Prologue: Puzzle Pieces

If I had to tell you precisely what led up the progression of events you are about to hear, It would be very hard to place. Blame? Well, I suppose we could blame a lot of people, and the people affected are not at all happy with the scapegoat the government has given us. But to say what caused it? That is the trickiest thing to say. Well, I should say almost trickiest- the hardest question, and the one that will ever haunt the memories and minds of the scarred,

Is Why?

Both of these are very good questions- and very hard to answer. But I will try as best as I can. For the forgotten children, for the men and women who didn’t make it out...or who did. But not in a way they ever wanted. I may not have believed it then, but everything that happened, to me, to us, to them- it was all just as real as anything we ever felt in reality. The memories, the pain, the laughter….It all felt so….real. That is the only way to describe it. As real as her breath as she cries into your chest, as real as the tears that slip down to the earth for a fallen soldier, as real as a dagger slicing flesh, as real as his arms holding you steady when you feel as though nothing else could- People who say it wasn’t….they were the ones who weren’t there. Who never experienced it. Who will never know what it feels like.

But what led up to that tragic day, the one that shaped history, and the future, forever? I believe it started in the year 2040, when virtual reality gaming was first introduced. Now I know what you’re thinking- this is going to be another generic story about generic people who get trapped in a generic game and die generic deaths and blah blah blah. But that isn’t at all what this is going to be like. This is a tale of strange and incredibly brave people, risking all of the pain, heartbreak, and monstrosities in the world in order to keep fighting- and they fought for only one thing; They fought so that they, and others, would someday wake, and see the lives they had been away from for years on end once again. We lost a lot of great and remarkable people, and some people will tell you that we never really knew them at all- but we did. We always did. We fought alongside each other, we cried with each other, and we would go to the ends of the earth to find each other once again. You cannot tell me that I didn’t know Aeon, Matt, Tulip, Holly, Avril, Red, Chesley….you can’t tell me that I never knew any of them, nor that I never knew any of the others. That they were never real. They were all-too-real. Sometimes I wish that they weren’t, so that this neverending ache in my chest would cease, but the days I think that are dark days indeed.

But as I was saying previously, 2040, not the year it happened, but the year that started it all, in my mind. Virtual reality gaming was born into the world, the act of being able to take a player into a game, leave their body behind, and live out the adventurous life of their dreams, if only for a few hours. The hardware came in the form of a headset, varying in styles and forms, but there was always a sort of screen over your eyes. Not that the game was going to play out on that- god no. That was used for lulling the player into the hibernation state necessary for playing. The first systems took several minutes to manage this feat, but by the year 2045, you were signed in and materializing in your game of choice in a matter of seconds. People have asked- “Is it scary?”, and to that I say no. Being pulled into the game is like blinking- and we’re not afraid of blinking, are we? Well...I imagine if you were that’d be a pretty tough life, huh?

And that was the year it happened, 2045. September 12th to be exact. At 4:17pm. Young teens and adults all over the world were just getting home from school or work to put on their VR systems before their parents or spouse would shout at them to go hop on their homework or go set the table and do chores. I was one of those lucky, and yet petrifyingly ever-unlucky, people who, at 4:17pm, on September 12th, of 2045- became trapped, with so many others, in a little game called DragonKeep, I was one of those people that did not wake for over five agonizing years…..As we were twisted and manipulated like puppets…..As we were watched like a sick spectacle….as we were mocked and taken advantage of….as we lost part of who we were, to satisfy an un-named man’s terrible and unquenchable thirst for bloody entertainment…..In the end, we were all just pieces in his fragmented puzzle- and by the end- so many pieces were missing, you couldn’t even tell what it was meant to be anymore….nor what it’s intended purpose was….

Author's Note

I started writing this...I don't really know how long ago, and am coming back to re-writing it now. Any feedback would be appreciated. (And if you want a character or have a great idea for one, feel free to tell me. This book will need lots of extras, as you'll read)