"The hell you mean I failed again!"
A controller smashed into the TV that sat at the other corner of the room, shattering the expensive device. The voice belonged to a teenage boy lying on a bean bag, with all sorts of snacks scattered around him.
His black eyes stared at the damned screen, now filled with an incomprehensible number of cracks, slowly dimming down.
"How many times does this make? Just quit at this point." A voice spoke, filled with weariness. River rolled from his beanbag, falling to the ground without a single care.
He glanced at the man standing above him, his best friend and roommate, Perseus.
"We both know I won’t do that, so stop trying to convince me otherwise."
Yes, the man was named after a damn Greek demigod, but who cared!
Certainly not River.
The blonde-haired man stepped forward, kneeling beside River’s rolling body, sighing deeply.
"Look, dude, I get you love this game and all. Hell, me too, but that doesn’t mean you should stay cooped up in your room for the entire weekend."
He stopped rolling, as if being hit by a shocking realization.
"E-entire weekend...please tell me you’re joking..."
Perseus stared like a man lost, his cerulean eyes glassy and full of deep regret.
Instead of saying anything, he walked over to the broken TV, grabbed the broken controller, and walked back over.
River watched with quiet anticipation, keeping a close eye on his roommate like a hawk.
Perseus is dangerous when he’s mad. I must be careful.
He silently slid his hands beneath his chest, ready to spring up and lunge at any moment. Perseus walked closer, stopping directly in front of River.
"I’m gonna count to exactly three before kicking you in the ass so hard you’d wish you were a woman."
Shit!
Without thinking for a moment, River pushed his hands up, sprinting towards the door. Unfortunately, Perseus was a slimy bastard.
"Too late."
With a wide motion, he threw the controller like he was in a competition to see who could chuck toddlers the farthest...
It flew across the room, hitting River in the middle of his ass, which rippled like water.
"You cheating bastard! You didn’t even count."
"Now I never said anything about throwing a controller. Only legs were mentioned."
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, River looked at Perseus, smiling at him, before deciding to get revenge. In situations like these, where one was at a disadvantage, he had to do anything he could to earn leverage.
And that included sacrifice.
"Take another step, bastard, and I’ll delete your account."
He took out his phone just to make his threat more credible. Obviously, he wasn’t going to do that. They had spent far too much time and money on that game.
"As if you’d do that. Bitch you’re more attached to that game than you are to me."
Perseus made a face of mock hurt, clenching his chest like he’d been shot through with an arrow.
"Eww. No thanks, you gay bastard."
He took a step backwards, nearing the door that would lead him to salvation.
"No wait! That’s not what I meant."
"I’m sure it isn’t..."
Perseus clutched his hair, pulling in frustration. River smiled, his thoughts wandering to the game.
[Angel Battle]
A game both he and Perseus had been obsessed with for months, desperately trying to clear it with their own goals.
He, obsessed with psychotic characters, always chose to play as Morgan Abbadon, the eldest son of the Abbadon family.
The character was completely unhinged, but in the good ways. He was fiercely loyal towards his family, especially his younger brother Helix, who happened to be killed near the end of the main story.
River had played the game more times than he could count, finishing it from top to bottom, but could never get a satisfactory ending. His goal was simple: make sure Morgan’s little brother, Helix, and Morgan’s fiancée, Esmeray, didn’t die by the end.
But every single time, no matter what he did, somehow, someway, one of the two died, leading to the inevitable downfall of the entire family.
Perseus, meanwhile, played for an entirely different reason. He hated the Abbadon family with a passion, mostly because of the character he played, the protagonist, Alexander Azrael.
His older sister was soon to marry Helix, who was fated to die.
And because of that, Alexander’s sister, ever so passionate about her lover, would kill herself from sheer depression.
Indeed, the whole ordeal was twisted, and this was beside the ongoing war between the Angels and their Fallen counterparts.
What a fucked up storyline.
But that was exactly what made it so addictive.
"Bitch listen to me!"
Perseus’s voice tore through the room, his scream loud enough to wake up their non-existent neighbors.
"What? Were you saying something?"
The blonde-haired man scowled, then grabbed an empty soda can, the threat clear.
"Look at this bastard, ignoring me."
A wise man had once said to never poke a sleeping bear, but who cared about old men?
Smiling, River took a daring step forward, controller held in front of him.
"That desperate for daddy’s attention?"
A vein popped on Perseus’s head, but before he could do anything, something strange happened.
The TV, previously shattered into glassy bits, was being pulled back together...literally.
The hole was being rebuilt, glass staining the ground, swimming towards it as if by magic. And magic didn’t exist.
"I might just be high, but you’re seeing what I’m seeing...right?"
River nodded uncertainly, his voice quivering slightly. "If by that you mean floating glass and a TV reassembling itself, then yes."
It took the pair a solid few seconds before they realized what was happening wasn’t remotely normal. Perseus slowly backed away, his face turning pale.
"We should probably run right?"
That sounds nice. We should do that.
They turned to sprint, feet digging into the plush carpet.
Alas, it was too late. River couldn’t move his feet.
"What the hell is happening!"
His voice was panicked, eyes darting around the room, trying to find something to hold onto. Nothing.
His eyes begrudgingly fell towards the TV, which was slowly pulling their bodies towards itself, just like the glass had before.
"Hey River...are we going to die?"
How the hell would I know!?
He didn’t respond, still staring at the TV, now glowing with all sorts of incomprehensible shades, like flames from hell.
The next instant, the colors jumped from the TV.
"Oh hell n—"
They consumed them, and the world fell into darkness.