Chapter 24

  Time remaining till Phase 2:

  24 Hours

  The timer showed up for us all, its appearance causing a noticeable shift in moods. It was like we had all just been diagnosed with cancer. Not far off from that really. Death was getting so close, and it took everything I had just to ignore the looming threat of phase two. There was an option to hide the timer, and I opted for that, at least for the moment.

  As before, we traveled from room to room, following Charlie. It had been another day and night of travel, and I was starting to get frustrated with the amount of time we were losing. I hadn’t expected the dungeon to take three plus days, especially because we were just traveling and not getting any experience from mob kills. The only upside was it ended up being fun to get to know the team. Fred really was a total goofball . . . and kind of an idiot. But, while I found him slightly annoying—okay, a lot annoying—he had his moments. He was always willing to share a bottle or two of Perdon. Last night he brought one out again, and I broke down hard. After the hell we just went through . . . I totally deserved a drink . . . or five.

  So yeah, all of us having hangovers might have had something to do with the sour reaction to the death timer.

  Clara and I were walking next to each other, and the other two were out of ear shot ahead of us talking about Mie’s new gear and random other bull crap.

  “Who do you miss the most?” I wagered we might be able to have a somewhat normal conversation while we walked, and while we had talked a lot over the few days we had known each other, it had been mostly surface level or down to business type conversations. How do we survive, what could we be doing better, that sort of stuff. Now that we were getting closer to the end . . . it . . . I don’t know. I guess I wanted to just savor life while I still had it.

  “Huh? Oh . . .” Her lips moved to the side, and she looked off into the distance, taking a moment to think about it. “Probably my family.”

  “Probably?” I gave her a teasing smile. Like always, she reminded me of one of my kids. So her saying ‘probably’ stung a little. I wondered if they missed me. Fuck. Things had been steadily getting better for years after their mom died. But losing me too? I knew too well the pain of losing a parent. I couldn’t imagine losing both of them, separately. I still didn’t even know if Lily was god damn alive. Life is stupid. No. The afterlife is stupid. I brought my attention back to Clara when she finally responded.

  “They left me in that rotting, godforsaken place. They didn’t even ever visit. They just left me to die . . . I shouldn’t miss them . . . but I do,” she said.

  “What place?” I asked.

  “Heavenly Hearth Care. It’s funny really. The owners probably had no darn idea about this place . . . Hearth.”

  The realization hit me like wrecking ball. Oh my God, I have been so blind. “Clara. How old are you?”

  “Ninety-nine . . . I think.”

  It all clicked right then. Her weird way of speaking, the time she’d called me a boy, and now that I thought about it . . . her generally grumpy demeanor. She was always struggling with her interface. Holy shit. I even remembered when she threw out that out of place gambling comment. She was an old fart gambling lady. No . . . I thought about what she just said. She was even older than that. But her character model looked so young!

  I exhaled. “I have to admit,” I said, “I honestly thought you were a teenager.”

  “I know, honey.”

  My voice stayed my own though. Why didn’t hers? Shouldn’t she sound like an old grandma? I thought about my Soul Space body, and how I looked younger, but mostly the same. Maybe everyone’s bodies reset to a more youthful version of themselves? It was just a guess, but it made sense. I wonder if those bodies age? I didn’t know.

  Clara remained silent, and I thought about her comment that they had left her at the home. Her kids?

  “They . . . never visited?”

  “I got super hard to deal with, but I still miss them. I hope I can make it up to them.”

  Mie had dropped back slightly, letting Fred lead the way. I could tell by the slight cock to her head that she was listening.

  “That’s why I killed those two young lads,” Clara said, her eyes now on the ground. “I want—no . . . I need to find a path for my kids . . . I need to find a way for them to not have to go through this retarded place. Only then will I be able to rest, and I can’t do that if I get . . . ”

  “I have kids too. Younger than yours, I’d wager . . . but I get it,” I said. “I don’t want them to have to experience this . . . reality.” I tenderly put my hand on Clara’s shoulder. “But we can’t do this without allies . . . without each other. We all have to be on the same page. On the same team. Otherwise, Tittles and all those other assholes already won. Fuck, they probably already have. But still. We can try to change things. To make it better, together. I don’t know how yet, but we have to try.”

  We were all watching Clara now, even Fred.

  Clara hesitated slightly, her shoulders stiffening. But she nodded. Progress. It was progress.

  More hours of following Charlie passed while listening to Mie and Fred argue about the nature of what and who Greg and Theodor were. They had no god damn clue. None of us did. But somehow they were able to survive the squishings. Somehow they had gone through Hearth thousands of times. When asked directly, all Greg said was:

  Greg: I don’t remember anything but the Soul Space. I do remember my first player though. I tried so hard to help . . . but in the end . . . she died. They always die in the end.

  I sighed. Stupid Greg, useless as ever.

  Finally, we made it to a wide expanse of a room. As we walked through the small wooden door into it, a blue firelight came flickering out from within rows of small enclaves that outlined the walls, each of which I assumed was a tomb of some sort going by the stone coffin-looking objects that resided within them. The room had no discernable exits aside from the entrance we’d just come through. The blue light, despite being freaky as hell, was a nice change. The darkness had been getting to us all.

  However. The room felt . . . fucking evil. Like a presence was hovering over me, whispering lies and grasping my chest. Or like my very soul was screaming in warning to get out, like a demon was here. I was just about to turn around to make sure the door would stay open . . . when it slammed shut with a chunk and faded into the wall. Oh . . . fuck. Of course.

  The door’s closing echoed around the room muffled, and the torches’ flickering halted. It made them look like blue Christmas light bulbs. There was no movement to the air, and it smelled stale, with the faint memories of the scent of nursing home. Like decay and death. As I turned to face the center of the room, something gripped me tight all over. I tried to turn toward the others and, with dread, realized I couldn’t move. Ohhh . . . fuck.

  Charlie walked slowly toward the center of the room. In the middle lay the outline of a sacrificial incantation circle. There was an inner grooved triangle within the circle. Ancient looking symbols lined both.

  I tried to move again, but I couldn’t. I tried to activate everything. But I couldn’t. It was like I was stunned. I couldn’t move my head, or my eyes, or say anything. What is this? A cutscene? Actually, I wouldn’t put it past this game to just freeze us and kill us. A darkness swept over me, and the kindling hope that had been burning inside of me winked out. This had been a mistake. We had walked right into a sacrificial ritual. Out of the corners of my vision I could just see the others and knew they were in a similar situation as myself. Unable to move . . . and knowing Mie . . . probably shitting their pants.

  Noise started to fill the room like a rushing wind, only again, there was no air movement. Someone screamed in the distance, and I only wished the voice had been my own. A chill ran down my back. Jesus, what is this place? We stayed frozen as we watched Charlie walk further into the room until he reached the center of the circle. Then he slowly turned to face us. Oh come on, I thought. Not some messed up kid horror scene please.

  I was half expecting his arms and legs to start breaking and his face to contort. Thank god, that isn’t what happened.

  But what did happen . . . was worse.

  “Daddy,” Charlie said. “I brought you what you asked.”

  A chill ran down my spine. Daddy? Hadn’t we just killed the kid’s dad? I didn’t like this. I didn’t like this at all. I felt like I was stuck in some horror movie with no way to look away or shield my eyes . . . or run.

  CLUNK!

  At the far end of the room, a tomb twice the size of the others broke. Stone cracked, and suddenly a new figure was now hovering toward us. I found I was still able to inspect him.

  Charleston

  Level 48, Spirit

  HP 0/0

  What the fuck? Charleston? Really? I didn’t have time to comprehend the absurdity of his name as a cold sensation swept through my entire being. A familiar figure passed through me from behind. I inspected this new addition as well.

  Charles

  Level 45, Spirit

  HP 0/0

  I went ahead and checked out little Charlie too, to see if there were any changes.

  Charlie

  Level 47, Spirit.

  HP 0/0

  They were all spirits, I realized. What the fuck is a spirit?

  Mie: THIS IS A TOTAL SAM WET DREAM COME TRUE, EVERYONE!

  Clara: Seriously, what is with all the Charlies? Also . . . I still need to hear that story.

  Fred: Getting some Ghost of Christmas Past vibes myself.

  Sam: Oh. I didn’t realize we could still chat. Guys, I’m so sorry. I have a really bad feeling about this.

  I wanted to say more, but a horrible chanting sound interrupted us as all three spirits took positions at each corner of the triangle. They all spoke as one.

  “First, thy flesh we have reclaimed.”

  I watched in horror as a small bucket appeared in little Charlie’s hands. He walked forward and dumped four hands into the middle of the triangle. I even saw my little pinky flop out. Blood from the bucket slowly worked its way into the notched groves and started spreading out.

  “Second, our will unwillingly given.” Charles walked forward, holding out his strong hands. An image of us fighting him from before appeared between all three of them. It was like a three-dimensional hologram of our fight. It started slow at first, then it kept getting and faster like one of those timelapse videos of kids going crazy, until finally we landed our last blow. The replay slowed then, and we watched him bellow out again, this time silently, “OUR WILL INSTILLED!” After that, the image condensed into a drop of golden liquid which dropped and splashed over our corpse-like hands. That’s gross. All I could do was watch in disgust as the golden mixture intermingled with our blood.

  “Lastly, thy spirit freely given.”

  That’s when we unfroze. Huh?

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  Confused, I ran forward and immediately tried swiping the newest figure Charleston . . . but my spear fell harmlessly through him. He didn’t even flinch, he just stood there. I looked at the others. Each one stood completely still as if waiting while looking at the small pile of wet red and gold hands. Charleston’s eyes flickered toward me, and he wore a creepy ass smug grin.

  I took a moment to take him in and could immediately tell we were dealing with something we did not understand. Unlike the other two, he was hovering slightly, and somehow deep within myself, I knew that this creature was the real Charlie. Fuck me. I backed up, and the others slowly approached.

  “What’s that?” Mie said. Her voice quavering slightly. Despite her lighthearted jabbing message from earlier, she was afraid.

  I looked to where she was pointing. Before each of the three spirits was a single white circle. Dread rose up within me once again as I inspected it.

  0/3 Life Credits

  That can't be right. No no no no no no. I walked back to where we had entered the room feeling the walls for a way out. I looked for some kind of notch or crease. But like my Soul Space . . . my prison . . . there were none. I swiped through my interface and tried to log out. I got the same error as last time. I pulled one of the remaining two explosives out of my inventory.

  “It’s pretty clear, lad,” Fred said, interrupting me. “They need our life credits.”

  I looked back toward him and noticed his face all knotted with worry. Fred hardly ever worried. This was bad.

  “Charlie?” Mie said while walking up to the small boy. “What is this? Why did you bring us here?”

  The small child let out a high noted laugh. It was freaky as hell.

  We circled up then a few yards away from the ritual. In the corner of my vision, I saw the countdown for phase two ticking away . . . Mie was looking right at me.

  My face flushed, as I avoided her gaze.

  “Guys, I, didn’t know this is what this was going to be. This is on me. It was my decision to bring us here, and so I’ll take the brunt of this.” I looked up at Mie, and that’s when she decided to let me have it.

  “ ‘It’s just math,’ ” she said, rolling her eyes and mimicking me from way back in The Hallowed City.

  “Yeah . . . I know. I made a massive dumb mistake. I am dumb,” I said.

  “And Mie is smart,” she said expectantly.

  “And . . . Mie is . . . smart. Okay come on. HOW was I supposed to know a dungeon, or rather this specific dungeon, would require life credits?!”

  “Just get good, Sam,” she said in the same way she often said to Greg, and that more than anything pissed me off.

  “Again . . . how was I supposed to know?” I said. I looked back at the Charlies. Fear once again began to flow like poison through my veins. I pushed it out, and down.

  This was really bad. Not only did we have to give up a total of three life credits. But I was sure once the conditions were met, we would have a boss fight on our hands . . . and if we didn’t survive that . . . Images of my party getting squished . . . then their remains sucked up into oblivion rushed through my head. It could be the end.

  I looked at Mie, who was looking at me sadly, but she nodded. She knew what we had to do. “I only have one credit left. We can use it for this,” I said. Technically Mie and I had two together, but she caught on.

  “Same,” Mie said.

  Fred and Clara started looking at each other awkwardly as I moved toward the white ring.

  Before I stepped into the white circle, I placed both remaining explosives. One by Charlie, and one by Charles. I noticed with some satisfaction a flash of fear go through Charleston’s expression.

  I looked at everyone and said, “We can still do this. We can still survive.” I said it, but I wasn’t sure I felt it. I clenched my back, my arms . . . and my butt as I stepped into the white ring. When nothing happened, I stepped back out and turned around to see an exact copy of myself looking at me, frozen with fear-filled eyes. A physical version of myself was stuck within the white circle . . . He . . . I . . . pounded my fists against some invisible barrier. It was awful. It reminded me of that movie The Prestige. Only now I understood. Was I the one who went in? Or was I the one who came out? Either way . . . I was killing me. He was shouting silently. His eyes . . . my eyes, were so afraid. Holy fuck.

  It only got worse . . . as I looked up and I saw our life credits drop by one.

  Life Credits: 1

  Mie stepped in next, then back out.

  Life Credits: 0

  That was it. That was all of them. From here on out . . . we couldn’t make any mistakes.

  I looked at Mie’s copy. She was sitting down on the floor all curled up, and her head between her knees. My copy went over to her and wrapped his arms around her. The Mie outside the circle looked down at herself in clear discomfort.

  Fred and Clara continued to look at each other.

  “Fred, I—” Clara started to say before he cut her off.

  “Oh good. Glad you are volunteering. I only have one credit meself. Early game was a bit of a bitch.” He finished with a nervous chuckle.

  “No. I’m . . . so, so, so sorry,” Clara said softly, which caught me off guard. “I don’t . . . actually have . . . any credits left to give. I’m at zero.”

  “Wait . . . what?!” I said, confused. “You have two left.”

  “No . . . I lied about that,” she said while she closed her eyes and looked down at the floor.

  My brain stopped for a moment, comprehending this new fact.

  Am I the only one who tells the truth about anything?!

  “I . . . didn’t think you’d want a party member who might be gone the next time we all died.”

  I understood. She equated having zero life credits to being in the home. She didn’t want to be abandoned on her death bed.

  Mie sighed, and Fred looked a little stunned. I realized there wasn’t really any way for any of us to be able to tell if anyone was lying about our true amount of credits. I didn’t think Clara would, but she just had . . . and there wasn’t exactly a Life Credit count floating over everyone’s heads.

  “Oh,” Fred said. “Okay.” He pulled out a bottle of Perdon and took a long swig.

  “Well then, I guess that leaves me.” He said it sadly as he started to move to the remaining ring.

  And . . . that was when I realized our mistake. I slapped my face with my hand. Fred was about to step into the circle, but I pulled him back by his robe. “Hold on! God damn it!” I shouted.

  “What now?!” Clara said.

  My head was in my hands. “Who is our number one heavy hitter?” I whispered.

  “Fred,” everyone said . . . including Fred.

  “And . . . what has been our general plan?” I asked.

  Mie rattled off, “For Fred to use his Arbitrary Blast on the boss—oh.” She realized it too.

  My plan was to instantly detonate the explosives as soon as the ritual came to fruition, and for Fred to use his Arbitrary Blast on one of the spirits or whatever twisted amalgamation they were going to combine into. But if he was the last one to finalize the ritual . . . and if there was no delay between him entering the circle and when the ritual itself completed . . . then there would be no time for him to get away . . . and I would have to Knock him right out of the gate.

  After a few minutes of desperately trying to move the existing copies of ourselves out, I concluded there was nothing for it but to just go down a player. If that was what was required to land a direct hit that dealt massive damage to either two of the three spirits, or the single resulting boss if that was what was going to happen. . . then there was nothing for it but to do it. We might not get another chance to use the explosives so effectively.

  Fred stayed put as the three of us moved to the edges of the room. We stayed together, not wanting to get too far out of range for things like rezzing and heals.

  Fred looked at me and I nodded, every muscle in my body taut in anticipation. He walked into the circle, and I took the two other wands out that I had paired with two of the beer taps. All it took for the explosives to be triggered were for them to be in contact with those taps. It looked weird just laying the taps on top of the C4-like explosives, but by inspecting it while placing, I could see the explosive go from a gray inactive to a green ready state.

  Fred’s body passed back out through the white circle leaving a copy just like ours. The real Fred stumbled and started scurrying our way as fast as he could. I grimaced as the three ghosts’ mouths opened up . . . like really big . . . and then start eating us. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck, I thought as I watched them start devouring us, starting at our heads, and moving downward like rabbits munching on lettuce, but maybe Fred would have time to get away. Hurry up, Fred!

  The three Charlies’ health points went from zero to various high amounts, and their forms solidified in an instant. Okay, so they didn’t combine. Charlie took on the form of a little thief and carried a dagger; Charles looked the same as before and carried another two-handed sword; and Charlesten continued to float and had a long sweeping cloak and a staff that bore a skull.

  The moment the health bars appeared . . . I activated the wands.

  BAM!

  Little Charlie’s health zeroed out. He was directly on top of one of the explosives. But Charles withstood the blast, his health only dropping to the twenty percent mark. I inspected him as I watched the explosion blast him away from us.

  Charles

  Level 45, Human, Keeper

  HP 41,200/200,000

  Fred’s wrecked corpse flew at me. I did a little sidestep and cringed as it smashed into the wall behind us with a splat. He hadn’t been fast enough.

  He Knocked, but I saw that he had been able to get off a spell. An Arbitrary Blast. I watched the green spell move toward Charleston, and then in immense disappointment I watched it fizzle away.

  My heart dropped as dread rose once more within me. “No. Damn it! He’s got some kind of dispel too!” I called out, as I charged Charleston.

  The explosions had taken out half his health. I inspected him.

  Charleston

  Level 49, Undead, Necromancer

  HP 24,419/50,000

  The Necromancer waved his newly acquired staff, and a wave of cracking sounds went out as the brittle coffins behind him started to fall apart. I reached him, glancing back to make sure Mie was rezzing Fred. She was. I swept with a spear, knocking him down and rooting him. He just . . . laughed. A couple arrows came flying out from behind him. I looked that way. Newly rezzed skeleton archers were stepping from the tombs. One arrow took me in the thigh, and I felt a spike of pain. I was getting more and more used to the pain . . . and I let it fuel my movements.

  I vaulted at the new arrivals, flipping my axes over as I went. There were a half dozen of them, and I fell into them, cracking skulls and pulverizing leg bones. As I did that, Clara started pelting the Necromancer with arrows and stacking up poison. Mie was avoiding all mobs and focusing on heals. Fred was back up and a green flash flew past only to sizzle away once again. Is it the room?! What the hell is dispelling his ability?! That hadn’t happened when we first entered the dungeon, and I could now only assume it was some sort of passive dispel when targeting the Charlies.

  Clara shouted something at me as I took out another skeletal warrior. I looked back around at her, unable to hear as another wave of cracking sounds broke against my eardrums. Skeletons approached her from behind, and as I looked her way, I saw something glowing behind her between the crack of one of the destroyed coffins. She was waving at me, and so I quickly focused on where she was pointing.

  Charleston was kneeling next to Charlie, performing a spell that . . . required him to make contact. My blood went cold. Is that a rez? Oh . . . no. My vault was on cooldown, but Fred used his Joker’s Glare spell. I watched the mad laughing skull rush at the Necromancer and crash against him. An ‘Immune to Fear’ message floated up. I cursed, rushing him. I barely managed to Ass Crack him in time. His cast was interrupted as a stun debuff floated over him. I activated Quad Strike with my axes, equipped my spear, and swept again, but now all my abilities were on cooldown. The stun fell off the still floating Necromancer, and he was rooted. The normal transparent chains effect had to rise up and grab his ankles to hold him in place, like a kite. But he could still . . . preform the rez. Clara had no way to interrupt, and Fred’s fear was useless. I jumped back to the skeletons Clara was facing, hoping a random lightning would proc from my new Storm Axe and interrupt his cast. But it was a long shot . . . and it didn’t take.

  Charlie’s corpse reformed, and he stood up, his health at fifty percent.

  This is . . . impossible. I realized. We were too low leveled. Facing three bosses that were ten levels higher than us. Without Fred’s ability working . . . we were absolutely fucked.

  Charlie

  Level 47, Undead Rogue

  HP 50,000/100,000

  I clenched my teeth as another green flash flew out. Another sizzle.

  No . . .

  The whole idea of coming here was based on the fact that we could use Fred’s Arbitrary Blast to quickly take out bosses. But it was completely worthless.

  Another wave of crypts broke apart, revealing more mobs behind Clara and Fred and taking their attention. Clara was whipping arrows out as fast as she could. Fred tried to go invisible, but got stunned by the flat of a skeleton warrior’s sword.

  Numbness ran down my spine. We didn’t have what it would take, and I was out of surprises, out of moves, out of everything. All my crowd control on cooldown. Distantly, as if unable to comprehend it, I watched Fred then Clara both get Knocked by skeletons.

  Mie . . . still so slow . . . started to get targeted by random skeletons, Charles . . . and even Charlie. She threw up her Holy Armor, diving everywhere, keeping her distance from the two bosses. She was trying with all her strength to stay up . . . and I just stood there . . . frozen, watching the Necromancer continue to animate wave after wave of skeletons.

  I couldn’t move as I watched the horror all around me. I had caused this. Just like that boy . . . just like my wife . . . we were all going to die because of me. The black pane of glass that hid away my darkest memories cracked once again. Anxiety gripped me, rooting me to the spot as the unwanted memories poured through.

  . . .

  “Oh come on,” Rach said in my earbud over the phone. “Pineapple on pizza is great.”

  I was gripping the steering wheel hard, driving the ambulance back to the station. The snow was falling quickly now, and it felt like we were doing some sort of warp speed jump through the universe.

  “Pineapple on pizza is dogshit,” I said, laughing. “I’m not really even sure how we got married without discussing this. Also, it’s a terrible idea to go get pizza in this weather. Just go home.”

  “We literally had pizza for our rehearsal dinner. It had pineapple on it,” Rach said, ignoring my safety concerns.

  “No way.”

  “Yes way. And anyways, Lily loves pineapple on her pizza too, so you bett—” The sound of metal hitting metal crashed through my earpiece.

  “Rach? . . . Rachel?!”

  . . .

  The other driver . . . was dead.

  Rachel, thank god, still had a pulse. But she was in bad shape. Her head was bleeding profusely. “Help me get her in the ambulance now!” I yelled at Dan. I felt for her pulse again as he ran for a stretcher.

  It was gone.

  “No,” I said. “No no no no no.” Terror rose up within me. I pushed it down, crystalizing it into black glass, and started CPR. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.

  . . .

  I was home. My hands were shaking and covered in dry blood. My jeans were caked in dirt. I stood frozen in front of the bathroom mirror looking at myself for a long time. Not comprehending. Not able to move.

  She always got in bed first.

  . . .

  “SAM, I NEED YOU!” Mie screamed.

  God. Fucking. Damn it. Why do we even live? All there is, is pain and death.

  In the end, that’s all it is. That’s all there fucking is!

  I shook myself as wrath reared its head, dispelling my immobility.

  Mie's scream brought me partially back to the present, and then an arrow driving its way through my arm brought me the rest of the way. “Gah!”

  My vision focused.

  The Necromancer completed another cast of skeleton resurrection. It seemed, his intent was to resurrect the entire room’s tombs before anything else.

  Charles had Mie’s neck in his grip, clenching hard and strangling her. Her feet, I realized, were a couple inches off the ground. She was looking at me, wide eyed as she grasped at the Keeper’s crushing hand. He was choking the life out of her.

  Past her, I saw the tomb I had seen earlier still glowing.

  Could it be . . . ?

  I started to move toward Mie, but Charles brought his other hand up, grabbed her face, and twisted, breaking her neck. She fell down on to all fours, Knocked.

  He turned toward me while little Charlie appeared with a rogue blinking ability right in front of me.

  A knife plummeted into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. A huge chunk of my health disappeared.

  With an effort, I remained on my feet, looking at the tomb . . . that shimmered slightly.

  I broke into a roll to dodge another knife stab from little Charlie, then ran at Charles. I heard more cracking as more skeletal soldiers awoke. I vaulted, clearing Charle’s head and did a soccer slide tackle into where I had seen the very small shimmering wall. The rest of the coffin broke apart as I slammed into it.

  My health almost gone, my party all Knocked, and pain everywhere, I fell into darkness.

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