BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! My alarm clock jolted me out of my peaceful, dreamless sleep. I flopped one arm over and slammed the button down, completely ignoring it and pulling myself further under the warm covers. I got about another minute of peace before Uncle Damien began yelling. "GET OUTTA BED, YOU LAZY BUM!" he roared.

"Coming, Sir." I mumbled sleepily. Even though Damien is my uncle, he always insisted that I call him 'sir'. I rubbed my eyes and tried to wake up enough so that I could head down to breakfast.

"Jaaaackk…" came the deep warning tone that if I wasn't in the kitchen in the next 30 seconds, I was toast. I leaped up, stumbled over my clothes on the floor, and slid down the banister into the kitchen in record time. He raised an eyebrow at me as I sat down at the kitchen table, but didn't say anymore. Halfway through the silent breakfast of gross pancakes (Damien couldn't cook worth a damn) he announced "Go upstairs and get dressed when ya finish. You're comin' to work with me today. Gotta try somethin' out."

"Alright." Damien worked for this company that comes up with the latest technology for nice houses. Even with a high-tech job like that, it was low pay. His company was always using kids and teens to test out their newest products. Sometimes they worked well, and sometimes they ended up being painful.

I was hoping that today was an easy day after he dragged me to work last week and had me try out a wristwatch that shoots adrenaline into your arm for a boost of automatic energy, for athletes and stuff. Although its desired affects lasted longer than intended. All day I was like a guniea pig shot up with crack…not good. I finished breakfast and took the stairs up two at a time. I fished through my laundry basket and found my favorite white t-shirt that read "I'm Difficult" then grabbed my jeans and my air Nikes.

I quickly brushed my teeth and attempted to make some array out of my tussled brown hair. I stared at myself in the mirror for a few seconds, and the reflection that looked back at me was my dad. People always said that I look like him, and I can see that. With the brown hair, light complexion and a deep endless vortex of chocolate eyes. 5 years ago, me and my parents were in a car crash.

The police think that it was a drunk driver. I know that it was actually a hit-and-run. I saw the guy's expression right before he rammed us head on. It was of pure joy. Someone wanted my parents dead. And they did a pretty damn good job of making that happen.

"HURRY UP, YA JACKASS, AND BRING CLOTHES FOR A FEW DAYS!" Damien roared. I hadn't realized that while I was spacing, I had been just standing there. I finished up, grabbed a bag of stuff and ran downstairs. We hopped in his old Chrysler and sped off down the road. I plugged into my iPod and popped in my ear buds, completely zoning out for the 25 minute drive.

The rocking back and forth of the old vehicle lulled me into a peaceful nap so I hardly felt a thing until it jolted to a stop. "Get up, Jack." He grumbled. I took out my ear buds, wrapped them around my phone, stashed it in my pocket and hopped out of the car. The lab that Damien worked at was huge as it was, and expanding every day. The menacing front gates loomed ahead as we walked up, seemingly taller every time I came.

"Where we heading this time?" I asked.

"Sector 47." Is all he growled back, adjusting his belt that fell under his wide girth. We stopped at the gates and he fished around in his pockets for a minute before flashing one of the guards an all access pass. We slipped in and down several long, winding silent corridors before reaching sector 47. The sign on the two double doors read "DANGER! ONLY ALL ACCESS PASSES PAST THIS POINT!" Strange. The places that Damien usually took me were all access pass areas.

We entered a corridor that was even more sterile than the usual ones. We turned right and into a room where the door to it was covered in red warning signs, but they were all in geek, so I couldn't read any of them. The room we had walked into was filled with computer screens and one small chamber with see-through glass. At a swivel chair sat one of Damien's associates, my least favorite associate to be exact. Gabe.

Gabe swiveled around when he heard us come in and spread one of his huge fake and rather scary grins across his face. "Damien! You brought our last necessary willing test subject!"

They shook hands and clapped backs in a very unprofessional way. Gabe smirked at me and began his speech about what we were doing. "See, we found a way to put people into cyberspace. We created a sort of…game test site thing for you and fourteen other willing people. There are different dimensions in the game. Everything that happens to you isn't actually happening to your real body. If you 'die' you just come back to life." He explained. "The virtual pain only lasts a few seconds, then it's over. Enough to scare you into thinking it's real, but not enough to actually kill you."

"And you're putting me…IN THAT!?" I yelped.

"You betcha my friend!" Gabe gave me what was supposed to look like a smile, but ended up looking like he was bearing his fangs at me. I struggled with how to answer this.

I finally said to him "How long will I be there?"

"As long as it takes the other contestants to 'die' or how long it takes you to die." He didn't make air quotes on the last one.

It was silent for a moment. "Well, go on! Step in!" he held open the glass paneled door and motioned me in. I slowly slipped inside the clear chamber and awaited my fate. Gabe sat down in the swivel chair and pulled up one for Damien. "Bye squirt." Gabe chuckled before slamming down on the last button.

I felt the effects of the machine zapping me into the game almost immediately. It tickled, and it felt like it was pulling me apart, bit by bit. The intensity ramped up every minute or so until it felt like I was literally going to die. Just as suddenly as it began, the pain and the light and the extreme intensity were gone. My feet landed softly on some cushiony moss, and I looked up in time to see what looked like giant webbing over the sky fade back and finish pixelating.

I was deep in a forest, and the sound of birds chirping caught my attention. "They did a dang good job of making this seem real." I muttered. Out of nowhere I hear screams, and a girl and a boy maybe a little older than me burst through the clearing, fully engaged in an intense battle. She backed him up to an edge that led over a giant cliff so that he had no choice but to either fight her back, or jump. She let out a battle cry and took a blow at his stomach. He took too long to parry her strike and fell to his knees gushing blood.

I sat there, stunned as the girl drew her sword out of the boy's side and brought it up again as if to put him out of his misery. Instead of shoving the blade into him again, she lowered it, crouched real close to him and said "Never mess with me." Her voice came as a shock to my ears, harsh and not soft at all as her appearance deemed her to be. Then, without a second glance, she kicked him off the edge of the cliff. You could hear his dreadful dying screams all the way down to the bottom. After seeing what she had done to him, I had no desire to end up that way, so I scuttled backwards under some brush.

Problem was, as I moved, I made too much noise. She whirled around, and her cold, hard silver eyes streaked with turquoise fell right on me.

hey y'all. hope u like this. brand new! Andrew came up with this a few weeks ago. :) please comment like and read more of my stories. kk thx!

SPP