Their Game

"Run. Get yourself out as quick as you can. Your life depends on it."

The spotty message ended off my holographic watch. I stared at the blank space where my number one techie's image had been. After months - if not years - and watching that video dozens of time, I was finally here. End of the line. I remember being taken, the struggle of trying to be free when my body couldn't move. It took so much investigation and pain to determine that I was locked in a fake reality. Whatever they'd done to me, however long I'd been here, I was about to be rid of it. Before me, the small red crystal hovered. As soon as I broke it, I would be free!

I gripped the escape in my palm and felt my consciousness leave the virtual world. My vision blurred as it darkened, as if being pulled out of my body. My consciousness was being taken out of whatever constructed form I'd had. I finally teleported out. I was on a ship, that had a design style I did not recognized. Out of the window was a clear image of the Earth, moon, and the ship I'd become captain of, Valor. I felt the warmth of a single tear fall at the comfort of seeing what I considered to be my home again.

Suddenly, a flash of a brilliant red laser shot out from the ship I was on. The beam projected through the planet, bursting it into millions of billions of pieces. With it, my heart also shattered. I pulled at the straps constraining me to the bed, the beauty of the scene suddenly ripped away. My comfort, joy, excitement had all been torn away and replaced with anguish.

"My... home..." I whispered to nobody. It was gone. I struggled against the restraints once again, but they gave as much as they did the first time.

"No! No! No!" I screamed, pulling again at the ungiving materials that bound me.

I heard a door behind me open and close. Figures were approaching. Their weight grinded against the floor as they got closer to me. My heartbeat echoed louder in my ears. I swallowed, and it caught in my throat as the steps got closer. They came into view and I almost wretched at the sight. The grotesque figures looked malformed and broken. They moved in jerky motions, and my spine tensed as one of what appeared to be their face contorted and a voice came out, smooth as silk.

"If only you'd stayed. We were content to observe and learn, but you broke the rules, so we took the cost of this mistake."

I breath hitched as another sob escaped from me, my eyes darting from the window to the hideousness in front of me "How does that make any sense?"

The creature did not answer me. Its partner watched in silence, its head sometimes moving towards me or to the window that bore the scene of my destroyed home. Tears built up in my eyes as I tried to comprehend everything that had happened to me and because of me.

"You should have followed the rules," the first sighed, moving its body as if shaking its head in disappointment. The two then left me alone once again.

When left to my own thoughts, I broke. Tears ran from my eyes as snot ran from my nose. I let out uncontrollable wails of agony. This was my fault. If I'd only known, I never would have left. I would have stayed. I didn't know. I didn't break the rules. I could have saved everyone if I'd just stayed in a world of torment.