Here lies Susan Dharma
2043-2060
“Well, Sue, I finally came to see you. And this time I’m not an utter mess.”
Although I had been at the funeral, the drugs they had given me at the Wona asylum had numbed me to the grief and left me a bumbling, wheelchair-bound fool. This was the first time I had visited the grave while fully lucid, and the guilt that it had taken me this long to give her a proper farewell dug at my heart. I tried to come up with something to say, but it was hard knowing she wouldn’t be able to hear me.
My mother had driven me to the graveyard today. It was a warm day, and she had offered to come with me to the grave for moral support and physical support if I needed it. She had never really stopped worrying about me after my month-long paralysis, no matter how many times I showed her I was fine to walk on my own now, so I requested she wait in the car. I was now glad I had because I was doing this all wrong. My lips weren’t trembling, my forehead wasn’t creased, and tears weren’t spilling down my cheeks like they were supposed to. The grief was coming out in another way. Anger tightened the cords in my neck until I felt like my skull was going to pop off.
“You were just a pawn!” I spat in my sudden fury. “Just another piece that Malcolm could shift so he could have his revenge. Now I’m the leader of Catastrophe and trying to prevent that. And here I was, just a few weeks ago, trying to avenge you by taking them out! The irony makes me want to puke!”
I was panting now, trying to keep it contained, hoping that no one else could hear me. The graveyard had been empty when I had arrived, but no doubt there was some old widow here now, updating her deceased husband on the latest gossip, and here I was having a tantrum like a child.
It didn’t matter. I needed to get this out.
“Now it turns out he’s achieved immortality. No one knows how, and on the very game you were trying to get pulled! You call that fair?” I exhaled heavily and forced a smile. “But that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few months, working with Windsor and trying to figure out how he did it. And once I find out, I’m going to destroy whatever’s left of him.”
The sun went behind a cloud, leaving me in shadow.
“I’m also helping this girl, Chloe. Her brother went missing a few years back, and we’ve been trying to track him through the game, but we haven’t had much luck. After what I did to find you in there, I can understand how she feels. I don’t think she’s deluding herself like I was, though. We met him, heard his voice, and . . .”
How would Sue have felt if she knew that Chloe and I were in a relationship less than a year after she had passed on? Knowing Sue, the fact that I worked as a gamer for Wona would have been enough to make her upset. But I had been playing for her . . . at first, anyway. After Samuel—or Sirswift, as he had been known in-game—was given twenty years in prison for assisting in her murder, it no longer felt like I was playing it for her sake.
“Murders, betrayals, kidnappings, and a ghost in the game. That’s what my life’s been like since you died. After everything that’s changed, it kind of feels like I died myself in that crash, but then if I had I would be with you and, well . . .”
I shook my head and turned to leave.
Before I could enter the next row of graves, I stopped and ran back. “Oh, that’s right! Brock managed to spread the news of Wona’s disreputable past, just like you always wanted. Congratulations, I guess. After they found out about Malcolm stealing the video evidence of the beta testers dying, Windsor and Brock made a deal to release them to the public. I think Windsor didn’t want it being leaked. Finding out that his old friend was not only alive, but also trying to sabotage his life’s work, he had no hard feelings releasing the videos so long as the company could put their own spin on it. As a result, and if you’re not rolling over in your grave now, you’re about to be . . .”
My anger became mirth, my emotions needing some kind of outlet, even an inappropriate one. I raised my hand to hide my amusement, despite no one else being around to see it. I was really glad my mother hadn’t come with me for emotional support now. She would’ve thought I was a monster.
“Hearing there was the ghost of one of the game creators inside the game itself . . . only made the Dream State more popular. It was already the most popular game in the world, and revealing that Malcolm’s experiments led to the deaths of several people actually made it more popular! Can you believe that?”
I burst out laughing. Yes, I was well aware that I was standing in a graveyard in front of my dead girlfriend’s tombstone, keeled over with laughter. I must’ve looked absolutely insane, but considering what I had just told Sue, I was only fitting in with the rest of the world by this point.
I wiped a tear from my eye. “I tell ya, you’re the lucky one. I just hope that if there’s a heaven, it doesn’t have social media.”
I waved at the tombstone—not in goodbye, but as though it didn’t get the joke—and made my way back to the car. As soon as I saw my mother’s drawn face through the windshield, I tried to hide my smile from her. The drive back to the Wona facility—where I now lived—was nearly an hour away and I could only hope I could manage to hold down my rising mirth for that long.
We pulled up in front of the Wona facility—a big, rectangular, glass-paneled tower inside of a larger compound. Since the announcement of ‘Malcolm’s Ghost,’ as the issue had been dubbed, the entrance had been mobbed with paparazzi, and I was relieved that the journalists had thinned out to a few desperate conspiracy theorists and hippies holding up signs like “Wona is keeping the secret to immortality!”
Windsor had told us not to talk to anyone about it, not only because he didn’t know how Malcolm had done what he had, but also because he knew the mystery was a great marketing ploy, as people would now join the game in the hope of uncovering it. Even now there were gamers who were going into dungeon after dungeon looking for Malcolm. They called themselves Ghost Hunters. However, there were other professionals and companies that had bought into the immortality idea as well and wanted the secret for themselves.
For the Wona Company, these people were the most dangerous.
I wound down the window and used my I.D. to let us through the gates. As though trying to avoid the elephant in the room, Mom continued to try making up excuses for why my father hadn’t come this time. She didn’t need to explain it to me. It was the same reason he barely paid attention to me while I was stuck in the Dream State: workaholic, another residence, a new woman. He’d give me several reasons for why he neglected me and I’d match him. Like father, like son, I guess.
“He had to go on another trip and—”
I raised a hand to stop her. “I’m a Cat Stevens song, I get it. And I really don’t mind. I’m making more money working for Wona than he is as a financial advisor. If I really wanted to see him, I’d just get him to advise me on my finances, Mom.”
She gave me a cheeky smile. “Imagine his face.”
“That’s why I was smiling on the ride back,” I lied, and went to get out.
Before I could shut the passenger door, she leaned over to hold it open.
“We’re having Christmas at my place this time, remember?”
I waved to her. “I know. I’ll be there.”
She smiled and returned to her seat.
“I’ll bring my new girlfriend,” I quickly added before slamming the door shut and bolting toward the main entrance before she could ask me any more questions about her.
I made my way through the sliding doors into the reception area. Wanda, the busybody receptionist, looked up at me as I went to pass her.
“Mr. Newbolt, I was told to warn you that you have a meeting with Windsor in twenty minutes,” she said in her high-pitched voice.
“I know, I know.”
I eyed the plump woman. From her fake nails, quaffed red hair, and blood-red lipstick, she clearly put effort into her appearance. Yet the facility had a gym, and I was confused as to why she never took advantage of the one thing that might have helped her look a little healthier. I guess some people were just repelled by the notion of sweating and panting for a few hours.
“I’ve also been told to remind you that you still need to decide on a new name for your team. Do you have any ideas for one?”
I grimaced. My team was still called Catastrophe. The name had a ring to it but definitely didn’t give off the vibe I wanted. We had a few new recruits who were doing tryouts for positions, and I felt like I should have the new team name ready before they were initiated.
“Ah . . . presently? I’m coming up with zero.”
She raised a plucked eyebrow at me. “Zero?”
“I mean nada, zip, zot, naught, nil, or any other synonym you can find for nothing; you choose.”
She began tapping one of her fake nails against the desk.
I raised my palms. “Listen, I just came back from my ex-girlfriend’s grave. I need a little time to recoup. But I’ll be at the meeting with Win, I promise.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know you will. I’ll be calling the phone in your room if you’re late.”
As I walked away, I couldn’t help but grin. The last time she had tried that, I had disconnected my phone. I made my way to the elevator, swiped my card, entered, and punched the button for the eighth floor—my floor.
Since I was so busy, I never really had any time to spend my money, even though everything was within walking distance. I wondered if my workaholic father had the same problem. Without rent to pay, my money was just piling up with no real purpose. Sure, I could go on vacation somewhere, but there was never really anywhere I was interested in going IRL.
Maybe Chloe might want to go away somewhere.
Her room was right across from mine. Arriving at my floor, I figured I should ask her now that it was on my mind. I read the gold numbering to her door more out of habit than necessity. For all I knew, this floor was for my team alone, and it seemed my other teammates still lived off the compound. As soon as I came to Room 8-6 and knocked on the door, I realized how bizarre it felt to knock when I had slept in her room about the same amount of times as she had slept in mine.
A surplus of money, world-class accommodation, and a beautiful girlfriend. I must be the luckiest—
The door opened and a raccoon emerged—or at least a human with the blackened eye rings of a raccoon. I stepped back as she pawed at her hair that seemed to stick up in all directions.
“Noah?” Chloe groaned. “It’s so early. What do you want?”
I frowned. “It’s nearly lunchtime.”
She rubbed her graying eyes. “Seriously?”
She suddenly jolted forward and looked up at me as something dawned on her. She grabbed hold of my shirt, and with a quick look down the corridor, pulled me into her room. The place was a mess with papers, cartons of fast food, and vials of DSD lying on the white carpet around where her Dream Engine lay. It was leaning against the arm of her disheveled couch like it had fallen off her head while she had been sleeping. Something was up.
“What is it?” I asked. “Chloe, what?”
She grabbed a second Dream Engine and held it out to me. Although tired, she sported a determined frown. “I found something in a dungeon. Let me show you.”
I raised my hands. “If it’s something you can only show me, do it when I get back from my meeting with Windsor. My meeting’s less than twenty minutes away. Going through a dungeon would take too long. Besides, you look like you didn’t get enough sleep anyway.”
“I’m fine,” she yawned.
I shook my head. “I won’t be gone long. Just count some sheep and I’ll be back in no time.”
She gave me a mischievous grin and grabbed my sleeve. “Cuddle first. It’ll help me get back to sleep.”
I rolled my eyes. “Alright, just a quick one.”