Tactical Heart

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Tactical Heart Page 9

by S. K. Rose


  Mother’s jaw clenched, but her lips didn’t part. She knocked past me and out the door without another word. A small victory that I took no pleasure in. Not that day.

  The funeral went by in a swirl of tears and black material. Julie clung to me the entire time, as if when she wasn’t touching me, I might fade away before her eyes.

  When we finally got home, I locked myself in my room and went directly to my computer. I tugged on my headset and cranked up angry music that seemed to beat to the rhythm of my pain. Logging into Tactical Heart, the first hint of a smile played on my chapped lips.

  The big tournament was tomorrow, and I had been putting every free second of my day into getting stronger. I couldn’t believe when I was asked onto a team with such impressive players. There was no way I was going to be a burden to them; I was going to blow them away with my new skills and weapons. No way we wouldn’t win.

  A little alert in my chat log told me that KarnageKing13 was now online. I tugged on a loose strand of hair as I thought about the player who had invited me to the group. I’d only heard him once over voice chat, but he definitely sounded my age. Okay, maybe he sounded gorgeous, too, but it’s not like I had any idea what he looked like. It was a silly little crush, nothing else. A small distraction from the nightmare of school and the death of the one person who wasn’t constantly trying to change me. The only person who accepted I was different and loved me all the more for it.

  Tears dripped onto my keyboard, and with a huff of annoyance, I wiped them away. A soft ding came from my computer, and I saw I had a new message. My heart stopped when I realized it was from Karnage. I figured he just wanted to ask if I was ready for tomorrow. I couldn’t wait to impress him with how much I’d powered up.

  I clicked on his blinking name, and the message popped up in the middle of the screen.

  KarnageKing13: We found someone else to take your spot. No hard feelings, but we’re here to win.

  I read the words over and over, not comprehending. Not wanting to believe.

  ScarScion: No, you don’t understand. I’m so much better now. I have been on the top one-hundred board for weeks now. I can do this.

  KarnageKing13: C’mon. You’re just a chick, your skills are weak as shit. We need a real gamer on the team. Unfortunately, I can’t have you going and crying to the officials. I’ve reported you for misconduct and hateful language—crazy how easy that shit is to fake. Nothing personal, kid, I just can’t lose.

  ScarScion: You can’t do this to me. I just reached max level. If I’m banned, they will wipe it all. I’ll lose all my experience, gear, weapons, gold—I will lose everything. Please, I’ll drop out but don’t get me banned.

  KarnageKing13: Too late.

  ScarScion: Why...why did you do this to me?

  KarnageKing13: Because I can.

  KarnageKing13 has logged out.

  Just like that, he was gone. Karnage was gone. The tournament was gone. My Dad was gone. Only three hours later, I got the notification that my account was banned, and ScarScion was gone too.

  I slipped into bed, wrapped myself under the covers, and cried until I passed out.

  I hiss and cover my eyes when light blasts me from every direction, dragging me out of the tortuous memory.

  “Scarlett?” Nessa’s shrill voice pierces me to the bone.

  “I was napping here,” I snap, trying to pull the blanket back up, but she has a strong grip on it.

  “Scar, seriously—oh my god is that shit? Did you shit yourself?” she shrieks, dropping the blanket and taking a quick step back.

  Looking down, I see chocolate smeared across my stomach and in my hand. I must have started to fall asleep and the truffle melted from my body heat.

  “Ugh.” I groan. “What a waste.” When I look back up at my roommate, her lip is still curled in disgust. “Oh calm your tits, it’s just chocolate.”

  Her eyes narrow in suspicion. “What chocolate?” Before I can say anything, her eyes lock onto the empty slot in my desk where a certain drawer used to be. “Oh god, this is serious.” Turning away, her fingers fly across the screen of her phone.

  “No. C’mon, don’t do that. I’m fine. Everything is fine, see.” I try to smile, but whatever she sees doesn’t seem to reassure her.

  Her head tilts as if she’s listening for something. Her eyes widen and snap to mine. “Emo music?!” she gasps.

  Shit. I slap my phone until the depressing song finally shuts off. “I didn’t put that on; it must have been on shuffle or something,” I explain.

  Ignoring me, she holds the phone up to her ear. “Julie? Hey, I need you to come over.”

  “I’m fine!” I shout, hoping my sister will hear. Nessa shoots me a look and moves farther across the room.

  “Yeah, she took out the weird French chocolate,” Nessa whispers into the phone like I can’t hear her clear as day. “Okay, thanks. Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  I roll my eyes and glare over at her. “Really? Running to my sister?”

  She regards me like a caged tiger, fearful eyes but a gentle tone. “Honey, do you wanna talk about what happened?”

  I turn my face into the pillow and release a muffled scream. “I said I was fine. Nothing happened. I was just in the mood for a little chocolate. Is that a fucking crime?!” I screech.

  After giving me a sympathetic look that makes me want to throw something at her face, Nessa stretches out on her bed and turns on her side to regard me. “I’m here when you’re ready to talk.” She tugs a magazine off her nightstand and starts flipping through it, occasionally looking up to give me a worried look.

  Jules must have been speeding because she barges through the door in record time. Crawling onto my bed, she carefully nudges the box of truffles just out of reach and sits crossed legged beside me.

  “Last time we talked, you were going over to Kane’s place. You seemed really happy, so what happened between then and now?” Her hand flies to her mouth before I can utter a syllable. “Oh my god! Did he hurt you?” she asks softly.

  Nessa is on her feet in an instant, brown eyes bulging out of her head. “Pero y que se cree el atrevido ese! If that little bitch even as much as laid a hand on you I swear to God. And after I kill him lo pico en pedazos and feed him to the worms!” She paces the room, arms flailing in anger.

  When she runs out of breath, Julie nods in agreement and points her thumb at my roommate. “What she said.”

  I give her a droll look. “You don’t even know what she said.”

  “I caught the important bits.”

  I roll my eyes and give them both a pointed look. “He did not hurt me.” Looking away, I blink back a traitorous tear. “Not physically, anyways.”

  “Sis, just tell us. Let us be here for you.”

  My shoulders slump, not because I give in to the sugar-coated tone of Julie’s voice, but because if I don’t tell them, they will never leave me alone.

  I relay the events of this morning and am faced with opposite reactions. Julie’s hand crashes over her mouth and tears fill her eyes. My roommate’s eyebrow raises quizzically as she opens her mouth to ask a question but after a second snaps it back closed.

  I find myself locked in a hug, little arms crushing against my ribs. When Julie speaks, her voice is muffled by my hair. “God, I remember that. It was the day of Daddy’s funeral. You didn’t come out of your room for a month. I can’t believe that was Kane, I mean the odds alone—I’m so sorry.”

  Grunting my way out of her embrace, my hand is lifted and placed between Nessa’s. “I’m not going to pretend I understood most of that. But I know about losing a papa and how painful that is. This boy cut your heart when your heart was already bleeding, and I’m so sorry, mi amor.”

  I give them both a grateful smile that morphs into a weak laugh. “This is pathetic. It happened eons ago, and I’m still such a wreck about it.”

  “You meet this perfect guy just to find out he was a key player in one of the worst days of
your life. Anybody would be a mess.” Julie’s hand reaches out to brush away a strand of hair from my face.

  “I’m still down to help you kill him,” Nessa pipes up from my right.

  “Not necessary. I’m just going to put Kane Decker in my mental box of ‘terrible mistakes’ and pray to the college gods that I never have a class with him. Who cares that it was the best date of my life or that he gave me mind blowing orgasms. I don’t even like this stupid dragon ring he got me. It’s stupid. Don’t care, don’t need him. Nope. Once a garbage human, always a garbage human.”

  A sympathetic look passes between my sister and Nessa.

  “Fuck this!” I growl. “Give me back the damn chocolate.”

  12

  Kane

  Two weeks.

  It’s been two weeks since I had the best and the worst date of my life.

  Scarlett refuses to return my calls, and even Julie glares at me in passing. The only interaction I get with her now is through Tactical Heart, and she’s not exactly passive about her feelings toward me. Her attacks have gotten more frequent and much more vicious. It’s to the point that I try to only log in during times I know she’s in class, and for those few hours a day, I can practice for the big EkoTek competition without dying every twenty minutes.

  The competition!

  I almost forgot that early this morning they would have posted the list of who made it to the finals. I open a browser on my computer and hold my breath as I wait for their website to load. A list of names pops up on the screen, and I scroll down till I see what I’m looking for—KarnageKing13. In exactly two months, I will be competing for the EkoTek paid internship.

  I whoop and pump my fist in the air. Finally, some good news after a shitastic week.

  After hesitating, I continue scrolling until I see another familiar username.

  RedWyrm.

  Against all sense, I smile at the screen in pride. Thatta girl.

  My smile melts quickly as I realize what this means. I’m going to have to do a lot more game training if I’m ever going to hope to beat her. Scarlett’s in-game reflexes are uncanny: she’s smart and makes quick tactical decisions like a pro. These past few years, she’s been fueled by her hate for me, so honestly, she should be thanking me for pushing her to be a total badass.

  Somehow I don’t think she’s going to see it that way.

  A small part of me, the part that remembers Scarlett before she started chucking pens at my face, wants her to win the competition and have her dreams come true.

  But the sane part of me that has endured years of bullshit from her dark alter ego, RedWyrm, refuses to roll over and play dead. I need the money, so I can help pay for my tuition next year, and I need to get my foot in the door with EkoTek so that I will never have to worry about money again. Once I’m a big shot game designer working for one of the biggest companies in the world, my family will never hurt for money again.

  I have to win this, and no scrawny, hotheaded gamer chick is going to get in my way. She wants us to be enemies? Fine.

  Perfect.

  I check my watch, ten minutes ago she would have started her math class.

  I load up the game, more determined than ever. I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to get strong enough to whoop her ass.

  I click out of the game as I hear a key turning in the front door lock. I check my watch; sure enough, Leo got off of work about twenty minutes ago. Good, I’m fucking starving.

  When the door opens, he’s wearing a strange smile as he struts inside.

  “What’s going on, man?” I ask as he moves around the living room whistling a happy tune. He drops his laptop case off in his room and takes a seat on the futon.

  “I gotta tell you something.” His knee bounces nervously as he stares at me with wide eyes.

  “You’ve got some seriously weird energy going on,” I tell him with a laugh as I move to join him in the living room. “What’s going on? You get road head on the way here or something?”

  He shakes his head and pulls out a small jewelry box from his pocket.

  I cock my head as I stare at it. “Is that what I think it is?”

  He nods. “Yeah, it is.”

  “Well, shouldn’t you be getting on one knee then?” I bat my eyes seductively and pretend to flip my hair with a nervous giggle.

  He punches my shoulder. “Shut up.” He laughs. “This is serious man. Am I fucking crazy?”

  I face my palms to the ceiling and shrug. “Maybe? You guys are both pretty young still...”

  He gives me a pinched expression. “Not exactly what I was hoping to hear.”

  “You didn’t let me finish. I was going to add, but you’re both crazy about each other and have been together since high school. So, if that’s what you really want...why the hell not?”

  He rockets to his feet. “I’m gonna ask her tonight. I’m nervous as hell, man, I love her so much.” He paces the living room as he passes the ring box back and forth between his hands.

  I laugh. “Dude, you gotta relax. You know she’s gonna say yes.”

  He runs a hand through his crew cut and looks over at me. “If she does say yes, we probably will wait a while to have the wedding, considering I’m broke as hell, but I would really like you to be my best man.”

  I’m taken aback; I can’t have heard him right. “Wait, what? I’m honored, of course, but you have like a million friends, why would you pick me?”

  “Yeah, I have a bunch of friends who only care about getting the most one night stands in a week or getting so trashed they can’t remember what happened the night before. It’s you who’s helped me study for hard tests, who brought me soup when I was sick, and listened to me vent when I had fights with Julie. You want to know what they said when I told them I was thinking about asking her to marry me? They called me pussy whipped and tried to get me to cheat on her. Said I needed to make sure I knew what I was gonna be missing out on. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it, but you’re my only real friend, my best friend, man.”

  “Well, to be fair to your meathead friends...you are pussy whipped.” This time I know it’s coming and dodge his punch. He bursts into laughter as I spin gracefully out of his reach.

  “C’mon, jackass. Will you do it or not?”

  I pretend to think it over. “Can I wear a hot pink suit?”

  “No.”

  “What about a gem studded speedo?”

  He rolls his eyes. “No, asshole.”

  I wiggle my eyebrows at him. “Fine...buck ass naked, last offer.” He looks at me, completely unamused. “Shame. I suppose...I can still make it work.” I grin. He claps my shoulder in excitement.

  “Hell yeah! Holy shit, I’m gonna ask Julie to marry me…” He starts pacing again, listing off what he still needs to do to get ready for tonight. I’ve never seen him so excited, and although I’m incredibly happy for him, a small part of me can’t help but be jealous.

  He drops back beside me, suddenly serious. “Dude, I spaced that you and Scarlett are on the outs. If it’s gonna be awkward as hell for you, I totally understand.”

  Scarlett.

  Just hearing her name throws me into a tailspin. My blood simmers as her face swims before my eyes. Psycho redhead with her violent tendencies and... perfect body.

  God, did she look so good naked, writhing as I...

  No. Stop.

  Fuck, this girl is in my head.

  I shake it off. “Nah man, don’t worry about it. We’re both adults and can handle being in the same room. Besides, it will give me a chance to make nice or whatever. We can be civil at the very least.”

  Leo averts his gaze, his lips pursed together.

  “Just spit it out.” I sigh.

  “When I started dating Julie in high school, Scarlett loathed me. In her eyes, I had taken her sister away from her, and I was the enemy. It wasn’t until recently that she finally warmed up and gave me a chance. For the longest time, she hated me, and I didn’t
do anything but date her sister. From what you told me, you not only humiliated her, but screwed her out of something really important...I’m not saying she’s going to hate your guts forever, but yeah, she’s going to hate your guts forever.”

  “Too fucking bad,” I retort. “She’s just gonna have to get over it and play nice for a while.”

  “Your best bet is to lay low and not give her any more reasons to kill you.”

  I groan. “You know what the worst part is? Before everything went sideways, we were having this perfect date. She was everything I ever wanted in a girl and more. The sex? Don’t even get me started man, she was a wildcat. How the hell did everything get so messed up?”

  “For starters, you were clearly an asshole teenager.” I glare, and he laughs. “I’m just sayin’. Okay, you’re really mellowing my high right now. I gotta go get changed for tonight. Wish me luck.” He claps my shoulder and heads to his room.

  I lean back and rub my face.

  What the hell am I gonna do?

  13

  Scarlett

  I cackle as I take him out again from where I’m perched high in a tree. This new SkelleSniper I looted from a boss is seriously OP. The barrel of the gun is a skull and the jaw opens every time a bullet passes through. I smile wickedly when Kane’s toon respawns1, he’s looking in every direction to try and figure out where I am.

  After a few minutes, a red potion appears in his hand; as he drinks, his health bar replenishes. As soon as he recovers all his HP2, I hit a button on my controller, and my vision switches to the sniper scope. When the crosshairs are lined up perfectly between his eyes, I pull the trigger.

 

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