Chapter 1

7 years later… Paul awoke with a start. Cold sweat clung to him as he swung his legs over the edge of his bed. He took deep breaths to calm the racing of his heart.

Paul was never sure if he was having nightmares since he never remembered his dreams once he awoke, but waking up like this had become a frequent occurrence and could think of no other reason. He reached over to feel for his bedside table for his clock.The malleable bumps on it told him it was 5am. He groaned, it was his day off and had planned on sleeping in.

He tried lying back down to fall back to sleep, but that didn't work. So instead he got up, stripped off his sweaty PJ’s and felt his way to the bathroom. He didn't bother with the light switch and reached into the shower, turned on the water to the coldest setting and stepped in.

The cold water invigorated his whole system. His quick sharp breaths and shivers quickly faded as his trained body adapted to the icy water. Putting his face directly into the flow of water, the scars on his maimed face pulsated as the blood in his face protested the temperature change. He could feel all the lines from his wound from years ago become even tighter against his skull. After catching shrapnel to the face, he was left looking like Freddy Cougars ugly cousin in addition to being as blind as a bat.

After a while of contemplating his day, body numb to the cold, Paul decided it was time to get out before hypothermia set in. He dried off quickly, wrapped the towel around his waist, brushed his teeth and made his way to the kitchen to get some breakfast. The first sip of his Orange juice tasted awful.

30 minutes later, Paul was sitting at his spot at the kitchen table with his Dot Book, a small laptop that outputs brail so he could read the daily news paper. Ned, Paul's roommate, stumbled in. He yawned dramatically, it always annoyed Paul when Ned did things so loud and unnecessary. Paul understood he only did it to announce his presence. However Paul, on multiple occasions, explained he could hear his footsteps and the unnecessary noise would only scare the roaches into running around.

“Morning.” Ned said, digging into the fridge for some milk. “Any plans for your day off?” He poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat opposite of Paul. “ You got up so early, I thought you said you were going to sleep in.”

”Who needs sleep,” Paul muttered, slightly distracted, he just felt over an interesting article. The Advocate, New Orleans local paper, had just mentioned something that made him chuckle and gave him an idea. “I guess I'll go get a haircut since I’m up.”

“Ahh” Ned acknowledged knowingly, “You do look like a caveman, say hi for me, i'm leaving in an hour, did you want a ride?”

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“No, I'll walk, it's April, the last good month where it won't be complete death outside.” Paul loved his hometown of New Orleans other than the fact that during the summer months it was so muggy and hot he thought he would boil like a crawfish.

“Alright, you know, if you wanted,” Ned stuttered, “ you could slide through my office and we can get you all hooked up.” he finished lamely.

Paul sighed. A year ago, an alternate reality device had come out that would allow people to adventure in a fantasy world called Draktera where people killed dragons with fireballs. Ned, being one of the developers and die hard nerd, had been pressuring Paul to try it. “The future is here!” is all Paul heard these days.

“Games are for kids.” was Paul's stock response to this.

“Games are for kids.” Ned said mockingly in time with Paul. “ouch.” He grunted as Paul flung his spoon at him. It bounced harmlessly off his arm. “Damn man, how do you always hit me?” rubbing his arm. “If I couldn't see the literal scars across your eyes, I would call bullshit on you being blind.”

“Maybe I'm Daredevil” Usually bringing up Marvel with Ned would spark a fun debate on the level of blindness Daredevil had compared to Paul. Then Paul would end up throwing silverware at Ned until he missed, but Ned was silent.

After an awkward second, Ned spoke, “you know, you could actually be like Daredevil if you got in Draktera.”

“Oh come on,” Paul chuckled. “It's not all that.” However Paul knew that most likely, it was all that and it was harder each day to deny it. Almost everyday in the paper, Draktera was getting mentioned. 3 billion players were suspected to already be enrolled, a quarter of the whole world's population.

“Come on Paul, you might be able to see! Explore! Adventure! And with your training! Man you would be a monster!” Paul could sense a rant brewing. “All you do is workout… then go to work, where you help other people work out!” Paul stayed silent, so Ned pushed on, “I know you think it's just a game, but it has become so much more than that, it's only been out a year and already it’s changing the world in a huge way.” Paul could feel Ned's passion and the hard glare. Paul could all but see his childhood friends scruffy black hair and brown eyes leaning down on the table opposite of him.

“I…” Paul started, but did not have much to say. At this point, there was really no reason not to get it other than the fact that Paul just felt like being stubborn. Also the fact that he was afraid that if he could somehow see again, he would never come back to reality again. He absentmindedly brushed his hands across his dot book, taking comfort in the now familiar feeling of the words that spoke to him through his fingers.

“Sorry, Look, just think about it.” Ned said as he went back towards his room to finish getting ready. “I already have everything set up for you at work, all you have to do is show up. Just let me know. I even took care of most of the paper work for you”

Paul finished his breakfast, cleaned up, and went back to his room. Moving some stuff around he pulled out his work out mat and started stretching. For Paul, physical exertion was always his favorite time to let his mind wander.

Going through the practiced motion, his mind journeyed to places he didn't know. A wonderful valley was before him, green grass and flowers in hundreds of shades. Trees littered the valley. One man stood at its center staring up. Paul followed the gaze to see a giant dragon descending upon the man.

A brilliant ball of fire and light erupted from the lone figure. It smashed into the dragon and it fell hard to the earth below.

Paul wasn't sure how long he was lost in thought, but the call of goodbye from Ned at the door brought him back to reality.

“Damn.” Paul said out loud to himself. Maybe the future really is here.