Chapter 14
Interview
Animals, more like monsters! I watched as the socialists devoured pancake after pancake.
Boner had no trouble stuffing them down his throat. I was starting to suspect he wasn’t actually human. He might actually be a really short half giant.
23 was the same. Shade was on a whole other level. She was eating with her bear hands! She would even growl at anyone that was reaching for a pancake at the same time as her. The really strange part was when they would growl back.
Now I was strange but Shade. She was in a totally different league. Shadow was driven by her animal instinct to, but not to this extent.
I wonder if Shade was more animal like because she was starving? If so then wouldn't Shadow act more like a cat if she was hungry?
Rosy tried to be modest using her knife and fork but she was also eating like a savage. A very refined savage at that. Kind of like watching a billionaire commit cannibalism in a fancy restaurant.
Austin was the only one with manners. I figured they were keeping him fed. I suppose being a kid had its benefits.
It seemed like Shadow wasn't just being my mom. She was acting like everyone’s mother. She forced these guys to wash their hands and even acted warmly towards them.
She even asked Shade and Rosy if they needed any womanly products. They both declined. I didn't even know you could get those in this world. I guess Shadow was always like that. Mega mom till the end.
I hope I never get to the point where I have to worry about….. womanly products. That would suck.
At least I knew Shadow wasn’t singling me out. Though I seemed to be her favorite. It was probably because she sensed weakness. She seemed to be drawn to it, and if she saw weakness she’d poke at it till you started crying. Just so she could then comfort you.
I had her figured out. I’m pretty sure this is some kind of mental psychological torture to force me into loving her.
It’s like she’s trying to make me dependent on her. It’s evil I tell you! Crazy evil cat lady. Aku just had to spill my secrets to her. Now she’s got all kinds of things to poke at. I felt panic in my gut.
Snowball sat on the table acting as my shield. When we started eating I almost asked Shadow for an extra plate for her. Then I remembered she was just a toy.
Part of me still wanted to feed my fluffy white cat but that was to embarrassing. I was halfway through my pancake before wondering where my coffee was.
Shadow was beside me so I tugged on her jacket. She glanced my way smiling. I couldn't tell if her smile was fake or not. She seemed to be perfectly fine with the…. event going on in front of us.
“What's the matter? Do you want me to get a plate for Snowball?” She knew me so well! I almost gave myself away. Despite her being right. I could never confirm something like that.
I shook my head as my embarrassment jumped up a whole notch. “C-Coffee…. You promised.” I couldn’t help but notice everyone else had coffee. Everyone but Austin and Rosy.
Shadow reached behind Snowball and pulled out a small cup. She put it down in front of me. Inside of it was not coffee. It looked like Apple juice. I felt a spark of rage.
“You promised I could have coffee! Liar!” I crossed my arms and turned my head the other way.
Luca was on my other side. She got to see my pout. She tried to poke my cheek but I nipped at her finger.
“Chief! Don't bite me!” She quickly recoiled in a combination of giggles and fear.
Shadow brought the attention back to her. “I never lied master. I promised I’d make pancakes and coffee. I never said anything about letting you drink coffee.” That sneaky cat!
“That’s not fair! How come Luca gets to drink it and I don’t?! She doesn’t even like it!” As to prove my point Luca took a sip of her coffee only to show a face of disgust.
She immediately reached for the sugar cubes dropping a handful into the mug. It was hard to watch.
“That doesn’t matter your not getting any. You’re a kid. You don’t need anymore energy. Do you know how hard it is to look after you normally. Add coffee into the mix and it becomes almost impossible.” I'm being difficult again. I should keep my mouth shut. Not only was I useless I was also a huge burden on everyone.
“Sorry… you don't have to look after me anymore. I’ll do stuff on my own from now on.” I turned to the cup of apple juice and like a shot of whisky downed it in one go.
Some of the sweet golden liquid spilled down the side of my mouth. I wasn’t used to my mouth yet so chugging things could sometimes be messy.
Shadow sighed. “Don't be an idiot Master.” She used a napkin to wipe the corners of my mouth.
I wasn’t sure what to do anymore. No matter how many times I told her I’d look after myself she refused to let me do so.
Does she like taking care of me and complaining to other people about it? She always seems to find a way to make me feel humiliated.
Then the moment I try to end our strange relationship she refuses and worms her way back in. Is this why she doesn’t have full custody of her kids?
The group seemed a little weirded out by the interaction which was understandable. I felt the same but by this point I was somewhat desensitized to it.
Boner seemed interested in something else though. “So why does she call you master?”
Shadow was quick to respond. “It’s not what you think. Isaac is the guild master, so I call him master. Its just a playful nickname.”
Our guests stopped eating almost choking on their food. 23 was the first to recover.
“What! That walking disaster is the guild leader!” He couldn’t believe they’d trust me with the well being of the whole guild and country. To be honest I didn’t either.
I wasn’t getting anywhere with my anxiety. I tried to face it but it just seemed to keep growing. There was no other choice. It needed to be done.
I grasped it and started to shove it all into the hole. With a thought it was all flushed into that dark place. I then picked Snowball up and hugged her to my chest.
It was time I got serious. “I’m the guilds mascot. They thought it would be funny to make me guild master.” Shadow and Luca seemed to dislike what I said.
Ignoring them I continued. “Our real leader is… I don’t actually know. Everyone has a different role to play. We usually come to decisions by putting everything to a vote. Right now we have about thirty members all scattered around serenity. That's not counting the hundreds scattered across the country and beyond.” The looks on their faces expressed worry.
I took a bite of pancake to let the information sink in then continued with my bluff. “Each of our guild mates have multiple classes at level one-hundred. In fact as we speak we’re all in a voice chat to determine weather you join or die.” For all I knew these guys had their own chat going on.
I was hoping to intimidate them and maybe get some truth out of these guys. I needed to make sure they knew they weren’t in control.
They all looked at each other somewhat fearful. I could tell they were using party chat. Either that or they were communicating with another faction I didn't know about.
Shadow and Luca seemed to go along with my words. Luca was the first to speak. “Alright. Tell me something. I've been wondering. How long have you all been in the new world?” I wasn’t sure where she was going with it so I decided to go with the flow.
If the dark mage needed to tell me something that's what party chat was for.
Shade took the lead. “We’ve been in this world for about two weeks now.”
I let out a yell throwing my hands in the air. It startled everyone. “Haha. Got you!” I laughed. They glared at me. My goal was to hide the look of surprise on my guild mates. It seemed to work.
Part chat:
Aku: Don’t show surprise. As far as you guys know we’ve been here a whole month. That means we logged in at 7:00 Am not 9:00 AM.
Luca: Good call chief!
Shadow: I don’t understand???
Luca: Chief wants them to think we know everything. The only thing these guys have to negotiate is their information. If they realize that then they might use it to get more out of us. We just need to act like we already know what their talking about.
Shadow: That sounds confusing. I’ll let you guys lead. Just let me know if you’d like me to say anything.
Luca continued her interview. “That’s interesting. We’ve actually been here a month. Where are you guys originally from. You five definitely didn’t come from Entropy. The weapons Sapphire carries are far to expensive and rare in our country for a couple of noobs to be running around with them.” She was pretty good.
I should let her run the interview. I can tell her when I have a specific question.
It looked like they were conversing within chat. I wish I knew what they were saying.
“We came from the valley of the shadow of death.” Said Shade. She seemed to take the roll of representative.
The valley of the shadow of death. That sounds familiar but it’s not a country is it?. Maybe I should check my map.
I laid back in my chair patting my belly like I was full. Then opened my menu quickly checking my map. The map was under the table. Surely enough, there it was but it wasn’t supposed to be there.
Where Ericdom used to be was now valley of the shadow of death. Now that I think about it. Isn’t that a lyric from a famous rap song?
What, but that’s so stupid. It’s a mountain not a valley. If anything entropy was a valley. Kind of. No, better to say the valley was apart of entropy.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I relayed my findings to my guild mates. They both found it interesting. To buy time Luca sipped her coffee making another face of disgust and adding even more sugar cubes to it.
At this point it was more sugar than coffee. I gave her another question and she asked it.
“I see. Tell me is it still a shithole?” I figured it was already a shithole to begin with since it wasn’t exactly set up for the real world.
Shadow got mad at the language I used. I quickly apologized and told her it was strictly a tactic to get information. She seemed to let it go. Shade took her own sip of coffee. Unlike Luca she actually enjoyed it.
The look on her face said it all. That blissful feeling of warmth seeping through her. I knew it all to well.
I’d give my left nut for a sip if I still had it. I just wanted to know if I still liked coffee. A sip would tell me everything.
“Well… you could say that. Ever since the guild kawa eleven killed Eric its only gotten worse. Most of the buildings are broken and burnt. Drugs are all over the streets and they have multiple gangs running rampant.” She and her group had a look of anger and regret.
We gave them a moment to recover. This was all super interesting. I guess our iron supply was gone. Dam. We have plenty in stocks but it won’t last forever.
Guess we’ll have to start recycling metal. We can probably buy up any broken weapons and armor. I should be able to set up a quest at the tavern for any raw ore.
Hmm… most of our trash goes to that landfill. I bet there’s metal we can salvage. Gonna have to make a stop there before going to the barracks. So much to do so little time. Hopefully these guys can lighten my load.
Actually there were a few spots to get metal but they didn’t provide a lot. Now that everything was finite it’ll run dry soon. What should I do with the workers? They'll be out a job. Crap.
Huh? What did she say the name of the guild was. Kawa eleven? Kawa11….. kawaii!
“Sounds rough. How did you guys escape and what happened between then and now?” asked Luca as she sat back in her seat.
Shade looked to her guild mates and they all seemed to nod. “Okay, I’ll tell you the whole story.” She twiddled her thumbs nervously.
“We woke up at an inn. You know the whole blinding light thing? Yeah, it happened when we logged in. I think we popped in at around 8:00 AM. Most of us were pretty excited about the experience.” Her face went dark.
“That was until we went out into the wild and got attacked by wyverns. It was nothing like the game.” Shade leaned forward resting her face in her hands. There was a feint trembling to her body as if she was remembering the horrors of their wyvern encounter.
Boner put his hand on her shoulder and took over. “Those things were nothing like the sprites. I got my arm ripped off then went into shock.” He had a pained look on his face as he squeezed his left arm. He squeezed it so hard that his knuckles went white.
“These guys had to drop some of our rations on the ground to distract the wyverns. Mostly dried goat meat.” Boner squeezed even harder.
It almost looked like he was about to rip it off. Once he noticed the pain he pulled his hand back leaving what a doctor might call coooooon-tuuuuusions. Its still a funny word. I almost laughed outloud but remembered that would be rude.
I was a bit disappointed. There wasn’t any scar tissue. His arm was like brand new. Where’s the fun in that. An arm made of scar tissue would of looked badass.
Although I guess this was a good thing. It would be a shame if Aku ended up with a scar.
Shade came back with. “We managed to save his life via potion but from then on we decided not to set foot outside the city.” Her voice had a quiver to it.
23 spoke up next. “Yeah.” He laughed wildly coming off as manic. “That was till the food ran out! And the riots happened! An entire city burned to the ground over night!” Boner slapped him pulling him out of his madness. The so called assassin thanked him and stayed quite.
I kind of wish he’d let him go off. It looked like he was about to do a joker impression.
23 sighed and fell back into his seat. Shade took over again. “Up to that point we were surviving by selling equipment. Nothing crazy just scraps we got from fighting wyverns before coming to the new world.”
Her eyes fell to the dark liquid in her cup as she tried to find her next words. “Stuff got more expensive and Eric wasn’t doing anything. He was bunkered down in his fortress.”
She took another sip of coffee. “Within a day our scraps became worthless. The only things of value were food, water, and weapons.” She reached into her inventory and tossed Luca what looked like a burnt doll.
Luca examined it and told me what it was over chat. Nothing special just a half melted doll. Which meant it had some kind of significance to Shade.
Shade continued. “That belonged to a little girl named Sharon. She was the innkeepers daughter. Such a sweet kid. Her and Austin had a thing.” Austin wasn’t embarrassed or anything. He just looked sad and lost in thought.
“She died alongside her father in a fire caused by the riots. They called it justice.” She got all emotional.
The wolf girl growled as she pounded her fists onto the table. “They called it justice! Those fucking monsters!” Tears ran down her face.
Rosy cried to. 23 and boner were both frustrated and angry but didn’t dare shed a tear.
Austin looked like he was about to cry but no tears came out. Fucking little psychopath…. Probably.
So the players destroyed the country and put themselves in power. It’s almost what these guys tried to do.
Though I suppose they were way less “riot” and more “let’s kidnap the president's daughter!” That was before they found out I actually was the president.
Luca interrupted her fit of frustration. “Who’s currently leading valley of the shadow of death?”
Rosy was the only one that felt like talking. “N-No one… it’s currently in a civil war. W-Well… more like a turf war between the different gangs. Eric’s guild core is long gone. There are now three smaller cores scattered amongst the three major gangs.”
She actually sounded a little confident. At times I feel like we suffer from the same mental ailment.
It almost sounded like they triggered a civil war event. This happened when multiple factions attacked the same land and secured different sections.
That candy clan must of claimed the land and named it valley of the shadow of death. Then when everyone realized their was a new land owner they must of tried to secure as many resources as possible.
The NPCs must of splintered off from the newly formed country claimed their own sections of land and started the civil war.
That’s what usually happens when land is taken. Not every NPC is happy about it.
The players probably made their own factions and started to take bits of land for themselves. I just need to ally myself with the faction that are more peaceful.
Once they get an influx of food the other players will flock to them and they’ll win the war. I just need to pick the right group.
Then again For all I know there all evil. In that case I might need to occupy valley of the shadow of death. That might actually take to long.
It was my turn to speak. “You thought you could do the same thing as those in valley of the shadow of death?” I wanted to provoke them and use their emotions to get info.
Boner stood up in outrage. “Your wrong! The same thing that happened over there is happening here! We can make a place where people will be happy! You people sit in your stupid castle and eat your stupid free food while the rest of us starve! If we don’t do something now then they’ll all burn here to!”
The raw emotion in his voice was chilling. So it’s like that? I wonder why it took so long for it to happen here? Now that I think about it. Entropy has a stable food source. Food prices pretty much stay the same around here.
We have plenty of adventurer NPCs. They usually buy up most gear and even sell back raw materials to the stores. Entropy did have a pretty good economy.
It wasn’t as good as it used to be when players were flooding it with raw materials and we had access to large quantities of metal. Regardless of that it was still going strong.
Party chat:
Luca: What should we do chief? Is that gonna happen to us?
Aku: Entropy will hold out better than Ericdom. We got more supplies than them. Don’t worry. We might be going in that direction but unlike Eric we’ll actually set up some counter measures.
Shadow: I had no idea it was that bad. Should we do something to help the other countries?
Aku: There isn’t much we can do. First let’s get our own country in order. Then we’ll secure some sort of deal with the valley of the shadow of death. We still need iron and coal from them. They must be hurting for food. Either that or we take it for ourselves.
Iron was to important to go without. Coal not so much. Most fires were magic powered so coal was kind of pointless but we could sell it to new Sweden. Those guys were all about steam punk.
Outside our chat everything was silent. Luca broke that silence. “Were not handing it over. As we speak we are working on making things better. It’ll just take time that’s why were hiring you guys to help things run along faster. Were all working hard right now.”
Our guests seemed to accept it. “Alright, considering we’ll be joining your group. We’ll basically be running it to, so it doesn’t actually matter.” Boner took a sip of coffee.
Surprisingly it looked like he didn't like coffee either. How did I never notice that. I had half a mind to take it from him.
Luca asked the next question. “How did you guys escape? What about that Lina girl?”
Boner tensed up. His mouth was shut tight. Shade gave him a pat on the back as if tagging in. “Lina….. she’s the one that helped us get out. She used to be Eric’s maid. She had access to his vehicles. Gas was pretty much gone by that point seeing as whatever trade relations Ericdom had were severed when Eric stopped providing iron and coal, but we had a full tank.”
So we lost our iron and coal way before Eric lost his empire. That idiot. How could he let all that happen. Entropy was still sending him food, but he canceled the deal before I even logged in. I swear if he wasn’t dead I’d kill him myself.
Boner collected himself and butted in. “A full tank didn’t get us far. We had to abandon the vehicle along the way. It was enough to get us over the boarder. We had a few rations from Eric’s stash. Enough for two days, so we started heading here. That’s when….. it went to shit.”
Shade put her hand on his shoulder to keep him from going off. Even 23 looked sympathetic towards him. I guess this was the part where Lina dies.
I had to ask. “You two were close huh?” he seemed to get angrier with my question.
“Yeah! Well, not at first. We fought a lot over stupid things. She was so good at survival meanwhile the only skills I ever cultivated in life was bottle flipping. It wasn’t until We got separated from the group that we hooked up. She hurt her ankle and Rosy had all our potions. I had to carry her over a mile. She kept telling me to leave her behind but I knew if I did we'd all die.” His body tensed again.
Shadow chimed in. “Master says you lost her in a mob fight. It must have been rough. Did you guys bury her?” for her first question it wasn’t bad. Hopefully Ryan over there wouldn’t take it the wrong way.
“There was nothing to bury. We didn’t even get to see her die. Her health bar disappeared from our party list and that was that.” Everyone became crestfallen.
Shadow followed up. “Then we can have a funeral for her at the cemetery. If your okay with that.” Her kindness was amazing. Even I felt warmth in my heart. To bad it was eclipsed by the burning desire for coffee.
Boner looked surprised and for the first time I saw a tear roll down his face. He started to cry. “Thank you. That would be grate.”
Like falling dominoes his party members one by one started to burst into tears and began to comfort each other. All of them but Austin. That little fucker was a psychopath. With that we took a short break.
About thirty minutes later we reconvened in the lounge. 23 and Boner were playing pool while Shade gave the arcade machines a go.
Rosy and Austin sat on the couch. They were relaxing. I sat next to Austin comparing my size to him.
Apparently his size was accurate to his seven year old body in the old world. He must have been a very tall seven year old because I was nine and somehow an inch shorter than him.
How dare he try to destroy my fragile world view! Doesn’t he know I’m in charge of a whole country! There all in on it. I just know it.
Shadow must of said something to them while I was looking for Luca. And Luca has always been Shadow’s accomplice.
I’m not crazy. There crazy! I’m perfectly sane. Let’s see who’s the taller one when I chop off there legs! Hmmm….. actually I might need to cut off more than just legs.
Ugh! But if they die then I won’t be able to make them feel small! What a dilemma. I should try high heels. Six inches was six inches. I’d at least be taller than Austin.
I didn’t feel comfortable sitting next to this suspiciously tall second grader so I pulled one of the throw pillows over and stuffed it under my butt. Who was the tall one now you little punk.
Am I crazy or was this kid still a tiny bit taller. No, no, no! Why am I freaking out over this! Obviously my height is in my legs.
Duh Isaac! That’s why! Yeah, this kids legs are way shorter than mine. I think? Well… they well be when I cut them off.
I looked to Rosy. “Excuse me, Miss Rosy. How old do I look?” She blinked then gave me a long considerate stare. I felt a little uncomfortable being stared at and averted my eyes. I hugged Snowball closely to ensure I wouldn’t turn into a stuttering mess.
“Uh…. I’d say about six or seven.” She was wrong, so very wrong!
“What! No way, I’m clearly nine! Eight and a half at the minimum!” She smiled nervously. I could tell she wanted to laugh at me but was holding back.
Boner yelled out “More like five.” 23 agreed with him. Throwing in a “yup” into the conversation.
I was mortified. No way! That has to be a lie! I felt like curling into a ball and did just that. Snowball was being squeezed between my legs and chest. As my arms wrapped around my knees.
Shade threw her two cents in. “Don’t be dicks. She obviously has an age or height complex. You know Isaac, to me you look seven. Remember girls are usually shorter than boys. If anything I think your tall for a seven year old. Who knows maybe your more of an eight year old.” Immediately I felt a jolt of joy.
I jumped up off the couch. “Really you think so!?” I wanted to hug the borderline furry.
Boner gave his own thoughts. “She’s just trying to brown nose you. In fact yesterday she called you a toddler.”
My heart was crushed. How could she say such things, and to think I was considering only cutting her legs off at the knees! Well now I'll just have to go for a hemicorporectomy. Unless…..
“Shade can I touch your tail?” everyone looked at me like I was a weirdo.
“No way you creep!” Shade held her tail in her hands like I was gonna run over and snatch it. I was either the mascot or a pervert. Never anything in between. I did say I wanted to be treated like an adult. This was the best I was gonna get.
I felt like curling up again. Their eyes were all on me. I was about to fire off every spell on my hot bar simply out of sheer anxiousness.
Lucky for them Shadow came into the room. “Is everything alright? Sorry were late we can continue now.” She saw how distraught I was and made her way over to me.
“Are you alright?” She stroked my head.
“I’m fine.” That seemed to satisfy her. Shadow was very good at comforting me. In the beginning it was annoying but now it was like I was on a boat fighting the waves and she was a solid unmoving rock I could tie off to.
Luca was right behind her only I hadn’t noticed till now. Seeing as we were continuing our chat I pushed my anxious energy into the hole and tried to remain calm.
I would probably do better if I had a Hoody to hide under or maybe some sun glasses. I could go full emo and grow my hair a bit more to hide my eyes. That’s what I did in high school.
I sat on the couch next to Austin. Rosy switched places with him putting herself between us.
That seemed a bit over reactive. Were they all gonna treat me like I was Mantis now?
The thought made my insides turn. I couldn’t be here. I dropped on all fours then crawled under a table.
Everyone seemed perplexed by my actions. Shadow got down on her knees and made strange cooing noises like trying to call over a wild animal.
I shook my head and stayed put. “Master, you can’t stay under there it’s filthy. Come on if your feeling shy you can cling to me or go to your room.” Clinging to her was part of the reason I was in this mess in the first place. It would just make me look like a weirdo.
To the eyes of these guys I was copping a feel. What was I supposed to do. My heart was beating so fast. I felt my hands sweat. The room looked darker than normal and everyone was talking but I couldn’t hear them.
What was happening? I felt fear. Paralyzing fear. There in the corner of the room was a black thing. So dark it might as well have been a portal into dead space.
It squirmed and vibrated. I couldn’t look at it directly but I could see it in my peripheral vision.
My breathing sped up and within the darkness I could see a whirlwind of sharp teeth getting bigger.
The shadow coiled around the room like a centipede weaving its way closer to me. It was almost as if it was sniffing me out.
It slowly inched towards me. I held Snowball closely. “No! Go away! Leave me alone!” I cried. I kicked and screamed.
It lunged towards me at blinding speed. That’s when I woke up in Shadow’s arms. She was pulling me out from under the table.
I thrashed in a child like tantrum. When I realized I was okay I went quiet. My heart was beating so fast and I struggled to catch my breath. It was like I had been holding my breath.
“Master!! Its okay! No one is trying to hurt you!” She was on her knees holding me in the middle of the floor.
There was multiple fire balls floating mid air. They fizzled out when I realized they were mine.
Everyone else was hiding behind furniture. Even Luca had jumped behind the couch.
“s-s-sorry….. I didn't…..” I shut up.
It was getting worse. My mind was deteriorating. I can’t be here. I fought against Shadow and managed to break free.
“I’m fine.” I laughed. “It was a joke. Just a test to see if these guys were battle ready.” She didn’t look convinced. No one did. It was that same look. I’m not crazy.
I tried to run out of the room but Luca got a hold of the back of my dress and once she lifted me in the air I was helpless.
“No! Let me go! I’m fine!” I cried.
“Chief your not okay you almost nuked the castle!” Her grip was firm.
I quickly unequipped my dress dropping to the floor. Before the flash of light vanished I re-equipped it and ran away.
They couldn’t match my speed. I ran to my room the sounds of yelling coming from behind me.
I ran through the door and slammed it shut locking it. A moment later there was soft knocking.
“Master open up. No one is mad at you. Were not gonna hurt you. We just want to talk.” Shadow’s voice was calm. I thought she would be angry.
I didn’t open the door. That couldn’t be Shadow. They were all mad at me. I know it. This wasn’t Shadow it couldn’t be. My bed was doing its thing but it was the least of my problems.
There’s that fucking buzzing again! Why won’t it ever stop! That dam monster! It’s outside isn’t it! Why won’t it ever leave me alone! First in my dreams now I see it out here! It’s not fair!
I took a breath to calm down and assess the situation. Instead of focusing on the situation I focused on my surroundings.
My underwear was all over the floor. I’d forgotten about that. Okay maybe my surroundings aren’t the best to focus on.
What should I do. This is like that time when Alice, my brother, and my sister locked me up in that awful place.
I was never going back there. Not again. I just need a moment alone. Just enough time to work through everything. I focused my thoughts and tried to calm myself.
First things first. Eliminate worry. I looked to the door. “Guy’s, just leave me alone for now. I need a minute. I promise to talk to you later but for now just give me space. I’ll be okay.”
The door kept shaking. Did they not understand? I just needed a minute! I felt tears running down my face. Why didn’t they get it!
“I said leave me alone! I’m fine!” my voice quivered. The door shook even louder. They didn’t answer. The buzzing was getting worse?
*BUZzZZzzzZZz*
I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It wasn’t me or Aku. Not Isaac but a child-like Isaac. I didn’t have pants but I did have a long gray shirt.
This was like the dream. Then their not actually at the door. Maybe it’s the monster.
Crap.