I am clearly an idiot. I woke up with a scratchy throat and an achy head. I religiously took the medicine to keep me afloat and capable of taking care of Darius. I always made sure that it never ran out in my system.

I was too careless. I can't believe I thought that Mordecai was going to make my body better. No doubt he was watching this and laughing his butt off.

I didn't have time to ponder what the gift could be because Darius started rolling on the bed. I barely moved in time to catch him before he rolled right off.

He giggled when I caught him, and I couldn't help but smile back at the sparkle in his eyes.

"If you roll off the bed, you could hurt yourself," I said, bringing him closer to my chest.

Darius squealed in protest, and I could hear him babble. He was almost talking in response.

"Ready for breakfast!" I distracted him easily.

The rest of the day was not that easy. He was bored with the suite. He was bored with his toys, and he was bored of me.

Given how the breaking news was mostly about our family, I didn't want to put the TV on.

That left one option. Well, technically, two.

"Do you want to go somewhere fun?" I said, scooping him up in my arms.

"Da?" He said with a pout. Da became his word of choice.

I held him close to my chest and entered my locket world. I didn't know how to bring him in. So I just imagined both of us going in and gave it a try. Luckily, Darius was still in my arms when we entered.

We were greeted by blue skies and bright green grass as far as the eye could see. Along the way, there were grazing animals dotting the horizon.

"Da!" Darius was really excited to see this, and he wiggled to get out of my arms. I held on tight and looked up at the sky.

There was a countdown, as usual, in big bold red plastered across the sky. Over the years, I'd managed to extend the time to six hours. This was the first time I'd entered it since my father's plane went down. Instead of six it blasted 2:59.12 in the sky. I had less than three hours, and it counted down by the second.

Mordecai said this place was powered by my soul. How long would it take to extend the time that allowed me to bring Darius in?

I didn't have time to ponder. Darius was still struggling to escape my arms. I set him down to let him roll around in the grass. We entered near one of the orchards, so he had plenty to play with. Apples dotted the ground, and he picked them up to gnaw.

Even if I didn't have predators, animals like ducks or chickens could hurt him if he got too close. I pulled out the control panel and monitored Darius during my daily maintenance.

Everything looked alright and up to date except for a new icon in the menu part. I waited until I finished doing everything I needed to before touching the icon.

It said shop. Could this be the update Mordecai had promised? However, it didn't make sense because I never needed it before. I could customize whatever structure, farming thingy or animal-based thingy, I liked. And I used points to choose the animal. What could a shop provide me that I would need?

I wasn't able to get a direct answer. The screen showed a loading screen stating, 'Downloading update.'

I looked away as it loaded to watch Darius digging in the dirt. He looked happier than before, and a matching smile grew on my lips.

Was there a limit to bringing him into my Hideaway home? It didn't have limiters for me, but would that change like the locket world?

A cheery beep alerted me to the finished download, and I looked at the control panel with as few expectations as possible.

I blinked at the screen. All the possible upgrades I could utilize or earn were displayed. They were sectioned off by animals, plants, expansion, zones, etc. My fingers became a blur as I clicked through everything.

I had unlocked the beach long ago, but now I can unlock depths that expand on what could live in it. I could create sections of the ocean for specific habitats. There were also zones with different settings, and everything in them, from the rocks to the sky, would reflect that.

Each one unlocked different animals, plants, and creatures.

"Creatures?" I said, astonished. Not animals, it said creatures.

I gulped and saw a notification. I clicked on it without thinking.

"Due to upgrading, the world now undergoes seasons. Upon exiting, the world will reflect this change for your next visit."

Shit. That was going to make it difficult. Currently, I bypass the need for seasons to keep growing annually with my abilities. Outside the locket world, it was fall, so the air was crisp and chilling into winter. Right now, in the space, it looked like a forever spring.

I took a look at the plants and sighed. Mordecai giveth, and he curses, too.

I looked down at Darius, still happily digging in the dirt. Then, up at the sky, I saw that only twenty minutes had passed.

I needed to figure out what my zones would become and how I would navigate this changing world.

I plopped down on the ground next to Darius and got to work.

I needed to have this done sooner rather than later. If I was going to be in this world without my father's and my friends' protection. I needed to be prepared. The world's end would come, and it was up to me to provide for Darius.

Designing was a lot harder than it ought to be. I had to rearrange the whole world to have zones that would reflect unique zones. I was going to have one of each, including an arctic one. I started this process with over a billion points from all the farming I'd done over the past thirteen years. I didn't really need to use them before. I could add more depth to every inch of this world with all the extras. I could even add things like benches, lights, and swings. Now that it wouldn't be perpetual daytime, I had to prepare for what it would look like at night. My farm animals needed homes. The zones with predators and prey needed proper plants to build their homes. I now have to balance the equilibrium of Mother Nature. By the time I was done, I had barely ten points left.

I wanted at least four zones within each climate zone to create a continuous cycle. That meant animals in each of them would be going through different stages. However, they couldn't cross over into a different season of their zone, so that locked them in. There was a function that I paid for to warn of possible inbreeding. To combat that, I could mix and match the animals in each zone to prevent such an event. Though down the line when I earned more points, I could just add more animals to make it work.

I was lucky to have a few zones called farming where I could put my farm animals. I did all the above regarding cycles for my different farming animals. Instead of four of each, I doubled it because I always need food.

The ocean was scary, but it would be cool to have different zones that I could use for swimming, surfing, and exploring.

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Thanks to the upgrade, I could unlock mountains with snowy caps that would be perfect for practicing skiing or snowboarding. The hot springs were among the best things that unlocked in the mountains.

This went from being a one-tier farming land with some plants and animals to replicating a complete world.

I looked at the screen and saw that an hour had passed.

Darius was eating his dirty hand next to me. He was leaning against me and was sleepily blinking up at the sky.

"We're going to be okay," I said, feeling tension I didn't know existed escaped my shoulders. If we entered this world every day, I'd be able to build up the time, and we could hide from the world.

"Da!" Darius gave me a gumless grin. I set aside the console and picked up Darius. The update would upgrade by the time we came back. So we might as well use up our last hour at the beach.

Time passed, and Darius was revving down, luckily. I picked up my brother and, on a whim, slipped both of us into my Hideaway home.

It worked, and as I frantically looked at the ceiling for some kind of countdown, I found it.

Twelve hours?! I could stay in here with him for twelve hours.

That had quite a few implications for the locket world and why the time there was short. Either Mordecai was messing with me, or the energy it took to be in either of the spaces varied massively.

The locket world maintained animals and ecosystems. My Hideaway home was just that, a home in its own pocket dimension.

Darius started to fuss and drew my attention away from the fine print. We'd have to come back after lunch. I needed to get him fed and hopefully down for a nap right now.

Slipping in between these two spaces became routine for the next two months. I slowly increased the time I brought in Darius. Better yet, I was able to keep us as lowkey as possible while staying at the Liz Hotel.

The pictures of me were vague, and I could stay hidden in plain sight, but I couldn't take the risk. The more hidden Darius and I were, the safer we would be until the public forgot about us.

It didn't even take two months for that to happen. Something fresh happened that distracted the public.

I could still find out what happened to my father's property. Graham had inherited my father's company and all of its assets. My father had him in the will in the event that something happened to Darius and me.

There was a lot of negative press about that, but Graham managed to turn it around with the release of the zombie game he put together with Alec and Bryon.

Brains became such a hit that they created a gaming company to expand on the franchise. Graham even credited me with the character creation of Atlas and named the company Dolyn.

And then the public forgot about the Savage family entirely. It was like we never existed.

My father, Darius, and I were gone, and the world continued because, to them, we didn't matter.

I didn't have to stay hidden forever over the next six months. With the media's short attention span, I slowly ventured into the real world. Well, it's part of the real world. I took online classes at a community college. It wasn't the easiest thing, but it became possible as Darius grew bigger and more independent. He could play by himself and took naps more frequently, which allowed me to get things done.

He was nearly two now and a very chatty guy. I bought a puppy from the locket world store. I tried to pull the dog out, but I received a warning box that told me he would turn into soup meat if I did. I had never attempted to pull out animals from the locket world before, so I learned the hard way that the only thing that comes out of it is meat for eating. At least inside the locket world, the two became best friends. He named him Berry because the spots looked like raspberries on its amber coat.

I could do my homework while the two frolicked around. I spent a lot of time studying. I was getting ready to apply to a university.

I took forever to decide what I wanted to be, and I finally settled on becoming a nurse. With my talent for plants and interest in self-preservation, it was the perfect field. I could take care of Darius and others when the zombies come and do it in a way that made sense. If I'm lucky, I can find out how to heal my body, not that my dad's experts could.

I looked at the sky to check how much time we had left in the locket world. I upgraded it again, allowing Darius to stay there for six hours.

Tension grew in the center of my forehead as I could feel panic rise and swell within me. How can I do this with Darius attached to my hip? I couldn't leave him alone or in the Hideaway home or the Liz suite; I was still expensively renting. We had less than five years before the zombies attacked, so I couldn't wait until he was older. If I left him with other people, would he be safe? What if he starts talking about all the magic in his life and gets weird eyes on me? Some could be chalked up to a kid's imagination, but someone may take it seriously.

"Dol!" Darius said as he ran up to me. "I found this!" He held a baby rabbit by the ears and thrust it into my hands.

The poor thing was shivering and trembling as it shat itself.

"Put it down. Its mama is likely looking for it." I said gently, guiding his hands to set down the baby rabbit. It thumped off wobbly as it scurried far away.

I looked at Darius as he watched the rabbit escape. He didn't ask questions about his mother, and I often talked to him about our father. Sadly, I had no idea what had truly happened to them.

He was too young for the in-depth conversation.

"Berry!" Darius said, bounding after the spotted dog that came running with its tongue hanging out of its mouth. The two tumbled to the ground together, and I let out a sigh.

One way or another, it was going to work. Even if I had to yank Mordecai down to provide childcare myself. Since my cries for the damned deity went unanswered, I resorted to attempting spellwork to summon him. All of them failed, of course.

My dream must have been affected by my line of thinking because I was plagued with images of Gods, monsters, and dragons every night.

I'd had wild dreams since our first night in the Liz Hotel. But this was different. The oddest part of these dreams wasn't who was that everything came in threes. The first dream stood out because although there were three huddled figures, the woman in the center and the man at her feet set themselves apart.

I barely had time to register what was going on before my dreams shifted to an underground labyrinth. Each time, without fail, I would catch my bearings and have enough of a mind to look around, but then I was ripped from the scene.

These weren't premonitions; they were entirely something else.

They almost felt like memories, but they couldn't be my own. I would remember being in a labyrinth. A spine-shivering inducing roar shook the walls, and I hiccuped in surprise.

And none of that was accounting for the dragons. I saw countless dragons. The biggest and boldest of them had the same eyes as Acuzio. His scales were a burning red with hints of gold. They looked nothing like the scales I had seen before, yet as I watched this dragon take flight, I knew it was my ancestral uncle.

His proper form was monstrously huge. There didn't seem to be an end to him, and he blacked out the sun as he took over the sky. The world was cast into shadow, and dream me was left with a gaping mouth as I looked up at him.

How could I reconcile that something that powerful was a relative of mine, no matter how removed? How is it possible that my direct ancestor was not only his sibling but as powerful as Acuzio?

What of their other sibling? There was a third to the trio and one who was mentioned occasionally, but I'd never been told what happened to her. If just anything would haunt my dreams, why can't she?

The dream shifted again as if responding to my tangled inner web of thoughts. There was a part of me that was excited. What would the third sibling be if my ancestor was a phoenix and her sibling was a dragon? Could I find out now? She would have to be as powerful, if not more, given that her mother was also the Goddess of Destiny.

Instead of being on a cliff or a black underground, I found myself in a chilly forest with thickened air. The fog clouded my sight, and as I stepped forward, I slipped on the slick ground and landed butt-first in a pool of water. I made a face as I tried to stand. This embarrassingly repeated a couple of times until I heard the sound of wings. I looked up just in time to see a silver bird with a wingspan the size of a small van. It looked as if starlight had been spun in her feathers. She landed flawlessly and nearly silently in the water, causing tiny ripples.

"Are you Caelestis?" I blurted.

The bird tilted her head, and her form started to shimmer stronger. I fought the desire to blink. I didn't want to miss seeing this exquisite bird. There was only one other who was as handsome as her. But I did end up blinking, and a woman replaced the bird when I opened my eyes.

She was willowy thin and the tallest woman I have ever seen in any of my lives. Her long silver hair hung down her back and shined like the feathers from before. Her skin was the color of milk, and her eyes were made of melted light. Her long eyelashes were so pale that I almost couldn't spot them. Her lips were the warmest-looking part of her body, and they had a soft golden hue on her skin.

"Silver lady." I must have spoken again. Caelestis was the winter Goddess in Adam's world. This had to be her. She was the embodiment of winter.

She opened her mouth, and I think words came out, but I couldn't hear her. It was like a wall had appeared before, preventing either side from talking.

"Gwendolyn." A third voice spoke, and I stiffened, recognizing that one all too well.

Aphra, aka Mordecai, was here.

"How did you find your way here?" Aphra said, looking down at me. Her hair wasn't as shiny as Caelestis, and unlike the silver Goddess, her pale hair was spun with wisps of gold and amber. They glowed with their own unique heat and evaporated the fog around them.

"He wasn't supposed to leave you for even a moment." She muttered as she eyed me up and down. I couldn't respond; something was constricting my voice, and the thick air prevented me from taking a fresh breath. Aphra seemingly took in my continence and sighed. This was a woman I'd seen only once before, but for some reason, I was having trouble reconciling her as being also Mordecai. Something was off. Something didn't feel right.

"You shouldn't disturb the dead," Aphra said, covering my eyes with her hand and not giving me a chance.

The next time I could open my eyes, I was no longer in the book world nor a dreamland. I was in the middle of a warzone.