Chapter 35

Ding-ding-a-ding…Shh…Shhh….SHREAH…Lilac stepped back and admired her work. An angry smile stretched across her face. She turned off the torch and shoved but into her bag. She looked around; the street was lit up by small solar lights. She scowled at the thing that marred her district. Then slowly she turned away from the tree. She felt a tear crawl down her cheek, it felt cold and heartless as it burned her skin. "Are you, Are you…" She said, singing softly. "Coming to the tree?"

The anger in her slowly disappeared. She felt empty. "Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me." Tick-tac. Tick-tac. She left the fake sanctuary of the building. "Strange things did happen here…" In the dark the stars shone like glistening explosions in the sky. She cursed them, "…No stranger would it be, if we met up at midnight in the hanging tree…"

She fell to the floor. Her sobs shook her body. She could walk. She blocked out the lit. Tears. Tears. "I…I…I didn't ask for this…why? Why did this happen to me…?" she hit the ground with all her might. "Oh my god…" She gripped her hair, pulling at it. Her eyes looked around, no one was there, she could swear they were all there, watching her, laughing from the shadows. The tears still came, hurting her eyes, making her fell light headed.

She sobbed trying to recover herself. "D-deep…in the…" She shook her head with her hands. Scratching at the bitumen, "m-meadow…un-un-under…the willow…." The song made her feel worse. "Mummy…Daddy…" She pushed herself to stand, walking without balance. "A bed of grass…a soft green pillow…Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes. And when you awake, the sun will rise," When her tears stopping flowing she walked home.

The doorbell rang. Lilac waited to recognise the voices but she didn't. Her father invited them in, calling her name. Lilac sat up. Suddenly she felt cold. Nerves filling her she walked down the stairs slowly trying to act natural. "Yeah, daddy?" She looked down the stairs, two police officers stood, looking official in the living room. "Come down stairs." Lilac nodded and climbed down the steps.

"Is there something wrong?" The two police officers nodded. She looked to her dad. One of the officers spoke up. "We would like to know if you have any relations to this person." They pulled out a image recording. It was only a few seconds long, but she recognised herself anywhere. She tried to hide her fear by grabbing it and looking closer. "It's a bit dark." The officer nodded. "Do you have a better picture?" The other officer shook his head and took it from her.

"Do you know this person," Lilac frowned. "I don't know…maybe? I know most people in District 12, but, I couldn't say who that is exactly. Why? Are you asking around? Dad do you know this person." Her dad shook his head. "It's a bit blurry. If we think of anyone we'll tell you." The officers looked at Lilac for a long moment and then nodded, thanked them for their time and left.

Mackenzie looked around at one of the smallest rooms he'd ever seem. People live here? It wasn't inspiring. He felt claustrophobic as his dad pushed him through the threshold, no turning back. Inside there were more people than he even thought possible, his dad hugged a horrid looking woman, her wrinkles made her look like a sultana. He stepped back when she tried to hug him too. "Get away from me."

"Mackenzie, this is your grandmother." He looked at the woman; well she was old…and sort of familiar. But no, he refused to believe it. "So what? She's ugly," His dad almost choked at that. "Seriously Mackenzie, it' been what, two years since you last saw her, you didn't say she was ugly then." Mackenzie sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't matter; I don't hug people I don't know." His dad rolled his eyes and pushed him toward an empty couch, and Mackenzie could see why it was empty, he didn't bother hiding his disgust.

His dad wasn't having it, he felt himself be pushed on the shoulder, Mackenzie tried to resist but it wasn't the strongest of eight (and three quarters) year olds let alone against people like his dad. The couch was comfortable in a very strange way and he tried to distract himself from the large stain next to him. The woman from before waved and he waved back, trying to look as depressed as possible so his dad would get the message. He sat waiting for the food to get served because at every get together he'd ever had food was always served first, then people would talk business while he ignored them scoffing it all down.

That didn't seem to be the plan this time.

A little kid sat next to him, he got off the chair when he saw the HUGE wet patch running down his shirt. The boy was sucking his pinky finger, spit and boogers were everywhere. This place was a mad house. He looked at his dad imploringly, his dad smiled in almost satisfaction and Mackenzie was flabbergasted. He retreated to the corner. "Don't worry; Rye isn't always like that, only with new people."

Mackenzie looked to his left see a tall girl holding a glass of clear liquid, now it could be water – probably tap water is he knew this place – but it could have been something else, and that was an object for conversation. He point at it. "Is that just water?" The girl blinked and looked down at it. "Well I sure hope so, if it's something else I'm in trouble." Mackenzie nodded, disappointed.

"What's your name?"

"Victoria, actually but everyone calls me Susie." Mackenzie gave her a funny look. "My middle name is Susan." He raised an eyebrow but nodded – even she was a bit odd – sighing he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the games, he had high scores on all the good ones but there was this one kid, they defiantly used cheats in theirs, who always seemed to top his score the moment he passed the kid. Hyguy959-FT that was their name, no one knew who they were, and it wasn't cool about that fact that after one small comment everyone knew who he was.

"What's that?" The girl who's name was Victoria but called Susie asked. He didn't look up to answer, she no longer interested him. "A game," He sat down slowly onto the floor not even considering how disgusting it probably was…ok maybe he did a bit, but not enough to cause him to stop playing. Hyguy was online and that meant revenge.

Mackenzie could sit in that position for hours, but the worst thing was Hyguy could sit in front of his computer for days. Sleep? Never. Food? Nope. Job? School? Anything? Not as far as Mackenzie could tell. He'd ever talked to the person before. He'd seen what happens to people that did. "What sort of game?" Susie said leaning in front of the screen, annoyed Mackenzie pushed her away. "Don't do that."

"Wow, that's going fast." Mackenzie didn't respond, almost, almost…in the corner he could see, Hyguy, their character was the same as Mackenzie's, the best upgrades. They raced. He completely forgot the girl, didn't even notice her talking to him as he activated his sound. He was immersed; the graphics were more realistic than real life. The other players were left behind as the game got faster and faster, the point numbers sky rocketed. Normally by now he would have passed them, he didn't need to look at the score to know that no one had ever gotten this far into the game.

The race stage ended. He hitched his avatar out just at the right moment, a thousand metal object rain down on the side; if he'd flicked too hard the avatar would have gamed over. They both landed. No weapons came up. They were in a field; the cars and metal were gone. In front of him the words, Final Stage. He sat back, stunned. Final stage? Final stage? What final stage? But that was as far as he got. Hyguy attacked him. He pulled his phone back automatically. Twisted his avatar. Then they were locked, he could almost feel the other player's arms gripped onto his.

Nerves made his palms sweat. He didn't notice the food being served, his dad calling his name. He pushed Hyguy off of him. He made his character run but he noticed something he'd only seen in one game before. Force field…what is this place? He turned back to Hyguy, who was charging at him. Suddenly a message board opened up next to him. He ignored it, a distraction, one he couldn't deal with. The ground underneath him fell away and soon they were moving around along a puzzle piece, attacking each other. "Mackenzie!"

He flinched suddenly, something was in front of his vision he couldn't see Hyguy. He felt the sounds of failure play loudly in his ears. He looked up over the watch blocking his view. He was breathing heavily, anger surged through him. The person stood and moved away. His dad returned to the conversation. Mackenzie shook. "Mackenzie, come eat," He looked at his dad in a state of shock. He stood. He walked over, he picked up the watch – worth more than all the furniture in the room – and snapped it. His dad looked up surprised but the suddenly sound. "Mackenzie!" He exclaimed noticing the watch as it dropped to the floor. Mackenzie hardly heard him.

"I was going to win. I was going to beat them, you made me fail." His dad was frowning; he leaned down and picked up the broken watch. He sighed. "Do you know what it's going to cost to fix this?" Mackenzie ignored him. "I was going to win, I have never beaten them." His dad seemed not to understand. "It's just a game Kenzie, you can play it again." Mackenzie looked at his dad; did he really not get it? It wasn't just a game, it was him winning, beating the final stage, beating Hyguy959-FT, the cheater. Now he felt like crying, but he wouldn't, instead he held out his hand. "Make it up to me." His dad sighed and sat back smiling. "So that's what this is about." His dad pulled out phone and tapped at a few buttons. "If I do this you'll get my watch fixed alright?"

Mackenzie wasn't alright. "That's not what I want, I want to go, this place is boring, the food looks disgusting and now just as I was about to beat the person who had robbed me of first place in every gaming broad I play you ruin my game." His lips trembled and his dad was no longer smiling. "Mackenzie it is just a game." His dad looked at the old woman. "Sorry, your cooking is fine."

"No its not! Stop lying!"

"Mackenzie, I understand your upset-"

"No! No! No! You don't understand, you never understand!" He shrieked. "I hate you! I going and take your stupid watch back." Then true to his word left the room through the front door, and down the street. A few metres away he turned to see if his dad was following him, he wasn't. Now feeling worse he slowed, waiting, hoping, nothing. No one came. He felt his jaw begin to hurt. He walked away from the house, whispering to himself as if to make what he'd said true.