My Own Universe Read online

  Chapter 3: Age 20

  The rain was pouring down around me, cascading off my hat like a miniature waterfall. I could feel the water slowly seeping into my clothes, the wind driving home the cold. I didn’t pay it any mind, my thoughts were elsewhere, all I could do was stare at that front door.

  I was standing across the street from my house. It was nighttime, around 9pm, the only light was that emanating from the aging street lamps, half of which were faulty or blown. There were no cars around, it was a quiet street most of the time, a nice street.

  My wife, Anna, thought I was at work, doing another late shift to try and get in some extra money so we can have that kid sooner rather than later. I loved my wife. Loved. Not any more.

  My suspicions rose a few weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling too great and took the night off. She freaked, started ranting about responsibilities, how we were supposed to be working towards a family. I explained I would get paid regardless, I had sick pay saved up. She was still angry and left the lounge room. I peeked into the bedroom to see what she was doing. Texting, but texting who?

  It took me a few days to find the right opportunity to check her phone, she held on to it like a dog with a bone, it was like another limb for her. She was in the shower and left it in the bedroom, not in sight of course, zipped up in her handbag out of easy reach. I seized my opportunity and quickly took it out and scanned through her messages. There were hundreds, literally hundreds of messages between her and some guy, some man called Edward. It was enough. I put the phone back, zipped up her bag and went back to the lounge to continue watching TV.

  I was surprised I didn’t feel much, just satisfaction that my suspicions were confirmed. I thought I would feel sad, upset, angry at least. Nothing. Nothing for a few minutes at least.

  Slowly a dark cold rage grew inside me. How dare she? How dare she do this to me! A thirst for vengeance, to enact pain on this woman that betrayed me, as well as this Edward person, began to consume me and dominate my thoughts. As various scenarios played out in my head I lost track of what was going on around me, lost in murderous contemplation.

  “You okay honey?” Anna asked, wearing a towel and drying her hair.

  “Yeah babe, just zoned out a bit. Tired from work I think.” I said snapping back to reality and smiling at my wife, my betraying, bitch wife. She joined me after she had finished in the shower and we watched some movie, I can’t remember what. Went to bed later on and slept together as if nothing had ever happened. The next day I kissed her goodbye as I went to work in the evening.

  That’s how I played it for the next few weeks. I smiled, I laughed, I did exactly the same crap I always did, waiting for the right time. That time had now arrived.

  I had been starting work a couple of hours late every night for the past fortnight, this gave me plenty of time to survey they house after Anna thought I had left. Anna kept a pretty standard schedule, half an hour after I left her Edward would arrive. After a quick kiss and hug they would go inside. After a brief five minute chat they would then proceed to the bedroom where they would spend the rest of their time together, which was generally an hour or two. Edward would then kiss her goodbye and leave. Short and sweet really.

  In my hand was a 9mm Glock, I had never owned a gun before last week, today I would get to fire one on a person. I had made sure all the door hinges were well oiled so they wouldn’t squeak when the door opened. The trunk of my car was lined in plastic and I already had a location ready for the bodies. The holes were already dug and waiting.

  I saw shadows move in front of the bedroom and realised my time to strike had arrived. I walked up to my front door and slowly opened it inwards, keeping my gun at the ready just in case they came out of the bedroom. My feet squealed slightly on the timber floors, I cursed myself for forgetting to dry them but decided to persist forward anyway as I was already inside.

  Creeping forward I heard the noises of my wife and her lover’s lovemaking from the bedroom ahead, there was no chance they would hear my shoes with the pair making all that noise.

  I walked towards the doorway, the door was ajar but not enough that I could see in or they could see out. Reaching the door I listened briefly to their continued grunting, sounded like they would be going for a while, plenty of time for me to bring it all to an abrupt halt.

  I didn’t wait or savour the moment I simply flung the door open and without even thinking shot Edward in the middle of his back as he was mid thrust. His grunt turned into a gurgle as the bullet punctured his lung. I walked forward and shot him again in the back of his head. Blood and brain matter spattered over my wife’s face. She gasped in shock and horror, before sucking in a breath to scream. I stopped her before she could however, one bullet to the throat and then another to her eye. I would have liked to let her suffer a little longer but it wasn’t worth the risk of a neighbour hearing. Although with this rain they would have been unlikely to hear a thing anyway. Too late now.

  I stood there and stared at the woman I once loved staring back at me with one eye, the other a bloody ruined mess. Her hair looked nice, she must have prettied herself up for Edward before he came round, she was even wearing those nice earrings I had bought her for her birthday a year or two ago. I waited to feel a swell of emotion and grief overcome me, none came. I felt numb, satisfied but numb.

  I put the gun in my jacket and went outside to my car, backing it in next to Edward’s. I would have to dispose of that later. I don’t really remember putting the bodies in the car, removing the bed sheets or wiping down the walls. It is all a blur now, my next memory is of driving down the highway towards the East Greenville Woods at close to 11pm. My two passengers safely folded up in the boot, hopefully not leaking too much.

  Reaching one of the many scattered gates to the woods I drove through into the large national park. There were no rangers around at this time and very rarely any other cars in this particular area. I had chosen this spot specifically as there was little scenery and it was out of the way of the popular areas.

  The forest was pitch black, the rain and clouds completely obscuring the moon and stars. Occasionally an animal of some sort would dart off the road as my headlights lit them up, they were always too fast for me to make out properly though. Slowly the forest began to clear and the small, mostly disused picnic spot in this area came into view. A few scattered benches and tables in a clearing, a plaque stating what flora and fauna were in this area of the park, it was quite a nice spot really. I drove past it keeping an eye out for any late night visitors. There were none.

  About a mile further up, where the road had turned to dirt and was rarely used by anyone except the ranger, I pulled over. I remembered the spot by the large dead tree just off the road, it’s old bone white branches all twisted up into what looked like a claw reaching up into the sky. An appropriate spot if there was any.

  I turned off the ignition and headlights and fumbled in my glove box for my flashlight. I opened the boot of my car and stared at the bloody leaking mess that used to be the woman I loved. Her mouth was agape, congealed blood running down the side of her face. Her one eye was still open, still staring. Not at me though, for which I was grateful. Edward was wedged up the back of the trunk so I decided to get rid of my wife first. Heaving her body over my shoulders I walked into the bushes, my flashlight in my mouth to light the way. I could barely see a thing but I knew where I was going, I had walked the path several times so that I wouldn’t forget, both in day and night. A hundred or so yards later I arrived at the site, the graves were still untouched, open and waiting. Without a pause I hefted Anna’s body off my shoulders and dumped her unceremoniously into the grave. One down.

  A few minutes passed and Edward had joined her, they could spend eternity side by side now I thought to myself. Picking up the shovel I had left behind when I dug the graves earlier, I covered up the bodies with soil, very wet soil now. The rain continued as I worked but I still didn’t notice it as I continued with my grisly duty.
/>   With the bodies covered I kicked some leaves and twigs over the bodies and smiled. This is what it was like to kill somebody, it felt good. I stretched out, working out the kinks in my back from all that heavy labor and grinned at the rain clouds above me. I had my revenge.

  I disengaged the program and rose from my chair, my whole body was tingling in both ecstasy and fear. I had really felt it, really felt the rage, the anger. I had seen the light go out of that woman’s eyes as I shot her.

  This new addition to My Own Universe was simply awesome. I had downloaded it from a more nefarious site, it wasn’t an official addition of course, some psycho genius must have put it together. Man was it good though. I was pacing up and down my room to relieve the tension and excitement, my mother must have heard all the footsteps.

  “You alright in there?” I heard from her bedroom a couple of rooms over.

  “Yeah, sorry mum!” I called back. Things had been tense since I had been sent home from college. The parents had had such high hopes that I would make it big as some computer programmer or what not. I explained to them I was still sick from my illness, they were under the impression that I had been drugged at a party still, they had no idea I was up to my old tricks again. I told them I would be heading back to college at the start of next semester but really any ambition I once had had evaporated. Why bother when My Own Universe fulfilled my every need. Any fantasy, no matter how depraved I could think of was being concocted in digital form, ready for me to experience first hand just as if I was the one committing the deed.

  I could still feel the gun in my hand, feel the recoil as it fired into that guy’s back. The gurgle of noise as it penetrated his lung. Man was that a good feeling.

  The new first person experience programs had been out for a few months now, most of them were relatively tame, experiencing a Formula 1 car race, skydiving, white water rafting etc. I never bothered showing any interest in any of these until an old buddy of mine from school emailed me about them and sent some links of a few to try. This program was one of those and I was very glad I gave it a shot.

  I thought it would just be like watching a movie from behind the eyes of one of the actors, this was far more than that. I could feel the rage, the menace, the emotion within the character. I felt the gun fire, the rain drops on my clothes. I felt like I really was there, committing those murders.

  Calming down I hopped onto my laptop and started searching the sites for my next experience. I wanted something even more extreme, something to really get me going. There were a couple more murder ones, one involving killing and eating one’s whole family. Bit too much for me that one. Another was a rampage through a city. Finally I found my next program, I would get to beat someone to death in a bar brawl. I would experience the whole night from reaching the bar in the early evening to the brutal murder at the end. Apparently I would even get in a police chase in my motorbike as I escaped justice at the end of the scenario. Sounded pretty cool. I set up the download and went to bed for a while, wanted to rest up big for my next full day of gaming.

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