Darith arrived at his first class earlier than usual, sitting in his desk and nervously looking to the door while tapping his foot. His left hand was in his left pocket, sweatily clenching his cell phone that had the message still on it, asking him to accept or decline the invitation. As minutes past, he pulled it out of his pocket to look at the time as a reflex to his impatience, but before looking he remembered and shoved it back in his pocket, opting to look at the class-room clock instead that sat above the door. He’d already tried different methods to get the blue screen on his phone to disappear without hitting decline or accept, but the screen wouldn’t change no matter what other buttons he pressed.

The room clock read 7:48, 12 minutes before the first class would start. As he registered the time in his head he watched the door open, the sounds of other students in the hallways flooded into the room temporarily. He stood up anxiously awaiting the person who opened the door to enter, only to see a girl in his class step inside, shutting the door behind her to create silence once more. He let out a sigh of disappointment, not the person he was hoping for.

“What?” She asked in a repulsed tone after hearing his sigh.

“Sorry, waiting for someone.” He replied timidly, the girl eyeing him up and down and looking at him disgusted, as if it were her first time seeing him. Seeing her reaction, Darith couldn’t help but get self-conscious, and he himself looked down at his body as he sat back down at his desk. He was overweight, by a fair margin, and his clothes weren’t exactly loose. He saw his stomach hanging over his legs and larger than normal chest standing out, and attempted to pull at his shirt to stretch it over his body, but it was a futile effort, one that he was embarrassed about in itself. Afterward he looked back up to see if the girl had watched him do this, but she was already at her desk looking at her cell phone.

Knowing no eyes were on him, he wanted to take this time to correct other parts of his clothing to hide his weight as much as possible. He looked to his arms, pulling his black t-shirt’s sleeves down the arms as far as he could to hide the lack of muscle and surplus of flab he had. Despite his best attempts, he could hide nothing, and turned to just covering his head with his hands, almost completely forgetting about his phone until the door swung open again.

He was tempted to stand up out of anticipation, but he thought against it as he didn’t want a repeat of the look he got from last time. Luckily for him though, this time entered the person he was waiting for.

“Ryan!” Darith called out to get his attention quickly.

“Darith! Man you are not going to believe it, something weird happened.” Ryan replied, seeming equally excited. As they spoke, the girl from before once again looked up in disgust, this time directed at Ryan who wasn’t so attractive either. He was not overweight though, instead short and skinny with pale skin and greasy hair.

“Was it your phone?” Darith asked, his voice going quiet as they both noticed the girl eyeing them.

“How’d you know? Look, I got the same message as Jacob.” Ryan replied as he got to his desk right next to Darith’s and pulled his desk together with his. On his phone was the same blue screen with the same message.

“I got it too.” Darith said as he pulled out his own phone, showing the screen to Ryan.

“What the hell? That doesn’t make any sense!” Ryan replied.

“I know! My phone wasn’t even on me when he was there. How’d I get it?” Darith asked.

“Maybe it went off of your phone number? Does Jason have your phone number?” Ryan asked.

“Why would he have my phone number? Did you give it to him?” Darith replied.

“Why would I give him your phone number?” Ryan replied.

“I don’t know, you said he knew your Dad last night like you guys used to be friends or something.” Darith shrugged.

“Used to is the key word, you know, before high school and he became king of jocks. He didn’t get your number from me though. Didn’t get Jacob’s number from me either.” Ryan shrugged.

“Well then how did he get it? How did this game send invites to our phones when my phone wasn’t even on the same block?” Darith asked, more students had entered the classroom and were chatting, drowning out the sound that these two were making.

“I dunno.” Ryan shrugged. “We’ll have to ask him. You gonna accept or decline the invite?” He then asked. Darith turned his eyes to the screen of his cell phone and looked at it in deep concentration.

“I’m curious now what sort of game this is, it really had your friend freaked out. But I can’t get a virus on this thing or my mom will kill me, it’s for her to contact me when she’s working late, not for games.” Darith replied.

“Alright then let’s ask him, We can catch him after school.” Ryan said, and Darith nodded in response.

[Liana - Start]

Liana awoke to the sound of loud snoring, her vision groggy and her neck aching more than usual from sleeping in her wheelchair. She turned her head upright and could feel an inkling of drool that had made its way out of the side of her mouth while she was sleeping. She carefully lifted her right arm up to wipe the drool off, then let out a silent yawn and stretched her neck in a way that aggravated her left shoulder as little as possible. She could feel bits of it, but she couldn’t tell it what to do, nor the rest of her left arm, and it frustrated her to no end. She tried again, multiple times while squinting her eyes in an attempt to focus on it. She imaged in her mind her own nervous system, and tried to mentally send the signals to her arm as if through psychic powers rather than the bodies natural way, but it didn’t work. It never worked, no matter how many times she tried.

Her imagination let her believe that it could, though. She believed that eventually if she trained her brain hard enough, she could gain powers to enable her to move her body freely again.

As she continued, she felt a tingling feeling in her bladder, one she was all too familiar with. She immediately gave up on moving her left arm in it’s cast and glanced to Kristen who was laying on the couch, legs and arms spread and her mouth wide open while snoring blissfully. She then turned to the joystick controls on the right arm of her wheelchair and gripped it tightly, moving it forward to steer the wheelchair out of the living room towards the hall. It made a quiet buzzing noise as the motor activated and she lightly bumped the coffee table in the center of the room.

She paused, unable to turn around to see if Kristen was still sleeping, or was awoken by the noise. Instead she relied on her ears to hear Kristen snoring. It continued without skipping a beat, so Liana continued to move her wheelchair around the coffee table and into the hall, then forward towards the bathroom only to see it closed. She let out a quiet sigh to herself, parking her wheelchair alongside the door so that her right hand was closest to the handle. She lifted her hand just enough to turn the knob and swing the door open, but not high enough to turn the light on.

This wasn’t the first time she had made it this far to using the bathroom by herself, but it was far as she could get. She then took the next step, driving the wheelchair into the bathroom, but before she could get in she heard a loud beeping sound coming from the living room, followed by a loud snore being cut off and transforming into a barely comprehensible sound.

“Huhwhat? Huh?” Kristen shouted as she shot upright, glancing around confused before turning to her cell phone in her pocket. “Oh, right. It’s 12:00 already?” She groaned as she pulled out her phone and turned the alarm off. She let out a loud yawn, stretched out her arms, then flopped her head back down into the couch pillow.

“I miss sleep.” She groaned. She then resentfully rolled up off the couch and spotted Liana attempting to sit up in her chair to move onto the toilet, but it wasn't going so well. “Oh, honey, if you had to go to the bathroom you should have just woken me up.” Kristen said as she quickly made her way across the living room to the bathroom, flicking the light on and lifting Liana out of her wheelchair onto the toilet.

“I didn’t want to, I mean I know you hardly get any sleep as it is.” Liana said as Kristen helped hert.

“I’m fine, just a rough day yesterday. Hard to sleep anyway, really worried about those cops. You know, the one that wasn’t hurt wouldn’t change his story? He said the others were all shot with ice, and it was snowing.” Kristen said as she stood up and waited for Liana to finish.

“Really? Was he hit on the head or something?” Liana asked.

“No, he wasn’t hurt at all.”

“Do you think maybe he’s just crazy? Or on drugs?”

“He wasn’t on drugs, the doctors ran drug tests... He didn’t seem crazy either, he sounded pretty sure of what he was saying... I don’t know, the whole thing was weird. The injured cops really didn’t have injuries consistent with bullets.”

“That sounds like a weird mystery.” Liana replied. “Finished!” She added.

“Yeah, maybe you can solve it today while I’m working.” Kristen smiled at her as she helped get her back up.

“I can do that.” Liana smiled as she was lifted gently back into her wheelchair.

“Okay, great, my turn then.” Kristen said as Liana used her controls to move her chair out of the bathroom.

“Oh, it’s been 2 days almost since your last bath, hasn’t it? I can’t keep letting you skip days, you’ll have to have your bath at the hospital before you do any detective work.”

“Will you be doing it or will Cindy?” Liana replied with a grumpy expression.

“I’ll do my best to make sure I have the time to do it, okay?”

“I hate that Cindy lady, she’s way too rough and mean.” Liana commented.

“I know, I tried to talk to her about it, didn’t do much but get her angry at me though.” Kristen sighed as she stood up and flushed the toilet. “We’re out of the house in 25 minutes, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Cereal’s okay.” Liana replied. Kristen headed to the kitchen as Liana followed behind her.

“Oh, did Darith get his homework done?” She asked as she pulled out two bowls.

“Yup, everything finished.” Liana lied, poorly.

“Really now?” Kristen asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not even a little bit of it.” Liana grinned back.

“Jeez, I don’t even know which of you is being the bad influence to the other.”

“Probably me.” She smiled.

“Can I ask you a question in secret?” Kristen said in a more serious tone now.

“Of course.” Liana smiled.

“I’m starting to get worried about him playing video games. He at least has friends, right?”

“Games are pretty popular nowadays, almost everyone is playing them. I think he has some friends…” Liana replied.

“If I’m remembering highschool correctly, he’s probably not having the best of times. I feel like I should do something but I just don’t know what, he seems so happy playing those games.” Kristen said worriedly.

“I think he’ll be okay, he’s really smart, so...” Liana said.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be talking to you about this, I just need to find the right time to talk to him about it.” She said to herself as she finished pouring milk into their bowls and Liana pulled up her wheelchair to the table, lifting her right hand up to grab the spoon. Kristen noticed and quickly pushed her bowl closer to the edge of the table to help Liana leaned her head forward and began eating by herself, something she felt good about every time she did it.

“It’s okay, I’d probably worry too. He is just a bit unhealthy, and all of his friends are boys except me. I don’t think he can even talk to a girl properly yet.” Liana chuckled, to which Kristen simply raised her eyebrows and smiled.

[Elise - Start]

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” A loud, screeching voice echoed throughout the house.

“Miss, they’re still sleeping.” A quiet, frightened woman squeaked back.

“I don’t care if they’re sleeping.” She snapped back, and her stomping could be heard through the door as she moved across the house towards Elise’s bedroom, who lay curled up in her queen sized bed. Hearing the stomping get closer, she sat up and looked across the large, luxurious bedroom at another bed, where an older version of herself sat up staring back at her. The two girls, nearly identical apart from their height and hair length, simply rolled their eyes at each other as their bedroom door swung open.

“What is the meaning of this?” A tall, thin woman with long straight blonde hair shouted at them, holding two papers out in front of herself. Neither girl replied, they simply looked at her with a blank expression. “Elise, an average of C+!?” She shouted, throwing Elise’s report card to the ground, the younger of the two sisters.

“Karin, B- average?” She then threw the second report card down. “Do you have an explanation for this?”

“Well, you make us take all those dance classes...” Elise mumbled back while looking away, but this response caused their mother’s face to disfigure, and she stomped across the room towards Elise’s bed. As she pulled her arm back, Elise knew what was coming and shut her eyes tight. There was a loud, echoing slap that carried through the house.

“Don’t you talk back to me. I know the reason behind this, it’s that damn public school your father insisted on letting you girls go to. Not strict enough, you girls filling your head with stupid, useless things. At least Karin shows talent in dancing, but you!” She snapped at Elise, leaning forward threatening to cause harm again which caused Elise to pull away into her bed further.

“I just hope you start taking SOMETHING seriously.” She sighed, then turned to Karin. “And you, Karin, a B- average?”

“I’m sorry mother, I was too focused on my dancing technique. I promise to improve it.” Karin said shamefully.

“I expect nothing less of you.” She replied, then did a sharp turn and stomped out of the room, her heels clunking into the carpet of the large bedroom. As she slammed the door shut, the two blonde haired sisters went back to looking at each other.

“Suck up.” Elise grumbled at her sister.

“Better than getting slapped.” Karin replied.

“I’d rather get slapped then suck up to her.” Elise replied, rubbing the red part of her face where she’d been hit.

“She’s got a point though, you don’t even try in the dance classes.” Karin replied as the two of them got out of bed and walked over to their wardrobes.

“She’s forcing us to learn ballet and classical dance, is anyone even interested in that stuff anymore?” Elise replied.

“Of course, its sophisticated and classy, maybe a bit hard for you to understand considering the music you listen to.” Karin replied.

“Great, you’re a perfect clone of her like always.” Elise replied as the two picked out the clothes they wanted to wear and began to dress, just as the maid of the house walked in.

“I’m just saying, that music and dancing you like is just a mess of noise and, how can I say this, wiggling around to impress boys?”

“Better then bending around like a doll.” Elise retorted.

“Why are your grades so low anyway, I thought you were actually doing your homework?” Karin asked.

“Sorry I can’t convince the school’s bookworms to do my work for me, which, by the way, makes it even more sad that you’ve still only got a B-.” Elise replied.

“I just need to find a better bookworm, that’s all. And it’s not like you couldn’t do the same thing, if you tried dressing cute for once.” Karin replied as she eyed Elise’s outfit up and down.

“No thanks, barbie.” Elise replied sarcastically, not even bothering to look at what Karin was wearing, and the two headed out of their bedroom only to be met by the maid standing out front of their door looking worriedly at the two.

“Is everything alright?” The maid asked, quickly eyeing the red mark on Elise’s cheek.

“We’re okay, Miranda. Breakfast better be ready for us.” Karin replied coldly, walking past her as Miranda gently patted Elise and rubbed her hand over the mark on her cheek.

“You poor thing, did she hit you again?” She asked.

“It’s fine, nothing I can’t handle.” Elise shrugged back. Walking past the maid Miranda as well.

“I’ll inform your father right away, he won’t accept her acting like this.” Miranda replied.

“No, don’t, it’ll just make it worse.” Elise sighed back regretfully.

“And we’ll ruin another one of his very important business trips.” Karin added, putting sarcasm around the word business as she spoke.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Miranda asked desperately.

“I’m fine, I’ve been dealing with that woman my entire life now.” Elise replied.

“At least let me drive you girls to school today.” Miranda insisted.

“It’s okay, Miranda. I got my license for a reason.” Karin replied.

“Not because she’s any good at driving.” Elise mumbled so that only Miranda could hear, as Karin was a ways down the long, oversized hallway of their Mansion home now.

“What was that?” Karin called back.

“Nothing.” Elise replied.

“If you need any help with your studying, just ask me, okay? I may not look it, but I passed highschool with flying colors.” Miranda smiled.

“Okay, thanks.” Elise replied with a polite smile.

[Jaese - Crazy]

Beeping. Footsteps, beeping and wheels rolling around, with the occasional chatter. Those were the sounds faintly making their way into Jaese’s ears as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital, still wearing his police uniform from the night before. He was tired, yet wide awake at the same time. The images of the cloaked man were still in his mind, but the more he thought about it, the more he questioned his own sanity.

He replayed the images of the snowflakes falling around him, replayed the image of the cloudless night sky. The shattering of the squad car’s glass... that was real, he was sure of it. The glass broke from nothing but the mans shout, he knew from that fact that he wasn’t crazy... or was he? he thought.

“Hey, Jaese. How’re you doing?” A man spoke, knocking Jaese out of thought and causing him to look up from the tiled floor of the hospital’s waiting room. He recognized the man as his captain, Arnold. An old man with short white hair and a large build with a bit of a beer belly, wearing a gray suit.

“I’m uh, I’m alright. Any news?”

“Well, about that.” Arnold said as he sat down in a chair across from Jaese. “I heard the reports you gave to the detectives, and I listened over the recordings from last night, and something just doesn’t add up, so I’d like to hear your story personally. You know, just so I don’t get anything confused.”

“What’s to be confused about?” Jaese replied with a hint of hostility.

“Just, run me through it one more time.” Arnold replied, keeping his voice calm. Jaese looked Arnold in the eyes, he could see the look of Arnold, the same one he’d been getting all night and morning, that look of doubt, that look that said that they thought they were looking at someone crazy. He got angry at first, but calmed himself down by taking a deep breath and let out a sigh.

“Alright. We were in our squad car, me and Chris, and we got the call about the bank robbery. On our way to the scene both of us spotted snow, we called it in, you should have the recordings... not just from us either, right? The other units as well?” Jaese asked, Arnold didn’t reply though, just looked silently back at him.

“When we got there, the first responders said there was an armed suspect inside, and when he came out Chris did the usual put your weapon down and surrender. The guy shouted something, and it shattered all of our windows. We duck for cover and the other officers suggest to take him out, I told them something wasn’t right but they didn’t listen, They all stood up and unloaded their magazines into him. Guy didn’t get a single scratch on him. He let out some weird laugh next and shouted some weird words, next thing I know all the officers were down.” Jaese said.

“And why didn’t you get hurt as well?” Arnold asked.

“Because... I felt something was off, so I stayed behind cover.”

“What do you mean? Why did you feel something was off?” Arnold asked in a condescending tone.

“Because it was snowing without any clouds in the fricken sky, and this guy shattered the windows of our car with his damn voice!” Jaese shouted at him.

“Alright, alright, calm down. We’re going to look into this further, for now you take some time off and rest.” Arnold replied.

“You have to believe me, I’m not making this up. It sounds crazy, but that’s what happened.” Jaese pleaded with him.

“The only thing I know right now is that we've got 4 officers dead and one in critical condition. Let’s pray Chris makes it so we can make sense of all this.” Arnold said.

“What about the security footage from the bank? That’s gotta show something right?” Jaese asked as Arnold stood up.

“It’s useless, all destroyed. You just get some rest, I’ll get this sorted out and we’ll figure out what happened.” Arnold replied as he headed out of the waiting area, another officer joining him as he left the room. Jaese looked up to see several other people in the waiting room looking at him strangely, but they looked away quickly when his eyes met with theirs. He then spotted a familiar nurse rushing across the room and quickly glanced at her name tag.

“Kristen, nurse Kristen, right?” He called out to her as he stood up, and she quickly turned to look at him.

“Yes?” She replied politely.

“Any news on Chris? The officer in surgery?” Jaese asked her anxiously.

“The doctor will let you know as soon as he knows. They’re doing everything they can right now.” Kristen replied.

“Right, thanks.” Jaese replied, looking away extremely disappointed.

“Can I get you anything, something to drink?” She asked, he saw guilt in her eyes but he wasn’t sure why.

“No, I’m okay...” He replied without thinking, turning from her. Before he got back to his chair, though he spoke again. “A coffee, maybe, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“It’s no problem, how do you take it?” Kristen asked.

“Two sugars, and thanks.” Jaese replied as he sat back down.

“I’ll be back with it as soon as I can.” Kristen smiled, then headed out of the waiting room on the opposite side she entered. As she left, Jaese had time to glance around again and saw the other waiters once again giving him strange looks, but he ignored it and focused on the boring patterns of the floor tiles.

The captain for sure, he’ll believe me, I mean there’s the recording from the radio, and the broken glass, the bullet casings should be there too. Even without video, all of that backs up my story, Jaese thought to himself. But the longer he sat there in silence thinking about it, the more doubt began to fill his mind, and he began tapping his foot on the floor lightly to combat the anxiety building up inside him.

His mind raced, it filled once more with the sound of the screeching laugh of the cloaked man, the image of Chris’ horrified expression as he fell to the ground with a piece of ice in his chest.

“Is that him?” He heard a girl whisper, breaking him out of his thoughts as this was followed by a ‘shh’ sound, and the clinking of shoes across the hospital floor. He looked up just as Kristen held out a plain white triple cupped coffee.

“There you are, be careful, it’s a bit hot. Just let me or the other nurses know if you need anything else. If you’d like, I can get you an empty room to rest in, you’ve been here all night.” She suggested.

“I’m fine, thanks.” He replied dismissively as he took the cup and looked into the coffee to watch the steam rise out of it. Kristen said nothing more, and Jaese listened to the sound of her walking out of the waiting area. He took a deep breath and then sipped a bit of the coffee before pulling it back from his lips. As she had told him, it was too hot.

“Hi.” He heard a girl say suddenly, turning his head to the side to see Liana in her wheelchair, right hand on the chairs controls. His eyes were naturally drawn to her burn marks at first, but seeing her smile he quickly corrected his manners and looked into her eyes.

“Hello.” He said politely, forcing a smile.

“My name is Liana, what’s your name?” She asked as she smiled and moved the wheelchair a bit closer.

“I’m Jaese, nice to meet you Liana.” He replied, though he was at a loss for anything else to say while simultaneously anxious about why this girl was talking to him.

“I heard about what happened. Kristen is kind of like my caretaker nurse. Is it all true?” Liana asked curiously.

“It’s official police business, you don’t need to worry about any of that. We’ll have it all sorted out, it’s only a matter of time.” Jaese replied, almost sounding like a textbook.

“It sounded like you guys got attacked by a wizard.” Liana replied nonchalantly.

“A wizard?” Jaese raised an eyebrow at her.

“You know, like, Merlin? Have you ever heard of Merlin?”

“I know what a wizard is, those only exist in stories though.” Jaese said, rolling his eyes at her.

“Well, how else can you explain someone shooting ice?” Liana asked.

“How much about what happened do you know? You seem really well in-formed.”

“I can’t do much else than listen, being well informed is all I’m good at nowadays.” Liana shrugged back as much as her body allowed.

“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Car accident.” She replied without hesitation. “Don’t feel bad about staring, everyone does it, well almost everyone. I think it’s part of human nature. You get to learn a lot about that when you’re stuck in a wheelchair.”

“Sorry.” He replied as he took another sip of the coffee, still hot.

“So, how do you explain it? The ice?”

“I don’t know... That’s the problem.” Jaese sighed back.

“I’ll be honest with you.” Liana whispered. “Everyone kind of thinks you’re crazy, or you were on drugs or something.” She said so that only he could hear.

“I’m NOT crazy.” He stood up and shouted, drawing the eyes of everyone once again. Seeing this, he realized he overreacted and sat back down, noticing that Liana wasn’t startled at all by his outburst. “I’m not on drugs, I know what I saw.” He said.

“Okay, so how do you explain it?” She asked again.

“Well, it certainly wasn’t a wizard.” He replied grumpily at her, realizing he was getting needlessly angry at this poor little girl stuck in a wheelchair.

“So how else does someone shoot ice? And make it snow? You said you saw snow, right?”

“I don’t know... The ice, maybe throwing it? But so fast? And the snow, I’ve got no explanation.” Jaese sighed as he scratched his head with one hand aggressively.

“Maybe it was someone who wanted to make you look crazy? Like a distraction from what he was doing, maybe he wanted you to think he was kind of like a wizard?” Liana suggested.

“How would someone do that? They emptied entire magazines into-” He said, noticing that the information he was saying shouldn’t be heard by everyone, and switched to a whisper. “The officers shot him at least 20 times and he was fine, and then he just disappeared.” Jaese said to her.

“Hmm. I played a video game with my friend where the bad guy kept using weird tricks, all different tricks unrelated to each other, and made them all look like one big trick, just to distract you from what he was really trying to do. Maybe this guy used a whole bunch of weird, little tricks, to create this one big bank robbery. If you can explain all the weird things he did with simple weird trick explanations, even if it seems unlikely, that could be what happened.” Liana suggested.

“Okay, so by your theory, let's start with the snow.” Jaese said, humoring Liana for a moment as he leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of the waiting area. “He made it snow around the bank, a pretty large area around the bank too, but there weren’t any clouds. A small trick? Maybe he had something throwing snow off of the building roofs? But that seems like a lot of trouble to-.

“Stop! Don’t doubt the weird explanations as long as they fit! If it fits, it fits!” Liana replied with enthusiasm.

“Alright, alright. So let’s assume he set up a bunch of snow blowing machines on the buildings around the bank.” He said with sarcasm. “Next is the shattering glass when he shouted.”

“I heard that there are some high frequencies of sound that can break glass. Only in video games though, not sure if that’s real.” Liana suggested.

“So he had a high frequency sound device somewhere that broke the glass?” Jaese asked her with a raised brow again. Liana only replied with her minimal movement shrug.

“There you are!” A woman’s voice called from across the waiting room, a large woman with brown hair wearing a nurse outfit and the nametag Cindy on. “Are you ready for your bath?” Cindy asked Liana.

“What? Already? But what about Kristen?” Liana asked nervously as Jaese watched the two interact curiously.

“She’s a bit busy right now dear, but don’t worry I’ll take good care of you as usual.” Cindy smiled as she grabbed the back of Liana’s wheelchair and started pulling her away, her unwillingness to go was clearly visible on her face.

“Liana was your name, right?” Jaese asked her.

“Yup.” She replied.

“Thanks for the chat.” Jaese smiled at her.

“No problem, crazy cop.” She smiled back as her chair turned and she was whisked away by Cindy.

[Darith - Rules]

“So you’re sayin’ that you somehow got invited to a game on your phone when your phone was across the city?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah, weird huh? And you’re sure you’ve never given him your number?” Darith asked Jacob as the two as well as Ryan stood together out front of their school in a little circle, glancing around to find Jason among the sea of other students flocking out of the building.

“Positive. So he somehow invited us to the game just by being in the same room as us? That is some next level paranormal stuff.” Jacob replied. “Kind of wish I didn’t decline it so fast.”

“Well if it's real we can just ask him to invite you again.” Ryan shrugged.

“Yeah, right.” Jacob rolled his eyes.

“He’s here, look!” Darith exclaimed, pointing at Jason leaving the school building with another boy. “You’re going to do the talking right?” He asked Ryan timidly.

“I guess so.” Ryan sighed, and the three maneuvered around the other students to stand in front of Jason and his friend.

“Oh lookie here! It’s a beach ball, a grease ball and a lamp post.” Jason’s friend chuckled at the three. Hearing this, Darith lowered his head and made small attempts to stretch his shirt again, but the tall lanky Jacob and short Ryan did not react to his remarks.

“What do you want?” Jason snapped.

“We want to know what was up with that game you sent to our phones last night.” Ryan questioned.

“What are you talking about?” Jason retorted.

“This, after you were at my place it popped up on all of our phones. How’d you do that?” Ryan replied, holding up his cell phone to Jason to show him the blue screen.

“Is this some sort of nerd joke?” Jason replied.

“No, it’s not, look it came up on my phone too and my phone wasn’t even there! You have my phone number?” Darith chimed in, showing Jason his phone as well.

“Why the hell would I have your number?” Jason grimaced at Darith.

“Well how else did you send it to all of our phones?” Jacob asked while raising his chin and furrowing his brows..

“I didn’t send anything to your phones, and I wasn’t at your place last night. I don’t have a clue what you guys are talking about right now but you’re pissing me off.”

“All three of us saw you!” Ryan declared.

“Well all three of you are crazy. Now get lost before I break your stupid phones in half.” Jason barked, pushing past them with his friend in tow.

“Then show us your phone! If you’re telling the truth then just let us look at your phone.” Ryan shouted to his back.

“I aint showing you anything.” Jason replied without looking back.

“Show us or I’ll tell everyone your secret.” Ryan shouted, and after he had he immediately regretted it, as it caused Jason to freeze in place for a moment as his friend turned back.

“What secret? You got some sort of secret?” Jason’s friend asked excitedly. Hearing his friend react. Jason turned and stomped back towards the three with his fists clenched, as other students around them were now listening in and watching. The three boys nervously stepped back but it did nothing to stop Jason from clenching Ryan’s shirt around the collar to pull his head in towards Jason.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull right now, but you better cut it out or you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” Jason growled at him in a whisper, so that only the three boys could hear him.

“You’re the one that’ll regret it if I tell everyone what you did.” Ryan replied as Jacob and Darith looked at him surprised. Jason turned to the two, then looked back at Ryan.

“What the hell do you want.” Jason replied, tightening his grip on Ryan’s collar by twisting it around his fist so that it wrapped around Ryan’s neck.

“Just let us see your cell phone.” Ryan replied.

“I lost it.” Jason replied.

“What do you mean you lost it?” Ryan asked.

“I woke up this morning, it wasn’t anywhere. Couldn’t even call it to get it to ring, its gone.” Jason replied.

“Alright then what was all that stuff last night about a game, how’d you send it to our phones?” Ryan asked.

“I don’t know what game you’re talking about, but I was never at your place last night.”

“All three of us saw you there man, we just want to know how you did it, we don’t want a fight or anything.” Jacob said to him.

“I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what you guys saw, but it wasn’t me, okay?” Jason shouted at them.

“If it wasn’t you then where were you last night?” Ryan asked.

“Look, last night I was-” Jason said, starting his sentence off confidently until his face suddenly went blank. He then broke eye contact with Ryan and looked down at the ground for a moment. “I was... At home sleeping, I guess... I don’t know.” As he said this he released his grip on Ryan’s collar.

“You want me to take these guys down a level?” Jason’s friend asked as he walked to stand beside him again.

“Nah, we’re done here.” Jason said, turning to walk away from the three but with a still confused look. His friend quickly followed him as the surrounding students lost interest.

“I think he was on some hardcore drugs, what do you guys think?” Jacob said as the three boys turned to look at each other.

“I don’t know, this is pretty weird. You guys believe what he said?” Darith asked.

“He wouldn’t lie, not with what I threatened him with. So he really lost his phone, and he seems like he doesn’t remember last night.” Ryan replied.

“Or he was on some hardcore drugs. What was that secret thing about anyway?” Jacob asked.

“Eh it’s nothing, something from when we were younger. So what should we do?” Ryan asked as he looked at his phone once more, Darith mimicking him seconds later.

“I’ve beaten every game I’ve ever played... If I lose this phone my mom will kill me, but at the same time I really want to find out what this game is and what is going on.” Darith said.

“So you’re going to hit accept?” Ryan asked.

“I guess so.” Darith shrugged as he put his thumb over the accept button and both Ryan and Jacob moved to watch his screen from over his shoulders. He pressed the accept button and immediately afterwards a new text box appeared.

Warning! Your party leader was killed. Do you still wish to Accept?

Accept Decline

“Huh, party leader?” Jacob said confused.

“That would be Jason wouldn’t it? Since he invited us to play?” Ryan suggested.

“April 24th is today, so that means he died at 2:31 am? Is that why he lost his cell phone?” Darith pondered.

“Maybe, so if you don’t want your mom to kill you then don’t die in the game?”

“How’s a game going to make me lose a phone?” Darith asked.

“I don’t know man, but I’m gettin’ some weird vibes from this.” Jacob replied.

“Whatever, I’ll just be careful not to die.” Darith shrugged, and pressed yes again.

Warning!: Before playing you must read and agree to all of the rules.

Continue

“Okay, rules, got it.” Darith said, clicking the continue button.

Warning!: You only have 1 life. If you die you will be removed from the game permanently.

Continue

“So you only get one shot then.” Jacob said as Darith hit continue.

Warning!: If caught revealing the game to non-players, City Guard will remove you from the game permanently.

Continue

“City guards?” Ryan said.

“Yeah, keep going.” Jacob said excitedly as Darith continued.

Warning!: Inviting disabled until level 5

PvP Disabled until level 10

Guilds disabled until level 20

“Alright, it’s definitely an MMORPG.” Ryan said.

“Damn man, I love MMO’s, if it's good you gotta invite me to your party at level 5 so I can play.” Jacob said.

“That’s if he doesn’t die first.” Ryan chuckled. “What other rules does it have?”

“Seems like this is the last one...” Darith said as they looked at the screen.

Warning!: Defeating the final boss will end the game for all players.

Do you accept these rules?

Accept Decline

“Doesn’t seem that complicated, hit accept and let’s see it!” Jacob said excitedly. Darith moved his finger over the yes button, but hesitated for a moment. He looked up from his cell phone to glance around at their surroundings.

“What is it?” Ryan asked.

“Well, it said if I reveal the game to anyone not a part of it, city guards would kick me out.” Darith replied. “What city guards? How are they going to know if I’m revealing the game to someone?” Darith asked.

“I dunno, I can’t see how it's possible that something in the game would know that you’re letting us watch you play.” Ryan replied.

“Yeah, but I also don’t know how it knew to send the invite to my phone when Jason didn’t have my number, and my phone wasn’t even nearby.” Darith replied.

“You think there’s going to be a city guard standing around watching you play with your phone?” Jacob replied sarcastically as he watched Darith glance around. “You really have played way too many games.”

“I’m not gonna risk my reputation of never not beating a game until I know what’s going on.” Darith said after a few seconds more of glancing around, then slid his phone into his pocket.

“Aw c’mon, seriously? You’re not going to try it after all that?” Jacob groaned.

“I’m going to, just when I get home and not in front of all these people.” Darith said.

“That’s a new level of paranoia. Then you show us Ryan.” Jacob said, turning to Ryan.

“Ah, he’s kinda right. We don’t know much about it, I’ll check it at home too.” Ryan replied, also putting his phone into his pocket.

“Man, screw both of you.” Jacob complained, and started walking away from them.

“I’ll invite you if it’s good, as soon as I get level 5!” Ryan sympathized

“Yeah whatever, I hope you both die at level one and lose your phones.” Jacob shouted back.

“So we can still talk about it to each other right? If we’re both playing?” Ryan asked.

“Seems like it.” Darith nodded.

“Alright, let’s try it out and see what's up tomorrow. I’m heading home.” Ryan replied.

“Okay, same here.” Darith said, and the two turned from each other and started walking quickly, both with excited and anxious grins on their faces.

“I’m home!” Darith shouted as he walked into his house, but he was met with complete silence. He slipped off his shoes and dropped his backpack on the floor, heading into the kitchen. As he reached to open the fridge door he noticed a note from his mom stuck to it with a magnet.

‘Working until around 7, Liana’s with me today. Do homework.’ It said, written with messy blue penmanship.

“Perfect.” He said to himself, grabbing a can of coke and a microwavable dinner from the fridge. After popping it in the microwave he searched and found a bag of chips unopened, his favorite kind. He started grabbing handfuls until he heard the ding of the microwave and pulled out his dinner while taking a big sip of cola. Then, with careful balance he grabbed all three and headed up to his room, shutting the door behind him with his foot. He placed all the food carefully on his bed with his cola on the floor beside it, then laid down on his stomach and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

The screen was exactly the way he left it, waiting for him to accept the rules to start playing. He held the phone in one hand and his fork in another, taking a big bite into his dinner and then pressing the accept button.

“Broken Realm, hm...” Darith read, taking another bite as the animated screen faded to black, then another image faded in revealing a 3d model of himself in his phone. The model was an exact replica, right down to the clothes he was wearing. His character was large, wearing baggy shorts and a large baggy t-shirt with his messy short blonde hair and blue eyes. Even the white socks matched his, and as he saw this he coughed on his food, shooting up into a sitting position on his bed with his eyes going wide.

“What the hell?” He shouted, looking down at his clothes, then back to his phone. He turned the phone around to look at the phone’s camera for a moment, squinting his eyebrows to come up with a reasonable explanation. “It used my camera or something?” He said to himself and turned the phone back around to face himself. “I didn’t even know this phone could handle graphics like this.” He began pressing arrows on the screen to rotate the character, then saw an arrow at the top and pressed it. A drop down menu appeared over the top half of his screen.

Character Customization

Race: Default (?)

Gender: Default (?)

Class: None (?)

Appearance: Default (?)

Attributes: Default (?)

Select to Modify

“Huh, let’s check race first.” Darith said, pressing the race button.

Race Customization

Human (Default) (?)

Elf (?)

Lizardfolk* (?)

Nemothyne* (?)

Orc* (?)

Races marked with * will be removed from the game by City Guard if seen by non-players

“Okay, so if I pick Lizardfolk, Nemothyne or Orc I have to keep myself hidden from people who don’t play? What the heck is a Lizardfolk even?” Darith said as he pressed Lizardfolk and his character model behind the menu changed, still somewhat resembling himself but with gray, scaly skin and pitch black eyes. He also gained hind legs like a dog and grew taller, and his hair changed to a blonde mane that went down his neck, with two horns on his forehead and a snake-like tail on his bottom.

“Alright, Lizardfolk stands out a bit too much.” Darith read through their description, then moved over to Nemothyne.

His character model changed to a small creature, but in order to resemble his large size it made the model appear as a short chubby ball with furry ears and a long fuzzy tail.

“Oh! These look kind of cute. What are they good at?” he said as he quickly skimmed through the description. “Fast, nimble, rely on intelligence...” Darith said, then quickly went through the last two, Elf and Orc.

“So the Orc’s the tough one, I guess he’s good at taking hits. Looks like Elf is good with a bow... Lizardfolk for a fighter, Nemothyne for a magic user and human seems to be all around.” Darith said to himself, looking away from the screen to grab a handful of chips and think for a moment.

“Let’s try Nemothyne then.” Darith shrugged, selecting it. “But I’m not going to look like a fat fur ball.” He added.. “If you’re going to have ears and a tail, you’ve got to be as cute and tiny as possible.” He said to himself, trying to justify the choices he was making out loud as he changed the characters weight to be more slender and fit. His character model also changed hair color, facial features, but still remained similar to what he looked like in real life.

“Pffft.” He chuckled, seeing what he’d look like as a tiny person with ears. He took a bit more time changing the appearance, starting with his ear color, tail, hair color, until finally he was satisfied. His character was now a slim, tiny male with short brown hair, tiny pointed brown fox ears and a long fluffy brown and white tail, the figure of an 8 year old, but still wearing his clothes.

“I’ll have to figure out how to change outfits later I guess.” He shrugged as he failed to find anything in the appearance options. “Alright, next up is class...” He pressed it.

Info: You will be able to choose your class during gameplay at your own discretion. Once it is chosen it can't be changed.

“Hmm, okay so it's one of those choose your own path type games, that’s cool.” Darith said, moving to the statistics menu next.

Name: Darith

Gender: Male(Male)

Level: 1

Race: Nemothyne

Title: None

Class: None

Basic Attributes

Health: 100/100 - Mana: 80/80 - Energy: 50/50

Strength: 4

Agility: 1

Endurance: 1

Charisma: 1

Intelligence: 15

Constitution: 4

Spirit: 5

Luck: 1

“Hmm, let’s see. Strength is pretty straight forward, agility for reflexes and accuracy, intelligence for problem solving, memory, and magic damage. Endurance for recovery and energy before getting tired, spirit for mana recovery, morale, and ambition, and constitution for health, how much damage I can take before dying. Default means they picked it based off of my race? Or based off of me...” He said as he frowned at Agility and Endurance. “Charisma for how well I am liked and can talk to people, and luck is just luck. Whatever, if I’m going to be a Nemothyne using magic, these stats should be okay.” He shrugged.

“Guess I’m done then?” He asked himself as he eyed his character up and down once more. Feeling satisfied, he hit finished, and was prompted one final time.

Warning!: You have selected a high profile race. If seen revealing the game to non-players by the City Guard, you will be removed from the game.

He hit accept after reading the message.

Warning!: You will be unable to edit your choices beyond this point.

Are you Sure?

Accept Decline

He hit accept without hesitation.

Initializing: Connecting to Master Server...

...Connected

Welcome to The Broken Realm

The screen read, but that was the last thing Darith could see before his vision suddenly went black, and he passed out on his bed.