Call of Caldiria Chapter 5

Call of Caldiria Chapter 5.

             “I can’t believe how amazing this all is. The verdant planes. The blue skies. It is almost as if I am in another world.”

             Veredel sat up as Sean’s voice pierced her mind. “I can’t even get a good night’s rest?” She rubbed her bleeding head. “What is going on?”

             “That little bitch. I told her not to get him the game.”

             Veredel screamed. “Ahhhhh.” Her father’s voice shot through her skull. “I. . . I.” She threw off the covers. “Get it out. Get it out now!”

             “Get that damned headset off. Get it off now!”

             Veredel blinked her eyes. She realized that voice wasn’t inside her head. “No. That is my father’s voice, and it’s coming from downstairs.” She gulped. “Sean!” She jumped to her feet and ran to the door. She thought she was crazy, hearing things in her mind, but this time, the voice had reached her ears, and she was scared. What if what she had heard in her head was real? “No. Please don’t hurt him.”

             Veredel ran down the stairs only to stop on the bottom step. What she saw in the living room made her blood run cold. Sean was in the middle of the room with the Call of Caldiria headset. In his hands was their father’s gun, and he was pointing it right at their father. “Wow. This is such an interactive tutorial.”

             “You little brat.” Veredel could see the rage in her father’s eyes. “How dare you go through my stuff! Drop that gun right now.”

             Sean didn’t hear him, and once again, her brother’s voice sounded off in her head. “Hmm, the weapons tutorial is coming up next.” As Veredel clutched her head, blood dripping down from her nose, she gulped.

             “Oh no.” She wisped. “He thinks this is still a game.”

             “Give me the gun.” Their father roared.

             Sean only smiled, the mixed reality headset obscuring his perception of his father. “Whoh. Where did this four-armed giant come from.” He fired the gun. “Take that.” Their father suddenly cried out in pain, clutching his chest. “Got him. Hey, this isn’t so bad.”

             “Sean!” Veredel cried out. “What did you do.” She rushed forward.

             Their father, clutching his bullet wound, glared at Veredel. “You! This is your fault.” Sean aimed the gun at him again. “You bitch!”

             Veredel moved between him and Sean. “Sean, you have to stop this.” He looked at her like she was someone else. “Sean? Don’t you know it is me?”

             But Sean answered her with a deafening gunshot. He hit her in the shoulder, causing her to collapse by her father. Tears filled her eyes. “Sean. It’s. . . it’s me. I. . .” She closed her eyes. “Please. Please take the headset off and drop the gun.” She was too weak to speak the words.

             Sean looked confused for the moment. “Huh? That is strange. Veredel, are you there?” He looked around. “I could swear I heard her.” He shrugged as he walked up to her sister. “Hmm, I guess I just heard something.” He riffed through her clothing. “Well, I don’t know why it’s telling me to loot. There isn’t anything here.” He moved on to their father. “Ahh, perfect.” He grabbed his car keys. “One hundred gold pieces. I can use this to buy something in the next room.” He rushed for the door. “This game is so awesome.”

             Veredel watched him go. “Sean. Sean. . .” Her vision slowly darkened as her mother rushed down the stairs. “Please come back! Please. . .”

             ***

             Veredel sits up with a start. She is in a hospital, an IV in her arm. She looks around the room, trying to remember what happened. “Sean. He. . . he shot me.” She looked around the room, her eyes wide with fear. “He shot me, and he ran off. No. No, no, no. This is my fault. I. . . I bought him that damn game. I. . . I. . . what did it. . .”

             The nurse walked in. “You are awake. Good.” She smiled. “You were out for three days.”

             “What?” Veredel shook her head. “No.” She sat up. “I have to find my brother. He. . .”

             “Whoh.” The nurse put her hands on Veredel. “Calm down there. You have been through a lot. You were lucky that you were shot in the shoulder.” Veredel looked at the bandages covering her arm. “Your father had it much worse. He is in critical condition still. Your mother has been with him all this time.”

             “She. . . hasn’t been in to see me?”

             The nurse looked around nervously. “She didn’t even bring you in. The emergency staff did.”

             Veredel snorted. “Typical.”

             “Huh.”

             “I am sorry. It’s nothing.” She looked around. “I have to get out of here. I have to find my brother.” She sighed.

             “You aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. You lost a lot of blood.” She scratched at her head. “We didn’t know why, but you were bleeding internally during your coma. It was. . . like nothing we had seen before.”

             Veredel snorted once more. “Yes.” She thought it had to do with her strange mental attacks of the last few months. “Look, I have to find my brother. I think something happened to him playing that stupid Call of Caldiria game.”

             “Oh,” the nurse says, looking at the floor. “You should see this.” She turns on the television. “I am sorry.” She walks out of the room.

             Veredel looks up at the screen as a news anchor starts to talk.  “And the missing persons count continues to rise. We have confirmed that it is related to the Call of Caldiria game. We don’t know what is causing it, but people who played the game seem to have gone missing. We ask if you have purchased the game, not play it. Something has gone terribly wrong.” The anchor sighed. “And please, if you see my wife, tell her to come home. Tell her to please put the game down. I miss you. Please.”

             Tears formed in the corners of Veredel’s eyes. “Sean. Where are you?”

             Suddenly, there was a searing pain in Veredel’s head. “If it wasn’t for that bitch buying that game for my darling boy, none of this would have happened. When we get out of here, I am. . . . I am going to kick her out onto the street. She will be lucky that is all I do. That brat deserves to be locked up in jail. My beloved is in a comma, and my boy is missing. I wish Veredel were. . . I hate her. I always hated her.” Veredel clutched her head, blood running from her nose like a faucet. “One of these days, I. . . why did we adopt her? I wanted a kid so bad, but I should have waited to have my darling boy. Not that dissppiment. Now look at where we are. I. . .”

             Veredel cried out in pain. She couldn’t take these searing voices in her head. Never mind what horrible things the voice of her mother was saying. She felt like her brain was going to split apart. “I can’t take it!” The lights above her flickered. “Make it stop! Make it stop!” She was crying as more voices filled her brain.

             “They said they have to remove my leg. I don’t want surgery.”

             “Why don’t they believe me? I am sick. I am not crazy. I am not crazy.”

             The nurse rushed into her room. “Veredel, what is wrong? Oh my god.” She rushed over to her bed. “I need help in here.” The woman gasped as the lights above Veredel suddenly exploded. “What the hell is going on here?”

             “Make it stop! My head is going to explode.”

             The doctor ran into her room. “What is going on?”

             The nurse shook her head. “I don’t know.”

             “Get her down.” Veredel could feel the medical staff grab her and force her onto the bed. “We need anesthesia and fast.”

             The nurse nodded as she rushed out of the room. Veredel was having trouble focusing, and the edges of her vision were blurring.

             “You are going to be okay.” The nurse returned with a giant needle in hand. “Now you have to stay calm.”

             “I. . . my head. . .” The medical staff forced her down. “Ahhhhhhh!” Veredel felt a sharp pain in her arm, and then everything went numb. “I. . . I. . .”

             “Everything will be okay.” The doctor looked at the nurse. “While she is out, I want some testing done fast. Starting with a—”

             Everything went dark.