Emily

"Earlier, you mentioned a Cursor, what's that?"

Pixel spins on his heels to face me while his arms stretch out wide before rounding back to his sides, and I notice his outfit, along with the faintest glimpse of a tanned navel. I've never seen a getup quite like his, but he looks normal in it. A white oversized shirt that brushes something more defined underneath, a black tracksuit jacket that reaches his waist, and a pair of baggy cargo bottoms.

Great, more cargos.

"Cursors are people who reside in the phone, but there are two types"—he flicks up a finger— "One would be a person who got trapped in here like I mentioned earlier, and second"—he adds another— "is a Pixel. They're built into the device. There's. . . no way for them to get out of the screen."

His voice sounds glum when he informs me of the last part, and I can't help but feel bad for them. On the other hand, how would they feel being sucked out of a world they have known as I have? Would they even want to leave?

Noticing my fallen expression, he tries to put on a merrier smile, and it makes me feel better but awkward because I've made it appear worse than it might be. However, his expression doesn't change my mind, I saw how the idea makes him feel, and he doesn't like the thought of it either.

Clearing my throat with more effort than I thought necessary, I clarify his statement. "So, if I press this Recovery Button, I'll be able to go home?"

His head bobs, and that's when his hair flops back into its original state: longer one side and a slight fuzz on the other, but it doesn't look punkish like his clothes. It has a warm teddy effect, and just thinking of that makes me want to cringe. I've had my time for the teddy bear act, now I'm past that. Past men.

"That's right," he answers, running his fingers through the longer side this time, "but it will be in your Settings."

My brows furrow at the piece of knowledge he's given. The number of times I've been in my Settings, I don't recall any button of the sort. Coming to a standstill to catch my breath, my hands find my hips. "How come I've never seen this button on my phone?"

Slowing down, Pixel swivels to face me with a knowing look on his face. "For you, that would be Factory Reset; anything that's amiss with your device, or you need to wipe the slate clean, you hit that button. This would be the reverse of that. It will clear up the amiss in here, which is you, and then you will be restored."

I'm not sure how he makes everything sound simple when it shouldn't be, but I'm starting to feel thankful Pixel was the man I bumped into down here. But another question is why he wants to help me.

Unable to hold back the desired question, I ask him. "Pixel, why do you want to make sure I get home so much?"

His expression twitches, but he's quick in masking whatever it was going to be with another casual smile. "Come on, Blondie, we better keep moving."

I shake my head, pinning him with the answer me first, look.

Scrubbing his jaw, he works his hand round to the back of his neck before he responds. "Because I don't believe someone should be trapped, especially in a place that's not their own."

Spotting my hands wringing around one another, his eyes soften. Even though it's for my benefit, there's still that look in his eyes. It reminds me of someone who has been defeated or stricken with sadness. When I think I've got it pinned, it changes just as quick as it came, and he inclines his head toward the end of the chapter, hopefully. Kicking the floor, I follow him, and my eyes wander for look-out if those page thieves come, but I find something else entirely.

It's a miniature groove not much wider than the length of my arm. Within the centre is a grey platform that impersonates a skateboard. The difference between the two is that this has more support with the ditch.

Grinning over at his back, I holler, "Hey, why don't we use this?" while testing the surface with my foot.

He whirls round with panic on his features. "Don't!"

Startled, I slip, and my foot swings back and forth in attempts to remain upright, but the sight of our surroundings blurring back and forth with Pixel's body flying toward the end and back is putting off my balance. Jamming my foot into the board to force it to a rough stop, Pixel rolls backward at my feet as I topple over onto my ass.

His head whips in my direction, his hair is no longer swept to one side but in a disarray, and his hands fly around as he yells, "That's why we don't use the Scroll Slider!"

"Oh. . ."

I purse my lips as we stare at each other, and then we burst out into a fit of laughter. Being the first on his feet, Pixel helps me to mine while his free hand combs back his mop. Swinging an arm in gesture to press on, I listen quietly as he informs me how the accidental over scroll is a newbie trying out the Slider. It makes me laugh because the amount of times I've had it happen to me, and the image of what happened plays in my head, and I can't help but giggle at the thought of others suffering the same fate.

"Have you ever done that before?" I wonder aloud, and Pixel doesn't miss it as he rubs the back of his head.

Nor do I miss how his walk has a subtle shift, so I use my hand to cover the knowing grin from him when he peers over his shoulder.

"Once," he answers honestly. "I tried to surf it and fell off with a sore di—" His eyes slide to me as my head tilts to the side in confusion as to what he's trying to say. "Winky. Apologies."

Unable to help myself, a burst of laughter bubbles up into my hands as they try to smother the noise the best they can until it slowly subsides. Seeing the faintest gleam of embarrassment on his face, I clear my throat and change the topic. "How far is it until we reach the end of the chapter? This is taking forever."

"Just a couple more paragraphs, and we should be there." Hearing my groan, he chuckles and slows his pace for me. "There will be a small, jagged circle, you can't miss it; that's our way out of here to the next App."

My feet are more relieved to hear that, they're tired. It's not like we have a sun or a moon in here to note what time of day we're on, unless. . .

Tapping the screen of my Reader, nothing pops up other than the text of the story we're in, and a mini map. Blinking at it, I click on the small layout and see that it just shows a highlight of the paragraph we're on and how we have three more to go. An arrow points the way we came, where we need to go, and the perimeter with a dot on.

That's handy.

"Hey. . ." I start, spying the hourglass. "What's the hourglass for?"

Pixel collects my wrist in a gentle grip. "If you click it, it will show you how long you have left to find the Recovery Button." He hovers his over mine, and there's a faint vibration in my wrist before a grin split across his face. "There we go, we should be paired now; it's like adding a friend, but we can find each other no matter where we are. Taake a look."

Following his advice, I press the map and see two dots. I'm green, he's blue. To say I'm fascinated is an understatement, except I picked up the 'no matter where we are' part and it has me sliding through the map, but each slide is a blank space.

"What are the blank sections on the map?"

"Hm?"

Rubbing my wrist, I repeat my question, and his eyes widen as if it never occurred to him.

"Sorry, yes, the map. The blank spaces are the areas you haven't seen yet, that's all, which reminds me"—he lightly gestures to my Reader— "sometime soon, you should get a small alert, it only happens if you're inside your device. If you connect, you can see the layout of your device—oh! You will be able to see how far away your Settings are!"

Growing excited, I make sure to listen for the noise he described, but he said it can take some time to come through, but the fact that I've been here for what feels like a while, it should happen soon.

After a few minutes of silence, Pixel finally pipes up, and I'm thankful because listening to silence for the notification is agonising. For a distraction, I scroll to the end and hit the Vote Button, even though I know I haven't read this chapter, I'm sure it would've been as amazing as the others.

"How is the book? I haven't read this one yet," he queries, but it doesn't take long for him to turn silent again, and I don't miss how his eyes absentmindedly follow the words passing beneath our feet.

It's weird to think we're walking across someone's work right now, inside a phone, and we have a race against time. Although, I'm thankful he's not being completely serious because travelling with a hard head would be difficult.

Thinking back to his question, I bob my had. "Yeah, it's pretty good. Not going to lie, it had me hooked from the very first paragraph." Curling a lock of hair behind my ear, I list, "There's creatures, a damsel who needs a man to help her escape, and there's this badass creature that is tougher than the smaller ones. I'm expecting the main characters to smooch at the end."

Pixel hums in acknowledgment, and then his head slowly nods with thoughtfulness. "I think I could vibe with that."

Looking off to the right to hide my smile from him, my fingers pull at my nightshirt, feeling self-conscious at the knowledge of being indecent before a man, and not well dressed for the adventure we have planned.

As if sensing my train of thoughts, I spot Pixel inspecting me openly. "Hey, to put it politely, you look fine to me. As soon as we can, I'll find you some clothes, but there's no need for you to feel embarrassed around me."

My cheeks tingle, and my hand freezes halfway up to touch them when I realise I had wrapped my arms around myself not long ago. Turning my head again, it takes a couple of seconds for the heat to simmer, and it strangely settles in my stomach. Mentally shrugging it off, I twiddle my thumbs and finally decide on relaxing my hands at my sides as we walk quietly side by side.

His calmness is strange. He makes me feel like there's nothing to be uncertain about, and I'm weirdly feeling confident I can face whatever is coming our way. I'm sure after a couple of hops, skips, and jumps, we'll be at my Settings, and I'll be on my way home to my parents.

The vibration hits me before the alert does, and relief washes through me because I can see the spiking circle up ahead where Pixel said it would be. Tapping the Reader, it opens on the Acceptance Page, noting how it will link me to my device so I can see its layout, and the Data doesn't have to be shared with the party when inside the same device unless I want it to be. If anything, it would be better if Pixel can have an overview too since he's the man with a plan.

Hitting the Accept option both times, there's an alert from his Reader before he quickly fiddles with it as well. Grinning, he stops beside the Gateway, and fixes his gaze on mine. "That should take a few minutes to Sync, until then, our next spot is going to be a fun filled mystery!"

Laughing at his enthusiasm, I jump through the neon pink and blue seeping black hole with Pixel hot on my heels.

ONC Count:

Wattpad App: 2,111

Wattpad Site/Desktop: 2,063

A/N: This chapter (6) to chapter 8 equals the eight-thousand-word count! :)