He clutched the crevice with dear life as his legs dangled freely, and tried to pull himself up. There was another handhold just within distance above him and he reached out to grab it. A few more efforts helped him scale up further and he lodged his feet into the crevice he had been clinging to.
He let out a deep breath when he was stable again, and checked to see how far he had left to go. It was several more metres and the only way forward was to use a scattering of handholds that were spread out haphazardly. Several grooves running horizontally and diagonally between the handholds meant there was a network of spinning circular saws to navigate to get to the top.
Matias grimaced as he took in the path he had to follow, but he had no other alternative. The other ways that he spotted leading to the top were too far away for him to reach without being sliced to ribbons. He looked up again and spotted Jhondey, who was now on the far side of his position, scrambling through a cross section of circular saws and disappearing over the ledge. Shunz was moving steadily upwards and Jaggen was keeping close to the big construct. They had opted to take their chances heading up the centre of the rock wall.
Matias turned back to the route he had to go, and again, timing it just right, he reached for the nearest of the handholds. As soon as he grabbed it though, the rocky outcropping crumbled like sand in his hand. Panic flared inside him and he had to reach for a handhold further up before he fell off the wall. A circular saw running along a groove above him whizzed past and he had to launch himself upwards before the saw took off his arm. The handheld began to disintegrate as well and he had to rush to get up higher, barely missing the saws that rushed back and forth along the network of grooves.
His heart hammered in his chest and sweat poured into his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he scrambled up the wall going from handhold to handhold, the skin of his arms receiving scrapes and cuts from the abrasive rock. The safety of the ledge came into sight and it rallied him to go faster. He clutched at a thick outcropping of rock jutting out just beneath it with both hands and made to pull himself up. All of a sudden, a circular saw rushed toward moving too fast to avoid. He had messed up his timing and now he was going to be sliced open like some lab rat. Feral panic gripped him and he couldn’t move. The teeth of the saw filled his vision and his brain froze as death came surging towards him.
Hands suddenly grabbed him from above and pulled him up. He snapped back into action and hoisted himself up, helping his saviour just as the saw grazed the soles of his sandals. He looked up into Jhondey’s grimy face as he pulled him over the ledge, and the two collapsed together on the flat ground above. Remembering where and who he was, Matias quickly climbed off the boy and ignored how much his body was trembling.
Jhondey stood up and gave him a curious look. “Why did you go up that way? My way was so much easier you should have followed me.”
“I’ll remember that the next time we do this,” Matias replied, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.
Jhondey’s eyes lit up. “We’re doing that again?” he asked in an excited tone.
“Shut up, Jhondey.”
Next over the ridge was Shunz, and Jhondey fussed over his missing arm. Blue oil was leaking from the injury, but it didn’t seem to bother the construct much. The boy took a filthy rag from inside his tunic and wrapped it round the stump to staunch the flow of oil. He had just finished up when Jaggen finally climbed up onto the ledge. He was pale and breathing heavily but seemed to be in good shape. He stood up and spat over the edge of the rock wall.
“Gnomish devilry,” he muttered. “No match for the men of Ironthorne.”
Matias read the in-game message that had just popped up in front of his eyes and smiled mirthlessly:
New Ability Learnt: Rock Climbing
“Huh, I guess that will help if I go out burgling high-rise penthouses when I get out of this game,” he muttered to himself.
“What did you say?” Jaggen said. “Talking to yourself now, druid?”
“It’s the only way I’m gonna get any intelligent conversation,” Matias said. He turned and looked at the door set into the lancet arch that led out of the room. Jhondey and Jaggen came and joined him. “It looks like we have to go forward,” Jaggen said, “though I don’t like it.”
“Agreed,” said Matias. “The door could be booby trapped. Jhondey you go first.”
“Don’t do as he says, boy!” Jaggen said, grabbing Jhondey’s arm and pulling him back. “Shunz, you try the door.”
The construct ambled forward and tried the iron door handle. The door was unlocked and swung inwards. Shunz stepped to the side as the three of them moved closer to get a better look at what lay beyond.
“It’s just another empty room,” Jhondey said with obvious disappointment. “How boring.”
“We can’t be sure,” Jaggen warned. “We don’t know what could be in there.”
“Shunz, go on in and see if anything happens,” said Matias.
The construct stepped into the room. It was made of stone and mouth lamps lined the walls supplying the chamber with aquamarine light. Shunz walked to the centre of the chamber and the three men watched to see if anything occurred. The construct stopped and turned to look at them. No traps had been activated, and the mechanical man had not been attacked by any secret devices. Matias was starting to feel like a dope just standing peeping in at the room.
“Well, we can’t stand out here forever,” Jaggen said. “We’ll have to go in.”
“About time,” Jhondey said, champing at the bit to get into the room. He marched straight ahead and joined Shunz. He waved the others to join him. “Come on you two, it’s safe.”
Matias would have laughed out loud if a huge anvil dropped on the kid’s head or a trapdoor opened under his feet. Neither of these things happened, so Matias judged it was safe to go through the door.
Jhondey grinned at him as Matias stepped over the threshold. “See, nothing here. No need to be fretting like a silly old scaredy-pixie—”
Music. Loud, gangster rap coming from behind the door.
Laughter. High and feminine. His mother.
Another voice, deeper, male. Not dad.
“Yeah baby, shake it for me!”
Getting out of bed, he rubbed at his eyes and padded across the bedroom to the door. More loud laughter competed with the music, and then his mom was singing along at the top of her voice. Matias reached up and turned the door knob, opening it and peeping out at the living room of their apartment.
The room was a mess, as usual. Bottles, take-out cartons and clothes littered the floor and on the glass table were smeared lines of white powder, mom’s happy dust. Mom was stood on the futon, dancing suggestively as the music blared out. The skimpy dress left little to the imagination. Mom’s outfits never did.
“Yeah, baby, that’s it, do it like that,” the man sprawled on the sofa leered at her. Another stranger, another of mom’s special ‘friends’ dad wasn’t supposed to know about. He leaned forward and snorted some of mom’s happy dust up his nose.
When he sat up again, he caught Matias watching him and the dopey grin on his face disappeared.
“You got a kid?” he said in a surly tone, looking back at his mom.
Mom stopped dancing and glared at Matias. She always glared at Matias these days. “Go back to bed!” she shouted across the room.
“I had a bad dream,” Matias said, moving into the room. “I was in a big cave and there were monsters everywhere.”
“Go back to bed!” Mom snapped, climbing down off the futon and coming over to him. She smelt of booze and cigarettes. “It was just a dumb dream. I’m busy right now.”
“Hey kid,” the man said, “you wanna a beer?” He was scrawny and sneaky-looking with tattoos all along his skinny arms. Dad had lots of tattoos on his arms too, but he was big and muscled. He could beat up this nasty little guy with one hand behind his back. Sometimes, Matias wished he could beat
up all of mom’s special friends. The scrawny guy waggled a beer bottle at him. “C’mon kid, it’ll help you sleep. He rubbed his finger into a smudge of happy dust and pointed it in Matias’ face. “Or try some of this. It’ll make you feel awesome.”
“Matias go to bed now,” mom said, her face hardening. She wasn’t glaring at him anymore. She was using her mean look on the skinny man. That was good. Matias hoped she’d kick him out.
“But mom, the monsters could come back and get me,” he protested, not wanting to go back into the darkness of his room.
“Go to bed, now!” mom said in her real angry voice. Matias knew he wasn’t going to get round her when she used that voice. “I won’t tell you again.”
“Yeah, do what your momma says, kid,” the guy crowed. “We got some important stuff to do and we don’t need anyone watching.”
“Shut up!” mom snapped at the man. She shooed Matias away. “Go to bed. Now!”
Defeated, Matias shuffled back to his room. Mom turned up the music blaring out of the music centre and the man let out stupid whooping noises. Reaching the bedroom door, he looked back before going back into his room again.
“Shut the door!” his mom yelled after him.
Matias turned and began to pull the door closed. As he did so, the front door suddenly opened and dad marched in. Matias stopped dead, his eyes wide, and watched as mom and the scrawny guy jumped out of their skins.
“What are you doing here?” mom said, recovering first. “You’re supposed to be driving to Reno.”
“The deal’s off,” dad said in a flat voice. “Thought I’d surprise you. Looks like I did.”
He was calm and cold, but his black eyes burned with fury.
“Hey man, it’s not what you think,” mom’s special friend said nervously. Next to his dad, the guy looked even more small and scrawny. “I’m an old school pal of Zee. We ran into each other at the grocery store and we’re just catching up.”
“I know what you were doing,” dad said. “And when I’m finished, you ain’t gonna be doing anything ever again.”
The colour bleached clean out of the man’s ratty face. He raised his hands in front of his chest as if that could do any good. “Hey man, no need for this. I didn’t know she was with someone. I’ll get out of here.”
Dad said nothing. He reached under his baggy t-shirt and took out the pistol he kept in the waistband of his shorts. He pressed the muzzle against the man’s forehead.
“Juan! No!” mom yelled. “Stop this!”
“Hey man, what you doing?” scrawny man exclaimed, his eyes bulging in terror. “You don’t have to do this!”
“Stop messing with him Juan,” mom said. She grabbed dad’s arm. Without taking the gun away from scrawny guy’s head, dad casually backhanded her with his free hand.
Mom was knocked off her feet and went sprawling into the filth on the floor. Dad kept his eyes on the frightened man. “You come into my home and you think you can do what you want with my wife and then just shoot off as if everything’s cool,” dad said in his deep, husky voice. “You think I’m a loser you can do whatever you want to, man?”
“No, no, man you ain’t a loser, you’re the boss,” the other man babbled.
“I’m the boss,” dad said slowly. “You mess around with the boss’s wife?”
“No, no, I’d never do that, man,” the scrawny guy shook his head firmly. “We weren’t doing nuthin’ I swear!”
Matias wanted to tell dad that the guy was lying. He wanted dad to sort him out, but he stayed where he was, watching in silence. Mom was getting to her feet now and she reached round the back of the music centre, seeming to be searching for something. She pulled out the baseball bat which had ended up gathering dust down there when dad stopped teaching Matias how to play.
“You were doing nuthin’,” dad said in a mocking voice. “I know you were doing nuthin’. You are nuthin’. You know who I am? You know who you messin’ with?”
“Please man, just let me go. I’ll do anything you want. Anything. Please don’t kill me, dude.”
Matias stared at dad’s finger on the trigger and willed him to squeeze it. The mean little man deserved it. He shouldn’t have been messing with mom and coming into their home. Matias wished dad would shoot all of mom’s special friends. Maybe then she’d have more time for him.
He was so intent on seeing what happened, he didn’t notice what mom was doing until it was too late. She lunged at dad from behind and hit him with the baseball bat across the shoulder. Dad was staggered by the blow and dropped the gun. Immediately, the scrawny guy bolted past dad and went straight out of the door. Mom, clutching the bat tightly in her hands, swung it again, aiming it at dad’s head.
“No!” Matias shouted at the top of his voice.
Before mom could deliver the blow, dad straightened up and grabbed the bat in mid-flight. Mom struggled to pull it free, but dad was too strong. He yanked it out of her hands and turned it round so he held the handle. Without missing a beat, he hit mom across the skull with it.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Mom toppled to the floor, blood weeping out of the side of her head. Dad stood over her, a strange look in his eyes, and hit her again. She let out a ragged sob and feebly raised her hands, begging him to stop. The baseball bat came down onto her head again, harder this time. His face was an iron mask as he brought the bat down again and again, making mom’s head all squishy and red. Matias watched from the doorway, his pyjama bottoms feeling all warm and wet as he peed himself.
Eventually, dad stopped hitting mom and stared down at her. She was not moving now and had lowered her hands. Red goo dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. Dad gazed at her for a while and then finally noticed Matias.
“Go back to bed,” he said.
Matias couldn’t move. He was staring at mom, wanting her to get up and do something. He wanted her to dance and sing, or just shout at him like she normally did. Anything was better than just laying about on the floor not moving.
“Your mom was a dirty whore,” his dad said in a voice of twisting malice. “She won’t be cheating on me ever again.”
Matias blinked at him. Dad raised the bat and came forward. “Bed! Now! Or you get the same!”
Matias scurried back into his bedroom and slammed the door shut behind him. He jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his head and squeezed his eyes tight. He started whispering to God, figuring that if he prayed hard enough, maybe mom would get back up again and everything would be okay.
* * *
He didn’t sleep at all that night. He lay in bed, still in his wet pyjama bottoms, and listened to dad moving about in the living room. He wasn’t sure how long after dad had hit mom it was, but he heard Uncle Carlos’ voice later that night. Uncle Carlos was dad’s brother and really important in the gang that dad was part of. Matias thought it strange that Uncle Carlos was in a gang because he always wore a business suit. Dad always called Uncle Carlos “the fixer”. He could fix everything. Matias hoped that Uncle Carlos would fix mom.
As Matias lay listening to them in the dark, he heard them start to fight. Uncle Carlos was very angry with dad and used lots of cuss words, the kind of words that Matias got into trouble for using at kindergarten. He called dad stupid and said it was going to cost big time. Dad had lots of money anyway, so Matias knew he’d be able to afford to put everything right.
Dad said lots of cuss words too and said that all of this was mom’s fault and that Uncle Carlos had to help him. The two men calmed down and it went quiet for a long time. After a while, Matias heard the front door open and slam shut. He got out of bed and crept to the bedroom door and opened it just an inch. Dad and Uncle Carlos were gone and so was mom. Good, thought Matias, they had gone to fix mom. He hoped it wouldn’t take long.
Dad didn’t come back until the morning, and Uncle Carlos and mom weren’t with him when he entered Matias’ room. Matias looked through narrowed ey
es, pretending to be asleep. He came over to Matias’ bed and gave his shoulder a shake.
“Hey, kiddo, how you holding up?” he asked in the nice voice that he didn’t use very often.
Matias opened his eyes. “Where’s mom?” he asked. “Is she okay?”
“Mom’s not here right now,” dad said, smiling gently. The smile did not quite reach his eyes.
“Why? Where is she? Did she have to go to the hospital?”
“She’s just gone away to take a rest,” dad said, his voice becoming gruffer. “Get up. We’re going to the zoo.”
Matias looked at him in confusion. “I got school today.”
Dad shook his head. “Not today. We’re going to have a day together. Just us boys. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Matias pulled back his bedclothes. “I had an accident,” he said, looking away in shame.
“Okay, forget about it,” dad said briskly. “We’ll get you in the bath and then dressed and we’ll go to the zoo. Come on, hurry up.”
Matias got out of bed and moved mechanically to the bathroom. Dad helped him get cleaned up and he dressed in his best clothes. It was a bright sunny day and dad played music loudly as they drove to the zoo. They went and saw the lions which were Matias’ favourite animals, and dad bought him a large burger and fries and milkshake. As they sat outside the fast food joint watching the lions in their enclosure, dad leaned closer in and spoke quietly to him.
“Your mom’s not coming back,” he said. “She doesn’t love us anymore.”
Matias ate his burger and looked ahead. “You hurt her really bad.”
“She deserved it,” dad said matter-of-factly. “She was mean to both of us and had to be put in her place.”
“Can I see her again, dad?”
“I said she’s not coming back!” dad snapped, raising his voice. Two old ladies sitting on a bench nearby turned and looked at them. Dad said some bad words to them and they looked away again.
The Alchemy Worlds: Enter T(he)rap(y): A LitRPG Adventure Page 19