Loss

Another message popped up on my phone.

I hadn't looked at any of them but I already knew who they were from. People at school. It had been one week already and news spreads fast. It's not like I was popular but I mostly knew everyone and had a lot of friends. Max had sent me almost a thousand messages already.

I turned off my phone and threw it on my table. I was living with May's family. I wasn't legally old enough to be living on my own, and May's family had no problem taking me in. Their son, Mark, was in college now. He had been like an older brother to me growing up and had no problem lending me his room.

Besides, it wasn't like I was going to stay here for long.

I had good grades and I was planning to go to a good university. My grandmother had savings so I was going to university.

"I cant sit around moping forever" , I thought.

I looked at my VR headset.

May then came in.

"Hey, Oliver, we're planning to have a funeral for Olivia so..." May trailed off.

My grandmother had always hated funerals and used to constantly say that even if she had one she wanted everyone to enjoy and and have fun and celebrate her life.

I had laughed at her then, and told her I would try. Of course I wasn't though. I never even thought about her dying.

"Yeah we can have a funeral" I said.

"Yeah we know." May responded. "But since Olivia's died we should call her son, you know, your dad. We wanted to ask whether you had any idea about him so we could track him down." May added.

I wanted to object. Someone like him who abandoned his mother didn't deserve to come to her funeral. But I understood that it had to be done.

"His name is Sylas Lancaster. That's all I know" I responded.

May looked at me and said "Thank you" and left the room.

I took the VR headset and laid down on my bed.

I put the headset on and went in the game.

I woke up at the campsite where Max and Aurora were eating rabbit. They froze and looked at me.

"You guys didn't even start?" I asked.

They both were silent.

Max finally opened his mouth. "Hey... are you, um... , okay?" he asked.

I understood why he was asking. "Yeah I'm fine" I responded.

"Oh, okay" he responded. He didn't look convinced.

I looked at Aurora. She was quiet and wasn't asking questions. So Max must have told her.

"So what did you guys do in this one week anyway?" I asked.

"We were discussing the route and what to do once we got to the capital, but mostly we were just waiting for you." Aurora responded.

They could have left of course but then I would have to catch up to them.

"Well then let's go" I said.