It was a quiet suburban street
Well maintained houses and nearly trimmed gardens
Folks were leaving for work
Susan said goodbye as her husband left for the office
She worked from home doing IT assignments
Preferring those stand alone work packages
Which can be done without people interactions
She worked late at night leaving her daytimes free
Susan was still in her pajamas when she put on the VR headset
A few moments later she was in a remote Scottish castle
Moving from room to room looking for other characters
She found her gaming friend John in the dining room
Hey I missed you he said giving her a virtual kiss
There were no other characters in the castle today
What would you like to do today asked John
Lets have a big feast with music and dancing
With a few commands on their keyboards they added more characters
Servers filled the table with delicious food
A piper played highland music
Traditional Scottish dancers twirled around
Susan sat next to John at the head of the table
They were King and Queen for the day
Everybody was happy and having fun
Suddenly there was screaming
English Redcoat soldiers burst in and mayhem erupted
Swords and daggers flashed in hand to hand combat
John picked up a sword to protect Susan
He ran the sword through an approaching Redcoat
Susan watched in horror as blood sprayed from a gaping wound
She was terrified even in this virtual world
Somebody had hacked into their game and was taking control
She turned to John just as he was stabbed in the heart
The Redcoats ran away as she tried to tend to John
He looked at her with sad eyes and said “I love you Susan”
When John slipped away she could not bear it any longer
She ripped off the VR headset and was plunged back into the reality of her home office
It was such a relief to escape the horrors of what she just witnessed
Catching her breath as she went to the kitchen for a glass of water
As she filled the glass she noticed the blood on her hands and all over her pajamas