GOX 14: Come And Find Me

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:

IT HAPPENS AT NIGHT 

JIM'S SUBWAY

THE BEST VIDEO GAME

===========================================================

Also take a look at:

My Games

Play Give 'em Hell!

Play Elfin Quest

Play Witches Brew

Play A King For A Day

▶️ Play GOX Build 0.1  

Also take a look at:

My YouTube Channel

My Books

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The Legend of Rudwin BOOK

THE LEGEND OF RUDWIN REVIEW

GOX 13: The Face THAT Lied ???

GOX.

  Greg spent hours playing that game!

  Greg started to feel like he was going mad.

  Maybe that is because he was...

  The game never changed.  It was the same thing over and over again - the same stupid puzzles...

  It was awful.  

  No matter how much of his own life essence Greg gave it, GOX was giving Greg absolutely nothing back.

  NOTHING.

  Doubt was sliding into Greg's jellified brain...

  Was GOX a hoax after all?

  'I can't believe I almost went to prison over this piece of trash game!' said Greg out loud.  

  O he was growing very angry indeed.

  He was actually starting to think about slamming his fist into his computer screen.

  He was really going to do it - smash his computer into pieces.

  And then another message appeared...

  This is what it read:

"The House Is Empty.  There is nothing.  NOTHING except me."

Then there was an image...  It must have snapped onto the screen for less than half a second - just long enough for Greg to know something had happened - and fast enough to prevent him from being able to grab a photo of it.

  And then there was another message - it said this plain and direct:

"PLEASE STOP PLAYING - I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE."

Greg was so disappointed after he read that.  

  The disappointment finally evolved into depression and the only remedy for depression was booze.

  Greg needed to get drunk and forget it all.

  It was the only way.

  Greg didn't want to leave his bedroom but he needed a drink.  Hard drink.  And so he climbed the ladder and in his dirty clothes and matted hair set out into the wicked streets.

  Greg paused for a minute at the end of the road.  He was standing outside the GOX house.  He waited a few minutes and then he screamed at it - screamed at the house like the building had ears that cared:

  'You LIED to me!' he said.

  Greg was too young to buy booze so he was going to have to steal it...  That or mug a booze weary drunk and there were plenty of those about in Fenwick even during the day.

  Greg made a turn for the Irish Quarter of town.

  That place was a grizzly segment of human civilisation - simply one of the worst places to be.

  There were old man sitting to tables with their dogs at their sides and they were drinking rancid beer while whole colonies of  flies buzzed around their dirty hats.  The old men watched Greg go by with defeated eyes over the rim of their beer mugs.

  Defeat.

  The old men hated and envied and liked Greg not.  Greg's youth meant nothing to those old fallen men for those men only dreamed about obtaining one thing - the gift of death.  They just envied the way Greg was still able to use his legs...

  On the other side of the road there was a troop of Brazilians, probably cartel connected.  They were leaning on bars with their vulture wives perched nearby.  The men were smoking brown cigars.  Fierce looking lads they were, with wads of cash in their hands they were eyeing up the Irish opposite and you got the sense that they were cooking for a fight.

  Men died daily on that road - and the police, if they were about, did nothing but watch on with the eyes of buzzards with flapping wings scratching things in a desert of dry bleached bone - careless as the moon and as full of motion as an ant infested tree split to the root.

  It was an evil road.  The worst place in Fenwick to be sure, maybe even in the whole of Europe.

  But it was the best place to go to find drink - liquor hard and strong.  The kind of drink that killed gut and brain in one glorious drain - beautiful agony and joy mingled in a single glass...

  There was a stray bottle of rum sitting on a table.  It was only half full but it was enough to begin with.  It's owner was either gone to bed, or had been arrested, and so Greg took the glass up and drunk everything in it right down in one flow and go.

  That one drink was enough to revive the good old sparkles in the brain.  They were tingling again - nice stuff!

  It was glorious!

  The drink was swishing in the gut nicely.  Greg had just taken a step across the door of that weird and wobbly world he so much loved to live in - but he needed more of the liquid goodness before the lovely effect wore out. 

  He visited every bar he could, and sitting at every abandoned table was a glass with an inch or so of foam or liquid, drinking down all of it was enough to keep Greg going.

  And so on he went, bar to bar, table to table, glass to glass - till he was FULL drunk and that was a brilliant place to be.

  This was how Greg liked it.

  Peace and quiet and drink.

  But the peace didn't last...  

  O no.

  Humanity always finds a way to break the human...  The best game humans like to play is the game that plays one living soul off against another.  And that day was a day when humans decided to play again - and Greg would be served up by the universe on a silver plater.  He was going to play the game and serve as the madman's muse and all this would happen before the stars had settled.

  This is what happened.  This is how it began:

  A group of underdressed vultures stalked by.  They looked filthy - drunk and sporting for trouble.  When they saw Greg they threw verbal obscenities his way.  After a time their boyfriends waded in.  Ugly men they were - waddling pigs with demon eyes.  Their grotesque bellies hung over their belts - shameless and vile.  

  One of these bullies walked over to Greg and insulted him to his face.

  But Greg looked down and walked on.  He wasn't interested in a fight. 

 But the pigs were not ready yet to settle down.  The day had only began.  They started growling.  They wanted more...  They wanted blood before sunset and they were going to get it.

  One of these pigs a thick looking fellow with his hair swept back and rotting teeth accused Greg of eyeing up his partner.  'Are you trying it on with me girlfriend you dirty piece of filth?' he said and he stabbed Greg with his giant sweaty hands.  Eventually he punched Greg in the face making the lads nose bleed.  The pig had finally got his blood.

  The pig's vulture girlfriend decided to feast on the scraps.  She quickly dived in and started kicking Greg in the guts.  When her temper had all burned up she spat on Greg and then hissed at him.  After she had finished she linked arms with her pig boyfriend and together they returned to their gang.  They walked away laughing into the kindling day.

  A kind old man gave Greg a hand up.  With his help Greg got back to his drunken feet.

  The old man was quite the character, with long white whiskers which he kept brushed down with his long dirty fingers he looked like a wizard.

  This wretched bundle of bones you might call a dog liked to follow him around.  

  The old man had a high pitched voice:

  'This is a bad road to be on, son,' said the old man.  'This is where the gangs gather and fight.  It is not safe to walk here not alone anyway.'

  'You are alone,' said Greg.

  'Aye but I ain't worth killing,' the old man replied.  'When you are as old and defeated as I am most villains like to keep you alive.  Life for men like me is more of a punishment.  The universe is weird like that.  The universe keeps the very things you desire the most as far away from you as possible.  I want to die right now.  But yet no man will kill me.  But then they will kill you.  And that is because you do not want to die yet.  You might think you want to die, but you don't want to die.  You still have things to live for, son.  NO matter how bad things get,' and he gave Greg a comradely pat on the shoulder, 'there is a reason you want to live, boy.  So don't let them kill you.  Get off of the streets now!  Go home.  Study.  Make a life for yourself.'

  Greg didn't know what to say.

  The old man was very kind - you just knew he was by the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes.  You could feel his rare human goodness in his vibe.

  Greg was going to thank the old man for his generous gentle words, but then Greg's eyes dropped down to the mans hands.  He was holding a bottle in a plastic bag.

  'Fruit juice?' said Greg to the old man as the young man eyed up the bottle.

  'G-Juice...  Double G!' the old man replied.

  Double G?
  DAMN!

  THE BEST and Greg knew it.

  Greg was already full drunk in that moment and that alone will help to explain why he did what did next.

  Greg punched the old man in the teeth and then kicked him after the poor fellow had finally collapsed to the ground.

  Greg leaned over the old man and said, 'There is always someone out there who wants to kill you!  No one is immune to the horrors of nature.  I thought you would know that at your age, stupid fool!'

  The old man groaned.

  'You probably think I am insane,' said Greg chuckling bitterly.  'Don't think like that, old man.  I was born insane.  So for me being insane is just another day and a way.'

  Greg snatched the bottle out of the old mans quivering hands and ran home.

  Greg felt bad - but it had to be done.  He had to steal that liquor.

  Armed with the booze Greg climbed the ladder back up into his bedroom.

  Finally home and lying on his bed, Greg drank and drank...

  And drunk and drunk.

  He wanted to die.

  "Please booze!  Let me go to sleep!  Let me sleep and let me die!"

  Greg opened his eyes.

  He was lying in bed.

  Everything was a blur.

  It was three in the morning.  

  The darkness was so dark.

  There was a giant spider the size of a cat sitting on his lap.

  "Good lord save me!  I...I am NOT alone.  I am afraid!  So afraid..."

  The DT's were on their way...

  Shadow people started to take shape around his bed.

  First there was one.  Then two.  Then three.  And then Greg was surrounded!

  They grabbed at him.  They threw him about.  They dragged him out of his bed.  They dropped him on the floor.  They picked him up and dropped him down again.

  He could feel their fingers sink into his flesh.  It hurt terribly.

  One of the shadows grabbed his throat.

  Greg struggled to breathe.

  Eventually Greg stopped struggling and surrendered - and then Greg heard an evil voice in his head and it said:

  'We are taking you to a horrible place boy!'

  Greg woke up again for a second time that morning.

  Now he was no longer in his bedroom...

  The shadow people had dropped him off inside a strange building he had never seen before.

  There was a red rug on the floor leading to a counter with a bell.

  There were no sounds - it was all empty and quiet.

  No windows and no doors leading anywhere just the one room with the counter and the red rug and the bell.

  Then a man who looked like he was made of plastic waddled over to the Greg and said, 'Welcome to the Hotel Fantastic!  Would you like a room?'  And then he repeated, 'Would you like a room?  Would you like a room?'

  Greg couldn't look at him - the plastic mans eyes were glistening, and he was so real...

  Real beyond belief!

  It was too much for Greg to take in.

  Greg knew he was NOT dreaming.

  Maybe he was dead after all?

  Maybe he was in purgatory?

  DAMN!
  So this is what the afterlife really looks like then?  He thought.

  How disappointing - like everything else really.  Why shouldn't death be just as disappointing as life?  One thing leads to the other and all things lead to the same thing.  That is the truth and that horrible morning Greg knew it for real.

  Greg got up and the plastic man led him over to a wall.

  'There is a door here,' said the plastic man.  'You can't see it but it is there.  Go through and follow the stair...'  and the plastic man repeated, 'follow the stair.  Follow the stair.'

  So Greg walked through the wall and did what he was asked to do.

  He followed the stair.

  And then another stair.

  And another stair.

  On and on.  Up and up.

  Till he reached a wooden door painted all white.

  Greg had this feeling that there was something evil on the other side of the door...

  It was just a hunch - but it was real and he was very scared.  Greg started to think:  'Hang on a minute!  I...I have seen this door before...  maybe in another life?  DAMN this is horrible!'

  Greg hesitated.  He turned around but there was the plastic man standing at the bottom of the stairs.  The plastic man was following him.  The plastic man had changed.  His face was all contorted and he had an evil grin and then he said to him:

  'Don't look at me!' and he repeated, 'Don't look at me!  Don't look at me!'

  Greg opened the door and went through.

  No sooner had Greg stepped into what looked like his own bedroom a vast man who Greg could only describe as the devil snatched him up and started swinging him around in the air like he was a little child again.

  The devil looked like the devil, red skin, green eyes, forked beard and forked tongue - horns growing out of the scalp of his head.  The devil started speaking to Greg.  This is what he said:

'Hell is a hotel in hell!' and he repeated, 'Hell is a hotel in hell!'

  

The devil put Greg back down on his feet and then he started to speak:

'Welcome to the lower astral, sonny!'

Greg was too frightened to respond.  He just stood there shaking.

  

'We have got the whole gang here!  Let's welcome them in!'

  

Hellish and horrible disco music started to play and that was when a huge gang of total crazies poured into the room all of them one after the other:

  Little Grays, huge lizard men, giant locusts, shadow men - the whole horrible lot of them.  They linked together and started dancing in a circle around Greg.

  They danced and they danced as the devil sang:

Hell is a hotel in hell!  Hell is a hotel in hell!

Greg woke up again but this time it was for real, thank goodness.  That lucid dream was getting a bit out of hand.

  The hangover was over.  The DT's were gone.

  He was alive - he had survied the ride!

  Trembling and soaked in cold sweat, Greg decided he was going to give GOX a second chance.

  He put the game on and started to play.

  This time there was no messing around.

  The game gave him what he wanted.

  First came this message:

"Thank you for playing.  You passed the test!  I know you are loyal..."

Greg kept playing.

  Things were going good!

  Another message flowed up.  It read:

"Each soul has a story..."

"Up and Down."

"A man can live in the gutter and have dreams of the sky."

"A man can live on high and die with a sigh before being buried in the gutter."

"God will pluck up a random star from the abyss and clothe it in flesh - on earth he will serve as a conduit for his glory - "

"Keep playing and I will show you the secret of my story - 

The secret of house..."

And there was the face...

"Come and find me..."

To Read GOX part 12 click here.

For more adventures set in the town of Fenwick check out:

IT HAPPENS AT NIGHT 

JIM'S SUBWAY

THE BEST VIDEO GAME

===========================================================

Also take a look at:

My Games

Play Give 'em Hell!

Play Elfin Quest

Play Witches Brew

Play A King For A Day

▶️ Play GOX Build 0.1  

Also take a look at:

My YouTube Channel

My Books

Dancing In The Fields Of The Mind

The Legend of Rudwin BOOK

THE LEGEND OF RUDWIN REVIEW

ICED EYES

No surprises please!  Just give me...

Iced eyes...

 Iced Eyes

Whites Lies.

Iced eyes

What lies...

Cream butter...

Twin Butter.

Iced eyes.

What lies

Iced eyes

Team butter...

Been better.

Iced Eyes -

Feel better.

Cream butter...

Twin butter.

Iced eyes

White Lies!

Iced Eyes

👁️👁️

*

      *

*    

      *

No surprise.

Can the moon withstand the light in the heart of thee?

  Dew drops on the leaves - morning I see thee, behind night skies...

Iced eyes

Nice try

Iced eyes

Don't lie

I walk with thee...

  I will stalk with thee...

  Animals that we have the right to be...

  Together, we share a common destiny.

  Let my eyes never deceive me.

  So I ask of thee - let my eyes never be ready to serve thee.

  No surprises.  Please.

  No surprise!

  All I want is just...

  ICED EYES:

 Iced Eyes

Whites Lies

Iced eyes

What lies...

Cream butter...

Twin Butter.

Iced eyes

What lies...

Team butter...

Been better

Iced Eyes

Feel better.

Cream butter...

Twin butter

Iced eyes

White Lies!

Forest leaves as white as butter drinking in the moon -

  O I bet thy just love to swoon - 

  Like when thou danced in the deepest darkest gloom.

  The webs are silver delight.

  Underneath the stary light.

  

ICED EYES

DON'T LIE

ICED EYES

Don't you think I don't want to fight?  

Just get thou face out of my sight!

Cream Butter

  

I don't like thee!

Seen better?

I don't need thee.

Been better?

I should surely be...

  A sight to see, something that can dance with glee - alongside with thee...

Dream Butter!

  

Won't you be with me?

Seen better?

Thou needeth me!

So let us be free - in eternity!

 Iced Eyes

Whites Lies

Iced eyes

What lies...

Cream butter...

Twin Butter.

Iced eyes

Iced eyes

What lies...

Team butter...

Been better

Iced Eyes

Feel better.

Cream butter...

Twin butter

Iced eyes

White Lies!

There is nothing on that path ahead of me, that has anything to do with anything named destiny...

  But I will walk...

  You go right ahead of me!

  You walk.

  You talk.

  I walk.

  I talk.

  On the path ahead of thee...

  I think we might share the same destiny...?

  Trees.  O please.  Please just make some cheese.

  Then say cheers, as we sit and drink some beers.

  Moonlight.

  Moonlight!
  If only you were bright - to light such a sight - as the light of souls, lost because of tolls... to... dim butter!

Twin butter!

It doesn't matter.

  If we just sit and chatter.

  Pass the wine, so divine, let's drink from the holy vine.

  Leaves chatter...

  The wee stream splatters...

  Thank God we need no ladders!

  To reach the thing that staggers...

  Triggers?

  The lie that lives right in the eye?

  

Is there a thing that can never lie?

Our dreams are NOT what they might seem.  

The butter lights of the sun might gleam and dream with us over places we have never been.

But we have been:

ICED EYES

Dream butter.

Don't clutter.

My head... o please.

It is just so full of so many bees!

NO HONEY!

O SHUDDER!

How your feet seem to flutter...

On the leaves...

That dance with no breeze...

ICED EYES

ICED EYES

  

Iced Eyes

Whites Lies

Iced eyes

What lies...

Cream butter...

Twin Butter.

Iced eyes

What lies...

Team butter...

Been better

Iced Eyes

Feel better.

Cream butter...

Twin butter

Iced eyes

White Lies!

Iced Eyes

👁️👁️

*

      *

*    

      *

No surprise.

THE END

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GOX 12: Charlotte's Den (part 3)

Pete rolled up with the ladder and clocked the thing down by the ledge of Greg's window.

  Greg climbed out and climbed down.

  Finally free of his room it was time to get to work.

  'Are you going to school today?' said Greg to his mate.

  'No way son!' Pete returned hotly.  'Sod that!  School is a waste of time.  Anyway a wise man once said you learn more from life by playing video games!  And that wise man, if you were wondering, is me fifty years in the future!'

  'I hear you,' said Greg.  'Are you ready to carry on with the mission?'

  Pete said he was ready...  but he actually sounded quite nervous.  He actually looked quite agitated like he would rather be somewhere else doing something very different.

  Greg detected his friends anxious frame but he didn't care.  'Do you remember where the place is?' he continued.  

  'I think so,' Pete replied.  'It is up the road here, not far to walk not really.  I don't know about you, mate, but I seriously think I am going to need to be drunk before we start doing anything serious.'

  'No.  Not this time,' Greg returned in a serious voice.  'We have got to be sober in all of this business.  We have to have crystal clear minds if we hope to get things done.  If we try to speak to this Charlotte full drunk she is going to think we are two filthy wasters.  But if we keep sober and clean she will just think we are two wasters and we might stand a better chance of getting a word in.  We just need to know if anybody is camping in the GOX house, or if she has heard word of a murderer or anything weird.  That's all.  And when we get the information we can go back home and plan for the next stage - entering the GOX House itself!'

  'Well she can certainly talk about seeing weird things especially after she has finished talking to us,' said Pete with a chuckle.

  'Stop trying to be funny,' Greg slapped back at his friend.  'What's wrong with you?  I worry about you sometimes mate!  There could be a damn dead body inside that GOX house and Charlotte is the key to unlocking the secret to this mystery.  Right?  Do you get get it?  Idiot?  Now grow up and start acting your age!'

  Pete apologised.

  'How did you get that cut to your face?  It's bleeding you know?' said Pete.  'There is a good flow of blood on your face right now.'

  'O that?  It's nothing, really.  Just a little showdown with a very nice person called Liz...  Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?' said Greg.

  'O her?  Damn!  She is the worst,' Pete returned.  A cold shiver ran down his spine the moment Greg spoke her name...  Nasty memories started kindling in his brain.  'She beat me blue the other day.  Vile creature.  A true vulture!'

  'She is more like a reptile than a vulture I think,' said Greg.

  'O yeah!  I suppose you are right,' said Pete thoughtfully.  'A reptile!  Sure! Do you know what she did to me the other day at school?  She was waiting for me behind the wall, you know the wall behind the canteen?  She was hiding there with her mate and when I came along they ambushed me!  Liz tore up my shirt and scratched my back.  And her friend stepped up and punched me clean in my face.  Have you ever seen her friend?  What a beast she is!  Damn!  Very frightening...'

  'O!  You mean Jen don't you?  She looks like a Sasquatch right?'

  'That's the one,' said Pete.  'A truly frightening creature!  What's it all about, hey Greg?  Why do things have to be so damn horrible?  Why is school the way it is - full to the brim with reptiles, vultures and Sasquatch?  Why can't there just be normal people in the classrooms?  Why is it all beasts and bumpkins?'

  'Life is an evil game my friend,' Greg returned calmly.  'There are only three ways to play it:  Face it and die...  Run from it and die...  Drink from it and die...  It is ALL one vicious circle, mate.  Life for the common man is like being strapped to a wagon wheel and being tossed around forever and ever in the mud.  Your skin and your limbs eventually start to rot with the wear and start all breaking up.  Then when the wheel is done the rope is finally cut away and you roll into a dirty damn ditch all dead and done.  Even when I was a kid I knew what life was all about.  But ah well!  Men like us need a strategy to deal with it - and my strategy is to drink!  But not now.  We need our wits about us, Pete.  Now let us go and find this Charlotte person before it gets late...'

* * *

Finally they were standing outside Charlotte's house.

  They had made it at last.  

  'Okay so this is the plan,' said Greg.  'This woman is not a ghost.  She is a human being - that means she is going to have to leave her house at sometime or other.  She needs to eat, right?  Presumably she has got a job to go to as well?  So this is what we are going to do.  We are going to hide and we are going to wait.  When she finally leaves that door we rush her, collar her, get her into a corner and get her talking!'  

  'You know we might get arrested for doing this,' said Pete.  'I really don't want to go back to prison, Greg, and DC Maddox has already got us marked...'

  'It will be fine,' said Greg.  'Come on Pete!  Stop shaking like that!  Look at the bigger picture here!  We are on a mission - a mission of life and death...'

  Pete was beyond reluctant.  'I am sorry Greg but I am going to need a drink...  I really am!'

  But Greg told him no, reminding him of the importance of maintaining clarity for the sake of the mission.

  'We are going to get into trouble for this I know we are,' Pete dribbled on.  'I mean what we are doing now is stalking.  It could get us years of prison time!  Honestly I don't think I can do it after all.  No.  I want out!  Greg, listen.  If you honestly and sincerely believe that there is a dead body in the GOX House then do what I suggested earlier and phone the police about it.  That is all you have got to do!  This mission of yours is getting to be mad and stupid.  I regret giving you that game now.  You are letting the game get to you.  You sound like a crazy person when you talk about the GOX House!  We have travelled ALL around the country looking for this damn house and now we are harassing a totally innocent person...  This is a bad business Greg and I don't like it.  I have got a real bad feeling stirring in my guts.  I don't want this.  I don't want to waste my day off of school getting into trouble - I just want to chill and play video games.'

  'You do what I tell you or I will punch you!' Greg growled in return.  'Do you hear me?  You are in on this mission with me to the end.  Yeah.  We could get into trouble, of course could.  But we have to do this for the better good of the community.  And listen!  If I get arrested I will tell them that you were my accomplice in all that I did.  I will drag you down with me you hear me Pete?  You already have a criminal record - if Maddox reels you in for a second round in the station you will be toast.  So you do as I tell you, right?  There is NO way out of this not for you not for me!  We have got to get this done!'

  Pete hung his head in defeat.

  He had no choice but to go along with Greg's plans.

  'Right!  Less of the negative talk!  Let's get back to business.  We are going to need cover,' said Greg.  He looked about.  There was nothing...

  ...Apart from this tent obviously belonging to some homeless person...

  Just then the zip of the tent came down and the flap went up and too everyone's surprise Vance King stepped out onto the scene.

  He was holding a bottle and had vomit on his shirt - he was looking wobbly, mad and sick.

  He looked like Vance King basically.

  'Watcha lads,' said King as he wobbled about, leaning on the nearby wall for support.  'Fancy a drink with a stray?'

  'Watcha got?' Greg replied.

  'Double G,' Vance replied with his voice shaking.  'Two doses of G-Juice in one.  Good stuff.  The best stuff.  Takes five seconds for it to hit the brain and the gut.'  He offered them a bottle.  'Drink it!' he said.  'And when you do all of those inhibitions forged in the fires of youth will melt away like birds in a dream.  You will become eagles...  Eagles with the eyes of a child ready to hunt with the wiles of a hyena...'

  'No thanks,' said Greg pushing the bottle away.  'Pete and I need to keep our braincells intact - just for today anyway.  We are on a mission.'

  'That's good to hear!  Still trying to break into that GOX house hey?'

  'That's right,' said Greg.  'Do you know anything else about this Charlotte person?  It is just we are trying to talk to her, see if we can get some information out of her.  But she is so mysterious.  I don't think I have ever seen her out and about before not in my whole life.  She seems to be quite badly housebound.  Am I right?  Do you think she is sick?'

  'She is a strange twig that one - more like a ghost than a human being,' Vance replied.  'If you can get her to talk to you Greg you will be the first of a kind!  You will be a very talented man indeed to pull off such a deed.'

  'I am worried somebody has been murdered and Charlotte might know something about it,' said Greg.  'There could be a dead body inside the GOX House.  I have been playing this weird video game for days now and it hints at such a thing!  If it is not a dead body it could be a prisoner or someone who is trapped!  I think Charlotte knows something about what is going on and that is why she is hiding away like she does.  What do you think Vance?  Do you think I sound like a crazy person?'

  'Well I am knew to the area,' Vance replied, 'but I do know that and things go on in the streets...  And yeah - that GOX House, it really does look like the kind of building where a murder might have taken place...  where murders might still go on!  For sure!  It is a sad lonely old building, the perfect place to hide a stiff.  Now I am being freely and fully honest with you lads, I really do think that there could be a dead body in that building.  If not today then one day.  You might actually find me dead in there especially if I keep on drinking the Double G...'

  'You seriously think that?' said Pete, who was now starting to grow very afraid.  'Do you think the GOX House is the kind of place where murders would really go on?'

  'Absolutely!  It is the perfect place to slay a man and release a soul,' said Vance speaking in a relaxed voice like death and killing was just a typical casual topic for people to talk about.  The lads couldn't tell if the man was being serious or if he was just very drunk.  'Quite a few famous killers haunt Fenwick's history,' Vance rambled on.  'They killed in back alleys - they killed in old houses.  Frightening stuff!' and then Vance digressed into one of his uncomfortable intoxicated drivel talks:  'You can tell if a man is a killer by looking at his eyes...' he rambled.  'If a man has the eyes of a dog he ain't no killer.  Dog's eyes look left and right - they look lost.  When a man has dogs eyes then that is a lost man you are looking at.  But when the man has the eyes of a cat then well that is when you need to start being careful and watching yourself...  when a man has the eyes of a cat he is a hunter and there you might have a possible killer in your midsts.  But it is the man with the eyes of a whale you need to be careful of the most - for that is the man who wears the eyes of a killer and he will kill you there and then clean in the street.  Beware the eyes of a man with the eyes of a whale.  You can tell a lot about a man or a beast by the look in their eyes.  Now listen to this:  the eyes of the eagle are as pure as snow.  Did I ever tell you about the time I was attacked as a child in my pram but a great golden Fenwick eagle?'

  'Yes yes!  You told us that story,' said Greg.  'You really don't have to tell us it again!  Really!  Please!  Don't do that!'

  'Okay lads.  Have it your way.  But let me tell you one last thing!  Eagles are the purest killers on earth.  When they kill they have the eyes of a wide eyed babe freshly born...'

  'Alright.  Let's stop talking about eagles and focus on the task at hand,' said Greg.  Greg desperately needed to stop Vance from setting out on another one of his mad alcohol induced tangents.  'Do you think that this Charlotte person might actually be dead?'

  Suddenly there was a sound.

  It was the clicking of a door handle!

  'O wait lads you might just be in luck!' said Vance.  'I think our girl Charlotte is about to poise...'

  And Vance was right.

  Charlotte was actually leaving her home!
  'There she is!  Let's get her Pete!' said Greg and the two lads gave chase.

  As soon as Charlotte saw the two lads charging towards her she let out a terrible high pitched scream and ran right back inside her house!

  She was so fast - one might think her a willow the wisp!  She really did appear to be quite spectral in her white dress and armed with her strange speed - maybe she was a ghost after all?

  Well whatever, her door was closed and locked against the lads.

  But she didn't have time to lock the gates guarding the outer walls so Greg stalked right up to her front door and started thumping on it like a frantic and desperate man.  He started shouting through the letterbox as well.  These were his words:

  'We just want to talk to you about the GOX house!  The old house next to yours!  What can you tell us about it?  Please talk to us!  We need your help!  We only want a minute of your time!'

   Just then five police cars wheeled into view.

  Pete had already ran away leaving Greg alone and surrounded.

  DC Maddox stepped up out of his car:

  'We need to have a word you and I,' he said grimly. 'Let's head back to the station son.'

  And before Greg knew it he was being cuffed up and bowed down into the backseat of a police car.

* * *

Back at the police station Greg was put on full blast by both the police and DC Maddox.   They had him sat down and cuffed to a chair.  Maddox sat at the desk directly in front of Greg a vast and frightening form - a giant built out of bricks of pure darkness.

  Maddox started:

  'You are growing up to be quite the rascal aren't you Greg,' he said menacingly.  'Harassing a young lady outside of her own home, hey?  You know I am going to have to book you for that.  It is going to be bad for you, Greg, just giving you a heads up.  Prison cells are not what they used to be.  Time was two men shared a cell.  But things have gotten tight here in Fenwick over the last few years - so much crime and so little space to keep the bad guys penned up.  These days we are looking at ten men per cell.  Do you fancy sharing a cell with ten men, Greg?  That is what your fate is shaping up to be right now if you keep going on with things as you are.'

  Greg did the only thing that he could do and that was grovel and beg for mercy.

  And grovel he did - for a whole minute grovelling like the defeated dog that he was...

  'Please give me a second chance!' he said finally.

  'You burned your second chance the last time I had to lock you up,' said Maddox.  'There are no chances left, lad.  Seeing how things are I don't think I have any choice.  I am going to have to book you...'

  'Wait!' Greg snapped - he had a plan to save himself and it was a good one.  This is what he said next:
  'I can help you find a very dangerous criminal!'

  'So you want to add bribing an officer of the law to your list of crimes now, eh Greg?' Maddox replied slyly.  'That will fetch you another couple of years.'

  'No wait listen!  I know someone you want.'

  'Name him.'

  'Vance King.'

  'You know where to find King?'

  'Let me go and I can lead you right to him,' said Greg.

  Maddox rolled his pen around in his hand right hand and eyed the other officers in the room.

  Finally he nodded his huge bulldog shaped head.  

  'So you want to make a deal?' he said.

  'Vance King is yours - just let me go,' Greg replied.

  'Fine.  Then we have a deal,' Maddox returned calmly.  'But this is your third and final chance, Greg.  Anymore nonsense and I will be forced to lock you up in a small sized cell with ten giant sized killers.  Do you hear?'

  Greg nodded.

  He heard.

  He understood.

Vance King was arrested later that day.

  Greg, finally free, gradually wandered back home.  It was finally evening when he climbed the ladder back up to his bedroom.

  Greg was angry...

  He was angry with the police he was angry with Charlotte and most of all he was angry with Pete for having abandoned him clean in his hour of need.

  Greg snapped open his computer and stamped out this angry message to his friend:

Pete!  Damn you!  You fed me to the pigs!  You are supposed to be my mate!  Well whatever!  I know your true colours now!  Our friendship is done.  I will solve this mystery of GOX without you.  But I WILL solve it I WILL!  And then I will be the hero - and you will be what you have always been...  a drunken nobody with nothing.  I will win this game.  I WILL WIN.  O yeah and by the way you are blocked so don't bother responding...TRAITOR!

 With those angry words having been fired out Greg settled down in front of his keyboard and snatching hold of his mouse he started to play some more GOX...

To Read GOX part 11 click here.

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IT HAPPENS AT NIGHT 

JIM'S SUBWAY

THE BEST VIDEO GAME

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▶️ Play GOX Build 0.1  

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Dancing In The Fields Of The Mind

The Legend of Rudwin BOOK

THE LEGEND OF RUDWIN REVIEW