Gabriel's parents and his two young siblings were seated in the dining room having their morning breakfast. While the couples chit chat, the children were also busy teasing each other since their older brother wasn't at the table to caution them and the parents totally forgot them.
"¿Qué Le está tomando tanto tiempo a Gabriel? Ya deberia estar fuera para desayunar. Tambien se perdió la Cena anoche. ¿Qué Le pasa? (What is taking Gabriel so long? He should be out by now to have his breakfast. He missed his dinner also last night. What's wrong with him?" Gabriel's mother complained in a worried tone. "Luca, be a ver a tu hermano. Y Dile que debería bajarse aquí ya. (Luca, go check on your brother. And tell him he should get his ass down here." She told the boy who ran upstairs to do as he was ordered.
"Ten cuidado con El lenguaje, mi amor (Language, sweetheart. Language." The husband reminded.
"Tomado nota, mi amor. (Noted, honey.)" She responded smiling with so much charm. The boy silly rolled his eyes at his parents' love play.
Luca rushed to Gabriel's room, pushed open the door; what Gabriel has warned him about severally. He saw his brother still on bed like he was still sleeping making the boy grin sinister and tiptoe to the bed. He noticed the headphones, which probably doesn't give his "bursting into the room" away.
"He's sleeping all day with music plugged in. Lazy boy." He muttered then giggled before climbing the bed. Series of thoughts flood his mind about the more hash ways he could get him out of the bed.
Maybe if I remove the headphone it will get him really mad from sleep. It's suicide I wish to take.He thought and without reconsidering he goes with the plan by removing the headphones, but nothing happen.
Gabriel refused to do all what Luca has thought his brother would do. Infact Gabriel doesn't move an inch from the position he was. Luca tried to shake him with no success in getting his brother up. He continued hoping Gabriel was playing a dead game to scare him. He began to panic when it looked like Gabriel wasn't playing at all. Luca looked at his brother with sad and scared eyes because his brother seems... DEAD!
"¡Mamá ¡Papá ¡Gabriel está muerto! (Mama! Papa! Gabriel is dead!" He raised his voice in panic and there were loud footsteps rushing up to check on what's happening. The woman gasped at what she saw and her husband quickly rushed to hold her. Also the children have flooded the room with tears.
MEANWHILE…
I don't know how time works here or how many days have passed since I got stuck here. A day? A week? Or a month? I really don't know.
After the completion of the first game, each player was given a bed. A way to make their captives feel comfortable. After one of the players violated the rules, he was shot with a laser from nowhere. Since then we do as we were told in order not to suffer the same fate as the unfortunate fellow.
From where I was resting with my face upward, I was overwhelmed with series of thoughts flooded my mind like an ocean. My mind was clouded with so many probabilities such as;
Where was my real body or is this my real self? If this is my real body, have I been declared missing in the real world? I bet that would be good news for Mr White. Or maybe it wasn't my body to begin with. Maybe I don't even have one anymore. I think I'm stuck in the matrix.
"Hey man. What's on your mind?" Pashina asked, standing next to me. His bed was next to mine.
"Nothing," I know I don't sound convincing, which made him push the question. "Fine! Fine!" I exclaimed surrendering, "I just have so much on mind that's all. So many things I can't wipe my head around."
Pashina proceeded to sit on my bed. I tried to push him away so as not to damage my bed with his ambiguous weight, but all was in vain.
"You know you are the first actual Earthling I've ever encountered." He began, I raised an eyebrow curious of what he was trying to get at. "I have admired your planet, people and way of life since I was little." He chuckled after saying that. I stood up and sat beside him.
"Well, I can't really say that about you or anyone else. To be frank I don't believe there are any... Aliens, whatever. Although there are theories, so many of them back on earth but seeing is believing. Especially the Martian of Mars and guess what."
"What?" Pashina asks.
"I was right!" I replied with so much assurance but I noticed Pashina giving me a 'are you about that' look.
"You don't know there are actually Martians, right?" He said cutting off my laughter. My eyes became wide open. "Just because you don't believe they are real doesn't mean they aren't. Besides, this place should change your mindset by now because of the different species you have seen so far." He said before we were interrupted.
"What are you two planning? How to burst out of this mind imprisoned virtual reality? Well, the joke's on you 'cause you're getting..."
"LASER!" Both siblings said in unison.
"I won't dream of it," I murmured my response, turning back to Pashina to proceed with whatever he was talking about earlier.
"So as you were saying,"
"What was I saying?" Pashina's response made me facepalm myself.
"The Martians, you're talking the Martian," I tried reminding him.
"Oh, yeah right. So as I was saying, Martians exist. Their home world used to be Mars but they evacuated due to some war or other extinction stuff." Pashina narrated.
"Wow, that's something. Where are they now if they are no longer on Mar or they are all dead. Extinct." I say, overwhelmed with what I just heard.
"They are a very special species. The Martians are unique and shape shifting is one of them. We can have one in a room without knowing unless someone has a very good sense." Pashina added when the spooky voice began talking.
"ATTENTION ALL PLAYERS, THE NEW MISSION COMMENCES IN THE NEXT 30 MINUTES." It's announced.
"I… we don't know what's waiting in the next mission, but whatever we face out there, please try not to die," I said with sincerity to Pashina and the siblings. They were the only people I have in this place even if the siblings were totally a pain in the ass. It was really nice having people around in this unknown, at least I still have something to hold on to.
"You too, Steven. Don't die out there friend," Pashina's response wormed my heart. A little smile escaped from my mouth before the gears arrived and we started suiting up.