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NATALIA

ONE YEAR LATER

Natalia is about to get the best birthday gift ever…and maybe a scare,

I mean, we can’t have it all

Yes, you read that correctly, it’s one year later. A whole three hundred sixty-five days since I got sucked into a computer, was reunited with my best friend who also happens to be the love of my life, and what else? Oh, left you on somewhat of a cliffhanger with that whole making one last birthday wish.

In retrospect, I probably could’ve worded that better. One last birthday wish was so cryptic. I can see how it can stir up questions.

One last wish for the day of my birth?

One last birthday wish for all of eternity?

See what I’m saying? It was vague and open-ended.

But don’t you worry your pretty little head. The wish I made was not my last, clearly since I’m still here. And let me tell you, this past year has been transformative, to say the least. Dare I say, so much so that I’ve turned into a bit of an optimist.

I know. Optimism? Me? Together in the same sentence? Who even am I?

Listen, I was as shocked as you are, but I have to admit it feels nice for a change to not be so drenched in dread all the time. Again, I feel like I need to put a disclaimer out there: just because I’ve been trying a more optimistic approach it does not mean I’ve lost myself to the toxic positivity train. Please, I would never. I have a reputation of moodiness to uphold after all.

Still, it’s been a much-needed change of pace.

Okay, enough of that, and back to the good stuff—my wish.

After I watched the tape of Rennix making his wish I got a bit of FOMO. Well, that and a wave of desperation hit me with full force that I couldn’t ignore. Seeing him again, reliving our millennial prime—as unrealistic and simulated as it was—was everything I wanted. The universe at last heard my cry. All because he sacrificed himself so his wish for my life could come true. How could I just leave that—leave him—behind? Easy. I couldn’t. Not when a wish-giving entity was nearby that could grant me a wish of my own.

Now, you’re probably wondering, But, Natalia, after Rennix made his wish, it sucked him into a computer permanently. Why would you make a wish to risk the same fate? Wouldn’t you be afraid that if your wish was granted it would suck you into the computer and spit him out?

All valid questions.

Had it not been for me sitting down with the wish-giving entity—whose name is Jaxon Montgomery, and who is a total hoot, by the way—and having an honest, heart-to-heart chat, I would’ve had those very same questions.

Turns out Jaxon never had ambitions of getting into the “say your wish and I’ll give it with conditions and curse you” business. However, when he died tragically during the construction of Memoria Games, he was given a choice while traveling through purgatory. Exist in ghostly form and grant wishes for a cost or rot. He chose the first option and, I mean, can any of us really blame him?

I did ask him if he had anything to do with the key that started this all for both me and Rennix. He said no. But he did share that the key itself is an extension of the universe. And since Friday the thirteenth is known to be a portal day, and with Rennix and I both being born not only on the thirteenth but in October—a month where the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest—us both receiving the key on our birthdays when it landed on a Friday, years apart, was actually a gift from the universe. He described it as an opportunity to let go and gain our greatest desires by releasing a wish into the universe.

I already know what you’re going to ask next. But, Natalia, if the key to the wishing entity was a gift from the universe, why did Rennix get sucked into the computer for so long?

Because he was a virgin. Apparently, a virgin’s wishes hold as much weight as virgin sacrifices. And in Rennix’s case his was both.

After Jaxon schooled me on the ins and outs of his cursed state, he asked me if I wanted to make a wish.

And that’s when I replied with a “No shit, Sherlock.” The humor was lost on him, but he was ready to hear my wish.

I realize now I should’ve been more specific. When I wished to have Rennix be with me always, I meant outside of the iPod.

Yes, I got what I wanted, and by the magical, cursed forced that be, the iPod has maintained charge all this time, and I’m grateful, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little—a lot—bummed.

I’ll take him any way I can, obviously. But I want him here physically with me.

“How was work?” Rennix’s voice fills my apartment, thanks to the speaker I found at a thrift shop. It’s been a nice change from having to always keep those damn wired earbuds in. They were always falling out, or kept getting tangled.

Plus, it’s made for very creative iPod sex—yes, we’ve made that a thing.

If phone sex can be a thing, why not iPod sex?