Chapter One Hundred and Seven - Deadly Dinners of the Fifth Dimension

"Henry," the short youth looked up from where he sat in the library as he heard his name being called. He gulped. He hadn't expected it to be Owen Miller, one of the current flavours of the month. To him; an unpopular nobody, who only came to this school because of excellent grades and a small windfall that had almost dried up due to his parents extravagant spending. Admittedly his only friend in school was Alexandria, who just happened to be old friends with Owen, but Alexandria was friendly to everyone and liked his seriousness when it came to studying.

"Hey," he responded nervously. "Do you need something?"

"You're going to the Apocalypse Convention right?" he said as he approached. Henry looked startled. Alexandria, who happened to be studying across from him looked at them both questioningly. What on Earth was that?

"How did you know?" The boy asked with wide eyes.

Owen sat beside him and said; "I heard you talking on the phone to someone during free period the other day, you mentioned you were going."

"Actually, I left it too late to get a ticket," Henry confessed.  "I'm just meeting some in game friends outside of the convention that day.  All, but me and one other guy got tickets, but we decided to make the trip anyway and meet them for lunch."

"What if I told you I have spare tickets?" Owen told him.  "I would be willing to trade if you can help me get down there."

"For real?" Henry looked completely shocked.

"Ignoring the fact that final exams are just around the corner, Owen," Alexandria mentioned.  "Why can't you get to this Zombie Con thing with your driver?"

"It's the Apocalypse Convention and he'll be ferrying around someone else this weekend," Owen said, purposely being vague.

"Who?" Alexandria asked, not willing to drop it.

"Just someone who I don't feel like entertaining, which is why I've decided to leave town for a bit," Owen answered, then turned to Henry.  "Well?  I have enough spare tickets for your friend as well."

"It's not a problem with me," Henry replied nearly squealing with excitement.  "Just... are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Owen replied.  "What am I going to do with five tickets?  You want to come too, Alex?"

She found herself blushing and had to remind herself that he was not exactly asking her out on a date, he just had more money than sense!  Who buys five tickets and doesn't use them?  "I'll think about it," she ended up saying.

"Why do you have so many tickets?" Henry asked, curiously.

"Ah, they were sent to me free by the sponsors," Owen replied.  "They want me to join in some event they've set up."

"Sponsors... wasn't that Pure Technologies?  Wait do you play Our Final Hour?" Henry asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, I do," Owen gave him a slight smile.

"Really?  Which character? I mean you must be well known if the sponsors want you there!"  Henry reasoned, then added; "My character is Infinite Sky.  You probably don't know me, I'm not that powerful in the game... though the faction I joined a little while ago is."

"Oh?" Owen smirked slightly, his pale eyes sparkling like two aquamarine gems.  "I'm Requiem Knife, your faction leader."  And with that, he left the library for his next class, leaving Henry to gape open mouthed.

*****

As Henry could not quite believe it and as Alexandria had taken it upon herself to ensure both boys studied and did not play around to much, Owen found he had guests after school ended.

"You live here on your own?" Henry exclaimed as he came to find out that Owen's parents would not be returning to the spacious townhouse as neither of them lived there.

"Hmm," Owen replied as he pulled out bottles of sparkling water from the fridge and passed them to his friends. "Though it's only been six months." That was when nanny number 5 had become.. unemployed. Seeing as his birthday had been just a couple of months later, number 6 had not been hired.

It had not always been that way. Owen had once lived in the townhouse with both parents. He could not recall a time that they had been close, though. When they had lived in the house, just him, his mother, his father and the first nanny, all four had separate rooms. When he turned eight, he had witnessed another argument, but this one had revealed that his father was having an affair. He hadn't really understood what that meant and when his best friend at the time decided to try explain it, he felt that it did not really effect him. So daddy kissed another woman. It was not as if he ever kissed mummy.

When he was ten, his mother gave his father an ultimatum, leave his mistress or she would divorce him. The divorce was fairly swift, if he thought about it now. He did not know the ins and outs of it and he did not really care. However, everything then changed. Both his mother and his father moved out, leaving him to be cared for by the nanny. The mistress became his stepmother, but she did not want him invading her little family unit. He gained two older brothers, who he would not admit to sharing blood with and a few months after the wedding (which he did not attend), a little sister.

The first nanny, who was more of a mother to him than his own, had to retire when he was thirteen due to ill health.  He kept in contact with her a lot for a while, though it was infrequent these days.  The other four came in and out of his life in fairly quick succession. Nanny number 2 was a social climber, more interested in snagging a rich boyfriend than looking after a teenage brat. She left after six months, when she finally clocked that she would not meet any rich men at his house. Nanny number 3 was caught stealing, she lasted just two months. Nanny number 4 lasted a little while longer, a good 3 years and seven months... and then her visa had run out and the government refused to give her a new one. And Stepmother had decided, for what ever reason, that Nanny number 5 was a threat to her marriage. What threat? Sure she was pretty, but the old man did not stay any longer during his random visits when she had lived here than with any of the other nanny's.

"You aren't really going to order take out are you?" Alexandria nagged, causing Owen to roll his eyes heavenward. "What's wrong with these meals?" She indicated the Tupperware in the fridge.

"You mean the meals of doom? The menu from the abyss?" Owen joked.

"Ooo... deadly dinners of the fifth dimension!" Henry suggested, joining in the fun. Owen laughed.

"Nice!"

"Seriously?" Alexandria said, taking one out to put into the microwave as Owen continued to read through the listed websites of take away restaurant in his area. He was thinking.. maybe Indian tonight? The smell of the food is what hit them first. "Ugh.. Owen?" Alexandria asked, holding her nose. "How long has that been in the fridge?"

"Freshly placed yesterday," Owen grinned at her grimacing face.

"That's just nasty!" Henry complained, running to the window to open it as Alexandria turned off the microwave and opened the small door. Owen tried hard not to laugh as he took the concoction out and swiftly placed it into the bin, before succumbing to his mirth.

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" He laughed loudly.

"Who the hell made that?!" Alexandria asked.

"Ha ha ha, one of the cleaners," he admitted through his chuckles. He took a deep breath to try calm himself. "She's studying nutrition while she works here part time. When she heard the nanny got fired, she decided to take it on herself to ensure I was fed well. Problem is, she cannot cook for love nor money!"

"Seriously," Alexandria scowled.

"So, who wants Indian?" Owen asked. There was unanimous agreement.

While they waited for the food, Owen took them to his room and asked them to wait for a moment. He quickly washed up and slipped into his comfort clothes, including the hoodie, before loading up the game. When his spiky, blue haired character appeared on the screen, Henry gasped. "You really are Requiem Knife!"

Owen just grinned, set him up with his second account, a character he had called Yu Long, and taught him a few tricks. He normally played the princely looking character when he wanted a break from faction matters. "See if you press x x o a and step left, this occurs." Knife spun to the left, his blade slicing in a diagonal arc as he did so. "But you have to tap the buttons fairly quickly."

Alexandria sat behind them. She did not understand the interest people had in video games, however she did notice that Owen had a relaxed smile upon his face, something that she had not seen since they were little kids at primary school together. After his parents left him, she felt his smile had become a little fixed and it never reached his eyes anymore. She felt as if, in this room, playing this game, she had her Owen back. She immediately blushed as this possessive thought entered her mind. Her Owen. She couldn't help but like the sound of that. If only he could feel the same...

Definitions;

See if you press x x o a and step left, this occurs. On a standard console controller there are 4 small buttons labelled (sometimes) as a,b,o,x.  So Owen is just saying which order to tap them in.