Virtual Reality: Dark Days

Investigation

New York Police Department Detective Tabitha Waller had been tasked with investigating the murders caused by Alex Huang. The case alone had caused her so much grief. She didn't like it when personal matters and work matters conflicted with one another. She would have preferred this whole matter to be given off to someone who wasn't as invested as she was. But, fate had decided that she would be the one to arrest Alex Huang and anyone involved with him. Due to her friend Shamar Lee being so close to the incident, things were starting to get serious. Alex Huang was causing more deaths than the city would allow. People were starting to get nervous. The knowledge of Branden’s death had increased. Social media sites had his name and the company he worked for trending. And just recently, Cody was on this list. Things were out of control, thanks to Alex Huang. This was no longer something she could turn away from. She had to hunt down and stop Alex before he took another innocent life. The captain of the precinct gave her this task to find the murderer and she knew there was no other way around it.

Her first thought was to contact Shamar and force him to help, but that would be way too easy and also way too hard. Shamar was too close to Alex and he had a past with situations like this. He was also trying to help Alex but he wouldn’t bend that easily. There had to be something she could use to get him to help. But nothing was coming to her at the moment. So for now, she set it aside. The second person that came to mind was Jason Callahan, the creator of the video game at the center of all this. While Jason did well to keep himself out of the dark side of the media, Tabitha didn't like it. Most of her thoughts on him came from Shamar. She grabbed her coat and left her desk to head to Jason’s office. Even though she had tried this before, she was going to try again. Hopefully, this time she will catch something that she didn't catch the last time. It was going to be risky since Jason had already given her the turn around before. But maybe he could help her in one area that gave her some kind of lead. Facial expressions were always the deadliest giveaway.

“I’m sorry?” Jason asked the young detective now looking before him in his office. “You want information on all my associates that knew Alex Huang?”

“Yes,” Tabitha said coldly. “I know he’s targeting people he knows. Why else would he know where they live?”

“That’s true.” Jason admitted. “But what if he’s learning this from someone within the company?”

“Then I’d tell you to find your mole.” Tabitha warned Jason. “Because eventually that mole will lead him to you. You and I both know you’re where it ends. He’ll find you and if there’s someone within your company leaking this to Huang, then you better fix it. Unless you’re lying because you know I’m right.”

“Even if he’s actually targeting people he knows, what makes you think I can legally give that information to you?” Jason asked Tabitha. “I mean, that information is confidential.”

“Look Mr. Callahan.” Tabitha said, now rising to her feet since this conversation wasn’t going the way she wanted it. “Your people are dying and will keep dying. You have one solution. Let me help you end this before you end up next.”

Tabitha turned away from Jason, leaving the creator to be worried about her words. She hoped it would shake enough fear into him to reconsider. But it only made him worried over the fact that this detective was looking in too deep. Jason didn't worry about who Alex killed next. His main concern at the moment was making sure that Tabitha didn't learn too much about what he'd been doing. He had a lot to think about and soon, he’d come up with a dangerous decision. A decision that would eventually lead to death. Tabitha, on the other hand, had lost a lead that she could have possibly gotten onto. But this didn't bother as much as it would others in her precinct. She knew that Jason wasn’t going to move, but the fact that it actually happened still disappointed her. Her next move was to look into people that were already connected to those that Alex had killed. Boyfriends, girlfriends, family, and other such people.

This train of thought led her to investigate the situation around Branden, but he was a nobody. A nobody that doesn't have many friends within the company or outside of it, for that matter. He barely spoke to anyone outside of Jason and no one actually witnessed this murder. His body was found in the alleyway by a random player passing by. She moved past that. Gregory also kept his circle of friends small, leaving his only connection to be Oliver. Oliver, unfortunately, was killed for no apparent reason. He didn't try to fight Alex in any way. His body was found right beside his boyfriend. Just thinking about it made Tabitha grimace. This wasn’t going anywhere until she looked into what happened with Cody. Cody was found in his apartment with a female that wasn't killed. There was a statement on the file that a witness was there. Someone that was having s****l relations with Cody. A young woman. This was a case that needed closer inspection back at the precinct. Tabitha quickly looked at her and found out that her name was Penelope Griffin. Born in the Bronx on June 3rd, 1995. She's a stripper that still lives in the Bronx. No next of kin. Both parents are still alive but moved out of the state. Graduated high school but never went any further than that. This was everything Tabitha needed. Now it was time to make a trip.

Tabitha knocked at the door to Penelope’s apartment. It took a while but after a few seconds, the door was opened by a young Chinese woman who was dressed in a way that most people in her area of work dressed like. The young woman noticed how sophisticated Tabitha looked and recognized immediately that she was a cop. This alarmed her since she knew Penelope had gotten into it recently. Which meant that there was something deeper going on beyond the death of Penelope's friend.

“What do you want?” The young woman asked. “Here to ask more questions?”

“Yes,” Tabitha admitted. “But not you. I’m here for Penelope. Is she here?”

The young woman scanned Tabitha, trying to see if she had any money. Tabitha didn't try to dress to the amount that she made since most of the suits she wore would be worn again within the same week. But she did dress well enough to be seen at a higher status when it came to money.

“How much?” The young woman asked. “How much do you want to see her for?”

“I’m not here to get bribed.” Tabitha warned the young stripper. “I want to see Penelope.”

“Sucks.” The young woman said. “Maybe you’ll catch her tonight.”

The young woman attempted to close the door but Tabitha wasn’t going to let that happen. She stopped the door from closing and gave her a look of disgust. Tabitha didn't always try to go with a direct approach when it came to trying to get information from people, but when it came to people dying, she wasn't pulling any punches. It was the only way at that point. Tabitha forced the door forward, hitting the young woman in the face and sending her to the floor. She felt bad for abusing her and forcing her way inside, but she was willing to go this far. Tabitha stood over her and before she could even get a word out, someone came out of hiding to stop her.

“Alright!” Penelope shouted, revealing herself to the detective. “You can ask me all the questions you want, just stop hurting her!”

Tabitha felt relieved that Penelope had made this so much easier. She looked back down at the bloodied young woman and knew she shouldn’t have done that. This was definitely going to be something she heard from her captain when she returned. She gestured Penelope out of the apartment so they could have a more private conversation. But even outside, there would be people trying to listen in on the interesting information being discussed.

“I didn’t know him well.” Penelope admitted to Tabitha in a nearby park. “But he did have a lot of friends. Smart ones. He was very secretive about them. Recently, he began getting a lot of phone calls that caused him to get tense. Even during s*x, he’d just stop to answer those calls.”

“Did you see any names on the phone?” Tabitha asked, hoping the stripper could give her something. “Any names like Gregory, Oliver, Branden… Jason?”

“No.” Penelope said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said he’s very secretive.”

“Dammit.” Tabitha cursed at herself. Penelope was it. There was no other lead left to follow. She was starting to feel defeated at this point. She was the furthest Tabitha could possibly get to finding a way to arrest Alex Huang. She could track down Alex herself, but some part of her feared that finding the murderer through that means would lead the precinct into figuring out what Alex was truly doing. As much as she wanted the kid arrested, she wanted him arrested by her hands. It was impossible to know what any other detective would do to the kid. There was only one true way left. As unfortunate as she saw it, she had to see Shamar.

“Hey.” Shamar greeted Tabitha at the Mexican restaurant. “What’s going on with you?”

“You know why I’m here, Lee.” Tabitha cut straight into it. “I want to find the kid. You know where he is. Give me everything you’ve got or I’m bringing you in.”

“Whoa.” Shamar couldn’t believe his good friend would treat him this way. “So that’s how it is? You’re just going to arrest me?”

“If you don’t give me what I want,” Tabitha said. “Yes. And when I find the kid, you’ll be charged with aiding and abetting him through all of this.”

“Tabby, look!” Shamar began to get furious. “They’ve done him wrong. They’ve done others wrong! You know that this isn’t his fault!”

“Just because people are trying to kill you, does not give you the right to murder them back!” Tabitha ordered. “He’s gotten way out of hand. The police are getting agitated. People are getting nervous. If there is a killer on the loose in the game and in real life, something has to be done. It’s bad enough that people are barely using the police like they did before. Now we’ve got them coming at us in masses trying to pull us back in. It’s not fun. And it’s not fair that he gets to take the law into his own hands. He has to be stopped and I’m the one tasked with doing it. I’m sorry, Lee. I know you wanted to help him. But he’s gone too far.”

“I know.” Shamar had given up. There was no other way to excuse what Alex had done in the past few days. He even knew that killing Oliver was a bad choice. Hell, even killing Gregory and Cody was bad. Killing has even been involved. The only person he wanted dead at that point was Callahan. But he wasn’t ready to turn him in yet. He believed in Alex. There was one thing he had to do before helping her track down Alex. “Do you own the game?”

“What?” Tabitha asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I have something I want to show you.” Shamar revealed to Tabitha. “Go to your local retail store. Buy the console and everything else included. Text me your game tag and accept my request. Then I’ll message you my location in the game.”

“Why?” Tabitha asked. “What are you trying to show me?”

“Just do it.” Shamar said. He rose from his seat and left the restaurant without paying, leaving the bill for Tabitha to pay. This was starting to annoy her now.

“Great.” Tabitha sighed as she grabbed the bill and began taking out her wallet to pay it off. Her good friend was starting to get good at leaving her with the bill to pay.

Tabitha had done as Shamar told her. As much as the world had fallen in love with the game, Tabitha did not find it amusing at all. She found every moment a waste. Find the console. Getting advice from the workers on games and consoles. Tabitha held the Virtual Reality console in her hands. She never saw herself buying one of these things and she still didn't understand all the excitement around it. Everyone in her line had one and it only caused her to feel embarrassed for herself to even be seen carrying one.

When she got home, she regretted buying the console even more. Setting the whole thing up was a bother for her. She had to connect so many cords together that she almost began to lose track of how many she had. She now understood why the thing cost her so much money.

Getting connected with the game, creating her avatar and gamertag. It was all annoying for her. But if this was going to get her to find Alex Huang, she was willing to go through it all.

Shamar had received the text he wanted from her. He needed her to become friends with him through the console. He quickly requested to become her friend. Tabitha rolled her eyes as she accepted and got the message about where to meet him. She dragged herself along. After a quick tutorial on how to connect with her avatar, she was zapped into the game of Virtual Reality. The feeling was unlike anything she had felt before. It was as if her soul had been taken from her body and placed some place else.

She found herself staring up at the dark and rainy clouds above the brightly lit city around her. Tabitha had never seen what the game was like for herself. But just by looking at it, she could tell that this was a big deal. Various people with gamertags above them walked about as if it was a regular day. Flying motorcycles and cars flew over and around her. This was fun for her to watch. Tabitha had to take the time to examine herself. She mostly looked like herself but without the suit on. It was amazing how life-like this all felt. Not a single detail was missed, except she sort of looked a bit more digital. But she had to focus. As beautiful as this all was, now wasn’t the time to enjoy the game. There was a reason she was here and it all had to do with Shamar. Funny, she was starting not to loathe the game as much as she had before. She had to find Shamar and see what he wanted before she got lost in this crazy world.

Tabitha looked on as she began following the map to Shamar’s apartment. The maps in this game weren't like the ones of today. In this game, she could literally have a digital map appear before her based on a mental command. Or she could have it stored in her memory for reference just so that it wouldn't distract her eyes while moving. It took her a good long walk through the city to finally find the apartment building Shamar lived in. The building wasn't as special as she thought Shamar would hook himself up with, but it was lowkey. She approached the door and called Shamar through her on the game phone. Shamar allowed her into the building and she found herself meeting Shamar at the door of his apartment after climbing a few flights of stairs.

Shamar allowed her inside and the first thing Tabitha wanted to know was why she was even invited to this place. She liked this, but at the end of the day, she knew there was something bigger going on there outside this game. She wanted to know what was the meaning of bringing her through all this if there was nothing here for her? That's when she took the time to examine the room.The apartment was completely empty. Why would he place himself in an empty apartment? He wasn’t trying to trick her, she hoped, so what did he intend to show her?

“What is this?” Tabitha asked. “Why did I use eleven hundred dollars on all this?”

“Because of this.” Shamar handed her a laptop. “These are all the people Callahan has killed.”

Tabitha now, confusingly, watched a recording in first person. The images were a little fuzzy but she began to piece together what she was seeing. It was of someone being chased by a group of people and eventually getting shot. It shocked her that Shamar even had this footage. But the more curious part to it all was that Shamar was showing her this video. This meant that there was definitely a connection going on here. She wasn't quite sure until the footage continued. Another person was shot by a group of people. This was the case for nearly five different people. Tabitha began to wonder if this was all part of some cult in the game. All of them being killed by the same group of people or maybe more with different faces in the mix. She wasn't even sure why it was happening to them. But she didn't need much time to come to some sort of realization. The evidence was right there. All of them were being hunted and killed, just like Alex Huang.

“What is this?” Tabitha asked one more time, trying to hold back her anger. “Who are these people?”

“The people, I don’t know.” Shamar revealed. “But what is it? That’s exactly what I told you. People that used to work for Callahan and then got killed. Why? I don’t know. The kid is the only person that got lucky. If I hadn’t stepped in, God knows what would have happened to him. But I gotta ask, are you still trying to bring him in?”

“Yes,” Tabitha replied. She closed the laptop and came to her senses. “I’m still going to arrest the kid. But after that, I’m bringing down Callahan and this entire f*****g game! No one else is getting killed like this. Not in this lifetime!”

In the real world, Jason was sitting in his office, looking out upon the city of Manhattan. While the sight looked calm, the city was not. People were busy and it made him realize how busy he currently was just watching it. He was disgusted by how bad things were getting because of Alex. Jason just wanted him dead. Nothing else. But Alex was making it so hard. The information he was about to receive could nearly cause him to go off on all of this. Tobias entered Jason’s office with the news. The news that he could only find through his sources at the Bureau. Someone was onto him.

“Your trail of blood was captured by someone.” Tobias revealed. “A hacker. Somehow they got into your data files and stole some information you didn’t hide properly.”

“What?” Jason asked, now eager to learn more. “What did they learn?”

“Everyone you’ve ever killed in the game,” Tobias said. “These recordings before and during their deaths were given to someone.”

“What?!” Jason shouted, filled with vengeance all of a sudden. “Who?! Who saw these?!”

“The detective that’s been on this trail,” Tobias said with a bit of smugness in his voice. “She’s seen it all. The only thing is that the file could only be used within the game. Which means you’re clear for now, but eventually that detective is going to bring this all to light.”

“f**k!” Jason lashed out. “God dammit! I want her dead. I want you to waste no time in killing her.”

“I don’t kill cops.” Tobias repeated to himself. “Remember?”

“Fine!” Jason tried calming himself down but it wasn’t working. “Fine, then kill someone she loves or cares for. Someone so close that she’ll fall off this case and worry about another thing.”

“That’ll only delay things,” Tobias countered. “Not stop them. You’ll need to find another way.”

“I don’t care what you do!” Jason ordered. “Just get her off this trail now!”

Tobias agreed and turned to leave the office, coming up with numerous ways to get Tabitha on a road away from Jason. There were a lot of different methods, but killing was definitely something he wanted to avoid. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he honestly didn’t care much about the difficulty. Shaking someone off wasn't easy. But as long as he didn’t have to get his hands dirty this time, he was willing to go as far as he needed…