different from this one I hope. This is my first writing in a while, so if it's a little rusty, I apologize. This one doesn't derive directly from
my life experiences, but it could have and could possibly come from just about any young video game player's life.
(C) Copywritten 2005
����������� Before long he came to a large wooden door at the end of the hallway. Exhausted, the warrior leaned on the wall next to the door. His hand grasped at his side where he felt the large gash in his ribs. He clutched his sword tightly as he desperately tried not to think of how much pain his injury was causing him. Regaining his senses, he reached for the door.
����������� Without warning, the ground fell from beneath him. His hand snagged the handle of the door just in time to keep himself from tumbling down with the fake flooring that had caved away. His sword came free from his other hand and he heard it plummet downward, bouncing off the walls and making a loud crash as it finally hit the bottom of the pit. The warrior looked down into the depths of this new trap he had sprung and saw nothing but blackness.
����������� The strain of his body's weight was tearing the bloody wound in his side further. Pain flared from within his tired bones and muscles and the warrior found his grip weakening. He reached with all his strength for the doorknob with his free hand, but before he could take hold, there was a loud snap and the knob came free from the door, releasing the hero to fall into the void beneath him.
����������� "No!" William shouted as he jerked the controller in frustration. It was too late however. The Dragon's Eye "game over" screen faded onto the television set accompanied with very morbid sounding game music.
����������� William threw the controller on the floor and lunged forward at the console, jamming his finger on the power switch as hard as he could. The screen flashed and was emptied into blackness. He sat back and stared at the floor pouting.
����������� This wasn't the first time William Franks had gotten mad at his video game console since he had gotten it for his eleventh birthday six months ago. He didn't like to lose. It was simple as that. The first time he had gotten mad at it, his mother had turned it off and told him not to play it anymore. He didn't listen of course. One time he got so mad at one of his games, he decided to punish the game by hiding it in his sock drawer and not allowing it to be played for a month. That idle threat didn't stop him for more than a day or two either.
����������� This case wasn't as bad. He wasn't frustrated enough to take authoritative action over his games this time. He popped the Dragon's Eye disc out of his console and grabbed Laddy's Land 2 from the shelf next to his television. He was just sliding it into his game console when he heard the front door being opened downstairs.
����������� "Dad's home" William said to himself as the game started up. He picked up the controller and began playing again. He had played and beaten Laddy's Land 2 a lot of times already, but he didn't care either. The game was so long it always took him a few weeks to get through it, and he was out to try to find some more of the hidden stuff he hadn't yet found in all the previous attempts.
����������� He didn't get far beyond the title screen before there was a knock on his bedroom door. The door opened and William's father came in. "Hey bud-bud" he said as he entered.
����������� "Hi dad" William answered, his eyes never leaving the screen nor his hands the controller.
����������� "What'cha doing?"
����������� "Nothing much" William finally paused the game and looked at his dad. He was wearing the same gray suit that he always wore to work and his tie was loose around his neck. He looked tired but was smiling softly.
����������� "Did you get all your homework done?"
����������� William smiled "Yup. All I had was math tonight."
����������� "Good job bud-bud" his dad said as he shook his hand through William's short hair. "Is your mother still up?"
����������� William un-paused his game and continued playing. "I think so." His dad sighed and left his room, leaving him to play his game. He pulled the door to his room and it came just shy of being closed.
����������� William concentrated on searching through Laddy's Land 2. He had already found four of the six special keys he needed to get into the mystery town, but he had a lot of searching to do before he could get the other ones. He didn't really like wandering all over the place following difficult clues to try and find the stupid things, but he really wanted to get into mystery town. "That's where all the really good stuff is" he thought to himself.
����������� As he searched, he could hear his parents downstairs. His mother was talking loudly. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were talking very fast and interrupting each other a lot. Finally he heard his father yell out "don't start" so loud William could hear him clearly even over the sound of his game.
����������� William paused the game, silencing it. He was a little nervous. Whenever his father yelled like that, it usually meant he was in trouble. William waited for his dad to come bursting in his room and start yelling at him more. He didn't however, but William could still hear his parents talking loudly.
����������� They were talking about things William didn't understand. He could tell that they were arguing about something. He heard his mother complaining about how she didn't know if they had enough money for something, and his dad was trying to tell her something about how she was spending too much of it on something else.
����������� Their voices quieted and William un-paused his game and continued playing. William didn't like to hear his parents fight. He always thought they were mad at him about something when they did, or that they would be mean to him if he were to go out and ask them for a snack or something like that.
����������� William pressed on through the world of Laddy's Land 2, avoiding as many of the gooners he could and collecting as much gold nuggets he could get his hands on. Once he had enough gold nuggets, he could trade them in for more clues about where the remaining two keys were, so he was sure not to leave a single area unchecked.
����������� As he played along, William began to start thinking about what he would be doing in school the next day. It was a Tuesday so that meant that he had gym class and English in the morning, then he would be doing math again in the afternoon. He hated math, but he was looking forward to his gym class.
����������� "I don't care" the loud voice of his father startled William to attention. He quickly paused Laddy's Land 2 again and looked towards his doorway. His parents were talking loud again, and he began to really feel scared now. Both of them were trading fast snaps at each other, hollering about numbers and dates and all kinds of things that William didn't understand.
����������� "Why are they fighting?" William asked himself. He remembered when James Powel, the big kid in his gym class called him a nerd and was threatening to beat him up one time during recess. William started yelling back at James to leave him alone, but that didn't solve anything. Luckily the principle was out walking by the playground, so James didn't bother attempting anything. That was different from what he was hearing downstairs though. William sat in the silence of his room as the argument from his parents escaladed and filled the whole house. He wondered if maybe he should go and ask the two of them what was the matter. He thought about it for a long time, but just continued to sit and listen.
����������� Minutes passed and still the argument from downstairs continued. William got up and went to his door and closed it all the way shut. The sounds from downstairs were muffled so much that he could no longer make out what they were saying at all, but he could still hear them. He rushed over to his controller and un-paused the game again. He leaned forward and pushed the volume increase button on his television set. The bouncing game style music filled his room and William resumed his nugget hunt, trying desperately not to think about what was going on outside his room.
����������� He was having trouble getting around the gooners. Normally he had no problem just knocking them flat on their backs, but William was constantly running into them and losing life. There was no frustration this time however. William's attention was too focused on the possibilities of what his parents were saying to each other.
����������� He paused that game again, hoping to maybe hear if anything was happening. He quickly un-paused it again and played along a little more. As he continued along, he couldn't hear anything over the game's music, but that didn't stop him from trying.
����������� It was getting late now. An hour or so had passed since his father had gotten home, and William knew that his bedtime was quickly approaching. His nugget hunt was over and he was saving his game when he heard the shrill and sharp call of his mother from way downstairs. "Will! Bedtime!" she hollered up the stairs towards his room. William could tell she was angry. His mother sometimes would get upset when William stayed up too late on a school night in his room. He wasn't about to not listen to her this night however. Quickly, he switched off the power on his TV and changed clothes into his pajamas.
����������� William opened his bedroom door and stepped out. The house was still and quiet. There was only the slightest bit of light coming from down the stairs. The little boy stood in his doorway waiting... waiting for something to happen, or someone to say something. His hands were sweaty and he rubbed them on his pants.
����������� "Where is mom and dad?" he wondered before finally walking down the hall to the bathroom. The white light of the bathroom's overhead light bulbs came on as William flicked the switch on the inside wall and closed the door. He saw himself in the mirror but only looked for a second. His attention was on the door once again, and he listened keenly for whatever it was he had been waiting for while he was still standing in his bedroom doorway.
����������� He turned away from the door and plucked his toothbrush out from the holder next to the sink. Dabbing a spurt of red, white and green toothpaste on the top and then running it under the tap, William began brushing his teeth hastily. He didn't want to try and get away with just running his brush under the tap and returning it in order to save time--not tonight.
����������� William stopped suddenly when he heard the crashing bang. There was a second sound after it, like that of breaking glass. Something tensed in his chest and he froze and stared at his reflection in the mirror, which showed him a wide eye-ed little boy with white foamy past trickling slowly out of the corners of his mouth. There was only silenced that followed as William continued to remain in his startled paralysis, hearing only the water rushing from the tap in front of him.
����������� He brought his brush back into the scrubbing motions, moving it slowly back and forth across his teeth, slower than he had been doing before. He wondered if maybe his mom and dad had gotten so mad at each other that they had started to fight. "But that was a bang" he thought. If they were fighting like James and he had almost done--fighting with their hands--there wouldn't be a bang, would there?
����������� James finished up in the bathroom. He clicked off the lights and paused for a second in the silent, dark bathroom, before opening the door. Down the hallway, past the stairs and past the door to his room, he could see the doorway to his parent's room. The door was closed. Lying on the hard wood flooring next to it, there was shattered glass surrounding the remains of one of his mother's pictures. It was an old painting of a great big mansion that had been there ever since William could remember.
����������� He stared at the picture in the stillness of the house. "Should I clean it up?" he thought almost instinctively. "It's not my mess, so I don't have to, but mom will get mad if she finds out about it." He walked cautiously towards his bedroom door, looking out for any broken glass that might have made its way down the hall. He couldn't see any in the darkness of the hallway, but he looked anyway. The picture had fallen a good distance away from his doorway, but he was too nervous to care.
����������� Slipping into his room, he closed his door again. He went over to his bed and pulled the covers away. He wasn't tired, but he wanted to be asleep very badly at that moment. He wanted it to be morning and not this tense night that he was still a part of anymore. Sliding underneath the sheets, he reached over to his spaceship shaped lamp that was still on and clicked it off. He pulled the covers tight against his chest and sat lying there in his bed.
����������� William began to listen. He wanted some idea of what was happening in the other parts of the house, but there was nothing but silence for the longest time. It wasn't until he heard footsteps coming up the stairs that he finally moved a little bit, turning himself over so that he was lying on his back.
����������� There was a small sound of his door's handle being turned. He looked quickly to the door. There was a crack of light that widened as the door opened and William's mother appeared behind it. "Did you brush your teeth?" she asked.
����������� William nodded accordingly as his mother sat on his bed next to him. She smiled contently and looked at him. "Okay. Goodnight William." She kissed him on the forehead like she always did. As she rose, she peered across the room. William turned his head over to try and see what she was looking at.
����������� "You left your game on again, William. Turn it off before you go to bed." She reached for his door.
����������� "Um, mom?" William almost whispered.
����������� She slowly turned back to look at him. "Yes honey?"
����������� "Um..." William wasn't sure what he wanted to say. He felt the same way he did when he was called in class to answer a question he didn't know. "She isn't going to yell at me if he ask anything, will she?" he thought repeatedly.
����������� His mother's smile slowly withered, but she spoke softly and motherly--the way he always liked hearing. "Don't worry, William. Everything is okay. Go to sleep." She didn't say anything else. The door was closed and William was in his room alone. He heard the sound of his mother sweeping up the broken glass in the hallway.
����������� Reaching over to his lamp again, he switched it back on. He looked over at his game console and saw that the little red light was still shining. He climbed out of bed and went over to his television. He turned it on and waited for the screen to come to life.
����������� The screen lit up slowly in the stillness of his room with a giant "PAUSE" label in the middle of it. William must have forgotten to actually turn the system off after he finished saving his game for some reason. William stared at the screen for a short while. He believed his mother. Everything would probably be all right tomorrow. He would get up early in the morning like he did every morning and have his breakfast before going to school. His dad was probably going to get up and have his morning coffee and read his newspaper like he always did every morning.
����������� He pressed the power switch and watched as the Laddy's Land 2 images on the set turned to a black screen. He then turned the television's power back off and returned to bed.
����������� Lying there in his small little room, William closed his eyes, but not his ears. He was still listening, but didn't hear anything else that entire night. All he did was remember that his mother had told him everything was going to be all right. He replayed that message in his mind over and over, and it wasn't until just before he actually fell asleep that he finally understood and believed it completely.
