Chapter 43 - Facing Our Emotions

Vicky and Mia arrived at the safe house. They climbed out a window, that led them to the roof. Vicky and Mia lay on the roof. They couldn't see the sky, because of the highway on top of the house.

"How did you find out that your dad was alive?" Mia asked, staring up.

"The captain and Miles wanted me to babysit Miles's kids…" Vicky said, and was interrupted by Mia.

"You were a babysitter?" Mia asked.

"Just listen. So I took them to a theme park. When we came back, Dash and Chase were waiting for us. I asked the three of them to get into the car. Chase tried to shoot me, but dad shot him first," Vicky replied.

"Like that's it. No 'Hi' or anything?" Mia asked.

"No. He told me to get in the car, and go back to Miles's house. Oh and to make things worse, even Miles's kids knew he was alive, the captain, everyone knew, everyone! Except me," Vicky replied.

"And me," Mia added. Vicky looked at Mia, she removed her mask, and smiled.

"Sometimes it's like you're the only one who treats me like a normal person. Like you care about me. For everyone else, they're just nice to me because I exist… or because I'm at that place, at that specific moment… I thought the captain cared about me too. But I guess he didn't… at least not as much as I thought he did. I'm always the last person to get to know anything important, almost as if though I'm the least important person in everyone's lives," Vicky said, sighing.

"Well! You're one of the most important people in my life. You're my best friend," Mia said, looking at Vicky.

"You're one of the most important people in my life too," Vicky said, looking at Mia.

"What if one day, we're the only two people who were left alive?" Mia asked.

"It'll be fun, and boring at the same time," Vicky replied.

"How would it be boring? We could do whatever we wanted to," Mia said.

"Yes, but then we'll get bored of doing whatever we want, right?" Vicky asked.

"At least there'll be no one to drag us down. We could live our normal lives, as if though we were in the game," Mia replied.

"It'll be crazy," Vicky said.

"Yeah!" Mia said, she got up, and walked a bit lower down the roof, and continued "What happened with your grandma?"

"I don't know," Vicky said, as she stood beside Mia, and continued "The captain, and dad took me to the house. The door was opened, and Dash almost killed me… again. He said that Chase was dead."

"Chase is dead??!!" Mia asked looking at Vicky.

"Yeah. I guess so. In the end… we're just losing the people we care about. I know we're fighting against them, but I knew him since I was really small. I can't believe he's dead. It's so odd, because I don't feel anything. It's like all my emotions are… broken. I was upset with dad lying about his survival, and after that… I just stopped feeling," Vicky replied.

"You're in shock. It happened to me too, when my dad died. I even had panic attacks. I suggest you face your emotions," Mia said.

"Isn't that what we do every day?" Vicky said, holding her hand out, a drop of water fell on her hand.

"It's raining," Mia said, as a large downpour started.

Vicky and Mia got back into the house.

"There's nothing we can do here. How about we logout, and meet in the night?" Vicky asked looking at Mia.

"Fine with me," Mia said, pulling up her head-up display. Vicky pulled up her head-up display too, and they disintegrated simultaneously.

Vicky woke up in the pod. She walked out of her room, and into the corridor. She heard voices coming from the living room, downstairs. Vicky followed them, and found everyone seated in the living room, talking and laughing. Even Jessica was with them.

"Hi honey! Come sit down, and tell us your best metaphor," Pamela said, looking at Vicky. Vicky stood in front of all them.

"My best metaphor… My best metaphor would be life is a tree," Vicky said.

"What does that even mean?" Jessica asked.

"Think of life as a tree. So each person, is climbing their own tree, which is life. Most of the branches at the bottom of the tree are strong, but even then, stepping on a fragile branch, may cause you to fall, when the branch breaks. The higher up the tree you go, the less strong the branches become. You can grab onto another branch, if the top branch breaks, but if you grab onto another branch that's weak, you'll fall. That's life. You take the wrong path up the tree, you might never make it up, but you'll meet the ground, and then you're dead," Vicky said.

Everyone stared at Vicky in silence. Vicky looked around the room, and slumped down on the sofa, next to Connor. She took her phone out, checking her messages.

"What does that mean?" Skylar asked.

"That means, you step on the wrong branch, you fall to your death," Vicky said, she later realized that everyone was staring at her, and continued "Don't go around climbing trees."

"Let's talk about something else. How was the day at the theme park?" Miles said, trying to make the conversation much entertaining.

"It was awesome!" the girls shouted, and started talking about all the rides, and their day.

"You okay?" Connor whispered to Vicky. She shrugged her shoulder, and kept fidgeting on her phone. The captain looked at Vicky and Conner.

"Can I have a moment with you two?" the captain asked, glancing at Vicky and Connor.

"Sure," Connor said, grabbing Vicky. They walked down to the dock. Vicky was still on her phone.

"What is going on with you?" the captain asked, looking at Vicky.

"Me?" Vicky asked looking up from her phone. Connor and the captain were staring at her, she continued saying "I'm good."

"Give me that," Connor said, grabbing Vicky's phone from her.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?" Vicky screamed, looking at Connor.

"Why can't you just talk like a normal adult?" Connor asked.

"Because I'm not a normal adult," Vicky replied, and tried to calm down. She then continued "Dad! I saw mom burn in her room. I thought you were dead too. Did you know what everyone used to call me? They called me 'the kid whose family died in the house fire'. Kids younger than me used to treat me like I was some… dude in a movie. I've even heard rumors about how I may have started the fire. So yes… I am not a normal adult."

Connor looked at Vicky, with soft eyes.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that. All three of us have lost someone here, we're not going around being insensitive," Connor replied.

"Oh no you're not. Is that why you didn't even hesitate to shoot Chase?" Vicky asked.

"He was going to kill you," Connor replied.

"Everyone has always wanted to kill me, and you were only there once to see it happen. Did you really ever care, or is it just an excuse for you to kill someone?" Vicky asked, she was angry, she tried to walk away, but Connor held her hand.

"You think I wanted to leave you guys alone? Without having anyone to care for you for. Do you have any idea, how much it hurt to see you crying at the funeral? You think you're the only one who's hurting?" Connor asked.

"You had a choice," Vicky replied.

"You think I did, but I can assure you I didn't," Connor said.

"You did have a choice. You had the choice of telling us if you were alive or not, and you chose not to," Vicky said.

"I had a choice of telling you guys, and maybe seeing you die, or not telling you and keeping you safe," Connor said.

"You could have taken us with you, where ever you were going. But you chose not to. You chose to go on your own," Vicky said, and continued "You chose to break our family."

Connor looked at Vicky, who's eyes were red. Vicky stared at Connor, who was not saying anything. His expressions were saying everything, he was staring at Vicky, pouring out all his love for her, but he didn't know what to say.

Vicky looked at Connor one more time, and turned around, to walk into the house. The captain looked at Vicky, and back at Connor.

"You okay?" the captain asked Connor.

"I'm fine," Connor replied, he cleaned a few tears from his eyes.

"You need to talk to her," the captain said.

"I know. It's just that we used to have the perfect dad-daughter relationship before the fire. I knew everything a parent needed to know about their kid. Now… she's like a stranger," Connor replied, and continued "She's not the kid I used to know."

"I bet she thinks the same way of you. I mean you did just shoot her brother's best friend, the first time she saw you," the captain said, and continued "I think the reason she's finding it hard to forgive you is, because she's a lot like you."

"What are you talking about?" Connor asked.

"We met up with Violet in the game. Vicky almost killed her twice. Once when she had a sword to my neck, the second time… because she said she was marking the line with Violet," the captain replied.

"I just hope she doesn't end up like me," Connor said.