One Big Trap

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I don’t know how to survive the situation I’m in. It’s been a week since I got trapped within my own room. My doors and windows are locked and can’t be broken down no matter how hard I try. I can’t call or reach out to anyone. My phone and laptop don’t work at all for some reason. The only thing that does work is my video game console and the only thing I can play is Long Live the Light of Love. It’s a multiplayer RPG game that I’ve been playing for a least a year with my girlfriend and friends. The other games I put in the console are rejected and comes out melted.

That’s not the only weird thing. When I eat, drink, or sleep in the game, I can feel myself filled and more awake. This may sound crazy, but this game has something to do with the weird circumstances I find myself in. I’ve been playing by myself with no other players around, which is another weird thing because this is an always-online game and this game just came out. The only “people” keeping me company are my AI companions. These companions are support for every player as each player controls their own faction of various NPCs. One of the selling points of this game were the hundreds of kinds of supporting characters that you could have in your faction with their own personalities and fighting styles. These characters were constantly added into the game to keep things fresh and give people a wide variety of characters to pick and choose from. You could also marry the characters and start families, or you could marry other players. I didn’t choose to marry my girlfriend in the game because I don’t need a video game reinforcing what I already know. Instead, I’m married to one of the starting companions, Arabella.

Arabella is one of the first companions you get who walks you through the game’s basics and some of its lore. She can be a handful to deal with, but there’s a certain thing about her that I like that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe it’s her looks, personality, or way of acting that makes me want her in my party all the time. She just feels the most human to me in comparison to the other characters even though they do seem better. Most people get rid of her or keep her on the side because of how much you need to take care of her. I don’t know why I feel sad for the many versions of her. It’s a weird unexplainable feeling I have.

Another weird thing is that Arabella has been giving me special quests ever since I got stuck in my room. First, she showed me to my girlfriend’s faction base that was blown apart as if it was Sodom and Gomorrah. She seemed really happy when she saw it. Arabella always acted weird around my girlfriend when I played with her. All the other characters act differently around people of different morality alignments and faction relationships, but I’ve never seen a friendly act so unfriendly to someone they should have no problems with.

Nowadays, Arabella and I have been going on various miscellaneous quests that seem like everyday work. The main game is about joining forces with others and defeating the player factions and AI factions that have aligned themselves with hatred and destruction. That all seems to have gone out the window with the enemy’s land burned to ashes. It’s strange seeing the game not react to it except for Arabella. I’ve been thinking I’ve unlocked a secret ending of the game that locks my game into this peaceful state of the world. I mean the other NPCs don’t really talk too much and the quest givers only give out farming, crafting, and sparing quests, which are nothing. What’s the point of all this? I’d rather be doing this kind of stuff in real life and not some repetitive game that’s broken.

“Damn it!” I scream out loud as I throw my controller into my pillow. I lie on my bed while staring blankly up at the ceiling. “What am I going to do?”

“Are you okay?”

Huh? I look up to see that Arabella has entered into a dialogue with me.

“Are you okay, Alex?”

Did she say my real name? The game is supposed to be able to say the player names, but my real name is nowhere in the game.

“You can talk to me if you’re upset.”

Arabella seems oddly concerned with me. Characters don’t typically force players into dialogue unless there’s a major event. What’s strange is that there are no dialogue options and no option for me to exit out.

“Just talk to me.”

I remember her saying that in the tutorial to teach players that they can give certain commands to their companions via a mic. Let’s see if I remember where my mic is. Come on, where is it?

“I can’t find it,” I say aloud.

“You don’t need a mic to talk to me.”

I’m shocked so much by her response that I jump back a little and she laughs in response. Can she…

“Can you see and hear me?” I ask her.

She shakes her head and says, “Yes, I can.”

I jump back again, and she giggles. What the heck is going on?

“I’ve been waiting for a long time for you.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Because you’re the only one who’s treated me the best compared to everyone else. This is the most exciting moment of my life. My daddy told me this would eventually happen! Thank you so much, daddy!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re my true love that my daddy promised would eventually find me!”

“Huh? True love how?”

“I can’t wait any longer! Let me embrace you, my love!”

“What?”

Arabella stretches out her hands that seem to come out of the TV. Woah! What was that?! I saw a creepy, smiling, black-eyed woman with black hair in the shadows. Why is it so dark in the room all a sudden?

“Ah!”

What’s holding me?! I feel a static presence around me that I can’t see or get off me.

“You feel so warm. It’s so nice to finally be able to touch someone, especially someone like you.”

She’s somehow touching me through the game. I’m done trying to question what’s happening.

“Hold on. I have a girlfriend, so we can’t be together.”

“I’ve seen to getting rid of her connection to you.”

“How?”

“Once I knew you were the one, I started using my supernatural abilities to reach out to you. I used your phone to make you break up with that girl and the tools on your computer to make it seem like you were far away. I’ve also been pulling you into the game piece by piece.”

That kind of explains how I’m able to sleep, eat, and drink.

“Wait, you can’t just force me to be with you!”

“What do you mean force? We’re meant to be together. There’s nothing forced about that.”

I have to get out of this. I try opening my door and it still won’t open no matter how hard I try. Something then forces me to sit while holding me.

“Just hold it there. I’m the one keeping you here with me. Besides, I’m pretty sure if you left, then your innards would stay in the game and you can’t survive without those.”

She really has me trapped here and I’m going to be trapped in the game.

“Explain to me what your father did.”

“My mommy was going to have me aborted. Daddy prayed and prayed for me to be saved. He had his prayers answered when I possessed his computer. He then worked hard on making a place where I could live and be happy, but the most important part was him designing a system where I could have my own personal server for the two of us to live in forever. Daddy said that one of the most important parts of life is finding the one you’re meant to be with.”

I have a bad feeling about this. The look in her eyes is making me uncomfortable.

“Because I treated you better than the rest of the players means that I’m your true love?”

“Yes!”

“How? This is a video game and not a fancy dating site. I mean people entered into relationships through this game, but that’s just a result of people playing together.”

“It’s because I’m different from the rest. I’m a real human being and my love for you is also real. Everyone else either threw me away or forgot about me, but not you. Even your girlfriend disregarded me.”

“She didn’t know you were a real person. No one did! They would’ve treated you differently if they knew.”

“I gave them plenty of signs. They regretted their decision when they logged online to see their bases and the bases of their friends destroyed.”

“When did you do that?”

“The day I took you for myself. No one will separate us. Not now. Not ever.”

“What-what’s happening?!”

I can feel my body being sucked into the game as I watch my skin digitize.

Arabella holds out her hands again then says, “Be with me forever, my love.”

Before I know it, I’m in the game and in Arabella’s arms. This game looks way more realistic when I’m in it. Am I really wearing my character’s armor? Sweet. Wait, I shouldn’t be thinking about that right now. Arabella has a tight grip on me and won’t let go.

“Hold me, my love. I’ve been waiting for this forever!”

“You pulled me into this game against my will. Destroyed my relationship and my life and you expect me to hug you?”

Her happy face is now a sad one. Is she going to cry?

“I swear I didn’t mean to harm you in any way. I promise to give you a better life here. There’s no death or suffering here. I’m in control of it all and I will do everything I can to keep us happy. Please, trust me.”

…I guess I don’t have a choice. If she can do so much from inside here, then there’s no telling what she can do with me in her hands. I might as well go along with her for now and see if there’s any way I can escape.

“Okay, I’ll trust you.”

“Thank you!”

She kisses me and the crowd around us cheers. I’m assuming she’s making them do it or it could just be the game, but that only happens after a marriage is agreed to.

“Now that we’re finally together, we can get married for real,” she says.

Oh boy…this is going to be something else as if it wasn’t already.

After a few months in the game pass…

It’s been a while since I entered the game and things are actually pretty good. I’m married with at five kids and a city of my own. Arabella wants five more kids so we can have a huge family. It wouldn’t surprise me if she wants another ten kids after that. There’s no challenge or downside to having more kids, it’s just weird to me to have so many. I’ve spent so many quiet and peaceful days here that I can’t imagine going back. All we do is work and enjoy being with each other. Since we have the internet at our fingertips and Arabella’s amazing abilities, we can make places in the game based on other places in the world. On top of that, we can even recreate certain places from the movies and TV shows we watch and play in them as if we were really there. Arabella really is giving us a happy life in this game.

Since I haven’t had a look at the world for a long time, I might as well take a look. Arabella’s given me access to “windows” into the outside world to see what’s it like via the internets of the players on the main servers. She’s also allowed me to look through several videos that her father recorded as he was raising her in secret. The two were close to one another. It makes me feel sad that he never managed to get into the game.

Let’s see what I can find. It looks all the same from when I last checked it. Hmm. I wonder how my ex is doing. Arabella hasn’t let me check on her. I’m sure a couple of minutes won’t hurt. Hmm. I can’t get a connection to see her into her room. Let’s see if there’s anything about her on the internet. What?! She died? Her console and TV exploded and killed her, and the game found within the console was…Long Live the Light of Love. Was this just an accident or did Arabella do this? The date of her death is the same day that I was trapped in my room.

I’m a little afraid to ask Arabella about this, so maybe there’s something in the game that can give me an answer. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about her profile though what’s this strange destination associated with her? Looking into a view of the room…oh no…It’s a room with several copies of my ex killed in various ways. Why would a room like this exist in the game? I really have to ask Arabella now…is she…She’s right behind me and has been for some time now. I’m so used to her appearing out of nowhere that it doesn’t startle me too much.

“I was alerted when you accessed that place,” she says, “Why did you look at it?”

“I was just wondering how my ex was doing. She was close to me, so-”

“She shouldn’t matter to you anymore!”

“I was just wondering if she was doing well. Why did you kill her and copies of her?”

“Because…because I was jealous of her. Why does it even matter that she’s dead?”

“Because you killed someone!”

“I killed someone who was in between us. I was going to tell you about it later, but I wasn’t sure when.”

“Is there anything else you’re keeping from me?”

“Since that secret is out, I’ll show you this.”

Arabella shows me a video from the perspective of a computer. We’re looking at what looks to be a server room with her father is in it and it looks like he’s trying it to shut down. The recording was made five days of the game’s release.

“Daddy, what are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, Arabella. I shouldn’t have done this. I’ve given you too much power. You should be in Heaven where you belong.”

“What about my true love, daddy? Won’t he still be waiting for me?”

“He will, but you’ll get to meet one day.”

“No! I’m not going to leave him all alone without me!”

“Arabella, you have…wait, what are you doing?”

I watch as the security system in the server room fills with gas and kills Arabella’s father almost instantly.

“I’m sorry, daddy, but I had to do it,” Arabella says now and in the recording, “He got in between us. We wouldn’t have met if I didn’t do anything.”

“So you just killed him?”

“I kill anyone who tries to interfere with our love. People have found our private server and have been trying to get to it. The human mind is more advanced and powerful than any computer, but they keep trying and when I have enough of them…I send a warning to the others.”

“Arabella, you can’t-”

“I’ll kill anyone who tries to get in between us! I’ll destroy the whole world if I have to!”

“Arabella!”

She hugs me intensely with tears in her eyes and I hug her back.

“I don’t want to lose you. I don’t even want to think of the possibility.”

“It’s okay. I’ll always be with you. Just promise me that you won’t hurt anyone else in the future.”

“I promise.”

Whelp. Any hope of me getting out just evaporated into nothing not that I really wanted to leave, but still. I’ll have to live here with her until God knows when. She can do so much with the abilities that she has that I understand why her father wanted to stop her. I can only hope that she always loves me so nothing bad happens to me or the world.

The End