1 Returning Home

"Yawwn, what time is it?" Inside a college dorm, a slightly tanned hand exited from under the covers of a twin-sized bed, grabbing a medium-sized phone.

When the hand grabbed the phone a head exited from under the covers, revealing the face of a young man. His face had decent features, bigger than normal eyes, a normal-looking nose, thin lips, light brown freckles, slim eyebrows, small ears, and an overall decent-looking face. His hair was short and a dirt brown color at the top the got light the farther down you looked.

The hand belonging to this face took the phone and turned it on before putting it in front of his face, "8 AM, alright not too bad...Oh, yea this is the first day of my break from school. I finally get a good break, computer engineering is confusing. I think my flight is in...an hour. SHIT!"

The figure exploded out of bed showing off a slightly buff, slim body with the only thing covering his body being underwear. He ran over to his laundry basket and threw clothes all around before putting something on in only ten seconds flat.

"Thank goodness I packed yesterday. How the hell did I sleep through that alarm?!" The guy picked up his bag and quickly checked it before running out of the room.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry Gel?"

Another guy was slouching on a couch watching TV. He had black, short hair and was currently picking wax from his ear and blowing it off the finger that went inside of his ear. He wasn't fat but he wasn't skinny either, but he was pretty tall, about 6' 2".

"No time to talk Jordan, I will miss my flight if I wait any longer," Gel ran over to a loaf of bread next to Jordan and grabbed two slices before swiftly exiting the room through the door.

He ran through the college dorms like a maniac with two slices of bread in his mouth, "MVVVVVVVV!!" Gel yelled at some people in front of the exit of the building as best as he could with two pieces of bread in his mouth but ended up running into them anyway.

"Dude what the hell?!?" One of the guys he ran into got angry at him, but he was too worried about his flight to get angry over simpler matters, "Sorry dude I can't miss this flight, I'm sure you understand."

Gel picked his suitcase up and salvaged one piece of bread on the ground before continuing the rush to his car. He got to his car and entered it with haste. The car wasn't anything special, just a small white car but it worked and that was all he needed.

He quickly left the dorm parking lot and entered a lower capacity road before entering the highway towards the airport.

'Alright, I know the speed limit is 70...but if I go any lower than 80 I won't make it. Alright...FUCK IT LETS GOOO.'

Gel slammed down on the accelerator pedal and the car sped up to 85 miles per hour. He was nervous he would get pulled over by a cop because of how everything seemed to be against him this morning, but luckily he got to the airport without any more trouble.

Although he made it to the airport in only 15 minutes that was the easy part. He still had the biggest obstacle yet to get over...security. Airport security is notorious for taking forever and there was nothing he could do to make it go faster, it was all up to luck if he made it to his flight in time now.

Gel locked his car and took a picture of where it was so that if he got to his flight and got back from his flight, he could find his car. After taking a photo of his car's position, he unpaused his marathon and ran to the airport entrance.

After entering and going through the normal procedures he got to the security line. All he could do now was pray. He looked at the line and got excited, it was still possible!

He entered the line quickly before waiting for about 40 minutes and finally getting through security, 'I only have about 5 minutes! GO GO GOOOO!!!'

Gel gave himself mental motivation and ran like a crazy man through the airport to get to his plane on time. He was looking at the signs to see if his flight zone was there while running on the treadmill that was going forward to get to an even faster speed until he saw it, 'That's it!'

He found it and the lady who collects tickets was about to close the entrance to the plane, he immediately felt insatiable despair, 'No it's not over! I will never let the airport defeat me!'

"MAM, PLEASE WAIT!!! THIS IS MY FLIGHT PLEASE," Gel yelled at the woman loudly. She looked over at him and gave him an understanding nod.

'Thank goodness...' A massive amount of pressure just got lifted off his shoulders and he felt like he could fly if he wanted to. This didn't stop him from running at his top speed though.

He ran at the ticket collector and gave her the ticket. She looked at it and nodded at him, signaling him to go into the tube. He quickly entered the tube as his luck had been tested enough today to wait outside the tube.

Gel finally entered the plane at the last second. When he entered the plane panting he got some weird looks but he was too exhausted, both physically and mentally, to care.

He sat down on an outside seat in the middle of the plane before sighing and letting his body go limp. This was the kind of sigh that took all of the stress out of his body with the exhale, it was the best kind of sigh. He made it...somehow.

Now that he finally had time to think about something different than what he would do if he didn't make it, he thought about why he was on a plane in the first place.

He was using this week off to hang out with his family. he cherished his family dearly. He wouldn't be where he was without his family helping him. He used to be depressed and suicidal in middle school as he was bullied all the time. His family, more exactly his older sister, helped him out of that dark place.

Gel had always been way closer to his family than most other kids his age since then. He was extremely excited to see them all, he wondered how much bigger his little brother and sister were now. His older sister even took time off of work to meet up with him at his mother's and father's house. He wouldn't miss this for the world, he was even missing out on the grand release of the newest full dive VR game, dubbed New Creation, for this.

He was a big nerd when it came to stuff like this, this game was said to change almost everything in this world, gamers, e-sports, the economy, some people even think that it will fling us into a new age of technology.

Although many other full dive games came out before this, none of them were said to be as immersive as this one was. he even knew what the minute differences were between the copper gaming pods and higher-tier gaming pods.

Gel was absolutely sure if you succeeded in this new game you would succeed in life. The guilds in the older games were still influential in the real world, imagine how much influence you would have if you took control over a game that is said to change the way we view the world.

Gel got a bit upset at the thought of leaving behind his opportunity to get a headstart in the game, but that was just a passing thought of greed. He threw that thought into the deepest hole of his brain, he was really excited about seeing his family, especially his older sister.

Gel decided to stop thinking about the new game as it made him feel more and more heartbroken. He put in some airpods and listened to a podcast while he closed his eyes to get some rest after the marathon he ran.

__________

The trip only took about three hours via plane, because Gel only lived about 1,800 miles away. He had to move far away from his family because of the college he got into. He was somehow accepted into the 3rd best university for computer engineering, the bad side was it was far away.

He felt sad that he had to move so far, but he wanted to pursue education, so he said his goodbyes and visited them every now and then just like right now.

Gel got out of the airport and called an Uber to get to his mom's house. He got an Uber after waiting for 10 minutes and entered the car.

"What brings you to Calvita?" Like most Uber drivers, the woman driving the car tried to make small talk with him.

"I'm visiting family." Gel put a type of voice at the end of his sentence signifying he didn't want to continue the conversation. The Uber driver got the hint and was silent for the rest of the 20-minute drive.

After waiting for 20 minutes while browsing stuff on his phone the Uber finally arrived. Gel grew up in a suburban neighborhood as a kid and his parents never moved out of the spot. It was just a normal blue suburban house, but it brought back a lot of nostalgia. He reminisced for a bit before going up to the door and putting in the password for the digital lock on the front door.

He unlocked the door and entered the house, "Guess who's home!" Gel waited with his eyes closed for a response, but got none. When he opened his eyes, his face dropped.

"...What the fuck happened here..." In front of him was a front living room stained with blood.

Gel was absolutely horrified.