By David C. Daoust
Little by little the family room had lost its popularity for the night. The Lauren’s had abandoned their post, followed by the others… leaving only Harper, sitting on the floor, back pressed against the sofa, still grinding away skill points, and Grace, her little sister, laying on the sofa behind her.
A sister who had just grabbed her arm tightly.
Harper had had little sisters for most of her life, ignoring the sudden pincer clutched around her arm was second nature as she continued on her in-game experience. In game, Harper was pretty sure she had dropped down into a cavern that was known to spawn a rare creature; a creature that might give her a fairly huge boost in her goal to become an expert Splicer.
Harper had that mind-numbing techno-zombie sensation going on. The one that only a gamer who had spent a solid ten hours grinding, might know. So, when the pincer continued to grip tighter and tighter on her arm, she felt like maybe welcoming the connection to the real world. The sudden shift of light to her side was ignored as she scoured the cavern depicted on the Farwall before her. The tiny thrill was there, if only for her to know of, alone, as from behind a rather dramatic stalactite, said legendary creature, made its appearance…
“Harper,” Grace whispered.
The younger girl sounded scared, but Harper was too disconnected at the moment to pick up on it.
“Hmmm?” Harper responded, without actually paying her any attention.
‘Harper!” Grace said a bit louder, tightening her grip.
“What?” Harper finally broke free of her trance, “Oh my goodness, Grace, you’re going to cut off the blood flow in my…”
Suddenly, Harper caught sight of what her little sister was looking at- no gawking at. She found a stream of flowing bulbs of light, coming in through the vents… she failed to spot any vents… coming in from somewhere. Harper could not really make sense of it. They seemed to be everywhere at once.
“What the hell is that?” Harper asked, pushing herself off the floor, and onto the sofa. Her own body pushing Grace into cover behind her.
Suddenly the stream all flowed together, flowing into a column.
They were a series of glowing bulb-like things that Harper did not have a name for. As the column formed, it pressed together into a human form. To judge by the curve of the hips, a woman’s form.
Moments later, a glowing entity stood before the two sisters. Eyes bright, it seemed to just now discover the world it had formed in. To guess, Harper would say it seemed to collapse in disappointment, as it seemed to slouch a bit, throw its hands up, and declare: “I think I have the time right, but I still don’t seem to be in the right location!”
It scanned the room, briefly.
Unnatural eyes resting on the two girls, it then said, inexplicably: “Well, you seem much friendlier than the Moose I just met…”
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