I followed Mr. Suck down the stairs and into the tavern common room. The barkeep actor watched us discreetly out of the corner of his eye. On a whim, I opened my inventory and pulled out a hundred gold marker. I held it up until I caught his eye, then tossed it to him. He snatched it out of the air with a confused look, unsure if he should pocket it or get me a thousand of every drink in the joint.

“For the room,” I supplied with a nod upstairs.

The barkeep looked at me in shock for a moment, then quickly pocketed the marker. “Thank you so much, Error.”

I gave him a nod, then turned to follow Mr. Suck, when I realized he had stopped. He was looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

I shrugged at his unasked question. “Actors don’t get enough appreciation. Plus,” I added with a smirk, “it’s not my money.”

He matched my smirk, then said, “Is now.”

I suppose so.

“By the way, remind me to show you how to fix that name error when we arrive,” he said. “Though, I suppose if you enjoy everyone referring to you as ‘Error’, we can leave it as is…”

“No, that would be great.” Then it registered what he had said. “Wait, when we arrive where?” He ignored my question, turning to leave the tavern. “Mr. Suck?”

He turned back at that. “Mr. Suck is just for the corpos,” he said with a wink. “My friends call me Al.”

“Oh, okay,” I said. “Where are we going…Al?”

I followed him out of the tavern and into the town square, waiting for a reply. He turned to me, holding a finger to his lips. “My ears are burning, how bout you, Ray?”

Now that he mentioned it, the earring was definitely warm against my skin - verging on uncomfortably so.

“Yeah, actually.”

“Righto, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” He reached out and bodily picked me up. I tried to pull away in surprise, but his grip was iron, and I realized his character was actually stronger than mine.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He ignored me, and suddenly my stomach hit the back of my throat as he took off in a run that was many times faster than I had been running in the dungeon. He was moving so fast my eyes were tearing up and I had to force my head upright to keep it from smashing into his chin.

I screamed in a less than dignified manner as the trees whipped past us at what must have been over a hundred miles an hour.

“Alllllll!” I screamed, the wind making my voice nearly inaudible.

He leaned down so his mouth touched my ear, his pace never breaking. It would have been mildly sexual if it wasn’t for the ever-present fangs an inch from my neck. “Chill out, Ray-Bae,” he said in my ear. “I’m taking you somewhere a little more…private.”

I shivered, from the biting wind or the sexually suggestive whisper in my ear, I couldn’t say.

We quickly cleared the region we had been in, the deep shadows receding, the forest becoming less sinister. When Al ran in the sun, I felt him noticeably weaken, his pace slow, only to pick up again as we hit the shadows. It seemed that the sun debuffed him in some way, and I guess it made sense, him being a vampire.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

After roughly ten minutes of being carried like a baby, Al began to slow. We broke through the tree line and into a small clearing. In front of us, there was a sheer cliff that extended high, the top almost out of view. He set me down carefully, and my legs almost gave out.

“Please, don’t ever do that again,” I said weakly, bracing myself against the cliff.

He flashed me a smile. “What’s the matter, Ray? Too insecure to let another man hold you?”

I scoffed. “More like I’ve been sexually harassed enough for one day.” I looked around, noting the edge of the forest we had come from behind us, and the sheer cliff in front of us. “What are we doing here? We’re a bit off the beaten path aren’t we?” It was then that I noticed the earring had gone cold again. Al had managed to lose whoever had been watching us.

“Ah, Ray, you’re in for a treat.” He turned to the cliff wall and began running his hand along it.

“What are you doing-” I stopped when Al’s hand seemed to find a hidden button that he pushed in. The cliff started shuddering, a portion of the wall receding out of view to reveal a dark cave entrance.

Al gave me a bow and waved for me to enter first. I didn’t relish the idea of entering a pitch black cave into some secret tunnel that only Al seemed to know about. I had no way out if I was trapped - no teleportation, no means to logout. My only solace was that I’d be able to tell Jeremy exactly where I was if Al was leading me into some sort of trap. Why would the man that had just saved my ass lead me into a trap? I don’t know, but he sure as hell wasn’t being straight forward with me, and my guard was up.

I pulled up my chat with Jeremy, realizing that I had a bunch of missed messages I had ignored during the meeting with Goldman.

SnotPuppy: dude, who the fuck is suckonthis? Sounds like a douche

SnotPuppy: whoa, hes lvl 54. Is that the corpo lawyer?

SnotPuppy: ok, ok, ur busy, my bad

SnotPuppy: wait, my map says ur running further away!

SnotPuppy: Ray!?

SnotPuppy: where the hell r u goin?

I quickly typed out a message to Jeremy and attached a location pin.

(Error): Hey, Jer. Long story, but I’m heading into a secret tunnel with my lawyer - but I didn’t hire him, so I’m a little sketched out. If you don’t hear from me in an hour or two, this is the entrance. There’s a button on the cliff face, about chest height.

SnotPuppy: What! Dude, wth am I spose to do? Im lvl 5!

I felt conspicuous standing there, typing out a message to Jeremy, and Al was pointedly watching me with a raised eyebrow.

(Error): Can’t talk, figure it out.

SnotPuppy: Bro!!! Thats scary movie rule number 1, 2, and 3!! Never go into the scary place with the mysterious stranger!

I knew he was right, this was probably really stupid. But Al obviously knew more about my situation than he was letting on. I mean, he had shown up at the exact moment I needed him. There were only a few ways he could have known to be there - meaning he was probably my greatest ally.

Too bad he was kind of a creep.

I gave Al what I hoped was a normal smile, then walked through the entrance, keeping one eye on him as I did. As I passed the threshold, a cold sensation passed over me, much like when I had used the portal leading from the dungeon. The pitch-black tunnel flashed, and torches ensconced on the cave wall burst into life. A grating sound behind me made me jump. Al was there, the cave entrance closing up behind him. He bid me forward with a nod of his head, and I reluctantly complied.

Not like I had much choice at this point.

I realized that something was off with my interface, like something was missing. Jeremy’s nameplate was gone, along with my party menu. In fact, all of my chat windows were grayed out.

“Hey! Why can’t I access my chat all the sudden?”

The torchlight was striking Al’s face at an angle that set half his face in deep shadows. That paired with the suggestion of fangs just barely protruding below his upper lip put me on edge. I suddenly felt completely vulnerable, and didn’t want to turn my back on the vampire.

“Head in and I’ll explain everything.”

I stepped back, putting some distance between us. “I don’t know. I’m not really comfortable here…alone…with you.”

He took a step forward, and I instinctively stepped back. When he took another step, I felt my heart start to pound in my throat.

“What are you doing?” I asked in a panic.

He pushed into my space even more, and I scrambled back now, my shoulder banging against one of the torches, the heat flaring hot against my neck. I pushed off the wall and ran down the tunnel. There was a light emanating from ahead, and I sped up, hoping I could create enough distance to escape.

When I burst out of the tunnel and into an open cavern, I stopped despite myself, all the fear of the vampire at my back gone in an instant.

What I saw took my breath away.