Artificial Emotion: The second life.

Chapter 7: The unordinary Blonde.

The night after Thaddeus and Hinatana talked more regarding their real lives he'd often lie in his bed of the small cell like room provided by the Widows contemplating if the visions he had were a fluke or a glitch in his programming for he had accepted his place within the online world. Finally drifting to sleep his ponders were to be answered, like with Hinatana's memories he found himself in an unfamiliar setting from his own experiences. "This ain't like the previous that's for damn sure, it feels more.... golden?" he uttered to himself within a setting consisting of different school in terms of country and style, "Am I watching a re-run of Save by the Bell here? Wait, who's that?" he followed his self-questioning of where he found himself later proceeding to the figure before him.

Before him stood a tall amazonian girl with an hourglass figure, long blonde hair impacting more with emerald green eyes. "Holy... she's pretty, feels like I've met her though. No couldn't be her could it?" his thoughts darted like a bouncing ball the knock-out shock being when the girl turned around, it was indeed Melikra however despite her beauty she seemed unhappy and alone. Thaddeus' attention was later drawn to a bright azure glow from a classroom door as if it was inviting him to enter, upon entering scanning the students he noticed that Melikra was sat towards the far left of the class and even during lunch she'd remain at her desk whilst eating lunch. Closing the distance between him and Melikra his sights were glued to a open book in front of her, "Advanced Biology? Pretty and smart are quite a deadly combination" he thought leading to be taken off-guard by a athletic guy wearing a sports jacket.

"Hey-a, how 'bout you me go on a date sometime eh" the guy spoke with a toothpick sticking out the side of his mouth acting smooth and silk to the point it made Thaddeus rolling his eyes as he observed before turning his attention to Melikra's response which was lack-luster in terms of interest her eyes fixed on the pages in front. "Come-on babe, enough of the studying, live a lit..." the guy was cut off mid-sentence by her thrusting her palm into his jaw causing him to fall to the ground smashing the chair and desk behind him, Thaddeus blinked to confirm what he just saw then the memory shifted.

He now stood in the middle of living room of a small detached style house, "This must be her place" he thought as his glance darted to a uproar of shouting growing in size as he moved towards it's origin. Inside the kitchen was Melikra and a middle aged woman shouted at one other swaying back and forth from the angry woman to upset Melikra, "Damn, must be some history on this I had better focus" he self-stated narrowing his gaze scanning for hints on what they were arguing about finding it a few moments later in a family picture in the opposite side of the kitchen through a serving window. Phasing his way to the picture he could hear the shouting cease followed by a series of thumping on the stairs, "Deep wounds be the sound of it" he thought turning his attention to the middle age woman whom was now crying heading over to the picture, in the frame was a photograph of her, Melikra and a man who was no doubt the husband/father wearing a Military style uniform the sight dawning on Thaddeus turning around looking at the stairs, "She lost her dad and her mum blames her for it? No, couldn't be that" he wondered heading over to the stairs as his surroundings phased to that of Melikra's bedroom.

"Why, why did you have to leave daddy!" Melikra screamed muffled by her pillow as she let it all out, it wasn't anymore clear to Thaddeus on what or how he left but he saw it's impact. Looking around her room the walls posted with paintings and pottery upon shelves the thought in his mind kept coming to a peaking period which changed her, voids of unanswered questions remained but he felt personally that it was enough and pursuing further was intruding as he faded out the memories entirely. Upon waking up back in the game he felt a spot of wet skin around his eyes before picking up his pearl white eye-mask placing it on and heading out to find Melikra, asking almost every Widow member he came across it took he near to two hours to track her down as she sat on roof staring at the vast view of the game world.

"Quite the sight isn't it" Thaddeus broke the silence as he walked to her as she turned to face him, she simply shrugged turning back resting arms on knees and her chin upon her arms. "You know, if something's on your mind. I'm all ears" he said sitting down resting one arm on his raised knee and folding his other leg behind his angled one looking outward at the game worlds sunset.

"This may sound stupid asking a stranger" Melikra finally spoke almost dry-mouthed wiping one of her eyes with the back of her left hand, "You ever lost someone you held close, someone important and meant so much it was like a part of you left also?" she asked turning her gaze at him afterward revealing her eyes was reddened making him presume she'd been crying for a while.

"We all do I suppose. One day we're born and then one day we're dead, I'm currently somewhere in the middle but I still wanna think I'm alive" he answered rubbing the back of his head still resting the elbow on his knee before removing the eye-mask keeping hold of it in his palm, "But yeah, I know that feeling" he added.

"Those eyes, are they what death truly means?" she followed up turning her face frontward glancing down at her toes, "We're stuck in this game with either death or painful survival being our only options" stating coldly in an almost mumble.

"Whoa whoa, my eyes have nothing to do with death" he quickly answered with an raised eyebrow, "Be it a game or life we face a trial of death in everyday life. It's a common thing in the end, era's fade to the point only records and names set in stone are left but it pushes us in the now onward you know?" explaining after motioning his hands still holding his mask in the left one. "I'm gonna tell you something and it's about someone very important to me" he sighed out rubbing his forehead with index finger and thumb, "My girlfriends mother passed away from cancer months ago and I liked her cause it was almost like my second mother in a way. She was a friendly, caring and lovely woman, always doing things for charity and supporting her daughter. Sad part was my own mother I rarely saw due to both my parents working in science labs only ever spending a few hours with them, so her passing away hit me quite hard" he said with a manner of respect and emotion placing his mask down beside him.

"I... didn't know" Melikra uttered seemingly shocked at what she just heard, resting her hands behind her back leaning on them staring at the sky as her green eyes glimmered from the light. "I ask because I wanted to talk to someone about it but I didn't know who to tell" she admitted with a heaving sigh then adding "I considered Hinatana but she's too sweet a person to dampen with such a dark topic".

"Like I said, I'm all ears" Thaddeus said resting his right hand behind his back.

"Okay... it happened about three weeks ago, my mother and I got a letter from the army saying my dad was killed in action. He was my idol and always loved to spend time with, mum loved him so much also it felt like our world crumbled afterward. We'd argue endlessly after my mum developed a drinking problem and I lost my passion for art which I learnt from him and redirected to studying science" she said growing a little emotional yet able to prevent any further tears.

"He never truly left though, part of me thinks that he did all that cause he knew and accepted the risk of what he was doing in the service. His time with you kept him going after seeing his friends drop dead around him and see things nobody should" Thaddeus thought aloud glancing up at the sky, "People do things for good reasons even if something bad happens after, a soldiers child are also in a sense soldiers for experiencing something like that. In your memory and heart he's still there and that ain't gonna leave no matter what, don't focus on him being gone and focus on the good moments that meant something and made you-you" he added looking at Melikra.

Her eyes glanced at him then back before smiling with a minor chuckle, "You have a way with words Brone" she said through the chuckle.

"Hey, how'd you know my name?" Thaddeus questioned with a look of confusion on his face making her chuckle even more.

"Hinatana told me, she's the first person I truly befriended online. But your name struck me as a shock I mean you're Peter Brone, young art wonder from a family of Scientology" she explained lying on her side resting her head on her palm, "I'm Sarah by the way, Sarah Burnell" she added with a smile.

"Sarah, Chizu and now me. That's quite an interesting trio of personalities" he joked lying back resting arms behind his head spotting Hinatana at the top of his eye view. Leading to the rest of the early evening the three spent talking and hanging about, although their real lives were entirely different in the online world they made a team strong in will and mindset.