He threw himself into video games to escape the pain. Video games were his coping mechanism, his only chance to get away from the fighting, crying, and abuse. It was his way of pretending that his life was normal, because other teenage boys went on video game binges all the time. So really, was it that wrong to want to live in one?
When The Hollow introduced this revolutionary version of their game using ultra realistic virtual reality, Kai was ecstatic. This could be his chance to get away. To really, truly, get away, even if it was just for a day.
When Adam and Mira — a couple of other gamers he'd been acquaintances with at school—had invited him to join their team, it hit him that he might actually be picked to be on the latest round of The Hollow; and low and behold, their team was picked. They went up against three other kids Kai recognized from around town, Vanessa, Skeet, and Reeve.
Despite not being very close with any of the other teens, they all knew one another, and had basic knowledge of some of the details in each other's lives. Fortunately, all that the others knew about Kai was that he came from a decently wealthy family. They didn't know him well enough to realize that him wearing long sleeves and pants was an unusual change that had happened within the past couple of months.
They didn't know that beneath the fabric, his body was littered with cuts and welts, and his skin was more bruised than not.
It hadn't always been like this. Sure, his parents did their fair share of yelling—at each other, at him—but every family has their fights every once in a while. The problem was, the fights kept getting more and more frequent, and it escalated from arguments to taking their fury out on their son.
The first time it happened was after a large fight on Easter. Kai couldn't recall what it had even been about, but the memory of the back of his father's hand smacking against his pale face was forever ingrained in his memory. His dad apologized profusely, and Kai had hidden in his room, throwing himself onto the bed and emerging his attention into the video game he was currently playing. Kai refused to speak to his parents, instead making Davis, the butler, into his messenger boy. This enraged his parents, and soon, Davis had been given paid vacation, and would only be around when his parents were on vacation or generally out of the house for long periods of time.
Kai soon realized that Davis acted like a buffer between his parents and him. They didn't want the butler to view them in bad light, so they were able to restrain themselves from hitting Kai when the man was present. Kai missed Davis's stoicism and silent presence during arguments with his parents, because now, more often than not, they ended with a punch or a slap, rather than tense silence or words that could never be taken back.
Gradually, things escalated to the point where Kai basically had become his parent's personal punching bag. They were careful enough not to hit his face hard enough to leave a mark, but the rest of him seemed to be free game. It all came to a head at Thanksgiving dinner, when they'd had extended family over for a lavish and exquisite meal. Kai must've said or done something to piss off his parents, because the next thing he knew, he was being dragged out of the dining room and hauled to his room, where he was certain the others could still hear his screams of pain.
After that… incident… Kai's parents were never home. It was like they just decided they didn't want a son anymore. Hell, they probably just didn't want to parent a teenager. Things were never bad like this when he was a kid. Maybe they were the kind of parents that only ever really wanted a cute little child and didn't want anything to do with an older kid. His extended family occasionally reached out, but only to make sure he was still alive and hadn't burnt down his house.
Gaming was all he had. He didn't have any friends, barely any family, and Kai was lonely. But playing video games let him interact with others, make a life for his character that didn't mirror his own. It was an escape. The day Adam, Mira, and him played and subsequently won The Hollow, was the best day of Kai's life. He was dreading going back to his old, boring, abuse filled life. So when he awoke into the Hollow Life game like version of life, he wasn't as freaked out as he pretended to be.
Hollow life didn't have his parents, but it did have Davis, who Kai supposed kinda acted as a parental figure. The man did help clean up the bloody mess Kai always was after a beating from his parents. (Once his parents were far, far away from the house, of course.)
Hearing that Adam and Mira only wanted him because he was available and not because he was a good player or a friend, had hurt. Not as bad as any of the treatment his parents gave him, but it still stung. But over the course of their adventure, the three got closer, and Kai could easily call the two teens his friends. Once Weirdy had managed to transfer the Hollow Life data onto a more secure server away from the creator's other Hollow games, the host had pulled him aside, asking if he wanted a better version of his parents in the game. Kai had, admittedly, considered it. A chance at a loving family? But it wouldn't be real. He'd rather their absence. At least then, he didn't have a visual reminder of what he'd gone through.
One thing he felt bad about was that he got away from his parents. Real Kai, in the real world, where he isn't a bunch of code that gained self awareness, was still going to be stuck in a hellhole. He just hoped that real Adam and real Mira stayed his friends, and that video games would continue to help real Kai get away from his life. Part of him wished that Hollow Life could be accessed by the real Kai. He'd like the life he'd made here. He'd like it a lot.