Eric rolled his eyes as he rapidly knocked on his younger brother's bedroom door for a second time. That moocher was probably engrossed in one of his little streams again, posturing for the few other shut-in's that watch him play children's games for some reason that only god and their therapist could know. He pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed in as deeply as he could, counting to three before looking back at that damn door. He could almost smell the room from this side.

He should be more sympathetic to Douglas. He knows that, theoretically. Intellectually. But in practice, watching him sleep until noon, watching him eat all the food in the house without even trying to provide a penny towards it, watching him waste his life away? It irritated him dreadfully. He had to travel an hour each way to sit in an office where nobody is doing anything other than line the pockets of those above them and Douglas got to eat pizza in bed and play the victim? Poor little Douglas is having a hard time and responsible, dependable old Eric has to babysit this grown man just because he's his brother. It's just unfair. But complaining about it does no good, that's the role life had given him.

Eric let go of the breath he'd been holding and firmly opened the door. He'd knocked twice and dinner was nearly ready, and dinner is always ready at this time. He'd been polite enough.

The room was close to pitch-black with only the neon glow from the monitor illuminating the nearby surfaces around his brother's desk. A ridiculously over-designed gaming chair, a few worn out manga books and a half-dead potted plant that had valiantly tried to improve the place all faintly shone with the blue light, but not much else did. Straining his eyes Eric could see that the bed was as devoid of Douglas as the rest of the room, which was... strange. He could have sworn he'd be holed up in here. He must have gone to the bathroom without being noticed - if he's actually bothering to shower then even the missed dinner could be forgiven.

With a slight frown Eric walked over to the PC, carefully stepping over discarded wrappers and piles of clothes on the barely lit floor as he made his way. He leant over the desk, trying his best to avoid touching anything sticky, so that he could have a nosey glance at whatever nonsense was occupying his brother's time. He was right after all - it was his Twitch stream. A little pixelated character resembling Douglas bounced up and down slightly in a repeating loop as a colourful stage reminiscent of a platformer from the 90s spread out around him. It felt almost nostalgic, like the games Eric would play as a child. It felt like a different life compared to now, like he was intruding on the memories of somebody else - remembering times when he and his brother would huddle together on the worn-down rug in front of the boxy TV they had, laughing and drinking store-brand biscuits and soda as though it were the height of indulgence, trying to trick eachother into failing a level...

Eric refocused on the screen. The game didn't seem that complicated or new, and definitely still looked like something only children could be interested in, but he had to give props to the character designer if it managed to let Douglas represent himself so accurately. His eyes flitted to the side of the screen as a new message appeared. Looks like his brother hadn't bothered to pause the stream before he left, at least he's consistent with how carelessly he treats others...

'[PieBot4206969] Yo bro where did you go???'

'[PieBot4206969] Damn ur room too dark lol i dont see u'

'[ChikaBika] dead strim'

'[PieBot4206969] OOOO IT'S THE BROTHER LOL'

Eric half heartedly raised his hand in a stilted greeting to the viewers and leant back, watching his face go from taking up the entire screen to a more reasonable amount. He stared at his psuedo reflection and attempted to change his grimace to something a little more neutral, clearing his throat awkwardly. He began to ask them a question before remembering that he needed the headset Douglas always wore, and changing task he quickly scanned trhe desk with a tinge of embarassment. After finding the device he gingerely picked it up and placed it over his hair while desperately silencing any concerns he had regarding it's potential cleanliness.

"Did Douglas leave the room recently?" he asked, as he folded his arms and glanced at the door he came through.

'[PieBot4206969] Its been 10m idk? he just vanished lol'

"Super." Eric huffed slightly and lowered himself into the chair, taking care not to lean back too much. The comfort might be contagious.

'[ChikaBika] yo yo yo play the game I bet you can't beat the lvl'

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

'[ChikaBika] douggies been stuck for ages, looked like hed cry lmao'

Eric almost managed to feel sorry for Douglas in that moment, stuck in this room trying and failing to accomplish the only thing he's remotely capable of. It'd be painful even without an audience. I mean, how would he feel if the only thing he was good at was making presentations, if that soulless office was the only place he could bring himself to go to, if the few colleagues who liked him laughed at his failure to the point he was almost in tears? He did try to imagine such a life, truly he did, but it was such a struggle to empathise with somebody who had all of his emotional eggs in one basket like that. If this did upset Douglas he could always simply turn off the game and go do something better with his life, after all. It was a choice to continue to waste his life like this so he must enjoy it. It was only logical. The depressing atmosphere of this boxy room was just causing a melodramatic interpretation of some online banter.

He looked down at the cheap plastic keyboard, gently touching the keys on the left hand side where the lettering had worn off from constant use. He pecked at the arrow keys and watched as the tiny Douglas on the screen walked left and right, bouncing happily to the beat of the background music. If only the real one would listen to him like this.

'[ChikaBika] ahahaha youre like a boomer but in a cute way'

'[PieBot4206969] Press space to jump! U can do it big bro!'

'[PieBot4206969] U just have to avoid the spikes!!!'

'[ChikaBika] at least you arent as emo as douggie lmao'

Eric got the little character to jump over a few spikes successfully - it wasn't exactly graceful but it had been a while since he'd done something like this, so he felt good enough about his performance. He still couldn't work out what could be fun about this, it just seemed to be the same jumping carefully action again and again, but maybe if Douglas liked it so much... maybe he should try and learn a little bit about it himself. When was the last time they talked? Not Eric having to admonish him for 'forgetting' to take the trash outside or forcing him to apply to jobs online, but just... talked. He hadn't really noticed until now but even though Douglas was still in the same room as he always was Eric missed him. It seemed so ridiculous, but it's true. They used to have fun together and then Douglas just stopped being fun once he had to grow up. He became a black hole of energy, watching endless videos and shuffling around the house like a Zombie. He just been getting worse and worse and no amount of pushing by his family had been enough to shake him out of it and make him straighten up his act. He had to learn eventually, though. You can't go down forever, there's always a rock bottom... Douglas just had to meet with it and decide to climb.

Eric was lost in these thoughts when he missed the next platform. He wasn't being very careful as there were no spikes in this section, but as the tiny Douglas hit the water the drowning animation started. It would have been nice if somebody had told him that drowning was a risk and it wasn't just the spikes he had to look out for, if he'd known there were more dangers he would have looked for them, but it's not like it mattered anyway. The animation loop was a little more graphic than he'd expect a game like this to be and he winced slightly at the desperate attempts by the character to grab onto anything nearby that could save him.

'[ChikaBika] lololol you missed'

'[PieBot4206969] Noooo u died! GG man'

'[ChikaBika] douggie always dies near here too, he was drowning so much, he just cant move on'

'[ChikaBika] it was soooo frustrating to watch but i bet he hates it more lmao'

Eric let out a small chuckle and decided that was as good a sign as any that he should head back downstairs. If Douglas wanted to hide out in the bathroom for this long to avoid him then there wasn't much point staying here anyway. He had just taken off the headphones, placed them carefully on the side of the desk, and grabbed the tacky arms of the chair to push himself up when he heard a thud behind him. It was so loud as to be deafening in the otherwise quiet room, the bed springs squeaking a couple of times as a late echo to the noise. Douglas definitely wasn't there, he'd checked when he came in, he definitely wasn't, couldn't have been, can't... he stopped breathing in terror. An intruder? Did something break? The tacky chair arms immediately felt slippery as his hands stiffened and clenched, as a neauseous tar pool climbed from his stomach to his throat and threatened to keep going. Wide-eyed he focused back on the screen as a flurry of colours in the chat box caught his attention.

'[PieBot4206969] WTFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!'

'[ChikaBika] YOOOO THIS A JUMPSCARE CHANNEL?'

'[ChikaBika] you have to warn us omg'

'[PieBot4206969] AM I BEING PRANKED OMG LOL'

'[PieBot4206969] U GOT ME DOUGGIE LOL'

'[PieBot4206969] GAVE ME HART ATTACK FUCVK'

Jump... scare? Eric still couldn't turn around, each tendon in his body felt like it was pulled taught. Too taught to move, to breathe. Every single cell in his body was screaming that something was desperately wrong, that the faint gurgling sounds he could hear behind him were coming from something far too horrific to confront. He took in a tiny, choked breathe as he finally noticed the sound of dripping water coming from the ceiling and hitting whatever had landed on the bed.

The gurgling behind him finally stopped with one last muffled, ragged sputter.

The screen flashed a cheery yellow:

GAME OVER