A World That Never Was

Eddie woke to an intense throbbing pain in his temple, his chest felt like somebody had decided to use it for batting practice and his eye still hurt from the tray he took to the eye.

There was a solid beep coming from within the room in which he lay and he felt like he was laying on something soft, maybe a bed. Eddie groaned as he pulled up an arm from under the sheet that was laid upon him and he rubbed his forehead lightly.

“He lives!” The voice was very familiar to him but it hurt to try and place the name with it.

Some movement was heard around him, footsteps and the sound of rustling clothes and other materials. Eddie hadn’t opened his eyes to see because his head was throbbing so intensely that he didn’t want to but he could definitely feel that there were people surrounding him in the room in which he lay.

“Thank god.”

“How do ya feel?”

Eddie groaned and scowled “Like shit…what do you think?” He responded.

Eddie was in a particular bad mood right about now. He had just lost a fight against Ricky, for the second consecutive time, and he felt like a monkey decided to crawl into his ear and use his nerves as vines to swing from. He still had no idea who he was talking to.

“Don’t go getting smart mouth with me. I was just trying to see if you needed anything.”

“Where am I?” Eddie asked whoever was standing around him.

“Hospital, son. Don’t you remember anything?” This was obviously Eddie’s father.

Eddie shook his head slowly and remained silent. It was hurting his head to speak and he had just turned even sourer being provided with the information that Ricky Mane had hospitalized him. Eddie found this simply outrageous. Of course he knew that he was outnumbered three to one and there wasn’t much of a likeliness that he was to win but the fact that the fight involved Ricky made it unacceptable the he lost. Losing one time was one thing but twice put Ricky at the top of his revenge list. You might say Eddie had too much pride to just let it go and take into consideration that it wasn’t a fair fight.

“You all should allow him to get his rest. One visitor at a time, please. If he will take them.” It was a voice he did not recognize, probably that of the doctors.

“We’ll come to bug you later, scar boy.”

Skyy. She was here? How long had he been out? Eddie sat up a little and turned his head in the direction of the sounds leaving the room “Skyy…” He spoke out.

“Hm?”

“Stay….”

A single pair of steps came back to the bed side and then he heard a chair being pulled across the floor and a body flop down into it “Yeah?”

Eddie grunted as he made an effort to sit up and lean his head against the wall above his pillow.

“How long have I been in here?”

“Um.....almost half a day. From lunch until now. 10 P.M.” Skyy stated.

Eddie sighed and shook his head as he slowly opened up his eyes against the nagging pain and looked to Skyy who had a rather distressed look upon her face. Eddie perked an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked her curiously.

She looked at him and shook her head lightly before smiling “Nothing. Hey, I think your parents bought you a gift. Ya know, a get well quick type thing.”

“Yeah? What?”

Skyy shrugged lightly before standing up “I don’t know. I have to go, alright? Be seeing you. Oh and by the way, the new scars aren’t attractive.” She said this to him as she walked out of the door and closed it behind her.

Eddie furrowed his brow at that comment before becoming curious as to how many scars he had actually received from his little squabble. He pulled his legs out from under the sheets and let his bare feet touch the cool floor. He was wearing one of those hospital gowns and could feel the cold air on his back from where it was open.

It hurt to stand. Apparently they had done some pretty bad damage to his torso because it hurt to breath and he felt stiff. Slowly, Eddie made his way across the room and into the bathroom where he could have a look at his face. He hesitated to turn on the light for fear of the worse but he sucked it up and flicked the light switch up.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Eddie screamed at the top of his lungs.

The door to the room was heard slamming open and in came Eddie’s father.

“What’s the…”

“Where the hell is my hair?! I’m bald!” Eddie interrupted as he beamed towards his father.
His father only began to chuckle and then laugh loudly before shaking his head “And here I thought something was the matter with you.”

“Something is the matter! I’m bald!” It hurt to yell.

A doctor entered the room; apparently Eddie was being far too loud. The doctor asked him to keep his voice down and then left the room again.

“Calm down, son. They had to cut your hair off so that they could stitch up your head.”

Eddie went wide eyed and looked back to the mirror. He tilted his head down and to the right and sure enough there were stitches lining his head. He didn’t have anything to say about this and he just fell back against the wall and groaned heavily because of the stitches, his lost hair, and the fact that he had just smacked the back of his head against the wall.
“It’s not the end of the world, son.”

Just as his father had spoken these words more people entered the room, coming to find out what all the commotion was about.

“What’s going on, Eddie?” Eddie’s mother asked her husband.

“Our son just found out he was bald.” His father said still snickering. Apparently it was hilarious.

Mr. Zagorac was sharply punched in the side by Mrs. Zagorac causing him to grunt and then retreat away. Mrs. Zagorac walked into the bathroom closer to her son.

“It’s not so bad. You look kind of cute bald.” She told him, trying to help.

Eddie looked up at her with a frown “Yeah….I bet. And all the new scars just appeal to all the ladies huh?” He questioned sarcastically.

Skyy had been completely right when she said that the new scars weren’t attractive. The one of his left eye was interesting and Eddie thought it looked really cool. Like he was some sort of soldier or something. But these new scars were pretty bad and in Eddie’s opinion made him look like his face had met a cheese grater.

“They’ll heal up in no time, hun. The doctor said it’s nothing more than bruises and cuts.”
“That’s what they said about this one.” He said pointing to his left eye scar. “I could be wrong but that still seems to be around.”

“Don’t get smart assed with me, boy. As your mother, I reserve the right to beat the daylight out of you.” His mother threatened him.

Eddie frowned lightly and figured he should stop while he was ahead so he just nodded and walked around his mother to sit on the bed. Reaching a hand up, he touched some of his cuts and bruises lightly, wincing as he did so.

“Skyy told me you guys bought me something as a gift. What is it?” He asked as he mother came out from the bathroom as well and sat down in a chair by the bed side.

“A new game. I can’t remember the name but it just came onto the market.”

“A game? What kind of game?” Eddie perked an eyebrow.

“It’s a computer game. I think your father said it was an......MMORPG? Something like that. It’s supposed to use the newest technology for gaming experiences.” Mrs. Zagorac tried to explain.

Eddie pondered about it for a moment. He hadn’t heard anything of a new MMO but then again a lot of these things go around him. It wasn’t like he was some kind of game freak or anything. Even so, he was excited to play it. This new technology sounded intriguing.

“Get some rest, ok? The doctor says you should be ok to go home tomorrow.” His mother patted his leg gently before standing and beginning out of the room.

Eddie decided he didn’t have anything else to do so he laid back and went to sleep
~
“So you’re saying we can all play?”

“Yeah. It costs like 75 bucks a month but you get like five free hours to test it out and see if you like it or not”

Eddie was at home, standing around his computer along with Aliyah and Mark. Mark was right next to Damian in the best friend line up and he had known him a little bit longer than he had known Damian. They had opened the box to the game that was called Chasm and taken the time to register Eddie onto the main server and they were currently waiting for the game to finish downloading onto his computer.

Reading through the manual a little bit, Mark came to the understanding that the game was actually a virtual reality game and while playing Eddie’s mind would be, in a ways, linked to the game. The creators and service providers said it was completely safe and even if the game shut off while you were logged in you would simply be able to remove the helmet and continue on with everyday life. Everything in the game was controlled by mind through the helmet which was provided upon game purchase.

“75 dollars? All of this sure sounds expensive,” Aliyah started “I mean, we both spent 50 buying these helmets.” She said to Mark.

Mark nodded “I know, but it’ll so be worth it. Virtual reality! WHOO!!” He yelled as he threw his arms up in the air.

Eddie grinned and shook his head lightly but agreed with Mark completely. Playing with other people online in a virtual reality MMORPG was going to be really interesting. He wondered how it would look, how smoothly it would play, what kind of limitations there were and how powerful a character could get.

“I think it’s done.” Aliyah exclaimed.

“Hell yeah! Eddie, sit down and gear up. I’ll hook you up and everything.” Mark told him.

Eddie nodded his head with excitement as he slipped on the helmet over his head. Inside the helmet was dark and you couldn’t see anything really as the visor fell to about chin level.

“Ok. I’ll get Eddie in first and then you next Aliyah.” Mark spoke as he worked. You could hear typing on the keyboard and clicking of the mouse “Alright…you should be loading up. Um…how do we know if he’s in?”

Eddie saw a flash of light and then a screen appeared on the visor in front of his eyes. The Chasm logo flashed by the screen and then there was a blinding light as Eddie felt his body go numb before it felt like he had literally died.