Prologue: The Takeover
In the aftermath of what happened on admin Mark's gruesome island; a few weary souls made it back to the realms of the forum, but many members lost their lives along the way. The helicopters that took the survivors home returned to recover the dead bodies that had been strewn across the island, and they recovered all but one: arista, posing as MarkWaldorf. The rescue mission workers were baffled as to where the bits of machinery had gone, but gave up searching and returned with the dead that they had recovered. A beautiful funeral was held for the deceased victims of the disturbed game: Jonathan, Nicky, Dezzy, Christina, GhettoSuperstar, Ross, LemonJam, Jen, Ninastar, Sam!, Kaz, Niamhxo, Twilight, Lauren, Princess, Nathan, SiaSiaSia and James. In attendance were many members both old and new who wished to pay their respects, including the two surviving members who had been part of the game - Shaun and Darenn. The couple stood in a pew next to Rory, Vicky and Red Moon who had similarly escaped from the island.
Notably absent from the ceremony was Stu, who at that time was recovering in hospital from a particularly vicious gunshot wound that Lauren had inflicted on him; Kizwiz who became so disillusioned with the site because of the game that she left Red Moon, and Magic who, due to his ban, could not otherwise contact the forum. There was similarly no sign of Mark the admin or the Brotherhood members who had stayed on the island (Andyman, Locke, Captain.Remy, 30stone and Novo - the other living participant of the game) but nobody gave them a second thought; they'd made their choice to stay behind.
"Can you believe just three weeks ago we were fighting for our lives?" Darenn looked at the caskets with teary eyes.
"Darenn, that story finished in April 2010, wtf's wrong with you?" Shaun looked mystified.
"oh. erm. shut up." Darenn wiped his eyes with a tissue.
"Am I still pregnant with an unborn MrGaryy?" Shaun asked for clarification.
"Yes. Also, did you notice there was no tribute to arista?" Darenn dropped
a significant plot clue.
"How very odd!" Shaun exclaimed, somewhat theatrically. "Why do you think they didn't pay tribute to him?"
"I heard they didn't recover any of his parts from when you destroyed him, which is bizarre, you'd think they'd just be lying around where you killed him? I mean they found Jen's body." Darenn looked puzzled.
"Maybe he's like the Terminator and that wouldn't have killed him, maybe he regenerated himself." Shaun ha2'd (laughed) at the idea.
"Maybe..." Rory spoke up, looking dark.
"Have you been on holiday?" Shaun commented on how dark Rory was looking.
"I've seen stranger things happen," Vicky muttered ominously. "People make multiple accounts all the time, and people fake their deaths a lot too. I mean, arista pretended to be MarkWaldorf and even fooled Mark the admin into thinking he was MarkWaldorf to the extent that he got kidnapped. Why did he want to be put in that position?"
The five members looked distinctly on edge, before Red Moon broke the silence.
"Maybe he knew that the forum would get worse. Maybe he knew about the game Mark was planning and wanted to be put on the island so he could win a moderating spot. We've known for a while he's been interested in taking over the forum..."
"But why pretend to be MarkWaldorf?" Vicky asked aloud.
"Why not him? The highest post count on site, but is no longer an active member? He was a sitting duck, really. It was smart, very smart." Rory gulped.
"So are you saying arista is still out there somewhere? Maybe even wreaking havoc on the Brotherhood now?" Shaun looked gleeful.
"Or maybe joining up with them." Vicky looked scared.
"Princess and Niamh died; Stu's incapacitated, the forum's still up for auction and Mark's still out there on the island: arista could be getting a deal sorted as we speak and we'd have no idea!" Darenn shouted; the group having now left the church and were out in the graveyard.
"Oh we'd know. I expect someone like arista would have very big plans for the forum." Red Moon shook his head.
"So what do we do? Do we just wait?" Shaun clutched his pregnant stomach.
"Can you not do that, it really creeps me out?" Vicky looked like she was about to throw up.
"
" Shaun turned away from Vicky.
"I guess we just wait, maybe even hide. I'm not sure I want to have much to do with this place anymore anyway." Rory shrugged.
"Me neither. I have a life that I need to try and get back on track, all of this has just become too real, I need to leave." Red Moon bowed his head, and then shook everyone's hands. "For me, this is goodbye. It... well... in another life, I wish I could have called this a pleasure, but there are too many bad memories to call it that. It's been an ordeal. I wish you all the best, and no further harm." Roy left the graveyard; and the remaining four watched him.
"I'm going to keep my distance from now on." Rory finally broke the silence. "I didn't do much, but I did enough to be considered involved if anything more does come of this. Are you all staying around on site?"
"I.. I'm not going to. I'm going to be a stay at home and stay away from the internet dad to our baby." Darenn broke his news, which even Shaun was not aware of.
"What?!" Shaun looked appalled.
"At least one of us needs to keep out of harm's way!" Darenn smiled at Shaun. "You can keep fighting our battles, but I need to be safe."
"What about you, Shaun?" Rory looked at him.
"Of course. I'm not going to leave the forum in its time of need; it needs great members to restore it to its former glory."
"And you Vicky?" Rory turned to her.
"Yes. Without any admins to do anything around here, I need to be there to do as much as I can. We moderators are now few and far between you know!"
"In that case, I'd like to have one of you two as my contact. I do want to know if anything's going on, I'll always be lurking in the shadows, watching over the forum, but I can't be involved anymore. Shaun, I'd like that person to be you. Do you think you can do that for me?" Rory pursed his lips.
"Of course, Rory, you Asian mess." Shaun offended Rory's background for one last time.
The pair hugged tightly, and then Rory left the graveyard too. Vicky smiled and said her goodbyes to Shaun and Darenn, who were left standing in the cold, crisp garden. A sharp gust of wind passed through the graveyard, causing Shaun to hold his jacket tighter round himself.
"So, we wait." He looked at Darenn with concern.
"Yes, we wait. I'm sure arista will show himself eventually, if he is still out there. I guess we just try to move on with our lives now, and just be ready for arista at some date in the future."
"I don't know if we'll ever be ready, Darenn. And have you noticed something?"
"What?"
"Greg hasn't made one single penis joke in this entire prologue." Shaun laughed.
"Whopping erection." Darenn spat (hehehehehehehehe.)
End of Prologue.