Back in the real world, Denise Healy poked at the greens on his plate, thinking over the events of the last two hours or so. He liked this Stephanie Mary Louis skunk-girl. Out of all the badass girls he'd seen in movies and TV, she might just have been the most awesome. Well, except for Milla Jovovich… and suddenly he wondered where to find zombies in The Kindgom!
He looked up at his mother Samantha, and her eyes flicked from her meal to him as if she expected something horrible to happen. It was strange that he realized he had nothing to say to hurt or degrade her, or make some comment about her day to worsen it. In this moment, he could only think of how much fun PHUK had been.
"What is it Dear?" she asked carefully, moving her right hand through her long blonde hair. "Did you enjoy the Game?" she asked, and as she dropped her hand back to the table, Denise realized that though her hair was blonde instead of pure white, that his mom and Stephanie had the same hairdo.
He thought about what to say very carefully before responding, "It… was amazing," he told her. "A lot of fun. Thank you," he offered, not believing the words that were coming out of his moth. He looked up from his food and met her gaze, and she seemed shocked for a good long moment before a soft smile crept into her lips.
"I'm glad you like it," she said, taking a bite of her meatloaf. She took another bite before looking at him and asking, "So, what do you do in it?" she wondered, realizing she still had on her nametag from work, and unclipped it, putting it down on the table.
Denise looked around the nice kitchen as if he'd never seen it before. Wood and tile, and clean and everything in place. He didn't want to tell his mom he was killing real people, so he avoided the topic and said, "Well, you can do just about anything. It's like a whole world of it's own, but instead there's anything… anything at all. There's cities, but there's magic forests, and space travel, and underwater cities, and mystical creatures," he rambled for a moment before he stopped.
She nodded, "That does sound fun," she said, but before she could continue her thought, the phone rang. "Oh, that must be your father," she said, but didn't sound convincing as she looked at the Caller ID. "Birthday stuff," she winked at him, and took the cordless off into the other room.
My birthday's a month away, Denise thought, watching his mom leave. He was almost nine, to be sure, but that still sounded strange. His mom had been doing that this week, ever since he went to the doctors. Wait, doctors? Total Immersion Suit, small statue, wondering what mom and dad told them… Denise's eyes went wide, Do I have a disease?
Denise had off and on wondered if the reason he enjoyed all the things people told him he shouldn't was if something was affecting his mind. True, he wouldn't care if that was the case, but it was something her was curious about… then the other day he saw a movie about a man who started to think different and be smarter than everyone else and it turned out a brain tumor had wired his brain to work better and faster… and ever since that night, he was wondering if something worse was wrong with him.
He quickly got to his feet and slinked in the direction of the living room. What he heard was a partway begun conversation with his mom saying, "The doctor said he'd never seen it in one so young," she said. "Not that it's never happened, but Precocious Puberty could explain why he's been so destructive… they're still running tests, but they think some other disease or outside contaminant cause it," she said. "I bet you it was that oil field in Texas."
Denise blinked. Not only did he have a disease, but he probably has a disease that caused that disease? He frowned… Why didn't the bitch tell me? He looked up the stairs that went over one side of the living room, and slowly creeped up them in the direction of his room. He couldn't handle this now, Stephanie needed him.
But, as Denise sat down at the computer to start up PHUK before undressing and putting the suit back on, he decided to look up the Puberty thing. Puberty wasn't bad, right? And sure enough, a few Google headings and Wikipedia later, Denise discovered that he might be going through puberty a good six years early.
I don't see what's so bad about that, he smirked, locking his door and removing all his cloths again. In a month he would be nine, but tonight he would pick up where he'd left the young Stephanie Louis. What more trouble and adventures awaited the two of them?