Page 73 of Our Final Game

He doesn’t remember.

Or … Was it really all a dream?

Some silly dream I had…

About him.

About us.

“I … I’m sorry. I … I don’t know what came over me!” I choke out, turning and walking away from his doorstep quickly.

“Rohan!” Tyson yells after me, but he sounds more concerned than anything else. He probably thinks I’m insane. I feel insane. So I don’t blame him. Was it really all just a dream? But it felt so real. He felt so real. Holding me, kissing me, all the things he said to me. Everything he did for me. There’s no way that wasn’t real.

When I get back inside my unit, I run to my computer and try to log back into Understory, but the game won’t load. It keeps giving me an error I’ve never seen before. This can’t be possible. There has to be an explanation for this. We both fell from that tower, but why am I the only one who remembers what happened in the game?

My breath grows ragged and harsh, tears welling up in my eyes. I’m glad he’s ok. Even if he doesn’t remember me the way I want him to. The way I remember him. I’m just glad he’s ok.

I flop down onto my bed and roll over to my side. Even if that was all one big dream, it felt so real to me. I can’t change how I now feel about him. There’s no way I could just forget that. Was it only to show me how wrong I was about him? Did my mind make it all up? I curl up into a ball, sobbing into my pillow.

He’s okay, but I don’t know if I’ll be okay alone with the memories of what we’ve become.

Chapter 35

Tyson

Shutting my car off in the parking garage of my job, I lean back into the headrest. I keep having weird dreams about Rohan. They’re all so fragmented and jagged, when I wake, they feel like distant memories. Sometimes I question if I even conjured them up in my sleep. But what I’m sure about is he’s in them. All of them. It’s so strange. I’ve never dreamt about him before. Ever since he showed up at my doorstep and jumped into my arms, he’s appeared every night. Even that day itself was strange. I mean, I don’t mind if he wants a hug here and there.

But why did it feel so right?

Like something we had done many times before.

And I’m sure I’ve not hugged Rohan ever in my life. In fact, I know that was the first time we’ve ever hugged. But why do I feel like I don’t want it to be our last? He felt so good in my arms. I regret not hugging him back.

I press my badge onto the door’s scanner and open it when it lights up green. The office is still cold as fuck when I get to my desk. Carter is already there, grinning at me.

“Morning!” he smiles as usual.

“Morning, Carter.”

“I’ve got some crazy news, dude.”

“What is it?” I sigh, my desk chair creaking under my weight as I sit down and log in for the day.

“Noel, he resigned out of the blue, crazy right?”

“Oh really? Why?”

“I don’t know, I tried to ask around, but nobody knew.”

“Wait, so what does that mean for the game since it was his project?”

“That’s the other big news. I heard they’re scrapping Understory due to all the bugs. The engineers said it just wasn’t fixable, that we might need to start completely fresh. Crazy, right?”

That’s so strange. I really never had any issues with the game. Nor has starryeyes it seems.

Starryeyes … Does that mean I’ll never get to talk to him again? I could just look for the emails or contact information for all the beta testers and find him, but would that be creepy? I should have added him to an outside app.

“How long will the game stay live?”