Not So Virtual Reality

Game Over

~Mark

        When I regained consciousness, I was relieved to see that we were out of Freddy's, but my wounds remained. "You okay?" Ken helped me to my feet. I nodded, barely restraining a grimace of pain as my chest and head screamed in pain I looked around for Jack and Felix and found Jack talking to Dan and Phil excitedly about Sam, who was currently hovering over his shoulder. Felix and Matthias were talking to each other nearby. Something else I noticed was that instead of a meadow, we were in blank white nothingness. "You guys are boring." The girl's voice pouted. "Who even are you?" Felix replied. "I guess I can tell you. I'm Angelica." She stated proudly. "What are you even doing this for?" I asked. In response I felt my head burn with pain like it was being beat against a wall repeatedly. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching my head and regretting asking. "Can't tell you." Angelica sneered, then the pain abruptly ended as soon as it had started. Ken knelt down beside me and made sure I was alright before speaking. "Why don't you let us go?" "Because I have no one to play with." Angelica mumbled. Suddenly, beeping could be heard from somewhere nearby. We searched around and found our answer when the white background changed to Matthias's house where he was lying peacefully in his recording room, the headset still over his face. However, Amanda was approaching him and moving towards the headset. "Wha-" Matthias's form flickered when Amanda began removing the headset. "No!" Jack cried, reaching for him, but his hand went right through his as Matthias disappeared, along with the image of his house. We stood in stunned silence, unsure of what to say or even do. "What. Did. You. Do?!?" Jack roared in rage, his robin egg blue eyes burning with fury I've never seen before and never wanted to see again. Even though I knew he wasn't angry at me, I felt intimidated and terrified. "That wasn't my fault!" She protested. "How is it not your fault?" I countered harshly. Angelica didn't speak for a moment. "Look, I just....I just wanted you guys to myself so I'd always have someone to play with. I don't have any friends and I'm homeschooled." "How old are you?" Phil asked softly. "Twelve." She answered indignantly. "What happened to Matt?" Ken interjected. "There was a toxin that was injected into his bloodstream when the visor was removed, killing him instantly." She stated. Before I could ask more questions, Ken's house popped up, showing him lying in bed while Mary took off the visor. "Ken!" I screamed as he disappeared beside me, unable to say a word and eyes wide in shock. "There's gotta be something we can do." I began furiously pacing around, running my hands through my hair is exasperation. "Mark..." Felix whispered quietly. I froze mid step and turned to face him. His house was now on the screen, Marzia removing the visor. "Brofist." A single tear ran down his cheek as he brofisted Jack before fading away. "This isn't fair!" Dan yelled at no one in particular while he held Phil in his arms as he sobbed uncontrollably into his chest. "I'm sorry." Angelica apologized softly. "I don't care that you're lonely, I don't care that you're a kid, and I sure as heck don't care that you're bored, you can't kill all of my friends!" I blurted, tired of feeling pain, tired of losing the people I cared about just because a twelve year old girl got greedy. "Is there anything you can do to deactivate the visors?" I asked. "No." She exhaled. "But I can do this." Instead of the blank white background, a beautiful sunset appeared. We were standing on a grassy hill with a perfect view. All of my wounds were healed as well. "It's beautiful." Phil gasped once he finished wiping away all his tears. The sky was a collage of vibrant dark purples, light pinks, bold oranges and faded reds, making a perfect background for the setting golden sun that was steadily dipping below our field of view. Jack, Dan, Phil, and I sat together in silence, none of us sure what to say to the other. We were going to die, but at least we wouldn't be alone. "I'm glad I met you guys." Dan finally broke the comfortable silence, but not his gaze from the sky. "Me too." Jack, Phil and I agreed. Suddenly Jack began fading away, along with Sam, smiling sadly as he gave me one last high five. I was devastated, yet I didn't cry. I felt like I had cried all the tears I had in me. Now it was only Dan, Phil, and I. Angelica had remained quiet to my relief. "On the plus side, we'll see each other soon, right?" Phil smiled weakly. I didn't know, so I didn't answer and neither did Dan. Not long after Jacck, Dan and Phil said their goodbyes and disappeared, leaving me alone. I fell back on the grass and looked up at the sky. As soon as I did, the hill went away. Now, I was floating in space with Tim staring at me with his big brown eyes. "I had a great adventure Tiny Box Tim." My voice cracked with emotion as I held him tight, watching my body flicker in and out of existence before going away completely

        I was surprised that I actually woke up in my house, Matthias standing over me grinning. "Am I dead?" I asked blatantly. "Not yet dude, you still have a long life to get through." He laughed, sounding like music to my ears. "When I woke up, I drove here as fast as I could and woke you up. Apparently Angelica was bluffing about the headsets killing you." "What about the others?" I asked. He shrugged in response. I shoved the headset aside and darted over to my computer, logging into Skype and created a chat that included Dan, Phil, Jack, Felix and Ken. Ken was the first one to answer. "Hey Mark, glad to see you okay!" A few seconds later, Dan and Phil joined the chat. "We're good, Jack came over and got us." "Hey bros, I'm good too." Felix chimed in. "What do we do about Angelica?" I typed quickly. "Turns out that police caught her and are deciding on what to do with her now." Ken informed us. "I'm just glad we're back in the real world." Felix admitted. I agreed. "Guess I gotta start telling the fans I'm okay and catch up on videos. We were in there for about a day." Dan then logged out. One by one we logged out so we could console the fans. Matthias stayed over at my place while I began responding to comments asking me what happened. "Well...." I began, glancing over at Matthias, who was also explaining to his fans what happened. "It all started with a box arriving at my door..."