Chapter 1: Unprepared

"ARE YOU BLIND?!…"

"This fucker…" Aran grunted under his breath staring intently at the screen of his computer where his character was being shot from different sides,

"Harun…where the heck are you? I'm being killed…"

"Shit…shit…SHIT. I'M DEAD," Aran suddenly screamed banging his arms on the table as he watched a red "game over" icon pop up on his screen.

"Oh shit…sorry. I had to quickly take a break. My mum suddenly called me," a male voice said speaking directly into Aran's headpiece the moment he sighed and leaned back into his seat.

His fingers ran smoothly over his keyboard to start over again.

"It's fine. We can just start over. I saved the lever so it shouldn't be a problem," Aran replied glancing to his right where an unopened cup of instant noodles was.

He was still wondering whether or not he should eat a little before he continued playing when he again heard Harun, his fellow gamer voice as he spoke in a hurry,

"Aaah…I'm sorry but my mum needs me to help her with a couple of things. If I delay any longer she's most likely bust into my room and take away my system,"

"Worse case scenario she might even cut off my wi-fi. You have no idea how jealous I am of you sometimes,"

"W-what? So you're leaving? Right now?" Aran asked unable to hide the disappointment he felt from his gone.

"Yes, but I'll reach out to you once I'm back…" Harun quickly replied, the sound of him vigorously typing away on his keyboard reaching Aran's ears.

"In the meantime, in case you get bored you can play this online game I found on a popular Discord server. I haven't tried it out yet but everyone that has says it's weird,"

"but, I don't even play…"

"I have to go…bye,"

That was the last thing Aran heard him say before his headpiece was disconnected from his own and his user ID instantly went offline.

"Urgh…I don't play offline games. You know this," Aran groaned watching the game file, Harun sent to him pop up on his screen.

He clicked it and a few seconds after it began loading, Aran jumped up from his seat and began opening his noodles cup. He was halfway done when he noticed the file was still stuck on 1%.

"What kind of file is this?" he muttered to himself, already imagining how long it would take for it to get to a hundred percent and finish loading.

Annoyed and impatient, he had just minimized it, expecting it to continue to load in the background when he noticed that it did no such thing and instantly closed itself.

"If I hadn't examined the file, I would think it was a virus," Aran said as he continued to mutter angrily to himself, clicking the file a second time, and watching it begin to load from 0%.

"Aah…I might as well use this chance to do other things while I wait for Harun to come back," Aran thought, jumping back on his feet before heading to the bathroom.

The moment he was done in the bathroom, he changed his clothes and had just taken another peek at his computer when he unconsciously swore out loud,

"Shit…4%?"

"At this point, I might as well cancel the entire thing and pick another game," Aran thought, even though he made no moves to do so since deep down he wanted to know what kind of game it was.

Aran had only just looked around trying to figure out what to do next when his eyes landed on the staircase that led up to where the rest of his family lived.

"I might as well say hi," Aran thought as he suddenly began walking as fast as he could in the direction of the stairs, wanting to get up and out of the basement before he changed his mind.

He had only just turned the door handle leading out of the basement to a small corridor, that led straight to the door of the kitchen on the first floor when he saw his elder brother, Xana stepping out of the kitchen at the same time.

Aran had only just raised his right hand to wave, with a half-smile on the edge of his lips the moment he laid his eyes on him, only to see him do a full turn as he walked away.

Watching his back, he saw him continue to the stairs right before he turned right and made his way to his room.

"Hi…" Aran whispered to himself, with a sad smile on his face, instantly recalling why he hated coming up in the first instance.

Still, he continued walking. He at least felt he owed it to his mom to see her once in a while even if he never left the basement, since he had everything he needed there.

He looked in the living room and dining room and even checked the kitchen before making his way up the stairs that led to his parents' rooms and that of his brothers when he didn't see any sign of her.

It was around eight in the evening but he knew that it wasn't late enough for her to already be in bed.

He had just walked past his brother's room, a few steps away from his parent's own when he began making out different voices that were slowly rising in volume the more they spoke,

"Why are you always defending that bum of yours? He is nothing but a lazy ass who is too scared of the world out there that he would rather die in the basement before stepping a foot outside"

"When last did you see him, Lena?! Tell me…" the deep male voice yelled, right before the sound of something being smashed against the wall was heard,

"Horia, He's our son. He's just going through a tough time right now, especially after what happened. Aran would never do what they all accused him of. Aran is a good…"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR It!"

"He is good for nothing and if I had my way he wouldn't be living in this house with us," yelled the elderly male voice, loud enough voice that Aran was sure his brother could hear them.

He was just turning back around, to leave since it had become exceedingly obvious that his presence wasn't in any way wanted when his parent's door swung open and his mum stepped out.

"Aah…Mother," Aran whispered not surprised to find himself in a tight hug as he felt her squeeze him with all her strength, after running towards him.

"You…w-what are you doing here?" Aran heard her ask, as she began sniffling loud enough for him to be able to tell that she was already crying.

"Stealing food?"

"Really? Then you should have stopped in the kitchen. It's not far from your hideout," his mum replied hugging him even tighter than before,

"Mum…" Aran began complaining, " I'm too old for hugs. A two-second hug is allowed but anything more and I'll be called a mama's boy,

"I don't care. You're making up for all the hugs I should have gotten when I didn't see you,"

"Fine…fine, b-but at least allow me to breathe," Aran said gasping for air after a few more seconds of hugging her without it looking like she had any intention of letting him go,

But when she finally did let him go, she grabbed his hand and began pulling him in the direction of the stairs.

She was shorter than him by almost two feet but Aran was skinny and compared to her more chubby size, Aran could only allow himself to be pulled in whatever direction she wanted.

He knew he couldn't say no and he didn't want to since in an hour or two, he would be back in the basement with his games being the only thing keeping him company from his demons.