Decisions - Prologue
Decisions - Prologue
By: Grant Schultz
The screen glowed in the darkness surrounding the small room of a young 20 year old German Shepherd. Trevor was his name; Trevor Heidtmann, a college student still living at home with his parents. A soft yet deep chuckle escaped the Shepherd's muzzle as he typed his reply back to his mate, a dragon by the name of Matthias Schmidt. For years the two have been happily mated to each other, their love still as pure as the day they first talked, even though, never seeing each other.
Many frowned upon Trevor's decision to have such a long distance relationship, him, a local boy from the suburbs of Hamilton Ontario, and Matthias, a German man from the capital of Berlin. The two could not be further apart, but still, were just as close if not closer than any local couple you could meet.
Softly Trevor blew a kiss to his monitor, slowly saying good night to his mate before gently closing his laptop, rubbing his eyes as drowsiness finally began to fill them. Because of the six hour time difference, Trevor found many late nights of staying up just to get a few words in with his love. He simply shrugged to himself, "I am on summer break anyways, might as well live up the nights while I can" he thought. He stood and trotted over to his alarm clock, quickly punching in the combination for setting his alarm, looking at the time. "4 A.M., jeez" he sighed gently to himself, rubbing his eyes and stretching his tail gently curling in the appreciation of freedom, it beginning to wag softy. He laid himself down on his bed slowly, nuzzling the pillow, wishing it was the soft scales of his love, his ears drooping gently at the thought before he finally began to rest.
-*-*-*-
The somewhat violent blaring of Trevor's alarm startlingly woke him up, panting and in a cold sweat. He picked himself up quickly, scanning the room in fear of his recurring nightmares to somehow become real. He sighed shakily, the blaring from the clock still going on; the nightmares have haunted him for years but they seemed to be getting worse and worse. The loud noise of his clock soon stopped as his paw gently pushed down on the sleep button, sighing again and rubbing his still sleepy looking eyes. "It has been years since I have felt different than this" he thought, stretching yet again, his tail curling and springing into action, no wagging for this morning though.
His room had always been homey for Trevor, he had everything he needed there! A mini fridge for drinks, a desk for him to work at, a comfy bed for him to lay in, and his laptop, to be with his love. He smiled, quickly remembering what he needed to do today, see if his mate was online of course! Strutting slowly to his desk, he pulled out the wheeled computer chair and sat comfortably, opening his laptop and waiting for all the start-ups to finish doing their job.
Finally, after a minute or two of waiting he began the chat program, quickly scrolling to find his love's name. "Offline, damn.", he said to himself, spinning in thought in the chair. What was he going to do now? He was riding on him being online! Sighing to himself he looked down at his boxers, vocalizing the same low loveable chuckle as he saw the evidence of his rest: morning wood. "Could use a good pawing session I suppose." he mumbled to himself.
Quickly he typed in the name of his favourite morning wood cure of a website: Yifftube. 100% free yiff videos in good quality, what more could you ask for. As he scrolled down through the list of hundreds of videos to choose from, something caught his eye; an advertisement. There were plenty of ads all over the page, most of them stupid live web cam ads that were really viruses that he knew all too well, but this one...this one was different. It wasn't a porn advertisement at all! In fact, it was an advertisement for a ride he supposed of some sort. "Come and play 'The Game'"? Sounded cheesy as all hell! Looking down at the address he recognized it, it was an old abandoned mansion that was just a block away from his house! "Hmm, so that's what they did with the place, made it into some fun house ride or somethin'." He muttered thoughtfully to himself.
He looked back down at his boxers and shrugged, it could wait, he had to check this out and see if it were true! Quickly getting fully clothed in a small black sweater and jeans, he wrote down the address and walked downstairs. "Hey Mom! I will be gone for a bit I am just gonna go check something out!" He shouted, hoping that his aging mother would hear. "Alright dear, don't be too long, your dad will be home soon and will need your help..." "I know Mom, don't worry!" Faster than ever, he was out the door, house key in pocket and ready to do a little exploring.
The cold mid-August breeze ruffled the fur of his tail as he walked, shivering gently in the cold. "Awfully cold for a time like this." he thought to himself. He hated weather like this, not hot enough for a t-shirt, not cold enough for a jacket, he always made a bad clothing decision. His tail curled around his waist as he walked, as if seeking warmth from its owner; chuckling, he slowly petting his tail as he walked along, reaching the house in no time flat.
Looking up at the old house, it still looked deserted. The shutters shackled, banging against the windows as the winds blew against them, the old dark blue painted wood looking older than ever, half the paint being peeled off by nature over time everything in general just looking creepy. Trevor shivered gently as he looked at it, both from the cold and from the creep factor, the dead trees surrounding the deserted yard only adding to the atmosphere. "Jeez, now all we need is a bolt of lightning!" He said to himself, rubbing his paws together for warmth, blowing gently into them. "Well, came all this way, might as well see if it is open, hey, might have all this stuff here just to spook the kids!"
Slowly he walked up the stone path to the front door, looking nervously around himself as he walked, shivering more now from the cold than anything. "Just a house, just a house" he told himself again and again, gripping his tail tightly in his paws. Finally, he made it to the front door, gently he began to knock, before the door opened just from the force of the knocks alone, creaking as it opened slowly to reveal a pitch black room he couldn't quite see in.
"Ha! And they said the flashlight app on my phone was useless!" Digging into his pocket he quickly pulled out his phone and pressed on the touchscreen the button for the app, slowly walking his way into the ballroom. "Hello?" he yelled, taking slow steps towards the center of the room, he panned the flashlight of a phone around to try and have a look, the only things he could see were the areas in the phone's beam. "Hello!" he yelled again, hearing the echoes off of the walls of his voice, seeing around the grand ballroom to see creepy statues of gargoyles surrounding the room, and two sets of stairs leading to higher up in the house.
"Ah, screw this, nothing here." He said as he turned around to leave when suddenly and rather frighteningly a large set of glowing bars shot out from under the floor in front of his face. He jumped back out of the way of the spiked bars. "What the..." He turned to try and run around the bars but it was too late, four sides had already formed, creating a cell for which Trevor was now indeed trapped in. Placing his paws on the bars, he shook in an attempt to somehow move the bars, but they did not budge, not even a slight bit. "God Damn It!" he yelled in frustration, clambering in all directions to try and think of a way out. "Help!" he cried.
"Welcome, to the Game."
To be continued...