Luca’s world came crashing down. He could feel his blood pressure drop into his shoes and tears shot into his eyes. “What happened mother?” He never called her mother, but he was not thinking straight. A chill ran down his back.
“I will tell you someday, Luca. For now, you need to know we are going to be okay. Do you understand?” She took his face in both her hands. Unable to control his emotions anymore he burst into tears and ran out of the front door. He could hear his mother in the background yelling, “Luca! Wait!”
But he did not care. He just wanted to get away, to disappear from this nightmare which was forming around him.
He ran for miles between the tall factories, looking for anything to calm his soul, a park, something green but all he could see was more and more factories. Looming over him as if they were watching his every move. Their insides were grumbling and had an all new meaning to him. It is them who killed his father, The Elite, the people who forced normal people to do their bidding in this rotten world. His father spent years working for them under horrid conditions, coming home tired with nothing to show for it.
He followed the route he and his father walked so many times together, tears streaming down his blackened face from all the dust and smoke mixed with tears on his face. Luca walked for hours, just mindlessly wandering, trying to fight the fact that he is the man of the house now. He has to fill his fathers shoes. As he walked down a dark alleyway, he kicked a ball of paper. Written on it, he saw “WANTED'' in bold capital letters at the top of it and unscrambled it. It was an advertisement for gamers.
GAMERS WANTED!!
Are you a gamer?
Are you good at shooting your enemies and creating strategies to conquer their kingdoms?
Then YOU are the person we are looking for! Apply now at the Blue Bird academy and become part of the gaming revolution. Become a part of The Shadow Domain’s history. Get PAID for playing games. Only apply if you are 16 and over. +34 555 5543
He threw it back over his shoulder, and kept walking through the alleyway. Eventually he became tired and started to head back home.
When he entered his home he saw the door was open, neighbors, family and friends have all started arriving to offer their condolences and comfort them.
“Here he is, Mister Gamerman,” It was his dad's best friend, Andre’, a tall, muscular, dark-skinned man with muscle bulging from underneath his shirt from the years of hard labor in the factories. He came over and gave Luca a big hug. Trying to sound cheerful he said,
“Where have you been? We’ve been out looking for you, Timothy and some others are still out there. Oh that reminds me, I should probably tell them you're back.” He quickly took out his phone and dialed them.
His eyes scanned the room, establishing exactly who was at the gathering. His sister was sitting on their mothers lap who was crying into another woman’s shoulder, who he recognized as her sister, Martha. She spotted Luca entering the room and motioned for him to come to her as she was holding her mother. He could hear her sobs of unbelief. Tears shot into his eyes again and the two of them cried into Martha together.
A friend of his mothers brought over two mugs of coffee and they all sat down around the dinner table, sharing stories of their father and reliving memories with him. Andre’ speaks of how they always pranked each other at work and how his father was the best prankster in the space. When he finished, Luca noticed a bloodied bandage on his right hand.
“Did you get hurt today?” He tried not to cry in front of the people again. “Was it the same accident as my father?”
“Oh this?” He held up his hand, “No, this is just a cut I got from the machine I was cleaning. Andre’ thought it best not to tell him he lost his job because he assaulted one of the Elite’s cronies.
His mom turned to Andre’. “Do you know how long it takes for the insurance to pay out. We won’t have any income now.” And she started to cry again.
He looked down at his hardened hands, “That could take up to two years, Nadia.”
After the conversation goes back and forth late into the night and the people start taking their leave, leaving the three of them alone in the house. He closed the door behind the final guests thanking them all for coming. He went over to the couch and gave his mom a kiss on her cheek, asking her if she will be okay for the night,
“Yes son,” she gave him a shaky and teary smile.
“Come Carla, time for bed.” He picked her up and twirled her in the room to which screamed a ‘Weeee’.
Luca stayed up late that night, his mind clouded with thoughts and ideas of what tomorrow might hold. Tomorrow he’s waking up a man, and he was not quite ready for that.
The next day he got up early. Luca prepared breakfast for his family and left her a note.
Dear mom,
I realize I am the man of the house now and need to provide. I will be out the whole day, to look for a job. I have decided to leave school so I can provide for us. Do not worry, it will only be until we can get money from the insurance and then I will return to school.
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Love
Luca.
He found himself between grown men, knowing he has to do the same job as them and enter the world he so very much hates. The world that killed his father. He walks from factory to factory, asking if they were hiring but to no avail. After walking around the whole day, his feet sore, and his body tired, he turns around and decides to go home.
And then, suddenly he remembers the flier. He can do this. He HAS to. He could do this. It is a gaming recruitment flier for one of the top gaming academies in southern europe. And he was indeed a top gamer. He smugly thought to himself.
He runs back to where he found the flier, he was fit and young. It was only a few factory blocks away and Luca quickly found the dark alleyway. He found it a few paces off from where he threw it away over his shoulder. The recruitment flier was streaked with crumples. He quickly searched on his phone where the Blue Academy was. Motril. That's about 5 hours drive, and 9 hours by bus. He made his way home quickly and when he got there he climbed the rackety stairs all the way to the top of the building, looking at all the thundering factories around him. Their apartment was part of an apartment block which was placed smack in the middle of the factories with three others. Once at the top of the build he went to sit at his favorite spot. It was an old canopy on top of the roof with a table where he kept two plants he was able to find in this world where nothing survives. They didn’t grow well in the toxic air, but they grew, and he loved them.
He sat on an old chair his father gave him and re-read the advertisement.
GAMERS WANTED!!
Are you a gamer?
Are you good at shooting your enemies and creating strategies to conquer their kingdoms?
Then YOU are the person we are looking for! Apply now at the Blue Bird academy and become part of the gaming revolution. Become a part of The Shadow Domain’s history. Get PAID for playing games. Only apply if you are 16 and over. +34 555 5543
It was late at night but he thought he might as well try the number as he did not want to go home just yet to tell his mother the damning news of not being able to find a job nearby.
The phone rang only twice before a woman’s voice answered on the other end.
“Blue Bird Academy, how can I help you?”
“Hello, is this Blue Bird Academy?” The words slipped out of his mouth and he immediately kicked himself for it. “I mean, hello, I found your advertisement in an alley in Madrid and wondering if applications are still open?”
“Yes sir, they are, and who am I speaking to?”
“Luca,”
“Alright, gamertag, name, age, weight and height?”
“Na’tan, with an apostrophe between the first ‘a’ and the ‘t’. My name is Luca Diez, I am 16 years old, I weigh around 63 kilograms and am 1.7m tall.”
“And tell me, what are your gaming specialities, Luca?”
It felt strange to him to hear an adult be interested in gaming.
“I am a specialist breacher in First person shooters and usually play a rush strategy in Strategy games. I am ranked pretty high for my age in Europe.” He felt a little smug saying the last part.
“And what is that?”
“Rank 15 in the age bracket of 15 and 39 between the ages of 15-19.”
Luca could hear her furiously typing on a keyboard on the other side of the phone.
“You do know we take only top players into the Blue Bird Academy?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Alright, I will get back to you soon.” *click*
He sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the drumming and swishing of the factories around him. When he grew tired, he climbed down the unstable stairs and climbed inside through his window.
“Good evening mom,” he said as he entered the kitchen through his room. His sister was sitting on the living room carpet playing with her toys.
“Hello Luca,” She greeted friendly. Luca assumed she was not mad at him for leaving early and deciding to put a pause on schoolwork.
“Hello mom,” he said with a tired sigh, “I went to over 25 factories and could not find a single one willing to even look at me and interview me. “I’m sorry,” he said as he hung his head.
She walked over to him and hugged him. “No problem Luca, we will figure this thing out.”
The next day he went around asking at the other grocery stores and food stalls which were dotted between the factories and apartment buildings. After being sent from the next one on to the next one, he decided to try the one he was dreading the most. A big sturdy man owned the grocery store at the bottom of their apartment block, but he hated going there. The man was rude and grumpy, always yelling at his staff and accusing the customers of stealing his products. A few times he has witnessed where the man physically removed clients from the store or threw staff with things laying around. He was also from france so generally the usual customers were not big fans of him either and saw him as an outsider.
He entered the shop with a big board hanging on the entrance. Milo’s Groceries.
Two store helpers were busy sweeping the floors and cleaning products on the shelf, while Milo was sitting behind the counter while working on the computer.
“Sara, why am I counting a different amount to what is shown on the computer? Again?” He said “again” menacingly. Sara, a curvy woman with a bob quickly scurried over to him to resolve the problem. She counted the money in his hand.
“Sir, it is the correct amount shown on the computer.”
“Are you saying I can’t count?!” he yelled at her while she cowered to get away from his booming voice and stature. “Are you saying I am stupid?!”
“No… No sir,” Sara stammered, “But on the screen it shows e$138.20 and in your hand there is e$138.20.” He quickly recounted the money loudly and slammed it on the counter. Milo ignored her and she returned to work when she thought he was done with her.
Luca vanished in between the rows of products and stayed as low as possible, trying to gather the self-confidence to ask him for a position. He swallowed a nervous ball which had gathered in his throat, and moved out of the row furthest from the counter.
“He.. Hello Milo,”
“What?! Can’t you see I am busy?! Ask one of the staff to help you,” with this he peered over his small glasses and he recognized Luca. “Oh it's you, you’ve been coming here for years, Luca how do you not know where the products are?”
“I actually came to talk to you,” he straightened his shoulders and stood a little taller.
“Hmph, fine what do you want?”
“I was actually here to ask about a job.” He was expecting an explosion, but received an uncomfortable silence so he continued.
“My father passed away 2 days ago, and I need help feeding my family. I can do cleaning, packing. I have a B in math so I can work with money. I will do anything you need. Please Milo.”
He saw tears spring in the young boy's eyes and gave a hefty sigh.
“Fine, be here tomorrow at 6am. You will work for e$5 a day as you start out. You will help with cleaning and packing the products, that is all.” He emphasized the last part. “You will help customers and if you are late even one day you are fired. Do you understand?”
Luca could hardly believe his ears and vigorously shook his head, wiping his nose off on his shirt.
Back at home, Luca entered the living room. Unable to contain his excitement. He blurted out.
“I got a job mom!”
“That's great news! Where?”
“At Milo’s Grocery store. The one where me and Dad used to go to.”
“Oh…” There was concern in her voice, “Are you sure it's such a good idea? I mean we all know how he treats Sara and Salvador.
“Yes mom, I can handle him.” He told her, standing up straight. She embraced him. “I love you Luca, always remember that.”