SAVE POINT 2

Rosabella

The apartment was dark now; enormous shadows clawed up the nearly bare walls, flickering there from a knocked over lamp.

Now, smashed on the floor. …A lamp that had been intact only 15 minutes before.

"Dad?" My heart caught in my chest.

Truth be told, even after so frequently wishing for it, I hadn't often been alone. And the feeling crept down my throat like an engulfing and expanding snake.

And the fear of if I wasn't alone lurked there too...

Curtains swished near the open window behind the couch.

I spun around, barely daring to breathe, but it was just the breeze outside.

There was Dad's book, overturned on the floor by the sofa and the tangled mess of wires for my Xbox controller. Like he'd dropped the tome in a rush? I reached for it, feeling the fabric of the old spine under my fingers. He never did anything erratic; surely, he would have left a note... And that lamp didn't knock over itself...

My breath hitched.

Dad taught me to be observant—always on guard. I noticed a dark reflection in the floor mirror propped decoratively in the corner...a black boot. …That I'd never seen before.

And there was a leg in that boot.

I didn't give away the sheer panic on my face as I rose to upright slowly, the book still clenched between my fingers. I bit the inside of my cheek, tasting blood with the intensity I was clamping down, and I looked for exits.

Dad always said to run, not fight.

He'd always cryptically lectured me that, if anything ever happened to him, I should run and never look back—

The window.

Thank God it was open.

I shot a quick glance at the shadow in the mirror; whoever was standing there was concealed just behind the kitchen wall... What if it was Dad?

"Dad?" I called once more—a last, desperate plea.

But, somewhere along the line, I’d miscalculated.

Because a gloved hand clamped over my mouth from behind.

No!

Adrenaline kicked in.

I slammed the book towards the attacker's head.

I heard a muffled grunt. ...And a thud as the book hit the floor.

I threw off the tightening fingers.

And I lunged.

For the window.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Cold air smacked me in the face.

I fell through the curtains, nearly taking them with me. And the soles of my boots heavily hit metal, clanging on the fire escape floor—

As something hit me.

In the back.

A pinprick of pain exploding even through my thick jacket.

Dazed, I reached my arm around, my fingers fumbling and recognizing a metal cylinder sticking out of the back of my coat.

I pulled it out, turning it over in my hand and blinking at it, there, in the dark on the dimly-lit fire escape.

A dart? My breath created white puffs around my nose and mouth which, strangely, disappeared as soon as I saw it.

A message flashed over my head, neon letters floating in mid-air:

***ROSABELLA Has Joined The Game***

[System Loading Class & Level...]

[Class & Level Predetermined. No Options Available.]

***Welcome ROSABELLA, GAME MAKER 1 To The Game***

I blinked at the run of words.

My name—?

Floating in the—

"Argh!"

A woman's scream. I whipped around to find a women’s silhouette, dressed in head-to-toe black, reaching for me—

But she missed. I heard her bellow in fury as her boot punctured a patch of rust and went through the metal floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her struggling to pull her boot back through the fire escape platform, but the jagged metal kept catching on her black pants and bootlaces...

Five seconds.

That gave me five seconds to get away...

My feet banged down the steel of the stairs, clanking—

My breath heaved in my lungs—

I slipped through the bars at the very end, shaking my head at the look of the drop to the top of a parked car below.

And I held my breath.

And eased down, putting all the weight on my straining biceps—

With a grunt, I landed.

My boots crashed into the steel roof of the minivan.

I did it! I made the jump!

[System Reward: Well-Executed Escape, +5 XP, 5/100]

System reward?

What? But thanks, System. It felt like a pat on the back. …Except, what did ‘XP’ mean?

My brief celebration was met with wheezing breaths which raked through my body and a desperate hope that random-assassin, creepy-break-into-our-apartment girl didn't follow. Where was Dad? Did she kidnap him? He'd always said to run... I chanced a glance upward before I crawled off the roof of the van, sliding my legs over the edge to make it to the ground.

But, when I made it to the ground, my boots crunched on broken glass.

The minivan's windows were all broken...

And the sky was dark and filled with smog...

And it wasn't night anymore, even though a haze of gray darkness shadowed the dark city buildings towering over me.

This wasn't even our street...

...Where was I?

A megaphone screeched to life in the distance:

"Stay where you are, you’re surrounded." A male voice seemed to echo from all sides.

[System Query: Would You Like to Hide Or Fight?]

“Hide!” I hissed fervently, hoping whatever system had asked could hear me. Adrenaline looped through my veins, “Most definitely hide—please!” More neon letters popped into view:

[Initiating Check For Hiding Locations…]

Oh my God, this was taking too long! Dizzying waves crashed over my head as my eyes darted over the surroundings. A pile of large, black trash bags were stacked high to my left. Yep, those would do. I scampered behind them as the megaphone blared to life again—

"Stay where you are, and this man will not get hurt."

And a male picture cracked and flashed into life mid-air, a giant screen in the center of the concrete clearing, as I blinked at it, feeling a sour urgency turn my stomach upside down because....

Because it was a picture of Dad.