Time to Wander

Prologue

  Caeden sat hunched at his wooden desk. The desktop computer hummed when the fans turned on. It was dark in his room and his curtains were yanked shut; the only light was the blueish spray of luminescence from the computer screen. Despite the late hour, there were still sounds of faint honking from the traffic on the city streets below. The digital clock beside him read 11:57. Caeden glanced at it and back at the computer. He knew it was past the time he was supposed to get off the computer, which was 10:00. He jiggled his knee nervously and stared at the screen.

He was waiting for Warriors vs. Wizards to download. He had finally convinced his mother that the game would not consume his life entirely and he would see the light of day once and a while. It took a lot of pleading. His older sister had scoffed at him from where she sat on the couch with her phone, but she knew nothing. This was the most underrated classic first-person action game. Dragons and Dungeons totally ripped off of the game Warriors vs. Wizards.

Caeden slipped his thumb nail behind his teeth and gnawed on it. His friend Thomas had told him that it was a stupid idea to waste $19.99 on the game. Thomas had repeatedly said how glitchy and slow the game was rumored to be, mostly because of its age. Although Thomas claimed to have only watched gameplays of it, Caeden had the slight impression that Thomas had played it himself. Caeden spit out a sliver of nail and stared out his window. This wasn't a bad idea right? He shook his head and rested it on his hand.

He was getting tired and the glow from the computer was hurting his eyes; they were beginning to feel dry. He tried to blink the blurriness away but it didn't help. He thought about sleeping and waiting to play the game in the morning but quickly thought better of it, as he wouldn't sleep well. "Come on," he groaned at the monitor. The only reply was the soothing hum from the fans. Caeden leaned back in his chair and let the hair fall away from his face. His blond locks fell just below his ears and just over his eyes. He loved how when he tossed his head to the side the hair would settle itself and stick there. He thought about using Melaine's hairspray to keep the strands out of his face and swept to the side (he thought he looked very cool with his hair like that), but he worried someone would notice the hairspray and make fun of him.

Caeden didn't have many friends at school. He thought back to seventh grade when he joined Charter. Or, the Chicago Virtual Charter School, CVCS as the officials called it. Everyone else called it Charter. It started at Kindergarden and went up to twelfth grade. He was only in tenth grade and had two "friends", Thomas and Evan. He didn't even consider them as real friends. They always teased him because he was from "Looezianeh". AKA, Louisiana. He had a slight southern accent and still called soda, "pop", and sandwiches, "clubs". He hated his parents for moving up north four years ago. He always thought of people from Illinois as stuck-up. Caeden and his father would make fun of the northerners and their dumb overly-accepting ways, even when Caeden hadn't fully understood politics.

The clock ticked and 11:57 changed to 11:58. Caeden did a double take. No way had it only been a minute. He sat up straight and grabbed the wireless analog in his hand. He tapped at it with his fingernail and even shook it, then looked at the computer: 91% loaded. Hold on, it was only at 35% last time he looked. Caeden wiped his eyes and stared at the clock. He decided on watching it until it changed to 11:59, then started counting in his head. Ten... eleven... twelve.

He got to sixty and the clock was still at 11:58. He waited a few seconds, thinking that maybe he was behind on the counting. Nope. "What the heck?" he asked no one in particular. He looked back at the screen and found the game fully loaded. It had even launched and was at the "Choose a player" screen. He blinked several times. How was that possible? What was going on?

Relax, he thought, at least it's working. He looked at all the characters. There were four. Even with the clock ordeal, Caeden still found the need to inspect the characters. He hovered the mouse over the first one.

Denzel. Denzel had spiky brown hair and lively green eyes. The clothes that he was wearing were leafy looking, as if he had jumped in a pile of autumn leaves and they had clung very tightly to his body. He had a bow and a pack of arrows slung over his shoulder in a very nonchalant way.

Caeden swiped the hair from his eyes with his fingertips and moved the mouse to the next character. Fawn. She was modestly pretty. Light brown skin with big pink eyes. Her ears stuck out in front of her dark brown hair that was pulled up in a ponytail. Her dress was short and pink and she held a pistol.

Next was Valentine. His hair was longer than Caeden's and it was stark white. It hung down in wisps over his face making his purple eyes barely visible. His stance screamed self-importance and he was even programmed to toss his head every few moments. He clutched a long staff that had a purple gem stuck on the top.

Last was Emmaline. Her long golden hair fell to her waist and she held a half-smirk on her face. The red gown that she wore pooled at her feet and Caeden, though he found it glamorous, tried to picture her fighting in such a thing and found it impossible.

Absentmindedly, Caeden looked back at the clock. 11:59. He nodded and vowed to get off at 1:00.

He scrolled through the characters again and was about to click Denzel when a small button popped up under the boxes of character faces. "Join Game". But he hadn't even chosen a character yet! He clicked on Denzel repeatedly and even sort of frantically, but nothing happened. He sighed and moved the mouse to the "Join Game" button. Maybe Thomas was right.

He clicked.

Suddenly his head hit against something hard. In fact, many somethings. His head had fallen on the keyboard and the sharp keys were biting into his cheek and his vision was blurring and all he could see was the redness of the clock before everything turned white. 12:00.