Part 45: Player’s Fate

Right as I had done that, I heard the music kick in again. The lights started to flicker occasionally. Cherry and I grabbed each other’s hands while she had Peppie cuddled up in her left hand. In the middle of the craziness that the room tried to pull, we had to witness many scary things.

This included the wallpaper decor moving by itself and having cartoonish yet disturbing ultra realistic expressions staring us down. It was causing my body to itch as I could feel them with my eyes closed. I tried to keep my panicking to a minimum when we underwent a less than favorable transition.

Red words splattered in blood appeared on the pink door. I began to read what it said each time the lights blinked on and off as if the entire room was a powerpoint presentation:

In the dead of night, there is a cautionary tale.

That when one falls asleep, there is a faint whisper that trickles down the side of the ears.

Those words unveil something that closed eyes cannot hide.

A place full of color and darkness that unveils the inner feelings of its visitors.

It knows they can’t escape this vulnerable feeling.

Nothing can penetrate these walls, because it feeds on the sugarcoated lies the dreamer has been fed.

There in the dark corner, an entrance

appears.

And inside, there is no hope here.

In The Candy Room.

I’ve seen everything.

Those words. They came from William Peterson’s journal. Except for the last part.

In a flash of high adrenaline ensuing, the lights cut off entirely. Cherry unexpectedly ran out of my grip and towards the door while using an unfamiliar device that I had never seen before to attach it to the knob.

“What is that?” I asked her.

“The Lockmeister-X1. Hacks any door in the world that has a physical lock.”

As the doorknob made a clicking noise to indicate it was done, the Lockmeister-X1 started to explode sporadically as it fell to the floor. We backed away befuddled until the room’s lights blinked once again to reveal three strawberry cocktails on a fancy white table.

An announcement speaker in the center of the ceiling suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

Tick tock tick tock.

Forty-five seconds on the clock.

For the girl that cannot taste.

Must make a choice they cannot waste.

There are three lives at play.

Choose two to exit and one to stay.

For if you choose all to leave the same room.

Your friends and you will meet their imminent doom.

I already felt like too much of a failure to agree with what The Traveller was talking about. Peppie woke up and tried to fly but her magic wasn’t done recharging yet. Cherry stood up and carefully whispered in my ear.

“Haniki-chan, just choose me. You deserve to live out your dreams.”

I stopped for a few seconds.

The truth was less than apparent after everything I went through at this cafe. I saw my use outside of wanting to be a chef. Maybe for once, if I could stop limiting myself… My choices… I really did dream about many things. I just didn’t have the capability to imagine myself doing all of it after being unable to feel for it.

I had a feel for this game. I didn’t earn Candiere’s Heart Badge in real life because I achieved a monotonous task.

I earned it because I wanted to share it.

I unpinned Candiere’s Heart Badge off of my uniform and gave it to Cherry. She didn’t understand why I did it, but that wasn’t ever for her to worry about.

“Cherry, hold tight onto that badge and keep Peppie with you. This is my problem. I am the one that must fix it.”

Cherry’s tears began to show. Visible anger was present in her breathing.

“No. No, don't do this to yourself. Please don’t. I don’t want you to lose you too!”

Up until that point, The Traveller had cornered us into this room. I could see why he was keeping them alive. He knew this moment would scar them. He had done it to Princess Candiere after causing her to leave Madara while her parents were most likely dead. He killed the students of Dream Academy High so their parents would mourn their early deaths to the grave. If someone was as evil as he was, he had a way of making them think otherwise.

And now this was happening.

It was as if he could control what happened to someone, whether they were alive or dead.

I looked at the ground and accepted the only thing that mattered.

“This is the only choice I have. It was always going to end this way. Once you both leave, you’ll know how to come back,” I said while stroking Cherry’s hair with a fond attraction at how beautiful it was.

For the last time that I would possibly ever see them again, Cherry gave Peppie a chance to hug me softly.

“I’ll miss you cupcake,” said Peppie.

“Me too.” I replied.

As a final goodbye, Cherry and I looked each other in the eyes and smiled.

Staring back at the timer on the wall that appeared ever so briefly to remind me that my time was almost up, I gave the answer while watching Cherry and Peppie exit into the dark hallway while the pink door closed behind them.

I didn’t necessarily know what was going to happen to me once the room’s lights shut off once again.

There, I saw his lifeless eyeballs staring me down.

I couldn’t move.

The humming of the cloaked figure got closer…

And closer…

And closer…

Until all that was left…

Was the sound of my heart stopping…

And my sight fading away into the infinite void…