‘Terms and Conditions’ by Athena V
“So, I’ll see you in Ultimate Adventure tonight, then?” Michael asked, “There’s a new update.”
They were outside the school gates, about to break up for the first half term holiday of the calendar year and Jonathon was more focused on getting home into the warmth than some silly game – he’d left his jumper at home that morning.
“Oh, dammit!” he slapped his forehead, “I completely forgot. I’ll do it when I get home”
Not likely
“Nah, you can do it now; you have to download it on your phone before anyways,” Michael grinned and Jon, sighing inwardly, took his phone out from his blazer pocket, and started tapping the screen.
“Here, give it to me,” Michael said after a painful few seconds and plucked Jon’s phone out of his hands – Jon’s fingers were too numb to do much more than tremble stubbornly.
Swiftly bringing up ‘Ultimate Adventure’, Michael turned to Jon, “There. Now you can download it.”
Jon frowned. Those ads looked sort of strange, almost eerie, “I dunno mate, looks kinda sketchy,” More like terrifying.
“Oh, who cares? It’s fine dummy, and everyone’s playing it – we’d look stupid if we didn’t.”
The accept/reject page popped up. His mum had always told him to read the Ts and Cs, so he did…briefly. It was all the usual; ‘- you are over the age of 12 years old -’ He had turned thirteen last Summer, ‘- intellectual property rights: abuse or replication of this product will result in prosecution,’ As if anyone would willingly copy this nonsense, ‘ etc, etc, we will steal your data, signed Eclipz’ Okay, maybe the last bit wasn’t actually written down but he had seen enough of these to know what to expect.
Michael’s elbow was digging into his shoulder, so he clicked ‘accept’ before his fingers went completely numb from scrolling in the crisp Winter air.
Years went by. Eclipz’s game was still popular, but Jonathon didn’t play it anymore, in fact he had totally forgotten about it. The app had just sat on his phone for the past 2 ½ years, collecting metaphorical dust, lying in wait like a crouching animal, up until today –
His 16th birthday.
They were gathered around a small table, him; his eight-year-old sister, Kayla, and his mum, who had baked his birthday cake - green with a games console on top. He didn’t even play that much anymore and honestly, he felt slightly embarrassed that his mum had gone through all that effort, especially with her constant overtime and stress at work. She tried to hide it, but he wasn’t a kid anymore – there was a reason he was spending his sweet sixteen at home among whitewashed walls and threadbare rugs and not out partying with his friends. It was all for this alleged raise, but Jon suspected her boss was just cheating her out of extra work.
He was about to half-heartedly blow out the candles when a news report on the still-running TV caught his attention; “Yet another sixteen-year-old adolescent has gone missing after unknown officials arrived at his house. Michael Smith’s disappearance occurred a week ago …” the news continued but all Jon could focus on was the picture on the screen, that familiar face, sandy hair, grey eyes. It was unmistakably his friend from year 9. They hadn’t talked much for a year or so now but Jon still wished him a happy birthday – over text, of course – he didn’t think much of the lack of reply at the time, putting it down to workload or awkwardness but he had never even read the message. He felt sick.
Catching his expression, his mum got up and forcefully jabbed the off button, “Enough of that, I think,” her face was pinched, probably worn from always trying to protect him “Now, where were we?”
But they couldn’t get back to celebrating because, just then, there was a rough knock at the door.
She sighed, and went to answer it, “Hello?”
“We’re here for your son,” came the gruff reply. Two important-looking officials, a man and a woman (Kind of like the bodyguards in movies, but with aubergine-coloured suits instead of black), barged into the room.
“Excuse me,” she scowled, pushing back in front of them, hands on hips, “Whatever for?”
The lady pulled a small tablet from her pocket, “Jonathon Ansley Parker signed this contract on the 10th of February 2 years and 5 months ago.”
Jon stood up and strode over to the incriminating tablet and squinted to read the document.
“There’s nothing ‘cept the normal stuff,” he shrugged, “And I haven’t done anything on here,” inside he was feeling much less calm. Some birthday this was turning out to be. Silently, the woman pointed to the middle on the text. In small writing, it stated, ‘By clicking, ‘accept’, you agree that when you turn 16, Eclipz studios officially own you and will pick you up at 1800 hours on your sixteenth birthday.’
Panicked, Jon spun round to the clock on the wall. Just gone 6. “What the hell,” he muttered, desperately trying to bring reason to his mind.
His mum spoke, a serious expression etched into her face, “Jonny, did you read the terms and conditions like I always tell you?”
Thinking back to that day, the name from the contract whirled round his head. Of course! Eclipz, the makers of that weird game. Supposedly renowned for its ‘unique and realistic’ characters, but Jon had always found them creepy. No wonder he stopped playing.
He couldn’t meet his mother’s eyes. “I did!” he protested. But had he? “Well, I-I skimmed. How was I supposed to know?” he said angrily.
His mother’s face fell, defeated and Kayla was crying in confusion.
“You’re coming with us, sonny,” said the man. They grabbed him by the arms and none-too-gently marched him outside.
“Wait, what? No!” Jon said, struggling in their firm grip, twisting to catch a glimpse of his mother, who was comforting Kayla, “I didn’t sign up for this!”
“Oh, but you did.” There was a hint of amusement in the heartless voice. Before he could call out again, a foul-smelling hessian sack was shoved onto his head. The last thing he saw was his mum and sister in each other’s arms, tears spilling from their eyes.
He felt himself thrown into the back of a vehicle and he evidently hit his head on something hard as a split-second later, he felt an agonizing pain and fell out of consciousness.
He came to and blinked his eyes open, wincing at the blinding light advancing from all directions. The side of his head felt like someone was drilling a hole into it. He wriggled his fingers, and in doing so, discovered his hands were restrained. Alarmed, he peered down at himself. He was lying horizontally on a metal board in strange clothes and wires connected to his arms, legs, neck and who knew what else, not to mention he was strapped down. All around him, were computer screens displaying scenes from Ultimate Adventure – villages, battles, mining. He saw a new NPC design developing on one of them, captioned by the words; ‘NEW UPDATE – role unassigned’ and recoiled as he realised who it was.
Michael.
Panic flooded his brain. He pulled and tugged at his bindings till his wrists rubbed raw but they didn’t budge. An infrared scanner moved menacingly toward him, blazing his retina as it swept across his struggling body, mapping out every inch of it. In a screen to his right, a grotesque version of Jon was loading.
The last thing he felt was a painful electric pulse shooting through his chest before Jonathon Ansley Parker’s vision went dark for the final time.
Glad to make your acquaintance, young traveler. I, too, am new to these parts and I require assistance. Will you help me? _
Please help me
Please, I-
I can’t-
Please