Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  “Hold on while I conference Domenic into the call,” Mike said, as I snapped angrily.

  “Why the fuck-” the phone clicked in my ear, as I was put on hold without any further explanation.

  “Sometimes, I fucking hate you, Mike,” I muttered into the silence, as I put the phone on speaker and buried my face into the pillow. Believe it or not, I’d actually fallen back asleep by the time Mike’s voice started coming over the speaker again.

  “Jay, are you there?” Mike’s voice called out, as I was dragged back to consciousness once again.

  “Yeah, I’m here,” I unhappily croaked, wishing I hadn’t knocked my glass of water onto the floor, but not willing to get out of bed to refill it.

  “Are you on the line, Dom?” Mike asked.

  “Yes, I’m still here, Mike,” Domenic responded irritably, the exhaustion plain in his voice.

  “Good, because the two of you are going to talk this out,” Mike stated in no uncertain terms.

  “What do you want me to say to him, Mike?” Domenic asked, as his voice grew rough. “Why did he let his goblin girlfriend attack me? Why did he attack me and try to force me to take a knee in front of my own people? Or, best yet, why did you guys come all this way if you were just going to turn tail and run?” I could hear the raw pain in my friend’s voice as Mike let him get it all off his chest.

  “I’m not sure what I’m more angry about, to be honest,” Domenic continued angrily. “The blatant disrespect he showed me in front of my troops or expecting me to tuck tail and run away simply because Jay commanded it!” Domenic spat, as his volume began to rise.

  “Do you know what I’ve been going through with these assholes?” Domenic asked, as he went on a rant. “These assholes haven't let me alone almost from day one. They started by PKing my ass whenever they could. Then, a week and a half ago, they show up with an army to take my fortress and people away from me. Now after all of that, you simply expected me to retreat! Did you even pause to consider what I thought about any of this?” Domenic’s voice lowered to almost a whisper. “And you know why that happened,” he paused to catch his breath, “because your crazy ex-girlfriend decided we all had to suffer!”

  “And, if all that wasn’t enough shit to have to contend with on top of everything else,” Domenic raged once again, “my two best friends that I’ve known for over a decade let their new friends come into my home and attack me without lifting a finger to help.” He let out a shuddering breath. “You two could have stepped in and stopped Kenzie from attacking me. That would have been the mature logical choice.”

  “That’s not fair, Dom. We were all friends with her,” Mike began to say, as Domenic cut him off.

  “I want to hear what Jay has to say for himself, not you, Mike. He owes me an explanation and an apology for what just happened.”

  “It’s cool Mike,” I said, letting out a tired sigh. A part of me wanted to tell Domenic to fuck off so I could go back to sleep, but I knew that wasn’t the right answer. Not if I wanted to save my friendship. Only by explaining the situation fully could my friends truly understand the tightrope I’d been forced to walk. As far as apologies went, I’d already apologized as much as I was going to. Domenic needed to look in the mirror at his own actions or this whole discussion wasn’t going to get very far. “I can speak for myself.”

  “Please tell me, Jay, how should I react to all of this? What great pearl of wisdom were you going to share with me that would explain all of this? Because, I’m not seeing it from where I’m standing!” Domenic exclaimed, letting out a bark of laughter.

  “Because she’s a Marine combat vet that was blown up in Afghanistan by an IED and lost her leg,” I simply stated. The sharp intake of breath over the line told me all that I needed to know. “So when you blew her up-“

  “Well, that does put things into perspective a bit, at least regarding Kenzie,” Domenic muttered, taken somewhat aback, before switching gears. “Still, it was by accident-“

  “So,” I continued, overriding his excuses. “When Kenzie rezzed, she was having a full-on PTSD episode,” I finished as Domenic tried to deny my words.

  “How was I supposed to know that?” Domenic asked, obviously upset. “I was trying to apologize to Kenzie and everyone else, when she went nuts-“

  “You only half-assed apologized after she started stabbing you,” I said, not letting him wiggle away from taking responsibility for his part in this. “And never apologized to anyone else, but blew your stack instead.”

  “Half-assed apologized?” Domenic shouted back. “What did you expect me to do get down on one knee and beg for forgiveness while she was stabbing me to death? Pull your head out of your ass Jason, it was a fucking accident and I didn't know about the PTSD. She should consider herself lucky that I didn't outright kill her for going fully unhinged,” he tried to turn the whole thing around on me. “Why didn’t you warn me she was having a freak-out?”

  “Why didn’t I warn you?” I repeated his words back to him incredulously. “Probably because the other combat vets that were there said announcing to everyone that she was having a PTSD episode would’ve gone over like a ton of bricks.”

  “That still didn’t give you the right to jump into the middle of our fight,” Domenic said, changing tack once again. “You just made a bad situation worse by attacking both of us. If you knew she was suffering from PTSD, how the fuck did you think attacking her was going to help anything? You should have stayed the fuck out of our altercation and let the two of us work it out on our own!”

  “Oh, that would have went over great with my new friends,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m sure letting my good friend who’d just blew her up and started the PTSD episode she was dealing with kill her again would have made everything right.”

  “I accidentally blew her up and tried to apologize for it, than catch hell from all sides for doing the right thing. You intentionally attacked us both and expect to get off scot-free?” Domenic fumed in outrage. “Fuck you, you hypocrite!”

  “Besides that, I’m one of your best friends. I’m part of the guild. You should have been defending me, not her!” Domenic argued, trying to show me that he wasn’t the bad guy in this. “Hell, even better yet, you and Mike could have broken it up easily or stayed the fuck out of the way and let us settle it ourselves.”

  “And what, trigger your troopers who were watching to attack us for teaming up against their liege lord? I’m sure that would’ve worked out great!” I reasonably argued back. “Besides, I already told you why I got involved. I couldn’t let you kill her a second time in a row.”

  “Why the fuck not?” Domenic shouted at me. “You just met these people!”

  “And that means that I should treat them like second class friends?” I insisted, knowing that he would’ve never accepted being treated like that. “How would that go over with you if I shit on you because a friend that I’d known longer blew you up and acted like it was no big deal?”

  “Oh … my … God! How dense are you? It was an accident and I apologized! It wasn't your fight but you stuck your nose into it anyway by attacking us both! How does your freaking brain even think that was a good idea? That’s like pouring gasoline on a fire thinking it will put it out!” Domenic stormed, raising his voice as if that would somehow prove his point. “On top of that, it’s a freaking game!”

  “No you didn’t, Dom,” I said in no uncertain terms. “Did you apologize to Zhou … or Darkhorse? Did you apologize to my NPCs? If I hadn’t been quick enough, you would have permanently killed them. Did you apologize to me? Dude, I’m rocking seventy-five percent realism just like you, getting blown up hurt like hell. Except instead of dying instantly, I got to suffer through the whole experience of living through an explosion.” The truth of my words stopped Domenic’s excuses.

  “Think back on the situation, Jason. How could I apologize to everyone after she went bat shit crazy? If anything, she prevented me from making things right by
stabbing me in the back. Then you and your gargoyle made it worse,” Domenic growled in frustration.

  “Tell me Dom, how you would have handled this situation if you were Kenzie,” I asked, as my voice took on a severe tone. “You befriend someone you’ve just met in a new game. You like them so much that they talk your entire guild into helping them hold their fortress against a massive Hobgoblin invasion, while they go to help their friend who is under attack by PKing asshats. Not only that, you and your close friends decide to go with him to give him a hand. Then, when you meet their friend after taking out a stealth raid, they blow you up and it triggers your PTSD from when you lost your leg in real life.”

  “That’s not fair-” Domenic tried to say, as I cut him off.

  “I’m not finished yet!” I growled into the MIC. “Then, instead of stopping the fight, this guy lets his long-term friend kill you again.”

  “She started it,” Domenic argued heatedly.

  “Tell me, how would you have reacted in Kenzie’s place if that was how you were treated?” I demanded, ignoring his petulant remark. “Would you have your guild abandon my castle? Or, would you have taken my lands in retaliation?” The seconds ticked by as I patiently waited for Domenic’s reply. Not that either one of us was surprised by the answer.

  “I would’ve told you to fuck off and left or taken your fortress for myself,” Domenic grudgingly said, before adding. “I might have even stayed and backstabbed you during the fight just as an extra F U.”

  “So, do you understand now why I didn’t just let you kill her,” I asked, as he proved my point.

  “She was killing herself,” Domenic exclaimed defensively. “I didn’t raise a hand against her.”

  “She attacked you first,” I said, stating the obvious. “There’s no way you would’ve let her live.”

  “Come on Jay, I wasn’t about to kill an ally-” Domenic tried to say, as I cut him off.

  “Dude, please,” I said, as Mike and I both laughed out loud. “We both know how you are about shit like that.”

  “You could’ve at least have handled it yourself,” Domenic grumbled, “instead of being a pussy and having your little goblin girl do your dirty work for you.”

  “Do you know why Helgath offered to fight you?” I retorted, not giving him a chance to respond. “Because she didn’t want me fighting with one of my best friends. She knew that it would’ve seriously hurt our friendship and so she tried to take the hit instead.”

  “You always have an answer for everything,” Domenic protested, still not willing to admit that he was wrong. It’s not like it was hard to understand why he was upset with everything that had been going on, but I had to get him to see the situation clearly, or he’d be angry about this for months. “What’s worse is you can’t even see when you’re in the wrong and that you owe me an apology for what you did. You need to own your mistakes also Jason.”

  “That goes both ways, Dom,” I said earnestly. “I’m sorry everything went down the way it did. I did the best I could in a shitty situation. You said it yourself, this is only a game. If that’s so, then what are you really upset about? Being embarrassed in front of your people? You didn’t lose the fight. You didn’t give in to your allies. You’ve already told me off in front of your people. What more do you want? The rest of us fighting to the death to protect your fortress? I’m telling you now that’s not going to happen. You can be as pissed off as you want about the evac, but you know it’s the right call,” I said, pushing the blankets away and swinging my legs around to sit on the side of the bed. “And just for the record, blaming me for Julie’s shit is pretty fucked up. She was your friend as much as she was mine.” My eyes studied the spilled water for a moment, before I continued in a tired voice.

  “And whether or not it was an accident, you still blew up everyone. If you’d pulled a stunt like that in a hardcore MMO like Chaos Online, your ass would’ve been blacklisted in the blink of an eye. So did Kenzie overreact? Probably, but she had a damn good reason for doing it. Not that anyone else was particularly thrilled about being killed either. Nonetheless, the rest of us understood why you reacted the way you did. Though, I’d suggest some apologies are in order whenever you get the chance.” I let out a heavy sigh. “Is that enough wisdom for you? Just maybe you’re seeing things just a little bit differently now.”

  Domenic didn’t say a word as the silence dragged on. Even now, Domenic still hadn’t apologized to me about how everything had gone down. Did he really need to? Not really, he was my friend. I understood what he meant when he said he’d planned on apologizing to everyone. I understood how things had gotten out of hand. If the shoe had been on the other foot, I’d have probably let Kenzie kill me. Sometimes, that was the only way to resolve issues like that.

  Although, I believed my interference had actually helped that to not be necessary. Like a proverbial slap in the face that stops you from freaking the fuck out. Sometimes, all of us needed to be snapped back to our senses at one time or another in our lives. I was trying to figure out the purpose of all of this, when Mike’s voice caught me off guard.

  “Tell him, Dom.”

  “Tell me what?” I asked, suddenly alert.

  “I sent Pounce on a recon mission to access the enemy troop strength. He told me what we’re up against,” Domenic said, letting out a deep sigh. “There has to be at least six thousand players logged in by now. On top of that, those assholes never stopped attacking me after you left. All of my people have died at least once during the last few hours. I’ve been rotating them out, but-”

  “Their next massed attack will take your people out,” I knowingly said, immediately understanding the situation. “It was only a matter of time before they realized what the Emergency Hot Fixes meant.”

  “Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing. I’m between a rock and a hard place on this one and it’s looking like an evac is the only logical choice,” Domenic said, as his voice took on a conciliatory tone. “For what’s it worth, I’m really sorry about everything that happened earlier.” There was a long pause, before he rhetorically continued in obvious frustration.

  “Seriously, why the fuck are we even doing this?” Domenic asked into the silence. “It’s not like we’re making enough money to make all of this griefing worth it. Seriously, how long have we been trying to get our Twitch channel to pop so we can start making some real money?

  It was a good question. For me, it beat the hell out of working a regular nine to five job. I made enough money to pay my bills and had enough left over to buy the gear I wanted. My situation was somewhat different from everyone else’s, I grew up wishing every night to be transported into a magical world. That was the main reason I got into martial arts, archery, and the Society for Creative Anachronism … it was the reason why I spent my life gaming in virtual worlds. Anything to escape the dread of my reality, I tiredly thought.

  “Funny you should ask that,” Mike said, surprising us both. I could hear the smile in his voice as he continued nonchalantly. “Before I started this conference call, I decided to check out just how much money we’ve made up until now on our Twitch channels. If you take the two and a half weeks we’ve been playing, we’ve made eighteen grand.”

  “Are you shitting me?” Domenic said in exasperation. “How the hell did we lose so much money? Did Twitch demonetize our channels or something?”

  “That’s eighteen grand each!” Mike clarified, the suppressed excitement clear in his voice.

  “What … what did you just say?” Domenic asked in shock, as I nearly busted my ass on the wet tile as I hurried to the kitchen while Mike nonchalantly continued.

  “The main channel for the guild made nearly a hundred thousand and change. If we split that out five ways that’s approximately-“

  “We made eighteen thousand dollars each?” Domenic asked, not believing the words he was hearing.

  “Now that doesn’t include Uncle Sam’s cut,” Mike warned, as I pulled up the main account for
Twitch. “While that’s peanuts for someone in Manhattan, it’s not bad money for two and a half weeks of work for someone in Florida.”

  “Holy shit,” I said, as the web page came up. That was more or less what each of us had made once you included everyone’s personal channels.

  “Well, shit!” Domenic said, as the typing stopped and he pulled up his own account.

  “You’ve got that right,” Mike said, enjoying the bombshell that he’d dropped. “Amazing things happen when a channel goes viral.”

  “You know, guys, I’m really sorry about exploding earlier tonight,” Domenic said, as Mike and I busted out laughing. It was a combination of relief, feeling like we were finally making it, and everything we’d been through in the last twenty-four hours. Domenic joined us a second later as all the stress we’d been under evaporated.

  “Don’t tell anyone else about this for now,” I said, as the three of us calmed down. “Not until the money is in the bank. Then we can celebrate.”

  The worst thing that could happen now was the money not coming through. Maybe, I was too used to things not working out, but it was hard for me to believe this was actually happening. It wouldn’t be real for me until the money was in the bank. Until then, I’d play it safe. If this was real, the next thing we’d have to start worrying about was how to keep that ball rolling, I thought, laughing at myself as Domenic turned serious.

  “So, I guess the only thing left to discuss is how you were planning to evac me?” Domenic said, as I groaned while Mike just started laughing again.

  It’s amazing how money could make the stress and hardship we’d been going through all okay. I had to give Mike credit. He knew exactly what button to push to get us back on track. That, and sometimes friends had to get shit off their chest, before they could move forward again. Not that fighting between good friends was bad. Any worthwhile friendship went through their ups and downs. Being able to get through those rough times was what being true friends meant.