Losing is part of the game. That's what Cowboy told you. That's what the game has been telling you this whole time. Yet as you stare at the lose screen, hours of progess reduced to a rubble of nothing, you find tears well up.

It's childish, you try to tell yourself. You can just click back to the menu and start anew, but you find yourself unable to click forward.

It's just a game. It's just a game. You keep trying to tell yourself this but it never feels right. The events feel as real as anything else in this world, so when you fail it hurts just as much.

Your mind races, berating you, over and over endlessly when suddenly the screen when shifts to a new view.

Could it be a new distraction?.... Or was it a new pain?