Yvvaros: The Digital Frontier (18 page)

“Okay,” she said. “I guess we should… head back to Dunidan’s Rest.”

Luke took her hand, and instead of turning around he pulled her forward. The sun was slowly setting off in the distance and he began leading her toward it, to the west.

“Hold on,” he said. “There’s something I’ve meant to check out.”

Tess did not object. They continued across the Inner Plains until the sandy beaches and blue of the ocean came into view, the continent’s western coast.

“The Western Sea,” said Tess. Luke looked a little closer and saw the tiny islands that were scattered amidst the water.

The two of them walked forward until they were on the beach, looking out into an ocean massive enough to swallow them up. Waves along the western coast had carved smooth curves into the land, making the beach look like a long zigzag of inlets.

Luke looked over at Tess and smiled.

“It’s so beautiful here,” he said. “If I had been thinking clearly at the start of the game, I would have tried to take one of the island zones across the water.”

“You would have tried and failed,” said Tess. “Those are all high-level zones. Besides, it was me who roped you into heading south, and I like the zone that we ended up with.”

Luke met Tess’s eyes. The mist from the water was cool and wet on his cheeks. A rogue wave crashed a little further in against the beach and wet his shoes, but he still didn’t look away.

“Tess…” he said. “This game, what we’ve been doing. It means a lot to me.”

You mean a lot to me.

“We’ve spent all day in-game,” said Tess. “All day in a virtual world.”

She reached her hand out and gently slapped the sand, knocking grains of it askew along with a tiny ant.

“What does it mean for us to be taking it so seriously?” she asked, quietly. “It looks and feels so real! The people in it are real, the problems we face…”

She let her palm come to rest on top of Luke’s.

“The relationships we build…” she whispered. Luke smiled at her.

“It’s complicated,” he replied. “But I don’t mind.”

He leaned over to her and kissed her right as a bigger wave crashed against the shore. She tasted sweet, and her body was warmer than the ocean spray that splashed down against them.

“I should log off,” whispered Tess. “It’s probably later than I think it is.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Luke. “Tess…”

She watched him and waited for him to continue.

“This is real to me.”

Tess smiled and then disappeared. Luke reached into his own bag, pulled out the journal that doubled as an in-game menu, and signed his name, logging off.

Coming back to reality was like being dropped out of a plane. Luke was suddenly aware of his entire body, flesh and blood, and all its needs. He was ravenously hungry and needed to use the bathroom. He could see that it was already night through the window, and felt as though he’d stepped into a time warp.

“Jeez, Ben, it’s already…” Luke looked over at his friend and saw that he still had his headset on. He sat at his desk limply, like someone who’d gone into a coma while studying.

Is that what we look like when we’re playing?

The new headset didn’t require Ben to move at all in the real world. He was frozen in the office chair, but in-game, Luke was sure that he was active.

It’s like having two bodies and transporting your control from one to the other.

Luke’s bladder pulled him away from the sight and across the hall to the bathroom. He could hear footsteps moving down the hall, and remembered that Emily was probably somewhere around.

When he came back into Ben’s room, he was surprised to see his friend pulling the headset off gingerly. Luke leaned against the door frame and shook his head.

“Did you hear me through the headset?

“Hear you… what?” Ben shot him a confused look and then pulled something out of his desk, which Luke realized, after a second, was his pipe. “I’m just topping myself off.”

Luke sighed.

“Come on man, when aren’t you high these days? Maybe think about giving it a rest?”

“Don’t give me that shit.” Ben pulled a bit of green bud out of a small jar and packed it into the bowl of the pipe. “You’ve been playing Yvvaros like a game addict. It’s no different.”

It is different. I know it is.

Luke didn’t put his thoughts into words, wanting to avoid pushing his friend too far. After Ben had taken a massive hit, he exhaled smoke and turned back to him.

“Besides, it helps me focus,” he said. “I’m putting everything I’ve got into preparing the guild hall, and you should, too. We’re fucked if the Revolutionary Rebels hit us before we’re ready.”

“Yeah, yeah man, whatever.” Luke leaned out into the hallway and absent-mindedly looked over at the stairs. “Hey man, I think I’m going to head home for tonight…”

Ben wasn’t listening. Luke turned to him and saw that he’d put the headset back on and returned to the limp, unresponsive state. It was as though he’d logged out of his real life body. Luke sighed and walked down the hall, and then down the stairs.

The downstairs bathroom door was shut, and the sound of the shower running was coming from inside of it. Luke figured that it was Emily, washing up before bed.

She was incredibly patient, letting us play for that long without making a fuss.

He headed back up to Ben’s room, packed up his computer and the new headset, and then headed out. The night sky was overcast, and it made the walk home a bit darker than usual. A couple of fireflies were out, and in the under-lit areas of the street, they shined with magnificent color.

Luke didn’t think twice about walking up the front steps of his house and heading inside. It was a Sunday night, and usually that was the one day of the week when his dad would head to bed early.

“You have school tomorrow.” Chris Smith was not asleep. He was sitting with a bottle of liquor in his hand directly across from the front door,.

“Oh, sorry dad,” said Luke. “I’m going to head straight to-”

The bottle crashed against the wall next to Luke’s face, spraying him with glass shards and disgusting smelling liquid. He flinched back as his father slowly stood up.

“What’s in the bag, Luke?” He knocked over the chair as he stepped forward. “Your computer? Your headset?”

He’s out of his mind…

“Dad, look, I was just-”

“Shut up!” His dad rushed forward, closing the distance between them and grabbing Luke by the shoulders. “You’re falling for it, Luke! Like the rest of the fucking morons that we built it for.”

“I’m not a moron!”

Luke tried to shrug off his dad’s solid grip and felt the man’s fingers dig deeper into his arm. He twisted away, and then suddenly felt something collide with the side of his head.

“You don’t understand!”

Another blow struck Luke in the stomach, this time from a fist. He gasped in pain and doubled over, and then felt another slap on the other side of his face.

The fucking bastard…

Forcing himself to his feet, Luke swung his own arm forward, his tightly balled fist striking a glancing blow on his dad’s neck. Chris Smith flinched back.

“Why you little…”

He pushed Luke back, and he fell to the ground tripping over a pair of shoes tangled against his foot. Another blow rained down on him, and then another, and another. Luke was furious, but all he could do was curl up into a ball, incapable of dealing with such an onslaught from someone taller, heavier and stronger than him.

I can’t fight my dad. Not like this.

It went on for a while, every second stretching out to an almost infinite array of horrible moments. Finally, his dad’s breathing became rough and exhausted, like a runner finishing up the last leg of a long race.

He’s tired from beating me. From beating his own son.

Luke was tired too. He was tired of it all.

“Luke…” His dad’s voice was still drunk and angry, but full of other conflicted emotions that made Luke hate him even more. “Don’t play that game. Please… don’t play it.”

He took a step back and turned to walk into the living room, knocking a lamp off a side table as he collapsed down onto the couch. Luke forced himself to stand back up, feeling the aches and pains of his body, feeling the blood dripping from his nose. He grabbed his bag, opened the door behind him and ran back outside.

Luke walked across the street, and then back toward his house, and then across the street again. He was confused, unsure of where to go or what to do. This wasn’t the first time that his father had struck him, but like every time, it had left him with emptiness, insecurity, and open wounds.

I can’t stay there tonight… Maybe the park?

He walked down the street and saw that there were people milling about by the park benches. Luke slowed his pace, and then remembered his phone.

Maybe I can call Ben, ask if I can crash at his place?

When he turned on the screen, he was greeted by a long list of unanswered text messages from Sam. He slapped his hand against his already painfully swollen forehead as he remembered what he’d promised her the day before.

Good morning.

Are you busy?

Hey, what’s going on?

Luke come on don’t ignore me.

Fuck you.

If you wanted to piss me off and destroy our friendship, then good job!

“God damn it!” It took all of Luke’s willpower to not spike the device into the ground. He sat down on the edge of a curb and tried to think of something, anything, that he could text back to make it alright.

I’m sorry, Sam.

Instead of calling Ben as he’d originally planned, Luke just headed straight back to his friend’s house. He was a mess, both physically and emotionally. All he wanted to do was lie down and bury his face in something, to hide away from the trouble he’d gotten himself into.

He knocked on the door as softly as he could to still be heard. It opened, and Emily stood behind it.

“Oh my god, Luke!” She took him by the hand and pulled him inside. “What happened?”

Luke just shook his head.

I can’t tell her about my dad.

“Here, sit down,” she said. “I’ll get you something for your face. Ben is still upstairs, working on the guild hall.”

“Thanks, sorry for just dropping in,” said Luke. “I-”

He paused in mid sentence as the implications of what she had just said hit him like a ton of bricks.

How does Emily know about the guild hall?

“Just be gentle with this and dab.” Emily handed him a wet washcloth. “I’ll get some Band-Aids out of the medicine cabinet.”

“Emily, wait.” Luke watched as she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him, eyes full of concern and something very familiar. “How did you know that we were working on the guild hall?”

Emily froze.

“He… told me about it,” she said. “Earlier today.”

“He’s been in-game all day,” said Luke. “We haven’t done anything other than buying the headsets and playing.”

“Oh, well, it must have been yesterday then,” she said. “Yeah, that’s right…”

“Emily…”

Emily walked back over to Luke slowly, standing in front of him on the couch. She smiled, as though a little embarrassed about something, and then let out a defeated sigh.

“I’m sorry Luke,” she whispered. “I was going to tell you. I wanted to say something to you, earlier today.”

“Tell me what?”

Emily sat down next to him and put one of her hands in his.

“It’s me,” she said. “Tess.”

What… did she just say?

Luke shook his head in disbelief.

“It can’t be,” he said. “You… how can you be… Tess?”

Emily ran her fingers through her beautiful, light brown hair, and then shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s me,” she said softly.

“But… in game, we’ve…?” Luke felt his jaw drop open as he thought about the times they’d been alone, the times they’d kissed. Emily squeezed his hand.

“Yeah.” She looked away from him, toward the wall. “I didn’t realize it at first, either. It wasn’t until I started to get you know you better, and I picked up on the way Silverstrike, my brother, would speak and act. By then it was too late. I couldn’t change how I felt.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?”

“Of course! I really was, Luke.” Emily moved closer to him on the couch, and in the dimly lit room, it was suddenly hard for Luke to see her as his friend’s older sister. She was as much Tess as anyone in the real world could be.

“Emily…” said Luke. “Tess…”

She nodded and set her hand on his cheek.

“I know it’s weird, but this doesn’t have to change anything.” Emily paused, and Luke could tell that she was fighting her own inner conflict. “Or we can change things. We can stop seeing each other in-game, if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Luke shook his head. He leaned forward slowly, watching Emily’s eyes light up as she realized what he was doing, and then kissed her softly on the lips.

This is so wrong. She’s Ben’s sister… but she’s also Tess.

Emily let her hand slide down to his chest as the kiss ended. She had a strange smile on her face, as though she wanted what Luke wanted, too, but had her own unique hurdles to surmount to make it reachable.

“Luke… do you want to come up to my room with me?”

Luke nodded. He had never wanted anything so badly before in his life. At the same time, the thoughts rushing through his head were a chaotic mixture of confusion and doubt.

She’s seven years older than me. She’s my friend’s sister. And what about Sam?

The two of them stood up off the couch and quietly walked upstairs together. They walked into her room and Emily locked the door behind them. They kissed again, and then collapsed down onto her bed, letting the passion that had built to a boil in Yvvaros spill over into the real world.