Her eyes slowly opened, registering her surroundings. There was nothing but void all around her.

A panic suddenly ripped through her. Where was she?

Then she suddenly froze, memories crackling at the back of her mind. She was aware.

She was aware of her red curly hair floating behind her like she was underwater. Black goggles held her hair back as though it was her hairband. Her bright red skirt flowed out around her like she was falling yet she didn't feel the sensation. She wore a lighter red tank top which was tight against her skin with a bright red cardigan thrown over that. She wore fingerless white gloves and red and white striped socks that looked more like the candy canes than anything else. On her feet were red high tops with white bottoms. Her blue eyes stared out in front of her at the black void that surrounded her.

More memories bubbled to the surface of her mind.

Licorice-Twist. That was her name. Lorain Licorice-Twist. Her mind swam with images from her childhood and long after that.

She had grown up in a small sugary town. Everything had been bright and colorful, like a rainbow. She remembered taking her father's go-kart out for joyrides in the middle of the night just so she could see the stars from the top of Ice-cream Mountain.

All the little things came swarming back. She remembered everything about herself. She loved racing and hated staying still. Could eat pound after pound of ice-cream and never tire of it. Despised sushi as a disgusting sin against food. Hated girly shoes, loved walking. Loved people, hated crowds. She remembered…everything. Including…her brother.

Lorain looked over to see her brother floating at her side. Her twin brother. Landon. Landon Licorice-Twist. His short red hair hung over one of his blue eyes. He wore a red leather jacket over a white t-shirt, red skinny jeans and a pair of red high tops. His eyes flickered open and he looked over at her, smiling warmly.

She smiled. She remembered smiling. She loved to smile. She remembered her parents dying in a car crash or fire and smoke. She remembered the fear she felt when they didn't come home that night.

Her nerves leapt as her feet found a solid sense of balance, letting out a squeak from the sudden weight on her shoulders. Trees. Bright, striped, candy cane trees. Jawbreaker rocks, long pink and purple vines, and a brown, cocoa dirt. Then the feeling of the void vanished and was replaced with the soft cheery music that could be heard off in the distance.

"Did you see that too?" Lorain asks as she pulls her red curls up behind her head and ties them off with a strip of licorice rope.

"The thing about mom and dad? Yeah…" Landon replies, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well…" His twin sister says, "Do you at least know where we are?"

They both look around at the twisting vines of laffy-taffy that hung from the candy cane forest that surrounded them.

"Looks like some sort of forest," Landon answers, reaching up to one of the laffy-taffy vines and breaking off a piece and sniffing it. His nose scrunches up, "It smells like candy."

Lorain takes some of the pink taffy and sniffs it as well before taking a bite. A smile pulls at the sides of her mouth, "Mm…it tastes so good!"

"It's made of candy," Landon mumbles to himself.

"I actually think everything here is made of candy…"

"Just give it a second," a muffled voice called into the trees around them.

"What was that?" Lorain asks, looking around them.

"Sounds like some dude," her sibling answered, now looking around for the source of the voice as well.

"Okay now wait until the intro starts," the voice again.

Lorain walked over to one of the candy cane trees and started climbing, swinging one leg up onto the closest branch and pulling herself up one branch at a time.

"What are you doing?" Landon says in fright that his twin would fall from the tree.

"Can it, Lanny," Lorain called down at him, pulling herself up onto another branch, being careful or the double-striped branches for the knowledge that they would break, "I'm just seeing if I can see where the voices are coming from…"

"Okay, just wait until the opening finishes. The programming might have messed with it," a different voice said but Lorain couldn't find its source.

The first voice found its way to them again "Okay…Now to make sure the Easter Egg is working."

"What's this idiot talking about?" Landon asked, looking up at the sky, "Eggs don't work…"

"What was it again?" The higher voice asked, moments later there was the sound of rustling paper.

Lorain turned her head quickly, looking over the horizon to see a racing track.

Her eyes widened, "Holy fudge…"

"Okay… Up, up."

Two high pings from the ground made the tree shake but Lorain gripped onto it tightly.

"Lori? Did you feel that?" Landon called urgently.

Lorain ignored her brother. Her eyes still locked on the racing track.

"Down, down."

Two more pings.

Lori's eyes shot over the track and that's when she saw them. Large glowing pink arrows that floated high above the track. Two up and two down.

"Left, right."

Two move arrows appeared above the track next to the others. One left and one right.

"Left, right," the voice repeated, and two more arrows appeared

"Gas," a revving sound filled the air and Lorain felt her heart race.

"Break," a screeching sound echoed through the trees and Lorain knew something amazing was about to happen.

"And…"

Grin spread across Lorain's face. She was waiting, almost urging for the last command to be given.

"Start."

Not a second after the huge yellow letters flashed across the sky did Lorain rocket into the air, her brother at her side. Then she was encased by bright lights and two faces appeared in front of her. She barely noticed the nine racers above her, staring down at her and her brother in confusion.

The giant faces laughed in delight, "There they are."

She stood in a box with only five sides and suddenly her box illuminated bright red and there was a revving of engines. Her box flashed brightly and Lorain spins quickly before pumping her fist high in the air.

Without telling her body to do so, she exclaimed, "Let's race!"

One of the faces grinned brightly, "I'll be this Lorain. You be her brother."

She heard her brother's voice but could not see him, "Let's get this thing started!"

Then her body flashed bright red, blinding her. When she was able to see again she found herself sitting in a bright red racing car. Her hand subconsciously turned the key and it roared to life. Around her were what looked to be children no older than nine years old.

She thrust her hand up high in the air and without commanding herself to do so she laughed, "Rev it up!"

The starting line above them gleamed brightly, shining golden lights across the track. Then bright pink numbers flashed across the starting line. A cheery man's voice called out "Five!"

Lorain climbed back down into her car and buckled up.

"Four!"

Landon revved his engine from beside her. His car identical to hers in every was except for the fact that his had a white stripe down the middle whereas Lorain's care was pure red.

"Three!"

"Who are you?" A voice snapped from beside them, "Why are you so big?"

Lorain looked over to see a girl with bleach blond hair and a strawberry top on her head as a hat. She wore bright pink clothing she sat in a brightly colored sucker themed car. Lorain smirked at her, feeling as though she was superior to this girl, "You tell me first, you little sucker-muncher."

The girl's face flared up pink in embarrassment, "I'm Taffyta Muttonfudge…"

"Two!"

"So who are you?" Taffyta asked, regaining her composure.

"Me…?" Lorain asks, turning back to the track, "I'm Lorain Licorice-Twist."

"One!"

"And you're about to eat my cocoa flavored dust," the licorice themed racer grinned, pulling her black licorice goggles down over her face.

"Go!"

All of the cars shot off down the track, engines roaring to life. The smell of cookie-tires burning made her heart pound, the sugary blood pumping through her veins.

Over the first jump she seemed to be at full speed, rocketing towards gumball gorge. The giant gumball machines rolled back and forth, threatening to crush the racers as they drove past. Landon floored it, zooming around the gumballs with precision and then one of the gumballs smashed into him and his car was flattened.

"Oh! Be careful Kenny, don't want to break our new toys before the kids even see them!" The man playing Lorain snapped.

Lorain shot towards a power up and ran into it, the words 'Sugar Rush!' shot across her eyes and suddenly a gauge on her car appeared reading the word 'nitro' in bright green letters.

Unconsciously her hand lifted up and she smashed her fist down on the button at her side, making her car barrel down the road, gaining first place within seconds. When the gauge reached zero the car went back to its original speed and zoomed up and around cake spiral. A car zoomed up at her side, a multicolored one with purple frosting and a girl in a green jacket. Her black hair was tied up with red licorice rope, sprinkles riddling her hair. On top of the girl's head was a red tiara. The princess.

The black haired princess giggled, "See ya red-head!"

Then the princess shot around the corner and up into the cannon at the top of cake spiral, shooting out towards Ice-cream Mountain.

Lorain had a new objective. Stay ahead of the princess at all costs. This girl was her only real competition.

Once again she moved without command, shifting gears and shooting up after the princess. Then Lorain heard the roar of an engine and looked in her rear-view mirror. Landon was hot on her tail.

"Glad you could make it!" Lorain chirped at her twin.

"Glad you could make it," one of the voices echoed her from behind the screen.

"Oh can it," Landon snapped.

"Oh can it," the other man responded, clearly not amused.

Lorain laughed, rocketing ahead toward the princess that had passed her moments ago. Suddenly something smashed into the back of her car and Lorain screeched as her car rolled off the road towards a bunch of signs that read 'road closed'.

Her car smashed through the signs and down the drop with a loud scream.

Landon shot ahead of her, chuckling as he drove ahead to catch up to the princess. He was actually catching up to the princess when…

"Whoa! Dude it's a secret passageway!" One of the voices cheered.

"What is?" The man that picked Landon asked.

"The road signs! It's just a thing to confuse you. It's actually a secret short cut to the rainbow bridge!"

"What?!" Landon and the man yelled at the same time.

Lorain shot over a ramp and landed far ahead of her twin brother. Her laughter echoed through the cave inside Ice-cream Mountain, which only encouraged Landon to drive faster.

But it was already too late. Lorain had passed the finish line, coming in second place only behind the princess. Lorain hopped out of the car and grinned, taking off her goggles and putting them back up on her head.

She stood there for only a moment until a silver trophy floated down in front of her and she took it graciously. Her first race ever and she had gotten in second place! She held the trophy to her chest and spun around in excitement before grinning out at the person on the other side of the giant window. She waved and grinned brightly, "Come back to Sugar Rush again soon!"

The man on the other side of the screen pressed something outside the window and she was suddenly jerked back into was dissolved into a bunch of pixels. Suddenly she was reassembled and clutched her hand to her chest in fright.

"What just happened?" Lorain sputtered, the silver trophy slipping from her grasp but she did not hear a sound for a moment and then it hit the ground with a distant thump.

The odd sound made Lorain twist her head to look at where she was. She was back in the candy cane forest, sitting on one of the upper branches of a candy cane tree. Landon was sitting on the ground, staring ahead at the trees blankly.

"Lanny?" Lorain called to her brother.

His head snapped up to look at her, "What…was that?"

"I…I don't know," Lorain swallowed thickly, sliding down the tree and landing on the cocoa dirt. The smoke rose from the ground and discolored her red high tops. A grin appeared on her face as she picked up the silver trophy, "But I liked it."

"Alright! Seems to be working just fine. They race fine, controls are working, and the Easter Eggs are hiding away in the candy cane forest. It's ready for gamers." One of the voices said.

"Gamers..?" Landon mumbled, looking over at his twin.

"I'm sure it is," the one said quickly before letting out a sigh, "The arcade's closed for today."

Lorain's brow furrowed, "Arcade…?"

"Was this the last update?" One of the voices asked.

"It should be," the other replied before adding, "Let's get going. See you next year, Litwak."

The final puzzle finally fell into place in Lorain's head, and she remembered it all. It was no coincidence that she knew practically everything she had to do. That she could drive a kart without flaw. It was not instinct, it was not taught, and it was not remembered. It was code. She was code. Those were not real memories in her head. It was just a backstory. There was never a sugary village, no car crash, no anything.

She was a character made out of circuits and numbers. Just a videogame.

Lorain looked at her brother who mirrored her distressed look.

"So mom and dad…?" Landon asked quietly.

"They…they don't exist…" Lorain's voice was all but a whisper.

"So…what now?" Her twin asked slowly, looking at his sister as she strode over to the opening or the forest that overlooked the racetrack.

"Now…" Lorain pulled her black goggles down over her eyes, grinning, "We race."