Endless Fantasy Life

Chapter 1 : Login

Bottles smash against the wooden slatted walls. The crowd began to hoot and holler as the fighting began to escalate. Some of the stools were the next thing to go, they smash into a couple, who were of course uninterested in the fight until then. It was like every other day in the bar.

"Listen up!" My voice cried out, doing its best to overcome the excess of noise in the room. When another wave a bottles were tossed, this time by a gust of wind magic, I could feel myself lose my temper. "You come to my bar, and this is how you act?"

Rylan noticed my temper reach it’s limit and did his best to dissuade me. "Lex, calm down, you know how people can get. We can just call the guards right now, and they will handle this for you." He continued to plea with me, but I no longer cared.

"Hear me spirits." The words slipped from my mouth as I began to visualize my hands slipping into the etheric plane. My being calling out for specters to entertain my call. Slithering across my fingertips and expelling themselves into our world. Wailing filled the packed bar as the specters swarmed above me, forming an unnatural cloud.

"Bind." The hushed word I spoke relayed my desire. The summoned apparitions took flight and began to wrap themselves around my rowdy customers. Patrons who hadn’t joined in the fight, now backed to the sides of the bar, to avoid being targeted by what was to come.

From the couple who had joined in, the woman was a wizard and began to chant a spell to counteract my summons. "Shh." I raise a finger to my lips, eyes still closed. The female wizard began to choke as the air within her escaped leaving her silent. Slowly, I open my eyes and set them upon my bar’s attackers. It was in their best interest to listen to what I next said, for it will determine much of their fate.

"Who will pay for the damage done to my bar?" I scan their faces, the three men who started the fight just glare back at me. When my attention turns to the boyfriend of the woman I left choaking, he nods his head glancing between his suffocating love and myself. "It is decided then." I glare at the three men and feel the dark desire for their deaths within me. The spirits that bound them coiled upward on them, their heads turning into that of a snake. A smirk springs upon me as the spectral serpents swallow them whole and strip away their souls.

My foes fall to the floor, now freed from my hold, but at the price of their lives. Their flesh grays and grows cold as they were returned to where they had once came. I beckon Rylan and point to the bodies. "Loot them, and put all they own for auction." With a simple nod Rylan moves to their corpses and takes everything they have item by item. Now nude, their corpses require disposal.

I glance to wizard and her man. With my will, the spirits that bound them relinquished their hold, and air once again filled her lungs. She went to speak out against me, but her boy toy pulled her back and shook his head in disapproval. "You." I spoke facing her and then turn to the bodies that still lay upon my floor. "Dispose of those and I will forgive your transgression."

Her face twist in anger for a moment, but as I began to glare back she changed her expression to a passive one and she lowered her head as she turned to the bodies. "Flames gather, burn and flicker. These corpses now be made cinder. Consuming Flare!" A wave of energy burst from her being as the bodies that lay still suddenly found themselves engulfed in flames. The smell of burning flesh hangs in air for a few moments and then just the smell of heat remained.

"Free drinks to whoever cleans up the remains." I speak coldly as my mood begins to improve. A child in the crowd comes forward with a cloth and an empty pack. He kneels down and quickly scoops the ashes into it. He pauses before closing the bag and offers it to me.

I ignore him and make my way to the back of the bar to calm down. As I push open the iron reinforced oak door to the back, I hear Rylan speaking with the child. "Keep the ashes, and sell them to a Necromancer, or keep them for yourself." His choice to give the ashes to the child bothers me little as I try to take my mind off of combat.

I rub my temples and attempt to regain my control. As I try to take a breath I feel a warmth from my hands. I bring them before me and examine them. It doesn’t take more than a second to see the faint glow they give off, and tiny flames that spring off of them from time to time. "Damn." I slam my fist into the wall and take another deep breath.

Being a sorcerer was difficult for me. My emotions and desires could tap into the world itself and call upon virtually any power. The ability would be perfect if not for the emotional strength required to keep my magic in check. I can only cast so much magic in a day, and I try not to waste it. "Ugh." I lean into my hands and struggle to come to my senses.

"James." A voice calls out to me but comes from my head not my ears. "James!" As his voice gets louder I realize who is calling me. I put my character on pause for a moment and remove my mental link from the game.

"What?" My eyes open and I see my husband standing over my V.R. chamber. Simeon just looks at me and makes a face showing his aggravation. "What is it Simeon? I was in the middle of something." He rolls his eyes and motions for me to open my chamber’s lid.

With the touch of a button located by my left hip, the reinforced glass that covers me retracts into itself and slides seamlessly into the foot of my chamber. I sit up and and shake my head. "Did you take a break today?" Simeon asks, already knowing the answer won’t be the one he wants to hear.

"I did." I play along with him, knowing full well what comes next.

"Did you disconnect and take it out of the game?" Simeon’s face is already getting red. He’s been on a kick for me to stop and take a break in the real world, and not just in the game.

"You know I can’t do that. I’m working." I feel myself start to get upset again, because he just seems to never understand.

"Why don’t you log out and eat with me? That meal replacement the game fills you with is just unnatural. You need real food, you need to stretch your legs." Simeon’s concern was understandable, but he just couldn’t see my side of the discussion.

"I can’t just ’disconnect’, I own a bar for god’s sake, you know how it works." I feel my eye twitch as he tisks at me. "I need to work, how else do you expect us to pay for what we have?" I throw my hands up pointing all around us. Our house wasn’t anything crazy, but a two bedroom ranch was more than he and I would ever need.

"Oh, so now it’s my fault because I don’t ’work’." He turns his back to me and begins to walk away, but before he leaves he turns to me once again. "You know what? Why don’t you just stay in there, forget I even asked to spend some time with you." His eyes water, but he’s still angry.

"Baby, you know I’d love to spend time with you. Why can’t you just come see me for lunch at the bar? I could at least talk to you a little while I work. You know you are welcome to come hang around or even work there if you want." It broke my heart to have him think I didn’t want to be with him. I just couldn’t leave my business unattended, if he saw what had just happened, he’d understand.

"No, I’m busy trying to live in the ’real world’." He stretched out the words ’real’ and ’world’ as he spoke to me. "I may not be a famous painter yet, but at least what I do is real. That game is just a game, and it’s never going to hold up to the test of time. I don’t see what you see in it, and at least one of us should actually be living." He turns his back to me and continues to leave the room.

"Well fuck you too!" I scream angry all over again. How can he say what I do isn’t real? Everything we own is basically paid for because I ’play that game’. I shake my head and try not to wish ill on him. Thank the universe I wasn’t a sorcerer in real life, because I don’t think he would have been walking away from me after being so demeaning.

I lay back down in my chamber and hesitate as I reach for the button. Maybe I should quit the game. Would that make Simeon happy? I shake my head again. Our bills, I pay our bills with this. The game started out as a pastime, but once I opened the bar and started pulling in an income, it was more than that. Just because my business was virtual, it didn’t make it any less real.

I slap the button to close my chamber and exhale as I reestablish my link to the game. This is our life, and he needs to understand that.