The Digital Game
Chapter One – Log on.
(Please not that these ages are not the actual ages of those involved in the story, they have been modified to better suit the storyline.)
Rai (Buckinghamshire, England)
Click... click..click.
She reached up, adjusting her glasses absently, hazel eyes focused on the screen before. She leaned back in her chair, shifting her position as she did so. The eighteen year old grinned as the log-in screen for the game vanished and was replaced with a loading screen. Glancing away from the screen for a second, she answered the voice calling upstairs with an answering yell then sighed, pushing the black leather chair away from the desk, which was covered in assorted bits of junk including various manga books, food, plates, and so forth. She shuffled towards the door and pulled it open; exiting her room with a huff, not noticing that the computer screen had suddenly begun glowing bright blue.
She trekked downstairs, collected the mug of steaming tea that sat invitingly on top of the smooth stone work surface next to the kettles, then headed back upstairs to her room. Once the tea was placed on her desk she turned back to her computer, which had stopped glowing now, and discovered an odd looking device sitting on her keyboard. Picking it up, she placed it to one side, frowning as she realised that the computer seemed to have crashed while she was out of the room.
"Stupid piece of junk," The brown haired teenager grumbled under her breath, narrowing her eyes as she tucked a strand of reddish-brown hair behind her ear. Sipping the now cooler mug of tea she turned her attention to the odd device and picked it up to examine. It seemed to resemble an odd looking cell phone, complete with antenna and two buttons on the upper right side, along with a round button directly below the screen. The device was a spectrum of green expect for the buttons, which were black.
Experimentally pushing one of the buttons to get a reaction, she snorted when she got no response, placing it back on her desk before attempting to bring the game back up so she could play it. The moment the browser window appeared her laptop screen suddenly lit up and the device that she'd just discarded began beeping and vibrating.
Confused by the sudden cacophony of noise she picked up the device, which began vibrating even harder than before, forcing her hand in the direction of the computer screen. Trying to pull away from the brightly glowing screen, but with no success, the antenna of the device touched the screen and she instantly felt a powerful sucking sensation pulling her into the screen. A startled cry of alarm echoed round the now empty room as the light faded, leaving no trace of the brown haired teenager behind.
Steve (Philadelphia, USA)
"JENNIFER GENET! YOU TURN THAT TV DOWN THIS INSTANT!" The irate voice floated up the stairs, piercing the sound emanating from the eighteen year old's room, followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs when nothing happened. "TURN THAT DOWN RIGHT NOW! SOME PEOPLE HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW!" the voice tried again as its owner stopped outside the room containing the source of the noise.
Voices coming from the television were her only reply. Scowling, the blonde woman barged into the room and switched the TV off when she reached it, departing as abruptly as she had entered it and leaving the room in silence. Deprived of the TV the redheaded teen turned to her computer and hit the power button, hoping she could chat to some of her friends on Yaplet about how unfair life could be. She didn't get as far as Yaplet, though. The moment the computer started up the screen suddenly lit up, glowing blue, before an odd black device shot out of the screen, nearly striking her in the head.
Pushing the laptop to one side she reached for the device, which was vibrating where it lay. She picked it up, turned back to the laptop, and found the screen was still glowing. A curious expression crossed her face as she tapped the screen with one finger. When nothing happened she leaned back, turning her attention to the odd black device, peering through her glasses as she attempted to figure out what it could be. After examining it closely for a few seconds she pressed the middle button, coloured dark blue, and the device immediately started to vibrate faster, glowing as it did so.
Jennifer stared at it for a few seconds before her eyes widened and she moved her hand as if to drop the device on her bed, frightened by its reaction. However, instead of dropping the device on her bed, it pulled her hand towards the glowing computer screen. There was a flash of light from the screen that soon faded, revealing the room to be empty of anyone as the computer hummed and finished booting up.
The family's Bull Mastiff and Miniature Pinscher could be heard barking and whining downstairs. The pit-bull that had been snoozing on Jennifer's bed whined at the computer screen as the glowing died down. At a loss about what to think of his disappearing owner he jumped off the bed and trotted downstairs.
Terra (New Hampshire, USA)
"I'm in the business of misery; let's take it from the top." Terra hummed quietly to herself, plugged into the I-Pod resting on the desk beside her. The blonde seventeen year old was in her room, leaning comfortably against her chair browsing one of her favourite internet haunts. The Yaplet chat program on the side of the screen had been blinking for several minutes. Leaning forward, Terra moved the cursor over to the sidebar and clicked it open up, blue eyes scanning the messages curiously to see what was being said.
What she saw was very unexpected. The messages were odd – they just seemed to be a jumble of letters and numbers being posted non-stop by a few of the regulars – Emma, Aurus, Steve, Rai, Vay and Ditto. Frowning for a second, she moved her cursor to the message window and began typing a reply to the garbled messages. Tapping the enter button to send the message, she looked on with confusion as her screen was suddenly drowned out by a blue glow.
Barely having time to think about what might have gone wrong, something shot out of her computer screen, almost hitting her in the torso had she not caught it in time. Opening her hands to see what she had caught, she found an odd looking device lying in the palms of her hands. It looked much like an orange cellular phone with a screen that was flashing white and a few black buttons situated on its front.
Turning back to her computer it became obvious that the screen had not stopped glowing, instead it was glowing even brighter than before and the device in her hands was starting to vibrate against her skin. With a sudden jerk, the blonde's hand was pulled towards the computer screen and despite her struggling both the teenager and music player had vanished in a flash of light. Seconds later, the computer shut down as the voice of Terra's mother could be heard, calling to her to check that she was okay.
Ditto (Wiesbaden, Germany)
Pulling up a new browser window, Ditto grinned softly to herself as she typed a search topic into Google. The brown-haired seventeen year old was attempting to alleviate the boredom that came with having to complete classes online. After a few minutes of reading through search results a shout from upstairs turned her attention away from the computer long enough to call back a reply. Grumbling under her breath, she headed for the stairs leading up from the basement that was her room.
She entered the kitchen, sliding into the empty chair alongside her stepsister as several plates of Quesadilla were placed on the table. Silence fell across the room as everyone began eating; only the sounds of food being devoured filled the room. Ditto glanced down at her plate as she swallowed the last mouthful, then pushed her chair back, picking up the plate to place it in the sink before heading back downstairs again.
As she reached the top of the stairs she paused, frowning slightly at the sudden increase of light from her basement room. Descending the stairs, it became obvious that there seemed to be something wrong with the computer. The screen had taken on a blue glow, growing brighter as she approached the bottom of the staircase. Moments later something erupted from her screen, impacted with the wall opposite the computer with a loud thud, then landed on the bed, vibrating gently in the small indent it had made in the covers. Ditto stared at the thing that had erupted from the computer screen. Approaching her bed, the item revealed itself to be a light blue device made of plastic, with dark blue grip and buttons.
The moment she picked it up there was a bright flash from the device's screen and it began vibrating intensely. Confused by this she raised the device to her face, brown eyes scanning it curiously for a second before her attention was turned to a bright flash from her screen as if in answer to the device. The light filled the room, erasing any shadows before it slowly faded, leaving no sign of the teenager who had been previously standing in it.
Vay (Bristol, England)
"Nn… five minutes…" the lump on the bed muttered to the incessant beeping issuing from her computer, a sound that was mistaken for the alarm. After a few seconds a sleepy pair of gray eyes could be seen poking out from under the covers, staring dazed at the computer as she waited for her brain to wake up properly. She soon poked her head out from under the covers, sleep-tousled brown hair framing her face as she stared at the computer, now fully awake and realising that her computer was acting oddly. Extricating herself from the comfort of her bed, she straightened the clothes she'd been wearing. (For the lazy tanuki woke up, got dressed and went back to sleep!)
Shuffling across the space between her bed and the computer, she didn't notice the computer screen as it began to glow bright, and what shot out of it struck her on the head before falling into her lap. She grimaced, her vision swimming after the blow. The brown haired teen touched one hand to the painful area as she examined the device through one eye, the other closed partially due to the pain shooting through her head. It fit neatly into her hand and was made of purple plastic with darker purple grips on the sides, and large buttons adorned its face and right side.
With another pained grimace she tossed the purple device onto her bed then abandoned her room momentarily to go raid some aspirin to soothe the pain and allow her to think more clearly. She returned to her room with aspirin in one hand and a glass of water in the other. She took a moment to swallow the pills, then slumped back into her chair and reached for the digivice. She accidently pressed one of the buttons as her fingers closed over it and she could feel it start to vibrate rapidly under her hand, and the computer's screen suddenly turned itself on, glowing brightly.
A flash of light lit the room for a few long seconds and a startled cry echoed round the house as the teenager was pulled towards the computer screen, given no chance of fighting back before she vanished. Almost immediately the light faded, leaving the room untouched except for its missing inhabitant.
Emma (Washington State, USA)
The sound of boiling water could be heard from the kitchen of the small college apartment, along with the clatter of silverware and dishes being moved about. Glimpses of an ash-blonde teenager could be seen through the archway as she began piling food into a bowl, then going in search of a fork, unaware of just what was waiting for her when she entered the living room. Digging into the cheesy pasta she focused on eating, the odd noises from the next room eventually reaching her ears; it sounded as if something was bouncing around.
Crash...Thud...thud...smack!
"What the hell?" Emma quickly finished off her macaroni before dumping the bowl in the sink and going to investigate. The living room revealed a yellow ball of fur with large triangular ears, a blue tipped tail and a pair of large red-brown eyes. The ball of fur was currently bouncing up and down on the cot-turned-couch, its tail wrapped around what looked to be some kind of communication device, almost like a cell phone made out of purely white plastic and an antenna sticking out of the top.
"Nya… nya…" The odd animal squeaked, jumping one last time before launching itself at the teenager who caught it instinctively and watched as it purred and rubbed itself against the inside of her arm. The white gadget in the creature's tail began beeping noisily and at the same time the computer's screen lit up. She reached out to take the buzzing gadget from the yellow fur-ball who was now purring contentedly in her arms. The intensity of the glow from the computer seemed to be getting brighter until it permeated the room with light. Then slowly it faded, both the teenager and the odd cat-creature she was holding gone from sight as if they'd never been there.