multiplayer

Part 11

I drove on past the houses and into the city, the stores looked all flashy new to draw your attention, we parked in front of the Gucci store and sat there for a moment as I fiddled with the camera, the noise came back but louder it seemed to get louder as I tried harder to get the new lens on, I gritted my teeth I could feel each tooth grind against the other, my ears began to ring, "hey are you ok?" I looked over to see ash giving me a worried look, "I'm fine can you just do this?" I handed her the camera and lens and let her deal with that as I tried to deal with the noise, I could feel it do circles in my mind over and over the ring was all I could imagine, "done!" ash had gotten the lens fixed and we started filming our first YouTube video.

It was dark out and we were driving home, I looked in the mirror at my mom happily looking through her bags at all the different items she had gotten, I drew my attention to ash who was slowly falling asleep. I parked and ash's eyes slowly opened, and she stretched, we proceeded to help my mom by taking all the bags into her room, I followed as ash walked towards her room but then I was stopped, "you ready for tomorrow?" she gave me a caring look, "I think I am, night." I walked away leaving her in the doorway, I made my way up the stairs, taking one step at a time, four steps, three, two, and the noise came back with such force that I fell down, a buzz that I didn't think you could've ever hear, I felt like a lightning bolt, I crawled my way up the final stair and into my room where my body gave up and I collapsed on the ground, I couldn't move I could look and wriggle my fingers touch the silky tile, then it came, a voice that made me shiver, "weak" it whispered, no was all I could think over and over, "Casey" It whispered "Casey!" It screamed at me, "your weak!" I tried to breath, but my body would not let me, I was frozen in place like a dear in headlights, my mind raced and the word weak repeated in my mind.

I woke up in my bed with a start my arms wouldn't stop shaking, I got up and quickly sat back down, I took a deep breath and got up walking slowly to the bath room, I splashed my face with water and looked in the mirror, "weak!" the voice screamed as I fell down, I got back up and started the shower, I undressed and stepped into the warm embrace of the water, I stood there trying to relax, deep breaths in and out... silence, "weak!" I yelled as I punched the hard stone making the small crack from before spread.

We piled into the bus ash in front of me and Dylan behind me, we sat down next to each other and went over our game plan, we were going to stay in a spear formation like migrating birds and push from city to city taking out bogeys and looting along the way. We pulled up to the stadium people lined up at the front waiting to enter, the bus drove to the back of the large building and came to a stop, we walked off I looked around me at the other trios some listening to music to relax, others praying and some taking shots, we entered through large metal doors and walked down a long hallway to a waiting room with TVs covering each wall showing the stage where we would be playing, I sat down in a comfy chair and tried to relax, get my mind straight and focus on the task at hand.

We were called to stage, we were lined up and were told to wait for our names to be called out one by one, I stood there and breathed in the dusty air that surrounded us, I listened to the crowd as they screamed and cheered for the falcons, other team who was being brought out before us, "now the opposing side" I heard the crowed give its mixed feelings about this with boos and cheers, he began calling each of us out one by one, "we have Casey!" I stood there slightly stunned and was pushed onto the bright stage by Dylan who was behind me, I waved as I made my way to my seat, I couldn't look away from all the faces who didn't break eye contact with me.

After about an hour of watching the other members of the wolves play it was our turn I put on my headphones and felt each key on my keyboard then the softness of the mouse, we jumped out of the plane working like a unit. We were around halfway through the match, we hadn't seen the other team, but they had lit up the kill feed, we had a circle that was roughly a thousand meters wide, so we had to come across them sometime soon, I was busy watching to teams fight when I heard ash over the mic "contact! It's the falcons!" Dylan and I rushed over, I followed Dylan's character closely trying to stay behind him as much as possible, then I watched as a bullet flew through the air and hit him in the head, his character slumped to the ground slowly crawling to cover and I pushed ahead to support ash as she was fighting alone, I ran up behind her, we were being held down by heavy fire from a stoner 63, I shot back a couple times only to take heavy damage, I healed up and checked my inventory, no meds, low ammo, and two frag grenades, it clicked together in my mind, I pulled the pin of one grenade and threw it towards the gunner, it went and hid, I pulled the pin of the other grenade and held it while I ran towards them, I slid in right next to the trio and my body blew up. All I could see was the flash of multiple lights and small multicolor pieces of confetti fell from the roof and onto us, "that's game!" I heard the announcer yell, everything seemed to blur and mold together.

We all met up at our house afterwards to celebrate, the party was filled with food, drinks, and dancing, after eating a bit Ashton and Carter stopped the party to congratulate us on the win, we all took a sip of whatever drink we were holding and cheered, we all laughed and had a good time. It had been a bit and the sun was beginning to set, I was around 3 drinks in the hole and was feeling great, until the buzzing came back, a frequency that made my body tense up, I got up and walked up the stairs to the roof, the sun was slowly leaving, hiding underneath the horizon, I walked over and leaned onto the railing, the cool breeze felt good against my hot skin, "weak" I heard the whisper, "I'm not weak!" my anger rose and quickly went back down as it spoke again, "why are you so sad?" its light voice echoed in my head, "I can make that sadness disappear" I was silent and just listened "all you have to do is jump, let go" I shook off the thought, "no" I heard myself whisper, "jump! Jump! Jump!" the voice chanted over and over in my mind, I obeyed and climbed onto the soft metal railing.

*Ash's POV*

I had been searching for Casey for what seemed like hours, I made my way to the roof and stood there in shock, he stood there barefoot, the light from the sun in front of him seemed to wrap around him and embrace him, "Casey?" I asked shakily, he turned around tears lightly streaming down from his eyes, a happy smile spread across his face, "the voice won't stop, it keeps talking over and over making me feel crazy sometimes" he seemed to sob through his words, "don't do this..." his demeaner changed "what? You're just going to say there's other ways of dealing with this or people will miss me, I can't live like this anymore, it won't leave unless I do this..." his voice trailed off as he turned back around to face the sun which was almost completely gone now, he took a deep breath of air and seemed to relax, I ran to him pulling him off the railing, and onto the solid tile beneath us, I hugged him tightly, "why?" he asked, his voice sounded so sad, "because I need you!" I could feel tears mark my face as I hugged him tighter, "I'm so- "his voice was cut off by our lips colliding, the feeling of his soft lips against mine gave me butterflies, "I'm sorry..."