Day Four

Everyone, enter the game.

The kids all started awake. Looking around, they saw that they were in the huts inside the game world. They were also clad in the clothes they had chosen for their avatars. Everyone experienced the same process of believing it was impossible, figuring they must have gotten too immersed in the game, freaking out upon realizing they were actually in the game, and accepting hysterics were going to get them nowhere. The only person who did not take part in this existential ordeal was Frank lie in his bed, dying. While the rest made their way to the clearing, Constantina made her way along the familiar path to Frank’s hut.

“So… what?!” Tabitha cried after everyone had met. “So we’re in the game now?”

“Looks that way,” Gary quipped.

“All right, well, how do we get out?” Jake asked.

“I’m not sure that’s the right question,” pondered Alexis.

“Right. We should be trying to find out why we’re here,” Gary agreed.

“OK… so why are we here?” Jake.

After a brief silence, Gary shrugged. Then Constantina burst from the shrubbery gasping as tears streamed down her face.

“Fran… Frank. He’s…” She turned and returned to the hut. The rest followed after her and yelped upon seeing the bleeding hole in Frank’s side.

“Uh… Gary, you see anything?” Jake asked.

“Nothing you can’t!”

“What’s your Power, Alex?” Tabitha urged. “Can it help him?”

“Why don’t you try and do something, Tabitha?” Gary growled.

“My Power would only make things worse,” Alexis answered panicked. “Doesn’t Jake have all-powerful magic crap? Why doesn’t he do something?!”

“I need permission…”

“All right… you have my permission dear gentleman,” Tabitha shouted mocked.

“I need his--”

“I don’t think he’d mind!”

“I can’t! I think I need his explicit permission…”

“I’ll give you explicit--”

“Enough!” Constantina screamed over the tumult. “My best friend in the whole world is dying. Do any of you have a best friend? Well, meet your new buddy. You had better help him or you will see what my Power is. Now… FIX. HIM.”

For a long while all that could be heard was the wind whistling outside.

“We should try to treat the wound,” Tabitha said slowly. “He’s been like this for far too long. I’ll press on the wound. Jake, can you conjure a pressure bandage?”

As Jake formed a bandage, Alexis threw covers over him.

“Should I do something?” Gary said, his voice shaking.

“Use your magic eye to look for more wounds, if you don’t need special permission.”

Gary was able to use his Lightcommanding Power to see his bones and organs. “One of his ribs is broken.”

“He’s so cold!” CH cried.

“He’s in shock,” Tabitha soothed. “He’s been out like this for a long time. I’d guess whatever has sustained him this long will keep him alive longer.” She put her hand on CH’s shoulder. “We’ll help him, OK?”

CH nodded and went silently to a corner while Tabitha applied Jake’s bandage. Jake sat next to her.

“Sorry about that,” Mr. Slick’s cold, slick voice said. “It was the only thing that fit the ‘ironic twist’ criteria.”

“Slick!” Gary growled.

“You should be more worried about your friend. You’ll get to do as you please with me later. I’m just here to give you another warning.”

“Oh? And what might that be, benevolent game construct?”

“There’s another, less benevolent game construct. When players cheat, they incur the wrath of an intentionally overpowered monster made specifically to kill cheating players. Oh, sorry… forgot to stay in character.” Slick took a deep breath. “There is a mighty sorceress who dwells in this land, seeking to strike down those who seek greedily after their own interests… whatever. Just no cheating and you’ll be fine.”

“I’m called…” a new voice rasped dramatically from the doorway.

“No…” Slick gasped turning around.

“The Witch of Myth!”

“You idiots already cheated?!” Slick cried. “I’m out. Good luck.” Slick disappeared and a huge black mass flooded the room.

It was a feminine figure that entered the small home. Its head was technically visible, but it was pitch black. It thrust an arm forward and sent the kids flying back against the wall. Jake and CH leapt to their feet, attracting the Witch’s attention. Jake teleported behind the being, but it sent him back and threw a conjured sword at him. He deflected it and narrowly missed Gary’s head. Gary ran up and tried to kick it, but it flung him back again, knocking him unconscious. With a flash of light, it was upon him. Growling, Jake thrust his hands forward and warped space, drawing it towards him. Yanking on its cloak, he pulled it through the weird space and successfully put distance between it and Gary. He materialized a knife and tried to stab the being, but it warped to the other side of the room and began choking him. Then, Frank from another time appeared in front of the Witch and kissed it. Taking advantage of its confusion, Frank was able to wrestle with it, but the Witch claimed victory, skewering him with several swords. With a scream, Constantina conjured a gale that swept the Witch out the door. The Elementcommander followed it. A fearsome storm gathered over the beast and rained lightning on it. The Witch threw her back, but saw a much more terrible being behind her. A black behemoth broke through the front-facing wall of the hut and snatched up the Witch of Myth.

“Ha… Hatecommanding..?” it gasped.

Alexis roared in reply and threw the adversary to the ground, knocking it out. Alex picked it up again and flung it deep into the forest. She threw her head back and screamed at the sky. The forest trembled and birds everywhere took flight. Tabitha ran outside and looked up at the beast. Alexis looked down at her.

“I… failed you…” she groaned, her voice mixed with various whispering voices. The black fog began to roll into the area.

“Alex…”

“I think I’ve brought you all enough bad news.” Mr. Slick appeared on the scene again.

Alexis snarled and grabbed him, but he shifted out of her hand and winked at her. She shrank back into herself and passed out.

“So here’s some good news.” Mr. Slick slowly glided back to the ground. “There’s a crafting system in this game. You can make healing items with it. I’d advise you figure out how it works. Also, the woods can get dangerous at night.” Even as CH’s storm cleared up, the sky remained dark. “Looks like the Witch of Myth is awake and doesn’t want you out and about.”

Slick disappeared again, and the kids decided to get back to their huts. Jake fixed Frank’s hut and agreed to take Gary back to his hut. He said goodbye to Tabitha who brought Alexis to her hut. CH volunteered to stay with Frank, so the others fared her well and went home. They climbed into their beds, but sleep came not easily.

⁂

The others had all fallen asleep, but Jake still lie awake in his bed with a floating ball of light above his head. Jake had trouble sleeping when his mind was not so burdened. When raw exhaustion finally threatened to take him, he heard a familiar, irksome voice near his bed.

“Child! Awake!” Alecris whispered loudly.

“I’m up,” Jake groaned. “What do you want?”

“Are you sleeping as your friend dies?”

“There’s nothing we can do. We can’t look for stuff until it becomes light again.”

“And who told you that?”

“Mr. Slick… did he lie to us again?”

“Well… it would be safer during the day, but I heard you awoke the Witch of Myth.”

“Yeah…”

“The Witch will not let the sun rise until it can see an advantage to doing so. It will not until your friend is dead, I would venture.”

“OK. And why should I trust you?”

“That’s… a valid question. Well, ask me anything, and I’ll answer honestly.”

“You said we were to usurp your throne, right? Doesn’t that mean you’d prefer us dead?”

“Well… you will usurp what should be my throne, but it is no longer mine.”

“All right, so what are you?”

“Huh. Tact is not your strong suit, is it?”

“I’m tired and you’re keeping me awake. So what are you?”

“Well, we never gave ourselves a proper name. We were a conquering race, so we saw no reason to distinguish ourselves from our soon-to-be colonies. We were a violent race that overwhelmed other societies with our superior weapons and abilities. Of course, video games were banned because ‘video games don’t make kids violent’ or some similar crap. My friends and I, however, are peaceful. We hid ourselves and tried to promote peace in secrecy. Then someone helping us brought us a game without a proper name. We played it first to check it out, and that game happened to be this game. We beat the game, of course, and brought our race to this planet, hoping we could restart our culture with us as the kings. Unfortunately they attacked us and usurped our thrones. I think I should also mention that the rest of our race believe in a powerful being beyond existence. They believe that if one were to reach the mythical ‘end of forever,’ they’d be able to see it. But we’ve been to the end of forever: the Void. In the Void there is nothing.”

“Does the being have a name?” Jake asked, enthralled in the story.

“Not a proper one.”

Jake rolled his eyes.

“Some have called it The Mathematician or The Philosopher, but most of my race despises these names.

“All right, so I’ll have faith in you and blame my psychosis. How do we help Frank?”

“Frank has survived this long because the game wanted him to, but his condition began rapidly deteriorating as soon as you saw him.”

“OK, but how do we help him.”

“This game has a crafting system. You have to make a powerful healing item.”

“How?”

“I’ll show you.”

The two sneaked out of the hut and into the forest. They came upon an Alien carrying a flashlight, scanning the shrubbery. Alecris thrust his tendrils forward. Water particles in the air gathered around the Alien, forming a sphere which drowned it. From its body exploded a purple glowing orb, a blue one, and a bright white one.

“Pick them up, quickly!” Alecris rasped.

Jake grabbed the orbs, and they returned to the hut. Gary stood, now awake, in the middle of the room with his arms crossed and cross expression.

“Woah, what’s wrong?” Jake asked as Alecris produced a series of instruments and began drawing on the floor.

“Did he tell you what he did?” Gary replied.

“I mean, I guess we killed a guy…” Jake looked at the floor.

“You killed a perfectly innocent person.” Gary shot a hateful glance at Alecris.

“But… they came here and killed everyone off, right? No one’s-- wait! Alecris!”

“Yes?” the Alien answered, half turning.

“You said you brought your race here after you conquered, right?”

“That’s… correct…”

“So not every one of your race is guilty. Really, only you and those who overthrew you have blood on your hands!”

“Also,” Gary added, “that white substance Alecris had you pick up is called Pure Essence. You can only get it by killing innocents. Not only did Alecris kill an innocent man, but he knew it too! He hunted down and innocent Alien and murdered it!”

“Alecris!” Jake cried, tears forming in his eyes.

“Jake, you’re going to have to hurt many more before this all is over. I’m so sorry.”

“No…” Jake fell to the floor.

“Jake… I need the essences.”

“What are the other Essences?” Jake asked Gary as he dropped the glowing orbs.

“That blue one is Life Essence, and the black one, Death Essence. Both are obtained from killing any sentient being. You can kill wicked Aliens to get those too.” Gary added hastily.

“Yes, Gary,” Alecris said bitterly. “But use your magic light thing to tell Jake the only wat to save his friend.”

“Well…” Gary sighed.

“What is it?” Jake sniffled. “Tell me we didn’t kill someone for nothing.”

“Frank is dying quickly. And it is true that the Witch of Myth won’t let the sun rise again unless she sees some tactical advantage to it. You would have had to have hunted him down during the night. And… and only a Resurrection Draught could save him now. And the recipe for that requires precisely one Life Essence, one Death Essence… and one Pure Essence.”

Alecris nodded and arranged the orbs on the triangle he had constructed. With a flash of light, a glass filled with a glowing red liquid. The team then sneaked out into the indefinite night to the hut wherein Frank was dying. Jake approached the pale, clammy body. He produced the red drink and opened Frank’s mouth. CH watched carefully from a shaded corner.

“Wait!” Alecris rasped. “The draught will only work if he is dead already.”

“So you mean--”

“We have to kill him?!” Jake shouted, his tears starting again.

“You can do it the most painlessly,” Gary apologized, rubbing his arm.

“No. Nobody else.” Jake fell to the floor. His eyes were open wide, and the voices waxed louder and more vicious. “I will not hurt anyone else.”

“Constantina,” Gary sighed as a wind swept through the room, “please step into the light.”

“You will not kill him,” she growled, approaching the trio.

“Constantina, he will only suffer until he dies. If we kill him quickly, we can bring him back.”

“The alien told you that, right? Do you trust him?”

“I saw it too. It’s the only way we can save him.”

Everyone’s eyes shot to Frank as he coughed and sputtered. After a few more seconds, he stopped. His chest fell one last time. He stopped shivering. CH turned and sulked back to her corner, trying to hide her tears.

Gary opened Frank’s mouth and poured the Resurrection Draught down his throat. Moments after the last drop went down, Frank jolted upright in a coughing fit. Then after a moment’s silence, he let out a loud “Ow!”

“Frank!” CH screamed, rushing to embrace him. He hugged her back but not without obvious pain.

“CH… what happened? Was I dying?”

“You actually died, but we brought you back.”

“Do you remember anything?” Alecris urged.

“No… why?”

“It is said in this world that the future can be seen in the Void. I regret that you remember nothing, but I am glad to see you alive and well.”

“Why?” Gary snapped. “What makes you so invested in our success?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe decency?! Maybe, I just want to see you survive. Yeah, that’s right: survive! In this world, if you fail to off the monarchy, the monarchy offs you. And lucky for me, I’m not part of the monarchy.”

“But you were.”

“All right, guys! Enough! We have enough supernatural opponents to deal with as well as natural ones. Turning on each other is a bad idea,” Frank said with a wince. “I get the feeling this Slick fella’s not as upstanding as he’d have us think.”

“No, don’t worry. He seems sarcastic and against you most of the time, but if it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be able to do anything,” Alecris assured the team, earning him a glare from the others. “All right then. We’ve all had a tiring evening. Everyone should get some sleep.”

The kids begrudgingly agreed, and Jake and Gary returned to Jake’s hut.

“Jake, I’ve meant to check up on you since we arrived here. Have you still been taking your meds?” Gary asked.

“I took them yesterday, but…” He clutched his head. “They didn’t make it into the game!”

“Are you OK?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t experienced any symptoms all that much, but… I don’t know. It may be nothing.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It’s… nothing. I’m just tired. Let’s get to sleep, OK?”

“Yeah. You take the bed. I’ll--” When he looked, there was another bed sitting there, a couple feet from Jake’s. “I’ll take the other bed, I guess. Forgot you could do that.”

The two climbed into their beds and slept easily and dreamlessly.

End Day Four

Author's Note

Sorry this is so late. I've got things going on, so it's harder to write as regularly. I'd rather put out a better quality chapter than rush to be "on time."