Chapter One: How the Tables Have Turned
“I’m gonna win!” Haley yelled.
“Not on my watch!” Millie yelled back.
Haley and Amelia, or Millie as everyone calls her, were in a basement playing a video game racing down the racetrack of the game world called 60, it’s the game where you have to fight for your life in order to survive and win the game. It came out just this month October, 2009 and as a gift, Millie’s parents gave it to her. Let’s just say Millie was a little rich and Haley was a little richer. Haley turned her elbows to the left making her catch up to Millie. Upstairs, Haley could hear her parents fighting, and just as always, she heard her mother stomp out of the house. Her parents used to love it here and love everything about their life, until this year, the year Haley turned 12 years old. Millie seemed to notice the small frown on Haley’s face when her mom slammed the door. She decided to try to get her out of her mind.
“Why don’t we do something else, maybe go to the park?” Millie said, stopping the game.
“Nah, I’m good,” Haley said, shrugging it off lightly. She got up, washed the face of disappointment off just as quickly as she put it on, and went to the mini fridge and got a soda. She had on the long shorts that go to your knees and an AC DC tee shirt. It made her look very masculine.
“You know what?” Haley said, opening the soda and falling onto the couch. “When I get older, I’m gonna get a big mansion, as big as the hotel in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and then we’re gonna have to sleep over whenever we want,” She said, painting the image in the air with her hands.
“Uh huh, sure and the actual possibility of that happening is what? 1 to 100?” Millie stated sarcastically. “I’ll come visit you,” Millie lightly laughed, pushing up her glasses so they wouldn’t fall. But Millie realized this was just an act of sadness toward her parents getting into all these fights, Millie’s face changed from sarcastic to understanding.
“They’ll stop fighting eventually you know. It’s only a matter of time.” she said putting her game control on the coffee table.
“This isn’t about them, this is about us, I wanna hang out with you every day and not have to ever do another sheet of pre-algebra again! You’re my best friend, and you’re all I’ve got,” She said with content.“Even better idea! We could live in the game. I wish we could live in the game and not hav-” She was cut off. Dark. Blank. Nothingness.
Chapter 2: The Ending at only the Beginning
14 years. 14 years they have been stuck in the game 60. And 29 levels and 9 lives later they are tired of this game and ready to go home.
“Don’t move.” She told the security guard, pointing the blade at him. Right now they were in a bank vault because they had to steal money – that was the object of the level. Level 29. They stole the money and they just had to get the security guard to shut up.
“Okay let’s go,” Millie said, running out of the room and up the stairs to the doors. And after another glance at the officer, she followed her. When Haley opened the door, she didn’t see anything but the parking lot and a black SUV pulling off. She didn’t think anything of it. Sometimes when they do the level Millie goes home without notice. It was easier in case someone saw them, only one of them might get caught. She walked out into the lot and took off her black ski mask she hid her face from and got in the new red sports car she, not surprisingly, stole. After a while of aimlessly driving around the town it was dark and she drove to her apartment. She walked up the three floors and stopped at the dark blue door. She got her keys from her pocket accidentally touching her switchblade. She opened the squeaky door, but there wasn’t just her unmade bed and very dirty kitchen but two men in black holding Millie by the arms. She was squealing and trying to get out.
“Millie! Oh my god w- what’s going on!?” Haley reached out to touch but pulled back knowing she could make one of the guards mad.
“Haley Hundley,” One of the men said slowly. “We have your friend here.”
“You don’t say,” She said sarcastically but she looked at Millie’s face and it clearly wasn’t a good time to do that, she was petrified.
“I walked out of the bank, about to go to the car but they saw me. Haley, they got me. They’re gonna take me back to stage 1!” Millie said, trying not to let a tear fall.
“You can’t do this!” Haley yelled. “Who’s making you do this!” She screamed. You could practically see the steam coming out of her ears.
“Unfortunately, you can’t do anything about it.” One of the men in black took out a silver taser and zapped Millie. She writhed in pain and fell limp in the man’s arms.
“NOOO!” Haley said. “Hey stop! Stop, I’ll do anything!” Haley yelled in attempted to get them to stop. The man zapped again and became nothing but a cloud of smoke disintegrating her only friend back to stage 1. It was too late. Millie was gone, and a gust of wind blew the last of the girl into oblivion.
“You have 2 options, you can either come with us and go to stage 1 and help your friend or keep on going with the game and leave. I’ll give you a hint. There are only 30 levels to the game.” Then the men snapped his fingers and disappeared leaving Haley worried, confused and heartbroken. She had a choice: leave her best friend or leave this stupid game. But she knew the right decision. The one she never thought in a million years that it would happen. She had to leave her. Of course, all the people she loved had let her go and didn’t love her anymore. Her mom, her dad, she had to leave Millie. It would only be a matter of time before she would forget about her. She had to leave her behind.
Chapter 3: Leaving it all Behind
The last level. The last level until she gets out. The last level and she leaves her best friend behind. The last level and she gets to see actual humans. The last level. And she…. was ready as heck.
She walked toward her front door, she didn’t know where she was going but she knew she needed to go somewhere. She opened the door but the hallway was replaced by a black room, and she was in the middle of it. She wasn’t scared. Or confused. She knew that leaving Millie was a choice she could never take back. But she was ready, she had her switchblade and knives, her suit and her hope. The lights were suddenly on.
“So, are you here to leave the game?”A manly voice said. It was coming from everywhere.
“YES!” Haley said, yelling with not a doubt in mind.
“Okay,” The voice paused for a second, “Then let’s play a game, what about… ghosts in the graveyard,” The male voice said. Graves started to form around her.
“You must find me or… then you shall breathe one’s last. Remember you have 1 life left, you used 9 already. Your choice. The odds are in your favor.’’ The voice went away. Haley got into a fighting stance. The one she had when she and Millie would play capture the flag. She was going to miss that.
“I want to go home,” The middle-aged woman said, coming from behind her. “I want to go home to my kids and my husband,” she said in the dimly lit room, she started crying. “I have to find him.”
“I want my mommy!” A little boy said, crying. “I have to find him!” She kept seeing them everywhere she looked. She could only see people crying, yelling ‘I need to find him.’ and ‘I wanna go home.’ But she knew it was fake. She had to find him in order to get home. Trickster. This was it. I have to trust my gut. She thought. She let herself lead the way. She dogged every person and swerved. Until she came across a door. It looked like it was locked. It was intriguing. She always had a bobby pin in her hair so she let down her raven locks, she dyed it to be harder to see here in the game, she got it out and pushed it into the door lock. She twisted it for a moment and it popped. She was in. She paused. Was she ready to meet the person that put her here? Was she ready to meet the trickster? But nevertheless, she proceeded. There in the middle of the room she saw a dark shape. It was a chair.
“The odds were never in my favor!” Haley said, bursting through the door. “You will not stop me from going home! Take me home!” She said, turning the chair around in fury. But what she didn’t expect was her. What? It was the 12-year-old version of Haley. The small little girl that got sucked into this game all those years ago.
“But they are,” The younger version of Haley dismayed her. “I need you to wake up. You did this!?” The little voice asked. Younger Haley was crying while Haley was too confused to cry. What was happening?
“I did this?” She asked, now she was crying, “I put myself here?” She asked despondently. A thin layer of tears over filling her eyes.
“We’ve been trapped in here and only you can help us! Wake up Haley. Come on I need you to wake up!” She felt a hand on her shoulder and when she looked up she was in a chair, it was bright and beautiful. She was in a home library. It was present day and a lady was shaking her shoulder. The woman had dyed reddish purple hair and thick eyeliner. She was pretty. Haley sat up. She was on a couch and it looked like she had been sleeping.
“I thought you left me girl.” She said with a chuckle. Everything came back to her. This was her girlfriend, the woman who was shaking her. But then this…. This hit her like a train.
Millie died years ago.
Of course! All these years she had caused so much pain to herself she just hadn’t let go of Millie. She had PTSD because of Millie’s car crash and all this time in the game she had trapped herself in her head. Not wanting to reveal the truth. Creating a fake reality because the thought of leaving Millie, was hard to think about. But she had to.
Chapter 4: Trails
Three Months Later:
Now 24, Haley’s hair was back to the same dirty blonde she had before the game and her green eyes were still brighter than ever. She was back to her normal self. She knows everything that happened. She had been trapped in her mind and she got out as if nothing happened. She was on the trail that she and Millie used to go on all the time. The hiking trail. It had been the 14-year anniversary of Millie’s death. And the 3 months since Haley woke up in that chair.
“I miss her Fay,” She said to her girlfriend, Fay, tearing up next to her.
“I know,” she said as Haley put her head on her shoulder. They looked at the picture of her and Millie when they were 12. The one who thought out of the box. And the one who could solve any math problem in a matter of seconds. The one who died on her way back from gymnastics one night. When she was 12. That’s too young, much too young, she couldn’t have gone that soon…. but she was. A single tear fell from her eyes.
“Love you Mills.” She whispered, looking up.
The End…. Or is it….
…. it is
Written by plumtree
Topics: 2021-22 School Year, Complete Archive (2012-2020)