Yvvaros: The Digital Frontier (5 page)

The inn eventually began to empty, and the trio wound down along with it. Luke said goodbye to Tess and watched her character disappear into nothingness as she logged out.

“What was that all about?” asked Silverstrike, gesturing to where she had sat. Luke shook his head.

“She helped me get the potion,” said Luke, “she’s… really nice. That’s all.”

Silverstrike raised an eyebrow at him and smiled coyly.

“Sure buddy,” he said. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I’m out too.”

“Yeah, likewise,” said Luke.

I still need to eat dinner and get some sleep.

Silverstrike disappeared, and then Luke reached his hand into his satchel to do the same. The logout button came in the form of a tiny journal. All you had to do was sign your name, as though you were signing the end of an entry, and the game world would disappear.

Luke suddenly heard footsteps approaching him, followed by a bang. There was no one left in the inn who could have made a noise like that, not that he could see. His stomach twisted into a knot as he quickly signed his name in the journal and felt the world in front of him disappear. There was only black in front of him now, and the headset felt almost claustrophobic on his face without any sensory input coming out of it.

“What’s going on in here?”

What? Is that… my dad?

“Answer me, Luke!” His dad’s voice was loud and immediate, equal parts angry and condescending in tone. “You said you were going to be up here doing homework. Is dicking around in a virtual world more important than your grades?”

Luke pulled the headset off and swiveled around in his chair. It took him a moment to readjust to being back in his room and to get a handle on what was happening. It was late at night, and his dad was standing just inside his door. He glared down at Luke, his menacing gaze difficult to meet, one of his father’s mannerisms that always left him feeling intimidated and wary.

Chris Smith hadn’t been the same since a car crash had taken Luke’s mom, years before. He’d turned to alcohol to fill the void her death had created. Luke was sometimes the caretaker when his father became incapacitated, but more often Luke found himself on the receiving end of his father’s grief, anger, and booze induced abuse.

“Dad, I’m just trying the thing out,” said Luke. “Ben lent it to me, and-”

“You were up in here when I left for the bar!” His dad stepped forward and kicked a book on the ground.

He’s drunk, really drunk.

“It’s  the launch day. Of… your game.” Luke tried to hide his frustration as he looked at his father. “Yvvaros. I just thought I’d give it a try.”

His dad stared at him with intense, unpredictable eyes. Luke was totally still. He was worried about setting his father off.

Suddenly, the man burst out into loud, raucous laughter. Luke thought that he might fall over for a second, from the way he leaned back and his feet had to fight to retain their balance.

“You wanted to give it a try, huh?” His dad took a step toward him. “Is that so?”

He made his move suddenly. Luke jumped in his chair prepared to duck out of the way of his father’s fist. But instead of lunging for him, he swept the top row of Luke’s bookshelf onto the floor in a single, angry, sweeping movement.

“You think you can ignore your school work for that stupid game?” He had continued with his rant before Luke had a chance to respond. “And yes, it is stupid. I helped fucking design it, Luke. It’s an addictive waste of time. Playing it is the same as throwing your life away.”

He kicked one of the books on the ground toward Luke. It flew through the air and struck the edge of his desk. Luke flinched, it wasn’t uncommon for his dad to get this drunk, and he’d experienced worse dozens of times.

Why do I care so much, this time?

“You don’t understand, Luke,” whispered his dad. “Not a goddamn thing…”

Luke thought for a moment that his dad was going to spit on the floor in front of him, but he just stood there. After what felt like an eternity, he turned and left the room, stumbling down the hall on unsteady feet. Luke didn’t waste any time when he heard the door close.

His school bag was a couple feet away from his bed. He picked it up and stuffed his books inside, along with the headset and his laptop, shifting everything so that it could all fit. Then, he slipped open his window and silently climbed onto the roof of the garage. Shutting it behind him, he waited to make sure he hadn’t been heard before dropping down to the ground below.

He’s too drunk for me to take any chances tonight.

The moon was out, though its pale light provided little illumination compared to the double moons of Yvvaros. Luke shook his head. Comparing the two worlds was surreal. He walked as if in a dream until he reached the familiar park that he’d spent so much time in.

Thankfully the benches on the edge of the field were empty. He came here often to escape his father’s rages, and occasionally they were taken by people loitering or sleeping. 

Well, that is essentially what I’m here to do, too.

Luke sighed as he lowered himself down onto a bench, setting his bag against the armrest and leaning his head against it. He was genuinely tired, not so much physically, but mentally. It felt as though he’d lived an entire day inside of Yvvaros. Now he was stealing what little sleep he could before the next day began.

A couple of birds began whistling and chirping in the distance.

So much for that idea.

In the end, Luke did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep. He left the park early, right as the sun was starting to rise, and walked to school. The clothes he had on were the same ones that he’d worn the day before, but there was nothing he could do about that, other than preparing himself for the taunts and jeers of his classmates.

The sun was still low in the sky when he arrived. Luke saw the assistant principal unlocking the front door and waited for her to head inside before he slipped in. The halls were empty, giving the building an eerie ambiance.

He dropped his books and bag at his locker, the sound of the metal creaking and the door slamming echoed down the corridor. Then, he headed straight to his first class. The teacher wasn’t there yet, and neither were any of the other students. He found his desk and collapsed down into it, his eyes growing heavy as he rested his head on his arms.

It’s Friday, if I can just make it through today I’ll have the entire weekend to...

To what? He backed his thoughts up a couple of paces and realized that all he really wanted to do was to go back to Yvvaros. The experience he’d shared with Ben, the fighting, the exploring, even the virtual ale drinking in the inn, all of it had felt meaningful. But school had never felt that way for him, and his home life certainly hadn’t either.

Is my dad right about me, after all?

Without realizing it, Luke drifted off to sleep again. He awoke to the sound of laughter, and could feel the attention of the room on him without even needing to look around.

“Well, at least he’s on time for once!” He heard the room erupt into a chorus of laughter. From the corner of his eye, Luke saw someone sit down next to him.

“I guess we’ll need a new name for you, Luke.” His tormentor from yesterday was leering at him, tall and arrogant. “How about… Ass Hat?”

The room laughed even harder. Luke rolled his eyes.

Has the entire class regressed back to the mindset of a bunch of ten-year-olds?

Brett slapped his hand on Luke’s desk and his books went flying to the ground. Without really thinking about what he was doing, Luke stood up. The jock was in his face in an instant, his cocky sneer made Luke’s blood boil.

“Go ahead, fuck face,” said the jerk. “Do it. See what happens.”

Luke couldn’t stop himself. Even though he knew it was stupid, he curled his hand into a fist and threw it forward. It caught Brett in the stomach and he doubled over.

“You fucking bastard!” Another of his classmates, another jock dressed in his varsity jacket jumped up and moved toward Luke. Two more joined in, and before Luke had time to execute an escape plan, they had thrown him to the ground and begun pummeling him with blows.

Worth it. Totally worth it.

It was painful, but Luke felt proud even as the beating intensified. One of their fists struck him across the face, and he felt his lip begin to bleed freely into his mouth.

“Stop this right now!” Their teacher had finally entered the room. He was an older man with a regressing hairline and protruding belly. “Who started this?”

“Luke sucker punched Brett,” said one of the jocks. “All we were doing was holding him down, he’s fucking crazy.”

“Watch your mouth,” said the teacher. “Luke, detention, now.”

Luke stood up and took a long look around the room as he dusted himself off. The eyes that met his were changed. There was no deprecating humor in them. He was no longer the brunt of a joke but a threat. Their expressions were full of loathing and anger.

Luke represented a kind of solitary strength and resilience that most of them were inherently afraid of and incapable of understanding. The fight was over, and even though he’d lost, he left the room unbroken.

I’ve had worse that this before. Much worse.

The school’s disciplinarian took her time chewing Luke out. He wasn’t overly concerned about her threats of suspension or expulsion for fighting in school, but he kept his mouth shut anyway. Anything he said in his defense would end up sounding as unrepentant as he felt.

He spent the morning in an empty, windowless room that felt a lot like a jail cell. He was allowed out for lunch, thankfully, and he stopped by the bathroom to survey the damage to his face on his way to the cafeteria.

As expected, his lip was badly swollen. There was also a small cut on his forehead and a fist-sized bruise on his right cheek. It was actually worse than what he’d imagined, but he endured the pain of washing his face and tried to forget about the fight.

The cafeteria was already full when he arrived. He walked over to join the end of the line for school lunch before remembering that his account was empty and he had no money to spend on food. Usually, he grabbed lunch from the fridge, but that hadn’t been possible for him that morning.

Whatever.

Luke sighed, and walked over to an empty table and sat down. He didn’t really care about the insults that much, and the fight had been more of a physical inconvenience than anything. Not having lunch after having not eaten breakfast or dinner the night before, now that was real torture.

“Luke…” Sam’s voice came from behind him and he looked over his shoulder in time to see her smile shift into shock when she saw his face. “My god, what happened to you?”

“Oh, you know…” Luke shrugged. “I fell down on my way to my locker.”

Sam rolled her eyes and then sat down next to him. She didn’t say anything for a moment. She just looked at him as though she understood what had happened without needing an honest explanation.

“Where’s your lunch?” she asked.

Luke smiled at her and waved dismissively.

“Don’t worry about me, Sam,” he said. “I’m just having one of those days.”

Sam was quiet as she took her lunchbox out of her bag. It was bigger than the one she’d had the day before, and she set it on the table in between the two of them.

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” she said softly. “Here, have some of mine.”

She opened it. There was a lot of food, and when she handed Luke a fork, something clicked in his head.

“This… looks like it was meant for two people, Sam.”

She smiled at him, blushed a little, and then nodded slightly.

“Well, it was,” she said.

Luke’s heart shifted into a new rhythm. He was suddenly very aware of how close Sam was sitting to him. He suddenly felt the stress of the day melt away. He reached his fork over, stabbed a grape and popped it into his mouth.

“Thanks, Sam,” he said. “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time.”

“Luke…” Sam had an embarrassed look on her face. She frowned. “I have to be honest, I was going to share this with Mike, but he had to meet with one of his teachers.”

The grape suddenly tasted bitter and acrid in Luke’s mouth.

“Oh, right, of course,” he said. “Well, I just forgot my own lunch today. You know, I wasn’t… I mean, I didn’t think...”

His face felt hot, and he wanted to kick himself for being such a fool.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” said Sam. “I mean, you knew that we are dating, though, right? Mike and I?”

I had absolutely no idea and wish I still didn’t.

“Yeah Sam, of course,” said Luke. “Of course I did.”

None of the punches that the jocks in first period had thrown had hurt like this. What Luke was feeling now was a different kind of pain entirely, and he desperately wanted it to fade away.

“I have to run Sam, I uh…” Luke tapped his hand on the table as he stood up, no excuse coming to him right away. “I forgot something in my locker.”

“Luke, wait a sec,” said Sam. “You don’t have to-”