by J P Carver
Thought you gave up or something… Cotora said and he heard a distinct sadness in her voice. Where have you been?
“Trying not to die, the game is glitching to hell and back,” he said and came into the room completely. White lights flickered on and blinded him for a few seconds. “You know anything about it?”
I’m busy keeping this rust bucket in orbit, I don’t really care about the stupid game.
“Keeping it orbit? Algos should be in a stable orbit. What do you have to do about it?” Geo asked, a sinking feeling building in his gut.
It’s nothing to worry about, I have it resolved now.
“Hello, Cotora,” Peyton said with a wide wave. “It’s great to see you again.”
Is it? You must have enough to level then, Cotora said in a snide voice that made Peyton smile. Well let’s get on with it. Who’s the new girl?
“I’m Klara. You are?”
The only good AI on this station it seems like. I’m Cotora, I keep all of us alive.
“Right,” Klara said with a glance to Geo. “You said something about leveling up? Can I do that?”
I don’t know, can you? Open up your stat sheet and apply your points to level up.
“Okay…” Klara said and opened her screen.
You’re building quite the harem, you pervert.
“Me?” Geo asked and then gestured to Peyton. “She’s the one responsible. It’s not my harem.”
“I always wanted a harem,” Peyton said with a sly smile. “But, I got you, so that’s enough for now.”
I hate all of you. Can you hurry? I have other things to do.
Geo sighed and opened his stat screen. He had enough for two levels from killing all the puppets and the creature. He thought about splitting the two points in affinity and strength, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. With two more points in strength he could use the sword..
“What are you getting?” Peyton asked as she rested her chin on his shoulder. He fought the reflexive jerk and turned to look at her. “I continued with the dex and affinity. No new skill or spell, though.
“I’m not sure yet. I think I might put two in strength.”
“So you can use your new sword, huh? That’s not a bad idea.”
“I’m not so sure.” He couldn’t help the nagging feeling that kept creeping up, one that said he shouldn’t consider using the sword at all.
“Well, a new weapon would be good, but more affinity never hurts.” She turned a little and pressed her lips against his cheek and then backed away. He stared at her, confused. “That was for being nice to Kaeru.”
Geo quickly put the two points into strength and glanced over his stat sheet.
Name: Geo Wilson
Level: 9
Health 900/900
Mental Status: Anguish (-2), Determination (+4) Despair (-12)
Body: 7
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 6
Stamina: 280/280
Psyche: 92/100
Affinity: 9
Experience: 3000
He then turned to her as he finished equipping the sword. “Uh… speaking of which, how come you never summoned him before?”
“Like I said, it was a reward for doing better. Kaeru is always with me, but he’s normally a little toad. It takes a lot to bring him into the world as he is. I can only do it once a floor and can only sustain it for a little while.” She reached into the bag on her hip and lifted a small toad from it. “He’s already back to being such a cute little guy.”
“I hope you didn’t kiss him before me,” Geo said as he closed out his window after checking it one last time.
“I would never kiss Kaeru after you, when was the last time you took a bath?”
“Uh… that’s a good question,” he said and suddenly felt itchy. “But I bet I’m cleaner than a fr—toad.”
“Nice catch,” Peyton said, but still glared at him. “Is something else bothering you?”
“It’s nothing,” Geo said as he thought back to what the creature had said as it died. “Nothing important.”
Peyton moved around in front of him and clasped her hand around his and squeezed. “Come on, tell me.”
He raked his teeth across his top lip and shrugged. “That thing Kaeru and I killed. It said something when it died.”
“What?”
“They will still die,” he said flatly and watched Peyton’s face. She didn’t react beyond raising her eyebrows slightly. “That doesn’t unnerve you?”
“It’s not a great thought, but I wouldn’t take dying words to mean much.”
“That whole thing just felt off. I’m worried about what’s coming.”
“We’ll deal with it just as we have been. Don’t stress so much, nothing can be done by us right now.” She squeezed his hand one more time and then released it while turning to Klara. “You done yet, Klara?”
“I put everything in affinity. I can now summon a level 14 creature.”
“That didn’t work out so well last time,” Geo said.
“Because I was too weak from bringing over the second summon. I didn’t expect them to have any trouble with that creature. Then it stuck one and that stupid sword basically cleaved through the other.” Klara glared down at her hands and then closed them to fists. “There wasn’t a thing I could do after that.”
“Well, hopefully a high level summon will prove more useful,” Peyton said and looked to Cotora. “I’m assuming that thing we killed wasn’t a boss, and that this is a safe room on the same floor.”
Correct, it was a mini-boss which once defeated opened this room. This floor still has not been cleared.
“Great. Any idea where we can find the boss room?” Geo asked.
None.
“She couldn’t tell us even if she did,” Peyton said and went to the door. She cracked the door and then closed it. “It’s back to normal out there, everyone is waiting for us.”
“Do we really have to do gym class? I’m dead from that whole nightmare dungeon,” Geo said as he struggled to his feet.
“Stop being a baby,” Klara said. “I almost died and you don’t hear me bitching.”
“Yeah, yeah. Fine.” He made his way to the door and opened it. All the kids were watching them as they came out and a few had shit-eating grins. Geo sighed. Nothing like being the subject of rumors on your first day.
Strung Up
The rest of the school day passed quickly, and by the time the final bell rang, Geo was about to just keel over and die. Outside Peyton met him at the gate while he walked with Klara.
“Oh, you don’t look so good. Good thing we found that safe room,” Peyton said as she pushed up against his side and put her arm around his waist. “You really that tired?”
“I’m the walking dead,” he said with a small chuckle. “Everything must be catching up with me.”
“What happened to you?” a voice called out.
Geo looked behind to find Aya rushing up to them. The last thing he needed to deal with was a sister he knew nothing about. Still, the look of concern on her face softened his annoyance. “Peyton, what happened?”
“He partied too hard,” she said and got a glare from Aya as she took his other side. “He’s just tired, think gym class took it out of him.”
“Come on, we need to get him home to rest,” she said and Geo didn’t argue. “He might be coming down with something.”
“Klara, you come too, we can hang out. Girl talk,” Peyton said. Geo was fairly sure the girl talk she had in mind had to do with the death of Audra.
The walk home was torturous. His limbs just felt like jelly and he couldn’t figure out why. As soon as they were in the door, the girls dropped him on the couch and he just laid how he fell.
“Should we get the doctor?” Aya asked as she placed her hand to his forehead. “He feels warm.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Peyton said as she replaced Aya’s hand. “You are really hot though.”
“
I’d make a joke if my head wasn’t pounding,” Geo said and closed his eyes. The entire room felt hot, and he thought he could hear everyone’s heartbeat as it moved their blood. Hot blood. Powerful blood. He wanted that blood.
He opened his eyes to find the living room washed in moonlight. The air felt cool now, like he had stepped into air conditioning after being out in the sun all day. He stood slow, his head spinning, and he had to use the armrest of the couch to stop himself from face planting into the coffee table. Whatever was wrong with him hadn’t completely left. He was hungry, though.
In the kitchen he opened the fridge. Sitting on the top shelf was a plastic container with his name on it. Attached to it was a piece of paper with a little heart and Aya’s signature. The drawing of the heart was a bit much, but when he opened the container to find basically a full dinner separated into compartments, he thought he may love her as a sister then.
He heated the food and sat down to eat. The house and street were quiet. Only the odd passing car broke the silence. It was a good silence, he thought as he forked another piece of meat. He was about to put it in his mouth when the sound of glass shattering made him jump and he dropped the fork.
Taking the steps two at a time, he was up them in a flash and paused in the hallway. He didn’t know which room the sound had come from and so started looking through them one at a time. He found what he assumed was his parents room. They were sound asleep… it was a bit strange to consider them his parents when he had never met them before, but he pushed that thought away and went to the next door.
It was his room, he stepped in and found nothing else out of place. Maybe he had imagined the sound.
The next room he found Peyton still sleeping soundly in her bed. He went to her and shoved her shoulder. She stirred and blinked a few times at him and when she seemed to recognize him, she became wide awake. “Geo? What is it? You okay?”
“I heard a sound,” he said and went to the window. Nothing looked out of place. “Like glass breaking.”
Peyton got out of bed as he headed to the door. Only one room left to check and as his hand touched the knob, he felt his stomach shift. There was something very wrong on the other side of the door and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to see it.
With a stabling breath he turned the knob and pushed the door open. Cool fall air greeted him like a slap to the face. The room was pitch black and yet, the shades were open. He reached for the switch even though everything inside was telling him not to touch it.
The click sounded like thunder in the room and the light pulsed into life, shining across the room and pushing away the darkness. What it revealed was something Geo was sure would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.
Over the bed, hanging from wire like a puppet, was Aya. Blood dripped down onto her comforter from the holes the wire made. The horror of it became worse when he saw her chest raise and fall. She was still alive.
Without thinking he grabbed Peyton and ran to the bed. “Use your heal skill, she's still alive,” he said as he hopped onto the covers and took an elixir out of his inventory. He pried her mouth open and dumped the entire thing into her mouth.
“She’s not responding to it,” Peyton said, her distraught voice cutting through him. “Her hit points aren’t rising.”
“Are they going down?” he shouted as he forced Aya to drink another elixir.
“N—no, they aren’t.”
“Then keep it up while I cut her down!” He hopped off the bed, but paused. The smell of blood hit him and he noticed the pool of it soaking into the mattress. He froze, a desire pulling him toward the pool. He wanted to touch it, to feel it, to —
“What the hell are you doing?” Peyton shouted, and it broke him out of his trance. He looked up to her and snapped back into action, looking for anything that could cut wire. He found a toolkit in Aya's bookshelf that she must’ve used for crafts and dug through it. There was a tiny pair of clipping pliers and he hoped they would be enough as he came back.
As he did, he noticed two people standing in the doorway, eyes wide. His parents. It surprised him that they looked a bit like his real parents, but he ignored the feelings that drew up and began to work on the spider-web of wires.
“Geo—”
“Call the police, ambulance, something! Don’t just stand there. Help me get her down.” He clipped another wire as his ‘dad’ moved to the bed and tried to support his daughter as the wires continued to loosen.
They laid her on the floor after he snipped the last wire and Peyton continued to apply her
“How—what happened? What are you doing, Peyton?” his ‘dad’ asked and went to reach for Peyton’s hand, but Geo stopped him.
“She’s keeping her alive. Don’t distract her, okay?” he said and his ‘dad’ didn’t question it. Instead he smoothed his daughters hair and fought back tears.
Geo felt like he should feel some sorrow or worry, but it was distant. He didn’t know these people and Aya wasn’t his real sister. Still, it almost felt wrong to be there and to be so calm, it wasn't like him to feel so... cold.
The medics arrived a few minutes later and Peyton went along to make sure Aya didn’t die on the way, but they wouldn’t allow anyone else.
It was an awkward ride to the hospital in the back of his parent’s car. They kept quiet, which Geo appreciated as his mind was racing. It just kept coming back to what the creature had said that day.
They will still die.
Home Again
Geo sat in the waiting room of the ER and sipped bad coffee. He was alone as his parents had gone to see Aya. She was stable, but none of the doctors could explain how she survived. He knew it was because of Peyton, but no one would believe she had a healing spell.
A chuckle escaped him, he was starting to see this world as real life and that wasn’t something he expected to happened. He took another sip of coffee and stared out at the night. Could he ever go back to living on the station alone?
Another thought struck him as he let his mind wander. It was about the blood in Aya’s room. It had been running through his head off and on, along with what the creature had said when it died. The thoughts were bouncing about and the headache was returning.
“Hey,” Peyton said as she dropped into the chair next to him. She grabbed the coffee from his hand and took a long sip. “Bleh, that’s terrible.”
“It really is,” he said as she handed it back. “How is she?”
“Doing better. The wires were put into places where she would bleed out, but it damaged no vital organs. She was meant to suffer.” She had a disgusted look on her face as she stared down the hall. “It was done by one of my AIs.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve seen this level before. Well, not this one exactly, but of its kind. The school, the mysterious deaths, the otherworld? It’s never been this dark.”
“No one has died, though.”
“You sure about that?” she said and gestured toward the TV in the corner. He hadn’t even noticed it. The news was playing and a woman with far too much make-up on was talking with a picture of a building beside her.
The news ticker below her said: Gruesome murder of local school principal.
“So two were attacked tonight,” Geo said and sighed. “The guy was an ass, but he didn’t really deserve that.”
“No one does. It sounds like he was strung up too. That at least takes one suspect off the list for who my AI is.”
“Do you remember which one runs this game?”
She shook her head. “Even if I did, it wouldn’t help. They’re someone we already met and they won’t reveal themselves until we solve it.”
“I hate mysteries,” Geo said and laid his head against the wall. “I can’t believe someone did that to her.”
“You don’t feel bad, though?” she asked and he shook his head.
“I should, I know that, but it’s not really there. I feel bad for her, but there isn’
t that kind of pain you get when someone you know well gets hurt. Maybe I’ve just numbed that part of me over the years.”
“No, it makes sense, you’ve only known her a few days and you also know she isn’t real.”
“Klara wasn’t real either,” Geo said and Peyton drop her head some. “You talk to her?”
“She’s not one for chatting, but Audra ate her and somehow Klara destroyed her. We’ll talk to her more in the morning. I know where she lives now.”
“Well, that’s something at least.” He took another sip of coffee. It was actually tasting better the more he drank.
“But, there’s something else we need to talk about.”
“What’s that?
She stared at him for a moment, and when he said nothing she sighed. “Still hiding.”
“What?”
“Nothing, maybe I’m just overthinking things. Forget about it.” She stood and stretched. “You coming with me? Your parents said we should head to your aunts for the night. She's gonna pick us up outside.”
Geo shook his head and tossed the cup into the trash. “We’re not going there, we’re going to check Aya’s rooms and see if there are any clues.”
“For someone who hates mysteries you sure are rearing to go looking through your sister’s blood soaked room.”
Geo flinched. “Don’t put it like that, makes me sound heartless.”
“Aren’t you?”
“If I am, if came from hanging around you,” he said as he headed toward the doors. He heard her laugh as she caught up.
They took the bus and by the time they reached home it had been a few hours since the attack on Aya. To Geo’s surprise, the police were still on the scene. Two cars were parked out at the curb and the lights in the living room were on. Geo stopped on the sidewalk and looked up and down the street.
“They’re not going to let us into the room.”
