The world felt so cold and quiet, the sound of the clock ticking felt like it was right up against his own ear. How do most people handle this stuff? He felt like he was lost in the wind. What was the next action, what were his next steps? He had none, and mostly how did he explain this to his mom?

  The world felt even more dark then it had before, the way people pushed him and prodded him, it finally got to him. He picked up the phone that had been vibrating off the hook, most of the messages were Hatchet. There was a message though from Lucy, she wanted to check on him to make sure he was okay. Call it pettiness, but he opened up her message just so it showed he read it. He had no intention of replying to it though.

  She had come by his house earlier that day after she had finished school, the only reason he knew was because he peaked out his window and saw her leaving. He couldn’t look at her, not face to face at least. His eyes looked at the clock, 2am. He would have been concerned if his summer hadn’t started early. Atleast, that's how he tried to think of this.

  ‘Maybe I should try studying. I got two months.’ It was a good thought, it made him look at his bag but he didn’t have the energy to actually stand up and get it. Then something reflected into his eyes. Flinching he covered his face, the initial thought being he was starting to see the sunlight. He knew it was too early for that though, his eyes looking through his fingers to see his backpack glimmering from the inside.

  This was a good push for him to stand up and approach the bag. His feet were scuffing against the floor as he dragged them. He made his way across the messy bedroom and squatted down, picking up the bag and flipping it he watched the contents pour out. Pushing some stuff out of his way he saw an object start rolling.

  Diving he snatched it up, it was a small stone orb, kind of like a marble, it looked like a blood shot eye. At first it seemed to have a small glow too it, but then the pupil flickered looking dead center on Damien. The stone immediately slammed into the wall across his room as he let out a high pitched squeal.

  “WHAT IS THAT!”

  His breath was heavy, he held his chest as he scooted back. Was it alive? His hand is sitting on a watch. He looked down at it and lifted it up. ‘This isn’t mine either?’ He flipped it back and fourth, it was a leather strapped watch with a compass on it. It also had a thermometer. It was a fancy watch. The face of the watch had a black heart for a detail as the rest looked pretty expensive.

  ‘Whose is this? Whose weird eye is that. What is happening’ Damien thought as the thoughts were racing in his head. Slowly standing up he dropped the watch on his desk and quickly made his way to his bed where the eye laid. At first it wasn’t moving, making Damien believe it had all been in his head, then it flickered looking at him again.

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  He flinched back, ‘it feels like marble.’ His hand slowly reached out towards it and lifted it up. He examined the front and back of it. When he turned it the eye followed all the way around keeping locked in on him. The pupil was not breaking contact.

  “What are you?’

  Those words were like a trigger. The eye fired off from his head straight into his forehead. It felt like a bullet collided with his skull, the world began shaking. His eyes began bulging. Daming grabbed his skull as he stumbled slamming onto the ground, falling backwards and arching his back. His mouth opened but nothing came out, he made no noise.

  The world began pulsing around him like light shimmering. He heard the laughter all around him, the students and friends he had grown up with. They mocked him, they teased him, he hated them all. He could feel the girl he had a crush on snarking, she was in on the joke too.

  His mom ignored him, pushing him away, she didn’t love him. His father left because of it, he could see that Jeep Cherokee speeding away with another woman every night in his dreams. Then there was Billy. His words hammered away at him every single day, the pressure of his pain growing and rising. Damien's eyes couldn’t close, he saw them all around him. Pointing, laughing, his throat tightened he wanted to scream louder.

  ‘Why me? Why is it always me! WHY ME!’ He screamed internally, his head pounding over and over until suddenly everything went silent. Damien's body goes limp against the ground. Everything went black.

  Loading . . .

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  Xp: 0

  Str: 2

  Chr: 2

  Int: 5

  Wis: 6

  Dex: 3

  Con: 2

  Morale: 0

  Stats loaded

  XP Loaded

  Processing . . . .

  Processing . . . .

  Damien Drake- Registered.

  His eyes opened, or it felt like they did. He couldn’t see, the pulsing banging of drums in his head. He tried to look around but it was still pitch black. Was he blinded? He slowly reached for his eyes he could feel them blink, so he was blinded.

  His heart began racing, ‘No way.’ Thats all he could say trying to feel around for something. His hands landing on the leather gaming chair, going to push himself up the chair wheeled from under him causing him to crash into the ground.

  He winched, thats when something appeared into his vision.

  Welcome- Damien - You have been given an Artifact! Eye of God, CONGRATULATIONS! Adjusting. Adjusting. Please wait.’

  The words floated in the middle of the darkness, he swung his head and the words followed like it was a VR headset. Then they faded, the darkness slowly began fading away showing his bedroom. The sun pierced into the window causing him to cover his eyes as he blinked rapidly. He rubbed them a few times and was able to see again.

  The world looked…colorful, brighter, if he was honest with himself he hoped that it would always look like this. It felt cleaner, smoother, like someone just messed with the settings for the first time in ages. It reminded him of watching youtube at 480P then suddenly it buffered into 4k.

  The System has adjusted itself. Congratulations!

  Good Luck!