The End?

Charley thought hard about the last few days, as he tried to make a go of the factory.

Of course, it would have all ended in a joke, but for the fact that Pierce had guaranteed their contracts, no matter how much of a loss they made.

But things worried him.

Was it all coming to an end? And if so, why was the simulation not stopping?

He could understand that fate had brought him here and he had to play out the game. But he had won. The workers had their lottery money and Pierce was running the world. There were no arguments there. So why was it going on?

He might have just let it all run on but for the visit Natasha made that fateful day.

"Hi Charley boy, how's it going?" She walked into the factory office and ran her hand on some paperwork. The men on the shop floor could not take their eyes off her, and she loved it. She was wearing the tightest little dress she could find.

"Natasha I want you to level with me," said Charley sitting in the big padded chair.

"Anything you say, Charley. You are the hero of the hour." She seated herself at the desk.

"When we first met, you admitted that you knew this was all a simulation? That none of this was real and we were all just in a game?"

"Not just a game Charley, but the big one," laughed Natasha.

"So you admit none of this is real?

"Do I look real to you? Do these breasts not look real? That cock between your legs, is that not a real feeling?"

"The game is just tricking my mind into believing that, and you know it. The machine makes me feel whatever I want. But what I don't understand is how you know that. Natasha, you should not be part of the programme. Or at least you should not be able to go against it. Why?"

"Look, Charley! We let you win the money. You are in touch with the most powerful man in the world. What more do you want?"

"The truth."

"What good is that going to do you?"

"Why is the game still going? I helped these people? So why will it not let me go?" Charley was pleading with her now.

"You really want to go back to being a lonely middle-aged man, jerking off to a computer? Charley, you have everything here? It should be a paradise?"

"You are right of course. I should not be so ungrateful, but I'm still frightened."

"Of what?"

"Of it all coming to an end. Of me being stuck back in that world, and it's all been for nothing."

"Maybe that's the chance you take? The gamble?"

"I think I know you well enough Natasha, and I don't think you take gambles. So why are you in this game?"

"Because I love it. I love your world. Of flesh. Of TV. Of drinks. Fast cars. Your world of human emotions."

"So it was all true? You are not human after all? Not just a figure in a computer game like us? But not even human. So what are you really?"

"I swapped this body for a young woman. She got what she wanted. Fame and fortune and human immortality and I got to have some fun in here." Natasha was never more dangerous than when she was making fun of people.

"Tell me the truth?" asked Charley.

"Some people, and I mean unkind people, might call us Demons. I was once called the Demon Astaroth." She let the words hang there.

"So you are some sort of evil devil?"

"You see! You are being unkind already. I've tried to help you. I never did you any harm, and you are coming out with hurtful words." She pretended to be offended.

"Alright Natasha, I'm sorry. But you have to understand that this is a lot for me to take in. Who else knows this is really a game? Does Pierce know?"

"I'm beginning to think he suspects. However, I also think he knows it's for the best."

"If you are this Demon, you say you are, don't you have magic powers or anything?" asked Charley.

"Sure, but you might not like them. Would you like a demonstration of my powers?" Natasha gave a slight giggle and waved her hand.

The next thing Charley knew, he was standing outside the shop in the high street with a piece of paper in his hand.

"What's going on?"

"You are back to where it all started," said Natasha beside him. "Go in that shop and place your numbers on the lottery. Or simply walk away? The choice is yours?"

"We are back on the day I picked the numbers?" Charley could hardly believe what was happening. "How is this possible?"

"You are in a simulation, remember? And I can turn the game back to anywhere I want." Natasha had lost the smile from her face now and was beginning to show all the signs of becoming the demon she said she was. "I can even take you back to where you switched the machine on."

With that, they were standing in Charley's bedroom, looking at his computer.

"If you like I can send you back Charley, and none of this will never have happened? Is that what you really want?"

"What about all the people in the game? In the factory? Will they simply die?" Charley was beginning to understand just what he had done. "If I switch this off, will I have killed them all?"

"What do you think Charley? Do you want to go back or stay in there forever?" Natasha held her finger over the button.

"What if someone else comes in a does just that? Even without me? What happens to all of us in the game? In Cobol? In our world?"

"If you like, I can make all that possible? You could be locked in there forever. Looping the same few years over and over again. You could make a few changes here and there. But you would live in the machine."

"The computer could not go on forever," said Charley looking around. "I don't even own this house and what about power?"

"Don't worry you silly little man. I am the Demon Astaroth, time and space and trashy little computers can all be taken care of. So what's it to be?"

"We go back."

And with that they did.

Charley had to go and see Pierce in his London office overlooking the Thames.

"Pierce do you know what Natasha really is? And would it come as a surprise if I was to tell you that I know this is all a simulated game?" Charley waited for a cynical laugh, but none came.

"Charley we have it good here. Why rock the boat?"

"So you do know? You know that none of this is real?"

"We run the world here. You are fabulously wealthy, and a hero. Is that not enough? How big is your ego little man?" Pierce too a long drink from his glass.

"What do you know of the outside world? Of the world where I really come from?"

"I know it's horrible. At least for people like us. Natasha told me she could turn the clock back and give you the chance to end it all. Will you do that Charley? Will you relive the last few years again and again? I know Natasha can do that. She calls herself the Demon Astaroth, and she is powerful enough to do anything. So will you let her give you the power to play God?"

"I might do things differently next time," said Charley.

"How do you know this is not the first time you have stood there and made that choice? How do you know you have not done this a thousand times before? How can you know that?"

"I wouldn't be that cruel."

"Oh no?" said Pierce. "So why put us through this at all? Why not pull the plug and get it over with? You can't Charley? Because you are like the rest of us. You have to find out what else is out there. What else you can do, and what else life has in store for you. Where else is there a better place to be than being a millionaire?"

Charley looked hard at the other man.

I'm thinking about it."

The End.