Frozen Reality for Money

Chapter 9: My Dear Dead Love

Caleb fights hard with his life to win the prize. He battles robots and identicals, which he is unaware of, to win so he and her wife can escape together.
Caleb found himself lying unconscious at someone's feet. He jerks up to see a robot staring down at him. "Congratulations player Caleb, you have won the game!" The robot congratulates him. "Carol! I-I mean Cheryl Burdings, do you know what happened to her?" Caleb looked around for Carol. "...No, I'll ask the other robots" The robot took off towards the robot headquarters. Caleb stood around for a good minute. He couldn't believe his ears, he had won the game! All he has to do now is take the prize and wish for him and Carol to escape and return home safely. As he cheerfully jumps around, a masked person comes up to him. They looked very formal and dressed in black. "Hello, Caleb." The person's voice was very deep. "I am the master of the game..." Caleb had the urge to unmask this "master". They had caused so many deaths of past people from the real world and created robots out of their corpses. This was unforgivable. He calmed his anger, "Could I have my prize please?" "Sure... 30 million dollars and a wish! You can say anything and it's possible" The masked person handed Caleb a few suitcases with tons of cash. "Now for the wish... you may go on, be wise you can't undo a wish" Caleb thought for a moment. What if this was a trap? Or what if they were aware this is a fake world and would do something to him... "I... want to go back to reality with Carol, my wife," Caleb softly spoke. "That is... impossible, Caleb" A robot informed. "WHAT?! BUT JUST NOW- YOUR MASTER SAID ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE!" Caleb cried. "Unfortunately, the Carol you're thinking of does not exist in this world but we do have other Carols" The master offers. "N-no no no! This can't be! She was here just before" Caleb's eyes widened as he stood in pure shock. "S-ss-sssss" The robot glitched. "S-ssorry, you will now be returning to your rightful world" A strong force of mist started to pull Caleb into a portal. "WAIT!!!" Caleb grabbed the mask of the "master". "LET- GOO!" The master groaned. Caleb ripped the mask off the unknown person. To his shock, their face was the one framed on the bedside table Carol cherished in real life. She never clearly said who it was but she always kept the frame beside the bed. At this moment Caleb had a million questions. "Wai-" Caleb tried to refrain from getting pulled back into reality, but it was pointless. The force had already sucked him back to reality. He burst into tears as he dropped to the floor of Renee's lab. Even though Renee actually forbade him into entering the reality world, he locked himself into the machine to try and save Carol. Carol had not returned for a few days which left Caleb worried and made him enter the world to warn Carol. He was caught off guard when the thought of Carol being dead came to mind. All Caleb could do now was pray for Carol to be ok.
Little did Caleb know...

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Before Caleb escaped, Carol caught her consciousness back.
I woke up again and found my leg completely covered in dry blood but no evidence of an arrow. My wound had completely disappeared and healed. I got up and saw that nothing had changed. I slightly remember my mother now, I had to take her words to heart. The door was opened and someone had probably come in when I passed out. I sneakily passed through the door to a large hallway. As I was about to continue searching, my body ached. I hadn't eaten in so long and I needed sunlight right now. Humans nowadays need lots of sunlight to be able to go into 'hibernation'. I had to get sunlight or else I'd die trying to explore here. I ran around the area looking for an exit. There were barely any opened doorways. I scurried along the railings in deep hope to find at least a window. As I searched, I gasped at the sight of an 'exit' sign pointing right. My heart raced as I motioned to run. My shoes rattled the grated metal floor below me. It acted like a giant cheese grater ready to kill me. Below the floor was a pit of blue bubbling acid about the size of a stadium and deep as my heart. But I had no time to think; I had to get sunlight, quickly. I was already out of breath but there wasn't enough time to lose. I ran a few more metres before a voice called behind me somewhere, "Help me!!! Anyone PLEASE!!!" The voice rang in the hallway. It was my voice that was ringing... But I hadn't called out to anyone. This was very confusing and time consuming. I had to run for my life but someone needed help, badly. I made my last second decision. I turned around and saw someone hanging from a broken piece of the flooring. As I waddled over and peered my face closer they shouted, "C-Cheryl!!!" They started swinging in panic. The person's face was not visible to me. They emerged behind the floor. The voice was so familiar I had to take a closer look. I slowly and steadily took steps closer. To my discovery, it was the person I least expected. I saw what it seemed to be, Stevie, the one I was supposed to slaughter with my own blade. "I hurt my foot and arm when the robots threw me into acid! It was horrible!" Stevie seemed to be plotting something but also stuck in a death or life situation. She was evil but still my friend. Additionally, she also saved my life back then. I thought and froze in place. I thought about what my mother told me with even her body gone. She could have rested peacefully but with her soul she warned me for the last time. But it didn't feel right to just let someone die, and I had to kill her with my hands after all. But then I would eventually get my identity stolen- but this was a 'human' life I was deciding on. I just didn't have the guts to let her go; at least not yet. I had to save her, that was what the point of me discovering everything was about in the first place. Even though I couldn't help her then, now was my chance to repay her in advance. "I'll save her now and- maybe kill her later..." I thought to myself. I ran over to Stevie, carefully. "Here! Take my hand!!!" I reached out my lending hand towards her right arm. My hand lowered down to her level. Her hand had no warmth... It was cold and almost had a dark aura. I tried to yank her broken arm up. She seemed to struggle in pain. "THANK YOU CHERYL!" Stevie held extremely tight onto my hands as I pulled her towards the floor. "Are you supposed to be the one who's trying to kill me?" "W-what?! I would never-" "You tried to sabotage me so I couldn't go back to my world?" "NO! What are you talking about, Cheryl, this IS your world! This is nonsense you're spitting" Stevie laughed. "You are not living or dead.. You're a monster created to kill! Your only purpose is to take my life and live as me. You must not belong in this world" "CHERYL! LISTEN TO ME! I am your FRIEND I would NEVER-" "Goodbye Stevie" I started to let go of her hand. My plan this whole time was to kill her with my own hands, acting to help out. Just as my hand started slipping, Stevie smiled devilishly. "You really thought... you could outsmart me?" Her nails started digging into my arm. "URGH!" I squirmed in pain. Her smirk grew deviously wider. "If I'm going down, you come down with me... I will NOT fail my job and be sent to hell to burn again! If I'm gonna die, I'll complete my job first" She started violently dragging me lower and lower with her. So she had already been to hell and had just been reborn to kill another life, my life. I panicked in defeat... My plan had backfired and now I was going to die with my enemy. She swung me under with her. Stevie then wrapped her arm around my neck. I had no hope now. Her last hand let go and we were falling at an extreme speed. I closed my eyes in fear; I had survived all this time just to die like this, not even saying goodbye to my loved ones. We were a few metres above from falling into the acid bath when we did a couple of spins and turns. Everything seemed to spin and images of family and friends and even co-workers walked through my mind. People say this occurs when you're about to die. I was right at death's door mat. As we reached the acid, a face of whom I couldn't quite see appeared. I could tell they had short scruffy dark hair but nothing more. They floated closer and grabbed my hand out from Stevie reach. "It's me... Harry" They called . "Harry-" I managed to say. Stevie's eyes widened as Harry lifted me away from the acid. Stevie's grip had loosened and she submerged under the acid. She reached out a hand towards me. Her face was stunned with anger. "NOO. NOT HELL!" Her last words bubbled as her face sank under. I started to lag and glitch while breaking apart into colourful square particles. "Farewell Carol" Harry waved goodbye to me. Fire and smoke soon loomed over Harry as he disappeared. I was finally escaping this madness.

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