Read The Game of Lives for Free Online

the afterlife, the spirit world, some supernatural thing he could never truly fathom before.
    The shadows suddenly coalesced into one large spot, right in front of Michael, just inches from his face. The orange light pulsed around the spot—it was an oval and almost a foot in height, positioned vertically. Darker shadows formed within shadows. Michael gasped and almost hurtled himself away from it, terrified, shivering in virtual chills.
    A face.
    Two eyes. A nose. A thin mouth drawn in a line. Cheekbones. A chin. All vague, but there. A face of shadows looking out at Michael as the light of the pod pulsed and the thrum of a deep heartbeat vibrated around him.
    Michael’s chest hurt. His body felt like a block of ice. What was this? Was he confronting the essence of Jackson Porter, whose body—whose
life
—he’d stolen? He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand any of this. And yet he couldn’t look away.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered, as absurd as it seemed. The dark, blurry face dissolved back into indistinct shadows, scattering throughout the inside of the pod.
    “I wanted you to see this,” a voice said from behind him.
    Michael yelped, so startled he spun around and swung his right arm out, hitting nothing but air. Helga—now in the form he’d known her his whole life, the Helga from home, his nanny who’d been like a second mother—floated a few feet away, with Bryson and Sarah behind her. Michael didn’tknow when or how she’d switched her Aura, but he had to admit it calmed him on sight and made him feel a little better.
    “What’s going on?” he asked, wanting to take all the frustration and angst that had built up inside him and throw it at someone else. “What’s the point of all this? You’re telling me that Jackson Porter is stored inside this pod? Like some kind of living, breathing data file? What, do I just tap in a password and he slides back into my brain? Is that why you brought me here?”
    It came out in a rush, and the hurt look that crossed Helga’s face made him wish he could take it all back.
    Almost as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, though, and her no-nonsense, I’m-in-charge face returned.
    Sarah flashed away from Helga and to Michael’s side in a blur and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. “Sorry we lost you there for a while,” she said softly. “I just tried to stay close to Helga and figured you’d be with her, too.”
    Michael took her hand but didn’t take his eyes off Helga.
    “It was really important to me that you come here, Michael,” Helga said. “I know it took a lot of effort and more than a little risk. But this place is real, and it has to be seared inside your mind so you understand what we’re up against and what our purpose is.”
    “What
are
we up against?” Michael said, ashamed that his voice came out a little angry. “What
is
our purpose?”
    “Yeah,” Bryson added, distancing himself from Helga so he could look at her straight on. “Those are some great questions.”
    Helga gestured with outstretched arms toward the massive Hive around them. “These pods are filling up at an exponential rate. And honestly, we can’t even tell if it’s all Kaine’s doing at this point. There’s still a lot we need to figure out. But these are people, Michael.
People
. Stolen from their bodies. And I know we agree on one thing—that’s about the most sacred thing in the universe you can mess with. It’s as bad as what Kaine did to you, playing with your life, your mind, your feelings, like it was all some kind of VirtNet game.”
    “I want to help, but how?” Michael snapped, feeling worse by the second. He didn’t understand why, but it felt like his heart was breaking. “Or maybe I should just give up. Jackson can have his stupid body back. I don’t care anymore. How do I do it?”
    Helga sighed. “Michael, you’re missing my point completely. I didn’t bring you here to make you feel bad. I’m glad you want to do something