SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 186 - New Writing from here

Author's Note: This chapter is new despite the views and votes and read count. It holds new content so feel free to enjoy! Every chapter from here may look like a repost but it isn't, I condensed the story to make room and kept the chapters to preserve the analytics lol. Enjoy!

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Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Six

Miss Clifford's eyes were riveted intently on the television screen, hunched forward with her dark and soulful brimming with tears, as if to get closer to the people in the film. I felt my heart begin to tighten as well since we were nearing the very emotional end of 'The Lake House.'

"Send him the letter, you idiot! Hurry!" she suddenly whispered, desperate, chewing her lip as she folded her hands in front of her mouth. "Come on, come on, hurry! Hurry!"

I smiled and covered my mouth to hide a laugh, but I felt her pain.

I'd panicked the exact same way at the end of the movie the first time I'd ever watched it. She made a soft sound of pained panic as the main protagonist's voice echoed the words of the letter she'd written to him over the most suspenseful moment in the entire movie.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks, eyes wide and attentive and unblinking.

Her hands shook.

And then... she burst into laughter that devolved into tears of relief, giggling while crying.

"Awhaw! "she whimpered, laughing as she sobbed. "Oh, my God! Yesssss!"

I chuckled upon hearing her reaction, turning to look at her only when the screen went dark and the credits began to roll. I watched as she rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm, dabbing at them with her sweater sleeve before sniffing and fighting to catch her breath.

"So?" I asked, twisting to look at her. "What did you think?"

"It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," she told me, giving me a genuine smile. "I'm amazed! Retro movies have far more soul and emotion than the virtual stuff of today. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love using a Holorift headset but you simply don't get the same feelings of helplessness and yearning because you're always in control with it. You are the main character in Virtuamovies so you directly influence how things turn out."

"Yeah, Virtuamovies have a variety of different outcomes depending on how you deal with what's happening in the film," I agreed, smiling, "but while I admit its very interesting when you're bored, it's more like playing a multiple-choice video game with real-life actors and random people all around you than watching a movie. Its not the same. Not old-school."

"Oh," she said, blinking. "I never thought of it like that."

"Why? There are millions of video games like that out there," I snorted, raising an amused eyebrow. "When you watch retro stuff you don't get a say in what happens. Its always a story about someone else and the things they went through. It's like reading a book, only instead of imagining the visuals you get to sit back and watch them happen as they happen."

"Amazing!" she whispered with a bright grin. "How many of these films do you have?"

"Hundreds of thousands," I chuckled and she gasped, eyes bugging. "I know, right?"

"Amazing!" she breathlessly repeated, rubbing her puffy eyes before a yawn hit her; she seemed surprised by it but also sleepy, and I smiled before rising to my feet. She looked at me in confusion when I held out my hand, but it didn't take much prompting for her to take it.