Pokemon Reality Edition

My best friend was a game developer. Every time I came to his house, he would be coding on his computer with his VR headset not far. He loved coding VR games.

Unfortunately, he was lost to diseases. I'm not sure which diseases, as I never thought they would be bad and never asked about them. After he died, his parents gave me something they said he wanted me to have. His VR headset. I cried tears of happiness thinking he left something for me. How happy I was.

I hadn't touched the headset yet after 2 months, so I decided to finally put it on. I was surprised to see only one game: "Pokémon Reality Edition". I was a BIG Pokémon fan, and so was he. I guessed this was his creation, and it was so big it was the only thing he was working on. I pressed play.

I was happy to see my suspicions were correct. Th game booted up with my favorite friend's logo on the screen. It took quite a while, but the game finally started up.

The game flashed a giant 3d model of the logo "Pokémon: Reality Edition" in my face. I clicked start, and off we went.

It asked me to select a character, but there were none on the "Normal" page. I scrolled quite a few pages until I got to "Developer". There was one character. It was a version of Ethan/Gold that resembled my friend. I'm guessing it was an original character or something. I selected it.

Then it asked me to select a name. I typed in, using the VR keyboard, my friend's name. It was a tribute to him, of how much I missed him. I hit okay. The screen went black for quite a few minutes. Finally, some text. "You did it, friend,".

I turned from sad to interested. Was there gonna be a plot point here or something?

My friend's character appeared on screen. "We can play Pokemon again..." He offered his hand to me. "What do you say?"

I was a bit surprised with the options that appeared in my eyes. "Yes" or "No". I realised he was talking to me. I hit Yes.

He grabbed my in-game hand, but the tug felt real. It was disturbing.

My "friend" continued to tug on my hand. "Come on! Let's go!" His laughter sounded just like my friend.

With every tug that failed, he seemed to get less cheerful. His cheerful "Come with me!" eventually changed to "Just... C'mon...".

Part of me wanted to just let my soul free, escape to the VR world, without a care in the real world. But another part of me knew it was just a game. I knew I was losing it. I knew he had already lost it so much he made a creepily perfect version of himself to keep me company. I knew there was no hope for him. I knew I had to take the headset off.

So I did. I waved goodbye to him, knowing it wasn't even him. And I threw the headset away, the one I thought I'd cherish.

Reality is harsh.