by Zeke Biddle
I hold my hands out and focus.
But there’s no energy.
Other than being empty and hungry, my stomach doesn’t feel anything.
“Fuck. Nothing. Why does yours work and mine doesn’t? This is bullshit.”
Gillian rubs my cheek with her hand. “I don’t know, but we have my bow and our wits. Our friend needs us. Hopefully, that will be enough. Let’s go.”
“Freeze right there,” a voice shouts from behind us. “Hands up, motherfuckers.”
The old Marcus would have thrown up his hands in fear and begged for mercy. I’d never done well with authority figures.
I’m not that frightened boy anymore, though.
Well, sometimes I can be brave, at least.
I hook my thumbs in the belt that’s holding my robe closed, turn to the campus cop, and say, “What seems to be the problem?”
The campus cop only looks a few years older than me. His belly refuses to be limited by the tight constraints of his shirt and belt. He looks nervous that we might not follow his order. He also blushes and flashes a tiny, hopeful smile at Gillian.
I can respect that. The version of me plugged into the video game up in my dorm room could be his brother.
He starts to talk, stops to clear his throat, and then tries again. “You need to put your hands up where I can see them.”
“I don’t think I’m going to do that,” I say, reaching deep down to my balls in search of as much bass as I can add to my voice. “We’re in a hurry. We’ve got a friend who needs saving.”
The campus cop backs up a step. “You guys LARPing or something?”
“Sure. Something like that.”
He looks around and nervously licks his lips. “But no one’s going to get hurt for real?”
I take a second to consider the question. In our avatar form, can we get hurt for real or hurt someone else for real? For the sake of this conversation, I’m willing to argue that any damage that gets inflicted tonight will not technically be real.
“No. I don’t suppose anyone will get hurt for real. Your hands will be clean as can be in the morning.”
It’s his turn to pause as he considers my response.
I can hear the music from a party somewhere across campus and crickets much nearer.
Eventually, he nods. “Okay. I believe you. Say, you looking for another person for your group? Not tonight, of course.” He points at the badge on his chest. “Some night when I’m off duty.”
“Sorry. This is kind of an exclusive club and a very early beta game. There’s still a ton of bugs to work out. It’ll probably be years before we’re looking to expand.”
“Bummer.” He taps the brim of his hat. “I guess I’ll let you get back to your game while I get back to my rounds. Stay out of trouble and have a good night.”
I nod and watch him walk away before looking back at the map on my tablet.
“This way.”
Gillian’s silent as she follows, but I know she’s there. She’s always got my back, and I’ll always have hers.
8
The front door of the house marked on the map is wide open when we arrive.
We hide beneath the branches of a willow tree and look for signs of life.
“Want me to go in and check the place out?” Gillian asks.
“No,” I say a little more bluntly than I’d intended.
We both go back to listening to the crickets as they search for their next mates. There are several lights on in the house, but no sign of life.
“Okay,” Gillian finally adds. “But I’m the thief. If anyone is going in first, it’ll be me, and I’m tired of sitting around out here.”
I grab the back of her leather vest to make sure she doesn’t carry out that plan. “No. We go together or we don’t go at all.”
Gillian frowns. “But BoomBitch is probably in there, so we have to go inside to find out.”
“I know. Come on.”
Like a child who’s decided he is ready to get in the water and knows the fastest way to commit is to just dive in, I start across the grass, mount the stairs without pausing, and continue straight in through the front door.
I immediately roll to the right and drop to a crouch, scanning the immediate surroundings for any threats and hoping anyone waiting to ambush us can’t hear my heart pounding in my chest.
Not that I’ll be able to do much about them without my magic.
Out of my peripheral vision, I see Gillian crouched on one knee several feet to my left.
“Looks empty,” she says.
I point to the gigantic flatscreen TV on the wall. It’s showing some old gangster movie, but there’s no sound.
Gillian slides over next to me and whispers, “Something might have caught his attention and caused him to mute it.”
I nod. “Maybe. And whoever it was might have captured him and left him tied up somewhere. Or he might just be taking a piss. Either way, I bet whoever we find in this house won’t end up being a friend of ours.”
The sound of someone clapping slowly makes us jump away from the noise.
“Good job, inspectors,” a man says from the shadows of the stairway leading up to the second floor.
Even though my magic won’t work, I’m so used to defending myself with it I thrust my hands forward, ready to zap his ass. “Who are you?”
“Your mortal enemy, from what I hear,” he says.
“Come out in the light where we can see you. Move slowly, and you better not be holding any weapons, or we’ll shoot first and ask questions…well, never…because you’ll be dead.”
It sounded better before I’d actually said it out loud.
The stairs creak as he takes one, then two, steps. Even before we can see his face, he holds his hands out to show he’s unarmed. He’s wearing chain mail.
It takes me a second to realize that’s not normal here on Earth.
“You’re from the game,” I say with a gasp.
Gillian prepares an arrow, ready to shoot at my command.
“So are you,” he says. “Marcus and his harem, but you seem to be short quite a few girls, if the rumors are true.”
“We don’t need our full force to deal with you,” I boast, hoping to intimidate the stranger.
“You sure about that?”
He steps into the light. The huge sword strapped to his back starts glowing blue. His shield pulses black, somehow darkening the room with each flash.
I gawk at the awesome weapons and get jealous at all the great gear warriors get to play with.
And then I notice the eyepatch.
“Shit.” I glance for escape routes, but he’s closer to the door. “You’re him.”
“I could say the same about you,” he says, clearly enjoying playing with me. Even more clearly, not concerned in the slightest that we might be able to hurt him.
“Should I shoot out his other eye?” Gillian asks.
The man laughs. “It would take a pretty lucky shot to get a pathetic arrow past my defenses.”
Gillian is still amazing with her arrows over here on Earth, but I can’t cast magic for shit. If she misses by even the slightest fraction of an inch, we might not survive his counterattack.
“Not yet. If he does anything stupid, take him down.”
The brute has the audacity to laugh. “I didn’t know my reputation struck terror in hearts quite like that. But the reality is I probably have more to fear than you. After all, Kip trapped you in the game and threatened to only let you out when you killed me, right?”
“Something like that,” I concede. “You don’t happen to know where Kip is, do you?”
“Funny you should ask.”
Before he can launch into a story, Gillian butts in. “You’re the fucking One-eyed Monster. Why should we believe a word you say?”
“And you are Gillian. Quite a wonder with the bow, and even better at stealing things right out from under our noses. Kip suckered you in, too?”
Gill
ian lowers her weapon. “Not exactly. I stumbled into the game. He learned about me right away, though. Made me the same offer. Kill you, get my freedom.”
I shoot Gillian a glance. Despite only recently learning who she really is, it hurts to hear her tell my nemesis things I don’t know about her yet. After all, she’s in my harem.
I clear my voice to remind them I’m here.
“Where’s Kip?” I ask.
The One-eyed Monster sits down on the stair landing. “Not nearly as dead as I planned for him to be.”
When he doesn’t continue, I prompt him to go on. “Explain.”
“I teleported here by accident. Once I realized where I was, I of course came to get my revenge. I nearly had the bastard when he was trying to strangle some bitch in a blue dress and fancy crown, but she screamed when she saw me, ruining my surprise.”
Gillian and I both gasp, look at each other, and say, “The queen.”
“Friend of yours?” His voice drips with menace despite him not making a move for his sword.
“Not exactly. She’s the mom of a friend of ours. We were searching for her when we teleported here. Any idea where she went?”
“I know exactly where she went. After the bitch ruined my chance to surprise Kip, he grabbed her and some other freaky broad dressed like a dog and jumped through another fucking portal, but not before that queen of yours nearly knocked him on his ass with a blast of magic that nearly created a hurricane in this damn room. He just barely managed to stay on his feet.”
Magic? How was she able to do magic over on this side? Wait. How did she even do magic at all?
“You must be mistaken,” I say.
I don’t have anything to back it up, but none of it makes sense.
While pointing up the stairs, he says, “I chased him right up to the second floor and nearly had them when he dragged them through the portal at the last second. I would have followed, except for another very unnatural blast of wind that knocked my sword from my hands and down the stairs. I came back down to get it when you two decided to stop in for a visit.”
He stands. Before either of us can react, he’s freed his sword from his back and swishes it through the air. The shield covers his neck and chest. As quickly as he can move, he’ll easily duck down behind it before either of us can hurt him.
It makes me long for the days I played as a warrior. I would have embraced my magic back in the game world, but over here where I can’t cast a spell, I’d prefer a good sword and sturdy shield.
How did she cast a spell? Did she have a scroll? I haven’t seen anything like that in the game.
“So what’s it going to be?” he asks.
I’m so lost in my thoughts I have no idea what he’s talking about. “What?”
“Are we going to fight to your death or would you like to partner up for long enough to do something about this Kip guy?”
I don’t really want to travel with an impulsive hot-head. My goal is to catch Kip and force him to free Gillian and me from the game. BoomBitch, too, if she’s really from Earth, and any other real people.
If the One-eyed Monster kills him before I can do that, he might trap us all in the game.
“What do you plan to do when you catch him?” I ask.
“What do you plan to do?” he repeats back to me.
“Ensure freedom for all of us.”
He nods grimly. “And after that, I don’t suppose you’ll mind if I kill the fucker?”
As long as he doesn’t plan to kill Kip before we can make sure the girls are safe and everyone is back where they belong, he’ll be a great addition to the team, especially until we reunite with Alexandra. “I don’t suppose I would mind that at all.”
He spits on his hand and offers it to me.
It nearly makes my stomach turn, but I spit on mine and we shake, squishing our saliva between our palms. I’m happy I’ve been traveling with women. Men are gross.
“So, where’s this portal?” I ask, wiping my hand on the inside of one of the many pockets in my robe.
In reply, he charges up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
We scurry after and find him just outside the bathroom at the far end of the hall. The bathroom door is open, but we can’t see inside because the way is blocked by another portal. We both come to a stop and, like the One-eyed Monster, stare at the pink swirling colors.
“Where does it lead?” I ask.
Without looking back at us, he shrugs. “No idea. But it’s where Kip, your queen, and that dog-thing have gone. That’s good enough for me.”
He sprints ahead and disappears into the portal.
“Our turn, I guess,” I say out loud as much to convince myself as Gillian. “This better not be a trap.”
“It’s almost certainly a trap,” Gillian says. “Come on.”
She shoves me in the back to get me moving toward the portal.
When I step through there’s a flash of light.
Before my eyes can adjust to the brightness of our new destination, I hear a woman screaming in pain.
9
When my eyes finally adjust, I see the only thing that matters. The One-eyed Monster has stabbed Alexandra in the gut.
With his blade poking straight out through her back, he walks forward, pushing her across the room.
I never should have trusted him.
Rage fills the pit of my stomach. I call forth all the fire within me and unleash it into his back.
He drops his sword and falls to his knees. With one hand pressing against the floor for balance, he screams in agony, but doesn’t die.
He turns back to look at me and shouts, “What the hell did you do that for? I was protecting you.”
It is then that I realize when he’d appeared in the room, Alexandra must have attacked him. He had no idea who she was, so he fought back. Because of my rash decision, they are both going to die.
I still have no idea where I’m at or how Alexandra got there or where the rest of the women are.
I rush to Alexandra’s side. “Are you going to be okay?” I ask like an idiot.
People with swords poking straight through the body rarely tend to fare well.
“Fucking wizards,” she says.
The One-eyed Monster laughs. “Amen. Fucking wizards.”
Despite their obvious pain, they both laugh until they start to cough.
Just as I am about to ask Alexandra where everyone else is, I hear footsteps from just outside the room. Gillian and I rise to confront them but breathe out a sigh of relief when Eulalia walks through the door.
“What the hell happened here?” she asks, rushing to Alexandra’s side. As I stammer out an explanation while pointing at the injured warriors, Eulalia starts working her magic.
A blue light surrounds her hand. She presses it against Alexandra’s body near the sword in her belly. “Marcus, pull it out.”
“You sure? I don’t think you’re supposed to do that until a doctor arrives.”
“I am the doctor. The spell will keep her from bleeding out. Pull the sword so I can finish healing her.”
I must be going into shock to have not realized something so obvious. Despite Eulalia’s magic, Alexandra still screams when I remove the sword. When my sympathy for her pain makes me stop, Eulalia nudges me with her shoulder. “Pull the fucking thing out.”
I brace my feet and yank it free. I’m fortunate that Eulalia is pressing Alexandra against the floor, because the warrior makes several attempts to punch me.
All the while, the One-eyed Monster laughs from nearby.
“You’re not right in the head, are you, man?” I ask, sitting down next to him.
“No. No, I’m really not. I used to be a decent enough guy back in the real world, but these crazy bitches in this game have changed me.” He shrugs and a muscle twitching in his cheek is the only sign that he might not be as cool and distant as he’s pretending to be. “Whatever. It is what it is, right? It’s all just a game. I take what I
want because none of it’s real.”
“That’s just a fucked up way to look at the world, man,” I argue. “I’ve seen more empathy and love over here on the game side than I ever experienced back on Earth. Real people are the assholes, in my opinion.” I glance at Gillian and quickly add, “For the most part.”
The One-eyed Monster just laughs. “Pathetic. You’re so pussy-whipped you don’t know what to do with yourself. I mean, take a look around you. There are sexy bitches just waiting to be taken, and you let them walk around unclaimed.”
While we’ve been talking, Eulalia has healed Alexandra and helped her back to her feet.
BoomBitch climbs out from under a table. “The lady with the crown knocked me out after we came through the portal. I woke up down there. Is she still around?”
She growls when I shake my head.
Alexandra searches for her sword, making me worry we’re about to have another battle if I can’t get things under control. Unfortunately, the One-eyed Monster is like a feral animal. I have no idea how to make him behave.
“You know,” the One-eyed Monster says while taking a step toward Alexandra. They both have their swords raised and ready. “If you don’t claim your treasures, some other asshole will come along and take them right out from under your nose.”
Without even swinging his sword, he does something imperceptible that makes Alexandra gasp, drop her sword and say, “No!”
The One-eyed Monster just smiles and nods his head. “Oh yes, babe. I’m going to put your naughty bits and bytes to good use since Marcus here hasn’t claimed you yet.”
From the other side of the room, BoomBitch yells, “Hey, asshole!”
The One-eyed Monster raises both hands above his head in victory. “So much treasure where you least expect it. You should’ve killed me back on Earth when you had the chance.”
He pulls something from a pocket and throws it on the ground. The swirl of smoke envelops him and stretches out to surround Alexandra. BoomBitch jumps into the smoke with them.
“Marcus,” Alexandra shouts. “He just added us to his harem. You’ve got to stop him. I can’t kill him while we’re joined like this. But if you do, we’ll be free again. Hurry.” Before I’ve even completely understood the meaning of her words, lightning bolts spring forth from my fingers.
