Video Games

Chapter Twenty Three [The End]

Flicking on the television, I look at the screen and see my face on it. Two years have passed since I was kidnapped for the annual Video Games tournament. Since then, another tournament has started and finished; the winner was a young boy names Unoxi. He was the same age as me when I had won; I'm now eighteen and on the way to turning eighty. Every day, I feel like I'm living in my own personal hell. They always show the highlights of my games. Their favourite moment to play over and over is Tynoco's death.

Tynoco's death is something I want to forget. Every morning, ever evening, I pray that his family are doing okay. I also pray for the families of every competitor - for the fifty eight families who lost their child, for the two that gained their children back damaged and scarred for life. Unoxi and I now live in the same street; we talk about our horrible experiences and how we would do anything to get back those that we love.

Unoxi fell in love with a girl names Prizom; she was one of the cutest girls I've ever seen. He lost her in his semi-finals game and went mad in his finals. When he won his prize - which wasn't QWOP, but Mount Your Friends, he thought that the money would also attempt to ix his emotional damage, not just his severed leg. Compared to Unoxi, I got off easily; the boy is seventeen and he already has a fake leg.

Every few weeks, I find the courage to go and donate a little bit of money to Dexio, Baiyou, Tynoco and Kwesi's families - I see Ithai and Oguro's families whenever I can. They are the reason that I'm still alive, along with precious little Unoxi. He's the only person I speak to now. I still play video games, but they'll never be the same for me, and I don't have much fun when I play them. Then again, my life is full of depression and hatred - they're the most fun I get.

Video games are being released everywhere so that more records can be made, and they've turned it into a global event now; this year, there are people from all over the world on the show. The games were such a success that people are giving everything to and work for them. They have translators there that tell teh foreign competitors what the task is; they also received a tutoring in basic English and Japanese now, for they are the two main languages spoken by the gamers. People commentate over it as if it's the Olympics, which is due to start as soon as these games are over.

The thirty competitors for this year are revealed to the screen for the first time. It seems that the Minecraft and Farmville thing is a running theme, for they are making their houses in the little cubicles like we did. Switching the television off, I feel the sickness in my stomach; I rush to the bathroom and make it just in time. Usually, I get annoyed when people leave the toilet lid up, but this time I'm grateful for it or I would've puked over the lid - no one wants to clean up someone's sick on a Tuesday morning.

This has to stop now. This lifestyle is horrible. I no longer go to school or outside for that matter. Flushing the toilet and making my way to my bedroom, I decide to get out the game that first got all of this started: MarioKart Wii. As I turn the console on and slip the disk into the Wii, I pick up the controller and the wheel it comes with; I slot them together and watch as the title screen appears.

Tynoco told me that he loved the whole of "the cup with the volcano and the Koopa track." I'm sure that he means star. In fact, I managed to get a world record on the Maple Tree Way course not too long ago. As I select Yoshi and the standard kart that matched the kart Tynoco drove, I select the star cup and get ready to go. Video Games are the only memory of Tynoco that I'll have forever.

My life is nothing other than video games now. And I hate it.