Online

Chapter 9: Zero

LEECI'S POV

I was placed into a confined room with a small girl. She was violently shoved in immediately after me.

The door slammed shut behind her and she shot me a pure look of extreme terror. I was extremely terrified for a couple seconds. I loosened my body and sat slowly took a seat on a neighboring bed. I didn't want to talk to her.

I looked around the room for a bit when I heard sharp intakes of breaths coming from my left. I looked over and saw a huge black ball in a corner of the room. It was the girl of course.

I wondered if I was in the same state she's in. I sighed, not wanting to go through this process again.

"EHEM." A voice from the speakers in the room said. "Leeci, if you don't converse you will not be exiting this facility anytime soon." The voice said. "What? Why?!"

There was no response. I uncaringly lifted my body off the bed and made my way towards to girl. She flinched at my sudden sight and whimpered. I kneeled beside her.

"Listen," I began. "I don't know what your case is but if you want to get out of here you need to man up."

I sensed that she was listening though she was still a bit shaken up. "Okay. So, I got my console taken away from me. I never came out of my room. To me, coming out was a punishable sin. The sinnest of sins. And then what happened? I was forced out of not only my room, but my house. And where was I taken to? This cave. At the time, I viewed this place as a shithole and what is it now? A shithole, it's fine. When I got here, I couldn't even talk properly, I was a wreck. But I got through it in less than a week in a room that looked a lot like this one. I was put in that room for a week in this same building with a guy named Alexander. He was like me. He got his computer taken away. As time passed I realized that he was in a way worse condition than myself. I usually started the conversations and stuff but later on, he began to start them and we talked regularly. We both felt..." I paused "...normal. We got used to it. Yeah, I miss my console and yeah I miss all my friends but hey, I now have a real flesh and meat type friend. Alexander. 50% of my online friends were probably 30 year old men or 8 year old children and I wouldn't have accepted that back then. The only way I was able to accept it was by sitting in silence. Real silence. Not the silence that I sat in while staring at a flat screen tv for over 9 hours a day, my thoughts were always buzzed back then. The silence I experienced in that room with Alex was relaxing. I might have met my man. Who knows, 2 years from now I could be married with kids and a house and my husband could be Alexander. I wouldn't know if I didn't get out of that house and talked through the pain and tears. The cure hurts but that's just how it is. You either cure or you die. That's it. Suck it up or let it suck you, understand?" I explained.

She nodded and I decided I should sit.

"Mike was a guy. When I was taken out of my house yelling and crying it was because I didn't want to leave Mike."

I noticed her peeking from under her black hoodie, similar to my black zip up. "He was a great guy, from my eyes. Though the reality was everyone hated him. He was always getting banned and was always cursing people out and shit. And I knew that and that was something I admired about him. Still do.

"75% of the world were his enemies but the friends that he did have-hah-his friends were some of the coolest, sickest people I had ever met and that fact always warmed me up inside because I was one of them. I was his girlfriend and we were so fucking badass together. I, HONESTLY, don't think I'll ever get over him. I don't know why I'm telling you this. Maybe it's extra treatment for my fucked heart and soul but whatever. He'll always come back, and I think I'll look for him in every guy. I can't help it. If that's how things will be for me then be it. It's better than being an antisocial freak locked up in a house."