Undecim sat alone in her bedroom on a sunny day. She felt unwanted in her own home after her family dismissed her pleads to play. Boredom drove her to reminisce about the toys she used to play with as a child and the games she enjoyed as a preteen.
She recalled Spiffy's Space, an online role-playing game designed for a young audience to explore a colorful universe of cartoon animals. Cartoons, shortened to toons, were at war with anarchists who lost sight of their silly side and mutated into machine hybrids called Cytoons. Their battles consisted of typical cartoon violence or common gags. Undecim shifted her focus to other games but Spiffy's Space dominated her thoughts, the title repeated itself in her head as her heart raced with anxiety.
Undecim typed the link into the address bar. A colorful website featuring Spiffy appeared on the screen, he gestured to the log-in button with a cheesy grin on his face. Spiffy resembled a Border Collie with green fur, a white underbelly, and white markings on his forearms and muzzle. He wore a red cape with a yellow S printed on the back, blue jean shorts, and red boots with yellow soles. Anyone who played the game remembered his habit of ending his sentences with “Awo! Awo!”
Undecim's old username and password filled the fields on the page. Her gaze shifted back to Spiffy, who appeared to be staring at her through the screen with great anticipation.
“That's strange,” Undecim muttered.
Creepie and Undecim's accounts were inactive for three years and were likely terminated. Undecim pressed the log-in button, her screen turned black and her speakers popped as though they shut themselves off. The longer she stared at the monitor the more she struggled to look past her growing discomfort.
Undecim was exposed to a monochromatic image of a defunct amusement park. A Ferris Wheel was in the foreground with Spiffy sitting in the top cart, behind him was a series of rides ready to collapse. This was the character selection screen, which was supposed to be cheery with a bright sun and a roller coaster in the background. Her custom characters no longer existed. Spiffy was her only choice.
Undecim held her breath as she clicked on Spiffy. The game started instantly, it should have taken fifteen minutes to load. Spiffy stood in the middle of a war-torn town surrounded by burning buildings and wilted plants covered in black soot, a desaturated color gradient emphasized the tragedy that struck Funtyme's Square.
Funtyme's Square was inspired by New York. This was the starting point designed with an onslaught of tutorials for players who joined the game, then they could explore the branching neighborhood streets, enter shops, or engage in the mini-games it had to offer. The sun was always shining, the grass was always green, the flowers danced, and players heckled each other among cheerful NPCs. Now Spiffy was the only toon left in the entire town. This realization triggered discordant music to fade in and play in the background. It was a haunting melody created from a warped version of the level's original track.
Undecim looked on in shock as she tried to imagine what could have turned their whimsical world into something so desolate. She swallowed hard and tapped the up key on her keyboard, Spiffy lurched forward and stumbled to a stop. She guided the toon through an avenue and beheld abandoned buildings set ablaze like those in Funtyme's Square. Puddles of oil covered the pavement and sidewalks, accompanied by grotesquely shaped heads with metal plates grafted to them. The most prominent heads belonged to a Cytoon species called Lackey, which was based on a Golden Retriever.
The Lackey had a permanent open-mouthed smile and tightly closed eyes, though its in-game dialogue implied it was depressed or actually hated its boss. The eyes of the deceased Lackeys were wide open and their jaws hung slack to give an impression of terror, their lifeless eyes fixed on Undecim through the monitor. Cytoons were considered another brick in an industrial wall, lifeless beings who were no longer welcome in society after they gave up their individuality for a suit. They were scorned for believing what they were taught in The Academy. These soulless creatures were incapable of emotion but their gruesome expressions made Undecim think twice about their portrayals. Still, she had yet to question what kind of monster actuated others to engage in genocide.
Spiffy turned a corner and came to a halt. He gazed at a burning police station in the middle of a cul-de-sac. Undecim felt her chest tighten when she realized she could no longer move him, he shook his head in silent refusal when she tapped a key. A series of barking sounds brought Undecim's attention to blue text in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Undecim moved her mouse to the X at the top of the screen but it did not respond. Sweat ran down her forehead and her breathing intensified, she feared the beast that killed the inhabitants of Spiffy's Space would make itself known.
The location changed when Spiffy turned to face the screen with a sad expression. He stood outside of The Academy, where Cytoons were“manufactured” from toons who wanted a serious approach to life. The level was bleak and foreboding, challenging players to infiltrate an amalgamation of a college institute and a penitentiary. The sun's absence left a dark gray overcast above the establishment and prevented life from sprouting in the dry black soil. Cytoons marched the premises en masse as convenient guards to protect their territory. Now it was quiet, the monochrome color scheme it boasted felt truly depressing.
Spiffy's expression changed. He sprinted after a Lackey who passed by in the background.
What is his fascination with Lackeys? Undecim wondered.
She gritted her teeth when Spiffy turned to face the screen with a glare. This emotion was designed to come with a comical tantrum but Spiffy looked on with an intimidating stare. Text appeared in the bottom left corner.
A mischievous smile crept across Spiffy's muzzle. A chill ran down Undecim's spine, her instincts told her to flee from the room but she remained seated and stared at the monitor.
Spiffy caught up to the Lackey with ease. Undecim hoped he would do something silly once he captured it, she uttered a nervous laugh at the thought. Spiffy tackled the Lackey and pinned it to the ground, a sound crossed between a yelping dog and grinding gears emit from the Cytoon as it struggled against him.
Spiffy amputated the Lackey's legs with a saw he pulled from hammerspace, blood sprayed from the wounds instead of oozing oil like its brethren. Undecim watched as Spiffy tied a rope around its neck. He dragged it across the barren land and kicked open the factory door, he was met with anguished screams echoing from the fire inside the building.
Undecim wanted to call for help but she could not find her voice. She watched Spiffy lug the helpless Cytoon up a flight of stairs, orange text entered itself in the corner of the screen as the Lackey pleaded for its life. The staircase led to a small balcony above a roaring pit of fire. Spiffy cornered the Lackey by a metal rail on the balcony and stabbed it with a screwdriver. High-pitched male screams blared from Undecim's speakers and forced her to cover her ears with a gasp. She hyperventilated, the painful throbbing of her heart made her body feel numb. Past the pitch shift, Undecim swore what she heard was true death.
Spiffy pulled a drill from his pocket and pressed it against the Lackey's head. The Cytoon writhed about as its distorted screams mixed with the loud whir of his tool. Spiffy looked on with a dark expression, he held his arm in place as he became drenched in blood. Spiffy dropped the drill when he grew bored and grabbed the end of the rope, he effortlessly swung the Lackey over the rail and held onto it with inhuman strength. Undecim jerked back in her seat when a brutal snap came through her speakers.
Another abrupt change took them to a place that did not exist on the map in the game. It was a grassy plain littered with the bodies of toons and Cytoons surrounded by realistic piles of viscera and pools of blood. A hill with a single tree atop of it could be seen farther away in the distance. Spiffy stood stock-still as he stared at the hellscape before him.
Tears welled in Undecim's eyes and her lip quivered. “Why?” she whimpered. She knew Spiffy could hear her even if she kept her thoughts to herself.
Spiffy's head twisted back as he ran toward the hill. Open wounds riddled his face and a terrible burn marred the right side of his head. His jaw hung slack to the left, exposing rotten, jagged teeth. His large, black eye sockets were surrounded by a gray aura, blood ran from them and seeped into the infected cuts on his muzzle. The corners of Spiffy's mouth managed to turn upward in a grin.
Spiffy: Didn't you think it was funny?
His eyebrows expressed sadness when Undecim shook her head in response. The world's colors faded to gray and grew darker the further he ran, piles of bodies materialized as he came closer to the hill. Spiffy's relentless staring made Undecim squirm in her seat.
Spiffy: Look what you have done to this beautiful place. All of these people.
“I never did anything!” Undecim shouted.
The toon's eyebrows raised and his twisted grin returned.
Spiffy: Accept your fate.
Spiffy made pained grunts as he closed in on the tree. His health points depleted and his body became frail. Spiffy's grunts turned to audio clips of a real dog whimpering by the time he stood five feet away from the base. Spiffy stumbled to a stop, fell to his knees, and flopped onto his stomach. He remained still, surrounded by bodies with hollow eye sockets. Undecim jumped in her seat when fire engulfed the corpses and grass with a loud igniting sound.
Undecim snapped out of her trance when the game closed itself out, she ran down the hall and begged Hekima for his assistance. Undecim gave her father a hasty explanation of what she had witnessed and convinced him to give her computer a complete reboot.
The complex process required an electrical box in the wall, which held a “reset laser” inside of it. Hekima shouted for his family to duck as a laser ricocheted off the floor and ceiling. Undecim kept her distance from the laser. The memory of Spiffy's Space would be transferred into a person's mind if they let it come in contact with their eyes. Undecim never wanted to see Spiffy again, nor did she want her family members to suffer the same burden.
Undecim spent the rest of the dream reinstalling her programs. It was an inconvenience but she assured herself it was not so bad compared to what she went through.
—-
Art by @princesslovelydreams
Story Excerpt from The Inner Council: Dream Journal by Casselle and Joyelle King
