You Can't Speedrun Healing

Chapter 1

There was struggling, and it took me a couple of seconds to realize I was screaming. But then something covered my mouth, and I felt like I was-

I tried to force my trembling hands to steady, but they wouldn't. It was obviously impacting my gameplay, so I pretended it was some kind of game error. I scoffed and said, "I know Subnautica has bugs, but I've NEVER seen this before. If I have to go the whole run like this I might as well just scrap it now."

People in chat also commented that it was weird and they hadn't seen anything like it before, either. I 'theorized' it was extremely rare and kept playing, saying I hoped the shaking stopped. While I really did hope for my camera to stop shaking, it wasn't that I was hoping for my game to stop glitching. After a while it was clear the run wouldn't make it, and with perfect timing my phone received another text. I opened it because chat was curious, and it was my roommate telling me they'd be home in about 5 minutes. I told this to chat, and they urged me to get on my creative world and make more progress on my megabase so I did just that. It was a side project I had along with speedrunning the game because chat seemed to enjoy it a lot. The world ran at a staggering 9 FPS, but I couldn't do much about that.

It wasn't long until my roommate came back with DQ and one of their best friends {who was also their co-worker}. I decided to end the stream with the promise to return to Subnautica tomorrow, and then I got up to greet my friends.

"Hey guys, how was work?" I asked, helping them carry in the bags of fast food.

"I had to deal with a Karen," my roommate, Sky, sighed. I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe, but I ended up doing both.

"Oh boy, how'd that turn out?" I chuckled, ready to hear the horror story.

"It was near my lunch break and I was actually starting to go to the break room to eat. Then some girl who looked EXACTLY like the stereotypical Karen walks up to me and asks where the shredded cheese was. I told her it was in aisle five and she's still standing there, so I asked her if she needed help finding it. Then she said there wasn't any shredded cheese there, so I thought maybe we needed to put more of our inventory out there. Since I was about to go on lunch break, I got on our little caller things and asked if somebody could check how much shredded cheese we had out. Jason said he just replinished it like an hour ago, and the girl was still standing there so she heard this. She started having a tantrum and said there wasn't any shredded cheese in aisle 5 and THEN she demanded to see the manager!" Sky started laughing, and I did as well.

"No fucking way, she actually asked to see the manager? That's comedy gold right there," I snickered.

"Oh, that's not the best part. I got on the little caller thing and told Maggie that somebody wanted to talk to her, and that lady said I wasn't being professional enough when addressing my superior and that I had to use Maggie's last name. Wow, I didn't know I need to be formal with one of my childhood friends! Anyways, Maggie eventually comes over so I go on lunch break. When I came back, Maggie told me the whole reason this lady thought there wasn't any shredded cheese in aisle five was because she was actually in aisle four," Sky giggled a little bit before sighing.

"Imagine being bad at directions and taking it out on some random employees," I rolled my eyes.

Sky, their friend, and I kept talking and ate our DQ. Sky's friend eventually had to leave because they needed to study for a college exam back at their dorm, and one of Sky's other friends invited them to a spontaneous night out bowling. Being the extrovert they are, Sky eagerly agreed and I was left alone in the house once more. I was about to start practicing speedrunning again, but I got a text so I decided to check it.

'That Twitch stream was really cute, you're such an adorable gamer girl. I bet my c-'

I stopped reading the message, feeling a panic attack start to form. There was no way I'd escape him, was there? He always found me over and over again just to torment me and use me as a toy again.

"There you are, Ashley♪" Dominic was suddenly in front of me, and I shrieked as I took several steps backwards. I wish I didn't know how he got into my house in the first place, but I already knew he was a professional lockpicker. My earliest memory was of him showing me how to do it in case I ever needed to pick a lock.

"Get the hell away from me!" I grabbed a knife from the nearby kitchen counter, but he wasn't phased by it.

"Do we have to do it like we did last time, or will you be a good girl?" Dominic warned, reaching for his holstered gun. I didn't even realize I'd begun to tremble until it caused me to drop the knife. Dominic smiled, "I'm glad you're learning to not resist me, Ashley."