He was correct, when he came to the kitchen his mom was nowhere to be found. He checked his mobile phone if there were any messages from his mom letting him know where she could go, but none. He continued to prepare for his breakfast and started overthinking.
"Where could she be?" He asked himself worriedly.
While eating his breakfast he's contemplating on how to approach his mother regarding this situation with his father.
"I would tell her that I'm old enough to know about what really happened. One way or another, she needs to tell me. There will be a lot of unavoidable circumstances that will come our way just like the photo in the magazine. I didn't know that it was there! Heck, I didn't even know that my own father invented my favorite X-Play game!" He said to himself sternly.
He tried to calm himself down as he noticed that he's being intense.
"I need to approach mom as calmly as possible, to let her know that I'm at the right age to handle whatever situation that might be." Link stated to himself.
After finishing his breakfast, he went to his room and examined the magazine again. He sat at his bean bag and stared at his dad's photo.
"Where are you? Why did you leave us?" Just some of the questions lingering in his mind while looking at his dad's photo as if it would start to talk and give him the answers that he wanted.
He thought of a new plan and took off. He sprinted to the living room and took the old photo album that his mom kept inside the ottoman chairs. He inspected each album, flipping page to page expecting a positive outcome that would somehow give light to his dilemma.
He has gone through all the old photos but to no avail there was none. He even inspected the other cabinets for clues. There was none too, it was just old papers, some old decorations and some of his artworks when he was young.
He was getting annoyed at the situation and felt like it's a dead end for him, then he saw the door to the basement. He got up and went down, stacks of boxes were all over. He checked the boxes one by one, but it didn't have any pictures of his father. The boxes contain old paperworks, decorations for halloween and christmas, old linens. There were all sorts of tools for gardening, cleaning, carpentry and others to fix any broken appliance in the house, but nothing to point him to any information about his father.
He thought of the last place that he could search where he can finally have his answers, his mother's bedroom. He immediately went out of the basement and went upstairs to his mom's room. Before entering he checked if his mother was in her room, he listened again to the door to hear if somebody was inside. He was not sure but his gut tells him that it's safe to enter.
Once inside the room, he was impressed at how clean and organized his mom was. All the things inside her room were stored accordingly, not a single thing that is out of place.
"I need to be careful not to disrupt the arrangements here." Link thought to himself.
He started to look in the drawers, none there. The bedside table, nothing in there either. Link went to the closet and rummaged through his mom's clothes, he was moving so fast that he unknowingly was making a mess in the closet. He searched the top storage of the closet and there he got his hands on a box.
"Finally, this is it." He said to himself.
He placed the box on top of the bed. He sat beside it and tried lifting the lid. A sigh of frustration washed over him as the box was locked, the lid did not move. He was so mad, he slapped the box and it fell to the floor. He then saw the mess that he made, he quickly picked the clothes that were scattered on the floor to put it back in place inside the closet. He is now sweating to put things back as neatly as possible, but it was too late.
The bedroom door swung open and it was his mom, staring at him confused at what he was doing.
"Mom?" Link uttered apologetically.
His mother lifted the box and said to him, "Go to the kitchen."
He felt the disappointment in his mother's voice. He walked out of his mother's bedroom with his head bent over.
"Wait for me in the kitchen." His mother said as she shut the bedroom door close.
In the kitchen, the box was placed on the table and Link was seated beside it. His mother with her arms crossed against her chest was standing facing him. She got the key in her pocket and opened the box in front of him. Her mother got the contents out of the box and placed it on top of the table. Link saw a parade of papers lining up on the table, he read it as land titles and other important documents.
"I'm so stupid," Link pondered.
"You want to explain to me, what is going on here?" His mom asked.
"I'm so sorry, Mom. It's not what you think?" Link said, trembling.
"Then explain yourself." His mom said sternly.
"But you don't want to talk about it." He argued.
"Talk about what?!" His mom said with a raised voice.
"About dad." Link replied, looking straight to his mom's eyes.
"I'm not a child anymore, Mom. I need to know what happened and why are you so furious with dad? What did he do? Why did he leave? Where is he now or if he's still alive? I need to know, Mom." He continued.
His mother thought that it's really inevitable that Link would question the whereabouts of his father. She just can't accept that, that day is today.
His mom got the papers and put them back inside the box. She sat beside Link and hugged him tightly.
"Forgive me, I know this day will come." His mom said with a cracked voice.
"Honestly, I don't know." Cried Link's mom.
"What do you mean, you don't know? Is it true that dad invented Reverie?" Link grew more confused.
"Reverie?" Questioned his mom.
"The game, the X-Play game that I'm playing, the reason why I asked for it last Christmas because of that game?" Link replied.
"No, no. Before you were born he was already working on Juno, that's what I know." His mom said.
It's more confusing to Link now, everything is looking more of like a blur.
He got up, went to his room to get the magazine and then he showed it to his mother.
"Here, look at this, it says here that dad invented Reverie." Link pointing at his father's photo in the magazine.
His mother then got the box again, opened it up, lifted the base of the box revealing a secret compartment.
Link thought that it's ingenious.
His mother then handed Link a lot of pictures of his dad, some notes and sketches on a paper, and an ID that said Credo employee.
Link was relieved but still confused.
"Dad worked at Credo?" Link said, amazed at what he is seeing.
"Yes, he's already working at Credo back then when we met and then eventually got married." Confirmed his mother.
"The year that you were born was when he finalized Juno." His mom continued.
Link read each note on the paper and scanned all the sketches. He saw a sketch of Captain Lincoln Luke, one of the main characters in the game, Reverie. He showed it to his mom.
"Your dad named that character because of you." His mom said, smiling.
"I think this is Reverie, mom. Credo must've changed the name when they released it." Link pointed it out. He then continued reading through the notes and sketches.
Link's mom held his hand and stared at his eyes with sincerity.
"I know that you thought I was furious at your dad, as the days go by, as you get older, as the years pass by, it has gotten more and more confusing to me too. We were happy, we were elated to have you, he even wanted to fast forward to the time when the two of you can enjoy and play Juno, I mean Reverie, together. Everything was okay, no it's way more ok, we were happy, content with what's happening with our lives, and with you being born, it was perfect and then one day he didn't come home. I went to his office, to the police, everywhere, I looked for him everywhere and nothing. It seems like he just vanished without a trace, without a letter, even the banks traced no activity elsewhere. I just got so frustrated because we were fine and then one day he was gone." His mom broke down and started sobbing.
Link started wiping his tears, he now knew why his mom doesn't want to talk about his dad. He cannot imagine the hurt his mom has gone through the whole ordeal with his dad.
After both of them got their emotions out, his mom went to her bedroom and rested. Link went to his room too with his father's notes and sketches with him. He studied each note and sketch again trying to decipher if he missed something. The story that his mother told him was so bizarre that it's hard to believe that it really happened. If his mother told him that his father loves him so much, deep inside he knows that his father didn't abandon them. It's kinda weird but he strongly believes that one day his mother, him and his father will see each other again.
To take his mind off these things, he decided to turn the X-Play on and have fun with his father's creation. He was so amazed with Reverie that he focused his attention on the games' detail and even watched the opening scene which he now appreciates so much.
The screen showed him which character he wanted to use before playing. He clicked Capt Lincoln Luke as his champion for this game. He can't hide his excitement knowing that this character was named after him. He then went to the Garrison to equip his character with his chosen weapons, then he chose the Dark Forest to battle some monsters.
Link then pressed the start button for his game to commence when suddenly a glaring light emitted from his television screen that covered his whole bedroom.
He was startled with the blinding light emanating from the TV while playing Reverie in his X-Play.
"What was that!" He exclaimed, trying to regain his sight from the bright light that hurt his eyes.
He scanned the entire room for any changes or damages, then his body to see if his limbs are still complete. He was okay.
As he was about to continue playing, he was distracted from a noise, more of like something was scratching underneath his bedsheet. He slowly turned his head and saw something moving.
He thought to himself, he doesn't have a pet but why is there a movement underneath his bedsheet, a raccoon may be?
He looked around and saw a baseball bat. He grabbed it, mIght as well be prepared if this thing is dangerous or something, at least he has a weapon to fend it off.
Link moved closer, approached his bed slowly, carefully. He grabbed the edge of the sheets and then quickly pulled it.
It's a Mecum, scared and crouching. Its big green eyes focused on him.
He cannot believe what he is seeing. If you're a newbie player in Reverie, a Mecum will guide you on how to play the game and Link is facing one right now, sitting on his bed.
He squinted his eyes many times to make sure he was not hallucinating or something.
"Don't hurt me please…" the Mecum pleaded.
Before he could even utter a word, the Mecum spoke.
"The Citadel is under attack, we need help," the Mecum murmured.
"What?!" Link blurted out in disbelief.
"Please, all the champions are defeated. I was sent here to ask for your help," explained the Mecum.
"How can I do that? I..I don't even know how to fight and besides, I'm just a kid." Link replied.
"They said you're the only one who can save us…Captain Lincoln Luke…" the Mecum said.
Link was taken aback, what did this Mecum call him?