Chapter 1

Friday Night

-Aaron-

“What time is he supposed to be here?” She asked. I could detect the unmistakable annoyance in her voice that let me know my wife was not happy.

“I dunno babe. He probably stopped at Denny’s on his way down like he always does.” My dad had enough free time at the end of the week and I knew he was bored when he asked to come see the kids for the weekend.

“Is John not going to eat dinner with us then?” She asked, slightly annoyed. My wife, Lisa, was not one for having her schedule interrupted.

“Honestly babe it’s not that big of a deal. We can just eat and he’ll show when he shows.” I replied without much confidence.

I sat down on the couch with my open beer just in time for Oliver to meet my lap with a screaming, “Aaaaaaaaaah!!”.

Oliver is one of four children. Four as in the number of times our sanity had been tested. We never really gave any thought to the number of children we wanted to raise; we threw caution to the wind and figured we’d know when to stop; turns out we were insane. Don’t get me wrong, we adore all four of them, but simply never expected to live in the same home as 4 shaken cats with unlimited energy. Andrew came to us sixteen years ago, always bold with his questioning and never yielding facts. Andrew was smarter than your average sixteen year old as having to look after his brothers and sisters helped him mature. James, six, came ten years later. What they say about second sons is true, always fearless and the first source of our insanity. Ann was quick to follow, just as she is with James everywhere since. Now five, she is your typical only daughter; always watching and waiting for one of her brothers to be in the wrong. Oliver, two, was our last. He came to us 3 years after Ann and forever cemented the endless cycle of circus music in our home.

I sighed and helped him to the seat, feeling exasperated as I moved my beer as not to spill it. As I sipped the beer, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to my upstairs computer. Every knee uncomfortably placed on my leg, grabby hand somewhere on my arm and headbutt brought me back to reality momentarily. It was nearing dinnertime and all I wanted to do was get the kids to bed and find relief in the peace and quiet of Sylvaria. Gaming had always been a passionate pastime for Lisa and I. Lately, it was becoming more of an addiction for me, and I was doing my best to stave off the ever-growing anticipation of logging in, but with little success. There was something satisfying in letting go and delving into a fantasy world, not worrying about the daily hassles of life.

“Can you help me finish up please?” My wife called from the kitchen. We have always been a team; from the moment we met our passions became one. Never having gamed, Lisa quickly soaked up the fantasy of online gaming and never looked back. Our passion for teaming up and conquering anything together only grew the more we played and spread to everything we did outside of gaming.

“Sure babe. Let’s get these monsters fed and in bed.” I sighed, picking up the little whirlwind of crazy from the pile of toys on the couch.

I sat Oliver down in his high chair and helped Lisa finish preparing dinner, completing whatever food preperation she pointed out. Enchiladas, beans and rice were on the agenda for tonight.

“Kids come eat!” I yelled.

*****

The doorbell rang just as we finished loading the dishwasher and I glanced at my wife while starting to hand wash the rest of the dishes. Make no mistake, there’s always more that can fill a dishwasher with a family of six.

“Not it.” I said quickly.

Lisa threw two fingers up in my direction.

“Dick.” She hissed as Andrew and James rushed to the door.

“Geeeeet your asses away from that door! What if some nut job was ready to grab you the moment you opened that door?!” She yelled.

“Kyaaaaa!” James screamed, kicking and punching the air.

“Like that’ll work, ding-dong.” Lisa admonished.

She swung the door open and my father greeted us with his normal enthusiasm, rain pouring from off the overhang above the front door.

“Greetings family of mine! Doth the children of this dwelling cause your hair to stand straight up?! They shall be whipped for their impudence! Where thouest be the spawn of my loins?” I could feel my wife’s eyes rolling.

“In here dad!” I called from the kitchen.

“Paaapaaaa!” The kids called in unison.

“Hey grandchildren!” He exclaimed as he put his arms around what I can only describe as a mosh pit of tiny arms and legs.

“Can we plaaaay?” James yelled.

“No! Papa I want you to play with me.” Ann pouted innocently.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” Oliver proclaimed.

“Hi Papa John.” Andrew said calmly from the side.

“Andy! What’s up boyo!” My dad asked.

“Nothing. I've just been studying for my math test. Feel like helping later?”

“Sure, kiddo. Let me get my stuff inside and talk with your dad for a bit first.” he said, untangling himself from the ball of wild animals.

“Hey dad. How was the drive?” I asked.

“It was ok. A lot of rain” He replied.

“Did you stop at Denny’s?” I asked as I gave my wife a knowing look.

“Of course.” He grinned. I smiled. “How’s work, boyo?” He asked while sitting at the kitchen table.

“Good, dad. Nothing new, really.” I explained as I tried to change subjects. “I’ve been wanting to show you this game I’ve been trying to get Lisa into.”

He sighed, “Son, you know my hands aren’t what they used to be. I just can’t get into games longer than 20 minutes anymore. Arthritis kicks in and I’m doing more yelling at my dead body than actual playing. Reading’s my game nowadays.”

“I know, I know.” I relented. “You never could match me anyways. I’d be dragging your ass through dungeons with you at my heels carrying whatever loot I couldn’t carry.”

“Punk-ass.” My dad said as he rolled his eyes. He picked up Oliver as Andrew sat down next to him. “What are we doing this weekend?” He asked.

I shrugged, “A little of this and a little of that. We don’t really have any plans.”

“Good. I’m down to just wing it.” He said, obviously relieved. “Where’s my Ann?” He called expectantly.

“Riiiight heeeeere Papa John!” Ann screamed as she shuffled around the corner.

“Oliver, want to take a bath?” Lisa asked from the baby gate by the stairs.

“Yaaaaas!” Oliver screamed as he kicked his way off my dad’s lap.

“Shall we head upstairs and get these kids ready for bed?” I asked my dad.

“Sure thing.” He replied as he lifted James one-armed over his shoulder.

James and Ann pushed each other up the stairs much to my admonishment. Andrew waited patiently at the top of the stairs; gate open. Andrew was always watching, absorbing material for his next series of questions about, "Why this?" and "Why that?" It was one of the qualities he developed that allowed me to relax with him as our oldest child. There was never any doubt he was our third pair of eyes.

I ushered Ann and Oliver to their rooms and loudly announced, “Bed time kids!”

This was more a challenge in their eyes. I knew we would spend the next half hour with a bargaining child for another glass of water or last-minute snack. I would inevitably win out and the kids would head into their bedrooms. Princess Ann had her own room, largest of them all. Oliver and James shared a room across the hall from ours, as it was easier to keep an eye on the wild pair. Andrew, being the oldest and most trusted, had a room downstairs which often became the guest bedroom.

The last kid in bed, I turned to my wife. “Lisa I’m gonna hang out with my dad a bit if that’s ok.”

“I know. Don’t be too late, please.” She replied knowingly.

“Whipooosh!” John exclaimed while making a whipping gesture.

“She’s going to push your dumbass down the stairs if she catches you doing that.” I mocked.

“She can try!” He challenged. We sat down on the couch in the loft outside of the master bedroom.

“So, what’s going on with you, dad?” I asked.

“Nothing much, boyo. Just had some free time while Mila is off with her book club members for the weekend.”

Mila is my dad’s wife. You could describe her as the rock of the relationship. My dad has always been aloft in his desire to do whatever came to mind.

“How was the weather on your way down?” I asked.

“Wet” He replied solemnly. “Not sure I should have driven down with this weather, but I beat the worst of it in the mountains.”

I leaned back onto the sofa and sighed. “Things around here are nuts, dad. Never any time to do much other than keep these rug rats fed and clothed.”

“You chose to have four! You gotta pay if you’re gonna play!” My dad proclaimed innocently.

I glanced at dad. “When did you know you were past the crazy and into the normal?” I asked.

He laughed. “There’s never a moment, Aaron. One day you just wake up and they’re all feeding themselves, washing because they don’t want to smell in front of their crushes at school and you’re too busy keeping them alive to pause. Blink and they are off on their own and you’re left wondering why it’s so quiet.”

“Well, it can’t come soon enough.” I said.

“You say that and, in the end, you’re going miss these moments.” He said.

I laughed. “Lisa and I are too busy begging for peace and quiet to miss anything at the moment. Jeez, I’d settle for quiet.”

After some time hanging out my father announced that he would be “retiring to read”. I sat down at my desk and turned on the computer; a small hum filled the room letting me know the small machine had come to life. One hour was what I’d give myself tonight before climbing into bed with Lisa and watching a movie. No doubt we’d both ask each other about which movie for twenty minutes before settling on something. I could hear laughter from the tv in our bedroom announcing that Lisa had delved into her show. This was our normal routine of decompression from a long work week. It was Friday night and I was determined to get as far as I could by mindlessly gathering materials in Sylvaria, zoning out and clicking madly. There was a certain calm that possessed me whenever I stared out at the computer screen, focusing on nothing but a rock here or a plant there. With so much noise throughout the house I longed for this alone time.

Lightning flashed in the window just behind my monitor and I glanced behind me to the empty doorway wondering if I’d hear one of the children announcing that lightning had, in fact, appeared. Quiet was the only response to my questioning glace around the dark hall. I turned back to my monitor and double-clicked the icon for Sylvaria, but nothing happened. I sighed and waited, feeling the anticipation of finally being able to play.

“Too many people home on a Friday night, sucking up all of the bandwidth.” I mumbled.

I waited another 30 seconds and double clicked again, anticipation turning to frustration. After a few minutes of waiting, Sylvaria finally appeared on the screen in big bold letters. I half smiled and leaned back in my computer chair, staring at the character selection screen. I clicked on the login button for my level 50 Paladin of Thestria named Lightangel. Corniness knew no bounds in my online portfolio, as I was a Paladin of Thestria and loved delving into the roleplaying aspect of the game. I had quickly raced through the game to level 50 through menial tasks in order to focus on what most people loathed: Gathering and Crafting.

Crafting and gathering were my bread and butter, allowing me to feel small amounts of accomplishment everytime I logged in. I could zone out for hours on end, gathering materials in an effort to stockpile a massive amount of materials. Something about having the largest stockpile of digital items excited me, bringing a sense of anticipation to make me log in the next day just to look at them. Most would call it an obsession of the most mundane part of the game, but I called it winning. The other players could have their monsters and dungeons, but I required only an endless amount of materials in which to craft.

Players would message from time to time complaining that I was monopolizing the market for one material or another. I would grin and double down as nothing would keep me from manipulating the market. Nothing except Lisa, that is. Lisa hated crafting and If it wasn’t rare and found in some part of a dungeon that no one had seen before, she wasn’t interested. She only showed interest in rarities no one else had or could obtain. A collectionist was how I described her to every one of our online friends. She often pulled me away from the joy of clicking at the same flower or chopping at the same stump to accompany her on some search for a thingamabob mentioned on some wikiwhatsit.

This hour, however, was my time and I would be able to click madly away at every wandering butterfly, grab every mundane crystal, chop every half-chopped stump, chip away at whatever shiny rock I found and grab whatever colorful flower that whispered, “Seeeeell meeee Lightangel! I’m speciaaaaal.”

As I logged in to the game, I was greeted with flashing icons announcing I had mail and market sales to review. I clicked on the market sales first. People could wait as my eyes flicked to the gold that flashed into my account as the day’s sales were announced one by one. Having reviewed the previous day’s sale of goods, I glanced at the mailbox, readying myself for a barrage of complaints. Clicking the mailbox peppered me with messages of hate and disdain over price gouging and market hoarding. Some messages were from normal players asking for a deal and I quickly pushed past these messages until I found what I was looking for: Brokers. Brokers contacted me regularly to supply their companies with large amounts of materials their members were too lazy to gather themselves; this was how I would make my fortune. I had gathered a network of brokers that would accept my outrageous prices for bulk goods because the prices on the market were higher. I grinned inwardly because this was, of course, my doing as well. I would buy up all of the low-priced stock on the market and relist all of it at much higher prices, then sell bulk goods to my brokers for a much larger than normal fee to save them from being gouged. Realistically, a thief would've been a better choice for me than a Paladin.

Marcus was one of my favorite brokers as he asked no questions and accepted the prices for what they were – ridiculous. I clicked on Marcus’s message requesting large numbers of blue mountain flowers and began typing.

“Good sir! Your humble flower-picker has the number you’ve rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -."

My screen filled with r’s, forcing my chat box to scroll uncommanded. I sighed and smacked the backspace button repeatedly, frustrated that my game time was being interrupted by something so ridiculous. After a few seconds of waiting a little more than impatiently, I moved the cursor to discover that it too had frozen. I leaned back and placed my hands over my face, sighing as the frustration quickly turned into anger. Lightning flashed outside my window again and the lights dimmed, causing my screen to dim with it. I glanced at my computer tower wondering if I should unplug it and the rest of our electronics to save it from potential damage from a power surge. Things were getting nasty outside and I grunted as I made myself comfortable, not willing to give up so easily. I clicked madly on the mouse, expecting even a lttle blue wheel to appear, telling me the computer was at least trying to think.

Continuing to click at a computer that didn't even have the decency to make noises at this point was going to get me nowhere. I pressed Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up my task manager, and nothing happened. I held the ctrl button on the keyboard and moved my hand towards the F4 key to shut down the game, but before I had the chance, a noise appeared by the doorway.

“Daaaaaa” Oliver called, green dinosaur stuffed animal in his arms.

“Oliver.” I sighed. “Afraid of the lightning?”

“Mmmmm” He agreed pointing at my window.

“I know buddy, but you’ll be alright. Nothing to be afraid of little guy.” I comforted.

Oliver's blank stare told me he wasn’t buying it. He quickly shuffled his way to my chair, bobbing his head up and down in the process with a series of “Mmmmm” sounds. Lightning flashed outside again and Oliver screeched as he pointed at the window in triumph.

“Yes, yes. Lightning little guy. I know, I see it.” I chided.

Redoubling my focus, I turned my computer chair around with Oliver now on my lap. The computer tower hummed suddenly, louder than normal causing me to frown. Oliver began smacking the front of the computer tower to let me know there was, in fact, a computer tower present.

“Ollie, come on!” I admonished.

He giggled as I felt the side of the tower, feeling a heat emanating from it.

“Hmm that is running hot.” I worried.

This night was not going how I expected, and I knew my gaming hour was quickly drawing to a close. Sighing, I moved back to the keyboard and placed my fingers over the ctrl and F4 keys once more, moving Oliver's hands each time he tried to press a button.

“Daaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!” Oliver yelled as both chubby little hands smashed every key they could find.

“Ollie! Why?!” I exclaimed.

My computer jittered noisely as it tried to process all of the new commands while still processing the game it should have easily been able to run. Lightning flashed again and the lights dimmed once more, taking the computer's processing power with it. The computer fans slowed noticeably and the monitor restarted.

“Gah! I can’t win tonight.” I relented.

I reached over to the computer tower and held the off button, giving in to the foreboding feeling that my night had been ruined; nothing happened. I cocked my head slightly in confusion as Oliver smacked both hands on the desk.

“Hmm I think it’s safe to call it quits before my computer decides to give up the ghost." I said, leaning back in my chair.

I slid Oliver off my lap and leaned down below the desk, reaching for the power button on the surge protector.

“Not protecting much surge, oh surge protector.” I grumbled as I clicked the power button off.

I sat up and paused, mouth open in slight shock. The computer monitor remained brightly lit. I slowly sat back in my chair and glanced at the computer tower, knowing I had both monitor and computer plugged into the same power strip. Both fans hummed normally and the blue LED blinked normally. Confused, I climbed under the desk and grabbed the power cord from the surge protector, yanking it from the wall socket. I climbed back out from under the desk and paused once more with one hand on my knee. The monitor still showed the background of Sylvaria and my chat screen full of r’s.

“The funny fugglesticks is this shit?” I asked.

“Dooooohoohooo” Oliver said as he pointed and placed one chubby hand over his open mouth.

“Lisa!” I called “Come check this out!”