Mafia Whores

Two weeks ago while playing Mafia Wars I went through my Mafia list. There I discovered three names that shouldn’t be there. Back when I first started playing Mafia Wars I decided to cheat. And so I created three phantom accounts on Facebook which I used to augment my Mafia family. For these accounts I used the names Roy Batty, Zhora Tyrell and Pris Tyrell (--the names of the "replicants", genetically engineered organic robots, played respectively by Rutger Hauer, Joanna Cassidy and Daryl Hannah in the 1982 cult film “Blade Runner”-- top billed by Harrison Ford as the burnt out Blade Runner Rick Deckard. Tyrell, the surname I used for the two female accounts, is the name of the powerful Tyrell Corporation, the "mega–manufacturer" of replicants.)

Before long, a sufficient number of people I know started playing, too; and so I didn’t need the fake accounts anymore. So, I deleted them. Strangely enough, these imaginary people who no longer have Facebook accounts are still listed as members of my Mafia family; stranger still, they have a need for energy packs. It’s disturbing that figments of my imagination now have lives of their own, continuing to live on Facebook and have needs. My thoughts have thoughts.

Is it possible they've opened their own accounts after I’ve deleted them? Do they PM each other? Do they have feelings? In the film "Blade Runner", replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or pleasure work on Earth's off-world colonies. The use of replicants on Earth is banned and replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". Could it be possible that the fictitious people I created have, like their namesakes in the film, defied protocol? Have they formed their own Mafia families? Have they formed alliances with the people I play with and could they be, at this very minute, plotting to take me down? It scares me to think that I may have possibly hurt their feelings when I unceremoniously deleted their Facebook accounts-- as real people usually do when you “unfriend” them.
 
Suddenly, It’s no longer fun to play anymore. I now constantly look behind my back when I play. The only thing holding me back to altogether stop playing Mafia Wars now is the mortal fear that I could further piss them off. They might feel that I’ve abandoned them.