Page 43 of Reforging Onyx

Onyx grinned at Shane when he spoke, and he decided he’d be a little nicer. “Okay, so…” He began to explain the different strategies he used for picking his vehicle, then detailed the different sort of challenges he could expect while on the course. Then he queued up another game. “You’d better do better this time."

“Oh, so that’s how you were doing that. I’m going to have to practice that one… I’m not sure I like the look of this map,” Shane said rather dubiously.

“Can’t have everything easy,” Onyx replied innocently. He proceeded to trounce Shane on the map he’d selected, but he begrudgingly allowed, “Not too bad. If you hold it down instead of mashing the button, it’d be better.” He showed him a few more tricks, then chose a straightforward track for their next race. “Try this one.”

Shane snorted in amusement. “You didn’t tell me I could hold it down,” he muttered under his breath with mock affront.

“Oops,” Onyx deadpanned. “I’m not giving away all of my secrets right away. I had so many hours in here before I broke past tenth.” He focused on the game, not wanting to be embarrassed if Shane passed him up.

Not that that was likely.

“Ha! Fourth!” Shane chortled after a game.

Onyx grinned at him. “You’re good,” he said in approval. “I have other games, too.” He hesitated. “If you want to play with me more, anyway. I know you have better things to do.”

“Let me think about this, hmm,” Shane said in a dry tone. “Would I rather wander around and scowl and look intimidating while doing fuck-all and being bored, or would I rather play games? And I get to hang out with you? Yeah, sign me up for playing games, please. What other games do you have?”

Onyx rolled his eyes, but he could help but be pleased that Shane was choosing to hang out with him. Maybe the alternative was boring, but either way. He could’ve found this tedious, too. “Oh, lots." He exited out of the racing game to go to the extensive library of games Dominic had bought for him. “Action, RPG, puzzles… I’m not really sure why he bothers buying me puzzle games. I don’t like them.” He shrugged. “I can always get more, too.”

“Uh… I honestly don’t know. I haven’t played games in years, so I have no idea what any of them are. I guess just any of them that can be multiplayer and you can show me what to do.” Shane said.

“We can shoot zombies,” Onyx was offering when the door opened. He tensed immediately, all of the relaxation dissipating from his body as Dominic lingered in the doorway.

“Are you having fun?” Dominic asked mildly.

“Yeah,” Onyx told Dominic, fidgeting with the controller.

“Good,” Dominic answered. He lingered near the doorway, like he was waiting for something.

A little baffled, Onyx asked, “Want to watch us slaughter some zombies?” He wasn’t ready for the day to be over yet.

He wasn’t ready to see the price tag for the next good moment.

“Slaughter zombies? Yes, I think so. What is the premise for slaughtering zombies?” Dominic inquired as he entered the room, crossing over so he could see the television screen.

“Um,” Onyx said, thoroughly perplexed even as he opened up the game. “Does there need to be a premise? Zombies are zombies. They exist to be killed.” He paused, then added, “Again.” He glanced at the start page. “I mean there’s some story about a lab doing dark experiments or something, but it’s really just a shooting and stabbing game.” He looked back at Shane. “It’s pretty easy. And I’ll teach you so you don’t get us both killed right away.”

“Uh, yes, that sounds good.” Shane's tone turned more formal with Dominic standing nearby. “What do I need to know?”

Onyx was just as tense; it seemed like the only one in the room who wasn’t was Dominic. But he wasn’t ready to be done playing yet.

He wasn’t ready to return to reality.

Onyx gave Shane the quick rundown on controls, told him what to look for on screen, then loaded up the game he’d started a few weeks ago. It was creepy, and he wasn’t the best at it, but it was something different, at least.

“There!” Onyx pressed the button to shoot one of the zombies quickly. “Right there, in the corner!”

“Got it!” Shane hit the flamethrower instead of the grenade, a short-range weapon that wasn’t nearly long enough to reach the corner where the zombies were coming at them, and Onyx snickered. “Shit, hold on.” Shane pressed the right button, and there was a burst of flames as the grenade exploded, destroying the zombies. “On the left, nine o’clock.”

“Got them,” Onyx said, aiming for head shots. Not as effective as grenades, but they had more ammo for guns. “Dominic…” he began as soon as they got that wave under control, “is… everything okay?”

Why was he in there?

“Hmm? Yes, everything is fine. I had some time before my next meeting, and I thought to see how you were doing,” Dominic said.

Onyx didn’t know for sure, but he was relatively certain that Dominic had ways to see into the room. Magic, electronics, whatever; he didn’t need to come in there and make both Onyx and Shane uncomfortable.

“I’m fine. Which you already knew,” Onyx grumbled. “What do you really want?”