody puddles, as the enemy team’s skeleton mage stood over them victoriously, with a small army of skeletons behind him. “... That happens.”

DEFEATED

Kevin slumped back into his chair, baffled, rubbing the temples of his head. Another defeat. Also from the same Skeleton mage player; LichLobber. A part of Kevin wanted to yell, but instead, he took a deep breath, sitting back up, seeing how long he had streamed for. 4 hours. Looking at the clock; 3PM. Good enough.

“Alright, I think that calls it for today.” he said, rubbing and clapping his hands together. “I hope you enjoy this, and LichLobber, I swear, I'll get to you soon!”

Click.

Screen off.

Back to silence, and a mild headache. ‘This LichLobber appeared just a month ago, and seems to be in every match he's in.’ Kevin thought. ‘Maybe I just needs a break from this game and stream some ARPGs.’ He stood up and made his way down to the front. Some fresh air will do.

“Aye! Kev!” A familiar voice spoke from the other end of the hallway. “You heading out?”

“Yes, Steve.” Kevin answered, slightly annoyed, knowing what he's gonna say.

“Can you get me a pack? I'm down to the last few ciggies.”

“Due, you're 35, why not go get them yourself?”

“Why don't you get a real job?” A bit of silence fell between the two. “Yeah, that's what I thought. Go get me some damn cigarettes!”

Kevin didn't reply, walking out of the front door, with the sun’s light hitting him in the face. Steve was, as Kevin would put it, a lazy ass, who worked at the local AutoZone. Though neither owned a car, in a way, walking helped saved them more money, just enough to pay rent. Though, much to Kevin's anger, Steve paid more, and would flounder how much he had left to buy whatever he wanted.

‘I make money too.’ Kevin thought to himself. ‘My fans love me… at least… I think they do… do they?’ One of life's questions he always asked himself: Is he actually beloved, or a laughing stock? He stopped in his tracks, looking at his reflection in the window of a parked truck. It was that strange feeling, the feeling one would get. Was this actually meant to be their life? Is this where life was meant to go? Or maybe he just needed to change his look a bit; shave a little and wear something else that would keep him safe from pinches on Saint Patrick's Day?

It was eerily silent. Birds weren't cheeping. Asleep, maybe? Probably not. Not even the sound of kids playing loudly from their phones, or someone bicycling along. In fact, there was barely a soul around. It was probably nothing.

Kevin took a step forward, but tripped on something. In any other circumstance, Kevin would just fall to the floor, perhaps scrape his arms and legs, bleeding a little bit, but nothing fatal. This didn't happen. For some unknown reason, gravity went reverse on him; he was falling up! He barely had any time to react, seeing the floor go away rapidly, his cellphone and wallet falling out of his pockets to the floor, the former very likely breaking upon impact. He looked to his feet, face being met with clouds, going through easily, with no signs of slowing down! All he could see was the blue sky, and felt everything become colder by the second.

“WHAT THE F-!?” Kevin only yelled before losing his breath, and losing consciousness.

Kevin soon woke up. He wasn't falling up anymore, nor was he drifting in space. In fact, he was alive… or, at least one would like to believe after that experience. But he was in someplace dark, and freezing. Looking around, there was only darkness, but in one end, a speck of light.

“Am I… in heaven?” He asked, walking towards the light. They say Hell was burning, but surely, none would think of Heaven as someplace freezing. “Hello? Is someone there?” The light became brighter with each step he took, right to the point where he used his left hand to try to block the near blinding light. But what he heard was the sound of clicking and clacking, like those from a keyboard, with indistinguishable voices.

Kevin found himself in a new area, a huge area, with rows upon rows of what appeared to be computers, but more importantly, what was operating them. Sitting on each computer was… something… something not human. They looked like blobs, blobs covered in what looked like human skin, with no hair, multiple tendrils, and multiple eyeballs, dotted all over and around the blob “body”, varying in size, with some as small as a dime and an eyeball as big as a head. Those eyes… they were simultaneously staring at Kevin, unblinkingly, while also looking at their monitor, typing something. What were they doing?

Kevin took a nervous swallow and crept between two of the blob creatures, both scooting away from him, continuing what they were doing. He leaned to the left, not wanting to touch this thing, but seeing that it's ‘Keyboard’ had many strange symbols, many of which Kevin, or maybe even mankind, has ever seen. Looking up at the screen, he saw what appeared to be a first person look of someone. The person, an older woman, as far as he could tell, sat in what could be a recliner. Were these blob things playing some sort of first person life simulator? But the graphics looked so realistic. Very realistic.

“Honey!?” A familiar voice of an elderly old man spoke from the room over on the screen, but clearly on the right side.

“Wait… dad?” Kevin asked, looking to the right side, seeing what looked to be through the eyes of someone walking through the kitchen, occasionally looking down, a single right hand using a walking cane

“What!?” The all to familiar raspy voice of an equally older lady spoke.

“Mom!?” Kevin looked back to the left screen. Seeing through the left screen, walking out of the far end of the hallway was Kevin's father; a now balding man in his mid 50’s, wearing his old ASU shirt that really needed to be ironed out, with saggy pants, using a cane to help him walk.

“Honey,” his father repeated, taking more steps forward. “Did that damn boy listen?”

Kevin quickly looked to the right, seeing out of the screen, where his father stood, was Kevin's mother, who appeared to be just as old as he was, though with more gray hair on her head, wearing one of her beloved horse shirts and tight denim jeans.

“Kevin insists he's not a child anymore.” She answered. “But I worry for him!”

“Of course you do. You always baby him. That's all you ever do; baby the damn boy!”

Kevin looks between the two different monitors. These things... Everything his parents said, everything his parents were doing… they were controlling them!

He took a step back, breathing pretty fast. ‘They’re… they're controlling my parents!?’ He thought loudly. ‘I… I need to show this!’ He reached into his pockets. Nothing. Nothing but lint. Then he remembered. ‘Wait… am I… above earth?’ He anxiously took a few steps away from these creatures controlling his parents, then ran through the empty walkways of monitors being operated by these things. The voices of people heard everywhere, followed by one that grabbed his attention.

“Answer the phone, Kevin!” The angry voice of Steve yelled. Kevin stopped and turned to his right. The monitor, Steve's vision, showed him walking through the neighborhood, dialing Kevin, or labeled as “Lazy Ass” on Steve's phone. “This ain't funny no more! Answer your damn phone!”

“I would!” Kevin yelled. The blob creature continued to control Steve, though Kevin had an idea. “Hey, Blob, what does this do?” He reached and touched a single key. The blob creature made a horrendous screeching noise, its tendrils flailing in the air, as Steve fell to the floor, screaming in pain.

“AAHHH!!! MY LEG!!!” Steve fell to the floor, as the blob creature kept screeching and flailing everywhere. It's scream made Kevin cover his ears, and after seeing what he had done, he booked it, getting away from the flailing blob creature. He wasn't sure how long he ran for, nor what he did to Steve's leg with a single click of that button. But he stood in place, breathing heavily, sweating a bit.

“Wassup, everyone!” The voice of a child announced. “it's your boy, LichLobber!”

“LichLobber!?” Kevin turned and looked at another monitor being operated by one of the blob creatures. Sitting at his computer screen was a boy, at least twelve years old.

“Oh man, it's been a few hours, but I know Serpentine's gotta be crying after that last game!”

“...LichLobber’s a kid?” Quite embarrassing now.

“And now my… twenty four subscribers, it's time for a dance break!!!” If there was a mirror, maybe Kevin could see how ridiculous this kid looked, but it seemed to be that this kid had long blonde hair that would go over his eyes, with his seizure looking dance with violent looking head banging.

But Kevin backed off, turning and walking to the end, what appeared to be a fork in the “road”, with more of these monitors and creatures operating them. But something about this one at the very end caught his attention. He took more steps, one by one, getting closer, hearing the click-clacks of the keyboard increasing. He reached to the creature, almost touching it, but suddenly felt himself frozen. It was still cold, but surely he wasn't freezing. The blob creature got off and rolled away. Then he saw it; on the monitor, he only saw the monitor, looking into another monitor, looking into another monitor, looking into another monitor, looking into another monitor… a near endless look into monitors. No, it wasn't monitors… it was his own vision. He was looking through his own eyes!!!

“Can't… move!” He said to himself, seeing only the endless abyss of himself looking through his eyes. All the voices in the other other monitors went silent, as he was sweating hard, hearing his own heartbeat pound rapidly. His breathing became erratic, hyperventilation setting in. Whenever you left a game unpaused, your character would stand in an idle animation. Seeing what he saw… were we actually free? Then he felt what could be described as warm tendrils wrapped around him, picking him up, still trapped in his reaching pose. A gas was sprayed on his face, and his eyes became heavy.

Kevin woke up, but something about him felt different. Nothing bad, in fact, he felt great! He stood in front of a monitor, with the strange keyset in front of him, which seemed alien the first time his eyes set on it, but are now familiar. All his eyes stared at the screen, the full twenty three, with the seventeen right on his back, seeing his fellow players on their monitors. It does feel weird to not have hair of any kind, and it's still chilly, but the monitor will offer the warmth needed. But on his screen, was darkness, followed by light. His tendrils got to work, click clacking, eager to start the game of life! Perhaps he can recreate the glitch that brought him here?

THE END.

*Note, this story contains words specific to the gaming world, so if you’re not familiar with gaming, that’s why you’ve never heard them.