I still remember his brown eyes; his pupils carried evil inside them. Of course, evil can always take the most beautiful forms when it wants to.

In my early twenties, I was in the small amount of summer that comes between ending a bachelor's and beginning a master's degree. It was a summer that I could almost taste adult freedom, but I was still too young to realize the ways of the world.

I was in desperate search of a fresh start. Recently shed of undergraduate drama, endless drinking binges, all night parties, and agonizing over subjects that bored me to tears. I was ready to get serious. A new international company, focused on video games, had recruited me. I did not necessarily care about video games, but I needed something to fill my time and prevent my quarter life crisis.

The company, Action Habit, was introducing a new "online gaming" feature that had been beta tested in major regions, including Silicon Valley and New York City. The testing had been hugely successful and gained a cult following via Twitter and Facebook. Tiny nerd kingdoms from around the globe were planning midnight camp-outs to buy the necessary gaming equipment. From there it would be a 48-hour play-fest that excluded any outside world, unless the body deemed necessary. The game was called Second Nature. Players worked through magical worlds, only to come to a gamble at each end of the level. The player could take the gamble, and chance moving on or being set back. If the gamble was not taken, the player could only move on, at the sacrifice of his own health.

After a two-week orientation, I met my boss Bobbi. She was a gray haired up tight manager that had previous success in a mobile company. It was rumored that the stress from the project had caused Bobbi to smoke constantly and pop Xanax as if was candy. My fancy psychology degrees caused me to ignore this, after all, I knew people. Or so I thought. Bobbi expressed she had no time for me, or to train me, Andy would be in charge of any and all of my on boarding.

Andy, our team lead, showed me around. Andy was a gorgeous woman, a little older than me. She had striking red hair, and big blue eyes. She was welcoming, and out going. Recently divorced, Andy hid her feelings in her work. Her self set schedule, 7am-11pm, she had justified that the overtime was available, and she would take advantage of it. By this time I knew the other girl from orientation. This was Liz, who insisted on being called Momma. She was a much older woman, who had lost the femininity of her voice to cigarettes years ago. Momma claimed to be a medium, and decided everything based on her psychic predictions and what the stars said.

I was then introduced to the developers in the back of the building. Hartly was a large black man; he had a strong low voice. His pronunciation was lost in his dialect, swallowing every other word. Coming from Sony, Hartly was the project manager that convinced Action Habit to go viral. He signed a six-month contract, and hired two other contracted developers. Daniel was a squared shouldered Southern man that seemed lost in his own thoughts of "back in the South." This was quite a creepy looking man, who often led his introductions with his pelvis, rather than his hands. Despite the social graces, he was brilliant in online gaming. Finally, there was him. Andre DeLuce. He had beautiful dark eyes, jet-black hair, and dark skin. He was tall with a sweet smile. When Andy introduced us, I was sure to keep his name in mind.

It was not love at first sight by any means; our meeting was silent flirting. While you quickly gaze into each other's eyes and shake hands, your souls dance together silently. It was merely an instant, but you feel it in the depths of you heart, the dizziness in your heard as it spins in a twirl of delight.

Still, this is not love. Not even close. I would learn what love meant in the coming months. And just how awful love could be.