Jake exhaled sharply, forcing his breath to steady, "You almost had me," shaking his head, with a little smirk curved on his lips.
His fingers twitched as he reached into his left pocket, grasping the bracelet he had found back at the mall. He held it up, inspecting it, under the dim flickering light of the fabricated world around him.
The voice chuckled, low and taunting. "And what do you think that will do?"
Jake didn't respond. He didn't need to. His grip tightened, and without hesitation, he yanked the bracelet apart.
A loud snap echoed through the air, like glass shattering. The beads scattered across the floor.
"You think you could really trick me," he said.
Then, he pulled another bracelet from his right pocket, and said, "This…" holding the bracelet up. "This is the real one. The one that was worth holding on to. When everything feels like slippin away, I hold on to the one thing that still feels real. And no illusion could take that away from me."
