A Journey of Faith

Chapter 1

*pitter patter pitter patter*

The sound of rain hitting Lyle's window added just the right amount of ambience for his newest endeavor as he hit "Create Character" on his favorite MMORPG for the umpteenth time this summer. "This'll be fun." He thought as he prepared to traverse the starting area for his newest character, Lyland Harbinger, a dwarf hunter. He hadn't played much as a dwarf, but having reached max level more times than he cared to count and having extensively explored the dwarven main hub on several of those characters he figured it would be a piece of cake.

*CRACK*

Lyle jumped in his seat as the opening cutscene for his dwarven escapade played out before him and the camera zoomed in on his character with a third person view of the area around him. He quickly went into his settings and switched to a first person view. He loved to feel like he was the character, and sometimes, due to his solitary lifestyle, he preferred it that way. It helped him not feel so alone.
As he prepared to click on the first quest giver, a message popped up in the top left corner of his display.

"Hey, did you hear about Kelly?"
"Kelly Drewfield?"
"Yeah"
"No, why?"
"The police found her stumbling along the side of the interstate earlier today mumbling something incoherent."
"Oh, dude. What? That's crazy."
"Yeah man, crazier still she was clutching a picture of you with the words "You're next" etched in what looked like blood."

Lyle's blood ran cold. He hadn't spoken to Kelly since they'd broken up 4 months prior.

"Don't mess with me dude, are you serious?"
"I wish I wasn't man. I'm at the station with Scott and Kelly's parents. You might want to get down here."
"omw"

Lyle couldn't shake the feeling of unease he had as he threw on a shirt and a hoodie. "This'll be fun" He sarcastically thought to himself as he slipped his shoes on and headed to the station.