Disclaimer: This story may be the strangest, most twisted, eccentric piece of fanatic fiction you will ever come across. By continuing to read, you signify that I am no longer liable for any mental dysfunction my literature may cause. Enjoy.
Steamy tears trickled down her cheeks without hesitation or embarrassment. In obsessive denial, she gently removed the golden cartridge, and gave it another dose of the cleaning fluid.
"It reminds me of one of those post-partum animals that continue to nurse their young, even after they've died," the guy on the sofa remarked, busily tapping his stylus to the beat of three very elite agents on the bottom screen. She continued to weep, her fingernails clenching so tightly to the nostalgic plastic that she chipped off bits of the golden gilding as the fluid dried.
"I'll try once more," she decided, her voice thick with remorse. She inserted the game into the decrepit system, pressed the "on" button with extreme precaution, and yet the screen remained black. "It's over," she admitted in pained disbelief. "My Zelda cartridge is dead." Her straight Irish-red hair hid her shamed face from the rest of the living room, and she began to shudder. The guy on the couch snapped his handheld shut, stood up, and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"C'mon, Sophia. It'll be all right. We will find another copy someday, somehow," he tried to comfort her. They both knew he was lying, as there was no way a copy of The Legend of Zelda, signed by Shigeru Miyamoto, could ever be replaced. "I should be leaving about now," he remarked, glancing at his digital watch. He pocketed his DS, picked up his umbrella, and stepped into the rainstorm. She did not look up to see him leave. Now in complete solitude, her moping increased, with a tone of tiredness in her voice.
"My first game. Gone. The first game I had ever beaten. The first game I had ever beaten a hundred times… In a row. Dead. Desiccated. Annihilated. The pain in my chest is nearly too great to bear. In such hard times, I must ask myself," she paused, staring at the red LED light of her Nintendo Entertainment System. "What would the Smash Brothers do?"