On a mellow afternoon in the Addison Apartments two boys sit in a living room, their eyes attached to the screen. Sal watches in awe as Larry does some thingy with a circle on a generator. Sal has no idea what the game is, but he finds a weird interest in watching Larry play. “So, what I just did there was a skill check. When you’re working on a generator you have to do those every once and a while.” Sal’s blue pigtails bounce with a nod. “What happens when you don’t hit the button in time?” Larry chuckles as he continues working on the generator, “Well, you don’t want that to happen. If it does it will make a loud noise and the killer will be able to find where you are.” Sal frowns, “That sucks.” Accidently, Larry misses the skill check and the generator sort of blows up. Sal’s eyes widen and he leans closer to the TV waiting to see who the killer is. Larry sneaks away; Nea Karlsson squatting in the grass, a few feet away from the generator. A heartbeat gradually gets louder on the TV. Anxiety kicks into Larry as he frantically looks around for the killer. Michael Myers runs over to the generator and breaks it with his foot. Larry moves backward, hoping that he won’t see him sneaking away. “Ohmygosh,” Sal rubs his arms, waiting to see Michael’s next move. He looks around and he finds Larry in the tall grass. “Oh no!” Larry sprints further into the junkyard. He yells at the TV as he vaults through multiple obstacles. Sal grabs onto his pigtails, anxiety gnawing at him as he watches Larry get chased. He runs through a pallet and slams it down; it stuns the killer. Larry runs to his right and into a gas station window. On the left side of the screen it says “Chased” and “Escaped”. The smaller boy sighs happily and lets go of his hair. He felt something other than anxiety; watching Larry so into a video game made the blue haired boy feel something he’s never felt toward his friend. Larry was always brave though; like when they’d go up to the fifth floor and check out stuff. Why was Sal only realizing it now? Larry nervously chuckles as he sneaks around in the gas station. “That guy is really creepy. Even if we have the whole mask thing in common.”
Larry snickers, “You’re a dork, Sally Face.” While working on a gen Larry raspberries, “Man this killer is real bad. None of us have been hooked once. I think only one person was hit by him.” Sal nods, “At least he’s trying.” Larry nods back and gestures his hand, “That is true, but we also have one generator left, and all of us already know where the hatch is.”
“What’s the hatch?” The blue eyes look up in curiosity. “The Hatch is like an alternate exit. It usually spawns around generators that weren’t finished. But it only spawns when you’re the last survivor.” A loud noise is heard from the TV; two spots with levers light up. “What’s that?” Sal questions as Larry runs toward one of the levers. “It’s the exit gate- Man, I can’t believe you’ve never played this game before."
“I’ve never played on a system before. It was always my Gear Boy,” Sal tries to defend himself, but only makes Larry chuckle. “Screw you.”
“Hey! I was laughing with you.”
"Well, I wasn’t laughing.” Sal crosses his arms and leans back into the couch. Larry laughs as Nea finally opens the gate the whole way. He confuses his friend when he doesn’t immediately go into the gate. “Why didn’t you go out?!”
“I can lead the other people to the gate, plus I can get extra blood points for other things.” Larry explains as he makes Nea gesture towards the exit gate to two players. “Now, where’s the other guy at?” Nea sneaks around, looking for the player playing as Dwight.
“Sal, can you help me set the table for dinner please?” Lisa shouts from the kitchen. “Of course!” He gets up and crawls under the TV so he doesn’t get in Larry’s way. He chuckles at his small friend and continues searching for the other player.
From the kitchen Lisa and Sal hear Larry mumbling angrily at the TV. “Do you understand anything he’s saying?” Lisa questions Sal as she sets out four plates. Henry would be joining them later. “No, but I got something about a hook.” They both chuckle and laugh at the teenager on the couch. “FUCK! NOOO RUN!” Sal watches Larry’s character limp away towards the gate as the person ahead of them got out. Larry gets hit one last time, but he crawls out of the game. “Wow, that was brutal,” Sal states as he sets glasses beside the plates. Larry scoffs and sets the remote onto the coffee table. He makes his way over to the kitchen to help with setting the table.
“Do you wanna try after dinner?” Larry asks Sally about the game as he fills glasses with soda. “Uh, sure. I guess. I’ll be really bad at it.” Larry pulls Sal closer to him. He’s so close Sal can feel his breath against his neck. “You’ve hunted actual ghosts, I’m pretty sure you can escape a killer.” Thank God for the mask, because Sal couldn’t control the blush on his face from merely feeling Larry so close to his neck.
At dinner laugher fills the table by stupid jokes made by Larry and Henry laughing a little too hard at them. Sal looks at his dad with a warning look, and Larry kicks him under the table and makes small eye contact. This gives Sal a confused feeling.
“Sal, I’ve got the rest of the dishes, you can go play with Larr-Bear!”
“Moooom!” Larry whines as he buys things from the blood web. Sal plops down beside him, making the couch shake. Out of the whole couch, Sal sits the closest to Larry. The kitchen light shuts off and Lisa walks through the living room. “I’mma head to bed boys. Goodnight.” She walks over to her son and places a kiss on his forehead. “Goodnight Mom.” She smiles at Sal, “Goodnight Sally.” He looks up at her and smiles, even though she can’t see it, she can feel it, “Goodnight Lisa!”
The remote is handed to Sal. He looks at the glowing button and swallows her nerves. He hits triangle and awaits for a lobby. “I’m nervous,” he states and starts messing with his hair. Larry raises a brow, “Why? Are you afraid that I’m sort of gaming specialist and if you suck the whole world will know?”
“Well, when you put it like that…” Sal shifts in his seat. Larry’s body is warm against his- That is definitely something I should not be thinking about. Sal sighs at himself, but ignores his infatuation like thoughts toward Larry. Larry doesn’t help the warm thoughts about him. He grabs the remote and changes from Nea to Feng Min, with blue hair. “There!” He smiles and Sal takes in his brown eyes all over again. He’s such a dork… The game starts, pulling Sal back from his dreamland. Speaking of the dreamland, Larry shouts, “It’s Freddie Kruger!” Sal didn’t even notice the round start. In the bottom left corner he sees little clouds around another player. He sneaks away, hoping that the killer couldn’t see his bright ass hair from a distance. While Sal works on a generator, a soft lullaby starts. “What is that?”
“You’re gonna fall asleep Sal! Run!” Sal quickly stops repairing and sprints away. He falls all the way asleep, Feng’s head is on one side. “Her neck is fucking broken, Larry.” Larry laughs a little too loud, “No, she’s sleeping Sal.”
“Oh,” Sal continues running and accidently does a running-vault over a white fence. “You don’t wanna do a running vault Sal, it’ll show the killer where you are.”
“Well, you should have fucking told me that before.”
Larry’s scoff is followed by a small laugh, “Is Sally Fisher getting angry at a video game?” The angry Sal made something new appear inside Larry. He smirks and continues pointing out flaws in Sal’s gameplay. “Fucking- Agh, shut up Larry!” Freddie suddenly appear and slashes Feng in the back. The game lags and he hits her again. She falls to the ground. Sal grunts and rips off his mask. He wiggles the left joystick as fast as humanly possible. The determination in the little guy makes Larry proud, but seeing him angry and determined made his heart rate faster. “NO!” Sal yells as Freddie throws Feng onto a hook. Her screams echo in the small living room. Larry can feel the heat coming off of his friend. “This game is so stupid! No one is even coming for me!” Sal turns to Larry. Suddenly, a hand is over his. Larry’s thumb rests over Sal’s, pushing the “x” button over and over again so the Entity doesn’t kill Feng. Sally turns to Larry. Fuck it… he thinks as he stares into his almond colored eyes. He grabs Larry’s wrist, making him stop and killing Feng. Larry slowly turns his head to Sal, his cheeks turning red as he flies in his sky blue eyes. “Are y-you alright S-Sal?” He swallows the nervousness in his mouth. Sal doesn’t speak, but he leans closer to Larry. He suddenly kisses Larry. At first his brown eyes are wide, but they eventually shut as he falls into the kiss. Sal’s instincts kick in and he jumps off of Larry, “Oh, oh my god! Larry, I didn’t mean-“ Larry stands up and grabs Sal. He pulls him closer and he leans down a little and kisses him back. “I- Oh-“ Sal nearly falls over from the magical kiss. Larry laughs, “So what now?”
“I wanna play as the killer!”
“Who?”
“The Huntress.”
“Damn, good choice Sal.”
“I don’t only have a good choice in killers you know. I chose you.”
Larry’s face turns a tomato red, “Fuck you Sally Fisher.”
