2022 Writing Contest

Ollie and Josh seem to be excited for it, so we head over to mums’ room. Each of us hold her hand and wish her a good day. Once we finish, we prepare ourselves for the day, then we head out. I pocket some of the extra cash we have; it’ll make the day go by fast. We head out to the arcade. The sounds of shooting and violence fill my ears as we walk inside the building. We quickly get some 'tokens' as we look out at the sea of gaming machines. Moving together we arrive at a shooting game, its two players so Ollie and Josh take up arms as I insert a coin. They seem distracted enough, so I glance around. I spot the most popular game. It’s the one where you put on goggles and battle others in virtual cyber space. That's most of the games these days. Access the net and let people go wild. I wish more games were old school. It's a pain going in the net. I lean against a machine, watching them play. When was the last time I played in an arcade? When we had money to spare, that's when I went. I always played the combat games, delving deep online and fighting for hours. Since its rigged set up, you got to move your avatar with your own body. That's a quick and easy way to learn to fight, even if it's against programs. I glance around, noticing one such machine. I'll have to play that before I leave, maybe they'll like watching me’ I glance over at Ollie and Josh as I hear an upset groan, looking at the screen I find they both have been eaten by aliens. I smirk then enter a new coin, allowing them to try again. They take up the guns and again begin shooting. I mention they can also lob explosives at them. After that they find the game easier, but it progressively gets more difficult. Eventually they have beaten the game, with some help of course. I begin to lead them over to the fighting machine and I ask, "Wanna see how cool your big brother is?" Ollie nods, while Josh says, "Put on a good show" I hand the tokens to Josh, before stepping into the cube. Placing on the goggles over my eyes, I hear Ollie put a coin in. I close my eyes. I can hear the cube close and a chime sounds. I open my eyes and see that the cube has changed into an alleyway with rain pouring down. I look at my hands. I see my right hand has brass knuckles. Sweet. Looking up, and I see a standard figures walking up towards me. As they get closer, I spot a knife in each figures hand and I move right as they get closer. Once they are within range, I move forward and pop one of them in the jaw. It collapses dropping the blade. I it pick up. One down, and the second approaches as the first one vanishes. He’s a bigger guy, and hurrying to me. I take a defensive stand. Once he gets close enough I pop him in the shoulder. He takes the hit, and lands one on my cheek. As he does so, I stab my knife into his neck. He falls down, and vanishes. I look up and see two guys coming now, with knives. Two v one, I like my odds. One rushes forward to stab my gut, I sidestep and slash his side before spinning and hitting the back of his head. But that’s when I feel a sharp pain in my side, and I fall to my knees. The world begins to glitch and the screen now reports an error. I tug my goggles off, and scan the cube I’m in. There standing over me, a man with a purple mohawk. In his hand, is a switchblade coated in a dark red liquid. The fuck? I take my hand away from my side, and see the same liquid on it. I start feeling sick. I hear people scream and watch the mohawk guy walking to my brothers. I stand up slowly. I can't let him hurt them

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