InterLife

Chapter 30

I was running. As fast as humanly possible. In contrary to usual, I wasn't running from the monsters beneath my bed, or my problems, or the truth. No, I was physically running, down abandoned streets and taking haphazard turns left or right. I thought back to the last time I had been chased; I had been playing a game with my brother and two strangers. The rules of the game were simple; one person would count to 20, the others would hide. The seeker would search for the hiders and if he or she found one of the hiders, they had to poke them. Once a hider was poked, they'd be out of the game. Yet if they ran fast enough, they could hide once more and continue playing.

The strangers we played with included a girl who I called Caramel in my head, due to her beautiful caramel coloured hair and her hatred for the candy. My brother used to say you could not trust a human being who did not like sweets. There was only one exception to that rule; Caramel herself. The other stranger was the boy with green eyes who had thrown raisins at me and as a result; I called him Raisin in my head. Caramel and Raisin. Caramel always lost the game, Raisin always won it.

Well, almost always. At some very rare occasions, I managed to trick him into losing. Most likely he simply let me win, he was too fast when he was actually trying. I would prefer to believe I won by being smarter though, it would certainly give me a boost of confidence I could really use right now. I dragged my aching body around another corner and entered an unilluminated alley. I pushed myself behind the dumpster and sat down. I grunted as my hands clutched the deep wound in my hip. In real, it would probably have already killed me. Luckily for me, in game, it would heal.. eventually. Preferably before my chasers caught up to me.

I rested my head against the stained glass window of the skyscraper behind me. To remove the focus on my pain, my mind began to wander off. The conversation I had with the guys two days ago popped into my head as I pushed my sleeve into my own mouth. I released a muted scream and focused on reliving the conversation. After I finished Athan's involuntarily fight in NWM, I got into a heated discussion with Rage and the guys and I met up at the apartment. Ambrose had called me insane, as always, but awesome as well. Yet next up, we had a long conversation about who Rage actually was. They finally told me why I shouldn't mess with the red-haired man.

It was Athanase of all people who had flat-out admitted the truth. "Rage.. he doesn't trade in weapons, gambling or anything regular in NWM. He trades in secrets, he sells them for credits and uses them to take down anyone standing in his way." After my original shock passed away, I couldn't help but ask whether he had any secrets of the guys. Amancio admitted that he didn't know, but said it wasn't likely. He didn't have a lot to hide. Ambrose laughed it off and assured me that if Rage had any dirt on him, Ambrose would already be dead.

Athanase remained silent.

Rage had something on him; I knew it the second he looked away. Instead of asking what he had, I asked a more important question. "Does he have anything on me?"

My answer came from Ambrose, who laughed loudly. Too loudly. He quieted down after a few minutes and wiped away the tears under his eyes. I was staring at him with an eyebrow raised the entire time, until he finally spoke up. "I spent more than a year trying to find anything on you. Anything, whatsoever. If it wasn't for one of the world's best hackers cracking the security to your NWM account, I would never have figured out even an ounce of information on you. Heck, even Bane couldn't figure out your real name or age or address. He could only trace your location. And believe me, he has some less-than-illegal manners of finding people's information. You, Ace, seem to have been wiped off the surface of this earth. No way in Hell Rage knows anything about you. That's exactly why he hates you even more; you are the definition of a wildcard."

I liked that, being a wildcard. It also intrigued me that not even Bane was capable of finding anything on me. One of the best hackers in the world huh? Apparently he's no match for the person who erased me from the world. I always assumed there would be some information left, but I suppose living in a digital world really meant you leave no paper trail. My past - and me - was officially gone, my brother had made sure of that.