Gemma's POV
" Don't be staying up too late now, Gem." Dad says as he stands in the hall, waiting for Mom. They're getting ready for one of their Friday date nights of dinner and dancing, leaving me alone with nothing but my favourite game in the world to keep me company.
"I won't. Promise." I say as I scrape some of mom's left over, less than stellar vegetarian meat loaf onto my plate. She's been going through some odd vegetarian phase for the past month or so. Not that there's anything wrong with that, although she can't seem to cook vegetarian dishes very well. They all end up tasting like mush and paste.
"Marian! We're going to be late!" Dad calls down the hall.
"Hold on, Richard, I'm nearly ready." Mom replies. She emerges a few moments later in a small black strapless dress, her hair in an elegant chignon.
"Lovely." Dad says and pecks her on the cheek. They head for the door. Mom turns back to me for a moment.
"We'll see you in the morning, sweetie. Remember, you can always call us if you need anything, but I'm sure you'll be able to fend for yourself" I smile reassuringly at her.
"I'll be fine. You guys go have fun."
"Well alright. Goodnight, Gemma!"
"'Night!" I call after them as the door slams shut. I hear the car engine roaring to life in the driveway and they're off.
I sit at the kitchen table, wincing as I force down the last of my mom's meat loaf. It tastes like an odd mix of leaves and boiled grass, but somehow I manage to finish it off.
I rinse my plate in the sink, place some surane warp over the meat loaf and shove it in the back of the fridge, then rummage through the pantry for some decent junk food. Lucky me, there's a bag of microwave popcorn nestled next to the soy beans. I toss it in the microwave for a few minutes, the buttery smell making my mouth water.
As I head back to my room, I note how eerily quiet the house is. Its always odd being alone in the hose without my mom talking to herself or my dad tinkering away in the garage.
Plopping down in my computer chair, I rip open the bag of popcorn and start up My Candy Love, ready for another typical Friday night in front of the computer.
Slowly, I get into the rhythm of the game, losing myself in the character's stories. My heart always jumps a little when Castiel appears on the screen, looking so infuriatingly difficult, but some how irresistibly alluring.
My next mission is to find musicians for the school's fundraising concert. As per usual, my character runs around the school like a headless chicken when Castiel shows up again. I click 'Next' and I'm presented with another set of impossible multiple choice answers. I frown and bite my lip, frustrated. My mouse overs over the A option when suddenly, I hear on odd crackling sound that seems to be coming from the speakers, like white noise from a TV. I sit up from my slouched position, my eyes darting between the speakers. "What the…?" I wonder out loud. A small glitch appears in the computer screen, right over Castiel's face, distorting it for half a second before returning to normal. Then, it happens again, for longer this time. It looks like a break in the glass, like the screen is trying to tear itself open. Man, I knew this thing was old, but I didn't know it would start malfunctioning after a month. Now I'll have to tell Dad to take it to the shop to see if it can be fixed. Maybe it can't and I can get a new-
"He…o…can…ear…me…" It's a voice. Coming from the speakers.
I scream and jump up from my chair, sending it flying backwards. What. The heck. Was that. I'm frozen in place, heart hammering. My eyes flick over the screen, searching for any sign of another glitch, but its exactly as it was, nothing abnormal about it. There must have been something in that meatloaf I think.
I'm still hesitant as I set my chair upright and inch back toward the computer. That has got to be the weirdest thing thats ever-
"Hello…he…o…" The voice comes crackling through the speakers again. I let out a startled shriek and slap a hand over my mouth. I push myself away from the desk and curl my feet up in the chair. My palms are still sweaty. Slowly, I move my hands away from my face and start babbling away, like I always do when I get nervous.
"W-who are you? What do you want? Is this someone's idea of a joke? Because it's not funny. Look, I don't know if you're, like, part of the FBI or whatever, but I swear I don't have any useful information-" A small patch of the screen starts flickering again, then another, until Castiel's image is no longer static. I could swear he starts to move. He uncrosses one arm, then the other and then, oh my god, he looks right at me.
Oh God, oh God, oh God, what is happening? why is it happening? I have never been so weirded out in my life. What if I'm clinically insane? How I tell my parents-
My internal monologue is interrupted by another loud crackle from the speakers that makes me yelp, then the voice comes through again, clearer this time.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Okay, it's one thing when a voice is coming through the speakers. It's another thing when that voice is perfectly in sync with the mouth of a character on the screen. Castiel is now fully facing forward, talking directly to me.
I've got to be dreaming or something. I probably fell asleep and that gross dinner did something weird to my brain. I decide to play along with this meatloaf induced fantasy. I slide out of the chair and step tentatively toward the computer desk.
"Yeah. I can hear you." I say.
"I did it." Castiel says, his eyes alight with amusement. "I can't believe it." He's grinning ear to ear. I've never seen him look like that. It's kind of cute.
"Did what?" I ask.
"I found a glitch in The Wall! I've never been able to do it before!" He's excited, pressing his palms up against the glass.
"Well I," I say, wheeling the chair back to the desk to prop my head on my hands, "have no idea what you're talking about. What exactly do you want?" I ask.
"For starters, I would really love to know your name." He says, smiling at me. I hesitate a moment. I can't believe I'm doing this.
"It's Gemma." I say.
"Gemma." He repeats the word slowly, sounding it out. It's only then that I realize his voice is kind of nice, smooth and deep. It's the kind of soothing voice I'd expect to hear on some late night radio show, lulling me to sleep. I touch a finger to the screen, right where Castiel's hand presses against it, looking over his now animated image.
"So…like, can all the other characters do this, or is it just you?" I wonder.
"Well, so far I'm the only one who can do it. I haven't told any of the others that I found a glitch in the Wall yet. Oh man, Lysander would be all over this!" He says excitedly and another small glitch appears in the screen, distorting his face for a brief second.
"Wait, what's all this about 'the Wall'? what kind of wall?" I ask, confused.
"The Wall," he begins, "is like…a barrier. It keeps everyone inside this weird, transparent case of yours. I've tried speaking out loud to reach the Players on the other side before, but no one's been able to hear me until now."
I curl my legs up in the chair, resting my chin on my knees. "So, are you the only one who can talk?" I ask. If I could speak to any of the other characters, I'd want it to be Violet or Iris. They're my favourite girls.
"Only when I'm not playing the game." He says, his hands still pressed against the screen. "I haven't told anyone at all what I can do."
"Wait, you mean that you and the other characters can talk? And move? When I'm not around? I ask, genuinely curious now.
"Well, when the game is off, we all return to Sweet Amoris. We can do whatever we want until the game demands we be back in our places." He says.
Wow. This reminds me of the time when I was six and I was convinced my stuffed unicorn, Fluffy, would escape out the window to go on adventures at night while I was sleeping. I convinced my dad to put a video camera in my room, facing Fluffy, so I could catch her in the act. If she ever did go on adventures, it never showed up on tape.
"This is honestly the oddest thing I've ever seen." I say, tracing the outline of his face on the screen. Suddenly it glitches again. And again. Then a whole patch of the screen looks as if its tearing open before it flicks back to normal. The speakers start to screech and crackle.
"I…glitch sometimes…can't…orry Gem…" His speech becomes fragmented as the crackling gets louder. The screen goes haywire, Castiel's image flickering in and out of sight.
"Castiel?" I say. "What's happening?" He looks frantic. His mouth opens, but before he can answer, the dreaded blue screen appears in front of me, erasing the image of the game altogether. I feel an odd stab of disappointment as I stare blankly at the error message. What was that all about?
I eject the game and press the re-boot button on the side of the computer. Once everything is in working order again, I start the game where I left off, hoping against my better judgement that the same thing will happen again. I keep on playing, but nothing out of the ordinary happens for the rest of the night.
My parents come home around midnight, their voices carrying down the hall to my room. I promised them I wouldn't get to bed too late, so I quit, eject the CD and pop it back in its case. For a moment I hold it in my hands, staring at the illustration of Castiel printed on the cover. Logic tells me the whole incident was a dream, but some part of me wants to believe it wasn't.
"I wish you really were real." I whisper before sliding the case back into its place on my shelf.