Caleb Stone had exactly seven minutes left with his son.

  He just didn’t know it yet.

  If he had known, he wouldn’t have had the stupid grin on his face as his virtual hands hovered over the in-game notification. He had mail. He already knew what the mail was—he was the one who’d sent it to himself.

  He opened the message. There wasn’t any text. Why would there be? All he needed was to collect the four gold, two silver and nine bronze.

  “Status.”

  His grin widened. Three million gold exactly now. It was a stupid thing, really—being so thrilled over virtual currency. Especially for a man in his mid-thirties with a nineteen-year-old son.

  But maybe that’s why he did find it thrilling. He’d had plenty of years chasing other thrills. The highs of the drugs he’d once been addicted to. He’d lost the best part of fifteen years of his life to them.

  Better to have these stupid thrills than that kind.

  His eyes flickered towards his character level. That was the main reason he’d sent money from his main and his other maxed-out alts to this one. The Tamer class had proven to be somewhat of a joke so far. The developers had added it to the game three months ago, promising it would be worth the long-arse quest he’d had to grind to unlock it.

  So far, it hadn’t.

  The most he could do was walk around the starting area and sometimes be followed by chickens pecking at the dirt at his feet.

  Still, the devs kept promising something big was coming. In the next patch, they’d said. But they’d said that before the last patch. Their words sucked him in. Promised him it would be worth it.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  And so he’d prepared.

  If and when that something big came, this alt was ready to level. It already had four of the maximum thirty slot bags, and a maxed-out bank storage that gave him another two hundred slots. Not to mention the Heritage gear to help him level that much faster, and a ton more materials to sell in the auction house or to craft gear if he needed to. Of course, he’d need to level some professions first.

  He heard a chime through the earpiece of his helmet—someone joining the voice channel he was in.

  “Dad?”

  “Jasper!” His voice always rose with the love he hadn’t been able to show his son for much of his life. The drugs hadn’t just addled his mind. They’d taken away the only thing that was truly precious to him. Realms had become their shared passion. An opportunity to make new memories in place of the ones his addiction had never allowed him to make.

  “Aren’t you in your raid?” Caleb asked.

  “Just a quick break, so I thought I’d come and see what you’re up to.”

  “Not much. Just admiring the gold on my tamer alt.”

  “How much?”

  “Three million.”

  “Really? In three months? I swear, Dad…you play this a lot more than I do! How long were you grinding for?”

  “Not long,” Caleb lied, thinking about those late-night sessions grinding out another quest or farming mats. It was a good thing he worked from home on his own hours.

  “What about you? How close are you to finishing the boss?”

  “Very close. Had her down to five percent when she enraged. Managed to get her to four before we wiped. Shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. Just need to squeeze out a bit more DPS.”

  “Are you still ahead of Nemesis?”

  “Just about, I think,” Jasper replied. “I think they’re at eight percent, but we need to push it if we want to secure the world first.”

  Caleb heard the ring of his mobile, muffled by his helmet. A moment later, a ping sounded in his ear and a name flashed in the top-right corner of his HUD.

  {Claire}

  It continued flashing every time the mobile rang.

  “Your mum’s calling. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “No, it’s okay—I just wanted to say hi! I gotta get back to the raid. The guys are almost ready. Tell Mum I love her!”

  “Well, I’ll still be online, so come talk to me when you’re done!”

  “Will do, Dad. Talk in a bit.”

  With that, another chime sounded as Jasper left the voice channel.

  “Pause,” Caleb said. A text box slid down from the top of his HUD: Paused. He grabbed the helmet with both hands, removing it from his head, blinking his eyes as they adjusted to the light in his room. The room itself was still something he needed to get used to. He’d only moved into the flat a couple of months ago—a two-bedroom place with two bathrooms. Too big for a single man, but his books had been doing well enough that he could afford to rent a decent place now, and he’d wanted something big enough for Jasper to stay over.

  He put the helmet down on the desk next to his PC, connected the power supply to it, then picked up his phone. He’d missed the call, so he tapped the screen and called back. No answer. With a sigh, he put the phone in his pocket and made his way out of the room. Might as well use the toilet and grab a quick snack. Claire would call back.

  Caleb didn’t just have a snack while he waited. He decided to make it a meal and watch a bit of telly. He’d tried to call her a couple of times more, but she hadn’t answered—instead sending a quick text that she’d call him back shortly. He waited. He knew his ex. She wasn’t the aggravating type. In fact, he had a lot to thank her for. She’d been the one who reached out when she heard he was recovering.

  She was a good woman. And another one of his regrets.

  Claire called back a good thirty minutes later.

  “Hi,” Caleb said as he picked up the phone. He was sitting on the sofa with the telly on, though he’d muted it.

  “Sorry about that,” Claire said. “I needed to pick up Sarah from school.” Sarah was her eldest daughter—almost ten now—and half-sister to Jasper.

  “School? On a Saturday?”

  “She’s taking extra lessons for the eleven plus exams,” Claire replied. “How are you, anyway? Are you busy right now?”

  “Nah, not busy. Was just playing Realms. Jasper told me to tell you he loves you.”

  He heard her soft laugh on the other end of the line. “He told me to tell you the same thing. Never says it to our faces, does he?”

  Caleb chuckled. “But it’s good to know that he does in fact, love his parents!”

  “That’s kind of what I’m calling about.”

  “Okay?” Caleb said. “Are you going to tell me he’s actually lying when he says he loves us?”

  “No! It’s about Christmas. Jasper wants to spend the holidays at yours.”

  Caleb was speechless at first. His body felt lighter, like a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

  Eventually, he said, “Jasper asked?”

  “Yeah, he did. I wasn’t the one who suggested it.”

  “Like…he wants to stay over for the holidays or just spend Christmas day here?”

  “He wants to stay over for the holidays.”

  “And…you’re okay with it?”

  “I would be the happiest of all three of us.”

  “Why?” Caleb replied with a hint of laughter. “Is he a pain to have around, because I might need time to think about it in that case!”

  “No!” she laughed. “I just think it would be great for both of you to spend time together. Without me there. Then Alex and I and the girls could come over to your place for Christmas dinner this year. What do you think?”

  Caleb grinned again. Ear-to-ear. He’d spent much of the last two years trying to be the father Jasper deserved. The father that Caleb hadn’t been before. Just knowing that Jasper wanted to come and spend time at Caleb’s place—it was the happiest he’d felt since Jasper had been born.

  “Of cour—”

  Caleb’s eyes caught the alert flashing across the TV screen, his mind struggling to accept the meaning of the words.

  BREAKING: MILLIONS OF PLAYERS COLLAPSE WHILE PLAYING THE POPULAR VRMMO, REALMS OF THE VEILED PATHS.

  “Caleb?”

  BREAKING: GOVTS ACROSS THE WORLD ISSUE WARNING TO FAMILIES OF PLAYERS. “DO NOT REMOVE PLAYER HELMETS OR ANY OF THEIR EQUIPMENT.”

  “Caleb?”

  “Where’s Jasper now?”

  BREAKING: FAMILIES OF PLAYERS ARE ADVISED TO CALL EMERGENCY SERVICES IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOVE PLAYERS.

  “In his room. Why?”

  “Are you near a TV?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Turn it on,” Caleb said as he flicked through the TV channels. Every channel had the same alert—all the Saturday afternoon programs were interrupted by the wide news ticker scrolling across the middle of the screen.

  “Oh my…” Claire trailed off, but Caleb could tell she’d put the phone down from her ear. He could hear the muffled footsteps as she hurried across the carpet, and the creak of the floorboards as she ran up the stairs. He heard the frantic panic as she pushed the handle and forced the door open.

  Then he heard her scream.

  https://discord.gg/9E4Fw5knnB

  And if you'd like to read my other story, please check the below!