My name is Henry Morris, and my life sucks.
Okay, it's not all bad. Not with video games, at least.
To tell you the truth, video games probably saved my life. But let's not discuss that for now.
———
I'm attending a coding class, and in my class, there's this guy named Austin.
We hardly know each other, but we're rivals.
Why? Well, the answer is a bit stupid.
You see, I take my studies quite seriously, however, so does Austin (Or so it appears, but I'm not accusing him of anything without proof).
Because of this, we're the top students of the class. Not that it's a bad thing, but it makes a very common topic of debate for our classmates. They're always wondering who will do better on the test, or whatever we're working on.
At first, this didn't bother me. But as time passed, I started to feel a bit...competitive. Just a bit.
...okay, maybe a little more than a bit, but that's not the point.
Sometimes I snuck glances in his direction, and sometimes he caught me, giving me a confused look.
I don't remember when I officially decided to call Austin my rival, but I wasn't pleased when I was paired up with the guy I thought of as my rival for a collaborative project.
Whispers passed through the class about "the two smart guys working together" and how we'd totally do the best out of everyone, as expected.
I, on the other hand, was not thrilled to do this at all. I silently scowled, but didn't bother to try and ask the professor for a different partner. Just because I was one of the top students of the class, didn't mean that I was particularly liked nor was used to communicating with people.
When we were dismissed, I silently walked home, mentally preparing myself. My Father wasn't the best, and I didn't want to go to Austin's so soon.
I opened the door to my house, being greeted with silence.
Father's not home today, thank God... I let out a small sigh of relief. Mom's probably away though.
I walked to my room, letting my backpack slip off my shoulders.
I kneeled down, taking my laptop and a textbook out. I'd contact Austin later, for now, I just wanted to study a little ahead.
———
I stood outside, on the doorstep.
I gave my backpack a slight tug with my left hand as I sighed, then knocked on the door.
1..2..3...4-
The door swung open, Austin looking at me with indifference.
"Hey.", he bluntly greeted.
I waved with my free hand as I stepped inside.
I briefly looked around as Austin led me to his room. The walls were plain, the air smelled of books, new and old.
But there was one thing that caught my eye. The Wii Console under the television.
I'd much rather be playing that than doing this...I never got to try it...
Suddenly, I was dragged by my sleeve. I quickly looked away from the Wii and at Austin.
"C'mon, we need to start on the project. You know how strict our professor is, right?", Austin said without looking at me.
Was it just me, or was his tone kind of tense?
Oh well, probably nothing to worry about.
We entered his room, then, I sat down on the floor, dropping my backpack and pulling my laptop out.
"Do you wanna do the first part, or should I do it?"
———
Two hours passed, and I stretched my fingers, taking a break from typing.
I looked over at Austin, he continued to type.
Geez, does he never take a break?
"Y'know, Austin, it's bad to be staring at the screen for that long.", I told him.
He continued to type away, "I'll be fine, Henry."
How has he not needed glasses yet?
"...Okay.", I slowly responded.
I sat there, silently looking around his room. It was pretty average, with books scattered around and whatnot.
Then, I spotted a Wii U.
"You play video games?"
Austin suddenly looked at me, appearing slightly startled.
"Uh, yeah? Why do you ask that?"
"No special reason. It's just that...you didn't seem to be the type to do anything other than study."
"Oh.", Austin nodded. Thankfully he didn't assume that I was indirectly calling him boring, "Actually, video games are a big part of my life. In fact, I'm planning to become a video game developer, that's why I'm taking the coding class."
"Really? Video games play a pretty big part in my life as well.", I responded.
Wow, I didn't expect things to be playing out this way. Yet, here I was, talking with Austin, of all people I could be talking with, about video games.
"I mainly play the Nintendo games, how about you?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Me as well, huh."
I don't know what compelled me to, but before I knew it, the words came out of my mouth, "I never got to try the Wii Console though."
Austin paused, looking at me.
Oh darn why did I just-
His eyes looked outside the window, his expression...nervous? "Yeah, it's...pretty cool."
Okay, something's definitely up.
"Is there something wrong?", I asked.
Austin gave me a small frown, "No, nothing's wrong. I'm just remembering something."
"Is it related to the Wii?"
His silence confirmed my suspicions. Curiosity itched at me, what was so bad about the Wii that it caused Austin to be bothered by it?
I got up, and started walking out of the room.
"Henry, what are you doing?", Austin got up.
I sped up the pace, "Don't worry about it."
"Henry, I swear if you're going to mess with my Wii-don't you fucking dare!"
I rushed to plug in the Wii, but Austin roughly pulled me back by my hood.
"Ack-! What the hell Austin?!"
"You don't understand, Henry. It's for the better that you listen to me and don't mess with the Wii.", Austin tightened his grip, carefully watching me.
"Why? What's wrong with your Wii? It's literally a game console!", I struggled to release myself.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"What do you mean? Are you meaning to tell me something's inside your Wii, maybe...I don't know, possessing it?", I rolled my eyes. Austin was probably overreacting.
Austin stared at me.
"...You're not serious are you? Your Wii's actually possessed?"
Austin sighed, releasing my hood, "I know it sounds crazy, but yeah. You've hit bullseye."
"It's not like whatever's possessing it can hurt you though."
"He can and did, mentally.", Austin frowned, "He literally chopped my friend's Mii in half with an axe when we were 7 just because he deleted him!"
"Who's he, exactly?"
"His name's Kyle. There's another one, named Sam, but she isn't malevolent."
"Oh.", I paused, then did a double take, "Wait, because he deleted him?"
"Kyle and Sam are miis, they can be deleted, but they can come back too, somehow. Kyle says the process of being deleted is painful, however...", Austin's voice trailed away as he seemed to think.
"And you haven't talked this out with him?"
"Oh fuck no. I don't want anything to do with him or the Wii anymore, my life's been perfectly fine without them!"
"Well, it's been a good number of years since you've seen him, he probably changed by now."
"Well, if you want to test that theory out, you can take the Wii and talk to him yourself.", Austin folded his arms.
On that note, Austin briskly walked back to his room.
It was probably going to be really awkward between us if I stayed here, so I packed my items, the Wii Console, and it's remotes, then left.
———
When I arrived back home, my Father still hadn't come back.
Wow. Well, I guess that leaves me some time to plug up the Wii and see Kyle...assuming Austin wasn't lying.
He wouldn't even have a reason to lie though, would he?
Carefully placing my backpack on the ground, I took out the Wii, connected it to the television in my room, plugged it in, and turned it on.
The menu appeared perfectly normal, and I clicked on the Mii Channel, then the start button.
The Mii Channel appeared, and there were two Miis sitting down with their backs towards me.
"Hello?"
The two Miis turned to look at me.
Woah.
"So you're Henry.", the male one;Probably Kyle, said.
"Yeah. You're Kyle and Sam?"
"Who else could we be?", Kyle bluntly replied.
"Kyle, don't be rude.", Sam frowned.
"Whatever.", Kyle muttered just loud enough for me to hear.
Sam punched him in the arm and smiled at me, "Please don't mind him, it's nice to meet you Henry!"
I think I understand what Austin meant...
"Yeah, it's nice to meet you guys too."
We looked at each other in awkward silence.
Uh...what should I say?
"So...how did you guys end up in the Wii?", I asked.
Kyle looked at the ground and Sam gave a slight grimace, as if that bought up bad memories, which, well, it did.
"Well, I was brought to work by my Dad since it was Bring Your Kid to Work Day, and I accidentally got myself electrocuted."
"Oh.", I winced.
"Yeah, it wasn't fun.", Sam rubbed her arm.
"Sorry that I asked."
"It's okay, you didn't know that we died to get here.", Sam reassured me.
Kyle looked up at me, "Henry, are your parents not home? After all, you did just take Austin's Wii and started talking with us pretty quickly."
"Oh, yeah. Neither of them are home at the moment."
"I'm curious, what's your home life like?", Sam asked.
Hoo boy.
This wasn't exactly the most fun subject for me to tell people about. Not that I even told people about it though.
"Well, my Mom's...really nice. But I'm worried for her. She's sad a lot of the time.", I frowned, "My Father's...not that great."
"Honestly, I'm not sure how my Father and Mom got along well enough to date. Hell, to even end up getting married! My Mom deserves someone way better than him!", I fumed in anger.
Sam looked at me with sympathy and concern, "I'm sorry to hear tha-"
"Henry. Someone's approaching.", Kyle suddenly interrupted.
My eyes widened in surprise, "Huh? How do you-?"
I heard the door's locks open. Was it Mom or Father?
The door creaked open, and heavy footsteps hit the ground.
Darn, it's Father.
I frowned.
"Henry, quick, turn off the Wii!", Kyle warned.
"Hu-"
"Henry! Who is that?!"
Uh oh.
"Damn it.", Kyle quietly hissed.
Before I could react, my room's door was forcefully swung open.
My Father stood at the doorway, his blue eyes staring straight at the television screen.
"How the fuck did you get a Wii?"
"My classmate gave it to me...", I responded in a slightly quiet voice.
"Your classmate? You don't have friends, Henry. I doubt your classmate simply just gave it to you."
"Actually, he did-", Sam said, then put her circular hands over her mouth.
Kyle roughly nudged her and sent her a dirty look.
"What the fuck? Did-did that thing just talk?"
I'm screwed.
"I..."
"You bought this shit off the black market or something, I'm sure of it.", My so-called Father glared at me.
Is he out of his mind?!
"What? No-!"
He grabbed me by the front of my hoodie, his grip pinching my skin.
What's with people grabbing me today?
"Let him go!", Sam exclaimed.
Father looked at her, then dropped me.
"Is a little Mii character trying to protect Henry?", he laughed.
Suddenly, he grabbed the remote and proceeded to drag Sam to the delete icon.
"Sam!", I cried out. I tried to pull the remote out of Father's hand, but he kept it out of my reach.
"Stop it you idiot, you don't know what you're doing!", Kyle yelled.
"Don't worry, you'll join her soon.", with that, Father deleted Sam, and immediately grabbed Kyle.
"Let go of me!", Kyle squirmed around.
"Leave him alone!", I shouted.
"Not happening, kid.", Father then deleted Kyle too.
It went silent. I stared at the Mii Channel.
Austin said that Kyle chopped his friend's mii in half when he deleted him, what was Kyle going to do to Father?
"Well, that's taken care of.", Father smugly smiled at me, "You know, it's quite pathetic how-"
"You've just made the biggest mistake of your life, big guy."
"Huh?!", Father turned to the television.
Static covered the screen, and it slowly faded away to reveal Kyle close up to the screen.
A chill went through my body, he looked normal, but his pupils had now been dilated so much there wasn't a trace of white left in his eyes.
In the background, the Mii Channel had turned to dark gray, a big contrast compared to the usual light white.
"What the Fuck? Didn't I just delete you?!", Father yelled.
"Yeah, and let me tell you something.", the screen turned to static once more for a second, then revealed Kyle stepping on a Mii, an axe in his hands.
Strangely, this Mii looked quite a lot like Father.
"Never.", Kyle brought the axe up.
"Delete.", he smiled, a shadow covering his forehead.
"Miis.", he brought the axe down, chopping the Mii in half.
Father quickly knelt down and pressed the power button, but no matter what, the television didn't shut down.
He growled in frustration, then tried to pull the plug, "Son of a bitch..."
"Your fate is inevitable.", Kyle grinned.
"Kyle, wait-!", Sam suddenly called out, but it was too late.
The room flashed yellow,
and
we
screamed.