Neverquest – Part 151

Characters: Sophia, Alyssa, Neil, Kelsey, ???
Location: The basement of CNN
Time: Day 5 – Afternoon

Sitting helplessly in her chair, Sophia put down her earpiece and stared at the monitors on the wall. They were on their own now. Michelle had turned off all communication to her group and Russell’s team was too far out to pick up any receiving signals. But she could hear them—her father and Wallace, panting like dogs as they tried to elude the beast of the forest, and the horrific cries of Bob and Guy as they were being digested in the belly of that beast—and it made her sick inside.

“I could’ve done something,” she kept telling herself. “I should’ve been the one to go.”

She held her hands tight in her lap, where her father’s folders and documentations now rested. On top of the stack, just visible through her fingertips, she was holding onto the old photograph of her mother. It pained her to let her mind wander, but she wondered what her mother would do in this situation. Would she have let Russell risk his life to save a bunch of strangers? Would she have told Sophia to stay behind? Would she have forced her one and only daughter to watch from the sidelines, knowing she could do absolutely nothing to help?

Neverquest was no place for men.

Hell, now she began to wonder if her mother would even be proud of her, if she had made the right choices in life, if she…would approve of the boy Sophia had fallen in love with.

It was no secret that Jesse and her father didn’t get along. That was nothing new. Over the years, every guy she had brought home wasn’t ‘good enough’ for her. They were too loud, too greasy, too hairy. Their grades weren’t high enough, their shirts weren’t steam-pressed, their pants jingled when they walked.

Every one of them was a loser, according to her father. His entire life had been built on a stack of dreams and aspirations. He made it happen and he said he only wanted the best for his ‘little princess’…but somehow she always came up short of expectations.

She took a moment to flip through the papers in her lap. She did it very slowly and very carefully, as if she was afraid to get the slightest paper cut. With every page that went by, she watched the visions of her father unravel before her eyes. His plans in high school, his achievements in college, everything he had done since to buy Sophia a life that she didn’t deserve—all there, between her fingertips, reputedly mocking her. She could never fill her mother’s shoes. She certainly couldn’t fill her father’s. Her very existence in this world was…

“Popcorn?”

The visions disappeared. Alyssa suddenly dropped down into the seat next to her and leaned over with a bag of popcorn, fresh from the microwave.

“I can’t eat it all myself,” she said. “Besides, what’s a movie without snacks?”

Sophia was stunned. Alyssa was actually enjoying what was happening on screen.

“Alyssa, how could you…?”

She didn’t know what else to say.

“I got twenty bucks on your father to lose. No offense—I like the man—but you can’t pick favorites when the odds are spread this way.” She shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth. “But don’t worry. I’m laying down four-to-one odds that the big guy with him will put up a fight.”

Sophia’s eyes began to dilate like a blooming flower.

She pointed to the monitors on the far left. “It seems two of your friends have already lost. What were their names again? Blob and Gum? It looks like they’re getting eaten alive in that acid.” Then she flipped her hair over her shoulder, carelessly and deliberately. “But then again, I guess they already know what that feels like. Poor suckers.”

The photograph in Sophia’s lap began to crinkle as her fingers came together into a fist.

“What’s the big guy doing now? It looks like he’s building a trap of some sort…” She kicked up her feet and laughed. “Silly man. That only works in the cartoons.”

“Alyssa, this isn’t a cartoon…”

“I know! Isn’t he going to be in for a big surprise?”

“This isn’t a movie either, Alyssa! Or a game, or a joke. Those are real people trapped in there, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Real people are trapped in the television box in my bedroom, but I laugh at them, too. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“The ‘big deal,’ Alyssa, is that those people are in real danger. They could even die in there. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Sophia, Sophia, Sophia…” Alyssa smiled and put her arm around her new best friend. “Nobody ever really dies in the television box. They just come back as a different character in a different movie. Why, I saw this guy once… He had a really long beard and he got shot six times in the stomach. Blood was gushing everywhere and the cowboys just kept filling him with bullets—bang, bang, bang, bang! And when they were all out of ammo, he did a faceplant into a pile of his own blood. It was hilarious. But guess what.” She raised the bag of popcorn. “Three days later, I turned on the television box and there he was again. His beard was gone, but I could tell it was him. I just wonder how they got all that blood back inside of him…”

Sophia continued to stare at her.

“And it’s funny. Every time I see that movie with him wearing that silly beard, he runs into those same cowboys and gets killed the same way. Every time, Sophia!” She leaned her head back. “You’d think after being shot in the gut that many times, he’d learn not to sit with his back to the door.”

“…Alyssa. Somewhere out there, there is a psychologist who will have a field day with you.”

“I went to one once. I didn’t mind lying on the couch and staring at him, but it started to get weird when the little television box man stared back, as if he expected me to talk or something.”

“Um…”

“He’s supposed to be the entertainment! Ugh. Biggest waste of my afternoon ever, I swear. I’ve seen better shows on daytime television.”

Sophia looked desperately across the room. “…Neil, how would you like to keep Alyssa company for a while?”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

With a yawn, Alyssa stretched her arm towards Neil and pressed her thumb into her palm. “Click.”

“Uh…what was that for?” he asked.

“That was me turning you off.”

“…God knows you’ll never turn me on again,” Neil grumbled, going back to his work station.

Alyssa pressed her thumb down again. “Click. Mute.”

“Alyssa…” Sophia started to say.

“And where’s the censor button? I don’t want my nine kids listening to this trash.”

“You don’t have kids.”

“Sure, I do,” she said. Then she put a pair of fingers to her lips. “Oooh, that’s right. You haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet.”

“What part of what story? What are you talking about?”

“Well, you see…” Alyssa clapped her hands. “Later in the story, you attempt to kill Jesse and I am forced to slay you like the foul beast you are. Then Jesse cries out, ‘My hero!’ and we hug and kiss and…well, it gets an R-rating from there, but basically I end up with the boy, nine kids, and a really big television box on the floor in my new castle.” Then her eyes turned a cold blue and she whispered into Sophia’s ear. “And all you get is a box. A dark, lonely box with rusty nails driven into the sides and a big wooden stake driven through the remains of your once-beating heart.”

“You’re crazy.”

She smiled. “Oh, and there’s one more thing… We all live happily ever after. Except you. The end.”

“Look…” Sophia stood up and slammed the stack of folders on the desk in front of her. “For over twenty-four hours now, I’ve put up with you and your sarcasm and every one of your snide remarks. You’ve made constant threats on me and my family and I’ve done my best to ignore them. I’ve even tried to be friends with you and I thought we had come to an understanding. …But I’ve had it, Alyssa. I’m not going to stop dating Jesse because I’m afraid of you. Because I’m not! You’re just an angsty little teenager with so many deep-rooted emotional problems that, if I had to dig to find them, I’d hit China before my shovel even scraped the surface of everything that’s wrong with you. You’re a whiny, selfish, insensitive brat and I honestly believe with all my heart that the only tinge of emotion Jesse ever showed for you was pure pity. …And I’m even starting to doubt he could feel that.” Her face was flushed red and even her knuckles had begun to swell. “You’re impossible to love.”

The blue in Alyssa’s eyes began to melt. As quickly as clouds blotting out the sun, she began to cry.

“Sophia, what was that all about?”

Sophia’s heart banged against her ribcage. With a sickening jolt, she twirled around and saw Jesse standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Jesse, I didn’t mean…” She looked down at Alyssa, who had spilled her popcorn on the floor and was now crying into her hands. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, Alyssa. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” She knelt down and held Alyssa’s wrists. “I’m really sorry.”

“Your girlfriend hates me!” Alyssa screamed, but her face was still towards Sophia. And if Sophia wasn’t so busy feeling sorry for her, she could’ve sworn that she saw a smirk between those tears…

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you,” Jesse said.

Sophia nodded and gently pried Alyssa’s arms away from her cheeks. “I don’t hate you. I was just angry.”

“…You get angry a lot,” Alyssa sniffed. This time, Sophia knew she saw a smirk. “Maybe you have some…deep-rooted emotional problems to work out.”

“I don’t believe this.”

“You should make it up to me.”

Sophia sighed. “I’ll say I’m sorry, but I’m not letting you date Jesse.”

“There she goes again!” Alyssa cried. “I didn’t even mention you, but she brought it up. She hates me, Jesse!”

“Sophia!”

“Ugh…” Sophia hung her head. “Okay… Fine. Alyssa, how can I say I’m sorry?”

Alyssa wiped her face with the back of her hand. “…Eat the popcorn.”

“You spilled the popcorn on the ground.”

“I know.” This time, Alyssa didn’t even try to hide the smirk. “Eat it.”

“I’m not eating food off the floor, Alyssa.”

“So you’re not sorry.”

“Of course I’m sorry! I had no right to say those things to you.”

“No, you didn’t.” Alyssa picked up the bag with her foot and poured the rest of the popcorn out. “Eat it like a chicken. Don’t even use your hands.”

Sophia looked down at the floor. It was a lot dirtier up-close. There was no way the five second rule could apply here… And that popcorn had been on the ground for at least two minutes.

Then again, how bad could it be? At least Alyssa would forgive her for…

Wait. Why she was on her knees? Why was she apologizing to Alyssa? Why was she even considering this?

Her eyes shot up and glared at Alyssa, whose crocodile tears had all but vanished from her face.

Oh, she was good… She was very good.

“Ladies,” Jesse said, quickly trying to break the tension. “Pip is at the hospital and he’ll be just fine, but…I brought somebody back with me.”

Sophia and Alyssa turned to him. Standing behind Jesse was a girl, about their age, with long brown hair and a backpack over one shoulder. She smiled and waved, but she seemed nervous to be in this place.

“A girl,” Sophia said. She took this chance to stand back up, kicking the bag of popcorn under the desk. “It’s…um, nice to meet you.”

Jesse took the girl’s backpack and set it down. “It’s not what you think. I found her snooping around outside the building.”

“And you invited her in?”

“I think you’ll want to listen to what she has to say.”

Alyssa picked up the pistol Sophia had left on the table and raised it to the girl’s head.

“What are you doing!?” Sophia screamed.

“What?” Alyssa’s finger slid across the trigger. “I was just going to kill her.”

Sophia snatched the gun away. “What the hell for!?”

“Isn’t that what we keep doing to keep people quiet?”

“No!”

Pouting, Alyssa sank back into her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “Hmph… You got to shoot the last person. It should be my turn.”

Sophia shook her head and carefully laid the pistol down…far out of Alyssa’s reach. “I’m sorry about that.”

The girl’s knees were trembling, but she just nodded quickly and let Jesse lead her over to a chair. “I-It’s okay. Really…”

Her legs were so shaky that her butt completely missed the chair and she fell over backwards.

Alyssa roared with laughter. “Silly cartoon people!”

Jesse helped her up and into the chair. “Just relax, Natalie. No one’s going to hurt you.” He pointed to Sophia. “Just tell her what you told me.”

Nodding, she tried to gather herself together and speak. “Yesterday…I received an e-mail from an anonymous sender. It looked like spam, but something caught my eye and I opened it anyway. And….I saw people inside.”

“In the e-mail?” Sophia echoed.

“Yes. I could see them moving around and talking like little video game characters.” She blushed, somewhat embarrassed that she might have mistaken real people for a conglomeration of pixels. “I thought maybe my boyfriend was playing a prank on me, but…well, frankly, he’s not that funny. Or clever.”

“Were you able to speak with these people?”

“Yes. They told me they were trapped in Neverquest and that Adam was in there with them.”

“I take it Adam is your boyfriend.”

“I…thought he was just making up excuses again. He doesn’t talk to me much, you know. And he never bothers to call. He just sits in his room and plays those stupid computer games all the time.”

“So you didn’t believe him?”

“Not at first, no. I was angry at him and…I decided to delete the e-mail.” She turned red again. “I didn’t even consider the fact he might be telling the truth until this morning.”

Sophia nodded.

“I decided to come here to investigate… I wasn’t trespassing. I knocked on all the doors, but nobody answered. I guess that’s because you were all done here.” She fidgeted with a loose thread on her jeans. “And based on all your reactions, I get the feeling those people were right…”

“…They were right, Natalie,” Sophia said. “Your boyfriend, those people, and a number of others are all trapped in the game as we speak.”

“I knew it…”

“But we are trying our best to save them.”

“I’m sure you are.” With a feeble smile, she stood up and reached for her bag. “Will you call me when you know more? I already gave Jesse the number for my cell..”

Sophia tilted her head to the side and exchanged glances with Jesse for a moment. “Um… Is that all? You don’t want to stick around to see if your boyfriend is okay?”

She shook her head lightly. “No. Thank you.”

“Heeey…” Alyssa sat up straight. “How come she gets to walk out of here and I have to stay?”

“Because unlike you, I don’t think she’s going to blab to the world,” Sophia said. But something still wasn’t right. For having a gun shoved in her face and being told her boyfriend’s life was in danger, Natalie was surprisingly calm, almost apathetic to the whole situation. It was almost like she knew all along and just wanted some resolution to ease her mind.

Like she…knew all along…

Slowly, Sophia reached for the gun. “Natalie, I’m going to have to ask you to stay for a little longer.”