Tactical Heart Read online

  In real life, I was a shell, but online, I still blossomed. I craved to be where I could be my true self without judgement. It was my safety blanket to the extreme.

  Of course, everything is more dramatic in the throes of high school woe, isn’t it?

  When I started college last year, I jumped at the opportunity for a clean slate. I ripped away that security blanket, and for the first time since I was thirteen, I unplugged long enough to open my heart back up to love.

  That’s when I met Cody Black.

  My sister’s soft words kick me from my thoughts, “You started thinking about that cocksneeze, didn’t you?” Julie’s concerned eyes float before me, no longer distracted by her phone.

  I force a smile. “Nope, just thinking about the last time you dyed your hair. Honestly, you should have kept it that color.” Her most recent attempt for “Totally Teal” ended up looking more like “Shrek Puke Green.”

  Her pretty face goes sour. “You’re a dick. It took three trips to the salon just to get that horrid color out. I looked like I had been dunked in radioactive waste.”

  I let out a snort. “Shame you didn’t at least get some super powers.” She tosses a throw pillow at me, but I’m quick to my feet, and it flies across the room. “I gotta head to class.”

  Julie stands to give me a quick hug. “Love you, sis.”

  “Love you back.” Slinging the strap of my laptop case over my shoulder, I take a step toward the foyer. I’m stopped by a small hand wrapping itself around my wrist.

  Julie’s eyes search mine. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

  It takes a mountain of will to stop my eyes from rolling. “Jules, you didn’t lose me to video games.”

  “It’s not the games themselves that concern me; it’s when you use them to hide away from the world. I know he hurt you, but you can’t just go back to your old vices and shut everyone out.”

  “You make me sound like a recovering alcoholic who’s wanting to hit up a bar,” I deadpan.

  She laughs, but I’m far from amused. “I want you to play because you want to, not because you need to. Have your fun, kill all the monsters, just don’t forget about the rest of us out here, okay? If you need to vent or whatever, I’m always here.”

  It’s hard to be irritated at Saint Julie when she’s exuding this much sincere worry, even if it’s utterly ridiculous. Gaming isn’t a vice, it’s a part of who I am—the only thing in this world that makes me feel alive. She just doesn’t understand and likely never will.

  “I’m not hiding, honestly.” I tug on one of her blonde curls playfully. “Plus, I agreed to that date, didn’t I? Who knows, maybe we’ll hit it off and go riding into the sunset.”

  She brightens. “Then we can double date!”

  “Like oh em gee!” I exclaim, mimicking her overly cheerful voice

  She shoves me away with a laugh. “Get to class, jerk.”

  Shouting a goodbye over my shoulder, I step into the sunlight and slide my lucky blue sunglasses over my eyes.

  What the hell did I just agree to?

  2

  Kane

  “Knife that fucker on the roof.”

  “Okay, this part requires a little stealth so stay close and move slow.”

  “That’s fine. Jack, I said stay back.”

  “Okay, first room cleared, hostages saved.”

  “TO YOUR LEFT! Great job, you nailed that fucker.”

  “Last room, we save the little girl, and this level will finally be cleared. Ready?”

  “Okay, so close. We got this, guys!”

  “Wait, Max—that’s not what I think it is, is it?”

  “No. WRONG WEAPON, MAX!”

  “BUT A FUCKING GRENADE? SERIOUSLY?”

  “Great, we’re all dead. You fucking noobs1.”

  I throw off my headset and roll my chair across the linoleum floor, away from my computer. Rubbing my temples, I contemplate for the hundredth time why I still group up with these losers. I’d have better odds of beating this level if I teamed up with a group of apes.

  Without a single knock, my bedroom door swings open. I swivel my chair toward it and cross my arms.

  “It was not my fault this time!” My little brother Jack cries out as he bursts into the room, bouncing on his feet with the endless supply of energy that all youth seem to possess.

  Max, the oldest of the three of us, only laughs as he leans inside the doorframe.

  “What the fuck, man?” I scowl. “Why did you blow us all up? We were so close to finishing that level.” I throw up my hands, waiting for a damn good explanation.

  His face turns serious. “Honestly, I just wanted to see if you would rage quit the game like a little bitch.” He flashes me a vicious smile. “And I was right.”

  I leap out of my chair at him, but he’s already down the hall by the time I reach the door. Picking up speed, I jump onto his back and tackle him as he crosses the living room. We both crash to the floor and wrestle for control.

  “BALL SHOT!” Jack yells out from somewhere to my left as he hoots in excitement. Moving quickly, I turn my body and barely stop Max’s knee from driving my nuts up into my body. As I sigh in relief, he flips me the rest of the way over and smashes my face into the shag carpet. My arm twists up behind my back, and I feel my brother’s hot breath against my ear.

  “You know what I’m waiting for baby sis,” Max whispers.

  I buck beneath his frame, but he has about a hundred extra pounds of muscle on me. I never stand a chance, but that hardly ever stops me from attacking him.

  My arm is yanked higher, and I let out a gasp of pain.

  “I’m waiting,” he sings.

  I mutter the words under my breath.

  Max clicks his tongue. “Sorry, Jack and I didn’t quite catch that.”

  “I SAID I LOVE DICK!” I shout, and my arms are instantly released as both my brothers dissolve into a fit of laughter. Flipping onto my back with a grunt, I look up and see my mother peering down at me, eyebrow raised.

  “I still love you, darling, no matter your sexual preference.” She nudges me with the toe of her shoe and returns to the kitchen.

  “Mom, I’m not gay!” I shout, but receive no indication that she heard me. I glare over at both my brothers who are now on the floor, gasping for air as they laugh.

  “Fuck you, guys,” I spit. Getting to my feet, I stalk back to my old bedroom with my brothers still howling behind me. Slamming the door, I flop onto my bed and stare up at the ceiling.

  Assholes.

  I don’t even know why I come home on the weekends; my roommate was going to be gone all day, and I could have had the place all to myself. A whole weekend to binge my video games in peace, but my dumb ass got suckered into coming back here.

  There’s a loud knock on the door. I kick my shoe at it, satisfied when it hits the wood with a thump. “Get bent!”

  The door cracks open, and I see my dad’s grinning face. “Your brothers being assholes again?” he questions, stepping further into the room.

  “Always,” I growl, sitting up on the mattress.

  “Yeah, it’s a shame.” He sighs. “They got that from your mother.” I laugh and shake my head at him. It’s never been a guess where I get my twisted sense of humor from. Ruffling my hair like I’m twelve and not twenty-two, he takes a seat beside me. “Nice to see you home, it’s been awhile since you visited your decrepit parents.”

  “Dad, I was here the weekend before last.”

  “An eternity in decrepit parents’ years,” he says solemnly.

  “I swear you’re more dramatic than Mom sometimes.”

  “So I heard you boys trying out the new shooter2 BulletBlaze. Any good?” His eyes light up with excitement. He’s the only person I know who loves gaming as much as I do. It’s something we’ve bonded over since I was old enough to hold a controller.

  “Yeah, I mean it’s no masterpiece, but the graphics are decent, and the weapons are sick as hell. In fact,
I just found a wicked powerful sniper in a loot chest. You wanna take a break and try it out?” He looks as if he’s about to say yes but closes his mouth and shakes his head instead.

  “I wish, but you know I hung up my headset years ago. Gotta get back to the office soon, but I can’t wait to hear more about it.”

  A few years ago, the company Mom worked for went bankrupt, and she had to take a huge pay cut with her new job. They put Max through firefighter training, paid for Jack’s baseball uniform and gear, and three years ago, I started college. They’ve never spoken a word to us about money, but Dad got a second job, and I know they’ve been struggling. He gets home late and works on the weekends; every time I see him, he looks a little more haggard, and I can’t help but worry.

  “Yeah, I understand,” I say, keeping the disappointment out of my voice.

  “You know it wouldn’t kill you to skip a weekend of gaming and find a nice girl to take out.” He claps his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

  I scoff, “I’ve gone on dates, but as soon as they find out how important gaming is to me, they’re out the door faster than you can say headshot.”

  “I hear you, son, I do. Have you thought about, you know, waiting a little longer before you go full nerd on some poor unsuspecting female?”

  I shrug him off. “Pops, if a girl doesn’t like me for me then she isn’t the one. Isn’t that what you always told me?”

  He booms with laughter. “Did you just twist my own words against me? I guess I am getting old.” When he reaches the door, he turns back to me with a deadpan expression. “Son, maybe the real problem is how much you love dick?” His face splits into a wide grin right before he closes the door.

  “I hate you!” I shout at the door as I get up from my bed and drop back into my computer chair.

  Officially never coming back home.

  I power up my favorite online shooter, Tactical Heart, the futuristic video game that took the world by storm almost four years ago. It’s a mixture of fantasy and science fiction, and one of the most graphically advanced games on the market. Load it up and you can easily get lost, forgetting the reality that surrounds you. You become the character you create as you travel the realm in search of power or fortune.

  There’s really no proper way to describe it until you’ve found yourself lost in Tactical Heart, never wanting to resurface.

  When I’m not firing at an incoming army of bloodthirsty pixies, I’m sneaking around dungeons trying to find rare gear. I can be anything I want in this world, from a thieving elf to a clumsy orc. As long as a player has motivation, decent gear, and a badass gun, it’s easy to rise in the ranks and hit the top one-hundred leaderboard.

  Sure, the customization is epic and the graphics are spectacular, but what really makes Tactical Heart special is the lore that unfolds as you play. It’s based around the Elf princess Naemona who falls in love with a human, which, in the realm of Ulicia, is forbidden for royalty. Naemona, the wilful elven princess, defies her elders and marries the human. The night of her wedding, the royal family is brutally murdered in their beds. Grief stricken, Naemona is oblivious to darker plots in play. Her beloved human betrays her, leaving her for dead and crowning himself King of Ulicia. Using magic, Naemona rips the beating heart from her chest, vowing to get her revenge and take back her kingdom. Twisting a crown out of dark magic, she declares herself Queen and becomes consumed with raising a powerful army to take back her kingdom. I get chills just thinking about it, all that dark magic and power makes her scary as hell, and I dig it.

  I’d held off logging in all day because Jack wanted me to try the new BulletBlaze game with him and Max, which was a colossal mistake on my part. Just thinking about it reminds me to log out of the new game and switch over to Tactical Heart.

  EkoTek just released a new expansion for the game, so I need to get my highest-level character to the maximum level of eighty. I select my toon 3and wait for the virtual world to load.

  This is what I need to be focused on anyway. If I’m going to be selected to compete for the EkoTek internship, I need to practice daily and hone my skills for the big day. Their headquarters are only an hour from me, so I lost my mind when they announced the contest for local players. EkoTek has continuously put out the top games since the company got big ten years ago, so to get an internship, a paid one nonetheless, would be huge. Besides, the Tactical Heart trophy would look pretty damn sweet on my shelf. I’ll bust my ass, impress the boss, and make sure I’m offered a job by the time I graduate.

  For some, games are a fun pastime.

  For me, I eat, sleep, and breathe video games. It’s not just fun; it’s a lifestyle.

  As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to become a video game designer. With all the incredible advances in gaming technology, gaming is all the rage, and it’s become a competitive career path. I need any leg up I can get, and this internship is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make my dream a reality.

  Putting on my noise cancelling headset, I crank up my music and watch my character materialize in the middle of a grassy meadow.

  Why the hell am I in the middle of nowhere?

  Oh, that’s right, last time I logged off, I was hunting down a monster. Someone in chat said they saw a glowing wolf named “Graveskull” run by, and I spent the better part of an hour looking for him. This specific name used to be a huge myth in the Tactical Heart message boards. Graveskull was said to be an extremely rare creature that when killed granted the player who killed it invincibility for twenty-four hours. A few players have sworn up and down that they’ve seen it. One said it was a terrifying red dragon that breathed lava; another said that it was a massive snake with three heads, but there wasn’t a shred of proof—not a single screenshot.

  It dropped off everyone’s radar until a few months ago when EkoTek tweeted that Graveskull indeed exists and can be recognized by a bright glow that surrounds it. Since then, players have been in a frenzy trying to hunt him down. I’ll admit I get swept up in the excitement from time to time when a spotting is posted. I mean, total invincibility for twenty-four hours? Imagine the havoc I could wreak, the epic monsters I could kill and loot...

  As it is, I’m a fairly powerful character in the game. I’ve been on the top one-hundred leaderboard since the first week and have yet to be booted off.

  Sure, in real life, there’s not much impressive about me, besides my sexy brain. But in Tactical Heart, I am intimidating, powerful, muscular, and…

  Dead?

  The screen goes red, and I stare at my ruggedly handsome character lying dead in the grass.

  How the fuck?

  Moving the mouse, I highlight the toon that’s standing over my lifeless digital corpse. It’s a slender elf that’s decked out in bulky armor, and I recognize the name with a scowl.

  Of course, it’s him, my gaming nemesis, or gamesis as I so fondly refer to him.

  The expansion just released, how the heck is he already max level?! This bastard is constantly three steps ahead of me, always equipped in rare gear and the most devastating weapons. I’ve never seen him dip below the top thirty on the leaderboards, which is practically unheard of. He probably has no life or job and just sits at his computer twenty-four seven like some loser.

  Wait, isn’t that exactly what I do?

  Wide-eyed, I stare at my reflection in the computer screen before shaking it off with a laugh. Nah, I’m a college student, totally not a loser. Phew, that was a close one.

  Getting back to the real loser at hand, no matter where I am in the game, he manages to find and kill me every couple of days. This shit has been going on for years now. Stalker much?

  He’s a goddamn thorn in my virtual side.

  I mean that literally. He once shot me with a gun that released a spray of poisoned thorns.

  It’s gotten to the point that, some days, I’ll abandon all my quests just to hunt him down and give the bastard a taste of his own medicine. Of course, I end up dead mo
re times than not, but it always feels righteous when I get a couple of hard hits in.

  The craziest thing about it all is that I have no idea why this guy has it out for me. As far as I know, I’ve never pissed anyone off in the game. I don’t talk shit in the chat logs or gang up on players. So, I just have this fucking troll4, hell bent on making this game a miserable experience for me. I’ve even considered quitting and trying to find a similar game just to not have to deal with him—but therein lies the problem. There’s nothing like TH out there; it’s unique, and I refuse to give up because of one damn cyber bully.

  The only upside is that my gamesis has forced me to become a better player. He’s like the villain to my superhero, always pushing me to my limits and ultimately helping me get stronger.

  Just call me Batman, ladies.

  Lately, I’ve gotten closer to killing him than ever before. I’m honing my skills and finding the best types of guns that work with my specific shooting style. Before long, I imagine it will be me who has the upper hand and oh how the tables will turn.

  Tapping my fingers on the desk, I wait as the time counts down until I can return to life and get my revenge. The elf stoops down and loots my body for twenty-seven gold5, and to rub salt in the wound, he also snatches my rare Supernova Pulse Sniper. I busted my ass all last week for that weapon, even skipping a class to make sure I beat the boss to get it.

  I clench my fists as I watch my beautiful gun cradled in the arms of my gamesis.

  After shooting a few rounds off in the air with my stolen sniper, his toon dances over my corpse. I take a deep breath as I watch him get smaller and smaller before he disappears into the Crystal Forest.

  Motherfucker.

  3

  Scarlett

  Looks like Leo’s roommate, ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named Lest I Google Him,’ also agreed to go out on this blind date. I toss a handful of Skittles into my mouth as I read my latest text from Jules. According to my sister, because we’re both “mega nerds,” our meet up will be at the local arcade next weekend.