Matt sighed as he opened his eyes, the ceiling came into a hazy view and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. It was always like this, it was disorienting, and tiresome to come out of a vr title. It felt like he had been running for miles and his muscles burned, or at least it felt like they did, that would soon go away, it only ever lasted a minute or two as his body got back into the rhythm of the real world. Wow, that ceiling really needed dusting, there were these metal I beams and he couldn't help but notice the layer of dust on them. With a shrug he pulled the plug out of the back of his head, and grabbing the pack of sanitation wipes he once again cleaned the port before inserting a rubber cap.

You can be sure as hell that anything he stuck into his head was going to be clean, he had seen the pictures of those whose ports got infected, it really wasn't a good sight to see. Pulling himself up he shrugged off the weariness and felt a pain flare up in his shoulder, he stood there for a minute or two simply rubbing the shoulder in an attempt to help it recognize that it was not actually wounded.

Glancing at the clock he found it was already 2 a.m. Damn he had been in the game for a long time, with a shrug he followed the urges of his body and walked over to the food vender that was embedded in the wall. The machine was about half the size of a fridge, and was stocked to the brim with food, this was something the building provided, and what he ate was tacked onto his rent. The food out of the machine really was not the best and was honestly quite pricy, but sometimes it was just what you needed. He looked over at the menu and pressed the screen watching as it opened an animated door on the display, inside the digital fridge there was a whole host of foods on the shelves.

He pressed the button for the burger and watched as a countdown timer for 30 seconds went past, with a hiss the door at the bottom of the machine that was just about waist high opened up and out came a steaming cheeseburger. He looked at it and shook his head, piled around the burger was a pile of green beans and carrots that had been steamed. It was not that he didn't like the vegetables it was simply that he didn't want them not right now at least, he just wanted a burger and then it was off to bed for him. He picked up the tray and turning around he let it clatter to the floor as he saw something that should not be possible.

There standing in front of him was none other than Willow, her blue hair slightly luminous, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed in an angry manner. He blinked twice, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. But there she was, clear as day, slightly see through like a ghost, but still she was there. What the hell? Was he still asleep? He brought his hand up to his face and slapped himself, the sharp pain in his face told him that he was not sleeping, so what exactly was this? He looked at her curiously, was he seeing things? Was there an issue with his casing? It had shocked him earlier, was it still showing parts of the game that it had last played? Like it was stuck in a loop?

She did look exactly like she had when he logged out, except she was now slightly see through like she was a ghost, she didn't move at all, just stood there with a disapproving look on her face and an angry look in those solid blue eyes.

Like a holographic statue.

Reaching out with a hand he thought of how crazy he must look right now, reaching out to thin air with a slight tremble in his hands, and thanked the maker there was no one watching. She didn't move an inch as his hand neared her face, he was five inches away, and there was still no movement.

Four inches, still no movement.

Three inches.

Two inches, he felt some relief in his gut, seeing as she was not moving, must be an issue with his caser, and not the alternative. He paused, what exactly was the alternative? That he was crazy? Or that she was actually here? He shook his head, there was no way, just a simple issue with his caser.

One inch, he resumed his movement, and right before he touched her face she moved. “What are you doing?” she asked in a cold voice. His eyes opened wide, and his hand jerked back as he stumbled, his foot slipping on the saucer that the burger had at one point in time rested on and he flew backwards, it really was a disorienting experience that seemed to happen much slower than it had any right to. With a loud bang his head and the upper part of his back slammed into the lower cabinetry, and somewhere in the cacophony of sound there was also the sound of the saucer shattering as it flew and hit the baseboards on the other side of the room.

His vision flashed black then red then white before settling back on black, with a groan he pushed himself up to rest on his hands that were resting at his side, and straightened himself, leaning up against the very cabinet that he had just hit.

“Oh my god are you ok?” she asked rushing over to his side, all the anger melting from her ghostly face as she fussed over him, or at least as she tried to, much to her frustration she was not able to touch him, she could really do nothing like this.

“Yeah, Yeah fine,” he grunted and raised his hand up to the part of his head that was throbbing heavily, it was about an inch to the right of his caser port, and feeling a warm sticky wetness he pulled his hand away and brought it up towards his face to investigate.

Ah, blood.

Makes since.

“You're bleeding!” she cried out when she saw his hand. She wrapped both of her hands around his wrist.

“Of course I am I jus-” he looked at his hand, and at her, and back at his hand, his mind clearing. “What the hell?” he asked with a low shaky breath, he looked at her hands wrapped around his wrist. He could feel them, like a soft touch on his skin.

He could feel them.

Oh god.

With jerking motions and with as much certainty as he could muster he pulled himself up, using the counter. He could do this, he had been through much worse pain, much much worse. He stood and walked towards the bathroom, only swaying once as he made his way and almost losing his footing for the second time that night. He was just at the door of the bathroom when he felt a sharp pain in the upper part of his diaphragm, and he stumbled to his hands and knees, before vomiting up the empty nothing in his stomach. He retched, his back arching with the effort his body demanded, as he gagged up nothing more than stomach bile.

He flopped sideways after his body had decided it had enough of the not throwing up it was doing, and he looked and watched as his world spun around and around, with effort he pushed himself up onto his elbows.

Damn, he must have a concussion.

“We, we need to get you to the hospital!” she said, her eyes wide with a frantic panic as she watched him struggle on the floor, completely and wholly unable to help in even the slightest.

“Stop talking.” he managed to choke out, she stopped talking and pacing and looked over at him. “You're not real and I can't think when you talk.” he growled. “Think Matt, think, you have a concussion, and you might be going insane,” he glanced over at Willow who had completely frozen. “Scratch that, you have a concussion and you have gone completely insane.” he shook his head and instantly regretted the action. The motion alone caused him to start throwing up again, or at least a desperate attempt at throwing up, this time not even the stomach bile burned its way up.

Crazy as he was, or as crazy as he had decided he was he knew that Willow was correct, he needed something, it however was not the hospital, they would plug into him and notice whatever was wrong with him that was causing him to hallucinate like this, and it would be off to the looney bin for him, or at least to some sort of psychiatric help center.

“I am detecting both blood and vomit in the premise, should I alert the authorities?” a silky woman’s voice called out. “I detect that you are in the room, and that you are not moving with a normal pattern of movement, I will alert the authorities if you do not respond.” Vis called out.

“No, Vis, don’t do that.” he managed to call out to her.

“Are you sure?”

“Sure.” he responded, laboring at it. He needed some painkillers and a bandage, with sheer force of will he pushed himself up to his knees, where he sat panting as the world spun around him and he bit the inside of his lip until it was bloody in an attempt to stop his body from causing him to vomit again. With a hand on the edge of the toilet bowl he pulled himself up and stood, there on a shelve above the toilet was a shelf that held all the necessities, grabbing a bottle of the strongest pain pills he had he popped the cap off and downed way to many, swallowing them with a painful grunt.

Honestly right now he couldn’t care less.

He had to wait a full minute for the pain pills to kick in, but when they did, man did they kick. He felt a numbness run down the entire right side of his body and with effort he grabbed a cloth from the shelve and sat down on the toilet pressing it against the wound.

“Everything is fine Vis, just got a little hurt, no need to call the docs,” he said, feeling as the pain pills encroached on his coherent thoughts.

“Would you like me to play a song? Studies show music is one of the best ways to forget pain.” Vis responded.

“Sure, go ahead, don't care what just play something.” music started in the background in the house. “Haaa, haaaaa ahahahahahhhhahahah!” even though it hurt he couldn't help it, he laughed, it was to funny to not laugh, with a smile he listened to the music that was playing.

How lucky can one guy be?

I kissed her and she kissed me

Like the fella once said

"Ain't that a kick in the head?"

The room was completely black

I hugged her and she hugged back

Like the sailor said, quote

"Ain't that a hole in the boat?"

My head keeps spinnin'

I go to sleep and keep grinnin'

If this is just the beginnin'

My life is gonna be bee-yoo-tee-ful

I've sunshine enough to spread

It's just like the fella said

Tell me quick, ain't that a kick in the head?

Like the fella once said

"Ain't that a kick in the head?"

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ok, so here is that artwork of the main character, let me know what you guys think of it...

Edit: just thought I would throw in a bigger version of the cover so you all could get a better look at it aswell.