Peek-A-Boo and other short stories

Emerald Eyes

Snow crunched and cracked under my boots as I sprinted, the icy air clawing at my skin and lungs. Since when were multiplayer computer games so realistic? The exhaustion was beginning to make my vision fuzzy and I didn't need to check my inventory to know that I had no food. I wasn't expecting to run out into the snow to look for her, was I? Fading footprints wound their way around the trees like a silk ribbon and I cursed her agility. I yelled her name again, a guttural roar of inner anguish. Why wouldn't she come back? I crashed through the brambles blindly.
My voice was broken, shattered like my family photo frames in the real world. The real world. How long had it been since I had looked out of my own eyes? How long had I been plugged in here, trapped? My pounding heart froze. Time. What a strange thing. In all my efforts to escape this game I had never taken notice of the time that was passing. Would Peri be older now? How many birthdays without me? And my body. Would it still be plugged in inside my shadow filled gaming room? My heart jumped and suddenly I felt sick. I had to keep moving. Filling my lungs with a deep intake of frosty air I began to dart with inhuman speed through the pine trees once again.
I found her at last - slumped on the ground like an abandoned, broken doll, fragile and otherworldly and beautiful. The trees surrounded her like poisonous high school girls in a playground, watching and waiting to pounce. Her silver hair was tipped with frost and her paper white skin blended in with the winter ice, her emerald eyes the only colour on her glorious face. The violet sky above us was speckled with the snowflakes that fell to cover her. The air rushed out of my chest at the sight of her. I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her gently. Her bone china hands reached out for me, only to push me away. Her long lashes were wet with tears and her pale hair was swirling in the wind, like her own personal curtains. My surreal blue hands reached for her and her wide eyes met mine. She bolted upright suddenly, gasping. She struggled to her feet but all her previous strength had deserted her, and I moved forwards to catch her.
"No!" Her pale face was soaked with trails of tears as she pushed me backwards with her remaining strength. I stumbled slightly before regaining my balance, grasping at the thin, milky fabric of her dress. Weeping, she took another three steps backwards, snow cracking beneath her tiny feet.
"Stop! You'll catch your death out here!" My words were caught by the groaning winds and thrown aside. The settings for "storm" were at the peak. I stumbled towards her, slipping on the ice coated ground.
"That's the point, Adam." Her voice was low and sad, as if she truly meant the words that she had just muttered. There was no way that she could have. She looked as though she was physically fading, vanishing before my eyes. But those weren't my real eyes. Not my human eyes. I shook her again, telling her she couldn't go, that it wasn't just a game anymore.
"You know if you do this we can never be together in in the real world!" My mind was on overtime, clicking and whirring. How could she be so stupid? Suicide wasn't an option. Not so close to the end. They must have nearly cracked it by now! How hard was it to find the Virus?
"There IS no body for me to go back to." Her tear sodden face implored me, as if she was waiting for me to understand.
"Don't be stupid. They won't have abandoned it. They're still fighting the virus-"
"They won't find it. The virus I mean. But- But I know where it is." Her interruption left me blinking, confused in the harsh winter light. Was she kidding? She was a serious person and the idea of her pranking me was alien, especially when she was risking her life.
"You know how to get rid of the virus?!" A sob erupted from her, and I stepped towards her, smiling fondly. "What- What is it? Why are you crying? We'll see each other in the real world, stupid! This isn't the end of us!" My heart was pounding. I grasped her arms with my cold hands and pulled her closer towards me. Her white dress was nowhere near substantial enough, but somehow, she still was warm. Her shaking hand pointed to the gloomy cavern high in the mountain behind us and we began to walk.
She was still weeping steadily when we reached the mouth of the cave. I patted her thin arm in sympathy. "We're going to defeat it! The source I mean, not just the shadows. Then- Then we'll wake up in the real world and we can find each other. Stop crying. You'll alert the shadows to our presence." I watched as she pulled herself together, wiping her bloodshot eyes with a shaking hand. The cavern loomed before me like a gaping mouth ready to swallow us whole. If anything happened here – no one would ever know. I took a step into the darkness, and waited for my eyes to adjust. A long tunnel ran deep into the mountains, twisting and turning like a snake into the long grass.
Two steps. The pitter-patter of water and the clink of my boots against the rocky floor. The murky light had all but diminished and we were left to the terrors of the night. Our footsteps echoed as we dodged the rocks which littered the floor. The smell of damp was overpowering but I resisted the urge to cough. Her hand found mine in the darkness as a light began to appear around a sharp corner. She surged forwards, light-footed and silent in the darkness, dragging me behind her. A doorway loomed ahead of us. The torchlight glinted on the damp walls and for the first time I saw her look scared. She pushed open the door, and winced as it omitted a low creak. She pulled me in and span quickly, locking the door behind us.
"What are we looking for..." I asked. The room was small and smelt of rotting wood. It clung to me like cobwebs and my heart was pounding like horses' hooves on cobblestones. I turned to face her, my blue eyes wide with fear.
"It's right here in front of you. Adam. I am The Virus."
Silence.
My eyes flickered frantically around the room. We were alone. "Kimi! You can't be serious. You are NOT The virus." My voice was pitchy and I recoiled slightly as what she said sank in. I was disgusted at my reaction. I knew her better than that. She had never tried to hurt me before. She loved me. I loved her. But now she had opened a chest of doubt. Sharks of fear swarmed in the murky depths of my mind.
The shadows that always seemed to follow us. They always knew where we were. Her appearance at spawn point on the day of the first shadow attack. Her lack of knowledge of the game. Her avoidance of any discussion related to the real world. I had put it all down to coincidence. Maybe I shouldn't have.
"Kill me." Her voice roared like thunder. Her words slammed me in the face, and I struggled to suck in the mossy air around me. I just couldn't do it. "There has to be another way!" I gasped, doubling over as the panic hit me.
"There is no other way Adam. And I can't self-destruct. Believe me - I have tried." Her voice was soft as felt and I realised she was close to tears again.
"Then-"
"Adam! For god's sake! Don't you understand? I'M NOT REAL! I'm just a program. I'm designed to look like this. Exactly how you would want me to look. I am supposed to behave like this. Exactly how you would want me to behave. I'm designed to be loveable. I am designed to be adored by everyone in the game. The way I've been acting is how I am programmed to act. I'm not a proper human like you! I will never be like you Adam. I am never going to see the real world"
She was obviously frustrated at my lack of understanding. Her eyes were now slits as if someone had drawn the blinds down and left a tiny glint of green light. She was glaring at me, her words boring holes in my already dented emotional armour.
"But- you feel love and pain! And- you would never hurt me." I proclaimed.
She softened visibly and cupped her hands around my cheeks and gazed into my eyes.
"Listen to me. If you don't kill me then the shadows will get to you. They've been after us since I got here. I want you to see your daughter grow up. Peri was only six months old when you plugged in Adam. She'll be a child of six now. If you continue with me you'll die here and your soul will never be able to return to your child. You will never see your family again. I'm- I'm doing this for you." Tears were flowing freely down her face as she pressed her silver dagger into my limp, reluctant hand. I didn't want to touch it. I wanted to tell her that my other life didn't matter to me anymore. I wanted to tell her that she WAS real, that her purpose couldn't possibly have been to destroy the human race. That she was too good and pure and beautiful to be any kind of evil. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't sure I wanted to go back without her. I wanted to tell her all of this – but all that I managed was an uncontrolled sob.
It was then that I felt a tug on my cloak. I spun around, cutting blindly at the shadow with her dagger just as another two swirls of shadow crept like smoke under the wooden door. The unseen Shadows scratched my legs with invisible claws. Kimi spun me around until I faced her nose to nose. Deep gouges appeared on my arms and the blood wept red tears which dripped soundlessly onto the damp dark floor. I couldn't feel my feet anymore. Her enchanting eyes held mine as her hands moved purposefully around my neck. I jolted with shock. She was giving me no choice. It was me or her.
Her vivid jewelled eyes shone deep with pain. My hand clutched the dagger. I raised the weapon up to just under her ribcage.
And then it was done.
Her eyes never left mine and she did not blink. They were wide now with pain and filled to the brim with not only tears, but with relief. My world imploded. My heart broke. What had I done? What had I let her do? She collapsed into my willing arms and I stroked her silver hair as I wept, watching the light fade from her glorious eyes. She nodded, and with a whisper that sounded like wind in the trees she muttered her last words. "For what it's worth, Adam, I love you."
She began to fade from silver, to white to grey and became weightless in my arms. Before my eyes – which moments ago had held hers – she pixelated and became merely dust in my hands.
"Kimi!" I whispered.
"KIMI!"
She was gone but I still could feel her last breath on my neck. I was lost...

Beeping noises.

Then light. Gentle yellow light. Sunlight. Earthly sunlight.

Then I feel a weight across my legs.

Painfully I open my eyes. My breathing feels raspy like an old man. It comes out in short, sharp, bullet-like blasts. I claw at my legs and pull the soft cotton sheets away from my skin. I know that I am home. That this is reality because I can actually feel. My sense of touch – absent for so many long years feels alien. The colours are muted, softened by the yellowness of the sun streaming through the window.
My life support is still beeping steadily as I hear the creak of the door.
"Daddy?" A silky voice fills my ears. And my heart.
I turn my head slowly and meet the vivid, emerald green gaze of my daughter.