carried it over to Pauline. She reached down and touched his cheek, checked his pulse, and then put her head on his chest. Mario was dead.

“You killed him again!” Pauline screamed, snatching the
umbrella from Mario’s hands and holding it like a lance. She
threw it at him as hard as she could. It bounced off his raised
arm and fell 50 meters to the ground. “Get away from me you
dirty ape! You killed him!”

The gorilla’s knuckles scraped against the ground as he walked away from her. Pauline spat in his direction and watched as Mario faded out of existence. She dangled her legs over the edge of the platform, praying he would reappear at the bottom of the scaffolding again. She stared at the words of a flashing sign that read “Game Over”, realizing this was the end.

When Mario opened his eyes, the pixel world was no more. He searched for light, but it was darker than Lucifer’s shadow. He floated in the eternal blackness, no light to be seen – nothing. And then his soul moved into the body of a teenager…