A True Reality

Ch 1. The Biggest Mistake of My Life

"OH SCREW ME!"

Cackling came from my headphones, the same cackling that always did when I died, regardless of the game. Sunless. My longtime gaming friend, albeit not the only one in the Discord call. Everyone else either rolled their eyes or were too invested in this round to care. We were almost done anyway. Beetlejuice convinced all of us to play Fortnite, even though it's a crappy kid's game.

"Did someone die?"

"You can take that retort Sunless and shove it RIGHT UP YOUR ASS!"

"Wow! No need to be so hostile; I'm just stating the facts!" Sunless recovered.

"Did your girlfriend dump you?"

"Hey, that's not fair!"

"WOw! nO NeEd To bE So HoStIlE, i'M jUsT StAtInG ThE fACtS!" I mocked. He sighed as the match ended.

"EnchantmentGirlie, keep up! You were falling behind!" Cannon said, dragging his hand down his face.

"Well, it's not MY fault Beetlejuice dragged us into this stupid toddler's game!" EnchantmentGirlie retorted. Oh lord, now they were arguing. Again. 

"Listen, I figured it'd be fun!" Beetlejuice snapped, turning on his camera. His green hair stood out amongst everyone. He has a musical addiction. I changed my skin to one of the newer ones, as Beetle and Enchantment argued over playing the game.

"ANYWAYS!" Enchantment said, her voice nearly killing my eardrums with how loud my headphone volume was. I got an alert on my laptop. It was a Microsoft Teams from my mom message reading:

Dinner will be ready in 30 minutes. Last match.

"Hey, 30 minutes, last match y'all."

"Speaking of you, I have a game idea for you, Tris! It's called Genshin Impact!" Enchantment said. "I know you like anime and fantasy, so I figured you'd like it!" I smiled forcefully. Genshin Impact was the same game my brother played before he went missing. I have a feeling the game was to blame for that, but at the same time, there was nothing to prove it. EnchantmentGirlie didn't know that; in fact, the only person here that knew was Sunless.

"Sure, I'll check it out later," I said. Curiosity did kill the cat after all, and I'm about to be that cat. 

"Dang, keep forgetting it's almost dinner time for you."

"Yeah, shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Sleep is for the weak as you say."

"You know, I only said that because I wanted to finish my game."

"Y'all come on, let's do this match before MilqueToast has to go," Cannon said.

"'Y'all' isn't even a grammatically correct word Cannon!"

"Ready up Enchantment, let's go!" 

"FINE! Fine, I'm coming!" Enchantment readied up and we were launched into our last match of the day. 

"GG guys!" Cannon yelled. Everyone popped some emotes and we all vibed to the victory music, Sunless doing some stupid dance in his room. I didn't particularly care about whether we had won or not, just that the torture would be over. 

"Alright, now I have to go before my mom starts yelling at me, I can hear Cali talking her ear off and-"

"TRIS!"

"Bye y'all!"

"But y'all-" I hung up the Discord call. I left the laptop on but closed every tab, and went downstairs, passing my brother's room on the way down. It was strange, that day. He just disappeared, nothing to it. No scratched up walls, no fighting sounds, no torn closet, no bashed windows. Nothing. He just vanished into thin air. The only strange thing is you can't access his laptop, even though he never changed the password. It would glitch out and say "password not accepted". With not enough evidence, the cops dropped the case, and my brother was forever labeled a missing kid. I entered the living room. There she was, Cali. We didn't know her actual name, she never told us, just asking to go by Cali as it's more comfortable for her.

"There's the cave dweller!" Cali said. She gave me a hug, and sat down at the table. Red Beans and Rice always seemed to attract Cali, making her always win the dinner races. Often times I feel like I want to throw up afterwards. After dinner, Cali helped me with dishes, but not before getting into a huge water fight cut short by the fact I almost slipped and fell on my butt. I walked Cali to the door, and right as we were at the door, she said in a low voice, one that my parents couldn't hear, "enjoy the game, I'm sure you'll have a hell of a time." I raised an eyebrow and she looked back at me with a smug, seemingly knowing grin and left. 

"Why the hell is this taking so long?!" I groan, whirling around in my chair as the bar barely moves past 55%. I fired on Animal Crossing to pass the time when the download started, but even that got boring quickly. I don't think I'll be able to play tonight. 

"Thank God!" I yelled once the bar reached 100%. One last bar appeared, which passed quite quickly, and a door appeared. I clicked on it, and the screen went white, but strangely, so did my vision, and suddenly, everything went dark as I lost consciousness...