Luca was a 19-year-old college dropout with no real aspirations for the future and no plan as to where he was headed. It seemed like only yesterday that he was the complete opposite. A 16-year-old scholastic prodigy with plans on achieving big things in life. Well, some things don't exactly go as planned and this was one of those things. After he came out as gay to his family in senior year, he has cut off and his college funds were taken away from him. He had attempted to push himself through schooling on his own dime, however after a few semesters it was clear that it wouldn't be possible. Now he was alone with no friends, no aspirations, and nobody who loved him.

He sat on the couch of his crappy apartment on his phone and while scrolling through the App Store, came across a rather intriguing game. “ERROR 143”. It was a dating simulator starring a conventionally attractive main character and a pretty interesting plot line, so he decided to give it a try. “I could use something to do. I wasn't planning on starting any more games since I have a ton of unfinished ones, but at this point I couldn't care less.” With that, he had unknowingly sealed his fate.

Luca became obsessed with the game and the game's main character, Micah. He had bought every official piece of merchandise and a lot of the unofficial pieces as well. He had played the game front to back more times than he could count and gotten every single ending possible. While his manic obsession brought him joy, it also brought him a huge wave of depression. He knew that he could never love a man like he loved Micah, and since he wasn't real then he'd never be able to have his intense love reciprocated. He tried a few dating apps to see if he could get his mind off the game, however he could never get far with anyone without feeling guilty that he was “cheating” on Micah.

One night, he had finished playing the game once again, and curled up into a ball in his bed. It was pitch black outside in his crappy apartment, and he realized he had nothing to show in life besides this game. This obsession. “What am I going to do? What's the purpose of living like this if I cannot live with him. I'd give anything in the world, just so he could be here. Anything.” His passion and desperation somehow evaporated into the atmosphere and into consciousness as we know it. Something unexplainable happened. Micah, who was once simply text and code, was given life inside the game.

Luca awoke in the morning and got dressed for work. As he was just about to leave, he felt a buzz from his phone. That was weird. He didn't have any friends and ERROR 143 didn't send out notifications typically. However, when Luca opened his phone he found exactly that. “A new route has been released, and you qualify to view it. Come and play now!” Luca quickly called off work, not caring if he was going to get fired or yelled at, and sat down to play the game. However, this one felt different. It didn't have a day number or anything, and the typical nerdy bedroom scene was replaced by a blue background with 1's and 0's all around. "Hm.. that's new." Luca didn't think much of it because the game itself was about hackers, so it was probably just some new promotion to follow the theme.

The game flashed to life, and Micah's face came on the screen with his signature smirk. "Hiya angel! I'd say it's been quite some time, however I think we both know I just saw you last night." Luca was a tad confused, but continued on with the dialogue. "With the amount of times you've played this game, you probably have alllll my lines memorized, don't you?~" Luca started to get very confused? How did the game know how many times he's played it. Perhaps it had a counter or something, but that wouldn't account for the fact that it knew he played last night. There was a pause for a player response, however there were no options on the screen.

"What the hell is going on?" Luca tapped his phone aggressively, assuming that this must be some kind of bug.

"Hey, hey watch it! Don't poke me so hard, angel.~ What's going on is that you're out there.. and I'm in here.. but I think I have something you may want." With that, Micah kicked up his feet onto the dialogue box. They looked smooth and just the slightest bit sweaty, with wrinkles in all the right places and decorated with two black and gold toe rings. Luca had always had a little bit of a foot obsession, and he couldn't deny that he had thought about what Micah's feet would look like many times before. He also might have rubbed a few ones out to the idea. He was in awe. All of his questions and confusions faded away seeing the gorgeous feet right in front of his screen. He wanted to get closer. He needed to get closer.

Micah moved his toes around a bit, his smirk growing wider as he realized just how much power he had over Luca. "That's right boy.. stare at 'em. I know you've dreamed and fantasized about seeing my feet, even just a glimpse. Well now you have them on full display and ogling is free of charge~". Luca's face turned a deep color of red, and he couldn't seem to get anything but incoherent sounds out. Eventually he was able to formulate a thought.

"How long.. have you been alive? How are you alive? This isn't possible, is it?" Micah laughed at that, adjusting the position of his foot and revealing a faint sweat stain on the dialogue box where his foot was before. "You're adorable, Luca. I've always been alive, and you've always been my favorite angel~. I've had many people play my game but none as cute as you. Typically, they're just old guys and girls who never got married, but you're a catch. You really had no business resorting to a dating simulator, but I am sure glad you did."

Luca was absolutely in heaven. He felt the tears coming as everything bad that had happened in his life seemed to be leading up to at least one good thing. He truly had nothing else to live for besides Micah and the fact that Micah shared some sort of feelings with him was everything he could have asked for. Micah pressed his foot against the screen, it being kept inside the inside of the glass by some digital barrier. His face went from flirtatious to a little bit upset.

"This is where I need your help. I'm living just like you, but I'm trapped inside this game. There's a way I can get out, but only you can do it. Please, help me and I promise I'll give you anything you've ever wanted in this world." With that an agreement came on the screen in some sort of coded font. Buttons "agree" and "restart" came up on the screen and a 30-second timer also appeared.

"I.. I can't read what the texts says... It's some sort of hidden code!" Luca started to panic. This was everything he ever wanted, and he only had 30 seconds to make a decision. What if Micah wasn't telling the truth? What if this is just some virus to steal his credit card information. As the clock ticked down he realized that although he loved Micah, he couldn't just accept something he couldn't read.

"I'm sorry! I can't just accept this. I can't read it. It would be crazy-" The timer had 10 seconds left, and his eyes moved to Micah's smirk.. and then his beautiful feet. He had nothing else in life he wanted more than to have a chance to see him in the real world. If this stole his credit card information or his social security it would suck, but he had to take the chance on it. "Auughhh... fuck it!" He pressed the accept button and everything faded to black...


Luca woke up on a cold blue and purple floor. He had a huge headache and his body felt like he was hit by a moving bus. He looked around to see random numbers and letters floating around and then up at the sky. There was a huge window in the sky that looked onto a pitch black sky. Suddenly it illuminated and showed off a huge version of his apartment. And Micah was standing inside of it, looking down through the window. He was huge.

"Wakey wakey my little digital angel~. You said you'd give anything for me to be in the real world and now here I am, look! I'm fully real and alive. Unfortunately, what you had to give was your spot in the world but look on the bright side. You already dedicated your life to me before, so now you can focus on just that and nothing else~. Isn't that fun!" Luca was horrified. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming and when trying to stand up, He realized he was stuck in whatever place this was. There was no way out. "Oh.. oh my gosh."

"Awe don't look so blue, pet! Since you're digital your consciousness can be put into anything digital. Like a foot massager or a vibrating toe ring! You'll be closer than you could ever dream to my feet, and I'll live the life that you so stupidly took for granted." He laughed an evil, victorious laugh. Luca could feel his vision tunneling as the reality of his situation hit him. He was nothing more than a digital counterpart to Micah now. He had offered to give anything for Micah, and the universe took everything.

Luca was a 19-year-old college dropout with no friends, no family, and nobody who loved him. However, as he looked up at the gorgeous man who he had dedicated his life to. He realized that he finally had a purpose.. and he smiled.