Chapter 63: Two Truths And Third Eye

When I broke it down to just the facts, it turned out not to be a long story, after all. Although the three of us took seats around the kitchen counter, I’d laid out the basics before Donica even finished off her coffee.

I paused to collect my thoughts and catch my breath.

Donica got up, pitched her foam cup, and collected her coat.

Lena eyed each of us in turn. “I don’t really get it.”

I sighed. “If you weren’t there, I don’t know if you can.”

“Like, I get why it would be scary in the moment,” she said. “Getting lost especially. And I have no clue what’s up with the time thing. It seems like that’s happened to you a couple times, which is freaky for sure.”

She got no argument from me.

“But in the end,” she continued, “that’s the only thing that really happened to you, right? You got lost, you saw the creepy elevator, and you took way longer than you thought?”

I lowered my eyes. “Yes.”

“It doesn’t matter whether you get it or not,” Donica said. “I don’t know why it was so disturbing. But it happened. If you want to understand, go check it out for yourself.”

“Yeah, no,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, none of us should ever set foot in there again.”

Not that I believed it would help.

Whatever was happening to us, whether Third Eye had created the weirdness in our heads or in the world, or just steered us into contact with weirdness that already existed, I doubted a single construction site could contain it.

Lena sipped the Dr. Thunder she’d cracked open while she listened to us. “You get why it’s hard for me to just accept, right?”

“Yeah,” Donica said. “It’s hard for me to accept, and I endured it.”

I expected Lena to have some comeback, but instead, she just took another sip.

“That’s it for me.” Donica pulled her coat on and stepped into her boots. “I’m going to go home and try and fail to sleep.”

“Good luck,” I said. “Drive safe.”

“Safe.” Donica snorted. “That would be nice.”

Lena kicked idly at the counter. “Sorry I bitched you out earlier.”

Donica glanced over her shoulder. “Shall we call it even for what happened with my Discord group? It’d be nice to clear all my debts. Be able to say I got something out of the evening.”

“That’s fine by me.” Lena glanced at her computer; an end of match screen had popped up for the game she’d abandoned to talk to us. “You ever want to play a round, hit me up.”

“I don’t have a lot of gaming time anymore,” Donica said. “Although, if Cameron’s right about what happened being related to Third Eye, that’s a timeslot I might be rescheduling. I’ll let you know.”

She opened the door, letting herself out and a storm of cold in. When it clicked shut behind her, I rose and locked it.

Lena wandered back to her computer chair. She stood over it, hands on the armrests.

“If you two are messing with me,” she began, then fell silent. She tried a laugh. “Then it’s a pretty great prank. Props?”

“I wish,” I said. “We really did get lost in there, and it really did feel like... I don’t even know how to describe it. Like if we looked away, with or without Third Eye open, when we turned back it’d be a completely different layout. And we really did lose track of time.”

“I guess,” Lena said, “you think we should stop playing. Like Miguel said.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. Sweeping it back into the style Third Eye gave my avatar.

I took my phone out. I still had the app open. I trained the camera on Lena.

Her wings drooped, and instead of blazing, her flames had subsided to a gentle, hearthside glow. Third Eye rendered her current outfit – IRL, worn black jeans, a fading pink and gray sweatshirt – as a simpler dress than I’d seen the first day, trim, medieval-style, with a high collar that mimicked the sweatshirt’s turtleneck.

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

She turned, eyebrows raised. “After an experience like that?”

“I probably seem like an idiot.” I probably was. “I think... it might be better if we’d never started playing. Never installed the app. Maybe, never even backed it.”

Lena waited.

“Assuming this is real. And not just in my and Donica’s heads.” I forced myself to lower the phone and tucked it into my pocket. “And Miguel’s. And I’m pretty sure Erin’s, although I haven’t confronted her about it.”

“Everybody but me,” Lena said quietly.

I winced and didn’t know why. “In the tunnel, when I –” When I stole Water from you. “– got Water. What did it look like to you?”

“I don’t know. First I was pissed, then I was scared for Miguel. I didn’t really think about how it looked.” She frowned. “I think I just saw you through my phone, so your avatar, same as usual.”

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“That’s totally possible. The experience of getting a Reactant is something I need to talk to Erin about. I’ve been putting it off because I thought I would sound crazy.”

Lena cocked her head. “What did it look like to you?”

“Like I was seeing you as your avatar. Not just through my phone.” Seeing her avatar and mine, feeling the amulet on my chest and the warmth of her flames.

“It all happened so fast,” Lena said. “I wouldn’t have even considered that possibility before tonight. Maybe it worked the same for me?”

“It could be just the person who gets the Reactant who sees things that way. I felt the same way when I got Air. Or I could just be losing it.”

“You really do need to talk to Erin about it,” Lena said. “I’m the wrong person to ask.”

“Until we find your Fire,” I said.

She held out her hand and flexed her fingers. I knew she’d be thinking of what they would look like in Third Eye, sheathed in a glove of flame. “If we still want to.”

I nodded.

“You believe this shit is either real or messing with your head.” She chewed her lip. “Aren’t you scared?”

“God yes.” I held out my hands. They shook.

Lena clasped them in hers. I fought down a shudder. Too warm, too soft. She even waited for me to continue my explanation.

I tried to gather my thoughts but her touch frazzled my brain. Or maybe it came pre-frazzled. I babbled. “Like I said, I think it’d be better if we never started playing. I don’t know if Donica and I were in any danger tonight, but I know it scared the shit out of us. That’s not an experience I want again. Not something I’d ever want you to go through.”

Her smile peeked through. She clamped her jaw and it vanished. “So why wouldn’t we quit?”

“Because –” I swallowed. “I don’t think what happened tonight was just a Third Eye thing. Or, if it was, then what we’re thinking of as Third Eye things are just the tip of an iceberg.”

Lena waited.

“That elevator, at the very least. It was really there. Not just through Third Eye. Even if I’d thrown my phone away, I still would’ve seen it.” Still would’ve felt it, that overpowering dread. If I closed my eyes, I’d still see that mirrored surface that didn’t reflect another mirror. I couldn’t seem to arrange my understanding of what it had reflected. “I think... I’m going to keep seeing shit like that. Encountering it.”

“And that makes you want to keep playing Third Eye?”

“I don’t think it will stop just because I quit the game. At least with Third Eye, I feel like I might be able to do something about it.” If the danger was real, surely the power was, too. “I don’t want to be powerless again.”

“I know that feel,” Lena said. After a moment, she let go of my hands and took her phone out. “I went scouting this evening, too.”

“I thought you wanted a break.” My eyes widened. “Did you find Fire?”

She shook her head.

She tilted her phone so I could see her screen.

100/100 MP, as always. Without a Reactant, how could it be otherwise?

0/1000 HP.

On the bright side Donica claimed I always looked on, I could no longer say I was the only person to have made Lena lose HP.

Fuck the bright side. I gripped her shoulder. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Nothing but my ego.” She shrugged. “Remember, until you and Donica dumped your bogus journey on me, I was still operating under the assumption Third Eye was just a game.”

“Which,” I said, “it still might be. I hope.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “You sound super convinced.”

I tried to smile. “Hope springs eternal?”

“Maybe for you.” She tucked her phone away. “It’s just like they were saying on Erin’s Discord. You go out alone, without a Reactant, you’re just asking somebody to invade you.”

“This invader,” I said. “Sturdy looking, short-haired asshole in a bomber jacket?”

“Oh, you’ve met!” She poked me in the ribs. “Why do you think Matt’s an asshole? Because he’s an invader?”

Because he attacked you, I thought. Unfair. I’d already considered him an asshole. “No, because he’s a smug prick.”

“That checks out,” she said. “He talked some shit about our video.”

“Now that’s just unforgivable.” I glared into the distance, vaguely in the direction of DU where Matt had – maybe – retreated to his lair with 10% of Lena’s XP.

She watched my face. Hers puffed up as she tried to hold back a laugh. “Right? Although he did praise your technique, and my outfit.”

“Some things are above reproach,” I said. “Even for assholes.”

“Honestly, though, it was scary when he showed up out of the blue, but he wasn’t mean about it or anything. He helped me up after I lost and told me to be more careful.” Lena shrugged. “If I could’ve fought back, I’m pretty sure I would’ve thought the invasion was cool as hell. I’d have loved to kick his ass. And I’d have loved to see you guys go at it.”

“Shit, sorry, Lena. I should’ve gone with you.”

“If you had, he probably would’ve avoided us. Why fight a two-v-one? Besides, I told you to go with Donica.” Her smile faded and her shoulders slumped. “Which makes the way I acted this evening even bitchier.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

Maybe it made me a shitty person, but I couldn’t bring myself to care if Lena was prickly toward Donica. The specific way she had been, though, I couldn’t keep ignoring.

Lena had said it herself. I’d admitted it to Miguel.

We used to date.

So why did it raise her hackles when I stayed out too late with another woman? The evening I’d spent with Donica was about the least romantic thing I could imagine, and even under better circumstances, she was roughly the last person I knew who I’d want to date. But in theory, both Lena and I should be open to other people, should be cheering each other on.

I wondered if she thought I’d been just as bad when Miguel flirted with her. I wondered if she’d be right to.

“This is literally the worst night to talk to you about that. My brain is a mess. But I really want to.” I shook my head. “Shit. We both know that’s a lie.”

“You mean you need to.” She looked at my hand on her shoulder. “We both do.”

“Yeah.” I half-spread my arms. I hated how much I wanted to hug her. Almost as much as the thought that I shouldn’t.

For just a second, she hesitated, and I wondered if she’d turn away.

Then she leaned forward and hugged my waist. She rested her head against my chest.

I slid one arm around her shoulders and, when she didn’t pull away, hugged her back. My other hand hovered over her hair. “If we don’t talk tonight, are you going to keep putting it off?”

“Yep.” I felt more than heard her chuckle. “No, I promise. I’ll sit down and we’ll hash our shit out. We should’ve done it a long time ago.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“You want to talk about everything, right?” She tilted her head back to look up at me. “Where we’re going. How we got here.”

“I think we have to.” I brushed a curl out of her face.

She reached up and clasped my hand. Her fingers trembled. She mastered them. Her gaze wavered. That, too.

She said, “Then there’s somewhere we need to go tomorrow. The place I should’ve gone right from the start.”