Visionless Reality

Two

        Waking up to my senses, my arms squeezing the messy looking roll of the blanket, cuddling with my cozy dreams, my blurred vision, showed me the reality. The room was filled with merrier lights and the clock was pointing 11:23... Following the natural routine, I jotted down a few major projects I needed to complete that day. Finally, about half an hour later, someone pinged me on my cellphone. It was one of my teammate. Due to the winter vacations, we all had some sort of similarity in our routines. My whole COD team was online. I agreed to join them in a few minutes for I just woke up. It was late than my normal time. I rushed into my bathroom, brushed my teeth while taking a shower, and finally got ready for some action.

        So all the teammates were available. Trisma, the medic guy. Extremely loud on his mic, hoarse voice with a pinch of aggression. He was the only one who knows every details on each map. Kanei, the sniper. The sweet bully. My schoolmate. Known for his high pitch voice with a body of a bully. The person who is a pistol champion in real world. Knows everything about real life weapons. He is the calmest teammate I can ever have. Mudshei, the knifer. We call him ‘mushy’. The person who is hard to trust. He is often compared to Loki in the matter of his mischiefs. He was caught eating hamburger in a police car. He offered the policemen in the car, a hamburger each and made them his friends. And finally Akashi, the camper, that’s me. Yes, I am a camper and I am proud of it. I know the location of various kinds of loot, found in the game. We also have a 5th player, Safina which is currently not available as her controller broke last week.

        Enough with the description, let’s kick some asses. Geared up with the headsets, turning on the do not disturb mode, and the room was on RGB lights. This type of environment is the best for having a great gaming session. The whole team was on fire due to the snow covered on their main gates.

‘Hey you little smudge, do not play with me. I am done with this s**t. I will make you repent for this, just wait for my chance.’-Trisma.

‘People with calm nerves, often find success in their jobs. Play easy or you will end up asking for some medicals.’-Kanei.

‘You know what, I don’t give a s**t about your medic kit. I don’t need your help. Just shut up your mic.’-Trisma.

‘Hey the snow was heavy yesterday dude. My father was to go to his office and made me labor all the snow out to get his car going.’-Mushy.

‘Why should I be cared about your father and his car? This snow is making me sick! Oh Jesus…’-Trisma.

‘What’s your problem Tris? Can’t you play without spitting on your mic?’-Mushy.

‘You know what, I’ve not puffed a single pipe today and I am feeling depressed, just because of this dammit snow… mounted on the door. Yeahhhh… told ya. Don’t mess with me you little smudge.’-Trisma.

‘I think this is good for you. I mean this will help you leave your habit, and finally you can save more for the VR setup of your dream.’

‘Listen Akashi! No one’s is as rich as you are and neither anyone asking for your assistance. You use that rig to get the most out of the game… that doesn’t mean that you will make someone feel inferior. I know what to do with my money… so, it’s better to preach someone else.’-Trisma.

        Like always, the conversation went towards my family being rich. It was not my fault being born in a rich family. I must be proud of this thing but I was not. I was annoyed hearing such things about me but, as always, I stayed calm and silent.

‘Why do you bring his family in petty matters huh? He wants to help you, get rid of your filthy habit of smoking in the morning, and you are humiliating him… You can’t ever succeed in your life just like your drunkard father.’-Kanei.

‘One more word about my father and I am coming straight to your home and will punch your little nose, till it spurts out the blood.’-Trisma.

‘Okay guys my fault, sorry! Let’s focus on the game please everyone. Thank god we are not playing live. Making such a big issue!’

‘You know what, I am done for today. You guys continue. See you tomorrow!’-Trisma.

        He left the ongoing match and we were upset for him. Being an addict, he had lots of things to suffer. His drunkard father beats the hell out of him. I have seen the red lines on his arms and dried tears on his face. His mother is also abused for raising such a scoundrel. But Trisma was a person with a brave heart. Anyone can be his friend due to his attractive skills of communication. Being that the reason, he had the most of the followers on his Twitch account, more than the sum of our followers, and we were jealous of him. He was the star of gaming community.

        The match ended with our victory but due to absence of Trisma, we didn’t feel good enough to enjoy. 15:26… The deadline was near and I was still unsure of my blog article. ‘The art of avendo spasso’ was the blog I had to update weekly. Being addicted to gaming, I was attracted towards discovering and reviewing latest games, mediums of entertainment and the technology. This was the day of updating the blog. I continued editing and proofreading the article and finally posted it. It was astonishing to see the huge community, praising my works and sharing it, to expand my reach. I was always grateful to have such a supporting and loving community. That was the first time I thought of meeting followers in person.

        18:10… As a routine, I believed that taking a nap before doing a big job, it would help you perform better. According to the list, I did all the necessary works to be done that day and the last one was left. The live gaming session. I updated my members to join the game at 22:00 and went to take a nap. It was a matter of recent days when this all started. Playing for longer hours have affected my brain as well as my health. But I was being affected more after meditating for a few days. In this nap too, I was not asleep. I can hear everything but can’t see. I can feel everything, but can’t move. I can think everything, but can’t stop my brain overthink.

        All I could see were some mirrors, reflecting my whole attire. Reflecting my emotions. Each of them, one by one. Reflecting the gruesome memories of that creepy shadow, peeping through the window, giving a sharp look into my soul. It was all visuals that were reflected in my brain. I can hear unknown screaming and the noise of an engine. Then all of a sudden, I landed into a similar environment. It was dark everywhere. All I could hear were some footsteps and the crawling of some people. Only a gate was visible amongst the dark world. Light was focused on that old brown door beside a creek. I tried to open it and it burst with an explosion into its fragments. Everything muted. Only audible was a siren of a constant frequency. Being irritated, I ran into the door and found the shredded pieces, covered in blood and mass. With extreme disgust, I ran away from it and unexpectedly fell into a pit. But this one was different, never ending one, with mirrors all around, reflecting my emotions.

        I was jumbled at the end of the pit. It was ending with a never ending path, folding into an overlapping curve, which was becoming smaller and smaller as I approached towards it. 21:49… It was almost time for the live stream and I was still not ready. I grabbed some tortillas and nuggets from the dinner table and chewed it, setting up my system for the session. My phone was dead and on plugging in the charger, pinged multiple times, going mad at me like it was my girlfriend. The messages were from my squad. They were already streaming and needed me immediately. I joined the server and started the game but… heck. The game had another update. I updated it yesterday only but these developers are so excited to throw out latest features like they want extra money for rolling out updates frequently. Someone said it wise- ‘The one who gets late, will get late.’ I discontinued all of my services so that the update may thrust to the end and finally, it was done.

        I connected to the server, started the game and finally was live.

‘So, hey guys we are live again. I hope you all are alive and breathing. Let’s play COD the game and show them what we got.’

‘It is so irritating that we all have to update this game again and again. I am done with this. One more update this week, I am going to mail the developer, get his number and tell him how big smudge was he.’-Trisma.

‘Yo guys, pleasant to hear your voices after so many days!!!’-Kanei.

‘Oh please big body small head… We played some matches earlier today. Stop pleasing yourself hearing us, we all feel awkward.’-Mushy.

‘Okay okay peeps, let’s continue our quest for the promotion in our ranks.’-Trisma.

‘Ohh, someone is concerned about their rank.’-Mushy.

‘Yes ofcourse I am… we all have to rise together guys!’-Trisma.

        This was a phase change, or face change of our player Trisma. He tries to hide his irritation and aggression in front of his community but only his friends know the real him.

        We continued to play the match till the last squad was alive. We all strived to find the last squad alive but I know they were camping. All of a sudden, my trigger scrolled towards the wooden door I had a vision of… it was a blurred memory but I remembered that.

‘Hey guys, did you check them in that shack?’

‘Let’s check it out… IGI’-Mushy.

‘No please…’

        The door was shattered and our teammate came out asking to revive him. All of the teammates went crazy for that shack and darted it with frag grenades. One after one, all the members of the opposing team were finished, leading to our victory. That seemed terrifying to me and I was supposed to tell them, but I was sure… that would only prove me being a crackpot with some psychic powers. So I preferred not telling them.

        After ending the live stream, I gave a look into the insights of all the followers who joined me and the money I collected in that stream. Taking note of that, I went to take a sleep. As soon as I jumped on my bed, my phone pinged. It was Safina. She was missing me… and ofcourse our long gaming sessions. Of course she was my girlfriend… the one whom I helped become a gamer, or whatever she may think. I was happy for her return as I was missing her too. She was the only one I talked for late nights and shared my feelings. I finally got someone to whom I could share my recent thrilling encounters. I was to tell her everything when she reminded me of the weekend, the next day, but I preferred telling her in person. It was her plan to come to dinner at my house, each weekend. So we were to meet the next day. We chatted for a few minutes and dozed off into sweet dreams.