Chapter Text
She jolts awake, and gasps for breath that doesn't come.
Everything's black. Why is everything black? As she forces herself to sit up, she notices no delineation between the floor and air- what is she even sitting on?
Her eyes go wide as memory strikes them in faint, glitchy flashes. A Minecraft demonstration. Dad signing a paper. A world forming around her.
A world collapsing around her.
Dad.
Dad.
“DAD?! DAD, WHERE ARE YOU?! IT'S ME, AUDREY!!”
She screams it until her voice goes numb, and then she screams some more. Even once it starts to hurt, she keeps going and going until nothing comes out.
Still, her desperation and determination never fade. Even with a blown-out voice that can only call in a whisper, she prays that whisper reaches Dad somehow.
She feels.phantom touches on their shoulder that feel like Dad's, but when she turns, no one's there. She sees flickers of orange in the corner of her eyes, but when she turns, no one's there. She hears Dad's voice calling her name, but when she turns, no one's there.
When she turns, no one's there.
No one's there.
No one's there.
She collapses, unable to hold back the tears any longer. Her exhausted voice still doesn't let her scream and wail like she so badly wants, so all that comes out is broken whimpers that sting her throat.
Dad… wouldn’t leave her… right? She remembers seeing him in their last moments together, but she can't remember what he was doing. Screaming and pounding on the door in desperation?
Or… is that just wishful thinking?
Maybe…
Before she can dare to finish that thought, a strange flicker forms in the corner of their eye. She follows it, and instead of the nothingness she expected or the orange figure she hoped for, there is a purple one.
She runs in the figure's direction, but slams face first into an invisible wall. She pounds on the wall the moment she recover, not even feeling the pain in her hands over the desire to please have someone answer them! Anyone! Dad or not!!
But no matter how hard she slams the wall, or tries to use her ruined voice, nothing happens-
until a familiar orange figure comes running towards the purple one.
“Dad?! Dad-” she wheezes. He's here? Why is he dressed like the monarchs from books? Why- why isn't he answering?!
Why is he hugging the purple figure?!
“Dad, I'm here!” she manages to scream in one final outburst. “It's me! Audrey!!”
…
Dad and the purple figure vanish.
She stares at where the two once were, almost refusing to believe it. There Dad was, so close, yet so far-
because of that purple one.
That's it. Her suspicions have been confirmed.
She was abandoned. Not good enough.
Replaced.
She staggers back, gasping and sobbing in her broken voice, until her legs can no longer support her. She slams their hands into the ground beneath them, unable to see through her vision blurry from tears that glowing red cracks are starting to form.
Replaced.
Replaced.
Replaced.
Replaced.
A shattering sound.
She falls.