“You haven’t confirmed that they’ve disappeared, and crying won’t solve your problems so get up!”

“Look around for them!”

“If you don’t find them, then start crying!”

“But now is not the time!”

“You only have 24 hours so use it properly.”

She couldn’t bear to see him waste his only day back like this.

She knew his situation so you would expect her to feel bad for him, but it’s exactly because she knew about the predicament he was in, that she could get angry.

He couldn’t waste his time when it was so limited, so what was he doing sitting around doing nothing.

“Get up!”

Still shocked from her anger, Ace followed her orders with a shocked, still depressed look on his face.

“Now that you’ve started to listen…”

“Do you have any way to contact your parents in this world?”

“This place looks much more advanced than Felona, so you must have some sort of communication.”

Ace continued to follow her orders and answer her questions, still shocked from the sudden anger.

“I do but... the other side has to respond to speak.”

He was talking about his cell phone and the ability to make calls on Earth.

“It’s fine, that’s the first place we should start. Show me how you do it.”

Ace brought her over to his room, wiping tears along the way.

Once he got into his room, he grabbed his phone from his night table and showed it to Aliza.

“I just press the person’s name on this and... if they also have one of these... they can pick up and talk with me.”

Talking slow from his still depressed state, he explained how to use the cell phone.

“Good... Now... contact your parents.”

“If they pick up, you can talk to them.”

Ace finally started to fully calm down.

He realized how dumb he was for not doing this first.

He unlocked his phone, went to the phone app and looked for his mom’s name.

Before pressing on it, he hesitated just like he did with the door handle...

But this wasn’t the time.

Aliza made him realize he didn’t have the time to be worrying right now.

Ace pressed on his mom’s name and the phone began to ring as he brought it up to his ear.

*RING*

“…”

*RING*

“…”

*RING*

“…”

“…”

“…”

“This is Selena Bracker! Sorry I couldn’t get to the phone right now! Leave a message at the beep!”

Her voicemail was the one to respond...

“She didn’t respond...”

“I knew it...”

“She’s gone...”

“I’m never going to see them again.”

One missed phone call was all it took to bring his mind back to its ruined state.

His drained eyes started to fill up once again.

He dropped to his hands and knees and just let it flow.

Aliza saw that if she let this go on, he wouldn’t get back up another time.

“Hey! Get u--”

“ALIZA!”

He didn’t want to hear it right now.

That voicemail confirmed it.

They were gone.

“Stop!”

“Please!”

“Leave me alone for a litt--”

—

——

———

*RING*