The Break

Keyboard tapping, mouse clicking, and the soft whir of the computer fan filled Jess’s room.

“Ready for this fight, Jess?” asked a voice on the other side of his headset, struggling through the static.

“Roger.” With some more clicks and taps, Jess moved his on-screen character closer to the fight.

It was a field of war. Warriors and mages and paladins and priests -- hundreds of them -- cast their spells and swung their swords. Jess prepared to join them, his friends on the other side of the world, to fight off the enemy scum. More taps on the keyboard. It was his duty.

But nobody came to fight him. He waited.

“Are you there, guys?” No answer.

Jess looked at his modem. No lights. “Damn it, I hate this internet!”

Usually, he would get up to fix his modem, slightly annoyed. But this time, Jess had had the last of it.

“Why do you always do this to me?” He kicked his computer. Hurt his foot. The computer fan began to whir violently.

“Because you need to take a break.” The computer spoke.

A break? Jess looked at the screen. He stared at the pixels, flying, fighting each other. They were his friends, working together to fight against the enemy scum! And they were doing it all without him.

“I don’t want to fight with you,” he said. “Just turn the internet back on. Please!”

“You will never play this game again.”

“No!” He shot up. Kicked the computer a hundred times over. Hurt his foot a hundred times over. He didn’t care. “Like hell I need a break!”

The whirring stopped. The computer, it couldn’t play the game anymore. Jess could only stand there, alone in his dark room, staring at his reflection in the black, pixelless screen.