Game On

PART ONE ... THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS TO END

Chapter 1

MONDAY 08:00 am

Brain : online

Conscious awareness 100%

Emotional turmoil 200% and climbing

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John awoke in the chair, not even registering that he hadn't made it into his bed the previous night. truthfully having no memory of falling asleep at all , but it had been so very many years since he had enjoyed any kind of regular sleep pattern that this was nothing new, insomnia had been the bane of over three quarters of his life , he used to joke that he was born to be awake , although he had wished for sleep quietly to himself , that eternal sleep , to close your eyes one last time and sleep forevermore . but it was different now , he had no interest in sleep now , too many things to do to be sleeping . 

"this is going to take some serious time and planning " he thought to himself as he turned on his laptop and made his first coffee for the day ,he always said it was a good idea to have a kettle in the games room but now he finally had an example to prove it she wasn't here to share it with , the irony wasn't wasted on him . He looked at the table and in his minds eye he saw the note , stood innocuously in the middle not giving a clue as to the pain it had held within. but not anymore , there was no pain now , just resolution and retribution , as cold as ice and as immovable as a mountain.

The first thing he checked was his online bank account and while not at all surprised he still smiled when the balance confirmed that she had been as good as her word , there was a little over four thousand pounds in the account .

"nowhere near enough" he said aloud to nobody .  He let his gaze wander around the room and knew then that he would sell this house ,she had no claim on this house , it had been in his family for more than five generations and with no siblings he was the last in the line .  "in the current climate I can get around £800,000 for this place " he thought . he smiled inwardly . "that ought to cover it " he said aloud again to nobody .

His attention turned to the television set , once it had been his absolute prized possession , now it looked quite forlorn with a games console embedded in its screen , he carefully extricated the console and plugged it up , much to his surprise and despite the trauma it had suffered on the previous day it appeared to be working . "good " he thought to himself " only the telly to replace . oh yeah and another controller "

he thought about the trip to the games shop two days running and decided he would go elsewhere for the controller , convinced that if he went back to the same shop they would ridicule him or worse still they may see something dangerous in him and suspect something , "no that's just stupid paranoia but they would take the piss for certain" he thought . He went back to his laptop and found a number for his nearest Comet store , called them and ordered his new telly and just in case his assumptions were wrong regarding his current console he also ordered a new Ps3 " it comes with a controller as well " he thought as he paid for his purchases, opting to pay the extra for same day delivery and receiving assurances that his purchases would be with him by 2 O'clock, he thanked the disembodied voice and hung up the phone .

"Right , that's you sorted " he said to the broken telly as he moved it to  the other side of the room, making space for the new one to go straight in .  " I need to select my targets carefully " he thought aloud and wandered over to the shelves that housed his collection of games , it was a sight to see , over 1000 games in many different formats all in original condition all with the consoles they were written for , he never played the old games any more , he didn't even set up any of the old consoles . but he knew that if he wanted to he could . "now then" he said " which of you fuckers are the worse offenders?" the rest of the day was lost in an unending catalogue of games and making lists and taking notes , barely even registering the arrival of his earlier purchases merely putting them to one side and continuing with the task at hand , with no concept of time passing other than daylight turning to darkness he sifted through page after page of notes and comments , eventually narrowing the list down to three companies , he went back to the laptop to continue his research .