It was not easy for Fey to mask her inner excitement upon reading the notification from Sirena, because it was decidedly not internal. She immediately smiled, something that Sirena noticed right away. Though she tried her best to feign it as anticipation for their next laser tag match she knew that Sirena would home in on her change of temperament.
“I’m just excited for the match,” Fey said unprompted.
Sirena’s eyes lit up, “Do you always blush before the match begins or is this new?” she teased.
Fey briefly wondered why she tried to be coy; she was terrible at masking her feelings.
Fey’s silence was all Sirena needed to confirm her suspicions.
It was just Fey and Sirena tonight and they had decided to kill some time before meeting up with the others in an unofficial 2v2 match. The loot was decent, but supposedly the smaller teams made for a more competitive match and the two of them still needed some practice. At first, Fey had some reservations practicing without the others, but now that she was fretting, she was actually glad that it was just Sirena.
Fey opened the message. It was hard to say exactly what she hoped to see. Something casual, something more than casual? Would she be disappointed if the message she got was just a simple, “Would you like to hang out today?” instead of what she hoped for? Or would a casual message be better? There was less pressure there. What she got was entirely not what she was expecting.
We need to talk. We need to talk? What does that mean? Fey’s heart sank to her stomach and her mind raced around with the energy of a hornet’s nest. A few system notifications sprang up then, probably the countdown. Fey ignored them as she read the message once more. We need to talk.
“Um, Fey?” Sirena asked, “Did you see the notifications?”
“Huh? Yeah,” she replied with her attention still on the message. “Sorry, let’s do this!”
The arena was a thick forest, the trees tall enough to mask most of the game’s sun. The dark green branches surrounding them had a serene quality that would have been pleasant if not for the ominous enemy hiding somewhere behind them. 2v2 maps were small but built with a lot of cover and places to hide, giving the matches a frenetic cat-and-mouse chase quality to it. It was important to keep your teammate close, to watch each other’s backs. Splitting up was the worst thing you could do in these circumstances. So naturally, Fey could not find Sirena anywhere.
Fey cursed quietly to herself. Of course the mermaid would forget the most important rule right when the match began. She would have to be extra vigilant then. She would have to keep all of her attention on her surroundings. This was, of course, not going to happen. She tried to get her head in the game, but her head kept playing Leandriel’s message on an obsessive loop. We need to talk. Talk about what? About good things or bad? She felt both dread and excitement, but mostly just soul-crushing existential terror. She checked the message one more time on a compulsion. Hey. We need to talk.
Fey breathed in deeply. She very much wanted him to reciprocate her romantic feelings for him. She very much wanted something beyond “casual friends”. But this message… She knew that Leandriel could be a little socially dense at times, maybe he didn’t realize how ominous he made this seem? Maybe he was just not aware that we need to talk was something that people said before bringing up only the worst of news. Maybe he wanted to see if she would be interested in some alone time but lacked the social awareness to see that Hey PERIOD We need to talk PERIOD sounded like a death knell?
…Or maybe he was perfectly aware of it. Maybe he had written it exactly the way he did because it was a death knell. Her heart and stomach were now permanent roommates.
Get it together, she told herself, you are obsessing and everything is probably fine. We’ll clear it up after the match. 2v2 matches were usually only ten minutes long. Just long enough to be enjoyable but short enough so that if it was a one-sided match the losing team wouldn't feel punished for playing. Ten minutes was not that long. She would have her answers soon.
The stillness of the game's air was nearly complete; only the tiniest rustle of leaves gave any sign of movement. There was no sign of Sirena, there was no sign of any other player. They were up against an archer and a mage. That was enough of a wildcard. If the archer was even half as good as Mimi, he would find a good hiding position in the trees to snipe them from and would use the thick trunks to their advantage. Further, the mage could do much to buff, or even partially conceal them. The two could be camping, waiting for Fey to walk into a trap, and now that she was separated from Sirena there was little she could do against both of them at once.
Fey and Sirena had thought about snipers and campers. Originally, Sirena was to do her best to cover potential hiding spots in water, making sure that if their opponents went from one to the other that they would leave muddy prints behind. With the archer’s cover compromised by his own prints, Fey would go in quickly for an up close and easy shot. This was supposed to be easy. But of course, Sirena and her ADHD mind just had to wander off. Typical Sirena.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Okay, thought Fey, that’s not fair. You’re not really mad at Sirena. You’re mad at the message. She noticed then just how tight her hands had clenched up, how dry her lips had become. No, not mad, she thought, scared. You’re scared.
Fey ran from one tree to the other, keeping her ears open and watching for movement. When there was none she pressed her back up against a giant tree and waited. You’re scared because you like him, she thought. If anyone else sent you ‘we need to talk’ you wouldn’t think twice about it. It would be no big deal. Fey peeked around the trunk, laser in hand and examined the area. You're just scared because you like him because he's wonderful and oh my god what if he never wants to see you again?!! Fey bolted to the next tree, kicking the ground hard. She was behind another tree in an instant, still unscathed, still not shot, still decidedly not okay.
She did her best to hush her mind and carefully surveyed her immediate area for signs of life. She had underestimated her opponents. This was less your common laser tag match and more a battle of wits and stealth. This was a battle of minds and it was slowly unfolding to be one of epic proportions.
***
Blade walked up to Sirena, surprised to find the mermaid playing with her pet Squishy instead of battling it out inside of a match.
"You're early," said Sirena as she tried to catch her flying pet in a water bubble attached to her staff like it was a net to a butterfly.
“I wanted to see the last part of your match. Where’s Fey?”
Sirena nearly dropped her staff and slapped her knee. "The match was canceled, the other team bailed right before it began, Fey missed the cancelation notification and ran in like a brooding Rambo. I've just been sitting here to see how long it takes her to figure it out."
***
She was looking for shadows now. It was conceivable that they were really good at camouflage.. . But their shadows, their shadows could not be concealed. Their shadows would give them away. They were good, she would give them that, but today ‘ol Fey was three steps ahead of them, thinking about checkmate while they still had their pawns to think about.
…It was only a matter of time before she got to them.
***
“How long do you think it will take her?” asked Blade.
“I don’t know, I think she’s gone full Heart of Darkness[i] on us!” Sirena half laughed. “Let’s wait and see.”
***
Let’s not be a paranoid alarmist, Fey thought to herself, but they totally have Sirena hostage and that’s how they plan on trapping you and we are all going to die! She was crawling now, letting the fallen leaves be a natural cover. The fact of the matter was that she was as good at hiding from them as they were from her. She just needed one point, then she could hide and wait the timer out. But then…
But then she would have to reply to Leandriel. Then the unknown would be lifted. “Hey” it said with a period and not an exclamation mark, “We need to talk” it said instead of “what are you doing tonight?” or literally anything else. She knew it wouldn’t be good then.
As she kept her ear to the ground, listening for the pounding of footsteps she realized her next crisis. After building this message up so much in her mind, what exactly would she say? What if he was actually interested in her, had she waited too long to reply? What if he was offended, what if waiting ten minutes was rude? What if she missed her chance because she wasn’t prompt?
Calm down, she thought to herself, you're probably freaking out over nothing. The game is only ten minutes, it should be over soon. No one ever got angry over ten minutes. She checked the game's clock then, in part to reassure herself that she was panicking over nothing and to see how much time was left to find the enemy. She was surprised to find that she had been in the game for fifteen minutes.
…That didn’t make sense.
“Get to the chopper!” Sirena screamed in her best (still completely terrible) Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. It made Fey jump in panic.
"Sirena?!" Fey screamed, "You [expletive redacted] I've been looking all over for you!"
“Game ended before it began Fey, we’ve been watching you go play Vietnam by yourself for a while now. Blade’s here.”
Fey looked at her teammates in astonishment, surprise, then complete embarrassment. There was no playing this one off and Sirena would probably tease her for it for years. Even so, Fey kicked the ground lightly, refused eye contact and muttered: “Yeah uh, I know…”
Luckily for Fey’s already bruised pride and frenetic mind, Sirena was merciful. “Let’s get something to eat!” she said.
***
Sirena, Fey, and Blade waited while they wait for Mimi to show up and talked absently of their day. After all of what she had put herself through Fey only managed to come up with “What’s up?” as a response to Leandriel’s message. She did her best not to over dissect her own writing and punish herself for it, but her best was pretty weak that day. Sirena waited until Blade left the table to browse a nearby shop before picking her brain. Once more, Fey was grateful that it was just the two of them.
Sirena listened to Fey's woes intently as she recalled her inner dialog. "If I knew that such a simple text was enough to destroy you, dear Fey," Sirena teased, "I would have sent you one like that from the beginning."
“So you think I’ve completely lost it?” asked Fey.
“Oh yeah, but I knew that from the get-go, it’s half the reason we hang out!”
Fey inhaled deeply, then compulsively checked her inbox. There was still no response. It did take her a good fifteen minutes to respond herself, but she had sent her reply out almost forty minutes ago. What was taking so long?
“So…” started Fey, “you saw every bit of my match against nobody?”
Sirena’s eyes widened with glee. “Every. Bit,” she said.
“Oh god.”
“Yeah, it looked pretty epic from your perspective. I have never seen you so serious, what were you trying to do?”
Fey sighed, “I was trying to hide and find ‘them’ and try to ambush ‘them’ first, I thought they were camping.”
“You weren’t even hiding that well.”
“What?!”
“It’s true,” laughed Sirena, “All of your movements could be seen a mile away, the arena wasn’t even that big.”
Fey checked her inbox one more time, even knowing ahead of time that a notification would have pinged her if something new came.
An awkward silence stretched between the two, Sirena let it snap. "So, what's the perfect angel been up to?”
“What are you talking about?” Fey blurted, not helping the conversation move at all. This all but confirmed Sirena's question.
“Come on Fey! There is really only one person in your life that can make you this crazy. What did he say?”
“I'm just tired.”
“Fey!”
“Okay, fine!” Fey said giving in to Sirena's inquisition. “Leandriel sent me a message that said 'Hey. We need to talk' and I've been freaking out about it!”
“Maybe it wasn't meant for you,” Sirena said.
Fey's notification pinged.
The moment of truth. Fey opened it immediately.
Fey did not let Sirena know that she was right.
----------------------------------------
Footnotes:
[i] Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad tells the story of a trip into the jungle in Congo.