Art and Stories

The Game I Play

Inspired by Arcade by Duncan Lawrence and FLETCHER

*******
I hugged her tighter. It was a ritual at this point. I'm always hugging her when I wake up, I just hug tighter to make sure she's still there. I grumbled and nuzzled her neck, hoping to get a response out of her.

Silence

I looked sadly at the beautiful figure wrapped up in cotton sheets. I had thought by now she would have calmed down, and accepted me and the way things were going. But it seems I was wrong.

My body dragged itself to the bathroom, switched on the light, and moved towards the mirror. I wiped my eyes clean as I looked at my reflection. At this point, I could be used for skeletal studies. My bones jutted out my body and my eyes sunk dangerously into their sockets. My face... My face didn't need any explanation as to how sick it looked. Staring at it made me sad but starting at her, however, made me very, very, very happy.

"I want to leave." She whispered.

I looked at her sitting glumly by the kitchen island and looking expectantly at me as I walked into the kitchen. How much it pained me to see pain in those beautiful blue eyes.

I moved to the shelves and carried a box of cereal, milk, and a bowl. "Why?" I shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with it."

She looked at the wonderful home we shared. "There's everything wrong with it." She looked directly at me. "And there's everything wrong with you as well."

I slammed the bowl of cereal angrily on the table. "And what might be wrong with me." I spat.

She whipped her face towards me tears streaming down her eyes. "You're dying." She cried.

She started sobbing and screaming. "JUST LET ME GO!"

"I can't"

Silence ensued after that but I knew she wasn't done. It was one of the things I loved about her - her undying spirit. "You're dying my love. Let. Me. Go."

I stormed upstairs and grabbed a picture from the walls looking at it and feeling it, trying to stop the ache that formed at the base of my skull. Her laugh, her smile, and the pure happiness we had. Or at this point, used to have.

She hovered at the edge of the door while I caressed the picture that was now wet with tears. The base of my skull raged even more. "So you want to leave me because I'm dying?"

She didn't answer and turned her face away from me. "You're hurting me and you. You just have to let me go."

Her words became obscured as the ringing in my head reached an unstoppable level. She dashed over to me as I fell to the floor clutching my head in agony.

She leaned over me, weeping as the environment faded. "Please..." Her voice sounded like an ocean backdrop. "let me go."

I sighed as the ringing dissipated and all that was left was the noisy autonomic voices all around me. The pink and green neon lights that reflected on the tiles in the hopes of a romantic feeling made me nauseous and depressed. I stood up and marched towards the gaming machine.

The Love Arcade
Where Magic and Science meet to bring the ones we've lost.

I sighed as I filled in my information and her name. Then came the payment. I filled in the regular price - 10 years for one week.

I shed a lone tear as I remembered her begging. She didn't want to die. I coughed and cleared my throat as I pressed the purchase button.

The room started to change and reshape enveloping me back in the familiar house I so much loved and summoning the person I loved to share it with as well. It was a game I played and there was no going back, after all, if I spent enough lives I might just die and then we can be together, can't we my love?

*************
AN

Hiiiii,

Hope you guys like this chapter. Don't forget to vote, share and comment. Thanks