Blood Knights

I wrote this for a Year10 English assignment, and received the highest mark in the class (HA/B+) Enjoy!

Blood Knights:

My name is James Wolf. I’m an Australian Federal Police Officer, working in Sydney for almost six years now.
I arrived at a building – Headquarters for a computer game called “Blood Knights” – and entered.

I wasn’t sure why I was there. I was traveling to work, when I got the call - a weird goblin from the Blood Knights game murdered a woman. Anyway, I entered the old building and found a staff member passing by. I stopped him, and showed him my identification.

‘AFP’, I said. ‘My name is James Wolf’.
The man identified himself as Denise Sharp. ‘I’m a programmer for Blood Knights.’
Suddenly, I had no idea what to say. “I’m here to investigate a murder done by one of your goblins?” I don’t think he’d believe me.

‘Can I help you?’ Sharp asked.
I told him my reason for being at the building.
‘Well, the goblins kill lots of people in the game.’ Sharp replied. ‘And lots of players kill them.’
‘No’, I said, a goblin killed a real person.’
Sharp laughed. Really loud. ‘You do know that the goblins are just pictures on a computer screen, right? They cant actually kill anyone outside the game, because they’re not real.’
I glared at him. I don’t like being laughed at, especially about something I’m doing for my job.
‘Look, just show my your stupid game, so I can get the hell out of here, or I’ll arrest you and charge you with obstructing a police investigation.’ I said in my meanest voice.

He rolled his eyes. ‘Okay, okay,’ he said, leading me to a back room. It was cleaner then the main room, and didn’t smell. There was a large screen at one end of the room, and a large computer at the other.

‘Stand here.’ Sharp instructed, pointing to a spot next to the screen.
I stood there.
‘Advanced new technology. Our image will be transmitted into the game, so, in a way, we’ll be in the game. The world of “Blood Knights” will pop up around us from five projectors.’

With that, Sharp pressed a button, and the game appeared around us.
‘The audio should be online in a minute.’ Denise Sharp told me.

Within about a minute, the audio clicked on. It was loud, and lots of voices all at once, and I could hardly hear anything.
Denise pressed another button and the sound decreased.
‘We’re in friend chat.’ Sharp said. ‘Everyone can hear us, but along with everyone else. Just like what we heard before.’
I nodded. ‘This is, uh…’ I said.
‘Awesome?’ Sharp offered.
‘Yeah,’ I replied. I was going to say weird, but his word sounded more polite.

We started walking on a treadmill I hadn’t noticed before. It was in the floor, so it was like the floor was moving.

Suddenly, a guy appeared next to me.
‘Wow! Dude, where did you get the suit?’ He asked me, looking at my clothes.
‘He joined our friend chat,’ Sharp explained.
‘Oh.’
I said to the player, whose name I noticed was “Dead_Shadow567” ‘If you show me where the North Goblins, I'll tell you.’
‘Deal,’ Dead_Shadow567 replied. ‘Follow me.’
The three of us began walking, well, north I guess. The walk was quick. Up a few hills, up and over a forest filled mountain, and across a river. The walk was about twenty minutes, but with my surprising level of unfitness, I was exhausted.

‘Here we are!’ Dead_Shadow567 announced. I looked up, at a stone gatehouse. It was empty.
‘Weird,’ I heard Dead_Shadow567 say. ‘No players around.’
I looked past the gatehouse, and into the village. It was a small, enclosed grassy area, with several small huts all scattered around the area.

We all took a step in through the gatehouse. Except Dead_Shadow567. I looked back at him.
‘I’m stuck.’ He said.
‘Glitch?’ I suggested, using my small knowledge of computers.
‘Maybe…’ Denise Sharp said. ‘But Mr. Gill said this area was glitch free. He told me only a couple of hours ago.’
‘Who is Mr. Gill?’ I asked.
‘Creator of Blood Knights,’ Sharp explained. ‘He has been working on North Goblin Village for literally weeks.’
I looked around, and accidentally bumped into a tree. Then Sharp said, in a shaky voice ‘This doesn’t feel right.’

‘It’s just a game.’ I said. But I knew what he meant. Everything felt so real.

I told Dead_Shadow567 we wouldn’t be long, and walked into the small village.

‘Is it meant to be deserted?’ I asked, looking around.
‘No.’ Sharp answered.
‘What about the portal thing?’ I asked, pointing to a pinkish portal.
Denise Sharp looked at it funny. ‘That isn’t supposed to be there.’
‘Should we walk through it?’
‘I guess.’
We stepped through it, and everything went hazy. Then it went black.

When I came to, which I later learned was about ten seconds, I wasn’t sure where I was. But I wasn’t in the game.
‘Where are we?’ I asked.
‘I’m not sure.’ Sharp replied. ‘But we’re definitely not in the game.’

Immediately, I pulled out my gun, and surveyed the room. We were hidden to the room by a large stack of boxes.

Quietly, I peered around the room, and I was shocked at what I saw. Goblins. Everywhere. They were small, about chest height, and had surly, deformed faces. Surprisingly, they almost could have looked funny, like the villains off a children’s cartoon, except for the nasty looking spears, with the stone head soaked with real blood. And the fact that they were all real. Fortunately, they were all preoccupied by a man talking to them.

Sharp looked around with me, then breathed ‘Mr. Gill.’
‘What?’
‘Mr. Gill. Creator of Blood Knights. He’s talking to the goblins.’
I looked at whom he was pointing at. The man – Mr. Gill - was old, at least over 65, and had a balding head. His thin hair was completely white, and frizzy. And, as if that description didn’t seem like a cliché of a mad scientist already, he was wearing a white labcoat, and thick glasses.
‘That’s your boss?’
‘Yes.’
I sat there, think about what to do. Arrest him? Or call for back up.
‘Hmm…’ Sharp said suddenly. ‘A few years ago, I did a course at university about the supernatural. I’d say that the portal we came through was an electromagnetic portal. If we shove, say, a live electric socket, we could overcharge it, and destroy it.’
I nodded slowly, wondering if Denise Sharp could get any weirder. ‘You do that, I’ll kill the goblins.’

Making sure my gun was full; I looked over at the goblins. But they were gone.
I saw the last one exit through a previously unseen door that went onto the city.

Then, without warning, a cold metal object was stuck to my neck. A gun.
Slowly, I turned around to face Mr. Gill. Denise Sharp was nowhere to be seen. So, I decided, he was either a traitor, or, he’d gotten away. I deduced that he had gotten away because, otherwise, he would be standing there in front of me.

‘So, you have found out about my plan. How I managed to create goblins to overrun the city, and eventually rule the world.’
Now, this is what I hate about villains. They always have a big speech about how they’re going to take over the world. I find it incredibly boring.

Gill was about to say something else, but I decided to escape. While he was distracted, I made a run for it.

I ran past him, and dived over a crate. I landed hard.
I raised my gun to shoot, but Gill had disappeared. I saw him climbing a ladder and shot, but he saw me, and dropped, the bullet flying over his head.
I ducked, as he fired a few bullets at me, which fortunately flew over my head.

We continued like that, shooting over each other and missing, until finally, I got lucky.

I heard him cry out in agony, and then a thump.

Cautiously, I stepped over to where he was lying, blood gurgling out of the bullet wound in his throat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his hand inch towards his gun. He picked it up, but I fired. Once. Twice. Three times. He was dead.

Sharp returned, and the portal was shut off. He looked at Gill, lying dead.

‘C’mon,’ I said. ‘Lets go and wait for the cops.

I didn’t know it then, but the cops would hunt those goblins for the entire night, and by tomorrow, they would all be gone.

The End