cheater

short story

Marc Kendrick

The cheater

a

short story by

Marc Kendrick

The Cheater by

Marc Kendrick

dedicated to D.P.K.S keep playing son always

8th March 2012

Chapter One

The Find

A new shop had opened in town, a vintage retro shop, and when his lunch

break came Charlie had already decided he would take a look, yes he was

36 but he had always embraced his inner child and secretly he hoped he

would find something to remind him off his childhood. Checking the

watch he knew he had only fifteen minutes left until he could leave the

office, he had worked out it would take ten minutes to get to the shop and

ten minutes back which left him just ten minutes to browse, how he hated

these half hour lunch breaks the management had recently introduced. 'A

more efficient workforce spends less time eating and more time working

was the idea' he recalled what his boss had told him, ' a more efficient

workforce needs to be happy, needs to be content and needs to be fed, he

knew that made more sense but that always fell on deaf ears.'

Lunch came and without hesitation Charlie put on his jacket and quickly

left the building, walking along the street he could feel the excitement

rising inside hoping that there was treasures untold there, but also a hint of

nervousness, not wanting to build up his hopes too much in case it ended

up being a typical junk shop. He reached the building and took a moment

to look at the outside of it, taking in what he could work out what standard

of shop it would be. The outer of the building looked grubby, aged even,

like it was out of place with all the new building in the town. He thought it

was weird that he passed down this street at least twice daily and had never

noticed the old style image of this store before. He walked up to the dark

wooden door and pushed it open.

The bell hanging over the door rang as he entered and he closed the door

behind him, he noticed the shop was very dark and there was a smell that

reminded him of, well the only word he could relate it to was old. Yes it

smelt old. He started browsing the clutter that was strewn around the store

when suddenly he heard a voice. 'Good afternoon sir, if I can be of service

please don't hesitate to ask' the raspy voice stated, he turned around and

saw an elderly man behind the large wooden counter. The first thought into

his head was that he was going to be disappointed, the shop seemed

nothing more than a junk store, the man looked to be at least ninety years

old and he had the feeling he was more likely to find something from his

grandparents childhood rather than his. 'I have just had this in, I wonder if

it would be of interest to you?' the old man asked whilst struggling to place

a large cardboard box onto the counter, ' I am not sure how these work, it’s

too modern a gizmo for me to fathom.' he continued. Curiosity got the

better of Charlie and he had to take a look into the box. As he slowly

opened it his eyes lit up, this was exactly what he had been looking for.

'How much are you asking?' Charlie asked, 'this would be perfect' he

hoped that the price would be right. 'You are the first person to walk

through this door young man, as a reward I would like you to have it, I

have no use for it and don't think my clientele would too, please with my

pleasure take it' the old man replied. This was too good an offer for Charlie

to turn down and, looking at his watch realising he had to head back to

work, he decided it wasn't gonna get any better than this. 'Thank you very

much, me and my son will love this, I truly can't express my gratitude' and

with that he picked up the box and headed, rather briskly, back to work.

That afternoon dragged, he was excited inside and wanted to get home, he

had to pick up his son on the way back and couldn't wait to get back and

play, his son came to stay each week for three nights and tonight was the

first one this week, he had already decided to get takeaway on the way

home, save time cooking, he wanted to play on his new toy with his son.

Before long the time had come, as quickly as his did at lunch he put on his

jacket, went down to the car park and got in his car, checking the box was

still there on the back seat and that he hadn't been dreaming before, sure

enough it was there so he started the engine and headed to the ex-wife’s to

pick up his son.

As he pulled up his son was already waiting on the porch with his bag

packed, sat there with his eyes glued to his hand-held console he barely

glanced up from his game as he heard the car pull up. Patrick was a typical

twelve year old boy, if it had flashing lights and pixels it was all that

mattered, but then he got that from his dad and everyone knew that. When

they were together they were both like little kids, speaking about the latest

games and whatever humorous viral s they could find online. Patrick

turned off his game, picked up his bag and headed to the car, getting in the

passenger side he glanced at his father and then noticed the large box in

the back seat, 'What's in there dad?' he quizzed, 'Wait and see' was the

reply he got, and with that Charlie put his foot down and set off.

It wasn't long before they reached home, with just the one stop off for a

Chinese takeaway for tea purchased, and they both exited the car and

walked towards the house, Patrick carrying his bag and the food, Charlie

wrestling the box under his arm so he could use his other to open the door

with his key. They both walked in and closed the door behind them.

Chapter Two

The Game

He had never seen his father eat so quickly in his life, couldn't work out

what the haste was for, why he was so excited over a plain cardboard box

that his dad had carefully placed on the floor in the front room. 'What new

gadget had he got hold of this time?’ he thought to himself.

Patrick finished his tea long after his father and went to the front room

where his dad was surrounded by black cables, a dark grey box and what

looked like the weirdest looking game controller he had seen in his life.

'What the chuff is that dad?' he asked with total bewilderment, he secretly

had hoped to spend the best part of the evening on the X box they had. 'It’s

what I had when I was younger son, it’s called an Nintendo 64, it’s the X

box I used to play on, look I even got a few games for it too' he replied

handing Patrick some bulky looking grey plastic cartridges. Patrick’s first

thought was that whatever his father was excited about was never going to

measure up to shooting bad guys with a Scar-L or scoring the winning goal

in whatever online match he was playing against his cousin at Fifa.

Looking through the cartridges there was a whole host of bizarre game

names, 'Animal Crossing', 'Blues Brothers 2000', and 'Wetrix' to name a

few, the one that caught his eye though was 'Diddy Kong Racing – the

mystique edition' and he held this up to his dad and said ' Hang on, isn't

this just a rip off of Mario Kart?'. His father turned to look, 'Erm, yes you

could say that, it did bring a while new aspect though, hover boats, flying

it was just as much fun, shall we try that one out?'

Charlie inserted the cartridge and turned the console on, hoping to God

that it worked, and to his delight the familiar beep and home screen

appeared on the television. They grabbed a control each and set up for the

first race. Patrick, although he hated to, had to admit he actually enjoyed

spending the next couple of hours racing against his father and rather liked

the game, no other cartridges got a look in whilst they raced various

vehicles whilst trying to blow each other up in order to prove who was the

best. Looking at his watch Charlie realised it was late, ‘ one more game

son then time for bed, you can play more tomorrow’ he told Patrick and

after the next race they both reluctantly switched the console off and

Patrick headed off to his bed.

The next day was Saturday and he hoped his dad would let him play the

game again, he had noticed a single player tournament and wanted to get

as much as that completed as he could before he had to go back to his

mothers on Monday. He made his breakfast and ate it with a greater speed

than his dad had polished off the tea the night before and went into the

front room where his father was sat there nursing a large mug of coffee, his

essential morning routine before he could take on the world. ‘Can I play

the game again please?’ he asked trying out his best puppy dog eyes, he

needn’t of bothered though, his dad had a lot of paper work to get done

this morning and was happy to have something there to occupy his son.

‘Go for it, glad you are enjoying it, but you are not playing all day, just to

pre-warn you.’ Was the reply he received, so with that he got comfy on his

beanbag and set up the game.

By the end of the day, in-between shopping trips, meals and a play on his

scooter, he had beaten four boss stages and was facing the fifth, some

giant octopus thing. He easily defeated that stage and turned it off for the

night. In bed that night he lay there and all he could think of was finishing

the game before bed tomorrow, he didn’t want to wait another week to

finish the game. With that thought in mind he closed his eyes and drifted

off to sleep.

Chapter Three

The Final Boss

The next day he woke up later than usual, stumbling out of his bed he

headed downstairs to get some breakfast down him. Waffles and syrup was

the order of today he felt. After breakfast he knew his dad would have

chores to do, his homework to complete and a bath would have to be fitted

in today but before all that he decided to get a few more levels beaten

whilst his dad had a lie in. By the time Charlie came downstairs his son

had already defeated two more bosses and Charlie could sense his son was

getting a bit too carried away with the game so he suggested it got

switched off until the jobs had been completed. Patrick wasn’t best pleased

but he knew if he did everything quick enough he would still be able to

finish the game today so he cracked on.

It was late afternoon by the time he got back on the game, he felt his father

kept inventing new jobs to be done just to keep him off it but there might

still be enough time he felt. He turned the console on and started off from

where he left it, winning every race he played with seemingly great ease.

Before long he was on the final battle against some strange looking giant

alien pig type creation. Excited he called to his father ‘quick dad come

here, I am on the last match come and watch.’ Charlie could sense the

excitement in his voice so dropping what he was doing he went to the front

room to watch his son race. Sure enough his son won the race and after the

celebration screen and credits the console flashed up that he had unlocked

a new character. ‘I have never seen him before’ Charlie thought to himself,

‘and I am pretty sure I finished the game when I was younger’. A bear

wearing yellow shorts and braces was familiar enough as Banjo the bear

but this time he was brandishing an oversized carving knife, the character

was also covered in blood splatters with a decidedly evil glare on his face.

‘Killer Banjo’ Patrick said ‘he looks well cool, don’t he dad?’ Charlie

thought to himself that it wasn’t the most apt reward in a child’s game but

knowing his son had seen a lot worse in modern day media he reluctantly

agreed. ‘Right, Patrick, it’s time for bed now, school tomorrow matey, off

you go’ Charlie ordered, and with that his son turned the console off and

headed off to bed.

That evening Charlie was flicking through the television channels fighting

a losing battle on finding something to watch and eventually gave up and

opted for having a game on the console himself, maybe even trying out

this new character and see if he was as good as he remembers he was at the

game, so with that he switched it on and got comfy.

Chapter Four

Cheating never Pays

Charlie waited for the game to load up then on the character selection

screen he picked the new option ‘Killer Banjo’ and started his first race.

He felt confident as he was pretty well matched against his son the other

day so when the buzzer went he set off. The first couple of races went well

and with each win the confidence grew, that was until he was faced with

the first boss of the game. After the fourth attempt he was getting majorly

annoyed, why was it he couldn’t beat this dinosaur thing. It was at this

point he decided to take a break, put down the remote and make a coffee.

Whilst in the kitchen he remembered, years ago he could get cheats for the

game, and wondered if it would be wrong to use them now. After all that’s

what they are there for isn’t it, so he looked on his laptop and found the

perfect cheat to enter, it disabled the bosses weapons which would make it

a lot easier so sitting down with his controller he entered the words

BYEBYEBALLOONS and pressed the enter code button. He pressed the

A button and awaited the next race.

What happened then surprised him, the screen zoomed in on his character

‘Killer Banjo’ and with an evil glare the bear held up his knife to the

screen and said very clearly ‘Cheaters never prosper, you must now pay

the price’ and with that the games system shut down. Charlie thought it

was a bit over the top for a game to act that way but thought nothing else

of it and decided to turn the television back on and see if there was

anything to watch now.

It wasn’t long before he could feel his eyes getting heavy and knowing he

had a busy day in work tomorrow he decided there was no time like the

present for heading to his bed, so with that he turned everything off, went

upstairs, set his alarm clock and got into bed. It wasn’t long before he was

sleeping.

He had no idea what time it was when he was awoken by a strange noise,

grabbing his phone he unlocked it and looked at the clock. ‘Quarter to two’

he thought to himself, ‘ What on earth is Patrick doing at this time of

night?’ He got himself out of bed and opened his door to see what the

commotion was. In the darkness of the hallway he could see the silhouette

of someone coming up the stairs so he stood there waiting for his son to

appear to see what had been going on. ‘I bet he has snuck downstairs to

play that game’ he thought to himself and as the shadow got closer he

waited for the moment when he would make his son aware that he knew

what he had been doing, the fact he had caught him red handed.

What happened next he could never have prepared for, as the shadow got

closer, what he thought was his son, came round the corner. He could make

out quite clearly it was an animal about three foot tall. On closer

examination he worked out it was ‘Killer Banjo’ and he had come to life

and worse still he was still brandishing the knife. Panic swept over him

and all he could think of was running, he turned to go back into his room

with the intention of closing the door behind him but in the darkness he

misjudged it and caught the side of his head and the open door. With that

he fell to the floor instantly. Slightly dazed, he could feel the warmth of the

blood running down his face. He opened his eyes and right in front of him

he saw the bear looking straight into his eyes with that sinister glare. The

arm with the knife in it was raised above his chest.

Charlie closed his eyes and the last words he heard was Banjo saying

‘Cheating never pays!’.