Chapter 12: Perpetrate

Gaming is a good way to kill time and to either relieve some stress or make it worse. Right now? It's both… Or so I like to think, but I can't help but angrily berate the game with no one but myself to hear it.

It's not even online multiplayer like the last few times. No. I'm just sucking at platforming in a game that has no right to have any. The jump is so finicky and stiff. And making precise jumps between moving, spinning and disappearing platforms with a jump this bad… Gah!

Hunched over before the TV, I squeeze the controller firmly. C'mon, B-Face. You can do it. It's not you who's bad, it's the game…! You're not getting old at all! You're only seventeen, for crying out loud!

I jump. And a knock on the door totally broke my concentration and caused me to go wide. My character dies for the dozenth time to no fault of my own.

Cursing under my breath, I restrain myself from tossing the controller at the TV… again.

Instead, I stomp over to the door and swing it open. Yep. It's Vampy. She's got a bag with takeaway with her. Weird, considering I explicitly told her not to take any food, but whatever I guess.

"Whoa. Caught you at a bad time, B-face? What's with the glare?"

I quickly look to the side and take a breath to calm my nerves. "It's nothing. I just-… were playing something frustrating. That's all. Come in."

As I step aside, Vampy makes her way in, tapping me on my chest as she passed me. "Whatever, man. If you wanna get mad over some stupid game, you do you."

After I grumble about it not being just a game, I close the door behind her and lean on it with my back. Vampy herself already made herself welcome on my couch. "Alright. So what's so important about this favour that you can't just tell me over the phone? Is it about butter and bacon or…?"

Vampy rummages through her bag, not even dignifying my question with a response. Hm. Now that I look at it, she does seem a little more serious than usual. Maybe.

After finding what she was looking for, she pulls it out of the bag and gives it one last look before tossing it to me. "Catch."

I catch it by clapping both my hands on its sides. It's a game case? And from the sound of it, there's a CD inside of it. The cover doesn't look like any game I know of though. "The hell is this? Some sort of bootleg?"

Vampy closes her bag again and tosses her feet up on my couch, lying on it. God, she didn't even take her shoes off. Aren't you getting a little too comfortable here, idiot!?

"That. Is Haylow Breach. The remake."

"Didn't that one come out years ago? Don't think this is the right boxart."

I open the box to look inside. Even the CD looks nothing like Haylow's is supposed to. Vampy just chuckles. "This is the third remake. The new one they're gonna release in two months."

"Wait…" I look between the CD and Vampy. "You mean this is an unreleased game…!? Not to mention… The latest remake of Haylow!?"

A proud smirk on her face, Vampy nods and rolls her hand beside herself. "Latest, never-touched before, unopened. Well, until you opened that one, of course. But I guess it's on the house."

On the house? Oh, wait. That's right. Vampy does run some sort of illegal smuggling ring or something. She did sell me that stuff back then in that alley. And she did mention she was involved with ASIC and all.

Eesh, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I should reconsider a few things here. Like… This is the girl I have a crush on? What would your mother think of this, Nathan? Coming home with a delinquint like that…

I snap out of my thoughts and return my attention to Vampy. She's in the middle of… something about how she got this. I didn't really pay attention, though, so most I got out of it was 'it fell off the back of a truck, any questions?'.

Well, I got a few.

"So, wait. This stuff isn't out yet. And… 'it fell off the back of a truck'?"

"That's right. I know. Unlikely, but that's how it went."

"Okay, so, isn't owning a copy of this, like, illegal? Or something?"

The wings of her nose raised, Vampy raises her shoulders and shakes her head. "Yeah. Duh. That's why I got it. To make money with blackmarket goodies."

Point taken…?

I shake my head and look back down at the game in question. "So why did you bring it here? I thought you had something to do for me."

"I do. I got a bag full of those games. Like, about thirty copies. That's a lot of money to be made."

"Not sure I like where this is going…"

"Just hear me out. You live in a shithole. Admit it."

Man. Vampy cold as the coldest day in hell today…

"Okay… Your point?"

"My point being. You could use a little money. Not like you are earning any with that shit of a job you got."

Whilest nodding my head I just mentally shake it instead. She's really not pulling any punches on me today, good lord.

"So," Vampy contineus, "since you wanted to pay me back for my generous work here. I figured I'd let you in on a job I got." Patting the bag proudly, she cranes her head to the side, flashing me a rather wicked smirk. "We're gonna smuggle these bad boys to Lowee's capital and sell them for mad profit in like three weeks. You, me, and a couple dozen more of my boys."

… She's asking me to do what?!

She's even looking at me as if anything she said didn't sound absolutely ridiculous. Like, no, I get it. I'm not the most upstanding citizen. I helped her shoplift, bought some of her stuff off the blackmarket and slammed a brick into the head of that Guild Agent that one time. But this?

This is too much.

As if reading my expression, Vampy speaks up again. "What? You ain't scared, are you?"

"Uh, yeah, duh!? Of course I'm-, what the hell? I'm not fucking doing that. I'm not gonna be a part of your little smuggling organisation."

Her expression falling, Vampy looks between me and the bag. "It ain't even that risky. We got your passport and everything already. We just need someone with a clean slate and we can smuggle these across the ocean from Leanbox's to Lastation's port. Wouldn't take more than a day!"

Again, I shake my head. "That's not the problem. The problem is that you're getting in here telling me to do something illegal! I could, like, go to prison for this shit. Or worse!"

"Dude. It's the safest part of the entire ordeal. No one's gonna find out. We need—"

"Stop. Just stop," I interrupt her in a loud voice. "I'm not doing it and that's final. I'm not a crimal, got it?"

I feel bad for turning her down like this. I really do. She's even looking at me like I just betrayed her. But this isn't something I'd just do. I do this, she'll be back with more. It's a rabbit hole, damn it… I have to stand my ground on this one. It's the smart choice.

"... Alright, dude… If that's how you feel 'bout it, guess that's that then."

Vampy puts the one copy she took out back into the bag and zips it up again. Without another word, she tosses it over her shoulder and walks out to the door. At the doorstep, she froze, giving me one last glare of disappointment before slamming the door shut behind her.

I stand there, watching the door as if she'd come back and tell me she isn't mad at me. Now that she's gone, all sorts of thoughts rush through my mind. 'You did the right thing,' 'She's gonna hate you now,' 'Call her back and apologise,' 'It will be okay.'

What am I even supposed to do with this? How could I have accepted? I could've… But that'd be a surefire for something worse to happen eventually… right?

Snapping out of my trance after a car honked its horn loudly right beside my door before it drove off with screeching tires, I take a shaky breath and shake my head.

It'll be a cold day in hell, huh?

Not entirely sure I am happy with how this one turned out. But I m posting it anyway. This is still supposed to be a more lax story in terms of effort. Expect next chapter sooner rather than later. Maybe.