by Dawn Chapman
“So you just work for Dresel. Is it money or something else? I’m trying to understand the reasons.”
Abel looked away. “A lot of it’s the money. I had a problem back in my world. Managed to finally sort it out, then came across Dresel. He offered me something of both worlds. I could play the games and not gamble with my home and life.”
“There’s something else, though. What?”
“I don’t feel alive in my homeworld.” He fingered the edge of his shirt. “It’s like there’s the day job, which pays some of my bills, people I owe money to, but nothing compares to logging in here, sticking around to find issues, and fix them. Working with the people here. It’s more than real.”
I could see he really felt that, and it made me feel better. Like this world wasn’t just imaginary to him or to them.
“Everyone’s experience in this game is very different, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Yes, take your friend Alex for example. He played because he was ill.”
I swallowed and glanced away. They didn’t know what Riezella had done with him. “Is he still alive in your world? Do you think you could find out for me?”
I hadn’t even thought about this before to even ask. To know for sure if his life had passed on.
Abel seemed to look to the left, and I could only imagine he was accessing his interface. “I do have to log out later on tonight. I could ask. What was his full name?”
I wasn’t sure if his name here was the same as there. “I don’t know,” was all I could manage. “Here his name was Alex Dubois.”
“Well, I’ll try and find out anything I can, even if I talk to Dresel back at the main labs.”
“Thank you.” My head spun though, would it be news I could handle? I mean what if his body was still alive?
I forced that thought to one side when I noticed Ian enter the bar. He had two younger men with him, one still in slacks and an oil riddled shirt. I’d never seen them before, but they nodded my way. Ian grinned at me, and wandered over, leaving the other guys to find a table.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Course not,” I said. “Pull up a chair. This is Abel. Abel, this is Ian, the man who will fix the Hog.”
Ian pulled a chair over and plopped down, holding a hand out for Abel to shake. Which he did, strongly. “Any friend of Madz is a friend of mine. You’re watching her back, right?”
Abel raised an eyebrow. Ian tapped the side of his head. “Implant. I’m able to see and read all Visitor quests and stats.”
Coughing out some of his beer, Abel choked out. “What? How did you manage to get that kind of add-on.”
Ian grinned. “When you’re smart, you can create most things you need. I wanted to be able to know who was what around me. There are only two prototypes of this in the world.”
Abel looked concerned, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Any thoughts on what we need for the Hog?” I asked as the barkeeper placed some of our food down for us. Abel dug in straight away, but I kept mine at bay, suddenly feeling sick.
Ian lowered his eyes. “It needs a new Rolestak.”
I pushed my food away and swallowed down some more beer.
“Is that bad?” Abel asked, mouth full of food.
“There’s only one place we can get a new one. We can’t re-create it. It needs to be new.”
“Where do we get it?”
I glanced to the barman who was serving a couple of other guys.
“Only one place around here that might have one.”
“And he was the reason I was almost run out of town the last time I was here.”
“Great. Sounds like we’re in for some fun tomorrow then.”
“No, if we’re going, it will have to be tonight. He sleeps a lot during the day.”
Abel looked to the friends of Ian’s who now had food. “They are here so they can help us?”
Ian nodded. “Dec and Rai are good guys, but if you’re heading to the dark forest, you’ll need some extra eyes.”
“Are we talking about vampires?”
“I’m not sure on your species clarification,” Ian said. “But Doctor Foster is a Demon Lord.”
“Oh, that makes it even more fun.” I swallowed down more beer and picked up my fork. Since when had this lone vampire managed to obtain Demon Lord status? I highly doubted this was the case, but he was good at obtaining some of the things he wanted. He’d wanted me, but I’d declined and ran as fast as I could from the place.
When Abel then asked… “Do we get to kill him?”
I spat out my food. “Don’t say things like that around here.”
“Why? seems the place is pretty quiet.”
Ian glanced around nervously. “There have been some local gangs that would love to have taken him out, but he’s locked himself quite deep in a mountain lair.”
Abel tucked himself in closer to Ian. “If we did manage to fend this guy off, would the Hell’s Pass join Maddie’s Quest Event?”
“Ah. I saw notifications for that.” He turned to face me. “You started that?”
I nodded and finally managed to get food into my mouth without choking on it.
“Then we need to move this conversation somewhere private.” Ian pushed his chair back and went to the bar. He spoke with the barman for quite some time, and I couldn’t make out what they were talking about at all, maybe another language, but reading his lips wasn’t working.
By the time Ian returned to us, Abel had almost finished his food. “Come with me,” Ian said and motioned to Dec and Rai who started to head over.
I frowned at my plate of food, but Abel picked it up for me, and I followed with the beer glasses.
“Bring us in some more drinks before we lock it down, Val,” Ian said to the waitress who sat at the end of the bar. She winked at him, and I kept on walking until we left that part of the bar.
We walked down for quite some time, the floor gently sloping away from us. Passing room after room, all the doors closed, locked, some with padlocks too. This confused and kind of scared me. Where were we going? Then, finally, at the end of the corridor, Ian knocked at the door and placed his hand to palm it open. He bid us inside. Abel checked out the room first before he let me in.
“It’s got some heavy wards installed on it,” Abel said. “I don’t think anyone will hear our conversations in here.”
I stepped inside, placing the beer on the table. The waitress had followed us with several other beers, along with a bottle of spirit with five shot glasses. “If you need anything else, just ping me.” And she left.
I watched as Ian sat, followed by Dec and Rai. All three of them stared at me. “Meet, Declan Hoors and Rai Sal. Meet Maddie Vies and Abel Rimmer.”
“Pleasure, Maddie.” Declan held out his hand for me, and I shook it with a firm grip. Rai was a little more nervous. No maybe not nervous, but wary. He didn’t hold out his hand.
“I’m not rude, Maddie,” he said. “I have a gift that if I touch another’s skin, I see things that they don’t want me to see. So I prefer no physical contact, and I hate wearing gloves.”
I smiled at him. “No worries.”
“So what is this place, and why did you ask us down here?” Abel asked taking one of the shot glasses off the pile and pouring himself a drink.
“We knew Maddie would return one day for that part. Hoped it would have been a little sooner, but that’s a different story.”
“Wait, so you’ve been hanging around knowing I’d come back to do what?”
“Take out the new Demon Lord.” Abel was right on the nose, and I knew it too. I wished he wasn’t.
“I’ve been up against the doctor once before. He’s not someone you mess with.”
“No, we know that, and he’s just been getting stronger each night he’s holed up in there. He needs to go.”
“So you think I’m the one to do that.
“Exactly. Declan and Rai are trained in many arts to aid you in this,
and with Abel as well, you’d be a small fighting force that he wouldn’t be expecting at all.”
“I know I need the part for the Hog, but this is a little extortionate. A huge ask from me. Why didn’t you guys just put up a job for it and call in any Visitors you could?”
“Because they’d take all the loot, and knowing you’d need it wasn’t right. Those kinds of parts don’t come along very often and last a lifetime. You had to come back when yours failed, and it was just a matter of time.”
“But how many more has he killed or worse, kept trapped with him?” I shuddered at the thought of him keeping prisoners inside the castle he’d sequestered. But I knew that is exactly what he would have needed to do to survive.
“So, with all this time you’ve had on your hands, what’s the plan then?”
Ian looked at Declan. “Go ahead.”
Declan placed his palm on the table’s centre and a large video screen popped up at the side of the room. We all moved to look at it and watched as the view switched to three separate screens. “There’s only one way we’re going to get in. Through the back door. The front has many guards, but the back has a couple less. There’s no dungeon we can crawl through and no sewers. There are just two spots, the entrance and the back door where he gets deliveries. The plan would be to dress you up as…” He coughed, and I laughed.
“You want me to dress up as dinner for him?”
“Not very original, is it?”
“What would you suggest?”
I sat there pulling my plate of almost cold dinner to me and continued to munch on it. The root veggies were nice and crunchy just as I loved them to be. I paused, drank some beer, and looked at the screens again.
“I’m almost betting he knows I’m in town, he has eyes and ears everywhere. Especially after last time.”
Ian nodded then with a sigh, admitted, “She’s right.”
“So, we walk to his front door and just take the fight to him. Even if he’s ready, how much stronger can he actually be? There have not been enough missing people in the area for him to have massive stores.”
Rai tapped the table and brought up the local missing people reports and the traffic watch they had on the ‘backdoor.’ They were at least well prepared.
Chapter 6
Plucking up the courage to head into the lair of a notorious vampire, and now supposed Demon Lord, was tough.
Ian wasn’t coming with us, so the small party I’d be leading now consisted of Abel, our tank. Declan for damage and Rai for healing. I would probably do a little of everything if possible. I checked my equipment. I had nothing new, nothing extra I could use here to help either of us.
Abel’s grin was huge, though. It went with the massive personality that accompanied his size. I would have said gentle giant, but he might take offence. He gave all the indications that he was a great guy to be around, but I also felt he was hiding something else. Maybe it was just me feeling cynical, though. I didn’t want to trust anyone at the moment. Programming aside, I was learning how to be myself now—and to be around people without falling in love with everyone.
The grounds for the ‘castle’ weren’t as I remembered. There was a great darkness that seemed to just envelope the whole area. I walked with Abel beside me, Declan and Rai behind us. There was no going back now. What I really wanted to do was turn and run, but that wasn’t going to get my Hog fixed.
I noticed the two guards as I stepped into the eerie light from the porch. They were heavily armed, and they knew it. There was no fear showing on their faces.
“The doctor has been expecting you,” one of them said as they moved to open the door. “He’s asked that you go through and meet him in the main living room.”
I glanced at Abel, who didn’t look happy. I guess they all really did just want to go in guns blazing. However, I didn’t think this would help our situation at all. To me, it seemed there was much more going on here than even the visitors could know.
I knew where the main living room was, and I also knew I didn’t want to go there. It would mean looking at that ugly statue that he had on display. A living person, stuck forever, watching everything going on around them, trapped. Evil beyond measure.
However, when I stepped into the corridor leading to the main halls, I found the decor to be very different. White walls, clean wooden floors, not a splash of darkness, and certainly no carpet at all. I figured easier to clean blood off and shuddered.
Abel and Rai eased on ahead of me, and I let them. Declan caught my arm and pulled me to him, asking, “What do you think all of this actually means?”
The audacity of him grabbing me came with an instant reaction. I shoved him off and said. “I think he’s done a lot more than become a Demon Lord.”
Abel motioned for us to hurry and follow them through to the living space. I walked in and avoided the place where I had seen the statue, yet my eye was drawn to it once more, but there was nothing there. In its place was a cage, and within it, the most beautiful bird I’d ever seen. Drawn to it. I stepped forward and reached out, slowly so I wouldn’t frighten it.
The bird sensed my approach and turned to me, it’s bright blue feathers and flaming red ring around its neck something to behold. I couldn’t look away.
Abel moved to my side, and we both stared at the creature while the other two wandered around the room. I didn’t know what to do but stare. Then the creature started to sing. Its beautiful sounds echoed around the room in wonderful tones that moved me on such a deep level.
I turned to Abel. “Do you know what this is?”
He shook his head, obviously as mesmerised as I was. Then I heard a voice behind me, a cough. Doctor Foster. “Miss Vies,” he said, and as I turned, he stepped into the room.
There was a strange glow about him, one that I couldn’t put my finger on, and I tried to force a smile. “You know why I’m here.”
“Yes.” He grinned. “Beautiful bird, is she not?”
I glanced back to the bird who had stopped singing. Instead, she was perched on the end of a twig, staring at him. Her eyes seemed to reveal so much of her soul. I had to get her out of here. She couldn’t be with this monster...
“Do not fret, I am not hurting her. She’s to be locked up during the day, and I let her free at night.”
“What is she?” I asked as Declan and Rai returned to join both of us.
“She’s an Alerosa, a species native to Hikirio. She’s a singer by nature, but she’s shy around me. So I’m glad you were able to bring her out of her funk for a little while. I love to hear her sing.”
I looked him up and down, noticing his attire, the long cloak and black clothes gone. He was wearing plain light coloured pants and a summer shirt. The deserts were always warm, but I’d never seen him warm. That confused me, and so did the pink almost glowing skin.
“What’s been going on here?”
“A long story, my friend. Please take a seat, and I’ll try my best to explain what happened since the day you ran out of this castle.”
I tried not to panic as I felt the sudden need to escape once again, but I held back. There was so much that was different about the place. It shocked me. So I sat, and he did as well, reaching over to pour us all a drink.
“I didn’t think you’d return quite so quickly. And I realise that my intentions to you, to keep you here were wrong. So I decided to change that. To become something different.”
“How did you manage to do even half of this?” I indicated his change of wardrobe, the no carpets, and the re-decoration.
“I escaped the castle and went travelling. I found a portal.”
“What?” I swallowed, my stomach knotting. “A portal?”
“Yes, there’s one right under this castle. I didn’t know about it, and we realised its potential shortly after that night.”
“Where does it take you?” Abel asked.
“There’s a city, but I find the word they use hard to say. It’s something like London.”
“London. Isn’t that one of the cities we need to visit?”
I glanced at Abel my fear growing, “Yes, it is... But you said no, right?”
“Do you think it would matter if we went to take a look?”
“You want to see?”
I nodded at the doctor, but inside my twisting stomach turned to rising bile. “Yes, right now if we could?”
“I have a lot to tell you, but I think we can do that on the way down there.”
He looked at the others. “Are you coming as well?”
Declan stared at me. “What is this portal and what is London? A new world?
Abel said, “Maybe it could be my world.”
That would be very interesting.
I wasn’t going to allow Declan and Rai anywhere near this other world, this portal. Just because there are NPCs that can cross over doesn’t mean they should. I guess that would actually mean me too, but I just had to see it for myself. I mean I had no idea where Alex was from. Maybe it was London, maybe it wasn’t. It could have been from any of the other cities the girls were trapped in. But I had to see it.
“Rai and Declan, you need to stay here. We need clear communication back to Dresel and the others. I’m afraid you’re it.”
They weren’t too happy about it, but they agreed, and they were left with the other two guards by the main doors.
Doctor Foster moved through the house, and we followed. The white walls did recede, and the further we got, it was back to carpet and plaster. “So what did you discover in London that made you do all the remodelling?” I pointed back to where we’d come from. “The image, everything.”
“There’s a cure for vampirism, and it’s not that costly. I’ve been taking the dosage of meds every day for the last few weeks. I’m not the same person I was, as you can see.”
I did see, but I also wasn’t going to be that easily fooled.
The further down we got into his world, the dingier it became. Abel looked back at me, and I nodded for him to keep following on, which he did. But I also got a bit of a bad feeling about this entire thing. My stomach churned. Was this a trap? Was he going to do something weird and horrid? No, I looked to Abel, and he wasn’t looking the slightest bit worried. So I sucked in a breath and followed them both.