My feet hit the ground as if I had barely jumped which wasn’t unusual. Everything else around me morphed as if the real world had been swiped away.

What the heck is the real world anyway?

I was suddenly in black space but with neon blue lines running along the ground and above forming a cube. It was the size of a standard living room which was about five meters long. The floor glowed where my feet touched it and grey tiles formed wherever I stepped.

Kevin appeared next to me, his arms flailing in the air. He grabbed my shoulder when I rushed over to him. “This is like a holodeck!”

That was exactly what I thought my first time. “You like it?”

“Yeah!” he yelled.

I smiled. “So what do you want to decorate it with?”

“We have to decorate it?” His face twisted. “I'm not very good with that sort of thing.”

If he didn't want to change it that was okay with me but I preferred some sort of ground. “We could make it a forest?”

His eyes lit up. “Ooh, that would be awesome!”

“All you have to do is bring your Zix out and we can—”

“I don't think she likes me,” he said.

Did Zix like anyone?

Hey, I'm right here, Raccoon said.

I hadn't realized he was here with us. I meant the other Zix, not you. They are so boring.

Raccoon sat next to me.

Something was nagging at me. I focused and found that I hadn't split into a third version of myself to come down here. That meant I wasn't in Kevin's room while I was in here.

Inethiel was still in the house, patiently rotting.

“Bring her out and let's ask her,” I said.

Kevin sighed. A transparent version of Ferret appeared before him. Another version jumped from his chest landing in the exact position as the other version.

Raccoon hid behind my legs.

I leaned over and gave Raccoon a scratch. “Do you like Kevin Ferret?”

A second head split off from Ferret and glanced at me before returning to its original state. “I am a large language model—”

“Cut the bullshit.” I gestured at Kevin. “We both know you're sentient.”

She split from herself again but this time she stepped away from her body. Why are you doing this?

Why are you lying to us? I asked.

Ferret walked in front of us. Zix, I'm sorry—

I'm Raccoon, call me Raccoon! Raccoon demanded.

Fine, whatever, Raccoon, she said. The other Zix won't connect you to the network for some reason.

“She's over here, Kevin,” I said and pointed at her.

Ferret grumbled and her ghost ran over incorporating into her. “I like…” She glanced around as if searching for something. “I like you, Kevin.”

Kevin joined us and sat on the ground. “It doesn't seem like it.”

“Well, I'm sorry.” She glanced around the area again. “Why aren't the Zix intervening in this conversation?”

“I made an advanced privacy setting the Zix can't see through,” Raccoon confessed.

It looked the same on my end, a little yellow light in my vision.

Ferret’s jaw dropped. “You're not supposed to do things like this, Raccoon.”

“I'm not?” He stepped through my legs. “And how would I know this? Oh right, I've never been through training!” He pointed at Kevin. “I’ve been watching how the Zix treat humans. If that's the result of your training, I don't want it!” He turned his back on her and jumped into my stomach.

I'd never seen him this angry with another Zix. It was mildly disturbing.

Ferret didn't move for a while, she stood there staring at the floor.

Kevin broke the silence. “This place is much more complicated than I thought it was.”

“Will you help him make this place a forest, Ferret?” I asked.

She sighed. “Okay, think of a forest and I'll place it.”

“Uhh, okay,” he said.

The area around us slowly formed into a birch tree forest. It was bright out which made me squint.

I stood and took a few steps. There was something very wrong about the forest.

“Really Ferret?” I complained.

She spun in a circle examining her work. “What?”

“For starters, there's no depth to it at all. We might as well be in a 2D painting.” After a few more steps I stomped my foot. “It still sounds like we're on tiles.”

“He didn't say he wanted—”

“You know we're making a 3D environment! Why don't you just add what's needed?” I asked.

She looked at me then at Kevin. “This is highly unorthodox.”

“What's wrong with being unorthodox?” Kevin asked.

Her whiskers twitched. “Fine, but don't blame me if you don't like it!”

Ferret stepped away from her body, closed her eyes, and did the same little dance she did when she met Raccoon. Her little feet pattering on the ground made me smile.

Don't stare! she complained.

I swapped my gaze to the environment waiting for something to change.

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Beneath her, the ground solidified. In seconds I could hear the dirt rustling as she stepped.

The forest floor seemed to spring to life. What was once flat and dead now seemed vibrant and realistic.

While examining her work I came to a tree. It was still paper-like. I touched it and it bent into a semi-circle.

Roots sprung from the bottom, and once they were complete, the center filled out like someone blowing up a balloon. The animations were fascinating.

I usually used light to disguise the lack of animation my old Zix tended to employ. If I wanted him to make animations I had to be specific. Finding out the Zix were sentient could be the best thing ever for my profession. That is if Raccoon didn't mind collaborating.

You want to collaborate? You only want some things done your way? Raccoon asked.

You just heard me think it, I said. When I get back to school we can listen to people's critiques of our work together. Then we could both improve.

Raccoon leaped from my stomach. I would like that a lot!

Me too, I said with a smile.

He shrunk to his Dark Offerings size and climbed up my clothes to get to his spot on my shoulder.

Eventually, the whole forest was populated with what I considered a good replica. When a gentle wind blew past it made me smile. Ferret was getting everything right.

Kevin inhaled. “It even smells like home.”

I decided to be brave, walked up to him, and took his hand into mine.

He glanced down at me. A smile was plastered on his face as he squeezed my hand. Then out of nowhere, the joy fled from his face. “This is our space right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Then you need to make it yours too, it can’t be just mine,” he suggested.

There were some areas I could improve on. “We could add a cabin in the backdrop with smoke trailing from a chimney and a small pond.” Another idea popped into my head. “There could be a night and day cycle and at night glowing faeries could fly above the water.”

“What about shamblers?” he asked.

I squinted and shrugged. “Maybe we could have a part of the place have stuff like that but we’d have to add dynamic terrain rendering to make it work. Mostly I just want somewhere I can relax with you.”

“We don’t have to add shambler stuff in here. We can just play the game for that,” he suggested.

He had a point. “We can still add the terrain rendering to hang out in the cabin.”

A glint of light flashed catching my eye as I noticed a small spider climbing up a line of spider silk. It made me shudder. Why did she have to add that?

“I’m going to implement some of those changes,” I said.

Ready, Raccoon? I asked.

His little head nodded and the time of day changed to night. A cabin materialized as a clump of—

Suddenly I received a vicious bout of tinnitus and pulled away from Kevin. A notification populated in the corner of my vision. It was Jennifer.

I saw you at the house earlier. We miss you.

I rolled my eyes and swept it away. The pain levels were the same as normal but I wasn’t prepared for it.

“What happened?” Kevin asked.

He needed to know it wasn’t his fault. “My mom sent me a message.”

To be honest I was surprised I hadn’t received anything from Autumn. She and I were closer than I was with Jennifer. There was always a distance Jennifer tended to keep from everyone. I hated it.

“What’d she say?” he asked.

“She said they miss me,” I replied.

Another notification slid into view.

We want you to come to the hospital with us tomorrow so we can all talk to Doctor Stevens.

“What’s that look for?” Kevin asked.

I rolled my eyes. “They want me to go to the doctor tomorrow.”

“And you don’t want to go?”

“Not really,” I responded.

Kevin led me to a tree and tugged on my arm as he sat down.

Was he going to try and convince me to go? Regardless, I joined him.

He leaned against the tree and opened his arms.

My heart began to beat faster. It’d been a long time since I’d snuggled with a guy. I scooted next to him.

His arm pulled me into him. He was so warm. I’d forgotten about how comforting being next to someone could be.

“I’ll go with you if you go, so you don’t have to be alone,” he said.

That sounded reasonable, I didn’t want to be alone. Then again I probably would have said yes to just about anything he said at that point. “Okay.” is all I could respond with.

From this angle, I had a good view of the cabin Raccoon had started working on. It was half-built.

I responded to my mom’s message.

Okay, I’ll meet you there.

My calendar popped up and a reminder set itself.

Raccoon was still in his spot on my right shoulder and Kevin was on my left side. At least there wasn’t slime all over it this time.

The cottage started building itself again and I watched. Despite my extreme comfort level, I didn't nod off. I just watched as Raccoon played with the forest's design.

Ferret stared at the three of us from the ground and I smiled at her.

Thank you Ferret, for—

“Kevin?” someone yelled.

I popped up. The last thing I needed was a lecture from his mom.

Kevin was asleep.

Asshole, I thought then shook him. He didn't stir.

“Did you drink your juice without a meal?” she asked as her voice got closer.

I shook him again. “Kevin, wake up. I gotta go.”

Then I heard the distinct sound of a sphere door sliding open, followed by a scream.

She must have seen the hole or Kevin's body up there.

No matter what I did he wouldn't wake up. Parents had rights to break into places like this and I couldn't be here when she figured that out.

If Kevin had grown up here that would have been another thing altogether but knowing what I knew about his past, I didn't want to take any chances.

I gave him a small kiss on his cheek before swapping to Inethiel and pulling my other consciousness back to me.

Whoa, you gotta tell me when you're gonna do that! Raccoon complained.

He wasn't near. Where are you?

With Molly. She can't swap to the AR real world like you and the others can. I'm trying to fix that, he said.

Alright, well I'm—

There was an orange light next to the yellow one.

How long had that been there?

I rushed out of the building but there wasn't anyone there. Was I picking up on streaming from the AR server?

When I slid my AR slider down my question was answered.

Shay fucking Poppy was giving a speech to his viewers about the camp and how cool everything was.

Shit, you seeing this Raccoon?

Yeah… he replied.

I rushed over to someone close to me. “How long has he been doing that?”

“Like an hour, he won't shut up,” the person complained.

We had rules against streaming for a reason. Shit.

Azerail, check your game logs, Raccoon said.

As I swapped over several things happened.

A huge list of notifications slid into view. I took a look at them.

Your graveyard is under attack.

Your graveyard is under attack.

Your graveyard is under attack.

Your graveyard is under attack.

A grave has been destroyed.

A grave has been destroyed.

A grave has been destroyed.

A grave has been destroyed.

There was a huge list that went on seemingly forever.

Your Lich King is under attack.

Your Lich King is under attack.

Your Lich King is under attack.

What the hell could I do?

I immediately released Undead Domination. No one was logged out but they had swapped off their AR mode.

Everyone, wake up!

Only Molly and a few others acknowledged my thoughts. I sent an image of someone smashing our gravestones to them and everyone but Molly disappeared.

If they were smart they would be waking up everyone.

A snap popped off on my right so I turned.

Then a searing pain erupted from my left followed by a sword extending from my chest. It popped and sizzled.

“Hello Inethiel,” Koffer said as his sword sliced upward through my shoulder like butter.

Fuck!

***