Gilded Obsession

by Zoey Rivera

He didn’t bother looking before bolting off. The listing for Catherine’s event had given him a copy of a map to Hallifax. So he knew if this wasn’t the town, it was the next one over.

  He was going to find her.

  She’d be okay.

  She had to be.

  Chapter 5

  Lorcan slammed through the brushes of the Mir towards Hallifax. His body fueled with an adrenalin rush coursing through his veins. It really was like Anna all over again. He shook his head and cleared her image from his mind as he ran. Maybe he wouldn’t be too late this time.

  Chris was running not far behind him trying to keep in pace as they both ripped through the forest. They both ran with their eyes locked forward and determination in each bounding step they took.

  “Lorcan, there,” Chris pointed forward at the cityline off in the distance. It must be Hallifax. Lorcan tried to pick up the pace as much as he could.

  They scoured the city looking for any place where Catherine could be. Not a single inn recognized her off description. Lorcan was beginning to wish he had some sort of image of her to show. Maybe his description was off. Too busy imagining Anna, he could be describing the wrong one to them.

  He cleared his head. No. Chris would have a more accurate description of her even if he was mistaken. But he knew he wasn't.

  An oculi whizzed quickly through the streets toward a small grey stone building covered in soft vines that were flowering, despite their surroundings. A crudely made sign hung outside the door which read Pale Pixel Pub. The two men entered and were immediately greeted with a wall of blades.

  “Well, hello to you too. Some way to greet weary travelers,” Chris noted sarcastically.

  “No, but I think it's a fitting welcome for bounty,” one of the men sneered. The other men chuckled along at his attempt at wit.

  “Bounty?” Lorcan asked.

  At this point, he and Chris had already drawn their weapons of choice and they stood in a stalemate with the men.

  “You're wanted by the elite for some reason. Nice payout for knocking over your bucket. And this guy, well. We’ll add you in just for fun,” he smiled.

  Lorcan hated players like this. The true pawns of Eden. The ones that played Eden as the Elite intended. They slaughtered. Hunted. Lurked. They did as the elite ordered.

  “Stop, I won't have bloodshed in my new restaurant!” A voice yelled across the men. They turned around to see the small girl pouting atop the bar counter.

  Both the men were relieved to see Catherine standing there. She was in different clothes than she had worn on the ship, you'd never guess that she was a woman of riches. She smiled at Lorcan and Chris. Then ran up to hug them.

  “I'm sorry,” she began to apologize to Lorcan and he waved it off. She didn’t know how he could be so forgiving of her after how she had acted. She was a brat. She had acted like she was better than him. Like a true elite player. She had called him a pawn.

  “No, I'm sorry. I’ve lost my way as of late. Chris has made it clear to me. I haven’t been myself and I have been taking my anger and grief out on everyone around me,” Lorcan said. He nodded over to Chris.

  “But you're right, I was careless and naive and I'm not ready to be alone in Eden and,” her voice tapered off into sniffles and sobs as she hugged Lorcan.

  The other men stood there confused of the reunion. They were threatening him with swords and here he was having a tear-filled reunion with a barmaid? Chris looked around and eyed the men as the two spoke with each other. One of the men impatiently tried to attack and Catherine unleashed a fury of lightning attacks from her inventory. She lashed out at him and looked toward the rest of the crowd.

  “If you would like to join him, by all means. If not, I suggest you leave my establishment,” Catherine threatened.

  The men underestimated her and decided to advance anyway. Lorcan and Chris almost simultaneously gestured to summon their machetes from their inventories and hacked away at the players. Fighting by Catherine’s side. She could feel the rush of adrenalin coursing through her veins. Men far stronger than she falling beneath her feet. Crimson bathing the air around her as they had once in her dreams of Eden after watching for hours on end.

  She smiled softly.

  This was the dream.

  This was her Eden.

  She nursed the two men back to health after that fight. She had potions to spare in her inventory. Maybe she should open a market or a clinic in her pub as well. So many ideas. She only hoped she had time to try them all.

  “Ha, liquid potion,” Chris smiled to himself.

  “Do you prefer the ooze? I've heard its texture is unpleasant so I didn't get any. But I could if you need,” Catherine offered.

  “He's one of the few who love it,” Lorcan joked, “you can just remember for next time.”

  Next time.

  She smiled warmly. She could feel her heart fluttering in her chest.

  There would be a next time.

  Chris and Lorcan bickered like usual for a long while and Catherine tended to the other patrons in her establishment. They drank and debated what to do from here.

  “If we want to stay, I could always give the Willow to Erik for now. I'm close enough to his habitation module outside of Eden that if I wanted it back I could arrange something with him,” Chris suggested.

  “To Erik?” Lorcan seemed mildly disappointed even though he knew that Erik was probably the most suited on the ship to run it.

  “Unless you want me to give it to one of the cabin boys,” Chris joked.

  “No, no. Erik will do,” Lorcan waved off the joking suggestion.

  “Alright well, I'll find a room to logout in and leave him a message. Because Eden knows I'm not running all the way back to the ship,” Chris let out a hearty laugh and excused himself.

  Once he was out of the pub, Catherine came and took his seat across from Lorcan. Her misty eyes full of happiness and sorrow. He scratched his neck. He didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t the emotions or apology guy. He was hot tempered and reactionary. Chris was the one you went to when you needed to share your feelings or have a human connection with someone. He was who you talked to when you were going to get reprimanded or die. She blinked back tears in her eyes. She really must feel guilty about before. Lorcan sighed.

  “I told you, it's alright,” Lorcan said comfortingly.

  “I know it's just great to get to see you again,” Catherine smiled with her lips, opposed to her usual beaming toothy grin. She really did look like Anna like this.

  “I'm going to logout and get a room. I suggest you do the same when you close up shop,” Lorcan said.

  “I have plenty of workers. I could now, and actually I was wondering if it is still alright if I met you,” Catherine bit her lip.

  Her face reddened as she asked and Lorcan smiled. He patted her on the head and smiled at her.

  “Of course,” he said.

  She rushed to get the establishment working on its own and then ran up to her room to logout. Lorcan slowly rose from his chair and paid the barmaid for his meal before exiting to an inn. He didn't see which way Chris had vanished off to so he would have to meet him up tomorrow to arrange their plan for living.

  He rented a room and laid out across the bed. He was about to meet her. He gestured to pull up his dashboard then initiated the signing out process.

  Ten.

  He didn't know quite how to feel about it. He was just meeting Catherine. It wasn’t someone he didn’t already know but he felt for some reason this was different. Maybe because this was an elite he was meeting. But she wasn’t an elite in game. She was no higher than him. They could both die in game just the same. He felt anxious and nervous.

  But he knew that his heart seemed happy about it.

  Nine.

  Eight...

  He let out slow breaths as he listened to the all too familiar countdown. His heart was almost pumping in tune with it. Every count was two thuds in his chest.

 
Five.

  Thump Thump

  He smiled softly and allowed the darkness to envelope him. Tuning out the noises of Hallifax and Eden and letting his conscious be replaced into his other body. Knowing that Catherine was doing the same.

  Four.

  Thump Thump.

  She would be smiling. Too excited to relax to the countdown. Wishing that the count wasn’t so slow so that she could run to meet him sooner.

  Three.

  Thump Thump.

  She would be fidgeting in her bed trying to get comfortable. Even if it was irrelevant to her character whether or not it was comfortable once she was logged out.

  Two.

  Thump Thump.

  She would be too excited to notice the other person creeping into the room.

  One.

  And standing over her.

  Chapter 6

  Lorcan hated waking up in his habitation module. He tried to avoid it as much as he could. His world was Eden, not the grey walled prison of the facility. He didn't fit here. He smiled in spite of his mind. He was sounding like her. Perhaps he wasn't so different from her.

  He started going through his logout routine of trying to tidy up his surroundings as best he could and gathering together all the trash and other mess he could filter out and refresh. He wasn’t the tidiest person by a long shot but he did his best to make his hab module at least livable. It used to be better maintained when Anna was around. She would even go through the efforts of decorating it as much as she could.

  He looked over to Anna’s bed. It would always be Anna’s bed. They offered to remove it to give him more space in the room but he refused. He wanted that side to stay untouched for her.

  He exited his room and saw Chris and Erik in a heated discussion in the hallway. It was probably because of Chris vanishing without a word. He really could be a good sea captain if his heart wasn't in a million places at once. Their voices boomed across the hall as they argued.

  “I’m just telling you that the ship is yours now, I don’t know what the big deal is. You wanted to run the ship anyway,” Chris said.

  “No, I wanted you to actually bother trying to run the ship as a proper pirate vessel like you used to and not a buddy-buddy boat that takes in any old lost child looking for adventure and a murderer who’s off his rocker that slaughters ninety-eight percent of them before I even get a chance to put them to work!” Erik argued. He caught Lorcan in his peripherals.

  “Oi speak of the devil and the devil shall rise,” he shook his head.

  Lorcan lifted an arm to acknowledge the two and they waved back kurtly before returning to their discussion. He headed down the hall to the trash chute, emptying the bag into the receptacle and grabbing fresh clothes and other necessities. Their discussion muffled by walls and doors but still carrying through and following him as he left the hall area into the cafeteria.

  The cafeteria was always somewhat busy, with everyone on different schedules of logging in and out of Eden. Today seemed a lot emptier than usual though. His palms started sweating. Would Catherine actually be coming? He was feeling like a school boy again. Getting that feeling from the first time he met Anna outside of Eden.

  He stood by the machines and debated what he wanted to eat. Because of his payout, he actually had enough to eat something decently filling for a change besides the normal grey cube of sludge he would order. It was the cheapest thing on the menu though, so he couldn’t complain too much about its quality.

  Well, he could complain about a lot of things but it wouldn’t get him anywhere.

  He ordered his food and sat down at a table to enjoy it. He found a seat that was relatively close to the doors leading down the hall. Just in case Erik and Chris cared to join him after they finished arguing. He scratched his head. He really did cause a bit of a mess aboard the ship. It made sense for Erik to be enraged. He sighed.

  A bit of a mess was an understatement, in this past month alone he had killed, injured, or scared off at least twenty-five cabin boys. He practically caused a full rotation in the entire crew the last time he really lashed out before they dragged him back to Aeston to settle down. Erik was right. He really was a murderer.

  He knew this job would be good for him though. Not just money wise, but he needed to get out and back aboard the ship. He couldn’t be in their home. In his and Anna’s home in Aeston, for so long. It would have driven him even more insane than he already was. The constant memories and reminder of his failure to protect her.

  He looked toward the opening doors off in the other end of the room. The whole room fell mute as the doors revealed a bit of the outside world to the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch a couple of armed security guards in black suits enter. It was strange seeing people not dressed in the usual dull attire the habitation modules provided. Appearing from behind the men, a petite girl with fluffy brown hair and a golden yellow dress emerged.

  Catherine.

  She entered the habitation module looking almost identical to her in-game appearance. Most of the time, people looked slightly different than their characters. Having the ability to work out themselves in different ways than they were able to in the habitation modules. But it seemed that Catherine was true to life.

  Of course, she hadn’t truly lived in Eden long enough to begin to change her appearance so it made sense. She scanned across the crowd and her eyes immediately locked onto his. She smiled. Looks like he was close enough as well.

  “LORCAN!” she screamed excitedly.

  If anyone needed a reason to target him, this would be it. An elite girl excitedly greeting him and approaching him as more than a sponsor, but a friend. It would be hard to explain it to anyone outside who she was to him. But for now, she was here and he was happy to see her.

  She rushed up to him and made him stumble back a bit as she collided into him to give him a hug. He returned the hug quickly and escaped from her arms. He sat down with her at the table. People were stealing glances over to them to see what was going on. Trying to lean in close to eavesdrop on their conversation. Not that they had to with the volume Catherine spoke at.

  “I can’t believe that I’m actually meeting you,” she smiled, “I could die happy right now. There’s so much I want to ask you though. What’s it like living in a habitation module? Can we go see yours? Is this food any good? It looks nothing like the food I get at home. What is this made out of?”

  She looked as if she were about to attempt to poke his food with her finger. Lorcan lifted his plate away from her and sighed. It was like meeting her for the first time all over again. That overly zealous and carefree presence that was unmistakably Catherine. He was glad to see that Eden hadn’t brought her down.

  “One question at a time and don’t poke my food. I need to eat this,” Lorcan said.

  “Okay,” Catherine folded her hands in her lap. She looked like a doll, so tiny and elegantly dressed, save for the clearly hand-made pirate hat on her head.

  “So, what’s the stats on that thing? Any good increase to defense?” Lorcan smiled, nodding to her hat as he spoke.

  Catherine took a moment to process the question and then giggled when she realized what he was referring to. She removed the hat from her head and handed it over to him to hold. He fiddled with it between his fingers and felt the cloth.

  It was definitely the same hat but it was different than the one he had held in game. That one felt like it was made of a quality material like leather. This one seemed to be made of the fabric of a cut up old shirt.

  “No, it’s just cute,” she smiled.

  Lorcan allowed himself a small chuckle as he continued eating. Catherine looked around to take in her surroundings. She was awestruck at how so many people were living on so little and surviving. It was hard for her to even comprehend how it could work. Lorcan finished his food and stood up from his seat.

  “Alright then, you wanted to see the hab module?” Lorcan said.

  “Yes!” Catherine e
agerly shot out of her seat as well and started following him to his room. The guards that had arrived with her joined them down the hall.

  “I don’t know what you’re imagining to be in there but it’s not that different from any other room. Four walls, two beds, and a night stand,” Lorcan said.

  “Two beds?” Catherine tilted her head up at him.

  “Yes, two. For a few years, I was living with someone special. I kept her bed there even though she is gone,” he said.

  “Until she comes back?” Catherine asked her voice was so pure and hopeful. It almost physically hurt to hear.

  “No,” Lorcan’s voice became gentle and full of sorrow, “she’s not coming back.”

  “Well maybe if you reach out to her and tell her that you miss her she’ll—”

  “No, Cat. She’s—”

  Thud.

  Lorcan turned and looked down to see Catherine’s body collapsed on the floor. She had fallen but she wasn’t moving to get up. The guards and Lorcan rushed to crouch beside her. She wasn’t breathing. Her eyes were empty. No pulse.

  “She’s dead,” Lorcan whispered under his breath.

  He had seen this happen before only once. It was a dirty way of killing someone but it was a method people used. Waiting for a character to be helpless and abandoned and slaughtering them in their logged out state.

  The worst part was that as far as Lorcan was told, unless you were logged in, you had no idea what was going on. You didn’t feel the attacks as your HP drained. You couldn’t tell what was happening to your body. The only way you would know would be logging back in at just the wrong time to take your last breath in Eden. At least she didn't die in pain.

  “We need to take her back. Out of the way!” one of the guards growled as they picked her body off the floor. They carried her limp form away as her hat fluttered to Lorcan’s feet. The guards seemed uninterested in it, as Lorcan picked it up and held it in his fists again. He was right there and powerless to save her. He'd let his guard down again. His heart panged as he gripped the hat tighter. But no tears came to his eyes, only rage clouded his mind.