Jason’s memory has been, for lack of a better and more dramatic word, weird.

He cupped his left eye and sighed. The rain peppered his umbrella, filling his ears with a buzz that drowned everyone else’s voices around him. And this was supposed to be a simple milk run at the convenience store. There are too many people around today, especially in this weather.

“If someone makes you cry… Mom… I’ll kick—”

“Please…”

“I’ll kick their nuts.”

It came again. He chuckled. This is a terrible memory to be forced to remember.

He was a kid back then, and he could remember smiling ever so wide despite the missing tooth and swollen cheek. Jason felt like a heroic king, both of his little hands on his hips and sporting a cape made with a blanket designed with the finest crayon elephant prints.

The mother grew even more concerned. “You see… I was called by the principal’s office because you were…”

“Just like what Papa told you,” the father added, holding back a laugh.

He widened his smile. “Just like what Papa told me.”

“That’s really not the point here… Jason…”

He stopped. He breathed through his nose. His hands felt cold. He stepped back. Everything grew colder. His heart twisted itself again, and it was starting to hurt.

For a moment, a flash of light filled and burned his eyes. The picture changed into some random mountain from a cheap postcard. It changed again. Jason gritted his teeth. Weird. He was looking at his bare feet as he slowly moved towards the edge of a cliff. The sky was so blue. The sky gazed at him as its wings, clouds spanning over the horizon, descended, leaving feathers to fall like snow.

The picture changed again. There was the sound of generic laughter. And then a hug. Warmth that twisted his heart even more. It was a hug that his parents gave him after he kicked his classmate in the dick. Warm. It emptied his chest even more.

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He snapped back to reality. His memories got weird too quickly. He wasn’t even sure if everything happened the way he remembered it. It was like watching a scene from an old TV. It’s not as vivid, but he’s quite sure that it’s, indeed, in his brain.

This entire sequence could be a good scene from a music video of a sad song about loss and grief. He didn’t mind. It would have been cool if there were too many people around at the side of the street. The police were now getting involved and all of them were shouting at… something… although it was the siren that was drowning everything out.

That being said, he could not bring himself to want to go home just yet. Not anymore. So, he lifted his face and stuck his face out of the crowd.

And there it was. 

Time moved ever so slowly, again. 

The light coming from multiple cars seemed to bend and highlight this terrible spectacle. It must be terrible. He felt nothing about it. The screaming was a massive tell. The corner of Jason’s lip twisted into a panicked smile. The beads of rain froze in the air. It was as though the world itself was visibly sweating as it kept the image of a brown-haired girl suspended in space, falling so slowly like a dead fish in a tank. 

She just jumped off the ledge of a three-story building across the street. She’s about to die.

Move. His body begged him. People’s voices merged with the police’s sirens. His body grew cold, and yet it felt like it was on fire. Move. He did not. He stopped himself by dropping his milk to clutch his arm instead. He didn’t have to be the one to do it. Jason’s umbrella quivered. He saw his parents again. His smile widened. His eyes welled with bitter tears.

“There was nothing that I could do about it,” he whispered, his voice breaking at every syllable.

He closed his eyes. Time moved on. However, there was no sound. His breathing started to labor. He fell to his knees. He waited for something to hit the floor. But there was nothing there at all. He opened his eyes, slowly.

Jason was greeted by the blades of blue-colored grass swaying as though it was underwater. He’s in a large room walled with weathered stones. The trees danced with what felt like the non-existent wind. Their branches glowed due to the luminous moss that hugged it. He touched the grass and felt it was real. He slapped his face hard. It was a dumb thing to do, but now he understands that he’s awake somewhere with others. The people that were around him were as confused about what was happening.

He was either transported to hell, as he deserves, or spirited away into another world. Either way, this dream feels too lucid to be true.

“This is a terrible memory… if it even is.”

He chuckled. Before he could turn his attention to his surroundings or roll on the grass like a pig, something clicked in everyone’s head. It was a text box, like the ones in the online games he had played before. It must be the same for everyone else, judging by how some of them fell on their backs as the rest screamed.

[Welcome to the game. Your lives are now for our entertainment.]