02
Lewis turned the key and heard the familiar click as the door to her apartment unlocked. He looked at Jenna. “After you,” he said.
With a heavy dose of sarcasm, she said, “Gee, I wonder what’s in there…”
She disappeared into the darkness of the foyer and flicked on a light. Immediately, four people jumped out from various sofas, chairs, and corners and screamed: “SURPRISE!”
“Aww, thanks guys!” Jenna said.
Lewis could tell she wasn’t even phased, but she did look happy, so at least there was that. He took a look at the familiar faces. There was Ricky Ramirez, his friend since UCLA and his current roommate, over by the kitchen. He’d actually met Jenna through him. It appeared as if he’d set up some kind of bar; Lewis decided he’d head over there first.
The others were mostly her friends, but he’d become closer with some of them since they’d started dating. He saw Charlie Wong, a heavyset guy wearing a gray hoody and baggy jeans, Claudia Levine, dressed in all black as usual, and Pierre Koch, a lanky man who always looked intoxicated no matter what time of day it was. Jenna went over to greet them while Lewis headed to Ricky.
“How was the family dinner?” he teased.
“I need a drink,” Lewis replied.
“I figured as much,” Ricky said, mixing him a very strong rum and coke.
Lewis took it and glanced around the apartment. Jenna’s parents had paid for it initially, but she now made enough through e-sports and promotional deals to afford downtown L.A. on her own. It was a decent size. There was the foyer, the living room, and the kitchen off to the left with a large window that had a good view of the city, and an office and a bedroom down a short hall to the right. The lights of several nearby buildings cast illumination through the window into the dimly lit kitchen.
“So, did they wax on about the perils of violent video gaming?” Ricky asked.
“You weren’t kidding.”
Ricky laughed and shook his head. “I’ve known the Batemans for ages. Jenna and I used to make jokes about her parents all the time.”
“They got her the latest Mario Party for her birthday. Figured it would be more wholesome entertainment than the stuff she usually plays.”
He chuckled again. “Classic Batemans. Not to knock on Mario Party though, that shit’s fun.”
Lewis nodded. “I’ll admit they made sense about some games being gory for no reason and that it’s not a partisan issue, but they just don’t seem to be that well informed. The Atlantic op-ed only added fuel to their fire.”
“Yeah, I read that too,” Ricky said. “Weird shit. I looked into some follow-up articles, ones that went into more detail on those cases. Some of it’s really sad, especially the family that got stabbed. I mean, Jesus.”
“The kid must’ve had a lot of issues.”
“That’s the thing though. Apparently, he was a bit socially awkward, but that’s it. Good grades, a small but solid group of friends, no clear signs of depression, no history of violent tendencies…”
“Strange,” Lewis noted.
Ricky glanced out the window. “It’s a bit suspicious that so many gamers have started doing crazy shit recently. Like, why now? And the only common thread between all of them is that they played violent games?”
“I mean, that was kind of the point of the article.”
“Yeah, yeah, but… you know what this reminds me of?” Ricky was always comparing things to the plots of movies, books, or games, or just coming up with conspiracy theories of his own, mainly just for fun. “Polybius.”
“Poly-what?”
“Polybius, man! You know, the urban legend?”
Lewis shook his head. It didn’t ring a bell.
Ricky gave an exasperated sigh. “Okay supposedly, there was this arcade game that popped up around Portland called Polybius back in the 80s. One day, the machines just started appearing in some suburbs. Nobody knew where they came from, but you know, it was just a game, so people didn’t have anything to be worried about; they just started playing it. Then, slowly, they became addicted. Huge lines began forming in front of these things, people going nuts just to play more and more.
“Then they started having night terrors. We’re talking next level bad dream shit here. People couldn’t take it. Some of them killed themselves. Others went into intense therapy. And then one day, all the Polybius machines disappeared. Most people don’t know where they went, but some… some say they saw them being wheeled away by the Men in Black, put in the back of unmarked white vans and then – boom. Gone, never seen again.”
“So it was all one big, fucked up psychological experiment?”
“Well, so the legend goes. It’s pretty much confirmed to be fake, no trace of anything like it exists. People didn’t start talking about Polybius until the early 2000s. But…” He raised a finger. “Life can imitate art just as art imitates life. If you’re some twisted, high-level CIA bureaucrat looking for the next MKULTRA and you stumble across this shit online, I mean bingo, am I right? What a perfect way to test brainwashing! You’ve even got a well-worn scapegoat: violence in the media. People will connect the wrong dots in the big thinkpieces, and people like Jenna’s parents and their Family First pals will lap it up and run with it. Meanwhile, nobody suspects a thing.”
Lewis nodded. “Interesting. Doesn’t explain why all the M.O.s are different in these cases though.”
“True, true,” Ricky admitted. “But if you could make a game with psychoactive effects, it’d probably affect everybody differently.”
“Fair, but I’d rather not joke about this. Especially after what happened to that family.”
“No, no, no, of course not,” Ricky said, backtracking.
Charlie made his way over to the bar. “Hey guys,” he said. Lewis realized he looked far more tired up close with heavily pronounced bags beneath his bloodshot eyes. “Can you whip up something for me, Ricky?”
“Sure, what can I get you?” he asked.
Charlie rubbed his face and gave a dismissive flick of the hand. “I don’t care. Just something that’ll fuck me up fast.”
Ricky nodded. “Double vodka-cran it is.”
“You alright, Charlie?” Lewis asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Just got back from Vegas, feeling a bit tired, that’s all. It was a big weekend.”
“What took you there?” Ricky asked, pouring in the vodka.
“Oh, just took a little time off. There was some stuff there I’d wanted to do for a while.” He rubbed his forehead.
“Sure you’re okay?” Lewis asked.
Charlie said, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve just been having a headache lately. I think it’s something with my neck.”
Lewis realized he hadn’t even started on his rum and coke yet. Taking a sip, he turned back to Ricky. “Can you whip up something for Jenna?”
“Sure. G&T’s always been her favorite.” As Ricky poured, Lewis glanced back at Charlie. His hands were shaking. Before he could decide whether or not to make a comment, Ricky handed him Jenna’s drink. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” he said, and made his way over to where his girlfriend chatted with Claudia and Pierre in the living room.
“…but I don’t know,” Claudia was saying. “It just seems super gruesome and not really that scary.”
“I think that’s what I like about it.” Jenna gave a brief laugh, then saw Lewis’s outstretched hand with the gin and tonic.