Mom's brow abruptly lifts upward, throwing me with a questioning gaze. "Have any idea?" Mom asks.

I shrugged my shoulders and picked up the box, blocking the door, our way inside. My eyes drop to the delivery details. 

"Shouldn't they, at least, make someone write their signature on twisted paper before they leave it?" I heard Dad ask as he twisted the knob after entering the key in the hole.

"Keila owns it," I notified them as I removed my boots in front of the door. The three of them stare at me. "There's a possibility that she dropped it here on purpose."

My sister, Angela, walked towards me with pure confusion on her face. Brows meeting at the center, as close as it can. Her hazel with gold fleeks meets mine. "Why would Keila do it? Did you speak with her about the package or somethin'?"

I shook my head, a sign that I didn't. How dare I even ask her to give me a gift or something like a package? Given that it was bigger than a little gift, she kept on sending me every single occasion for no exact reason. 

"Because I love you, idiot! That's why I give you a little gift of appreciation. Appreciation of existing in this world for me and your family!" That hyper voice of Keila rings in my head. I shake my head, in disbelief that she repeated it throughout this year. 

'Guess she ain't tired of my existence, huh?'

Mom's excited voice boomed inside the kitchen. "Open it, sweetie!"

Dad sits on the crème colored couch as she watches Angela and me. He pushed his lower lip out a bit and shrugged. "Your Mom's right, though. Why not check what's inside? Knowing Keila, she loves you more than us. It's not a new thing that she will send you something."

Angela ran to Dad, sitting next to him with a broad smile. "Come on, sis. We're thrilled to know what that bizarre friend of yours gave."

I silently trudged my way to the center table in front of Dad and Angela. Hoping that whatever it is, it will not bring me any headache again. Just not with a friggin' boomerang with a weird doodle of my name in various colors of pink, violet, yellow, and a tragic color combination she can pull off– that I don't. I hate colors.

"Wait!" Mom halted me when I scratched off the tape first. "Of course, let me see what's inside."

Dad and Angela, comfortably sitting, laugh at my Mom's cheerful antics.

"I feel bad for opening this. I haven't talked to Keila yet," I said, stressing the word 'yet'.

All they could do was give me blinks and oh's. Isn't it the normal thing to do?

"O-Okay," Mom nodded, "call her first," she cooed.

I sighed, fishing my phone out of my pocket. The intensity of the positive energy has already drained mine. 

'Are they sipping the energy from my body? How come they're so excited by just, me, opening a box with unknown content?'

As the ring goes, the sparkle in my family's eyes brightens. Is that even possible?

"Oh, hi, my dearest Doll!" Keila beamed on the other line with a high pitched tone, causing me to pull my ear off near the phone.

I'm energy drained from my family, and she'll add up to it. Now, I want to rest.

"I'll put you on speaker. Is that alright?" I asked, not even concerned that my parents and sister would listen. They always hype up anyway.

"Fine with me!" As I put her on a loudspeaker, she yelled, "Hello to you Angela, and Mister and Mistress Moissette! It's been a long while!"

I shake my head as they exchange a few greetings with smiles drawn on their faces. Stretching their skin, making a few folds on the side of their eyes, and two lines on each side next to their noses.

'They don't get tired of smiling, do they?'

"I want you to know that I just called to ask about the delivery dropped at the front porch. Is it yours? Did you give the wrong address, again?"

She chuckled on the other end. "Of course not, silly! I asked my Dad to give it to you, then he called me that you aren't home, thinking that you went somewhere with your family. So, he just left it there."

My family isn't even surprised by this. They just nod at each other, like confirming each other's thoughts.

"Do you know that dropping it on the front porch has a possibility of other people stealing the item?" I asked, a bit curious.

She hadn't done it before, dropping a parcel at the door without someone in the household receiving the item.

"Wait. Did you just say, unknown item? Oh, my! You haven't opened it yet?!" she shrieked hysterically.

"Nope. Why would I, though?" I asked, pulling my inner brow down.

"She just pulled out the tapes. That's all she did!" Mom exclaimed, dragging me to the bluffing side. Seriously?

Keila laughs her lungs out. "Jeez, Dally. You can open it without my permission— of course, even if the item was mine, you can still open it."

I rolled my eyes and that made my family chuckle. "Why would I even do that, freak?"

"Because I love—," I cut her off before she could even say it all over again. Like a repeated cassette tape.

"Yeah right. And," Silence filled the room as I paused to heave a nervous sigh. What can I do? This is my first time thanking her. "Thanks. I guess?"

Again. There's another heavy silence, but not a gloomy one. It must probably be down to the awkward silence.

"D-Did I just—? Did you—?"

"I need to open this thing. Bye. Tell your parents I said hi." And, I ended the call.

I look at my parents and sister. Their mouths were agape, their eyes were a tad wide open. Guessing that they're still registering what the heck I just said to Keila. Knowing me, I never thanked nor said sorry to anyone aside from my family. Mom, Angela, and Dad only. Not the entire kin.

While they are still processing, I open the box, without making them wait any longer. I must admit, I'm a bit excited about what's inside, albeit having a trembling hand because of nervousness.

One of my eyebrows automatically lifted as I saw what was inside. "What the heck?"

A black helmet, with linings of red at the near end of it, that reaches below the ear. It has a fully covered black glass that can be pulled or pushed up and down, connected to the helmet. Cleaned white gloves with weird blue circles on each fingertip. It has black and white wires that connect at the center blue pad, shaped like a palm. Next to it was a wireless earpiece, just like those earphones that idols used at concerts. 

I pulled the last item out of the box. My eyes diverted to the first two items that I pulled out, then to the cover of a case.

My sister peeks at what's written on the case. Just like all of us, she's also confused. "Alternate World, Pandora? Oh!"

My attention turned to her. "What?"

She pointed to the case that I'm holding. "That's the latest game, a new volume, I guess? Anyway, that's the latest game that my classmates are talking about. They said that it was well-known. It's a series, though. The rumours say it will be the hardest one of all and probably the last of the Alternate World game."

Slowly nodding, I tried to process what the hell my sister told me.

"So, all in all, it's a game? A famous game, you say?" Dad asks. Angela nodded.

"Though, why would Keila send you a weird game? Shall I call it console?" Angela asked. She received an automatic shrug of the shoulders from me.

"You're not into games, offline or online, so why?" Mom looks at me like the answer is on my face.

"That's because I don't wanna play alone! Let's play together. I played the last volume of that game, the Alternate World, Mystic Sword of Nirvana." Now, we finally got the answer from the sender of the parcel– Keila. We called her again.

"Why me, though? I don't play games. Not my cup of tea." I bore my eyes on the case that had a black-shaped box with flames on top of each corner, and a weird map of an unknown world.

'Alternate World: Pandora, huh? Sounds great and weird.'

"No one wants to play with me, and I know that you can't say no to me, Doll." She cracks into a fit of laughter, a few seconds before my family comes along.

Nice. Just nice. Crazy people.

I read the words again silently as they exchange words to words endlessly.

'Let's see what you can bring into my life when I start playing you.'