Heart Links (Alternate Story)

Leon watched the years pass him by through the cold, curved glass of his viewfinder. It kept him distanced from those others who came and went on the other side of the lens. The ones who faded before they were ever really there.

Some of them were his best friends; others, girlfriends and crushes. They were in the past now. All of them long gone, preserved as they were by the memory of the camera, even as they faded from his own.

His family, too, had gone.

His father, the ****. His mother, the enabler. The only one who remained, in a sense, was his sister. Jessie. The victim of their parents’ failure.

Their father had done the unthinkable to his own daughter. Molestation from the age of nine, **** from the age of twelve. It continued until Leon took her from that wretched place when she was sixteen and he was nineteen. Only a few nights after Leon discovered her ****, he led her to his car in the dead of night and drove them all the way from Tennessee to Arizona.

They weren’t ready for life on their own. Meager savings from his old job at the movie theater only got them so far, but what other choice did they have? Better for them to scrape by in awkward silence than subject Jessie to that man’s filth.

Besides, when she turned eighteen she got a job at a local hair salon, and that helped a lot.

How she managed to work in a public place with her crippling fear of men was a mystery to him. She obviously had more resolve than he gave her credit for.

She even became friends with one of her coworkers; a woman named Laura.

Laura was overly friendly and annoyingly optimistic, but she made Jessie smile, and that’s what counted.

Jessie was nineteen now, with her own friends and her own life. Someday Jessie, too, would pass from his viewfinder, never to be seen again. Perhaps it would happen soon; perhaps later—but either way she’d be gone. Yet he couldn’t **** himself to stop caring like he did with everyone else.

Protecting her was all he had left.

Those were the things on his mind as he returned from his job at the used bookstore and opened the door to the small one bedroom apartment they shared.

“Leon!” Laura’s voice called when he stepped inside. “Good to see you. I brought you a coffee. It’s in the fridge.”

Jessie and Laura sat in the public half of the living room. The other half, cordoned off by a black sheet, was his so-called bedroom. It felt wrong to make Jessie give up her privacy after all she’d been through, so he’d sacrificed his own for the past few years instead. It wasn’t so bad.

“Thanks, as always,” he replied.

Keeping things brief with Laura was a necessity if he wanted to keep her at an arm’s length.

And he did, because that’s what he did with everyone.

“Anytime! Is today the day you finally hang out with us?” The same question she asked every time she visited.

Couldn’t she see the way Jessie froze up around him? She needed to stop inviting him to hang out and start being more attentive to his sister’s feelings.

“Nah, not today. I’m beat.” He pulled the sheet aside to enter his space. “Sorry.”

Jessie wore modest clothing today, per the usual, and avoided eye contact with him.

He understood why. As always, he did his best not to take it personally.

Once he was out of sight, the girls resumed chitchatting. Knowing he was close by meant that Jessie talked more quietly, but she still sounded happy enough

He sighed and picked his camera up off the bed. The display was lit up. Had Laura invaded his space? She’d never done it before, but he wouldn’t put it past her.

Would you like to change your life?

An overly dramatic question filled the usual message prompt box.

Some kind of virus?

Except it couldn’t be. His camera didn’t have internet access.

Instinct from browsing the internet made him select ‘No’ anyways. Better safe than sorry.

What about the lives of those around you?

Persistent little thing, aren’t you?

His thumb hovered over ‘No’ again, but then he heard Jessie’s timid laugh on the other side of the sheet and hesitated.

What if? What if I could give her even just one more good day?

This is stupid, he thought. A message on a camera can’t help her.

...He selected yes.

The World Link has been forged. Register a photograph of the intended target(s) to receive Rank 1 missions.

World Link? It sounded like an elaborate ARG, except, again, he reminded himself that his camera had no internet capabilities whatsoever.

He furled his brow in thought, but it didn’t help him arrive at an answer.

Should I just try it so that when nothing happens I can write it off as creative malware?

Why not?

Under the guise of getting his coffee from fridge, he penetrated the flimsy cotton barrier that separated his space from the living room.

The girls were mid conversation, but Laura watched him emerge out of the corner of her eye. It always seemed like she was overly conscious of him.

Thankfully, her gaze didn’t follow him into the kitchen. If either of them noticed him take a picture, he wasn’t sure how he’d explain it.

Making sure to open the fridge first, he quickly turned. The girls were facing each other while they talked, ensuring a side profile of both of their faces was visible from his vantage point.

The viewfinder met his eye just long enough to focus the picture and snap it. Composition probably didn’t matter, right?

Coffee in hand, he strolled back to his lair without anyone having ever been the wiser.

Two more messages were displayed on his camera.

Jessica Marshall, Rank 1

Mission - Prepare a meal for her.

Laura Fisher, Rank 1

Mission - Spend time with her in the living room.

Laura’s was the easiest for him to test right away even though it went against his isolation policy and would most likely be very uncomfortable for Jessie.

He wasn’t convinced this was a real thing yet, but whatever it was somehow knew their names from a single side profile photograph. At the very least, that had earned it one foray into discomfort.

I won’t get attached. This is a one time deal. It doesn’t make us friends.

Leon reluctantly left his comfort zone behind.