Not A Game Anymore
Mark was lying on the ground. Everything was fading. His eyes were closed and he could feel himself getting weaker. He'd given up trying to move what seemed like an eternity ago. Where was Ace? He should have been there by now. Mark had gone to the carnival because Ace had said he would be there. Instead he had found Googler. Googler's puppets had flown at him and bitten into his arms. He had tried to get them off, but they had hung on. They were determined little vampires, sucking the life out of him. He could remember Googler's crazy laughter as he'd fallen to the ground.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Ace was supposed to come flying down at the last minute and save the day. He was the hero and heroes always did that. The bad guys weren't supposed to win. That was how it was in the game.
But this wasn't a game. Ace and the others might have been game characters, but this was real life. He had always wondered what would happen if the bad guys went too far and a human got hurt. How would they keep the secret then? Ace had said that it would never happen, that they would stop Lord Fear before it did. But it was happening now, and for some reason Ace wasn't here to stop it. He should have been expecting something like this. Of course Lord Fear would get him alone sometime, and of course he wasn't a Lightning Knight. He couldn't fight them! What had Ace been thinking involving him in this?
He couldn't feel anything anymore, not even pain. He was glad about that, though he knew it was a bad thing. He thought he could hear someone calling his name, but it didn't matter. It was probably just Googler. Even if Ace had finally shown up, it was already too late. He didn't even know if he was breathing anymore.
The only voice he could hear now was his own thoughts.
Ace? Why didn't you come?