The Never Ending Game

Hi, my name is Victoria (Vikki) Keto, age 14, and I’m about to tell you how my entire life changed. All because of one stupid boy. My life was fine and dandy until my parents decided to move us across the country. I had to start a new school and had no friends. At least, that’s what I thought. There is this boy, Shawn Mako, who is my age, and he’s always so kind to me. I tried to tell my parents about my new friend but, they wouldn’t listen to me. Always telling me that boys are nothing but trouble and they will make you go insane. Destroy your life even. I didn’t pay attention to them, but now I wish I would have.

One day, during my 4^th period English class, I received an unmarked message saying, “Tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, the game will begin. Your soul will be brought to the digital world for further instructions. Make sure you are in a safe location or you could end up wasted/disqualified.” What could this possibly mean? Is this some kind of joke? I figured it was Shawn or one of his friends messing with me, so I brush it off.

After school I rush home. “I can’t be late or I’ll be punished again.” I say exhausted. I can feel the air slicing my throat as I run towards the house. With not a minute to spare, I slam the door open and collapse on the floor. “I MADE IT!” My mother stand there in the kitchen, shaking her head at me. “You made it alright, what took you so long? It shouldn’t take this long for you to get home!” I stand up slowly, pulling my shoes off. “Sorry mother, the teacher wanted to speak to me after class and I…” Before I could finish my mothers had smacks the face, making it sting. “What have I told you about lying to me little girl?” I grit my teeth, holding back the tears. “I-I wasn’t lying!” I snap. I watch her pull her hand back again, “now your raising your voice at me? That’s it! I can’t take it! You’re going in the cage!” I step back, wanting to run away.

I sit in the cage, curled up, hungry, and terrified. My parents have a secrete room in our house that has a hidden door. They keep a cage just large enough for an adult to fit in. Whenever I am punished my mother throws me in here, chaining my hands, and feet so when she opens the cage door I can’t run away. It seems I’m always in this box, even when I do as I’m told. Unfortunately, it’s Friday and there is a good possibility they are going to forget about me and leave me in here all weekend. Trust me, I have tried calling the police and getting adults involved. The truth is, my parents are too clever for them. They always give me some kind of sedative before putting me in the cage, so I can’t tell the cops where it is. I have tried to look for this room before, but I can’t find.

Just as I’m about to fall asleep, I feel like my body is falling. My heart races and my eyes open. Everything is white and it looks like I’m falling into an abyss. “Where am I?” I scream. Before I know it, I land safely on a pedestal. There are nine others just like it circling a huge pedestal that is in the center of us. “What’s going on? Am I dreaming?” A voice begins to snicker. I look around and see human shadows standing on the other pedestals, but you can’t see who they are. “Who’s there?” I ask. Then a loud, deep, voice responds. “I’m glad you were able to join us. I hope that you are in a safe location.” I look up at a huge, dark, death like, creature standing on the center pedestal. “Are you the one… who sent me that text message?” The creature nods slowly.

“Welcome my children, my name is Grim and I am the God of virtuality this year. Each year, a virtual god plays a game amongst the humans; picking only 10 candidates of various ages. The outcome of the game is simple, only one person wins. Once someone wins, they take the place of the virtual god and commence the next game. The games are usually similar, but the rules may change. I have gathered you all here to explain those rules.” He looks around at us all and continues. “You have till January 1^st to win the game.” My eyes widen in shock, that’s only 30 days from now. “Right now, you are unable to see who the other players are currently, but once you meet them during the game, the next time you come here under my invite they will no longer be shadows to you. The rules of the game are simple. If you die during this game, you are permanently dead. A god can grant wishes and have all cosmic powers, but bringing back the dead is impossible. This is a game of survival. You have to kill the other players in order to succeed. Once you leave this place the game will start and a few things will happen. 1) A health bar will appear above your head. 2) You will be able to use certain commands by saying, show me my target and a map will appear In-front of you with red markers indicating where the enemy is. While using the map feature you are vulnerable. Also, it doesn’t pin out the exact location of where one is, just the area. The other command you may use is, weapon storage. If you pick up a knife and do not wish to hold it, say put away knife. When you want to use the knife you say, equip knife. This is nice if you have multiple weapons. 3) If I find that you aren’t playing fair or cheating somehow, you’ll lose all your storage and I will expose you to the others. If you try to kill yourself off, you’ll regenerate. You are only able to die by the hands of someone else in the game. And the 4^th and final rule is you can’t tell anyone about this. Let the games begin.”

               Sunday morning rolls around and I am still lying in the cage, stomach growling in pain. The smell of vomit fills the room, making it hard to breath. “Vikki, are you sorry for what you did?” My mother shouts through the door. “Y-yes!” I cry out. I try to keep my eyes open longer, but end up passing out before she could open the door. When I come too, I’m lying in my bed with a bandage wrapped around my arm and my mother bringing in a tray of food. “Good, your awake. I gave you an IV bag to hydrated you. Now eat up before your father gets home. You’ll need to make dinner for us tonight.” For the first time, anger fills my soul. All I respond with is a nod and eat my food.

               A few days pass by and nothing has happened yet. The local news has a lot going on with deaths happening, but nothing around my city. “Maybe I had a crazy dream?” I say out loud to myself. Just when I think no one is listening to me in my math class, I get a tap on my shoulder. “You didn’t have a dream, stupid girl!” I feel a cold shive run down my spine as I turn around to see who’s behind me. A tall man stands there with a huge psychotic smile and a large blade in his hand. “W-Who are you?” I scream. He swings his arm down fast and I throw my arms up, bracing myself.

               I peak my eye open after a minute or two, “Am I dead?” I whisper. I figured I would have felt pain by now but nothing happened. I open both my eyes to see Shawn standing in front of me, the large blade deep in his shoulder and his blade through the guys chest. “Are you hurt, Vikki?” He says while he groans. “I am! But are you okay? Where did you get that sword? What’s going on?” I frantically shove the other guy away from him and look at his shoulder. “We need to get out of here, you’re not safe!” He yanks the blade out of his shoulder, grabs my wrist, and runs.

               We get back to my house and lock all the doors. “Shawn! What’s going on?” I throw the cupboards apart looking for medicine and bandages for his wounds. “What do you think is going on? We’re in Grim’s game.” I pull the first aid kit down and stare at him, “I was hoping it wasn’t real. So, your apart of the game then?” I start to fix him up when he smiles at me. “Yea, I figured you would have run like you always do, but it was different this time.” He mumbles. I can barely make out what he said, but understood enough. “What do you mean? Nothing like this has ever happened before.” He looks away quickly, “I just meant that in confrontations you run away. That’s all.” I nod a bit as I clean up his shoulder. “You should get to a hospital Shawn; this doesn’t look so good.” He shrugs a bit, getting up slowly, “Show me my target.”

               Just as he says that, a map appears In-front of us. Both of our markers are near each other, but I notice 3 more not far away. “T-They’re coming for us. What do we do?” My heart pounds with fear. I feel sicker now than I do when I’m locked up in a cage. “Don’t worry, we will figure this out. Were a team.” His smile shines bright, so bright I begin to have hope. “Hey, where are your parents?” I look around and shrug, “I have no Idea, maybe at work.” He nods slowly as he heads for the stairs. “Where are you going?” I follow him up the stairs and I begin to tense. “Shawn, we need to keep moving, there is nowhere to hide here.” He stops outside my parent’s door suddenly. “I figured this was the best place to hide since you’ve told me about the secrete room your parents always lock you in. We should try to find it. Come on.” I tilt my head a bit confused, I never told him about the secrete room before. In fact, the only people I’ve told are law-enforcement and my principal.

               I walk around my house with Shawn quietly. He seems to be avoiding my parents’ room for some reason and the way he’s looking around has me suspicious. “Shawn, how…” Before I’m able to finish, Shawn throws his hand over my mouth as the front door opens slowly. They’re here. He’s whispers, “Show me my target.” And the map appears. There are only 4 markers out of 10 left on the map. The two of us and the two of them. This is it. We’re going to die. “Stay here.” He moves away from me slowly and tears begin to flood my face. Shawn goes downstairs and there’s a huge commotion. Tons of things breaking, lots of screaming, and talking amongst themselves at the same time. I rush into my parents’ room, grabbing my father’s riffle, and load the ammo.

               As I open their bedroom door, one of the guys stands there. “You’re not going to win!” He goes to stab me with his knife, but I pull the trigger instantly. As he drops to the ground, I notice Shawn standing there. I throw the guy down, rush over to him, and hug him tightly. “Thank the heavens you’re okay!” He quietly hugs me and before I know it, I feel something sharp in my side. The room begins to spin and I drop to the floor. “W-Why?” He smirks as he steps over me. “This game was supposed to take longer. You played differently this time.” I struggle to move. Breathing becomes more difficult. “W-what do you mean, this time? I’ve… Never played before.” He chuckles to himself as he pulls a book from my mothers’ bookcase, making the entire thing swing outwards, and opens the door behind it. “I’m impressed, Vikki, you managed to find the secrete room. You even killed your own parents. Tell me, how did you figure it out?” I grit my teeth and reach for the gun. “When my mother when to come and get me, I heard her move a bag with bells in it. She only keeps that bag in her bedroom.” I start coughing up blood and begin to wheeze. “When she told me, I had to make them dinner I put sleeping pills in their food and brought them in here. I beat them, starved them, and left them there to die. But what I don’t understand is, how did you know about this room? I want to know what your hiding!” I cry out as he walks over and grabs my throat. “Because we have played the same game at least two hundred times. Each time I find myself killing a different way. I enjoy hearing you scream, I enjoy watching you beg for mercy, and I love being a god.” He lets go and grabs me by my hair. “Also, the first time we played the game together you told me you loved me. It made my desire to kill you grow even more. Do you still love me?” I elbow him in the stomach, making him let go, and fall on the floor next to the bed crying. “I did love you, Shawn. But now, now I hate you. I realize now why you’ve always been so quiet, why you always have that innocent smile, how you enjoy beating up the guys who pick on me. You’re a sick and twisted person.” He walks over to me, kneeling down with his beautiful smile, and whispers, “This is your fate, you will never win.”

Just as he’s about to stab me, I begin to smile. He stops suddenly, curious to what is going through my head. “Your biggest mistake, was underestimating me.” I grab the knife and stab him in his neck and laugh. “We have played this game two hundred and twelve times. Each time I let you be the hero and save me, then let you kill me. You tortured me every single time. This last time something in me snapped. This was the only game where my mother brought me food after bringing me out of that damn room. I knew it was time for a change, so when the guy at our school showed up, I didn’t run and it did exactly what I wanted it to. It threw you off. I killed my parents this time because I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m sick of LOSING! This time, I’m going to be god and end this game. Because from the beginning of this match, you never had a chance.” He tried to make talk but could barely speak, “H-how did… you remember.” I smile, kissing his lip softly. “Because before you killed me last time, you whispered how you wanted me to remember. Remember everything. So, when I died, your wish as god came true. So, you have no one to blame but yourself.” I yank the blade out and throw him on the ground and a long black robe form around me. “It feels so good to finally have power.”