Chapter 66:

Stranger Danger

What did she see, what did she know? I broke out in sweat, becoming a dripping and anxious mess under her gaze. My mind raced with trying to figure out HOW she could know. Mind reading, that wasn't a thing in the Interverse... right? I mean Kenzo could probably teach it to me but any normal person shouldn't be able to do something like that. Who was this girl? Why was SHE here?

Should I run? I thought I should run but just as my panic was hitting unfathomable heights—her expression broke and she died laughing.

"You should have seen your face!" She said through giggles.

I fought back the urge to vomit, my eye twitching as I nervously laughed along with her.

"Y-yeah, you really got me."

"You both just have such serious reasons. I wanted to break the tension a teensy bit."

"By making things ten times more tense first...?" I said, still laughing nervously.

She grinned. "Yep. Sorry, I have a weird sense of humor. But, you know... your reaction was pretty strange. Are you really not telling the truth?" The mask's eyes were in narrow slits, examining me.

I swallowed and stopped laughing. I needed to get control over this conversation. "I mean, there are some things I can't be completely truthful about, to not fully reveal some personal details. But, overall, yeah, I joined to rescue someone."

The mask went back to normal and she giggled once more. "Of course. Only teasing."

My heart rate slowed back to normal levels. Crisis averted. But I still didn't feel completely trusting of the girl anymore. She was strange in way too many ways to be a pure innocent. I needed to try and break down some of the mysteries.

"So... what about you? Why did you want to join? Also, I'm Rae, by the way."

She held her hand up to her mask, shocked. "We haven't exchanged names! How thoughtless of me. Wonderful to meet you, Rae. I'm Netta. And you, my fine muscled friend?" She turned to the guy who I'd completely spaced on him being there, he'd been so quiet.

"Oh!" He said, a bit too loud, as if he had forgotten how to use his voice while silently listening to our tense conversation. "You can call me Dowser."

"Dowser?" I asked. "What made you choose that name?"

"It's a nickname, actually. I de-escalate bad situations. Usually with violence of my own, but the flames get doused, you could say." His skull mask grinned and the eyes flashed with flames.

I got the impression that both of these new friends of mine would be very dangerous to have as enemies. Best to tread carefully.

"So, Netta... you never said what you're here for," I said, trying to gently get us back to what I really wanted to know more about.

"Ah, of course! Well, I came for a little excitement."

I narrowed my eyes and she laughed.

"It's true!" She said. "I wanted to do something a little rough and dangerous. Of course, I thought this group was just a band of thieves so I thought I would just be pickpocketing things or punching someone and running away—if I knew we would be hunting ghosts I doubt I would have come."

"Really now?" Dowser said, again, too loud. I guess that could just be his default state. That was in line with everything else I'd gathered about him. "You didn't seem too afraid back there. You jumped right into the fray."

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She twirled her hair. "I didn't say I was a push over or anything. I just acted on reflex. I've never been put in a true life or death situation like that. It was... exhilarating." Her mask radiated heat, flames going around the outline of the mask. Not really sure what that meant but I probably didn't want to know.

She shook her head and the flames stopped. She looked at me and smiled. "But you, you were the real star of the show. You fought that ghost with only 100 health, did you not?"

"Yeah, are you insane?" Dowser said, already starting to laugh at his next sentence, "You really wore that noob helmet?"

I stayed firm. "I did. It's my trump card. I know it may not look like it, but it saved my life. I was doing just fine with it until you caused that explosion." I gave Dowser a side eye.

To my surprise, he actually blushed. He rubbed his head, embarrassed instead of mad. "Yeah, I really fucked that one up, huh?"

"We all almost died from that," Netta agreed. "Thank god for that swordsman."

I perked up at the mention of our semi savior.

"Do you think he's gonna make it?" I asked.

Dowser looked at the ground and Netta just stared toward the door leading to the tunnel.

“Yeah, I don’t know either…” I said, joining her in staring at the doors. In a perfect world he would be carted through the doors much more gently by the shadows, and set down by the punch bowl. And the survivors would rejoice.

But things weren’t that perfect in the Interverse, no matter how much that idea was sold to us.

There was a bustling over to our right. I hadn’t noticed it before but it seemed like that was the direction of the front door, the one that people who didn’t have to fight to the death with a ghost got to take. A crowd formed as the door opened, whoever had entered must have been super important.

Dowser got up and from his vantage point he was able to see over the crowd. He shrugged. “Just some Blue Masks, they’re escorting some fancy people. What’s the deal with this place?” he asked.

I’d been wondering the same thing. All these normal people gathered for a party in a No Respawn zone? Why would they do that? What could possibly be here for someone not wanting to be involved in all this?

I thought maybe everyone was as seemingly drugged as that one girl, but that wasn’t the case. I could see others that were fully sentient. Drunk and high, maybe, but holding it together much better than that girl.

“Maybe everyone is after a little thrill,” Netta said, still staring at the hub-bub. “Ooh, he is pretty cute.”

I turned back around and there was a familiar red headed boy, dressed as someone much more impressive than he actually was. Just the sight of him made my stomach drop to my feet. I was so glad to be facing away from the others because I had no idea what my face–mask–would be giving away at least a hint of my overwhelming emotions.

It was Stephen. What was he doing here? In a fucking No Respawn Zone!? Is he crazy? Risking my life for things was MY thing! I wanted to run to him and immediately get out of here, get him far away from here. I may not like him much right now but on my list of people that deserved to die, he was still a hesitant dead last addition that I only had one or two letters of his name written.

Which I guess is my weird roundabout way of saying that no matter how deep our fight went this place was not somewhere he deserved to be.

I stood up, right as Dowser whistled.

“Those people their escorting… they aren’t just rich people. Some of those guys, a lot of em…”

“They’re User Killers,” Netta finished for him.

I felt an even stronger urge to puke.

“What?” I asked.

“Yeah, look,” Dowser started to point people out," See those two identical twins? The ones with the long hair and wild eyes? They're the Brothers Grimm. And, holy shit, that big guy?" The matter was very hard to miss, he towered above everyone, the single biggest person I had ever seen. "That's Tiny Giant. If he isn't the leader of the User Killers he has gotta be second in command or at least their most powerful hammer. These guys are all bad news."

What in the actual fuck was Stephen doing with a bunch of User Killers!? I mean, it was possible he didn’t know, but that was just as bad. He was in a place where he could die for real, literally surrounded by people that got their name for offing Users.

As much as it pained me, I managed to take my eyes off Stephen and turn in a different direction. I gasped.

“What is it?” Netta asked, concern in her voice.

“I think I just saw my friend I was looking for. I… I gotta go. I’ll catch up with you all later, okay?”

I took off, not bothering to wait for a response. I think Netta wanted to go, too, so I worked extra hard to delve into the crowd and duck down, trying to obscure where I was really going. After a while, I stood back up, and got my sights back on Stephen, where his group of User Killers and socialites had exited the main dance hall and off to a corridor to the side.

I took off, fake dancing, and twisting around and under everyone in my way. I was worried that the door would have been guarded or locked but it opened without a single issue, leading to another dark tunnel like the one the shadows brought me up. Only this time, there was a big open doorway to the left, it’s doors wide open as the crowd of people filed in. As the last person made their way inside, I ran forward and pushed my back up against the wall, reaching out mentally to stop the door from shutting all the way. I slinked down, and got up right to the small crack in the door, ready to find just what this whole crowd of popular kids and criminals were gathered for.