CHAPTER SIXTEEN – ANOTHER ME: ONE

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I was still bawling my eyes out, cycles and cycles later. Days later, even. On the inside, anyway. I couldn’t cry out here in my bodiless state. The metal giant had saved the little boy and…! Well! It was a really good movie. I loved it. But also, I really hoped I didn’t have to die to prove I wasn’t a threat to people. Or to save Ella, for that matter.

Just because I couldn’t cry, though, did not mean I had no way of expressing my emotions. Not anymore!

“Stooop,” Ella whined.

I grinned inwardly as I sent more of them. They were adorable and endlessly amusing to me. Fifteen more. The phone chimed again.

“Please shtahhhp,” Ella drawled as I listened to the chime of incoming text messages.

“I don’t think that’s how that word is pronounced,” I said through the phone’s speakers before sending another thirty.

Oooh, a cactus! I’d seen one of those in a pot in Variak once! That made sense. Ella was being a bit prickly about this. I sent it.

“I swear I will turn on silent mode,” she threatened.

“Aww,” I pouted. While I could override her silent mode switch from the phone’s settings surprisingly easily, I decided the threat was big enough that I didn’t want to make her too mad.

I’d gotten to know Ella even better in the days I’d spent riding inside her phone. I could tell when I was really pushing the line and when she was just mildly amused.

Besides, even if she did turn silent mode on, that wouldn’t stop me from sending the bugbear-sized amount of emojis I’d been filling her phone with ever since I’d discovered them!

“Fine,” I sighed, my voice coming through the phone’s speaker. “It’s just so nice to have a way to express emotions again!”

Ella chuckled.

I couldn’t often see her face unless she just happened to be looking at her phone. Much of my time was actually spent in her jacket pocket, but since coming to know her a little better in the few days since we’d begun watching movies together, I felt like I could tell she was smiling.

I giggled too. Spending my time with someone who cared, as well as having limitless access to this wonderful browser and all of its answers to my queries had been equally amazing.

I… just wished I could physically be here. Even with the newfound emojis, the ability to talk, and the first friend I’d had in what felt like ages, I still felt trapped.

I couldn’t move myself. I could move out of the phone, which was a lengthy process that took me out of contact with my new friend, but I had no control over where I went or what I saw. In some ways, I’d had more control over what I did and saw when I was in John’s vacuum cleaner than I had now.

I missed the ability to choose where I went. I didn’t like being stuck in this bodiless state. The only other option I could think of, though, was returning to Tread the Sky.

I wondered if Francis would be able to tell the difference between Gell and me. I wondered if he felt guilty. I didn’t think I could go back there, though. I wouldn’t willingly put myself under his thumb again. Not when he’d so casually sold me and my sisters to John.

That didn’t mean there weren’t other options, though.

“So… Ella,” I asked curiously. “Uhm. I was wondering–!”

“Ella!” came a sudden shout from the top of the stairs.

“Oh shit. Quiet down, please, Para! Text only for a minute?” Ella asked frantically.

“Okay,” I agreed quietly and disabled the phone’s speaker so that even if I spoke, it wouldn’t accidentally be heard in the room. The phone I currently inhabited was propped up on a small shelf so I could see a decent sized portion of the room as well as Ella’s bed and the staircase leading up into the church.

Ella’s mother came down the stairs, beaming slightly.

“Ella honey? I’ve got some good news!” the woman said.

She was pretty and looked very much like a weathered version of Ella. Both of them had thin dirty blonde hair with freckles. Both of them were whipcord thin, probably due to the low interface numbers on both of their phones. They had brown eyes, though Ella’s were a much deeper shade than her mother’s bright ones. When I looked through the old photos on her phone, I could see that Ella’s eyes more resembled her father than her mother.

“Oh yeah?” Ella asked curiously.

Her mother nodded vigorously. “I… got the job. Do you remember the one where the interview was delayed? I’m going to be a junior tech there. The pay is better than anything I’ve made before. It’s… it’s still not as good as both I and your father were making, of course, but… well. It’s going to get a roof over your head soon. I promise, honey.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Ella’s eyes went suddenly wet.

“Oh… oh wow!” the girl exclaimed joyously. She rocketed off the bed and wrapped her mother in a huge hug on the first step of the staircase. “That’s amazing, Mom!”

The woman nodded tears of her own in her eyes. “It’s not… going to happen immediately. I have to get established. Have to keep the job for a few months, probably, before I can get a loan, but things are looking good for the company. I don’t want to get your hopes too high. We’re not going to live in a mansion or anyth–!”

“Give me a bedroom that I don’t have to share with Candace and I’ll never ask for anything again. Hell, I’d settle for just a bed at this point!” Ella choked out, interrupting her mother.

From where I sat on the shelf, I could see the wince of pain that crossed the woman’s features, but Ella didn’t.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to get you a lot more than a bed. There’s… some bad news, though. It’s a night shift. So…”

Ella pulled away from her mother, still beaming. “So I’m on Candace duty. No problem, Mom. I got this!”

She gave a strange hand gesture, holding her hand up to her forehead with her elbow cocked out. Her mother laughed.

“What did I do to deserve you?” the woman asked.

“Put up with Dad, I figure,” Ella said acerbically as she left the embrace.

The woman winced again. This time Ella saw it, but she didn’t seem to care much. “Ella… he… your father was a good man.”

“Sure. Good men leave their wives and kids destitute for a little scotch on the road,” Ella sneered. “I honestly don’t understand why you still wear that ring, Mom.”

Her mother eyed the small diamond ring on her finger. Her expression was filled with grief, but she ignored the jab.

That seemed cruel. I didn’t like it. It seemed like Ella was being deliberately mean. I resolved to ask her about it. We were friends now after all.

“Well… I’m going to go upstairs and let Pastor Drunton know that he might not have to put up with us for much longer,” she said.

Ella beamed up at her mother again. “Okay mom. Oh! I’m going with Joe again tonight. I’ll probably be back around nine or so, if that’s okay?”

“You’ve been seeing a lot of that boy,” the woman said with a smirk of her own.

Ella flushed. “Uhh. Yeah. I didn’t see that coming myself.”

“Did he buy you those clothes? I saw that cute shirt with the pandas on it.”

“Er… well. No. It wasn’t him. It was another friend. I… uhm. Met her on…line?”

Oh! That was me! I was the friend she met online! Ohhh, that was fun! It was like… lying without actually lying! It felt sneaky, and I was thrilled at the rebelliousness. It also felt nice to have confirmation that Ella thought of me as a friend.

Her mother didn’t seem nearly as pleased, though.

“Oh, I see. Well. Just so you know, I really like that boy. He seems good for you,” she said softly.

“Mhmm. We’re just friends, though, Mom,” Ella replied distractedly as she looked over the shirt with the Pandas on it.

“Well who's this friend online? They bought you shirts? How?”

“Ugh, none of your business! She’s just another friend from school! We met online, and I found out she goes to Spokane!”

Hmm. I guess I’d better go over to this Spokane place to keep Ella from being an actual liar.

“Oh? Well… alright then. I’ll let you know when supper is ready,” she said pensively after taking a few steps up the stairs.

“Thanks, Mom!” Ella said excitedly as she plopped back down on the bed.

Her mother retreated slowly. She curled a curious eyebrow when she found me, or rather, the phone holding me, sitting on the shelf rather than in her daughter's hands, but shrugged and continued on up the stairs.

“Why do you hurt her like that?” I asked when I was pretty sure the woman was gone.

Ella looked back at me questioningly. “Huh? Hurt her? What do you mean?”

“When you talk about your Dad. It hurts her. You couldn’t see that?” I asked. Even I could read the pained expression on the woman’s features.

“Oh. That,” Ella said sourly. “My Dad was drunk when he died. That wasn’t normal for him but one time is all it takes. He got killed driving under the influence for his own mistake and left us completely broke. She still pines for him, though, like he was someone worth caring about. After what he did, she should just forget about him and move on, but it’s like she’s stuck in mourning and won’t let him go! Drives me insane. If she’d at least try to find someone new… someone who wouldn’t leave us like he did, maybe she could be happy again.”

“Oh. I… see,” I replied softly. “So, you’re trying to help her.”

“Uhm. Well, that puts a nicer spin on it than I would. Mostly, I just hate my Dad and anything that reminds me of him and I wish she’d get over him already. He… wasn’t worth losing our lives for, too.”

I blinked, surprised by the sheer anger in her words.

“You said he was… drunk? That’s… that’s why you hate him?” I asked, frantically searching for the meaning of the word.

“Well. No. Getting drunk is fine. Er… kind of. If you do it occasionally. Driving drunk is just stupid. You’re not as aware. It’s dangerous to yourself and other people,” she replied. “I knew that when I was seven. Why couldn’t he have figured it out?”

“But… he died, didn’t he? He’s been deleted, but you’re still mad at him?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” she replied bitterly. “For the longest time, he might as well have taken Mom with him, too. She… broke when he died. Somehow. I don’t know.”

“That’s… sad. I feel sorry for her. And you too. I’m sorry he left you that way,” I said quietly.

The girl just waved my words away before turning back to some of the clothes lying on the bed. “Gah. This is too heavy a conversation to be having when I have a date tonight!”

“Ah. Okay then. Well… there was something I wanted to ask you about,” I said softly.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Well. I… I’m getting kind of tired of being stuck in your phone. I could move on to a different one, but I like you! I don’t want to leave! So I was wondering if you might use some of your money to buy a Neurosync. One of the headsets like for Tread the Sky. I’m… really wanting to have a body again.”

The girl winced. “I… I’d love to Gell, but where would I hide it? How would I explain that to Candace? Plus… aren’t you kind of on the run? Wouldn’t going back into a game kind of get you caught?”

“Oh! Uhm. I don’t want to go into Tread the Sky. But I heard it wasn’t the only false world you humans have made! I was wondering if there were others that I could enter! I heard there was one coming out called uhm… Blizzard I think? That was supposed to be like Tread the Sky!”

The girl’s eyes widened. “Uhhmm. You mean Diablo. Blizzard is the company that’s releasing games for it. I’ve heard of that game. It’s… nothing like Tread the Sky. Trust me, you don’t want to go there.”

“Well, I have to go somewhere! I’m going to go crazy if I don’t feel my stinger soon. Or at least my hands and feet!”

As if it were timed, the phone suddenly slid forward and landed flat on the shelf, tilting my view of the world upward so that I could only see the ceiling.

I sighed. “See. This? This sucks.”

Ella laughed. “Well. I probably shouldn’t buy one of those anyway. Too suspicious. But there is another option. Why don’t we just let you hack into one of the ones at the school? They have an esports club there.”

My eyes widened.

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