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Chapter Forty

Meredith Tanner

Suddenly appearing in front of my computer monitor, I almost fell off of my chair, only just grasping onto the desk as I shook. Tears were streamed down my cheeks, and I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand, a little confused. What happened? There's no way I ran out of power for the Dream Factory attribute. I grabbed the mouse of my computer and started up the game Parallel, trying to understand what was going on.

Loading Game...

I couldn't help but feel unsettled by the words on my screen, making me fiddle with a pen laying on the desk. Parallel doesn't take too long to start up, even as a multiplayer game, so why would it be loading the game all of a sudden? Nonetheless, the lobby, and not even the server? Right after my thought, a message popped up on my screen, and I leaned over to read it carefully.

Error Code #58-029:
Parallel servers have been shut down. No available parties are open. Please visit the official Twitter page of the game to check out any updates you may have missed.

My eyes widened. The servers are shut down..? Every single server? And the parties too? What's this all about?! Closing the game program, I pulled up Parallel's Twitter page on Google, only seeing millions of responses to their most recent tweet by angry gamers that demanded the program back.

@ParallelGameOfficial:
If any of you are here after trying to get into the game, we're sorry to announce that the game will no longer be streaming. We are shutting down the game for confidential reasons, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time with you. Thank you for understanding.

It was clear to me that no one was okay with it, and I wasn't any exception. Shutting down the game... means I can't see Lukas again. I quietly scrolled through the replies as my eyes began to blur with tears.

@pro_gamer_lololol:
BRING THE FUCKIN GAME BACK, I DUN CARE BOUT THAT "cOnFiDeNtiAL" SHIT

@weebs4983277292:
why would you do such a thing! the game was so successful!!!!!!

@nachobusiness:
This will be a big financial mistake on your part. Here, in this thread, I will explain all the mistakes you're making to you even though no one gives a fuck and I'm making myself look like an undesirable person in this horribly formatted rant.

I leaned back in my seat, feeling tears trail down my face as I clenched my jaw to keep from sobbing. The game is shutting down. Pulling myself off of my chair, I collapsed onto my bed, screaming into my pillow when the whole predicament finally settled in. My hands gripped the sheets on my mattress, and my thoughts became muddy and drowned out as I choked on my tears. A sudden familiar presence appeared behind me, and I recognized it because of the red glow on my arm. I threw myself over to Julia, and she thankfully caught me, startled by the sudden action.

"I'll never see him again..!" I exclaimed to her, my head on her shoulder.

As I cried even more, I felt my chest feeling as if it was about to explode, the pounding and thudding of my heart shaking my body. A different presence appeared beside me, opposite of Julia, and asked, "What happened?"

"The game Parallel shut down officially today," Julia explained to Leo quietly, her hand running through my hair to comfort me. I felt her eyes on me, concerned, as she continued, "It means she won't be able to see her friend Lukas again. Her Dream Factory attribute was supported by the Parallel program, so by itself, it won't be able to reach him again."

Leo's hand pat my head gently, and I peered at him, my body trembling beside Julia. "I-I don't want him to b-be out of my life..." I stuttered out quietly, clenching my jaw. "I want to see him one more time..!"

The blonde leaned over, wrapping Julia and me in his arms. "You'll see him again one day," he assured me in a small voice. "I promise."

I felt Leo's eyes look over at Julia with uncertainty about his own words, and Julia didn't respond to him, focusing on calming me down as her hands gently stroked my back.

~~~

I can't feel my eyes anymore.

After about an hour of crying on Julia and Leo trying to find out if there was any possible way to reach parallel worlds again, I was left alone in my bedroom, staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. Speaking of which, they burned from crying so much, but I ignored the tingling pain. Lukas probably found out about this too. There's no way it didn't shut down in his world. I swallowed the lump in my throat, feeling my heart pounding.

Leo said there was nothing we could do to improve the situation. My Dream Factory attribute isn't strong enough to support itself by the weight of the parallel worlds, and it seems that I have been the only case of crossing parallel worlds within the Dream Factory community.

I slowly sat up on my bed, feeling my back hurt as I looked at my computer monitor. The tweet was still open on my screen, and as I crawled over to the chair, I reloaded the page. The tweet now had more than 100k retweets and about 145k responses. Some were appreciative, saying the game sucked, and others were understanding the company's actions. However, both combined didn't stand a chance against the angry consumers that spent money on the game or actually enjoyed it.

As I scrolled through the responses, agreeing with some and disagreeing with others, I saw a flicker of white words at the corner of Parallel's original tweet. What.. was that? I tried to find them again, but to no avail. My arm started to glow orange, and immediately, Leo was summoned to my side.

"What? Wait, why am I here?" He asked, suddenly confused and dazed by the new surroundings as he spun around. "I was with Julia like a second ago!"

"Leo, use your Hacker attribute on this," I told him, interrupting his perplexed state as I leaned over to the monitor, squinting at the white words I could barely make out. "There are.. words. Words right there."

I pointed at the corner of the tweet, looking over my shoulder at Leo. He leaned in as well, staring at the screen as his eyes glowed a orange, flickering between that color and blue. It took him a moment or two of hunching over before his eyes widened at the discovery.

"What? What'd it say?" I asked, curious.

Leo stood up straight, a shocked expression on his face as his hand ran through his hair nervously. His eyes were glowing intensely, and I could tell that he just remembered a horrible memory of someone.

"I-It—" he stopped himself from the stutters, breathing in heavily. "Shit..! I can't believe this."

"Leo! What does it say?!" I exclaimed, a little annoyed but desperate because of his stalling.

With his hands to his ears and his eyes wide, he yelled back at me, "It says, 'I know you can read this. My name is William Kei. I am the creator of Parallel.', goddammit!"

I inhaled sharply at his words, feeling blown back by them. "W-William Kei..?"

I looked at the screen again, and it suddenly blacked out, making me scream as Leo pulled my chair away from any potential danger as it slid against the carpet. Laughter pounded from the speakers, which had been plugged into my computer, and I shivered in my seat, trying to breathe as my eyes widened. Leo immediately pulled me off of my chair and behind him, his gaze glowing intensely at the screen because of the seemingly familiar yet eerie laugh. The laughter filled the room ominously, and as if from a last thought, it said one thing before leaving that sent chills up my spine.

"I'm waiting for you, Meredith Faun~..."

A/N

The above line is intended to be that way— it is not, in any way, a typo or a mistake on my part.

Just wait for the thrilling explanation in the next chapter ;D