Once Kylie had taken her first bite of the soup that Stephen had prepared for her, she attacked the bowl with vigor and, before Stephen knew it, it was empty. “It’s really good!” she eximed as shedled out a second portion for herself. “Did you add any unique spices into it? I have never tasted anything so good!”


    Stephen, who was sitting opposite her, who hadn’t taken a single bite from his bowl,ughed. “There is a quite unique spice in it,” he eximed. “It is called Botulinum. It is one of the most dangerous poisons known to man. It has a unique property in that when it is added to food, and it improves the vor.”


    “If there’s such a delicious poison,” Kylieughed, “I’d like to eat some more of it.”


    Kylie quickly finished her second bowl of soup, and then she burped loudly, thanked Stephen for the meal, and went into the living room to stretch out on the couch. After eating so much, she felt tired, so she closed her eyes and allowed herself a quick cat nap while Stephen cleaned up the dinner dishes.


    After about forty-five minutes, Kylie was rudely woken up by Stephen, who was shaking her. “Do you know how to y any games?” he was asking her. He had two cell phones in his left hand, and he was shaking them in her face. “If so, it would mean a lot to me if you would teach me!”


    “Kylie sighed as she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “Alright,” she said, “I will teach you.” She took one of the cell phones out of his hands. “As long as I am teaching you, though, you must treat me as you would a universally respected master. Do you understand?”


    Stephen nodded and, with a sweet smile, he said, “Yes, master.” His eyes were full of love for her, to the extent that Kylie could easily imagine a lesser woman losing themselves in them.


    Before opening up the y Store Application, Kylie logged into her email ount. There were many messages, and many of them were from William, which made her frown.


    Stephen looked at her curiously and asked her if there was anything wrong.


    “It had just urred to me that the anniversary of my father inw’s death ising up,” she replied. “I would like to go home in time to mourn his passing with my friends and family.”


    “Let’s see what happens,” Stephen suggested. “For now, let’s not talk about it.” Stephen showed her his phone. He had downloaded a game called Ants vs. Pants. “I need you to show me how to choose my characters!”


    Kylie hurriedly deleted all of her messages, and then she began to teach Stephen how to create an ount, how to choose characters, the basic rules of the game. “The game is still a little bit glitchy,” he warned her. “It is a knock-off of nts vs. Zombies. You can see that it only has three stars. If anything weird happens, even if you like the game, you may as well just choose another game. sh of ns is very good.”


    “Tell me about the glitch,” Stephen prompted her.


    “If you get a phone call while you’re in the middle of a match,” Kylie exined, “you will be kicked offline, and your game will automatically close down. This kind of glitch can be particrly bad in games that involve teaming up with other people in RL. Your teammates will curse you and warn others that you are an unreliable yer.”


    “Don’t worry about that,” Stephenughed. “I don’t have a sim card in my phone.”


    Kylie smiled and said, “That is very smart of you.”


    After ying for over ten minutes, Kylie stood up and said, “I ate too much soup. I have to go to the bathroom. If you don’t want to lose, wait for me to return before you start a new match.ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .


    “Okay,” Stephen replied.


    Once Kylie was in the bathroom, she pulled out her phone and wrote a quick message to William: “I am not at liberty to say where I have been taken. Just know that I am fine. I am afraid that I might not be able to make it to the anniversary of your father’s death, though. Talk to Ethan. He can exin everything to you.”


    After pressing send, Kylie cleared the chat history and removed William from her friend list. With that done, Kylie took a quick piss, washed her hands, and returned to the living room. As instructed, Stephen was waiting patiently for her to return.


    Kylie sat down across from Stephen, opened the game on her phone, and invited him to join her in a match. “I just sent you an invitation,” she exined. “Press ACCEPT. The best way to learn is to y. As we fight each other, I will feed you with little tips that will help you advance quickly once you start entering real tournaments.”


    Kylie and Stephen yed for over an hour, and eventually, Kylie began to feel sleepy again. After their match waspleted, she exited the game, looked at Stephen, and said, “I’m very tired. I can teach you how to y more gamester. For now, though, I think I really need to take a nap…”


    “Go ahead,” Stephen replied. “I think that I am ready to begin ying with other people online anyways.”


    Kylie set down her phone, stretched out on the couch, closed her eyes, and, within minutes, she was asleep.


    Stephen won his first two matches but lost the third, fourth, and fifth, which he found very discouraging. He closed his phone and, when he turned around, he saw that Kylie was asleep. She looked peaceful, but it was cold in the house, and she was shivering. Seeing this, he went into the Hello Kitty room and brought out the pink nket she’d been using.


    Once Kylie was tucked in, Stephen ced a camera near her face, and he pressed RECORD. Leaning forward, he rhythmically whispered into her ear, “Kylie, Ethan betrayed you. He doesn’t care about you. You’ve never been anything more than a temporary substitute for Dora, a box to grind against in the night while he waited for the opportune moment when he could toss you aside when it was once again safe for him to be with his true love…”