If I had a nickel for every time I felt useless, then I would be rich enough to build and buy a house in space. No one knows I feel that way though. I have a natural born talent to act happy. It's not the best skill on paper, but it's helped me go unnoticed. I have friends, but they don't know my true feelings. Yesterday was a day that I hated, but it was inevitable. My biggest secret got out, my sexuality. I didn't want it to get out, it was spoiled. My friends were sensing some tension in me. I tried my best to deflect their concerns, but that didn't work. They get on my nerves, but in a good way. They are the only people who even remotely seem to care for me.
Philip is the leader of our group. He was always the voice of reason. If we made plans he would be the center of that decision. I also did have a little crush on him. Not for his looks but for passion. He was the type of person that would never give up. His never-ending humility, and courage attracted me. He was the person I dreamed of being. He had been the first true friend I had, and I loved the fact that he stuck with me. The only thing that's stopping my confession is the fact that he is straight, and he even has a girlfriend.
Lucy was her name. Lucy is a great girl. I've been friends with her longer than she has been with Philip. If I had to chose anyone, other than myself, to be with Philip it would be her. She is like a sister to me. My actual sister is just plain abusive, so is my entire family. But Lucy she cares for me. I feel more love from her than I do any of my family combined.
The goofball in our group is Gabe. He knows how to turn anything into a dirty joke. But again, he is a very good friend. He loves joking around, but he also knows limits. He knows when it's appropriate for a joke. When I told all my friends that I was gay he knew that joking around wasn't right. So, he didn't. He also happens to be the richest person in our group. We very oftenly go to his house to play games. I stay more distant than the other.
When I got into school I felt a weight off my shoulder. Once I finally came out to my family, and friends I felt proud of myself. So, I was walking through school with a newfound pride. This pride ended up blinding me. Due to this blindness I bumped into someone. I looked up and saw a tall and rough looking boy. He was stopped right in front of me, as if he wanted me to bump into him. "Zay, am I right?" he asked.
"Yea, you need something?" I asked.
"Follow me, and I'll show you", he said. I thought about it. At that point I saw nothing suspicious. I was an idiot. The boy led me to the back of the school. Back there was a group of five people. The five people were the delinquents. They were rough and mean. The leader walked up to me. I just kept a small smile to erase any sense of nervousness. Before I knew it the boy threw a punch my way. I collapsed to the floor. I looked up to see a smile spread across his face. He kneeled down and looked directly in my face.
"A faggot like you doesn't deserve happiness. So why don't you do us all a favor, and kill yourself", he said. He stood back up and kicked my stomach. The others came up trading punches and kicks. The actual physical attacks didn't pain me. It was the truth in his words. Why should I have happiness? Does someone like me really deserve happiness? Should I act upon my previous feeling, and actually kill myself? Maybe I should. Their attacks didn't slow down. They suddenly stopped. I looked up and noticed Philip. He was standing over the leader.
"Don't you fucking put another hand on him", he said. The leader stood up and looked at him.
"You really support his faggot ass?", he asked.
"He's my friend, I don't care about what he identifies as. You shouldn't either", Philip said.
"But he likes boys, how can you approve of that?" the leader asked. He was getting angrier and angrier.
"He is still the same person I knew, I just know a little bit more about him. Other than that, nothing has changed. But you're to idiotic to see that", Philip said. This is why I have a crush on him, this very reason. The leader just looked back to me and issued for his team to leave. Once Philip saw them completely gone he turned to me. He ripped a piece of his shirt off, so he can wipe away the blood. He sat me up. "You ok?".
"I don't really know", I said. My voice sounded of utter defeat. He made me look into his eyes.
"You're my best friend, I don't want to see you hurt", he said. He wiped the tears from my eyes. I just gave a simple nod. Once the principal saw us she allowed us to leave. She was a nice woman. What I hated was that I needed to go home. I hate my family. Philip knows my history with them. When he walked me to the front door he stopped me. "You sure you don't want to stay with me?", he asked.
"I don't want to be your burden", I said.
"There's nothing that will happen that'll make you my burden", he said.
"Can you protect me?" I asked.
"Always, and forever", he said. He brought me into a hug. I just collapsed into his arms as if he was a bed. Our hug stopped, and he led me to his house. His family knew about my likes. They saw my damages and explained how they will be here for me. To be honest Philip's family had been more of my family than my own. It had been a few hours since we made it here. Our other friends soon left school. I'm lucky that today was a half day. There weren't many days like it, but this was one. We spent the day together, I was afraid to go home. When it was about 7PM Philip's parents left for their night job. I then had a phone call. When I picked it up it was my dad.
"You're not going to come home, then stay the fuck out. I don't want a person like you to be anywhere near my goddamn family. I hope you know that you're a disgrace, and as long as you are out of my life I can finally be happy. You piece of shit", my dad yelled. He hung up. My friends must've noticed my tears, and they were concerned. I simply ran out the room and went into the kitchen. I quickly grabbed a knife and went into the bathroom. Before the others could find me I made two cuts on my biceps. One for each hand. Once I heard knocks on the door I opened it. Their eyes glanced to my cuts. The blood that was rushing from it wasn't showing signs of slowing down. I started to feel faint, then blacked out.
Philip POV
Zay's body fell on mine. The image of Zay with two cuts in his bicep still haunted my brain. I started to remember that happy smile I loved. His smile filled my heart. It was very contagious. The only people immune to his smile was his family, for his family has never seen a genuine smile by him. Gabe pulled out his phone and called 911. I refused to touch or move Zay. I was able to reach into my pocket and give Lucy my phone. "Call my mom", I said.
"Why not his?" Lucas asked.
"It's complicated", I said.
"They're the reason he did this", Lucy realized.
"Just call my parent's and quick", I said. She nodded and called. Gabe said that I needed to talk to the operators. He decided to put it on speaker.
"So Zay cut himself?", they asked.
"Yea", I said.
"Do you have any idea as to why he would?" they asked.
"His family had been verbally and physically abusive, and he had been attacked in school for being gay", I answered.
"We have an ambulance on the way", they said. Soon Lucy said that my parents are on their way back. All three of us couldn't say anything. We just looked at Zay's corpse. My parents soon made it in. They saw Zay, and our petrified looks. Not too long after them were the ambulance. Cops followed to check and see if this was actually a suicide, or a homicide in disguise. They grabbed the knife and placed it inside a baggie. They then looked at my horrified look. The main cop issued the others to head to the main office.
He walked up to me. "How close were you two?" he asked. I slowly moved my head up.
"He's my best friend of 13 years. I was the only person he trusted enough to tell about his relationship with his family, and I stuck with him through it. I vowed to defend him, but I failed", I said. Tears started to grow colder. My mom placed a hand on my shoulder. The cop left for a second, but then came back. He mentioned how I had access to be with Zay. I took advantage of this. I hopped on the ambulance with him and stayed with him during his operation. Eventually I did have to leave the room, but when I did I saw the others sitting there.
All three of us sat for hours. Most likely thinking about the fact that Zay did what he did. Soon enough the doctor came out. I instantly stood up. "How is he?" I asked.
"Luckily, he'll be fine", the doctor said. This was the biggest and happiest blow of real life I had. Everyone saw how relieved I was that he was fine. "He does need time to rest though, he cut right through a nerve, so he lost lots of blood". I sat back down, and he mentioned the fact that we can go in the room. And we did. We saw the stitches on his arms, we also heard the beeping of the heart rate monitor. There was a knock at the door and the doctor opened it. It was a man that was in a well-suited tux. He walked over to Zay and then looked at us.
"How well do you all like Pokémon?" he asked.
"That's a random question", Gabe said.
"Zay and Philip are definitely bigger fans than us", Lucy said. He gave a simple nod, then looked to the doctor. We don't know what he said, but whatever he said made the doctor very happy. He then walked back to us.
"My name is Satoshi Herineki" Satoshi said. We knew this name. He was the therapist that had cured even the biggest form of depression. He's helped so many people, in such mysterious ways. But all worked. Not one person he worked with failed. He explained how he wanted all four of us to enter his program.
"Wait, why should we go through it?", I asked.
"The best way to get through someone is with the person he or she trust most. And are you three the most trusted?", Satoshi asked.
"As far as we know", Gabe said.
"Then that's why, and hey maybe it'll bring some new realizations about your own lives", he said. He gave me his phone number that I needed to call when Zay woke up. A few days later Zay was finally able to leave the hospital, when we did I talked to my parents about the program. While I did Zay was doing research about his parents.
Zay POV
I noticed that the pages I read said that they were arrested. I am more than overjoyed about this. I turned off the computer and walked to the living room, everyone was sitting there. They all sat in a very suspicious circle. "This isn't, and intervention is it?" I asked.
"No, I was just too lazy to rearrange the chairs", Philip's dad said. I gave a small chuckled and sat in the available chair. Philip was explaining to me about the invitation to the program and the fact that everyone else's parents approved of this. All it was up to was me. Since the main focus was to help me, I had the final say so. I didn't want to do it at first, but then I saw a look in Philip's face. This look was of determination. It was a look I wanted. It's a look I can have if I do this program. I gave my approval then Philip called Satoshi. He came over and carried pages of signatures necessities. Me, Philip, Gabe, and Lucy signed the first ones. Then our parents needed too. Luckily for me Satoshi was willing to sign in as my guardian. He knew about my parents. Gabe and Lucy left to lead Satoshi to their parents. I sat there in the chair and read over the terms of service. It was quite simple.
"You sure you want to do this?" Philip asked.
"Yea, if I want to achieve my dream then I need to do this", I said. I still had my head in the paper.
"What's your dream?" Philip asked.
"To be strong, courageous, just like someone I know", I said looking straight at Philip. He understood my lack of name calling. He even had a small but noticeable blush growing on his face. I just chuckled and continued my read. Eventually Gabe and Lucy returned with Satoshi. He mentioned our mode of travel, along with the fact that Philip's parents signed on as temporary guardians. It's only for legal reasons. Since we are underaged we need a blood related relative over the age of 18 to pose as a guardian.
I was mostly scared about the mode of travel, it was by helicopter. We needed to fly to Kyoto Japan. It's where Herineki industries reside. The biggest and more profitable therapy group ever. Billions upon billions of dollars were invested in this business. Not by Satoshi alone, but also by UN. For this session isn't for Japan only. All countries all welcome. Herineki industries became a national treasure, and even has smaller businesses. The smaller businesses are placed in the biggest towns of each country. New York for instance homes the United States Business. I would name more, but I never took geography so yea.
Satoshi had been explaining the history of him and his industry as we drove to the heliport that held our helicopter. Apparently he had been a victim of depression as well. But unlike me he didn't have help. He didn't have friends who cared for his wellbeing. The only way he was able to escape reality was to play games. The games he played he would often create custom stories in his head. The stories lead to him finding a coping mechanism for is issue. It drove him to help others with video games. He wanted to show the world that video games can serve a higher purpose. His first test subject happened to be a friend he met after the fact he fought his depression. He was able to adjust the brain waves to form a new world. This world would only be imaginary, but it would feel realer than normal life. But this world would be of a video game that the patient likes.
That was when they started the company all the way back in 2020. It's 50 years later and with the funding they were able to create even more real feeling simulations. The characters they would interact would be more than basic bots. They would feel like real people, with people like interactions. No tutorials, no explanation, just simulation. They would still get an urge to do what their character normally does.
We finally made it to the helicopter. I was regretting having to be on it. I have a very big fear if heights. When we went on the helicopter Philip made sure I wasn't by a window. I was siting between him and Lucy. Lucy noticed my fear. She must've remembered the time I helped her cope with her fear of the dark. She still has it, but she is able to live with it. "Just think about the purpose, rather than the immediate action", she said.
"Isn't that what I say to you", I said back.
"Looks like the teacher is being teached", Gabe joked.
"Don't you mean taught?" I asked.
"Shut up, you know what I mean", he said playfully flicking his wrist. My friends know how to make me feel better. The loveable Philip, the supportive Lucy, and even the laid-back Gabe. I love them all, I was stupid to try and end it. I would've hurt them, and I would hate myself more for that. The trip wasn't as unbearable as I thought it would be. We landed on Herineki Industries and I noticed all the other people. There were many people here. Many games here. Five Nights a Freddy's, Super Mario, Mortal Kombat, even as far as freaking Pong. Satoshi lead us to a relatively popular section of the area. It was the Pokémon section. I'm not surprised at how popular it is. It's a game series centered around achieving your dreams, with tenacity, and courage. Inside this section was some smaller games. There was a trading car game, rumble, snap, stadium, go, mystery dungeon, and even pinball. The main game of the section was one called regional. He mentioned how this was a game in which had every Pokémon, and every region and people would go through it all.
I've played all of these games, aside from mystery dungeon. All I know about it is the fact that you play as Pokémon, and to be honest I've always wanted that. Once they asked me which game to put us four under I chose for it to be mystery dungeon. Satoshi gave some nods and reached into a dresser. He grabbed out four sheets a paper.
"This game involves a personality quiz, so if you may take it we then we can start the simulation", he said. He handed each one of us a pencil and quiz. There was only 8 questioned. The first few were asking about what we do when we are with friends. Then it was what we do when we are alone. The last was simply asking of a gender. Once we all finished the quiz we all chose a pod to enter. Before entering a pod, we needed to scan our finger prints. We also needed to put on special suits and gave each other one big group hug. We then entered the pods. The glass door was closed, and I felt this overpowering sleepiness. Once I closed my eyes I saw a blinding light. I also heard a celestial sounding voice.
"This world is slowly turning to ruin. Only a few towns remain of a large world. You and your friends are destined to be the people who can bring life back into it. With a mix of your aura from your finger-print, and your quiz we deem you to be a Riolu. Welcome to Pokémon mystery Dungeon and have fun", the computer said.