Tower of Lore

Chapter One: Dusty's New Game

Dusty spun the green case on his finger for a moment watching the colors blur. It was hard to believe that the game he had waited for years for was finally in his grasp. A game he had broken up with his girlfriend over, but that was okay. He could always find another one, he just was being really choosy this time. It really wasn’t his fault that most women couldn’t compare to his dream girl from his games or his Linds.

With a groan, he set the game down and slapped his face, hard. He was not going to let the best day of his life be spent wallowing in what could have been. No, he had suffered through delays, extensions, rumors of downloadable content and even the horrors of the game being turned into a mobile affair. He was going to sit down, put the game in, and lose himself for a few days. It was the whole reason that Dusty had taken off of work for a week. What use was vacation time if he didn’t use it on important stuff like this? It’s not like he had anyone’s birthdays to take off for or anything.

Dusty took his time peeling off the shiny plastic. He’d kick himself if he so much as nicked the precious cover art. The princess he had to help protect this time was stunning. She looked older than the ones they had before, but that worked for him. She was kneeling on the cover with her hands clasped in front of her with shadowy silhouettes behind her and the game’s namesake rising high behind her. The Tower of Lore XV, it was finally his. If he was younger he would have told the princess not to worry he’d surely save her. Instead, because he was an adult Dusty gave Princess Liana a nod. As he opened the case and pulled out the disc.

His system played a sweet melody from a past game as he booted it up and he slipped the game inside. He waited for a moment before his machine whirred to life and he let out a breath he had been holding. It was rare but sometimes the games could be duds. He had worked at the game store long enough to know that fact.

As he waited for it to load and download to his system he took out the other objects in his special edition. It had been expensive but well worth it. Not only did he have a soundtrack that spanned every game since the very fist but it also contained a 800-page lore book that went into details over each game that had taken place and the story beyond it.

Dusty wasn’t much of a reader but he was looking forward to reliving all his childhood memories again when he paged through it later. A tiny voice in his voice whispered how nice it would have been for Linds to read to him but he squashed that thought as he set the book down. He pulled out the giant figure in the box and grinned. He didn’t know where he was going to set up Princess Liana yet but she needed a spot of honor. It was the same pose as on the boxart with her hands clasped and her mismatched blue and green eyes begging for a hero. Her crazy pink hair hung about her head in bouncy waves. She was the size of a small child and he couldn’t be prouder.

“Hero,” the game whispered and Dusty’s attention was drawn away from the figure.

There was Liana again. Her dress was torn and dirty, her hair was limp and pasted to her face, and dirt caked her cheeks. Dusty stared at the screen confused. His only explanation for such an odd start was he mad to have missed an opening. He pushed the controller’s home button to restart the game so he could enjoy every second, but nothing happened.

“Hero, please, we need you.” The princess requested again. She clung to a strange alter her gaze locked skyward. “Come!”

Dusty walked over to his system ready to turn it off and back on. He wasn’t about to miss a second of this new journey. The screen buzzed the closer he stepped the picture distorting and the colors fading in and out. This thing hadn’t been anything like the other Tower of Lore games. There had been no hero being woken up, no stop at a mirror to customize yourself not even a tutorial or game start screen! Just what was going on with his game? Had his luck really been so bad that he had picked up a defective copy?

Dusty started to push the power button on his system when the television image distorted even more not in a state of static but in strange waves that reminded him of jello. He brushed his fingers across the surface of the screen and it jiggled in response. He raised an eyebrow as he pushed harder and his finger entered the soft jelly-like screen. He had a moment of pure confusion before the sensation turned from jello to the feel of a vacuum cleaner tube sucking his finger through the screen. Dusty tugged to try to free himself but the suction was too strong for him to break and the harder he pulled the faster he was losing the fight.

His fingertip vanished first, then his knuckle was pulled through and each of his other fingers was pulled through, and then his entire wrist vanished. Dusty struggled harder as he put all his weight backward. It didn’t matter though the suction increased the more it was able to consume him and now his elbow was vanishing into the wiggly structure. There was no feeling on the other side no hot or cold or anything it was his whole body being drug out into space.

Another pull and now his shoulder was pressing against the screen. In a few moments' time, his face would be dragged through. His eyes rolled as he looked for something anything to try to stop whatever insanity was taking him. He grabbed onto this shelf and his fingers slid on the photograph that was face down. Grabbing the image to his heart his chest started to be tugged through.

As his ear touched the screen loud chants filled his head. He was so shocked at the absurdity of the situation he stopped struggling and was pulled all the way into the television and out of the only world he had ever known.