"Look at him! He's glitching out!" Lui cried through Evan's headphones.
"What are you doin'?" Jonathan laughed, talking over the others. Evan's room was dark, illuminated by the bright colours of his Grand Theft Auto game. He watched his character glitch, letting out a sleepy giggle as he did. Their recording session had gone on for hours, long after it had gotten dark; the green numbers on his clock telling him it was past midnight. Evan forced back another yawn, trying to keep his eyes open.
"I don't know!" Evan laughed. They continued to laugh about it until it finally stopped, quickly becoming preoccupied by something else. Evan felt himself leaning back in his chair, his eyes starting to close as he listened to his friends. His head nodded forward, resting against his chest as his controller slipped from his hands to his desk. The loud bang startled Evan who sat up as he let out a startled cry.
"Evan? You okay?" Tyler asked.
"Yeah...I'm just tired is all. Falling asleep at my desk." Evan said as he reached for his controller.
"Pinch yourself and you'll wake up." Brock suggested. Evan wasn't sure if he was serious or not. He tried it anyways, pinching his arm. It made him wince but did nothing to wake him up.
"If you need to go to bed now, we can finish up this session." Lui suggested. Evan shook his head though they wouldn't see him.
"No...No...I can stay awake." Evan smiled. The countless hours of editing always managed to catch up to him but it was nights like this that made it all seem worth it. Being able to have fun with his long distance friends made him feel not so lonely. "Why don't we do a mission or something?" They all agreed, arguing over which one before they finally decided on one.
They played their first attempt, yelling at each other when one by one, they all died till they lost their lives and failed. Evan's eyes started to droop again, leaning back in his comfortable chair. He fought back a yawn, his eyes closing as he listened to his friends talk about their new plan for the mission which was just to not die.
A cold breeze sent chills through Evan, forcing him to curl in on himself. His controller slipped from his hand, falling to the floor with a bang but it wasn't enough to wake Evan. Tyler's distant laughter echoed in his ears as a sudden force pushed him backward.
His eyes shot open, expecting to hit the floor but he continued to fall. Around him, the world seemed dark, neon lights flashing past him as his ceiling was replaced with a dark night sky, stained orange with the lights of a city. He heard a scream, echoing in his ears as he realised it was himself screaming as he flailed his arms out, desperate to grab onto anything.
He couldn't see the road coming up to meet him, his mind frantically trying to understand what was happening. He tried to breath, feeling something rubber around his head that made it feel like he was breathing in chemicals that suffocated him as he fell to what had to be his death.
This had to be a dream, a nightmare. Evan had always hated heights, it seemed only right to have a nightmare of falling from one. He closed his eyes tightly, hoping that he would wake up. He remembered what Brock said, struggling to fight against the wind to pinch his arm but it did nothing and he continued to fall through the dark. He willed himself to wake up, to hear anything else besides his screaming and the wind roaring around him.
Instead, a sickening crack sent a shock of pain through him and darkness settled over him.
"Why did you push him?"
"He was being a fucking idiot. He's fine! No need to freak out."
"Look at all the blood! What if you Glitched him?"
"I didn't! He's fine! So what if there is all the blood...We've done worse to each other before. This ain't nothing and you know it."
"Let's get the mask off...See how bad his head is."
As Evan came to, he felt hands on either side of his head, pulling off whatever heavy rubber mask that made every breath feel like a struggle. Warm night air filled his lungs with a burning breath, the ache of broken bones overwhelming him. As much as he thought that he was breaking and dying, it felt like he was being put back together again, piece by broken piece.
"He's coming back. I told you he would. Evan? Can you hear me?" A familiar voice said, sounding far away in the heavy darkness that still surrounded Evan. In his muffled mind, he wondered how such a familiar voice could be so close when he knew they should be far away. There shouldn't be hands on him that were supposed to be far away. "Evan?"
His dark eyes opened slowly, taking in the orange, light stained sky. No stars sparkled in the sky, just helicopters and planes, the man made shooting stars. He couldn't understand how he had ended up outside when he has just been inside, falling asleep on his chair.
Evan decided that this could only be a dream, a dream of a L.A sky and his friend's voices echoing in his ears. His eyes closed again, feeling exhausted as if he had been running for days come. He laid on the cold, damp cement, hearing his friend's voices that he knew had to be coming through the headphones he had been wearing when he had fallen asleep but what they were saying seemed so odd, nothing making sense to Evan.
"Check his eyes. That's the only way you can know if he is a Glitch now or not…You know that. Blood won't tell you anything."
"What if Ev is a Glitch? What are you going to do?"
"Just check his fucking eyes, Tyler."
Rough hands were suddenly cupping Evan's hand, shaking his head in an attempt to wake him from the sleep that was threatening to take him under. His eyes opened slowly, focusing on the face of his friend hovering over him. As soon as his eye's opened, they were forced open as Tyler peered at his dark eyes closely, not letting him blink. Evan struggled against him, a sore pain making him want to wince.
"T-Tyler…"Evan stammered, struggling to push the taller man off him.
"Are his eyes glitching?" His attention was drawn to the man standing beside them, a monkey mask on his head and a disturbing blood stained pig mask held tight in his hands. Tyler held onto Evan's face tighter, forcing him to look at him.
There was no sound on the empty, neon lit street lined with tall buildings. In the distance, they could faintly hear a police siren, the wailing sound echoing among the buildings like Evan's friend's voices had in his headphones. Evan realised that he was laying in a large puddle of blood, the dark warm liquid reflecting the neon lights. His eyes widened, fear seizing him as he struggled against Tyler again, wanting to get out of what could only be his blood.
"No." Tyler finally said. He let go of Evan's head, reaching for something beside him. It was a bright orange and gold mask, the large eyes of the owl staring at Evan who hadn't even thought of such a silly object being real before. He gave it to Evan as he helped him up, a sigh of relief escaping Evan's lips to be out of the puddle of blood. Evan stared down at the owl mask, not sure if he was still dreaming or not. "He's still our Evan."
"Where are we? This doesn't look like L.A." Evan wondered, looking up at the tall towers as they walked through the streets towards what Tyler had called 'home' though Evan knew their homes were all over the country, all over the world. The city seemed to be more neon than Evan had ever seen it, the bright lights and constant sound of sirens in the distance seeming overwhelming to him.
The man with the monkey mask that Evan realized with some embarrassment was Marcel, laughed at his question. "How hard did you hit your head, Ev?"
"P-Pretty hard…" Evan guessed that was right thing to say. He knew this had to be a dream but everything felt so real. His hand went up to the back of his head, feeling only dried blood where there should be a fatal wound and broken bone. He was glad for the owl mask over his face to hide his constant expression of fear and amazement. "C-Can you help me refresh my memory?" Evan asked, deciding to play along with whatever his subconscious had thrown him into. Marcel laughed again, his eyes narrowing under his mask as if trying to figure out if Evan was serious or not.
"Are you fucking with me? Ev, you've never been so weird after a Come Back before."
"Los Santos, Ev. That's where you are." Tyler said calmly, shooting a glare at Marcel. It was Evan's turn to laugh, disbelief filling him.
"I knew I've been playing that game too much...It's giving me nightmares now." Evan laughed.
"What?" Marcel said, bringing Evan back to the surreal reality of what was happening around him. He found himself remembering what Brock told him again, his right hand pinching his left arm to see if it'd wake him up before things got any weirder. Yet the pinch did nothing. He was still there, walking down a neon street with strange versions of his friends.
"Nothing...I'm fine." Evan lied with a smile.
The apartment building was quiet, a purple neon glow washing over them as they entered the tall building. They rode the elevator to the top in awkward silence. Evan kept scratching at the dried blood, trying to figure out why he wasn't dead. He had taken the mask off, the golden rubber feathers now red with blood.
"You were being a jackass so I pushed you over the rail." Tyler had explained casually when Evan had asked what happened. "Don't tell Marcel but I was actually scared that I Glitched you cause your skull was crushed in so bad before you started your Come Back."
Glitch. The word as Evan knew it in this GTA game was when something strange happened to a player, normally something funny. The way that Tyler said it made it sound like something to be scared of... like death. Marcel or Tyler hadn't said the words that directly meant death but they implied it with Glitch. It terrified Evan. He had to wake up from this nightmare before he figured out what a Glitch really means in this Wonderland of a world.
The elevator doors opened onto a dimly lit hallway with only two polished wood doors. Evan followed Tyler and Marcel nervously, strangely aware of the sound of the elevator closing and their footsteps on the wood floor. He could also hear voices spill out from behind one of the doors that Marcel opened with a shiny key, warm light spilling into the hallway.
"You're back early!" Another familiar voice said. Evan stumbled, having to stop himself from looking so amazed. He had never seen all of his friends in one room before. They all were dressed strange, some with masks on, some without them. They were all around the large living room, playing a video game or talking among themselves. It should be impossible for them all to be there. Some lived in other states, other countries yet here they were.
"Yeah, Evan took a tumble." Tyler said, taking his mask off.
"Or did you push him?" A figure in blue who had been sitting on the couch when they walked in turned to look at them, his eyes meeting Evan's wide ones.
"D-Delirious…" Evan whispered. Even in a nightmare, he still wore that white mask but Evan knew it was really him.
"You got me. But whatever, he's fine. He isn't Glitching." Tyler reassured them. "You should've seen all that blood though... Didn't know he had all that in him!" Tyler laughed as if there was nothing wrong with what he had just said. No one else seemed to mind it either except Evan who was pinching his arm again in a desperate attempt to wake up.
"Evan? Are you okay?" Craig was suddenly in front of him, pulling his owl mask off and looking intently at his dark eyes. Evan almost laughed at the sight of him, the worn suit and bright yellow flip flops a joke that he'd never think to be real.
"He isn't Glitching!" Tyler told him again.
"Well he doesn't seem like himself. Did he hit his head?" Craig demanded, making Evan turn around so he could check the back of his head for damage.
"Well obviously. That's what made him Come Back." Tyler sighed, walking to the kitchen where he grabbed himself a beer.
"I saw it, Craig. Evan was on the ledge by the railing of this building poking fun at Tyler who grabbed his collar. I thought he was just joking around but he threw him over the railing. I heard Evan scream and then he hit the ground. There was a lot of blood, more than we'd ever seen so we were scared we Glitched him. He came too and there was nothing wrong but he couldn't remember where he was." Marcel explained, the room leaning to hear. "It's probably just a part of the Come Back process."
"What's a Glitch?" Evan suddenly asked, surprising all of them. They looked from one another, wondering if Evan was serious. He felt like he had said the wrong thing, averting his gaze away from his friends.
"Are you serious?" Daithi laughed, glancing at the others who also smiled though the nervous looks in their eyes seemed odd against their smiles. Evan realized that they might think that he was one of these Glitches that they were so scared of. His eyes widened as he stammered, struggling to think of an explanation as to why he couldn't remember.
"He hit his head guys. Fucking lay off." Jonathan suddenly said, giving Evan a reassuring smile. He had his back. "You guys have all been through the Come Back process. You especially Daithi. Watch it or you'll experience it again." Jonathan threatened. Daithi and the others backed off, returning to the video game they had been playing when they arrived though still glanced at Evan as if waiting for him to turn into a zombie at any moment. "Come on. Getting some fresh air in your lungs after a Come Back always feels better." Jonathan said, leading Evan to the balcony. He slid the door closed so Evan could pretend that he couldn't feel the question gazes of his friends.
"C-Can I trust you, Delirious?" Evan asked, turning to look at his closest friend. He knew the voice so well, but the face hidden behind the mask, the big eyes and smile, seemed so unfamiliar.
"Of course you can. Why would you ask something like that?" Jonathan sounded offended by a such a question. He leaned against the railing, looking out over the large, neon city. There were a few familiar things that Evan knew made up the Los Angeles landscape, but much of it seemed different, some areas bright with colour while others were dark and empty.
"I feel like I'm dreaming. I don't remember anything…" He had to stop himself from saying that he didn't know anything about this strange world. "About Glitches...about where I am...About what is happening to me...I swear that nothing is wrong with me...At least I think so. Help me, Delirious. Please tell me what I'm missing." Jonathan stared at him for a few long moments, his eyes seeming to stare intently into Evan's.
"Glitches are...Us." Jonathan finally said. "When we get hurt, like you getting thrown off that building for example... Something painful happens…" Jonathan paused, struggling to find the right words.
"Death. A fall like that kills someone." Evan finished for him but he only looked more confused.
"Uh...If that makes sense to you, sure though I have no idea what that , we have what is called the Come Back where our wounds are healed and we are back to being ourselves in no time." Jonathan explained. "You should remember this, Ev."
"Like a respawn…" Evan whispered, still trying to make sense of what Jonathan was saying. Now he really felt like he had been playing too many video games.
"But sometimes...The Come Back won't work...something takes over us, corrupts us down to the bones. We call it "Glitching." The body comes back but what made us...us...The energy of us...Is gone. It's replaced with something evil, something that wants to hurt those who aren't Glitches and make them into the same monsters." Jonathan stared at the dark parts of the city, listening to the constant sounds of sirens.
"Why was everyone looking at my eyes?" Evan asked after a moment, forgetting to act like he should already know why. Jonathan gave him a funny look that faded when he realised that he was serious.
"You must have hit your head pretty hard. You can tell if someone is becoming a Glitch if their eyes pixelate like a malfunctioning screen or if their wounds aren't healing. Glitches are always bleeding." Jonathan sighed, seeming disturbed by the conversation. "I've seen it happen. It's terrifying, Evan. If you were one, we'd have to destroy you. None of us want that no matter how much of an asshole you can be." Jonathan laughed, turning to head back inside. "You'll feel better in the morning. Get some sleep."
"Delirious." Evan stopped him, looking up at him with big eyes. "You believed me...there is nothing wrong with me, right? I'm not dreaming...am I?" None of this made sense to him but he had to believe that something was real. He could barely remember falling asleep at his computer desk and falling but even that seemed like a dream now. All of his friends were in one place and he was there too. He didn't know what reality he wanted to be real more.
"You are our Evan." Jonathan smiled under his mask. "Aren't you?"
