My Video Game

Cherry

Is this a dream? Am I awake? All I remember is being with my friend Roxy in a shopping centre. I hope she's ok, I hope I'm ok. I get up and have a look around. That's when I realize this is just like the video game I used to play when I was little. I recall the aim of the game was to win as many mini games as possible and get all the prizes until you were ready to compete for the big final prize, but before getting there you'd have to pass certain levels. I remember spending hours trying to beat the other people and getting so frustrated when I couldn't. I must be dreaming... but how could I have got home from the shopping centre and why was this so realistic? I walked to the nearest village and looked around for people, there seemed to be nobody there. I searched through all the houses. They looked abandoned, as if everyone had to rush out quickly. There was a tap left on in one house and I decided to close it so the house wouldn't flood with water. Finally in the last house, I saw a girl. She was small with blue hair and blue eyes.

"Hello, little girl", I said shyly.

"Hi, my name is Blue and I will guide you through the game", she answered.

I laughed. "That's funny. My name is Cherry. How old are you? You look extremely young to be by yourself."

"I'm only seven, but here, at that age, you are pronounced adult. My parents have just left me, thinking I was old enough", she sighed. She clearly didn't like being alone.

"I can keep you company for a while, but can I ask something...?", I hesitated realising that in this moment I could look utterly crazy. "Am I in a video game?"

She touched my hand and showed me the story of how I got here and how to get out:

Cherry had had a concussion and was now in a deep coma. Her parents worried by her bedside, waiting for her arrival back to Earth. Now in this coma, she has been transported into the video game of her wish: it could have been a video game she liked playing as a young girl, a favourite video game, a game filled with memories, etc. Her mission is to compete against other people in the games, win the mini games, get better at things she might not be good at and, finally, when she is ready, she has to win the grand prize. If she does not get to the last competition or doesn't win the medal on time (which is her key out of the game), she will get stuck in the video game and die in real life. Of course, if she wishes, she may stay in the video game, but there is no going back once the decision is made. There are many challenges such as rock climbing, go-kart racing, canoeing, bow and arrow competitions and so on. In these challenges there may (and most likely will) be other competitors. Her first task is to look for the rock climbing grounds.

"Are you going to come with me?" I asked her. Of all the things I could've said I had to say the most childish! But, then again, this game made me feel like the little girl I had been whilst playing it. Which, in turn, made me a little more childish, I suppose. The sceneries brought back nostalgic memories of times where I could be transported here (without having to be in a coma).

"I will be with you every step of the way", she said with a smile. There was something in her eyes that let me wonder, was it happiness? Had she really been upset and lonely when her parents left her? I thought about a scenario where my parents were to leave me. Would I be happy? Or, more importantly, would I survive? I would have to get a job to pay for the house, the electricity and food. Upon looking at Blue again, I saw that there definitely was a spark of something. Independence? Maybe it was the recognition of my childishness, maybe she thought she was more grown up than me. That was a possibility.

We walked around the same area twice until we finally found a little hidden alleyway which took us to the rock climbing grounds. There were around ten or twenty people there, already practicing. Wandering around, Blue started looking for equipment for me to get started. Once she had fixed it all up, it was time for me to start climbing.