multiplayer

pt.4

New respect

My eyes slowly creaked open and quickly closed as the bright room blinded me, I sighed and sat up, my head ached, and my bones felt like jelly as I tried to stand up and quickly sat back down as a sharp pain ran up my leg like pins and needles, I looked down at my injured foot blood had dripped down my toes and pooled onto the white marble floor. I hopped over to my bathroom being careful not to touch the floor with my right foot, I slowly undressed and got into the shower the water mixed with blood shined against the dark stone floor and spiraled downward into the drain. I heard my ringtone echo in the silence, and I wiped the steamy glass to see Carter calling, I quickly got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist powering through the pain emanating from my foot and answered the phone, "heyyyyy! Sorry if I'm waking you but were going to need you guys over here in about an hour for a short recording and then photoshoot sound good?" carters voice made my head ache pulse with every word he spoke "ugh yeah that's fine" my voice was raspy from yelling the night before "awesome- "he was cut out as I hung up on him not being able to handle much more.

I knocked on ash's door, nothing so I opened the door to find her slumped over at her desk her most recent drawing on screen. I shook her awake, she quickly sat up, she blinked a couple times then squinted at me "why? Just why?" the disappointed face seemed to pierce me skin and drill into my mind, "Carter needs us in about 30 min for some stuff, get ready" I walked out to the sound of ash groaning as she forced herself to get up and into some fresh clothes.

I turned on the tv in the living room and switched the channel to channel 86, gaming news, "last week we got a huge surprise when the Lone Wolves added two new players to their roster, Casey and Ashley who up till now had been gaming anomalies averaging 512 viewers per stream, but the real question is why did the team pay so much for them, their contracts for 5 years totaled 416 million!" I choked on my coffee as the number swirled around in my thoughts "including a living space and company car, their contracts make a world record for highest contract price for anything video game related, well that will be all for today, have a good day folks!" the tv turned to an ad but I was not paying attention, all I could think was the amount that they supposedly were going to pay us made my heart race. Ash walked down the stairs and started walking down the hall towards the front door "were leaving loser, lets go!" I shivered and took a last sip of coffee and ran after her.

We pulled up the Wolves headquarters the tall mansion made our large house look like a hobbit hole, we walked up to the door and knocked the door immediately opened and Carter opened the door holding a beer, I checked my watch 8:46 am and this guy was drinking like a 70s cop trying to kill his hangover with more alcohol. "welcome were all in the back taking photos for the new merch drop" he pointed to the door at the back of the house. As we walked out, we were bombarded by two stylist's taking measurements and handing us the new merch to change into. As we walked back into the house to change, we watched as someone leading a large grey wolf through the kitchen and into the backyard barley dragging it out the door.

I looked at myself in the mirror the black and white clothes seemed to mold to my body. I sauntered out the door and into the backyard where people were posing with the large dog against the green screen making it look very out of place "Casey! Get in this one!" everyone's faces turned on me as I slowly slid into the photo area as far from the bloody teeth I feared so much. After about an hour of flash and clicks everyone filed into the kitchen laughing and fooling around, I peered over the counter at all the food that seemed to overflow. I took a heaping amount of food and sat down at the large table and began eating. People started gathering around the table talking, eating, and drinking. "so, Casey you going to start streaming again today?" everyone faced me with expecting eyes "um yeah maybe I am still setting up everything so- "I was cut off by carter siting up a bit "how about we record a quick video?" his sly look made me nervous, "what were you thinking?" "how about a sniper 1v1 as a sort of inauguration into the clan?" he knew what he was doing, this could either make me look like a fool or make people respect me "I am down" everybody around me cheered me and dragged me upstairs into a lounge with a big screen, they sat me down Infront and handed me a controller and before I knew it people started chanting 3! 2! 1! Go! And the round started.

I jumped around a corner and carter quick scoped me, "oof maybe we got the wrong player! hey Casey you think I have a chance of fucking your bitch, Ashley?" with those words I felt a rage that I had not felt in years one that seemed to take over and spread without my consent, after that the game was a blur to me it was just a click and a kill over and over. I was taken out of my little headspace by someone in the back yelling "final kill trick shot rule!" now that is something I could get behind; all I could imagine was Carter's shocked face as I blew his characters head off with a single pull of the trigger. I ran up to the top of the building and spotted him sliding behind a couple crates I spun in a circle and randomly threw my knife my character landed without dying, I looked up the words victory spread across the screen as people cheered and patted my back, I looked to my left to an empty seat and a cracked controller.