《Who Mourns the Dead?》Prologue

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Marco brushed his dark hair back from his eyes, squinting as he tried to make out the words on his computer screen, “In Euthyphro Socrates argues that…” his eyes glazed over as he thought, ‘This is so boring. Criminally boring.’ Marco had written it himself and he could barely stay awake reading it, ‘How can professors do this to themselves?’ he thought distractedly.

With a sigh Marco saved his document and submitted it online. Introduction to Philosophy wasn’t a class that Marco had particularly wanted to take. He had neither the interest or the patience to do anymore than pass the class, but it was required by the college. It seemed that most of his classes were like that; uninteresting but required.

Marco opened a new tab on his computer before checking time- 11:58, almost midnight. Another sigh escaped his laps as he glanced at the other side of the room, at the identical computer that sat on the identical standard dorm desk. Averting his eyes Marco typed an address into his browser, sending him to an old peer to peer messaging network.

No one was online, 'As always.' he mourned. Scrolling through the names on the server he read out loud to himself:

“GreenEyesBoneDragon - Online”

“IDietoServe - Last Online: 6 days ago”

“ThePriestiestPreist - Last Online: 3 weeks ago”

“NightNightKnight - Last Online: 3 months ago”

“DrewEd - Last Online: 10 months ago”

…

11 months ago

1 year ago

2 years ago

2 years ago

…

Marco watched the screen with dead eyes, the minutes ticking by as he lost himself in his memories. Overcome by nostalgia he opened his chat history with NightNightKnight.

“Aren’t you excited for college?” Marco read to himself, “Yeah it’s going to be great, we’ll finally have time to play some games together again!”

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‘After all,’ the final message read, ‘we’ll be living in the same room. Hahaha’

Marco scoffed, gazing around the empty room silently, “At least I thought we would be…”

A buzzing sound interrupted Marco’s descent into despair; his phone vibrating against his desk.

‘Who could that be’ Marco asked himself while picking up his phone.

Unknown Number: Become powerful! Get the girl! Save the world! You have been invited by: Death. JOIN THE WAR!

Marco snorted at the message, ‘What’s this supposed to be? A mobile game? A virus?’ Curious, he copied the text from his screen into a search engine and hit enter.

0 results found

Under which the engine suggested:

Did you mean to spoil the fun?

Marco flinched. ‘To spoil the fun’? What? How could someone do that to the search engine results? With shrinking pupils he glanced at his webcam, ‘It’s got to be a virus. Got to be.’ He closed his computer before gazing at his phone again.

‘I’ll take my computer into the university repair shop tomorrow, I’m sure one of the IT majors will know what’s going on.’ Marco thought to himself as he jumped on his bed. ‘Well, it’s only 12… maybe I’ll check this 'game' out until I fall asleep.’

His finger hovered over the screen, waiting for Marco’s decision to play the game. The hesitation only lasted a brief moment, after all the phone was old anyway, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ Marco thought, his boredom overcoming his caution as he pressed the button. And then his head hit the bed with a thud as he fell unconscious.

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