the cheater
DESCRIPTION
Short horror story about video gamesTRANSCRIPT
cheater
short story
Marc Kendrick
The cheater
a
short story by
Marc Kendrick
The Cheater by
Marc Kendrick
dedicated to D.P.K.S keep playing son always
8th March 2012
Chapter One
The Find
A new shop had opened in town, a vintage retro shop, and when his lunch
break came Charlie had already decided he would take a look, yes he was
36 but he had always embraced his inner child and secretly he hoped he
would find something to remind him off his childhood. Checking the
watch he knew he had only fifteen minutes left until he could leave the
office, he had worked out it would take ten minutes to get to the shop and
ten minutes back which left him just ten minutes to browse, how he hated
these half hour lunch breaks the management had recently introduced. 'A
more efficient workforce spends less time eating and more time working
was the idea' he recalled what his boss had told him, ' a more efficient
workforce needs to be happy, needs to be content and needs to be fed, he
knew that made more sense but that always fell on deaf ears.'
Lunch came and without hesitation Charlie put on his jacket and quickly
left the building, walking along the street he could feel the excitement
rising inside hoping that there was treasures untold there, but also a hint of
nervousness, not wanting to build up his hopes too much in case it ended
up being a typical junk shop. He reached the building and took a moment
to look at the outside of it, taking in what he could work out what standard
of shop it would be. The outer of the building looked grubby, aged even,
like it was out of place with all the new building in the town. He thought it
was weird that he passed down this street at least twice daily and had never
noticed the old style image of this store before. He walked up to the dark
wooden door and pushed it open.
The bell hanging over the door rang as he entered and he closed the door
behind him, he noticed the shop was very dark and there was a smell that
reminded him of, well the only word he could relate it to was old. Yes it
smelt old. He started browsing the clutter that was strewn around the store
when suddenly he heard a voice. 'Good afternoon sir, if I can be of service
please don't hesitate to ask' the raspy voice stated, he turned around and
saw an elderly man behind the large wooden counter. The first thought into
his head was that he was going to be disappointed, the shop seemed
nothing more than a junk store, the man looked to be at least ninety years
old and he had the feeling he was more likely to find something from his
grandparents childhood rather than his. 'I have just had this in, I wonder if
it would be of interest to you?' the old man asked whilst struggling to place
a large cardboard box onto the counter, ' I am not sure how these work, it’s
too modern a gizmo for me to fathom.' he continued. Curiosity got the
better of Charlie and he had to take a look into the box. As he slowly
opened it his eyes lit up, this was exactly what he had been looking for.
'How much are you asking?' Charlie asked, 'this would be perfect' he
hoped that the price would be right. 'You are the first person to walk
through this door young man, as a reward I would like you to have it, I
have no use for it and don't think my clientele would too, please with my
pleasure take it' the old man replied. This was too good an offer for Charlie
to turn down and, looking at his watch realising he had to head back to
work, he decided it wasn't gonna get any better than this. 'Thank you very
much, me and my son will love this, I truly can't express my gratitude' and
with that he picked up the box and headed, rather briskly, back to work.
That afternoon dragged, he was excited inside and wanted to get home, he
had to pick up his son on the way back and couldn't wait to get back and
play, his son came to stay each week for three nights and tonight was the
first one this week, he had already decided to get takeaway on the way
home, save time cooking, he wanted to play on his new toy with his son.
Before long the time had come, as quickly as his did at lunch he put on his
jacket, went down to the car park and got in his car, checking the box was
still there on the back seat and that he hadn't been dreaming before, sure
enough it was there so he started the engine and headed to the ex-wife’s to
pick up his son.
As he pulled up his son was already waiting on the porch with his bag
packed, sat there with his eyes glued to his hand-held console he barely
glanced up from his game as he heard the car pull up. Patrick was a typical
twelve year old boy, if it had flashing lights and pixels it was all that
mattered, but then he got that from his dad and everyone knew that. When
they were together they were both like little kids, speaking about the latest
games and whatever humorous viral s they could find online. Patrick
turned off his game, picked up his bag and headed to the car, getting in the
passenger side he glanced at his father and then noticed the large box in
the back seat, 'What's in there dad?' he quizzed, 'Wait and see' was the
reply he got, and with that Charlie put his foot down and set off.
It wasn't long before they reached home, with just the one stop off for a
Chinese takeaway for tea purchased, and they both exited the car and
walked towards the house, Patrick carrying his bag and the food, Charlie
wrestling the box under his arm so he could use his other to open the door
with his key. They both walked in and closed the door behind them.
Chapter Two
The Game
He had never seen his father eat so quickly in his life, couldn't work out
what the haste was for, why he was so excited over a plain cardboard box
that his dad had carefully placed on the floor in the front room. 'What new
gadget had he got hold of this time?’ he thought to himself.
Patrick finished his tea long after his father and went to the front room
where his dad was surrounded by black cables, a dark grey box and what
looked like the weirdest looking game controller he had seen in his life.
'What the chuff is that dad?' he asked with total bewilderment, he secretly
had hoped to spend the best part of the evening on the X box they had. 'It’s
what I had when I was younger son, it’s called an Nintendo 64, it’s the X
box I used to play on, look I even got a few games for it too' he replied
handing Patrick some bulky looking grey plastic cartridges. Patrick’s first
thought was that whatever his father was excited about was never going to
measure up to shooting bad guys with a Scar-L or scoring the winning goal
in whatever online match he was playing against his cousin at Fifa.
Looking through the cartridges there was a whole host of bizarre game
names, 'Animal Crossing', 'Blues Brothers 2000', and 'Wetrix' to name a
few, the one that caught his eye though was 'Diddy Kong Racing – the
mystique edition' and he held this up to his dad and said ' Hang on, isn't
this just a rip off of Mario Kart?'. His father turned to look, 'Erm, yes you
could say that, it did bring a while new aspect though, hover boats, flying
it was just as much fun, shall we try that one out?'
Charlie inserted the cartridge and turned the console on, hoping to God
that it worked, and to his delight the familiar beep and home screen
appeared on the television. They grabbed a control each and set up for the
first race. Patrick, although he hated to, had to admit he actually enjoyed
spending the next couple of hours racing against his father and rather liked
the game, no other cartridges got a look in whilst they raced various
vehicles whilst trying to blow each other up in order to prove who was the
best. Looking at his watch Charlie realised it was late, ‘ one more game
son then time for bed, you can play more tomorrow’ he told Patrick and
after the next race they both reluctantly switched the console off and
Patrick headed off to his bed.
The next day was Saturday and he hoped his dad would let him play the
game again, he had noticed a single player tournament and wanted to get
as much as that completed as he could before he had to go back to his
mothers on Monday. He made his breakfast and ate it with a greater speed
than his dad had polished off the tea the night before and went into the
front room where his father was sat there nursing a large mug of coffee, his
essential morning routine before he could take on the world. ‘Can I play
the game again please?’ he asked trying out his best puppy dog eyes, he
needn’t of bothered though, his dad had a lot of paper work to get done
this morning and was happy to have something there to occupy his son.
‘Go for it, glad you are enjoying it, but you are not playing all day, just to
pre-warn you.’ Was the reply he received, so with that he got comfy on his
beanbag and set up the game.
By the end of the day, in-between shopping trips, meals and a play on his
scooter, he had beaten four boss stages and was facing the fifth, some
giant octopus thing. He easily defeated that stage and turned it off for the
night. In bed that night he lay there and all he could think of was finishing
the game before bed tomorrow, he didn’t want to wait another week to
finish the game. With that thought in mind he closed his eyes and drifted
off to sleep.
Chapter Three
The Final Boss
The next day he woke up later than usual, stumbling out of his bed he
headed downstairs to get some breakfast down him. Waffles and syrup was
the order of today he felt. After breakfast he knew his dad would have
chores to do, his homework to complete and a bath would have to be fitted
in today but before all that he decided to get a few more levels beaten
whilst his dad had a lie in. By the time Charlie came downstairs his son
had already defeated two more bosses and Charlie could sense his son was
getting a bit too carried away with the game so he suggested it got
switched off until the jobs had been completed. Patrick wasn’t best pleased
but he knew if he did everything quick enough he would still be able to
finish the game today so he cracked on.
It was late afternoon by the time he got back on the game, he felt his father
kept inventing new jobs to be done just to keep him off it but there might
still be enough time he felt. He turned the console on and started off from
where he left it, winning every race he played with seemingly great ease.
Before long he was on the final battle against some strange looking giant
alien pig type creation. Excited he called to his father ‘quick dad come
here, I am on the last match come and watch.’ Charlie could sense the
excitement in his voice so dropping what he was doing he went to the front
room to watch his son race. Sure enough his son won the race and after the
celebration screen and credits the console flashed up that he had unlocked
a new character. ‘I have never seen him before’ Charlie thought to himself,
‘and I am pretty sure I finished the game when I was younger’. A bear
wearing yellow shorts and braces was familiar enough as Banjo the bear
but this time he was brandishing an oversized carving knife, the character
was also covered in blood splatters with a decidedly evil glare on his face.
‘Killer Banjo’ Patrick said ‘he looks well cool, don’t he dad?’ Charlie
thought to himself that it wasn’t the most apt reward in a child’s game but
knowing his son had seen a lot worse in modern day media he reluctantly
agreed. ‘Right, Patrick, it’s time for bed now, school tomorrow matey, off
you go’ Charlie ordered, and with that his son turned the console off and
headed off to bed.
That evening Charlie was flicking through the television channels fighting
a losing battle on finding something to watch and eventually gave up and
opted for having a game on the console himself, maybe even trying out
this new character and see if he was as good as he remembers he was at the
game, so with that he switched it on and got comfy.
Chapter Four
Cheating never Pays
Charlie waited for the game to load up then on the character selection
screen he picked the new option ‘Killer Banjo’ and started his first race.
He felt confident as he was pretty well matched against his son the other
day so when the buzzer went he set off. The first couple of races went well
and with each win the confidence grew, that was until he was faced with
the first boss of the game. After the fourth attempt he was getting majorly
annoyed, why was it he couldn’t beat this dinosaur thing. It was at this
point he decided to take a break, put down the remote and make a coffee.
Whilst in the kitchen he remembered, years ago he could get cheats for the
game, and wondered if it would be wrong to use them now. After all that’s
what they are there for isn’t it, so he looked on his laptop and found the
perfect cheat to enter, it disabled the bosses weapons which would make it
a lot easier so sitting down with his controller he entered the words
BYEBYEBALLOONS and pressed the enter code button. He pressed the
A button and awaited the next race.
What happened then surprised him, the screen zoomed in on his character
‘Killer Banjo’ and with an evil glare the bear held up his knife to the
screen and said very clearly ‘Cheaters never prosper, you must now pay
the price’ and with that the games system shut down. Charlie thought it
was a bit over the top for a game to act that way but thought nothing else
of it and decided to turn the television back on and see if there was
anything to watch now.
It wasn’t long before he could feel his eyes getting heavy and knowing he
had a busy day in work tomorrow he decided there was no time like the
present for heading to his bed, so with that he turned everything off, went
upstairs, set his alarm clock and got into bed. It wasn’t long before he was
sleeping.
He had no idea what time it was when he was awoken by a strange noise,
grabbing his phone he unlocked it and looked at the clock. ‘Quarter to two’
he thought to himself, ‘ What on earth is Patrick doing at this time of
night?’ He got himself out of bed and opened his door to see what the
commotion was. In the darkness of the hallway he could see the silhouette
of someone coming up the stairs so he stood there waiting for his son to
appear to see what had been going on. ‘I bet he has snuck downstairs to
play that game’ he thought to himself and as the shadow got closer he
waited for the moment when he would make his son aware that he knew
what he had been doing, the fact he had caught him red handed.
What happened next he could never have prepared for, as the shadow got
closer, what he thought was his son, came round the corner. He could make
out quite clearly it was an animal about three foot tall. On closer
examination he worked out it was ‘Killer Banjo’ and he had come to life
and worse still he was still brandishing the knife. Panic swept over him
and all he could think of was running, he turned to go back into his room
with the intention of closing the door behind him but in the darkness he
misjudged it and caught the side of his head and the open door. With that
he fell to the floor instantly. Slightly dazed, he could feel the warmth of the
blood running down his face. He opened his eyes and right in front of him
he saw the bear looking straight into his eyes with that sinister glare. The
arm with the knife in it was raised above his chest.
Charlie closed his eyes and the last words he heard was Banjo saying
‘Cheating never pays!’.