[chapter five] shelly's epilogue [virtual world dw au]

Instructions

[Chapter Five - Shelly] She shouldn’t be here. It was nearly midnight, and Dandy was already fast asleep. She was supposed to be sleeping too, but since her sleep schedule was so messed up, she would be waking up way too late if she slept now. So, here she is, in the computer room, still trying to figure out how to get this thing working. Dandy told her to not bother trying to get it to work anymore since they don’t need to meddle with more technology right now. That’s what got them in this mess after all. But she was determined to get this working, to prove that she can do something other than sit to the side. After messing around with the computer to no avail, she started pacing around the room, unsure what to do. She glanced toward the computer screen again, expecting the same error message she had seen too many times before. But this time it was different. The screen displayed a loading bar. “Huh? I didn’t press anything though…” she mumbled as she walked over to it. It was just about done with loading. How long had the screen been like that? “Shelly!” She quickly turned around. Was that Dandy? Shelly went over to the door and looked around. “What’s wrong??” Dandy saw her and ran over. “What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night!” “I- I don’t know, I just…” she started, before changing it. “What are /you/ doing?” “I woke up because I was thirsty and went to get water. But when I was getting up I noticed you weren’t there, so…” Oh. She hadn’t meant to worry him, she just... wanted to help… Dandy seemed to notice the guilt on her face. “It’s okay, just don’t scare me like that again.” She gave him a half-hearted smile and walked back to their base, completely forgetting about the loading bar on the computer… Shelly hadn’t realized how exhausted she was, because as soon as she laid down again, she went straight to sleep. So much for “messed up sleep schedule”. The first thing she remembered thinking in the morning was, ‘Did I ever see what the loading bar was for?’, before jolting up, fully awake. “The computer! I forgot!” she exclaimed as she stood up, frantically putting on her socks and shoes. Dandy wasn’t in the room, or even outside it, so she gave a quick glance to the clock on the wall. 12:35 PM. ‘I slept for that long?!’ she thought as she ran out of the room and bolted towards the computer room, completely forgetting her bandana and goggles. She wasn’t quite sure why she was so panicked about some loading bar. Was she that desperate to get the virtual world back? In the computer room, the computer was powered off, the black screen reflecting Shelly’s face. Did it automatically power off or something? She pressed the power button, but nothing happened. After impatiently waiting a few seconds, she pressed it again. And again. And again. ‘Did I break it…?’ she thought, beginning to get despondent, before the machine began to make a weird buzzing sound. ‘Okay, yeah, I definitely broke it.’ Shelly began to sigh, but the computer suddenly powered on, the screen filled with static. She was very sure that it wasn’t supposed to do that. “Shelly?” She blinked. Who said that? She looked around, but nobody else was there. “Shelly.” She looked back to the computer screen, which was still filled with static. Was it the computer? Can computers even speak??? Before she could respond, the screen went black again, and two green eyes popped up on it. Two very, very, familiar eyes. “Vee?!”