Legends of Orlea

Arc 2: Reality Chapter 1:

(If you see any Edwards around, tell me in the comments pls)

Zirem felt a suction. Slowly, his vision dimmed. However, a last message appeared before him saying, "We hope you have enjoyed your play of this game! As a reward, you will receive all the money you have earned in canadian dollars, and you will be able to keep one skill tree, along with two items of choice."

That must have been a message programmed before the game had become a deathtrap. Zirem smiled, picked the items and skill, and left the game, tears in his eyes. However, before everything went dark, he told his real name to Akil and Alicia. A name he'd forgotten long ago, but that was now the only thing he could think of. They followed his example, and right as his vision went dark, Zirem knew he'd be able to meet them.

He woke up. The tears brimming in his eyes fell, and he smiled. His sister, Stephanie, noticed him get up, and sobbed. Her hug shoved him back, and he embraced her back. It felt... satisfying to be home. Home in the real world. 

He looked over his sister, and saw his mother, Isabelle. She smiled at his return, but something was obviously wrong. He made a mental note to ask her later. But both gasped as they wiped the tears from their faces. "What's wrong?"

"..."

"What... is that?!" His sister pointed to his eye. He then understood. He'd kept a scar from when... he shuddered. (When the torture happened. I don't want to say in case some people who haven't read don't want to know. The scar is on his eye.)

"Something from the... game."

"Oh. But what are those?" his sister looked at the two swords he'd brought as mementos. 

"The end-game reward was to keep two items, one skill and all the money earned."

"Really?" He nodded. 

3 hours later...

"Happy twenty-first birthday, Edward (His real name)!" they all yelled in unison. (It's fitting, he ended the game on his birthday.) He blinked, and smiled, tears coming back to his eyes. Just a few hours ago, he'd been known as Zirem, the player who, along with friends, had ended the game. Now, he was a normal birthday boy who couldn't walk yet; his muscles were still atrophied.

His old friends were all there, and each of them had been waiting for this moment with impatience. And yet... Zirem couldn't be completely happy. Something was missing. He didn't want to admit it, but the friends he'd made in Legends of Orlea had been more like a family than his real relatives. They'd been with him through thick and thin, in situations where one mistake was death.

But still, he continued the party, ignorant as to how he'd befriended most of them. But by the end, he felt like a normal person again, only with twice as many friends as before. He'd missed many things that his friends could help him catch up to. But the problem was that he was still too old. His personality and way of thinking hadn't changed, and he was mentally thirteen still. 

So now, he was left with the choice; live like a normal adult but force himself to do boring things, or do... he was cut off as a rumbling sound, not unlike the tornado in the game, shook the house. Some of the guests fell, and he did his best to help them up. However, his wheelchair wasn't the best for that activity, and his atrophied muscles didn't help either.

He opened the curtains, and saw what he'd hoped never to see again. He felt a pang of despair, until the massive hurricane slowed, bit by bit. It stopped right in front of the house. Zirem almost yelled with relief, until he saw what was coming out. Familiar things, yet he couldn't quite place where he'd seen them...