by C B Jean
“Hey what’s up my man Adam?”
“Where is Remi?! Do you have eyes on her?!” His voice is frantic and I realize this is no house call.
“Yea, Luke and Killian are with her. What’s going on?” My voice is clipped and urgent. Something isn’t right.
“Her house was compromised. An unknown team took out the squad we had stationed there. They killed a few of our guys and knocked out the rest and busted inside. Before we knew what was happening, she was taken, and we have no ID on the crew who did it. They took her as is in her XR helmet, but it seems they were able to keep her connected in the game. Her father was there at the time and tried saving her. They shot him in the chest and he’s in critical condition on his way to UVA Medical Center. He has her man. Don’t tell her or she might freak out completely and seize in the game!”
I was sprinting down the hallway before he even finished speaking. Stables. She’s checking in on her horse.
I reach the stable door and burst inside right behind Killian.
Chapter 20
REMI
The gloved hand covering my mouth tightens and I’m pressed up to someone securely behind me. I whimper in fear. This is so not good.
“Hush now Doll, we don’t have much time. Listen, you have a choice to make tonight. Option A. Tonight at the ball you can have one more happy night with your… friends, but at the end you will willingly come with me. If you do so without fighting back, telling NO ONE, or making this harder than it needs to be, you have my word everyone in this game will be released in perfect health, and the ones in the deep sleep will wake up without a hitch. Nice and easy isn’t it?” The familiar voice purrs in my ear. I nodded, silent tears dripped, still not able to make a sound.
“Option B. Resist or refuse and we will start randomly killing players every minute until you accept. We figured out a cute way to fry someone’s nerves in their brain and will basically melt it and kill them within minutes. We may even start with your clan of riffraff.” I whimper again shaking my head trying to plead.
“You decide how you want this to end, surrender yourself and save thousands, or be the cause for which many will die. And don’t mention this to anyone or deals off and your father will die. See you soon Doll.” The all too familiar wolf shifter licked my check with a husky moan, and just like that he vanishes into dust. I gasped for breath, trying to shake off the icky feeling on my skin.
I only have seconds to compose myself before I hear Luke and Killian’s thundering footsteps behind me. I manage to stumble over to my white Arabian horse and hug her around her neck, burying my face into her neck silencing my sobs.
Luke reaches me first and spins me around, firstly noticing my wet cheeks.
“Cub?” He asks worried. He looked around the stable for any sign of anyone else, then relaxes when he finds no one.
I sniffle, wipe my eyes and give him a small smile. “I’m good Luke, no worries, I just missed my horse, that’s all, I’m just being dramatic.”
He gives me a look as if he doesn’t believe me, but lets it go when Killian and Jackson join us racing into the warm building panicked, then relax and motion over to Luke for a private talk once they give me an odd glance over to make sure I’m accounted for. I turn back to my horse, getting the hint and needing a moment to myself.
Flip, this is a lot to take in. I make myself busy as I find a brush and start brushing her coat. Okay... tonight at the ball? That must be the surprise and private party once you complete the challenge. I can either give myself up or I can tell him to fuck off and let lots of people die here in this game. Real players, people. Flip. Either way he wins, I lose, but if I get the chance to save those I love, I’m taking it.
Love. What an interesting word. Never had I thought I was capable of being loved, other then by my parents. But it’s true, I do love them. I let out a small giggle, my horse turns to look at me giving me the side eye. Yea she gets me, even if she’s not real.
Still, I already know what my decision is going to be, and not one person will be pleased with me once they find out. I sigh. One more day until it’s time to go back to the real world. I mean, if I give myself up I’ll wake up in my bed… right? No harm no foul? My heart turns cold.
I glance nervously at the guys talking, I can’t hear anything besides harsh whispers but Luke looks plain pissed off and is shaking his head, Jackson is rubbing his temples with his eyes closed, something I’ve noticed he does when he’s stressed and Killian just looks plain depressed, forlorn. Leaning back against the wall, eyes cast downward with his arms crossed.
It’s up to me to make this the last best day ever. Is that a real thing?
I manage to sneak up to the door around behind them with my super cool Rogue skills without them noticing. I’ve been practicing with my skills on the downlow as I can easily blend into shadows and appear as thin as mist itself. I have deadly accurate aim with my throwing knifes and I’m a flipping ninja with how quiet and nimble I am. I hear my name mentioned many times as I sneak past, but I figured its not my place to know about it if they don’t want to tell me, so I tune it out. I know they are only doing what’s best for us to protect me. I sneak outside and start gathering as many snowballs as I can laughing madly. I may have possibly let a few surprises for them as well. There is an excess of snow here on this part of the map, so I manage to make twenty good piles of snowballs at least littered all over the courtyard in various places without making a dent in the abundance of snow. Step one complete.
Once that’s done, I find a good stakeout place to watch the madness unfold behind a frozen decorative fountain along with my personal stockpile of snowballs and wait, watching my icy breath dissipate away.
The guys must have been freaking out noticing I wasn’t in the stables anymore because they all start yelling my name and come running outside panicked. Myself for one, as a wicked and mischievous little person, am enjoying their freak out and it’s kind of endearing to me. Cute. Warm fuzzies and all that. They slowly start to notice the snowballs littered everywhere and give each other curious side eye glances. It’s taking everything I have not to giggle so I don’t give myself away. One by one they break away from the pack and start heading in different directions now silent and each with handfuls of the snowballs in their arms, now understanding the game. I made three different sets of my snow prints, one for each to follow to find me and it’s like taking candy from a baby. Unlucky for them, each one will not end out well for them.
I start with Killian and skirt around the opposite side of the yard to watch him from afar, as I met him before the others it seems only fitting he goes first. Maybe he’s just the easiest. He’s slowly walking around the courtyard, skirting the barren hedges and decorative pathways lined with stone. I can definitely tell from his calculated and warry movements, minus a gun he doesn’t have, that his body language screams military as he checks around each corner for the enemy before proceeding. His tall frame and stocky but lean build is a sight to behold, even under all the armor and padding he’s wearing and I am delightfully pleased. Gods, he really does look like Clark Kent, but like in knight armor and it works for me. He still looks menacing and deadly whilst holding an armful of snowballs but that still makes me giddy and my lady parts tingle. I watch as he follows my footsteps to a dead end, both sides of him surrounded by the red stone that extends over his head to meet up with the battlement wall. He looks around confused for a moment, growling my name, looking where the footsteps could be and turns around to head back giving up the hunt.
I had climbed up to the top of the battlement wall following his progress and made a graceful and silent leap down to the ground where he was standing moments before. Before he managed to get a few feet away from me without hearing me, I slung a snowball at the back of his head and giggled as it impacted and splattered the back of his head in wet snow.
He only froze for a split second, shoulders hunched then spun around bewildered and caught me standing there smiling gleefu
lly at him. He made a sound of triumph and threw a snowball at me, only I wasn’t there anymore. Instead I was wall hopping back up to the battlement, jumping off wall to wall climbing up higher. Think of Mario Bro’s, but only cooler as I was more like Ezio from Assassin’s Creed. I stood on to the wall smiling down at him, hands on my hips as he only looked up in astonishment. Yes, I’m awesome, I know. I chucked another ball at his chest and he didn’t have time to dodge.
He only looked down at it as it slid down his front, holding his arms out like someone had puked on him, then gave me a side glance trying not to smirk or chuckle.
“Blue, ever thought about joining the army? Because if you can do that in the real world, I want you on my team.” His blue eyes looked at me with wonder and he was just too cute to pass up on.
“Maybe… I guess when you find me outside this game you’ll have your answer. You’re on my team now Kent, so let’s go give them hell.” I teased, still standing on top the wall, offering my hand down to him.
He smiled his white teeth at me along with those dimples, shaking his head amused. He managed to get up by himself as well, jumping up to grab the edge and pulled himself up.
“Nice.” I purred, stroking his chest and squeezing him muscles, playing with him. He puffed out his chest like a peacock preening with attention. I swatted him away giggling and raced off, leaving him to catch up.
We saw Jackson next, as he was crouched in the farthest corner of the square as if watching his six. That’s what they say in those movies all the time right? Or is it more like watching from his nest? I gave a glance to Kills besides me. Surprise attack or full frontal? His eyes gleamed impish and I already knew the answer. I watched as Kills snuck over to the other side, perpendicular to my position. Once in place I nodded and Killian whistled and stood gaining Jackson’s attention, he looked just in time to have a snowball clip his shoulder. Jackson aimed back to chuck one back to Kills, only to be hit right in the face by me from his other side. He looked in my direction blindly trying to shake the snow off, only to get pelted again from Kills.
“RETREAT!” I yelped and speed away laughing, with Killian and now Jackson at my heels. He was still flinging snowballs at us and managed to hit Killian in the back several times taking him down, as I dodged the ones aimed at me and sprinted on.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something whizzing towards me.
“DUCK!” I only managed to throw myself to the ground as Jackson was right behind me on my tail, now standing over me and watched in pure bliss as he got assaulted in the face again with a giant snowball the size of my head going at least sixty miles an hour, which knocked him back flat onto his ass.
I burst out laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants and looked in the direction of the assailant. Luke stood a few yards away palming another snowball and looking awfully proud. I rolled to the side just in time as a much smaller sized one came my way. I blew him a kiss and ran on towards the main courtyard where I had stockpiled most of the snowballs, still laughing my little head off. I heard all three of them chasing after me also chortling to themselves. I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in years!
I managed to slide behind my super-secret hiding spot as the guys took up their own defensive positions.
We managed to fling snowballs at each other in an EPIC war, racing around as the guys tried to stuff snow down my neck until we grew tired and we all collapsed in the snow with nonstop laughter from all of us. We all laid there in the snow trying to catch our breath from the fun. I was feeling in the grand mood and made snow angels, encouraging the guys to follow my lead. They managed to get the gist of it, Jackson having the best one out of all three, while Luke mostly just rolled around, winning in the category for covering the most ground. This was happiness. Utter happiness.
With a big smile on my face, looking up at the cloudy sky I joked with them. “I thought you guys were all about strategy, yea know, learning the art of war and all that. Clearly, I took you all for granted as I kicked all your butts, one against three. Either you’re all rusty or they need to update the army’s curriculum.”
“You wish Blue, we only lost because we were taking it easy on you. If you would like a rematch, I’ll gladly give you one.” Killian waving his eyebrows at me, clearly implying he wasn’t talking about the snowball fight anymore.
“What was this all for Remi?” Jackson asked as he looked at me sideways, still laying on the ground. Of course, only he would see straight through my plan. Sometimes he’s too flipping smart to know what’s good for him.
I shrugged nonchalantly. “Ya’ll were talking all hush hush and stressed out, and I wanted to make you forget about it, even for five minutes if I could. I get it’s something about me, but I don’t want to know unless it’s really important, and not even then. You guys sometimes forget we are in this game to have fun in the first place remember? So, lets have some fun along the way.” I shrugged again and gave him a warm smile, being truthful. His eyes sparkled back.
“You are so fucking mischievous and amazing, what would we do without you?”
“Probably you’d all be three sad, lonely guys whose idea is fun is hanging out on Friday together, eating pain ol’ cheese pizza while watching some sports channel on TV all in your underwear. Instead you get me and my crazy. Trust me, your lives will never be the same from now on.”
“We plan on it Cub.” Luke whispered deep in his throat, making me blush.
“Hey! We get more then cheese pizza, a hearty supreme will do it for me.” Killian argued, proving my point rubbing his stomach.
I snickered, standing up and brushing the snow off me. “So, we have a party to get ready for tonight and I’m flipping starving. Show me da way to da food ples.” Just in time for my stomach to growl loudly and we all chuckled as the guys got up too.
We headed inside, away from the destroyed battlefield of our war. “Is it just me or do we even need to eat in this game? I mean it doesn’t seem to do anything besides replicate our real needs and old habits, plus it tastes sooo much better here, so I’m not really complaining just confused.” I asked puzzled.
“I was thinking the same thing.” The guys chorused at the same time looking at each other. These guys crack me up. My guys. No matter what.
Chapter 21
REMI
The kitchens were open access in the castle, or temple I guess is the correct term, to all the players and holy flip did they deliver. Imagine walking into a restaurant’s kitchen, cooks and chef bustling around busy bodies, but as if they knew what you were craving, it was already prepared on a very long wooden table in a room next door completely jam-packed. No pun intended. Ever seen Harry Potter and the magical Hogwarts appearing buffet of food? Yeah it was like that but REAL. It didn’t seem like they ever took a break to stop cooking food. Food indeed.
“OH MY GOD I could live here forever, forget the game and the real world, I’ll live here in the kitchens and splurge on all the food I’ve ever wanted for the rest of my life. I shall never go hungry again!” I barely managed to get the words out with a mouthful of peach pie in my mouth and another spoonful on my lips, with a chicken leg raised in my other hand at my declaration. They guys just chuckled at me very entertained with me, glad I was eating to my heart’s content and happy I was living one of my fantasies. They were also digging into the food and it still amazed me how much they packed way. I couldn’t get fat or die from inhaling so much food so let me eat in piece.
After our snowball fight, I was starved and my wonderful men introduced me to this magical room. It may be one of their biggest mistakes. Good luck getting me out of here. I had the sudden thought of enjoying what seemed to be my death row last meal, and I almost felt sick at the thought. I no longer felt hungry and pushed the food around on my plate thinking intently as my eyes were glued to a bowl of cherry Jell-O in front of me but distant. Luke seemed to notice mid bite of his own burger and set it down, now focused and worried on me.
“Cub? What are you thinking? You can tell me.” Startled, I jerked my head up and out of my depressing thoughts. Luke knew something was up with me after seeing me in the stables.
“Oh, I’m good Luke, thanks,” I smiled at him, “I may have eaten myself into a food coma and will need a nap soon.” I tried to brush it off, he accepted it with a nod and grunt, but still glanced every couple seconds my way watching as he finished his burger.
I was in a weird funk for the rest of the meal, listening to the guys joke around trying to stay involved but I wasn’t feeling it. The increasing pressure of the dread to come was drowning me and nothing I could do would bring me out of it. My last day here. Its been such an amazing time, minus the big ‘E’ after me, but here with these guys I finally feel free and happy. No longer looking over my shoulder every time I left the house wondering if I was being watched, no longer hiding away from the world. I was just me here, and if there was any other option to avoid giving myself up or sacrificing the other players here I would take it, but this sadly is the real world and nothing would change that. My problems would still be right behind me once I left this fantasy.