I was sitting at my computer enjoying the new MMORPG I was playing with my friends and older brother Donald. I was not fond of Donald’s girlfriend but he was happy living with her, so I was happy for him. As we chatted in discord together, we were working on acquiring wings for our characters so they could fly around above all the other players, when suddenly my best mate James declared,
“It's midnight Michael, happy nineteenth birthday!”
I rolled my eyes and grinned mischievously as I started off whispering into the mic
“yea, my first wish for this birthday is to get these black wings with the golden horn tips”
Ending the sentence, I found myself shouting as I thrust my mouse forwards and clicked furiously on the left button. My mates laughed at me and wished me a happy birthday as I clicked furiously, mashing keyboard buttons to active skills and jumping about, attempting to ensure my survival and the boss's death. With a final click of my mouse, I watched the boss monster die. This caused me to jump from my chair and shout in triumph. I thrust my fist into the air.
“Yes, the wings shall be mine!” I declared.
I stood there one foot on my chair as I posed triumphantly. The mood was ruined a few seconds later by my father saying,
“sit down you idiot no one wants to see you posing in the living room like that"
I grumbled as I slowly sat back down and gave my father a disgruntled look over my shoulder before turning back to the monitor,
“I thought It was cool”
I grumbled to myself. I collected the loot from the boss monster before teleporting back to my house and equipping the wings. I smiled looking at my character,
"they look awesome".
After admiring them for a few more minutes and then logging off the game.
"Alright mates, I had better get to bed, I have work on the farm in the morning" I said.
My mates said their goodbyes and I turned off the computer and headed for the staircase.
I was halfway to the staircase when I heard something heavy hitting the front porch. I turned suddenly to face the front door, my right hand grasping my chest.
"Crikey that scared the shit out of me" I mumbled as I started walking toward the front door.
I grabbed my metal baseball bat from the umbrella stand by the door with my right hand as my left hand reached for the front door. I pulled it open and stepped outside. Slowly stepping onto the front porch of my father's five hundred acre farmhouse with the baseball bat raised in my right hand. It soon dropped back to my side as I stared at a fully grown 5-foot red kangaroo standing at the edge of the porch scratching his ear.
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"Shoo!"
I called out at the kangaroo as I smacked the baseball bat against the decking of the porch at my feet. The kangaroo of course looked straight at me before turning and bouncing off away from the house. I noticed my father leaning against the door frame watching me as he smirked. Then he stood up straight and raised his fists in front of his face like he was a boxer. He started shifting his weight from foot to foot as he looked at me.
"Why not chase the roo down and give him the old one-two"
he said as he thrust his right fist forward then his left jabbing at the air in front of him. I laughed at him and shook my head.
"Dad, only crazy people that want to be on television or youtube fight kangaroos, and you know perfectly well that they can kill a man with those powerful hind legs" I said to him.
My dad grinned at me and opened his hands into tiger claws
"and those claws they have can open your gut and spill your innards all over the floor" he said to me as he playfully took swipes at the air in front of me with his fingers.
We both laughed and my dad dropped his hands to his sides.
"Couldn't see this kind of thing in that big city your college is in eh?" he said with that silly smirk of his.
I rolled my eyes at him and headed back to the front door.
“Your little brother would have thought it was funny” he said to me as I walked inside.
As I passed through the door I said "I'm going to bed, love ya dad." I placed the baseball bat away in the umbrella stand and headed back to the staircase. As I walked past mum, who was still sitting on the couch watching TV, I kissed the top of her head "love you too mum" I said then walked to the staircase.
Walking up the stairs to my room, I found myself waving good night to my parents out of habit, like I did every night before bed.
“Good night!” I called out as I reached the top of the stairs.
I lingered there just out of sight. As I thought about how much I loved my parents and all they had done for me, I heard them start to talk, “He is such a good kid. I’m glad we managed to sell that old truck so we could pay for the first semester of his college” my mother said.
“No doubt. I’m glad we have the house to ourselves after tomorrow” my dad replied.
I heard my mother laugh and the sound of a hand smacking a shoulder “you are so bad!” my mother replied mockingly.
I shook my head deciding I did not need to hear where that was going and headed down the hallway and into my room. My room was the second last door on the left. My warm and comfy king-sized bed was waiting for me in the middle of the room. After stripping off my clothing down to only my boxer shorts, I sunk into the bed with a smile on my face. I curled up, pulling the doona over me and grabbed eagerly at my curved pillow that I liked to call boomer (which was short for boomerang, as the pillow was shaped as such). I found myself, as I often did, cuddling up to this pillow as I closed my eyes and began to relax.
My mind drifted as I found myself starting to think about a story I rather enjoyed. This always seemed to help me find sleep easier. I imagined I was on a spaceship. A small one like in Guardians of the Galaxy (one of my favourite movies). I loved how the ship looked like a sparrow, especially upon landing, or taking off. I was aboard a spaceship like this one.
I envisioned the exterior of the ship painted in red, blue, and just a dash of purple. In this story I was telling myself, I was the pilot of the spaceship and a traveller in space. This version of me would be found exploring and discovering new galaxies and planets.
Whilst I was beginning to drift into sleep, a sudden resounding noise penetrated my ears, like something enormous had come into collision with a solid material, such as brick or concrete. I opened my eyes to see the front end of a helicopter as it crashed into my bedroom. At this point, the only words that came to my mind, as I took in the scene in front of me, were simply "fuck me". Then I was encased by darkness... That was how I spent the last moments of this life.