The girl walked straight to the game screen, her hand already reaching for a microphone. "A.D.!" she cried, tears streaming down her face as she activated her mic.
"You came earlier than I thought," A.D.'s voice replied, a gentle sadness in his tone.
David looked at the girl, a familiar locket hanging from her neck. "Mia!" he gasped.
"A.D.," Mia pleaded, her voice breaking, "you promised me I'd be with you forever! Mom and Dad already left, and now you're going too? This is the day you saved me from there." She sobbed uncontrollably.
"Don't cry," A.D. urged, his voice filled with tender strength. "You're very brave. If you can't hold on, how will my mother live? You were like my little sister for her. You know when she first met you, how happy she was?"
Mia nodded through her tears.
"Be strong," A.D. continued. "I called you because I needed you to know that I'm not alive anymore, but you came early."
"I knew that one day you'd leave me," Mia confessed, her voice thick with sorrow. "Because you always care about others, not for yourself. But I didn't think you'd leave without saying goodbye to me. You don't love me, huh?"
"No, I love you very much," A.D. replied, his voice firm. "And I also love Jane and Sharleen, but I know that I can't be happy in this life."
Suddenly, George appeared from nowhere, grabbed A.D., and with a desperate lunge, pulled them both into the shark-infested water below. A burst of red bloomed on the surface. Jane, Mia, and Sharleen screamed, "A.D.!" their voices tearing through the air.
The game screen froze on that horrific scene, the image of blood spreading in the water, but it didn't turn off.
Outside, everyone was crying. Then, Mia's gaze fixed on the screen. She got up, frantically doing something with the game console.
"What are you doing?" Jane asked, her voice raw with grief. "He's gone!"
"No, no!" Mia replied, her fingers flying across the controls. "He's alive!"
Jane and Sharleen, stunned, wiped away their tears. "What?" they whispered in unison.
"Look!" Mia pointed at the screen. "The game didn't disappear, and its screen is still on!"
"What do you mean?" David asked, bewildered.
"A.D. told me the game only ends when it disappears," Mia explained. She continued to work, trying to interact with the game.
"What are you doing?" Jane pressed.
"I'm trying to enter the game," Mia said, frustration in her voice, "but it's not working." She slumped back down, defeated.
"Why did you stop?" Jane asked.
"It didn't work," Mia replied, despair in her tone.
"Then what will we do?" Jane cried.
"We have to wait to see what happens," Mia said, her voice heavy. "It's the only choice."
Day turned into night, and nothing happened. The screen remained frozen on the grim image.
Suzanne, who had been quiet, finally spoke. "Mom, I'm hungry," she murmured to Lisa.
Lisa, rousing herself, got up and found some food. "Come and eat something," she told everyone. "It'll be okay. He will come."
They ate in a somber silence. Afterwards, as they sat together, David turned to Mia. "How are you here? Last time when A.D. and I saw you, you were going to die."
Mia's eyes welled up again. "After you left," she began, "a car came and took me away."
"And how are you here?" Suzanne asked, curious despite her sadness.
Mia started to cry again. "Then, because of A.D., we met in the game. I was his villain member, a game character. But he won the game, and also got me into this world with him."
"When did A.D. meet you?" David asked, surprised.
"In the second level," Mia replied.
"What was that?" Suzanne questioned.
Mia looked at them, her eyes still red, but a faint spark of defiance in them. "It was 'THE DARK TOWER'."
The story of the second, hidden level began...
(To be continued....)