Jessie felt him before she saw him. She suddenly had the feeling that everything was going to be okay, and then she saw Max. He had created the most basic character, but she still recognized him. Then he made green words pop up in front of her eyes.

“If I think the letters, will they appear?”

Jessie thought the word yes and it appeared in red.

They could communicate in here! All they had to do was type the words in their mind.

But there wasn’t time for small talk. Jessie quickly typed instructions on how to fight the Waribots.

“That’s crazy, Jess, but I’ll try.”

Jessie watched Max fight a Taion. His fear was mixed with surprise. It created a blue and silver cloud around the Taion until it vanished.

“Woah, Max, that was awesome.”

She wished she could hug him. His emotions were beautiful, and Jessie realized that hers were too. The world without happiness, or even sadness, wouldn’t be a world at all.

“We can’t let them win,” Max typed, seeming to read her mind.

“But how long can we keep this up? The Waribots, I’m guessing, are endless. My dad will get home and pull us out soon anyway.”

“Max, Jess, is that you? It’s Ben.”

The words appeared in bold black letters, but were farther away.

Jessie and Max both typed YES.

“I thought so. You guys, this is amazing. You’re changing the game.”

Max typed AWESOME! but Jessie didn’t respond.

“Jess?” Max typed.

He felt her presence fading. A square was moving away from him and then it was gone. It didn’t make sense because Waribots all came towards them.

“She’s on the move, Max,” Ben typed.

“How? I can’t travel at all!”

Max willed himself to move but nothing happened.

“I can follow her,” Ben said. “You stay here and keep fighting.”

Max used his sadness and worry on the next ten Waribots. He had plenty of it to spare.

***

Jessie felt herself float out of her room and straight into the city streets. The brilliant colors were starting to dim as night fell. Waribots were everywhere but seemed weaker. Their bodies were disorganized, breaking apart. She fought them with little effort. Some of the roads were broken, and Jessie knew that Ben had done that. She floated above it all. His words of encouragement kept appearing. She could read them, but couldn’t respond. Jessie was on another level.

Berry Park was a mass of dark blue and green. A bright ball of lighter blue seemed to pulse in its center. As Jessie got closer, the light became blinding. Before she knew it, she was inside of it. Jessie realized that she was at the heart of it all. The little blue lights that pulsed on people’s heads all came from this source. It was there that she heard the first sound in the game. It was her mother’s voice.

“Give in,” the voice said. The words were like silk.

“Why?” Jessie asked, confused.

She had fought so hard to. Feeling her emotions and the pain that they brought had been the hardest part. Jessie understood why everyone gave in. But now she was almost on the other side of that. It felt like freedom.

“Just let go,” the mother-voice said.

The pain of losing her mom welled inside her. The sadness was so deep. It began to rise from the bottom of the locked box.

“That’s it, Jess,” it said.

“Mom?” Jessie said, but she knew.

Whatever was speaking to her now was not her mother. It had gotten her name from the game, nothing more. Her mom would never have called her that.

Jessie formed her remaining feelings into a ball. The ball was dense and shone brighter than the light around her. She used it to fight the thing that had pretended to be her mom. She used it to fight any emotion-sucking Waribots that were still left. She used it until she felt peace.

And then Jessie was gone.

The Game