THE IMAGE:
She must have been about twenty. She was a wholesome well dressed looking lady with her hair tied back and she was wearing a cross around here neck. Close to the image there was a message and it read:
"Well done! You have unlocked the secret of GOX. Few players Ever ever reach this space. Whenever you play GOX again type GOX_TLG83 and then we can talk whenever you like!"
'Are you real?' typed Greg.
'Very real,' she typed back.
'I don't know what is real any more...' Greg typed.
'Real is whatever you want it to be,' she typed back.
And this was the conversation that they had:
'How are you feeling?'
'Good. How about you?'
'Not bad.'
'I am glad you feel that way!'
'What do you do?'
'This and that.'
'Just like me! I am at school.'
'Do you like it?'
'No.'
'I am sad for you.'
'It's okay. It will be over soon. Just a year left to go.'
'What do you plan to do after school. Like. Work?'
'Yeah I guess. I'll find a job somewhere. It's just tough.'
'I know.'
'I just want to play video games!'
'Me too!'
'Why do we have to work?'
'I don't know.'
'Who decided the rules?'
'I don't know.'
'I just want to be free.'
'So do I.'
'Are you real?'
'As real as you are.'
'Do you want to meet one day?'
'I would love that!'
'I hate my life right now. But it is better with you in it.'
'I feel the same.'
'We need to meet up!'
'Come and find me.'
'Where are you?'
Repeat: 'come and find me.'
'Where are you?'
No response.
* * *
Greg unblocked Pete:
'Sorry mate. Can we talk?'
'Yeah. Meet you at the park? I will bring drinks.'
'Good man!'
The next day rolled round and Greg climbed the ladder out of his bedroom and walked over to the park.
After a few steps he met his mate Pete.
Pete offered Greg a bottle of wine.
Greg punched Pete in the guts and then took the wine bottle thanking him afterwards.
'Sorry mate,' said Greg nonchalantly. 'I had to punch you. You know why I did it, right? You ditched me and ran - left me to the police and all that. I got into real trouble, mate. I had to rat out Vance.'
'Damn! I understand,' said Pete recovering his breath. 'Have you given up on that Charlotte girl yet?'
'For sure I have,' Greg replied coolly.
'I am glad,' Pete replied. 'She was NO good. She was not going to help us not ever. A total waste of time.'
'I know,' said Greg.
'She is probably really rich,' Pete went on. 'Most like one of those types with stacks of cash in the bank - gets food delivered to the door. That's why she doesn't leave home - doesn't have to leave if you get my meaning?'
'We don't need her anymore,' said Greg calmly.
Really? O that is good!'
'Pete. I think I have solved the mystery of GOX...'
'O yeah?'
'I completed the game the other day!'
'That is mad!' said Pete.
'Yeah, right? And when I was finished I got this code and then I started talking to someone. They were real! I think it might have been the person who programmed the game - well that is my guess anyway. I don't know whether name is, yet, but she seems really friendly. Really nice,' said Greg.
'You don't think it is that Charlotte? DO you think she made the game? This might be her way of finding people to talk to?'
'Nah! It isn't her... It is someone else,' Greg replied. 'They must be living inside the GOX house.'
'You sure about that? I think my theory sounds more sound.'
'It is not Charlotte! This person was really friendly. We talked all night,' said Greg.
Pete laughed at him. 'Look at you!' he said mockingly. 'You finally falling for a vulture, eh? Who'd a thought we'd see the day!' and then he laughed some more.
Hearing this infuriated Greg to the hilt.
Greg smashed his wine bottle and taking a shard of glass held it up against Pete's forehead. 'Idiot!' Greg snarled. 'I don't need no vulture in my life! I am Greg and Greg alone. You don't know me! You don't know what I have seen these last few days! I have danced with the devil. I have been in hell. Yeah! Right now I should use this glass to cut a third eye in your forehead and then you would see the horror as clear as day! But I won't because I know you are stupid and don't deserve it.' Greg let the glass drop to the ground. 'I feel sorry for you,' he said finally.
'What's going on?' said Pete who was frightened and out of breath. 'We used to have a laugh, Greg. But now you are all crazy. Come on mate. Speak up! Where has my old mate gone? I want the old Greg back - the Greg who used to play games and sail life all languid and lazy like he was on a small boat in a lagoon. Come on you loon! Wake up!'
'I am not crazy. I just see things differently these days I guess,' Greg replied sadly. 'I have grown up. I can see the world for what it really is. The life is just a mad old game. Play it or play it not it will for sure play you and I right up to the bloody end!'
'I wish I never gotten my hands on that bloody GOX game,' said Pete sadly. 'I remember grabbing that box of loose games ages ago. I thought I was helping you out. If only I knew back then it would lead to all of this! You are obsessed Greg!'
'No. Not at all. GOX has made my life better in more ways than you can imagine but I can't talk about it,' said Greg. 'Please Pete. Can we stop talking about this. Let's just get drunk hey?'
'Fine,' Pete replied. 'Okay. So you met the devil, eh? Now you know him who would you say was scarier? Liz or the devil?'
'O Liz every time!' Greg returned drinking and laughing. 'Liz could put the devil in his place for sure. Maybe one day she will get the chance!'
The two mates drunk until the sun went down and then Greg returned home - to his bedroom - to his prison.
Once back Greg slapped in the code: GOX_TLG83.
After the code had been punched in the following conversation ensued:
'Are you having a good day?'
'It is just a day. A day like any other... Made up with my mate. That's about all that's happened.'
'That is good to hear.'
'How are you?'
'I am well.'
'Are you a real person?'
'As real as you want me to be.'
'I don't know what to make of that answer. You could be someone trying to trick me... There are all sorts of crazy people out there. I know that from pure experience.'
'Come and find me.'
'I wouldn't know where to start!'
'I am in the house.'
'The house? Hasn't it been abandoned?'
'Yes. Of everything except me.'
'You are in the house then?'
'Yes!'
'I don't know how to get into the place. I mean... I guess I could try to break in - but I am already in real trouble with the law.'
'I will open the door!'
'What?'
'The door is unlocked! Come and find me.'
'Really?'
'Come and find me.'
'It is getting late.'
'Come and find me.'
'Will you be waiting for me at the door?'
'No. This is a game. And the rules are simple: Come and find me.'
'Really? Where do I look?'
'That's the game.'
'I am afraid to go into that house... It looks, well, spooky. I am worried what I might see inside. I am worried about being caught by the police as well. Like I said... I am already in trouble.'
'No police. Come and find me.'
'Alright. I have got nothing else to do. Is the door really unlocked?'
'Yes.'
'Okay. I am making my way over right now.'
'Come and find me.'
👁️👁️
* *
*
*
*
So Greg did what he had to do.
He made his way over to the GOX House.
And yeah...
The front door was unlocked!
Amazing.
So Greg let himself in.
Once Greg was finally inside the building he got one cracker of a surprise.
The house... Well... It was... Nice?
Yeah.
All clean. Nice and tidy. Nice carpets, rugs, tidy sofas - all the apparel you would image to occupy a pleasant and lived in home...
Greg was baffled by the sight of it all.
He was expecting sawdust and cobwebs. He was expecting a horror show.
Not so.
The place was being looked after then by some uncertain soul...
So a promising start then!
Greg didn't know whether he should introduce himself, so he did:
ANYONE HOME?
No response.
Typical
Greg did the only thing that he could do.
Explore.
So this was the setup.
It was a relatively average looking family home - there was a hallway at the front, leading to a stars with three doors going east to a dining room, west to the living room, north to the kitchen. Everything was presentable, like a true show home.
Upstairs there was the landing, of course, going north to a bathroom, east to a bedroom, west to a bedroom, and south to the kids room which was decorated as such with toys etc.
It all looked normal.
Actually the normality of the building leant it a slightly creepy touch - it looked too nice - but where was everybody? It looked so lived, no dust, recently cleaned, but yet there was not a sign of a single soul not at all.
Not at all.
Downstairs in the living room there were family photographs containing a couple with two children. Again all totally normal.
Greg looked at one of the photos. He didn't recognise anyone in the picture...
Not at all.
Maybe Cecil rented the building out to the family in the photo?
But if they were not living in the building now why did they leave their belongings behind?
It made no sense.
There were more photos scattered about, some framed, some stuck on the fridge in the kitchen.
Greg looked at the photos deeply. The GOX girl she was not in any of them. This family, whoever they were, had absolutely nothing to do with the GOX game.
There was no electricity so nothing was working.
But there was that sound...
It was humming...
Wait...
Was that the faint sound of a song? Was there music playing somewhere?
Greg walked around following the flow of the sound.
Eventually he found a radio on a shelf in the living room - it was running on batteries and kicking out a little tune.
So odd.
Greg turned it off.
Greg was at a loss.
Was he caught up in some kind of a trick?
It couldn't be. But that is how it appeared to be.
And then there was that feeling, that hunch the nervous system supplies us when we feel that we are not alone...
The reptilian fight or flight portion of the brain sizzling into motion - it made Greg feel like imminent danger was around the corner...
But he couldn't see anything out of the normal...
O wait...
What's that?
He saw a face - all twisted and burned up! It was watching Greg through the kitchen window at the back - Greg got a tiny glimpse of it before it fleeted out of view.
Greg came close to collapsing he was so scared!
Greg ran out of the building slamming the door close behind.
There was nobody else around to see him, thank goodness, and the hideous head had vanished.
What was that foul head? Greg wondered if there was still a trace of booze in his blood and that he had witnessed an apparition conjured in the vapours of a stewed and beer brewed brain - another DT in other words.
It was a possibility.
And then there was also the terrible possibility that he was still trapped in a really horrible lucid dream!
Was the devil going to pop up again?
DAMN!
It was time to go home and get FULL depressed.
And worst of all?
There was NOTHING to drink.
To Read GOX part 13 click here.
For more adventures set in the town of Fenwick check out:
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