Alexander Plansky - Arcadia

“No, that’s what I told you he told me. I thought he was crazy when he said that, and I laughed it off on the phone with him. Even he chuckled and said, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s something else.’ I told him he never got enough damn sleep.” Jenna ate the penne angrily, already spearing more. “You’re starting to sound like my parents,” she said, covering her mouth with her hand as she chewed.

Lewis folded his hands in front of him, looking at the table. “I’ve been having strange dreams too… and some hallucinations.”

She looked up, a softer expression coming across her face. “Des, you found out a friend of yours died yesterday and today another friend tried to kill you. Anyone having the week you’ve had would probably be messed up too.”

“This started Sunday evening, before I knew Jake was dead. The same night I started playing the game.”

“Strange dreams can happen at any time.”

“This wasn’t just any strange dream. I saw the glowing blue astronaut and I hadn’t even gotten to that part of the game yet!”

She looked confused. “What glowing blue astronaut?”

“You know, the one from the game? It’s in this spacesuit, but you can’t see its face because there’s this blue light coming from inside its helmet.” She didn’t appear to be following. He raised an eyebrow. “How far have you gotten?”

Jenna looked away and brushed a strand of her light brown hair back from her face. “Not that far.” She took a sip of water. “I really need to play more of it.”

“Right now, that’s the last thing I’d recommend.”

“Des, video games don’t have side effects that cause psychosis. They’ve proven this many, many times.”

“It’s not a side effect. Somebody designed that game to do this.”

She sighed. “Look, I know you’ve had a really bad day, but–”

“No, I’m dead serious. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Des, video games affect everybody differently. Maybe you and Charlie got bad dreams from this one, but I can guarantee that whatever caused Charlie to snap had nothing to do with it. He was probably going through something we just didn’t know about, something that took a terrible toll on his mental health.”

“You weren’t there, Jenna. That wasn’t the Charlie I’d met before. Something had scrambled his mind; it was like he was trapped in a nightmare and was lashing out at it in the real world.”

Red color flushed through her face. “You sound like all those nimrods who say video games rot your brain – which, fun fact, they don’t! Many studies have shown they actually have a positive effect on cognitive development. And anyway, both of the major political parties in this country have used games and other forms of media – comic books, movies, TV shows, you name it – as scapegoats for violent crime because they don’t want to confront the real, complex issues of mental health, because they understand it even less than they do entertainment!”

“I know that. I believe you, honestly. But this game specifically–”

“My parents once told me I spent too much time on the ‘PlayBox 360’, okay. I had a fucking Wii back then! For years, they and people just like them have blamed their children’s actions on video games instead of taking credit for their own shit parenting!” Her face was completely red now, seething with rage.

He didn’t say anything. This happened from time to time.

“You know, when I got the diagnosis, they blamed it on me having played too many first-person shooters. As if Call of Duty causes fucking borderline!”

He tried to keep his eyes from wandering to the red lines on the insides of her forearms, as they always tended to do whenever this topic came up. He reached forward and took one of her hands into his.

She bit her lip, looking away. “Shit, why did I bring that up? Why do I always make things about myself? I mean Jesus, you nearly died today and–”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy,” he said in as soothing a tone as possible. “I’m fine. It’s fine. You’re fine. You’re one of the strongest people I know, okay.” When she’d first told him she had BPD, about two months into the relationship, she admitted she was scared because several people had left her after finding out in the past. Lewis wouldn’t have dreamed of it.

They were silent for a few moments, him holding her hand and her looking anywhere but at him.

“We’re going to Vegas this weekend,” he said, trying to sound cheerful.

She returned her attention to him. “Really? What for?”

“A business trip. It was planned before all this happened. I was going to tell you, and then…”

She nodded slowly, looking down at her food.

He continued, “There’s this place outside the city. A virtual reality amusement park, called Arcadia. I’m writing a piece on it. It looks really cool and–”

Jenna furrowed her brow. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Jake, does it?”

He paused for a moment. “To be honest, I’m not quite sure.” And that was the truth. “The people there are big fans of yours,” he said, shifting the subject. “They specifically asked if I could bring you along. They’re giving us a private tour and everything, which they usually never do.”

She laughed. “You son of a bitch.”

“What?”

“You used me to get backstage access, didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “Maybe it helped a bit.”

Jenna shook her head. “Normally, I’d probably be a bit pissed but after everything you’ve been through this week… fine.” She turned her fork over in her hand, watching the light glint off the silver. “So, what exactly do they do there?”

“That,” he said, “is a very good question.”

Before climbing into bed with Jenna that night, he decided to call his parents. He always tried to check in at least once every week to see how things were. David and Gabrielle Lewis currently lived upstate in San Jose. He had taken Jenna up there for a few days at Christmas last month; a good time had been had by all. Lewis walked to the kitchen and put his palm on the window, his other hand holding his Galaxy S9 to his ear.

His father picked up on the third ring. “Hey Desmond, how are you?”

“Not great…” He relayed an edited version of the week’s events from Miller’s death to his brush with death in Pasadena, keeping anything to do with Arcadia and Rouge Horizon out of the picture.

His father was silent for a good long while.

“Well, shit,” he finally said.

Lewis laughed. His dad had never been averse to the art of swearing. “Yeah, it’s… it’s been an interesting week.”

“What do you think made this guy Charlie lose his marbles?”

He played a game possibly designed by the government to make you kill people. “I have no idea. Probably something personal, maybe a mental health issue he was keeping hidden. Perhaps he was on antidepressants and they just didn’t work the way they were supposed to. They’re still investigating it.”

“I’m truly, terribly sorry. Your mother is out walking Lucy, but she’ll be back soon. Do you want me to call you when she’s here so you can tell her in person?”

Lewis smiled at the memory of Jenna hugging his family’s dog, an old German shepherd, on Christmas morning. Lucy had really liked her; he always took it as a good sign when his dog was fond of someone. Lucy had absolutely hated meeting one of his college girlfriends, and about a month after that Lewis had found out she’d been cheating on him.

“Nah, that’s okay,” he said, snapping out of the reverie. “Just let her know I’m alright.”