[Evangeline Carter]

Momma had always warned him to be careful of the computer. “All the time you spend on those video games,” she would cluck as she bustled through his room, collecting bowls, laundry and twinky wrappers. “You’re going to go blind, starring at that screen.”

Pick up your room.
Open your blinds up and let the sun in!
For the love of St. Peter, Brandon, take a shower and change your clothes!

After a while, you stopped hearing it.

“Be careful of that computer,” she said. “Don’t give your name out to anybody, don’t open emails from people you don’t know…” Brandon would always nod as she continued with her battle cries, blinking occasionally to create the illusion of attentiveness and mumbling his noncommittal replies. “--And stop leaving your glasses next to the key-board. You’ll get electrocuted if you dump it.”

“Right ma.”

“And if you go on any porn-sites--”

“Ma!”

“I’m just saying, Brandon. I know young men have their needs and I--”

“That’s so gross!” Brandon blushed beet red on the site. Had she nothing better to do than to sit around and mull over the nature of his ‘needs’ and his methods for satisfying them?

Finally, the old gorgon left him to his peace. A quite, rainy Sunday afternoon, editing the profiles of his role-play characters and polishing their statistics.

“Be careful of your computer!” he mimicked to himself as he scrolled through an index, bobbing his head to the Flyleaf track playing from the speakers of the old Mac. Female screamers were so hot. The very thought sent his hand darting for the diet DR. Pepper can poised ever so precariously on the edge of his desk.

In that moment, the screen came alive, a pop-up leaping to the center, the audio pouring through the speakers. “Congratulations! You’ve been selected to--”

But Brandon heard no more. His hand had knocked the can in his surprise, and in many agonizing flickerings within his brain, he comprehended its path as it fell to the key-board, spilling over his other hand. A spark leapt up, and a jolt shot through the young boy’s body.

Before he could even hear his own yell his head hit the floor, ushering in a sea of darkness.



What he felt next was the soreness in his muscles. An ache in his head. A dull roar in his ears. Groaning, Brandon pushed himself to sit, gazing around dumbly at his blurred surroundings. ~Glasses must have been knocked off. Damn it.~ He fumbled, grimacing as something wet slithered from his hair-line to his cheek. Blood? ~How long has it been since mom vacuumed in here?~ The floor was gritty and damp.

~What the frig?~ His fingertips finally brushed the smooth frames of his spectacles, and he slipped the things on, blinking in the light.

And then he stopped, heart racing.

“H-holy…”

Definitely not his bedroom.

Trees. More trees than there were action figures on his wall, their trunks wide -- he doubted he could have gotten his arms even halfway around. There was a sky -- a sky that went so much further than his tiled ceiling did.

And here he was, sitting on the forest floor, jeans muddied, palms scuffed.

“What the hell is going on?”