Thanatophobia (H2OVanoss)

Chapter 10

It had been a month since the incident, and with help from Luke, Jonathan was doing a lot better. He still thought about it sometimes, but he had moved on. Life was normal, and it was painfully so for him.

He had been begging Luke to let him out of the house, but his brother was fiercely protective. After seeing him in ruins before, his instincts were making him overbearing and worrisome.

After finally having enough of the silent whining and giant blue puppy dog eyes, Luke gave up.

"Fine. Get on your computer."

Confused, Jonathan pulled up his laptop. He sat there for a few seconds until a notification popped up at the bottom of the screen.

Invitation From CaRtOoNz to Skype Call With 7 Others
Accept?

Jonathan plugged in his headphones and hesitantly joined the call. Instantly he was bombarded with several greetings and yells.

"Johnathan!"

"Oh my God guys oh my God!"

He was confused until he slowly began to recognize the voices. No way...

  Luke nudged his arm. Smirking, he mouthed They've missed you. Never had Jonathan even though that this was possible. His friends...

"Cartoonz, why didn't you tell us he had Skype?"

"You never asked."

The smugness on his face bled through to his voice. Jonathan was his. They were lucky they even got to talk to him at all.

  Conversation picked up naturally, and it was like they had all been together only yesterday. The numerous voices in the call made him confused at some points, mainly because they liked to talk over each other, but he was happy.

Luke moved closer to Jonathan on the couch and adjusted his mouse.

"Y'all wanna play something?"

A chorus of agreements followed and they settled on a game called Depth that Jonathan had never heard of before. After getting it off Steam, the rules were explained and they all joined.

The first sharks were Brian and Tyler, and they quickly started making stupid (and sometimes actually funny) jokes and bantering. They got a lot of kills in the beginning because of luck and Jonathan not being used to the game yet, but as the game kept going it got more and more heated.

At some point someone had tagged both sharks and Jonathan had acquired a net gun. Using his intense button mashing skills, he was able to quickly get Brian and Tyler before they even had a chance to try and grab someone.

The others camped around him in a corner and killed them once they were trapped. By the end of the game, which was surprisingly drawn out, the divers had one with a well timed shot and one diver left.

  They decided to play another round. This time, Luke and Jonathan were the sharks.

  "We all know Luke is good, but what about Del?"

  Luke smirked into the camera. Sure, he didn't know the controls that well, but Jonathan's hidden bloodlust could overtake anyone no matter what game they were playing.

"I don't know, man. Del, you gonna murder us?"

Jonathan was silent. The others laughed, unperturbed, and they started the round. Almost immediately Luke had gotten two kills before being shot down. Jonathan didn't show up for the first few minutes, but no one noticed because they were already focused on stopping Luke.

They were all laughing at Luke's annoyance at being netted, when all of a sudden a shark came in and managed to kill three of them before getting out. Everyone, except Luke of course, was confused.

"Luke, how the- what was that?"

Luke's laughter flooded the call.

"That wasn't me."

Realization settled over them. No way. Before they could question further, he was back. Jonathan's creepy laugh began softly as he got a kill and seemed to disappear.

The divers struggled to find him as they repeatedly missed attacking Luke who had joined in on the attack. They were way too overpowered, what the heck.

This round was way quicker as the divers lost all of their lives in a matter of minutes. They had only managed to kill Jonathan twice.

Evan was the first to start the interrogation.

"Dude, did you lie to us? You've obviously played this before. There's no way."

Jonathan started giggling even more. Tyler growled into the mic.

"Why are you laughing? It's creepy! Luke, were you in on it?"

Luke, who had his face cam on, shook his head. He looked over at Jonathan who had both hands over his mouth as he struggled to keep his laughter in. His entire upper body was shaking and his eyes were watering.

"You guys should know by now. Jon's the master of video games. Even I don't know how he does it."

Jonathan finally settled down and apologized for being 'too good for you guys'. Craig gasped in mock offence and soon they were all laughing once again. Before another round could start, Jonathan got up off the couch and turned to Luke.

"I'm gonna get something to drink. Want anything?"

"Can you get me a Pepsi from the fridge? Thanks."

Jonathan was moving out of the room before he noticed the room seemed to be shaking. Everything got darker and he felt something his body hit something, hard. He was vaguely aware of someone yelling something before he lost consciousness.