Disconnection.

Charlie got disconnected from the digital world. She took a deep breath.

"What the fuck?" Charlie sighed, processing everything that happened. "...Did you disconnect me?" She asked.

"Yes." Grace answered. "I lost access to my camera, I couldn't talk to you anymore, or see what you were doing..."

"It was Rocío."

"What?"

"When I went to Petshop, to look for a clue, the game started to slowly become static, until it failed, and Rocío hacked your camera to talk to me." Charlie answered, still processing what had happened. Grace was more pale than she already was.

"Huh, so now it's your turn to be pale?"

"I don't... I don't..." The redhead stuttered.

"You don't what?"

"She...Rocio...she's all over the page, isn't she?"

"I thought that was clear."

"SHE WAS WATCHING US ALL THIS TIME!?"

"Now that you mention it, she told me exactly that."

"Oh my god..."Grace paused.

"I have so many questions..."Charlie thought.

"Is this also for a thesis?"

"It's...it's for my cousin." Charlie lied.

"Didn't we already do your cousin's?"

"My other cousin."

"Why do you have so many cousins?"

"You don't?"

"I..."Grace sighed."Well, you saw what you wanted to see, go back home."

"BUT! I DON'T WANT TO GO YET!"

"Didn't you have to turn in a paper for tomorrow?"

"Homework can wait, I have better things to worry about."

"Like what?" Grace asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ermm...I don't know, maybe, Rocio?" Charlie answered sarcastically.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie..." Grace sighed. "She's a lost case. How do you plan to help her huh? With the power of friendship? We can't save Rocio!"

"I'm a psychology student..."

"Oh!"

"...Yeah."

"I forgot." Grace sighed. "But anyway, it's not worth helping her Charlie, you'll end up worse than her."

"And how do you know that? Did you even try to help her?"

"I..." Grace stammered.

"I never saw you mention trying to help Rocio, you just complained that she was 'cuckoo and that she loved to traumatize little girls."

"And I'm right! She's crazy! How does she even think of putting such... such disturbing things in games that are supposed to be for girls!? How does she even think of traumatizing girls in such a way!?"

"You're right. That was horrible, but, you, as her coworker, did you do anything to stop her?" Charlie asked. Grace fell silent.

"Go home Charlie."

"I want answers."

"GO HOME CHARLIE!" exclaimed Grace.

"I'm not leaving without you giving me answers!" Charlie demanded. "So answer: Did you do something to stop her?"

"I..." Grace fell silent, looking at the floor."I... I didn't know that Rocío did those things... I just found out when the complaints started coming in..."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, but you could have stopped her. Did you never talk to her?"

"Uh...it's just...it's just..."

"You know, you always gave some kind of clue that I had to do to unlock the disturbing part. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you DID NOTHING. You NEVER tried to help her, and you knew fully well that she wasn't in a good place mentally. And now, she's inside a page, reliving her trauma over and over again..." Charlie was cut off.

"SHE'S FINE! SHE'S FINE IN THERE! SHE ASKED TO STAY THERE AND SHE'S HAPPY IN THERE!" The one with glasses started to scream.

"And how do you know that, Grace?" Charlie looked at her suspiciously.

Grace didn't say anything. She was speechless. She knew she had dug her own grave, she was cornered.

"Grace...answer...How do you know that?" Charlie asked again, trying to be calm but in her tone you could tell she was starting to worry.

"Go home Charlie. Now. Get out." She pointed to the door, serious. But just then, a thunder sounded and...

"Well...it started to rain. What are you going to do now? Are you going to kick me out anyway?"

"Yes."

"Are you really going to let me get wet in the rain? Besides, it looks like a storm is about to start..." Grace looked at the forecast on her phone. And yes, around that time a storm was going to start. She couldn't let Charlie go out in the middle of a storm...

"Fine, you can stay. But let's change the subject now, okay?"

"But..."

"Do you want to get hit by thunder?"

"Okay..." Charlie closed her mouth. Grace stood up.

"I'm going to cook. Do you want something specific?" She ​​asked.

Charlie thought for a minute:

"Noodles?"

"Just noodles?"

"Noodles."

"Really?"Grace sighed. "Okay, sure. Noodles it is..."

Grace went to the kitchen, starting to cook. Charlie took advantage of the time where Grace was cooking to process everything that happened.

Grace passed her mind to the digital world. Then she played Lacey's Wardrobe, then Lacey's Petshop (although at first nothing happened) and then, to see how to break Lacey's Love Meter, she ended up meeting Rocío. And when measuring the love between Lacey and her uncle...all that appeared was the photo of a girl, with black eyes and black liquid coming out of them, which was probably Rocío...

So much happened in an hour.

Charlie couldn't help but worry about Rocio. It was noticeable in the games that she wasn't fine. And what did Grace do to help? Nothing. She just ignored her.

Rocio needed help URGENTLY, but they didn't even know if she was alive. And Grace, the only one who could help her, didn't care. But...when she was in the digital world...that...was Rocio talking to her, wasn't it?

She always knew that she was investigating her, didn't she? She was watching her...

She wanted to interview her but it really wasn't the time.

Charlie thought, until something cut off her line of thought:

"CHARLIE! AT LEAST HELP ME SET THE TABLE!"

"S-SURE, GRACE!" Charlie got up on her way to the kitchen.

Dinner with Grace was awkwardly silent, each one at her plate, waiting for one of them to stop and break the silence.

"Uhm...your cooking is great Grace."

"It's just some noodles with cream, Charlie."

"The best ones I've ever had!"

"Did you get so desperate to break the silence, to the point that you're going to tell me the stupidest thing in the world just to start a conversation?"

"Come on, you were waiting for me to do it too. Something's something, right? Did you want us to stay awkwardly silent all night?"

"Well...yeah, you're right. Staying silent for the whole night would have left me with a bad taste in my mouth to be honest..." Charlie nodded in response.

They stayed silent for a while longer, Charlie watching on TV how the night was going to go in terms of weather. Grace was just in her own world, staring at nothing.

"And..." Grace started. "Why did you want noodles? Do...do you think I'm so useless that I can only make noodles?"

"What?!" Charlie exclaimed. "Of course not! I just wanted noodles! I love noodles!"

"Uh-huh...yeah..." Asop rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious! It's my favorite food!" Grace thought for a moment.

"Okay, fine." She stood up and grabbed the dishes, leaving them in the kitchen sink.

"I'll wash them." Charlie offered. "I didn't even help cooking..."

"Charlie. They were just some noodles with cream."

"Well, I could have done something..." She muttered as she grabbed the sponge to start washing.

When she finished washing the dishes, Charlie approached Grace.

"You know that the storm will end in the morning, right?" She ​​asked.

"Of course, I'm not stupid, I looked at my phone."

"Well...is there somewhere I can sleep?"

"I have an unused mattress, let me get it for you." Grace went up the stairs of her house but turned around. "Unless you prefer the sofa."

"Eh... if the mattress isn't too much trouble..."

Grace lowered a mattress for Charlie,and gave her a sheet and a pillow.

"It's quite late, it's eleven thirty at night. I'm going to sleep, because compared to you, I do have a job."

"Hey!" Charlie exclaimed. "I'm studying!"

"And you forgot the paper you had to hand in tomorrow. Pfft, pathetic."

"Oh and I bet you were perfect at university!!"

"Well, I didn't wait until the last day to do something." Charlie ran out of excuses, and just sighed.

"Well then... good night Grace."

"Good night Charlie." Asop answered and went straight to her room.

Charlie laid down, pulled the sheet over her, and closed her eyes. But she couldn't help but think about everything that happened with Rocio. She had so many questions...she wanted to talk to her. She had to talk to her.

Charlie tossed and turned, until she opened her eyes, and looked in the direction of Grace's room. Would she...let her?

The answer was clear. No. Grace wouldn't let her reconnect to the digital world. Grace doesn't seem to want her to help Rocio, always saying that it's not worth it...

But would she notice?

Before she knew it, Charlie was already in front of Grace's room, slowly, quietly opening the door, peeking inside.

Positive. Grace was asleep.

Charlie quietly closed the door again. Slowly, she walked down the stairs, and walked over to Grace's computer. The TV was still on, so that would help muffle the sound of the computer.

With the computer on, she went straight to the html file of Lacey's page, the familiar shades of pink invading the screen. Charlie tried to grab the computer Grace had her connect to that world with, and copy what she did.

One small problem: she didn't understand how it worked and she didn't know where anything was supossed to go.

While she tried to figure out everything was supossed to go in she swore she saw a new window open, but it closed as soon as she turned around to see what it was.

"Ugh... I bet it's her." Charlie turned around again, to see what the window that kept opening was, but she had no luck.

After half an hour, she managed to put everything in its respective place, and she could now connect.

She just had to close her eyes...

And press that button.

The world turned white for a moment, and in the next, she was physically on the page. Now... she just had to find a way to talk to Rocio.

Maybe she could find her again if she played Laceys petshop again and went to Laceys Love Meter...that's how it was last time.

But as soon as she opened Lacey's Petshop, the error screen appeared. And Grace's camera opened up. She almost had a heart attack, but luckily (for her) it was Rocío.

"Umm...Hello?" Charlie started. Every time Rocío appeared, a voice could be heard humming, probably Rocío. But she never spoke directly. She always, always spoke through text. Did she like singing so much? She could ask her that too...

<hello.again>

The text appeared in a square below Grace's camera.

Charlie was silent for a few moments. She couldn't believe she was talking to the very creator of Lacey's games. Rocío Yani herself.

"How...how are you?" Charlie tried to ask.

<aheavenmadeforme_andnobodyelse>

"...Are you okay?"

<im_in_heaven_of_course_I_am>

"Are you sure?"Rocio didn't answer for like 10 minutes.

<Im_in_heaven_dont_ruin_it>

"...Can_I...ask you a few questions, Rocio?" the other asked.

<Likean_?interview>

"Yes Rocio, like an interview."Rocio was silent for like 3 minutes.

<andwhatifisay_?no>

"Um...if you don't want to then...I guess I can't force you..."Charlie was a little uncomfortable around Rocio. She didn't know why Rocio couldn't just...write things like a normal person. Was there something stopping her?

Rocio was silent for like 10 minutes. Charlie just stared at the distorted photo of her.

<5>

"Five...five what?"

<5>

"Five questions?"

Charlie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. And then she started to think... because even though she had a million questions, she never really thought about them and she would have to organize them...

"Uhm... Why... why did you make the games?" Charlie started. "Were they some sort of vent?"

<why_did_youstart_fromthere¿>

"Uhm... sorry but... it's what stands out the most about you, what else could I ask you?" Rocío was silent for another 10 minutes

"So... why did you make the games?"

<I_liked_proggramming_Ithelped_distractingme>

"So... It was a distraction?"

<yes_atfirst_itwas_for_that>

Charlie thought about Rocio's answer. So at first the games started as a distraction... then why did she make them so... disturbing? Maybe she only liked horror games, but then why did she pass them off as games for kids? So many questions... and Rocio only let her ask five.

"Did you start with the intention of making games for girls, or were they always this... disturbing?" Charlie asked, already knowing that Rocio takes like 10 minutes per answer...

<at_first_I_did_try_making_somethingforkids_?ok>

"So... what happened?" This time, Rocio took longer to answer.

<Ihatedthem>

"Did you hate the games?"

<I_hated_watching_the_girls_playing.>

"...Why?"

<innocence_liesabout_howtheworldreallyis>

"...Did you hate that the games didn't feel realistic to you?"

<lies_betrayal>

"So you felt like the games weren't really realistic...Like you were betraying the girls who played them?"

<yes¡>

"But you know that terrified the little girls, right? I don't think they really took into account that you wanted to show them...'the truth.' "

<who_cares>

"...You didn't care if you lied to the girls or not, did you? That was just an excuse, Rocio."

<you_passed_yourlimit>

"Oh! Umm..." Rocio was right. She had already passed the 5 question limit. But why did she decide to tell her now? It was just so she wouldn't answer, right? But she still wanted to know something else. "Rocio, can I please ask you something else?"

<what_do_you_want>

Charlie felt that Rocio was already irritated with her, even though there was no way to know how she felt about her. Still, she continued.

"Don't you want to...get out of here?" She ​​asked her last, and most anticipated question.

<what_do_you_mean¿_thisismy_heaven>

"Well, for your so-called "heaven" it's...quite a negative place, don't you think?"

<its_not_called_heaven_fornothing>

"Hmm..." Charlie thought. "Then...you like it?"

<yes_ifnot_whywould_it_be_called_myHEAVEN¿>

"Doesn't it hurt?"

<?what>

"All you have to go through, again and again, doesn't it hurt?"

Rocío didn't answer. Grace's camera turned off. And she started hearing a sound that sounded like a scream that got louder, and louder, until it was unbearable.

Charlie thought she was going to go crazy, she felt like she was going to drown or something.

Until suddenly, she returned to Grace's living room. The computer was turning off, and when Charlie looked over, there was the redhead. With a look of anger and annoyance.

"You really are insistent, aren't you?" Grace yawned. "You're lucky I came, otherwise who knows what would have happened."

"She..."

"Go to sleep Charlie. It's 4 AM. And I'm already upset that you woke me up screaming."

"I was screaming..?" The other one cut her off.

"Go. To. Sleep. Now."

"Yes, miss..."