Destruction: The Hacker and the Spirit

2: Upstairs and downstairs

I reached home at the end of the school day and immediately ran up to my room. I fired up Minecraft on my computer and got ready to play. At that moment, my younger brother walked into the room and came up to me.

"Riley, can you please play with me?" he asked, his eyes wide.

I started to stutter that I couldn't and he used his puppy eyes on me.

"Pleeeease?"

I sighed, giving in. "Okay." Then I smiled. "What are we going to play you cheeky little boy?"

I love my brother so much: I play with him every day, I read him a story before he goes to sleep, I gently wake him up in the morning and I protect him in every way I can. People would say that I am over-protective of him, but I say that I protect him from the jack-asses of the world. This has been widely translated to 'If you mess with my brother I will bloody your face'.

That might be the reason why I only have one friend. Another reason could be my menacing appearance: short black hair, piercing green eyes and dark coloured clothing. However, I am actually quite shy and introverted. I don't like to talk to people and I'm not really into social media. I would rather read a book for three days than go to a party for an hour.

After playing a game of Monopoly with my brother (I made sure that he won), I got back to my computer and started playing Minecraft. That's another strange thing about me; most people wouldn't think that I was a gamer. They would think that I spend my time throwing knives or listening to the latest Gothic music. But I was a gamer at heart, and I was obsessed with every aspect of Minecraft.

After playing Minecraft for about an hour, I did my homework while watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. I watched YouTubers like Sky Does Minecraft, BajanCanadianand House_Owner, as well as a variety of animations, most of which are done by Blue Monkey, SubZeroExtabyte and Jolly Rancher. I was distracted from Sky's latest video by my dad calling me from downstairs. I quickly ran down and saw him in the kitchen.

"Yeah Dad?" I asked.

"Riley, I just got a phone call from the school."

My stomach clenched into a knot. Crap. I know what's about to come.

"Apparently, you punched someone. Again," he continued.

"He was bullying my friend," I said defensively.

"No Riley, that's not good enough. You know that you're not allowed to punch people. If he was bullying your friend, you should have called a teacher. The solution to problems in your life is not violence. The only time violence is remotely acceptable is when you are being kidnapped, but you have never been kidnapped. This violence must have spouted from that Minecraft game that you constantly play," he said, barely pausing for breath.

He continued to lecture me for the next ten minutes or so. I tried to listen, really I did, but he didn't understand that it wasn't my fault. It's just that whenever I see someone bullying my friend or my brother, I get really angry and I can't control myself. And he was insulting Minecraft, so I kinda tuned out.

Eventually, I managed to retreat back to my bedroom. Finishing the YouTube video (and my homework I guess) I re-opened Minecraft and continued to play. There was something about the game that calmed me. Maybe it was the fact that it was so open, so rule-free. There wasn't a set story that you had to follow, there wasn't a set way that you had to play, it was just you and an infinite amount of possibilities.

My playing was stopped by the call for dinner, and I ran back downstairs. I gobbled up my dinner, quickly washed up the dishes and ran back up stairs, stopping on the way to kiss Mum and Dad goodnight.

I then proceeded to keep playing Minecraft for the next 4 hours. Hey, don't judge, tomorrow is Saturday.