Chapter 3: A painful reality and our white promise.
They came to the house running from the cold they had. The clothes were not for this type of icy climates, but for some reason, Dawn decided to stop in a little store to buy something, leaving Cody doing exercise to kept himself war for eight minutes. Once inside of Anderson´s residence, Cody goes to the kitchen for coffee and water for her.
"Coffee at these hours?" Dawn asked before she starts to drink some of the source of life, water.
"I have to work on my project during all the night, can´t lose more time" thanks to the mishap of his computer, Cody lost a lot of progress in his projects. Even Cody´s father wasn't prepared for his rage that day.
"For what I see in your aura, is something significant to you, I can help you with anything?" suddenly, an orange cat jumped into Dawn´s right shoulder and started to smell her.
"Oh, he is my pet, his name is Jake" the cat began to purr, seemed that liked Dawn´s aroma. The moonchild responded by scratching Jake´s neck with her nails while she is smiling, then, put attention to the cat meows.
"Jake said the time of his meal step long ago if you don't do it now, he will scratch your armchair, again."
"Damn, forgot to let the meal ready before I leave, thank you for reminding me, you could help me as a translator, so Jake stops scratching my stuff," Cody said in a joking tone, looking for the cat food.
"Jake says that it is fun to see your face when you view his disaster."
"Very funny, I make sure your next shower will be special" Jake fell directly to eat, ignoring his owner, Cody invited Dawn to his room, leaving the cat alone. Also, he wanted to try something with her.
"Nice room" it was a lovely room if she ignores some chips bangs on the floor, or the several pieces of computers all over the desktop.
"I know I am messy, but I focus most my time on the computer, hold on a second, want to show you something cool" Cody focused on one of his three computers on the desktop. Dawn decided to give a glance at Cody´s room, nothing out of the ordinary for geek guy, some comic and anime posters, a PlayStation 4, but look at a wooden box near the bed, she grabbed it for better viewing. When Cody saw her with the box, he quickly reacts.
"No, no, no, is private, sorry, I don't remember leaving this here" Cody took the box, and put it in the closet, now that the box saves, he turned to the girl to show her a strange helmet.
"Do you want what me to put that helmet?" ask the naturalist, with a little suspicious.
"Trust in me, will be fun" Cody laughed internally, this would be very good.
"What is it exactly?" Dawn wonder while she put the helmet on.
"Is a small virtual reality game called P.T, enjoy it" Cody start the game from the screen, he could see what Dawn saw with the helmet on the virtual reality. He made her be inside of an abandoned church. She could move the view but not the character, controlled by Cody.
"This is very rare, I know it is a digital world, but it seems so real, hey, what was that?" Cody guided the character more inside of the church, where appeared a catholic cross dropped in flames, the volume was the most, so when the game gave the jump scare, magic. Dawn couldn't contain a small scream. The problem was she stumbled upon one of the wires, by reflex, grab Cody by his shirt while he laughs at her, ended in a very awkward position, they couldn't remove the contact between their eyes.
The virtual reality headset had broken, everything was strange; they only said their names. Jake interrupted this time, scratching Cody´s face, intending to protect Dawn from his pervert owner. Dawn stood up, with a small smirk.
"You deserve it by scaring me, thank you, Jake is very nice of your part" Dawn caresses the back of the cat as a reward, Cody, on the other hand, try to fix the helmet with noticeable scratches on his face.
"Don't consent him too much, then I will be attacked by Jake more times, to obtain your affection" after that, Cody explains the complicated binary code for that seconds of his virtual game project.
"Why work on this?" Cody typing without end responded without removing the look of the screen with them thousands of numbers.
"This is something that I always wanted, be an independent developer, a big step for an alternate world, created by our personal needs."
"But remains a fake world, something to escape from reality" Dawn had a point, but…
"Maybe that is the reason why I am creating this game," Cody whisper, locking down for a few seconds, but put a smiley face to see her.
"Come, I want you to hear the soundtrack, for the ending" he knew Dawn had heard those words, press play, and the music started playing, but all go to shit when they heard a loud noise coming from the ground floor.
.
(Optional music: days of dash, piano extended. Sakurasou no pet no kanojo).
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"Cody!" it is Cody´s father, why in the hell is he here now? He should be in Seattle for work issues, and by his voice distorted, he is drunk.
"Dawn, please listen to me, take warm clothing of my closet, and ran back home, here it is very dangerous."
"But...".
"Do what I say! I am not going to let him hurt you too!" Dawn sees Cody´s panic face and the drastic change in his aura. He guided her to the roof, where Cody indicated her were the stairs are. The blonde girl, now outside, saw from the window, father and son screaming at each other.
"Didn't you promise me that you weren't going to drink alcohol again?!" Cody shout angered to his father.
"Shut up you piece of crap!, I do what I want!" by his drunken state, hit Cody in the face, something he had lived for many years.
"Please stop this!" Dawn ran inside the house to help him; thank god the window was open.
"Go away! This is not your problem" Cody cry at her, more afraid that angry with Dawn for coming back, he had a line of blood coming out of his lips.
"Oh, so you have a girlfriend, she has a good body, maybe I can fuck her to keep me warm."
"Don't put her in this!" said Cody angrier.
"Come on. If it sees is the same bitch as your mother was, she will die from a disease without..." Cody punches his father with all his forces in the nose, with tears in his eyes, nobody could insult her, nobody. He took Dawn's hand and run into the forest, leaving his father knocked down in the living room, the snow began to fall.
Dawn remain silent, see the tears of his new friend, he breathed quickly, as if Cody is trying to escape of something, something that she now knows very well, they get clear covered of snow. He let go of her hand and fell to his knees.
"You understand now, why I work in that false reality so hard, just want to get away from everything. I will leave that house, but my nightmares are still chasing after me" everything hurt inside, Cody never wanted to talk about this with anyone, he hated when his friends worry about him, but today exploded merely by the situations and unwittingly involved Dawn.
"Your mother...I would have liked to have a mother, who cares about me, how she has done for you," Dawn whispers to calm him down, but she remembered her family, not now, she needs to support Cody.
"But why she saves him?! My mother gave her liver so he can live after the accident. I was in the hospital with her before she entered the operating room and never came back. I didn't understand her motive when I was a child, and now, twelve years later, I still don't understand her. In the end, my father just remembers her as a prostitute and hurt the only part of my mother who is still alive" Cody punch the snow with his hands and the head, without any protection against the cold, crying.
"By love Cody, by love" Dawn stop him with a hug from the back, seeing her trying to dry his tears, he started to calm himself.
"Dawn...I am so sorry for this" turn over to his side, saw an open donut of caramel, she knew, it was his favorite donut, he told her in the talk they had just hours ago.
"So, this is was what you bought."
"I try to give it to you, for helping me earlier, to cheer you up even with your problems, but nothing came to me, this was everything that I could do" Cody knew, he couldn't hide his depression from Dawn, stood up and grab the donut, quickly ate it.
"It is hard…why you do this?" Cody asked with a serious voice, looking to the side.
"Because I know that dark place, my parents are entrepreneurs, the most important in Ottawa, when they became aware of my powers, they made me a part for my cousin, who has a talent for business. They left me here with my grandmother, who works in breeding for injured animals in street situation..." Dawn took a moment to catch some air before start talking again
"...She was who taught me how to control my aura reading and to love nature with all my heart. My grandmother is very special to me, but one day, we discuss because she agreed to sells animals on the black market, so she doesn't lose the job. I thought she cared more about money than innocent animals' life, but, months later, known by an employee that the animals are in a better shelter, with more possibilities they can be adopted, it was a misunderstanding of my part. When I return to ask for forgiveness...she...she was..." Cody stops her returning the hug. Dawn is crying with him, is an idiot for believing that he was the only one who suffered from such loneliness and sadness.
"We have problems with our families, but I believe destiny wants to we meet, two lonely like us for something, no matter what happens, we will be together and watch our back. I'll be the sun that will light up your flower" that phrase, Dawn's mind remembers something when she was a little girl, holding a sunflower stepped on by a few bullies in school, when a child, who couldn't distinguish, extended him his little finger.
"Please don't cry, I can promise you that I will be the sun to shine over your flower, don't let these idiots keep bothering you" the vision ended, Dawn saw Cody smiling to cheer her, she felt relieved on the inside to have each other support.
"Sorry, what nonsense I said," Cody said, embarrassed for trying to be a man in this situation.
"Then I will be the flower that comforts you even in the most painful memory, is a promise" Dawn extended her little finger to seal. It didn't matter that seemed childlike, with Dawn beautiful smile, decorated by the environment and its brightness by tears.
Cody sealed the promise with the same warmth. The forest was witness to the hope of friendship between a boy and a girl with different tastes, but with souls very similar. It was the second time that this promise is carried out in the forest. The environment was fresh and not cold in spite of being to twenty-eight degrees, now they had with someone, after much time.
