Theo watched another movie while I placed another tomato toast into the toaster oven.

“Would you be okay to get it yourself if I’m not down here?” I asked Theo from the kitchen, because I didn’t want to see what movie Theo picked.

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good. It’s got a half an hour on the timer,” I said.

“Got it! You go do your thing,” Theo said.

He sounded a lot better, but still exhausted. I wasn’t sure where his corruption levels were, but I could still see the haunted look in his eyes he was trying to hide. I wondered if he got any sleep last night.

I walked outside and into the garage. I hadn’t primed any of the upstairs rooms, and I wanted to get that done. It would take a solid six hours, though. I started it in little Theo’s room.

The grass was growing in the rain. I would need to mow it tomorrow or the next day, which meant I needed to build that riding lawnmower soon.

I glanced out the doorway of the garage. The house had its lights on. The front porch was lovely and the tulips were blooming. Theo was inside with Killie on his lap, watching whatever horror movie he was watching.

I walked over to the front porch and sat down again on the porch swing. In my cleaning clothes I noticed that the house wasn’t one hundred percent clean, no doubt because Theo was relaxing with a movie and they were leaving him. I’d clean that up later.

My mind started wandering. Something Theo had said returned to my memory, and for whatever reason I couldn’t shake it. He talked about the bases of monsters, and was certain he would find their base. From what I could tell, they were always where Theo was. They appeared out of the ground whenever Theo felt depressed.

Yet Theo mentioned indications when he knew he was close to a base. Things would be there to give a hint. If I had to make a wild guess, all four of the ghosts that caused him grief were on this side of the river, with three of them being in this very house. When Theo conquered them, their power was reduced by ten percent. It only made sense that…

I glanced up at the ceiling, toward the second floor. The front door opened and I saw Theo walking out with Killie in his arms.

“Is the movie done already?” I asked.

“No, but… I felt bad about how much I was leaking in there,” he said.

I couldn’t help it and snorted. “What’s your corruption bar look like?”

“Ten percent,” Theo said.

I crinkled my nose. “Then go let it drain the rest of the way, Theo.”

He shook his head, sitting down next to me on the bench. “Nah, it doesn’t drain when it hits ten percent. This is what I have to work with tonight, and I’ll take it.”

We rocked in silence for a bit. Killie climbed on my lap and was enjoying the extra love from both of us.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Dead on my feet,” Theo said, closing his eyes and resting his head against the wall. “The corruption may be practically gone, but my stamina is shot.”

“Oh, I can get you more food for your stamina,” I said, starting to stand up.

Theo held out a hand, stopping me. “Don’t bother. Most of my stamina is grayed out because of how much corruption was in me last night.” He sighed. “It happens. Over a hundred percent, the nights drain my stamina and keep it grayed out.”

“Oh,” I said, sitting back down. “I’ve experienced that before eating too many comfort foods.”

Theo nodded, a frown appeared on his face. “This is… what I have to deal with if I don’t die.” He let out another sigh. “It sucks, feeling tired like this. At least I’m not depressed and tired. That’s even worse.”

I kept petting Killie, who purred and closed her eyes. “I think I know where their base is,” I said.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Theo cracked an eye open to glance at me. “Oh?”

“Second floor. Locked room.” Theo opened both eyes to look at me. I shrugged. “It’s the only place that makes sense. That or they’re deep underground where we can’t reach.”

Theo said nothing. He went back to closing his eyes, though there was a furrow in his brow.

“I’d like to remind you that we have two more seasons left. You don’t have to do this right now,” I said.

Theo grunted, placing his hand on Killie’s back. “I feel like this game is the best one to speedrun.” I smiled a little, mainly because I knew Theo still had his eyes closed. “I’d rather try to get rid of the final ghost before I go to the locked room, though.”

“You mean little Theo?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Theo said. “How does he usually haunt?”

“Before when the house wasn’t nearly as clean, he ran around upstairs and giggled,” I said. Theo opened his eyes at that, raising an eyebrow. “Hey, it was terrifying when I first got here.”

Theo straightened. “Alright. Well, what does little Theo do now?”

“Usually sings nursery rhymes. But… but this is the night they attack, which means…” I trailed off, then glanced at him. “Which means I usually hear the stairs creaking as he walks down them, and bloody footprints appear on the carpet.”

Theo didn’t say anything. He simply remained where he was, and the exhaustion hit him at once. He looked so tired.

“Right,” was all he mumbled.

I held in a sigh. “I’d like to emphasize once again that… we have two seasons left.”

“The mystery will remain,” Theo said, rubbing his forehead. “It’ll be hanging over my head, causing more corruption. I’d rather just know.”

I nodded, understanding that train of thought. The ghosts had been so terrifying because I didn’t know what they were. Once I did, it didn’t attack my sanity so bad.

“You look like you could use a nap,” I said.

“I almost did,” Theo said.

“Well, you should. Go take a nap. Either in my bedroom or back at base camp. I can come wake you up when it’s late enough,” I said.

“What about the wolf? Aren’t you worried it might try and eat you?” Theo asked.

“I put some venison at its lair so it’ll stay out there a couple more hours then usual.”

Theo nudged me with his shoulders. “Look at you. Doing something brave.”

“I didn’t feel brave,” I said.

“That’s the secret, though. When we think people are brave, it’s because we have no idea what’s going on inside their head at the moment. We’re able to fool a lot of people.”

I snorted. “I suppose that’s why bravery and stupidity are often mixed up.”

“The difference between bravery and stupidity is whether the outcome was to our favor or not,” Theo said.

This time I let out a laugh, pushing his shoulder. “You’re an idiot.”

“Not stupid yet, though. That’s to be seen.” Theo stood up and stretched. “I think I will take you up on that offer to sleep. I’m just not sure…”

“If you sleep in my bed, Killie will join you,” I said.

“Well, that settles that,” Theo said, scooping up Killie from my lap. “Come on, girl. I’m about to take the hardest nap of my life.”

I smiled as the two of them disappeared into the house again. I waited a bit before entering the house, too, cleaning up where they were left. It didn’t take long. I hoped Theo understood how little this annoyed me. In ten minutes the chair was back to normal.

I stood up, brushing myself off. There was a good long while before it got dark. Or at least darker, since the rain clouds kept it pretty dark already. I gave myself something to do by eating the hearty soup and going outside to chop down trees. This lawn was growing fast, no doubt doubled by the rain. I would want to mow the lawn tomorrow, and I didn’t want to wait on Theo to get me more scrap metal. He was going through hell right now, and I didn’t want to ask him for more scrap metal.

I downed tree after tree in the pouring rain, undeterred because I ate my hearty soup. I broke up the logs into boards and fed them into the dumpster. Once I had a large supply, I bought up a lot of scrap metal from the basement. It was hard, though, after cutting down trees and going through almost three hearty soups to get twenty-six scrap metal from all that hard work. I was definitely happy I found Theo when I did. Our scrap metal exchange saved me a ton of dopamine points.

It gave me something to do. A busy thing for my mind to focus on while I waited for dark. They would attack, and Theo was taking a good long nap.

I placed the last scrap metal into the mower and took a step back. It formed into a nice, compact riding lawn mower. I wasn’t sure what would happen tonight, but I would be ready with what I wanted to do tomorrow. The grass was now high enough to hide my shoes, and I wanted to keep it trim. After I rebuilt the fences.

I leaned back, placing my hands on my hips as I looked out among the forest. The lamp had flickered on. There were other lights on in the house, as well as the porch light. The wolf wouldn’t appear for a few more hours yet. That creature was really distracted with the venison.

I walked inside the house, feeling how quiet it was. Not just quiet. Peaceful. There was one ghost left. The one of little Theo. Once I knew who he was, I had never felt threatened by the little boy. More heartbroken than anything.

I opened the back door and checked the clipboard, giving a final look at my stats.

Farming level 32

Cleaning level 32

Logging level 38

Cooking level 33

Building level 37

Animal Care level 28

I was so curious about a number of things. I wanted to know what happened when they all reached level thirty. Or when I reached the max leveling in each one. Logging was easy enough to guess. There didn’t seem like another animal I needed to get when I reached the max level of animal care.

It was all these questions I wasn’t sure I’d learn. Part of me felt at peace about that. I had long ago known that I would rather get out of this game than finish it. What hurt the most was the floors. But I would not be seduced by those floors to stay in this game a moment longer if I didn’t have to.

I heard the bedroom door open, and the clipboard clattered back to its spot as I entered the house again to meet up with Theo.