• Katie ran down the stairs. “How could you start without me, you guys?” She jumped onto the couch beside her older brother, nearly knocking over a bowl of popcorn.

    “Because, Squirt,” replied Jason, “You’re too little to play! Your hands are too small to press the buttons. Just sit nice and watch Michael and I play.” Mom had promised to keep Katie busy while he and Michael hung out, but she must have run out of ideas to entertain her. Jason handed one of the guitar-shaped controllers to his friend and strapped one on himself.

    “But Jay-Cee! You never let me play! Why not?”

    “I just told you why. Now be quiet. Hey, Mike, you play on Expert, right?” The television screen lit up and animations advertising the game’s creators and sponsors began to play. Michael stood up and pressed a few buttons to skip through them. Katie ran over to him, bouncing up and down.

    “Mikey! Jason listens to you! Tell him to give me a turn!” Persistent and stubborn as any first grader, she wasn’t about to give up until she’d gotten a “no” from everyone in the house.

    Michael thought for a moment. He could usually find a way to get rid of annoying siblings for a good half hour or so. “How about you go ask your dolls if they want to play. I’m sure they all do! Make sure to ask every single one of them.”

    The little girl squealed and clapped her hands. Less than a second later she was up the stairs without even a “thank you.” On the TV, the “Select Difficulty” screen appeared and he nodded for Jason to set it to Expert.

    Jason smiled. “Nice one. She just got a ton of new dolls and toys for Christmas. Maybe they’ll start ‘fighting’ over who gets the first turn and she’ll forget to come back!”

    The music began to play and the boys pressed the buttons for the first chord. Jason had just gotten the game last week, but he had already mastered it. Now that they both owned the game and had enough controllers, he and Michael could finally play through the song list in the multi-player story mode. The next 40 minutes were spent wearing out their muscles with their “cool rockstar moves” and using up their voices screaming out the lyrics at the television. Soon enough, they got to the final song of the game.

    Jason took a drink of water and struck a pose in front of the television. The screen changed and displayed the song title, “Into the Vortex”. “Hey, what’s this?” Michael asked, puzzled, “The song changed!”

    “By itself? Sweet! Do you know this song?”

    “No, do you?”

    “Never heard of it. But I’d bet anything that we’ll beat it on the first try!” cried Jason confidently.

    As he spoke those words, a deep, reverberating laughter was emitted from the speakers. On the screen, the “helpful tip” provided for the player to read while the song loads said only, “Don’t bet against the Devil.”

    “Nice effect,” commented Michael as the laughter died away. The boys stood ready in front of the television as the music began to play.

    All at once, a huge chain of complex chords sped to the bottom edge of the screen at lightning speed. The boys both jumped and scrambled to press the colored buttons in sequence. In a matter of seconds though, the jeers of the computer animated crowd met their ears to tell them they had failed. For a moment, they were both silent. After the shock wore off, Jason threw himself back onto the couch, howling with laughter.

    “Did you see our faces? Man, that came out of nowhere!”

    On the television screen, the camera panned below the stage to the ground. The image dissolved into flames and the words “You Lose” appeared. Haunting laughter again filled the room as the TV seemed to melt and warp. A strong vortex of wind began to pull at the boys as if the game was reeling them in.

    “What’s happening? I can’t fight it!” Michael called over the roar of the wind and the laughter. It was the laughter that answered him.

    “I TOLD YOU SO!”

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “I’m back, you guys!”

    Katie bounded down the stairs with an armload of toys. She looked around the room for her brother and Michael, but they were nowhere to be found. Their game and snacks were still out. Perhaps they had gone to brag to their friends about how good at the game they are. Jason never stopped talking about it.

    As long as they weren’t here to hog the game, Katie figured it was alright to give one of her dolls a turn. That teddy bear with the big, blue eyes that her mother had given to her had been begging to play for days. She set one of the controllers and the bear together on the couch, and helped it set up the game.

    “Here, Mr. Fuzzles. I’ll turn on the No-Fail mode so you can play as good as Jason!” Katie started the toy on the hardest song of the game and sat back to watch. As one might expect, it finished the song without playing a single note.

    “Aw, it’s ok, Mr. Fuzzles. You just need to practice!” The little girl took a step toward the controller.

    “NO CHEATERS ALLOWED!”

    Katie jumped back, startled by the booming voice. In shock, she stood helplessly as her precious bear was sucked into the television by a fierce wind. When all was calm again, she regained her wits and ran toward the screen, pounding on it and screaming.

    “Give him back! Give my Mr. Fuzzles back! I’ll cry if you don’t! I’ll kick you and scratch you and press all the buttons and tell my mom! You’ll be in so much trouble you’ll wish you’d never been opened! I’m gonna--”

    “ENOUGH!”

    The portal in the screen opened again and bellowed forth a strong outward gust that knocked Katie off her feet. That was all she needed. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth wide. Katie began to wail like a banshee, making the whole basement ring. The demon of the game begged her to stop, but his cries were not even audible over her screams. In agony, the speakers fell over and the monitor jumped around the table to try and down out the noise. At long last, the vortex opened once more and belched out both the teddy bear and the two boys.

    Katie stopped screaming and ran to pick up her bear. Jason and Michael, looking wind-blown and dumbstruck, just stared at her in amazement. After a moment, Michael seemed to wake up and quickly turned off the game.

    “Jay-Cee! You’re back!” squealed Katie, “Can I play now?”

    “What? Um, Sure…” stammered Jason, still dazed.

    Michael gave Katie a pat on the shoulder. “Sure thing, kiddo. Just let me run home and get my copy first.”