Sanity for Trade

I never knew what I did to deserve this fate. How innocent I was. Just a guy spending his paycheck, you know. I was never really good at video games. I played my first video game at the age of 16, an old Zelda game. It wasn't much but it was all new to me. Seeing all the cool ads of the more modern games and game systems, I decided to buy a Playstation 3. I went to a local Gamestop to buy a PS3. I was excited and slightly nervous in a weird way. I didn't know what to expect. I walked in, and walked straight over to the manager and asked for a PS3 to buy. He told me to wait a bit while he goes to the back to grab a console. I walked around the shop. I seen a few games I might be interested in. I grabbed two games, Uncharted and Lair. I walked up to the register when the manager came back with the PS3. I handed him the money and he rang up the console and the games. He soon asked, "Is that everything you're looking to buy?" I took a last look of things to make sure I was satisfied with my purchase. I looked over to see a disc in a used game packet. I read the title, "Borderlands". I asked him about it. He explained the game in great detail. It seemed interesting to me. I never heard of a shooter RPG. I decided to buy it. I walked out of the store with a half empty wallet and a smile on my face. After I got home and hooked up the Playstation, I popped in the game Lair. The game focused on battles fought on the backs of dragons. I thought the game was boring after an hour so I ejected the game. I looked at the used Borderlands game. It sounded so good; I wondered how much someone had to play it until it got boring enough to return. I put in the game and waited in excitement and curiosity. During the intro, I laughed harshly. Even though the idea of a tiny animal being ran over my a bus is a bit dark, the game did it in a way where you don't feel like crap for laughing. I looked through the characters and picked the Siren, Lilith. I completed the tutorial in about 15 minutes. The game was easy to learn and I thought the combat was unique. There was always a rush of excitement when I opened a chest. I got a mission from Zed to kill a few creatures that roam around the outside of Fyrestone named Skags. While killing the monsters, I saw flashes on the screen. They only popped up for a second and disappear so I couldn't read them. On my way back to Fyrestone, I seen some bandits and psychos running and shooting towards me. I kill the bandits easily but I struggle with the psycho. He was lashing furiously at me. I never thought the game would make them that fast. I shot at him with everything I had. With every bullet that hit him he flinched and took a second to start charging at me again. It looked like he was in pain. The 7th shot to the head did the trick. While dying, he got on his knees and shouted, "Liar!" I ignored the strange insult thinking it was like one of the humorous death reactions all the human characters make. I went back to Zed and turned in the quest. He gave me another quest to see a man named TK Baha. I started to walk out of the town when more of the flashes started near the exit of the town. I turned around everywhere trying to see if an enemy was causing the flashes. They stopped when I turned to see a psycho leaning against one of the buildings. I aimed down my sight on him but his health bar was green, meaning he was a NPC. I walked over to him to talk. He said, "Hey kiddo, looking' for a mean gun?" A quest option came up to accept or deny. I accepted the quest for more xp and cash on the side. He had an assault rifle in his hand and pushed it out towards me. The gun was black with red lines streaming from the barrel. It looked like a tool of a reaper. "This thing will get you some tasty shots. I stole this from the old Vault hunter who was in charge here. I'll let you have it for that dumb pistol you got there." I took the gun and he received my pistol. It said quest complete. He thanked me when I turned in the quest. "Thanks kid. It's I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time..." I thought it was some kind of cutscene so I sat and watched. He pointed the gun towards his head and shot. It took him a few times until he actually died. As if the gun wasn't strong enough to kill him with the first shot. I thought it was simply one of those dark humored jokes that the game normally threw out. I didn't think it was funny. I guess I didn't get the joke. I went to TK Baha. I encountered a few skags on my way. The gun wasn't good at all against the monsters. It was even worse than the pistol. I was angry. I can't believe the game ripped me off. It took me a bit but I killed the skags and made my way to TK's place. About an hour and a half later, I got a quest to kill some boss named Nine Toes. I was inside his base of bandits. They were a couple of levels above me and I was nervous. I was stuck with a bad gun. I would buy another but I didn't have enough cash. I chose to suck it up and storm through the base. Something unexpected happened. It was easy to kill the bandits despite their levels. I thought it was great. I was so powerful. It made me feel like a pro. As I progressed, more and more flashes popped up. It froze for about 5 seconds. I read the screen. It spelled out the word "no" in scratched up wicked writing. I didn't know what it meant. I assumed the previous owner just added in a couple of glitches to freak out the new owner. I shrugged it off but it still bothered me. I found Nine Toes and his 2 pet skags. I killed both of the skags in mere seconds. It took me about 30 seconds to slay Nine Toes. As he died he started laughing. It sounded horrid. I thought it was insane. I don't know why but I started laughing. I couldn't find out a reason why. I laughed until he died and then I looted him. After leaving his base I saved the game and went to bed. After work, I went straight to my TV. I quickly turned on the PS3. I finally got a high enough level to use my skill, Phase Walk. I went back to TK Baha to turn in the quest. While he was talking, my finger slipped when I tried to skip the cutscene and I hit the R1 button. I shot TK and he flew back on the wall. I knew that wasn't normal. You aren't supposed to be able to attack NPCs. He wasn't dead but moaned in pain, asking "Why would you do that?" He held his wound. His health bar was nearly gone. I felt bad and couldn't take his moaning anymore. I took a final shot on him. I didn't aim but the bullet hit his head. His head exploded and chunks flew everywhere. I nearly threw up at how graphic it was. Another flash appeared on the screen.

It read, "That was funny. Didn't it feel nice? To know he's okay again?" I dropped the controller. I turned off the console and the game.