“Adam.” He stuck out his hand.
“Brian.”

And that was it.

We became good friends. He was strong, fast, and brilliant. Even though I was none of those things, somehow we fit as a team. He was very anti-social, preferring to stay at home on Friday nights playing games, and I tried to be social in my ways. The things he lacked, I had.

We were a superpower.
We were unstoppable when we were together.

We were both misfits among the school population, him by choice and me by accident. We wouldn’t get teased when we’re together, but when we’re alone, the people had a chance.

To tease us.
To jeer at us.
To torture us shamelessly.

Still, he kept strong. I wondered how, how he could stand this. It was awful, and yet, it brought us together.

Somehow it just broke apart.

It was gradual, something happened, something that just broke down the relationship. We stopped talking, and I grew popular as the years passed.

I suppose I ignored him. Hey, I finally got the attention I needed in my life. As we grew, I started becoming mean and cruel, jeering at him for never getting a girlfriend, for hating sports, for every little thing about him.

I shouldn’t have done it, I know. What I did wasn’t right, and he didn’t deserve it. I beat him up a lot of times, berating him mercilessly for absolutely nothing. Hey, it was popularity. I needed it at all costs.

At senior year, we were in the same class. To my surprise, he sat beside me, and said, “Hi.”

I looked right into those piercing black eyes and said, “What do you want, freak?”

He smirked. “You really shouldn’t be saying that.”

“And why the hell not?”

“You’ll see.” He smirked.

His words made me furious. That afternoon, while I was walking to my car, he stopped me again.

“Alright, I’m sorry for what I said today.”

“You better be, freak.” I punched him in the face.
He dodged it with a quickness that intimidated me.

“Okay, I’ll make it up to you. How about you come to my house to play video games?”

“VIDEO GAMES! What the f—“ I stopped as soon as I looked in those eyes. “Okay, fine, let’s go.”

“Good.” He said with a satisfied smirk, and headed to my car.

“You’re not getting in my car.”
“Oh yes I am.”

I groaned and let him in. I drove to his house.

And gasped at what I saw.
It was like the whole house died. The grass was yellowed, the plants were wilted, the porch had a couple of rotten floorboards, and insects were scurrying around.

“Whoa.”
He grinned. “Not the same place, eh?”
“What on earth happened here?”

“Don’t ask.” He motioned me forward. I stumbled in.

The interior was even worse, from the peeling paint on the walls to the broken windows.

I run upstairs, afraid of what his room was going to look like.
It was…normal? Like his room before, except with a blue carnation in a small glass vase.

“What’s with the flower?” I reached for it and he slapped my hand away. I stared.

“It’s…nothing.” For some reason his sarcastic façade slipped away for a second. He reached for the controllers, handed me a rather odd looking one, acid green, with different looking buttons. It must be a different game or something like that, I thought absentmindedly. His was pitch black.

We started playing. It was a weird game, yet addictive. It involved blowing up everything in your path, absolutely everything. Blood flowed easily. Bodies were piling up. It was like some of the games I’ve played before but it just seemed so, real?

In the game, we were walking towards a school, and the school…it looked so much like the one we went to.

Adam barrelled open the door and we clambered in. A jock, clad in his blue football jacket, stared incredulously at us. Adam shot him easily, knocking him down flat. He came closer, and gunned him down.

“TAKE THAT, YOU BASTARDS!” He screamed, his eyes alight with malice.

“Adam…” I was getting scared. “Don’t you think we should take a break?”

“Now?” His eyes bore into mine, and I got those same chills. “Why now? The fun’s just beginning.”

A girl walked by. She looked so like my girlfriend. The resemblance was uncanny. Her long, shining brown hair, the green eyes, the wide smile.

Adam tore her apart. A malicious grin was spreading on his face. “Take that, you b****. Finally, you get what you deserve.” His eyes were no longer the coal black they were before. They were a blood red.

I started to slowly back away from the controller. He turned around. “What, you don’t want to play anymore?”

“No way man.” I was trying to get my act together. “This is too realistic.”

“But that’s the fun of it!”

There was another boy. He had brown eyes, a scrawny figure, and greasy black hair.

Why does he look so much like me when I was younger?

“The best part. All these days, I was waiting for it. Finally, the day I can get revenge.”

Adam shoots him in the arm. I screamed.

“No…NO! Please, Adam, NO!” I writhe with pain.

The rifle. It was pointed straight at me. I frantically press the buttons. I should have known it was all in vain.

That blue carnation was all that I saw.