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(Danny’s POV)
I stayed up a long time after the monster finally left. And by left I mean he just up and disappeared after a quick see you later. I didn’t even move from the bed, caught as I was between terror and frustration.
Oh i’m sorry, did you think I was taking this well? In truth it was anything but. See, the thing is, when people… or things… are sitting there talking to you, they aren’t ripping the flesh from your bones and eating you alive. So I felt it was entirely in my best interest to hear him out and survive a few more minutes.
And now? It’s been four hours since Pi left me, and i’ve spent the majority of the time gazing at my darkened window and contemplating exactly how far i’d have to run to escape a teleporting, shapeshifting monstrosity from beyond our Universe.
I sold my soul too. Or at least part of it. That’s also something I’ve been running over in my mind, like a dog gnawing on a bone. I’d given it a lot of effort and I still haven’t made a dent in it, with nothing to show for my ruminating but more questions.
First was it even possible to sell your soul? Was it really as easy as signing on the dotted lines? To my dismay, my gut instinct seemed to say that yes, yes it was. And if it wasn’t, if there was somehow more to it, who would know better than some transdimensional being who seemingly dealt in souls?
Not me, that’s for sure. Which was why my first stop when I left this room would be to run as fast as I could to my local church or synagogue or whatever was closest. With my soul on the line I wasn’t feeling too picky about who could save it, and whoever could help me out would have a lifelong believer. I think there is a mosque a couple blocks from me, so that might be the closest stop.
I don’t really have any plans after that. I’ve got a couple grand in savings. Maybe i’ll just hop on a greyhound bus and just ride around the country. I’m definitely not coming back here. How long do you think it’d take before he’d give up on chasing me? I think a week or two would be good enough. Then I could settle down and start a new life. Maybe somewhere near a beach.
My mood was lifted a bit at the thought. It might even be like a vacation, just a couple weeks of travel spent seeing exoctic places. Sleeping in cheap motels where i’d poke through the blinds like an early morning tweaker all paranoid that the man was watching him. Yea. Not the ideal situation one wants on their vacation but it’s not like I have much choice.
I let out a low sigh as I gave a final glance around and stood up. It was late enough, the digital clock that blinked on the side of my bookshelf telling me it was currently 12:03 just after midnight. I took a step towards my front door, before freezing in place as the floorboard I stepped on gave a long creak.
I chuckled nervously to myself as I glanced around, making sure that there was no one watching me. Which there wasn’t, but really the fact that I didn’t see anything didn’t make me too confident.
I mustered up what courage lay in me, and took the last few steps towards the door. I grasped the door handle, and pulled it open, smiling wide at the thought of putting this nightmarish time behind me.
My smile froze. Then it slipped a bit, cracked and shattered into a thousand pieces.
“Seriously, what the fuck!” I couldn’t help but vent my frustrations.
“Sorry Dorothy, I thought you knew.” The voice came from behind me, brimming with mirth.
I turned around, dread smothering the flickering flame of rage I was feeling moments before. Of course I’d had no doubts, but there he was. Pi, Dan, Me, smiling back at me, eyes dancing with laughter.
I just stared at him, eyes dead as a fish, all hope extinguished. “Know, what?” I said, regretting my question before the words left my mouth.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore.” He said with a laugh.
The rage came back, fueled by his utterly cliche line.
“Where am I? Besides my apartment.” I said, gesturing towards the inky void that seemed to be all that existed outside my door.
“Mi casa su casa, Danny boy! I thought you’d like to be comfortable so I recreated your apartment from memory.” He said, the generosity in his voice thick like honey.
I stood there, broken a bit. My final hope that this might be some sort of dream had just disappeared. Any thoughts that I might be able to escape, that I might be able to outrun this eldritch horror vanished in an instant.
In there place was just asinine questions. A lone apartment building suspended in the void made zero sense. It broke nearly every law of physics I knew. Why was there gravity? How was I alive and breathing with no atmosphere? Why wasn’t I frozen to death in a place so far away that the nearest stars didn’t even shine through?
Pointless. Just rogue thoughts rushing to fill the void, now that my train of thought had been ground to a violent halt. What did any of that matter when I had this flagrant scofflaw standing in front of me. If I was any judge, Pi seemed to be the rules were made to be broken sort of type, and I doubted he cared about any of those things.
With a heavy heart, I walked the few steps towards my bed and curled under the blankets, ignoring Pi’s few painful attempts at conversation before the silence set in. At which point I assumed he’d decided to go torture some other poor sap for a time. I almost felt sorry for the poor guy, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself.
Like that, eight hours passed by. I lay there under my covers basting myself in pity, wondering what I’d ever done to bring all this upon myself. My brain happily took it upon itself to lay out every mistake i’d ever made, in chronological order.
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Just when it was getting to the good stuff a series of loud thuds came from the door. Something new. That made me perk up. I doubted it was Pi, as so far he’d shown little regard for things like doors and courtesy.
I stumbled out of bed, more driven by the intensity of the noise than any desire to actually open the door. It sounded like a battering ram was trying to break into my room. After opening the door, I found this wasn’t far from the truth.
The first thing that drew my eye was the massive creature standing nearly 8 feet tall and filling my doorway. The second thing was the massive ham sized hand that was raised to rain more blows on my fragile wooden door.
The third, was the sunlight that poured in around him and reflected off of the bright blue grass that he was standing upon. I won’t lie, my eyes teared up a bit at that. I wasn’t sure I would ever see the sun again, although if you’d told me a few days ago it might be a possibility i’d have scoffed and said so what.
That couldn’t hold my attention for long however. Really not more than a split second before the thing that filled my vision drew my eye back to it. I really had no idea what it was. It was clearly a reptile of some sort, but the kind that stood on two legs and stared at you with creepily intelligent eyes.
Even reptile didn’t do it justice really. Maybe it’s be more accurate to say that it was almost like a dinosaur, some prehistoric t rex genetic line that had carried on through the ages. Or perhaps even draconic might be the right word, Although I had my doubts with that one too.
He wasn’t snakelike in the way a chinese dragon might have been, and while he was broad and bulky enough to be a sort of western dragon, the lack of wings and his fat, stubby snout reminded me more of an iguana. His scales shone with a strange luster, the ones covering his abdomen and chest larger than my palm, before tapering into finer, more petite ones covering the areas that required mobility.
All in all it was the sort of sight that would make you shit yourself. If i’d eaten anything since the last time I’d shit myself, I might just have done it again.
We stared at each other in silence for some time, before finally he nodded at me.
“Good,” He said, his voice not at all filled with hisses like I’d expected, but rather a rich and deep baritone that would put any singer to shame. “I was afraid you might oversleep and I’d have to drag you out of bed.”
His words gave me a bit of a pause. How long had it been since I’d woken up? Twelve hours? More? Yet I didn’t feel tired at all, not in the least. It was rather strange but I had spent the majority of it laying in bed anyways. Nothing to be worried about. My nerves were probably so on edge I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I’d been up for 4 days straight.
“Umm. Well I am awake. How could I help you mister…?” I trailed off, not having the least idea what to call him.
“Stop wasting my time would be a good place to start.” He ignored my unspoken request, with peeved me a little bit. Well if he wouldn’t give me a name for him I’d just have to come up with one on my own. Or....
“Observe.”
???
Roc’thalous Talmon Roct’arious
Lv: ???
Class: ???
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
I was getting pretty good at this if I do say so myself. I still couldn’t see any of his information but getting his name was good enough for me. Although I’d be damned if I was going to try and pronounce that mouthful. Hmm. Well he did look like a giant ass boulder so he fit the profile. Rocky I decided.
That was about the time he hit me and I discovered how flimsy drywall could be. His casual backhand had caught me with it’s irresistible force and thrown me across the room, and through the wall, where I tumbled across the newly sprung up grass for a little bit.
You’ve received Physical Damage -69 HP
By the time I could finally focus on what the screen was trying to inform me of this time, the big guy was already back in front of me. Of course he chose to get there by walking through my apartment, leaving a gaping hole 3 times larger than the one I had.
And why, some distracted part of my mind thought, did Pi’s punch do 29 damage and barely move me, whereas this guy sent me flying and only did about three times as much? I supposed they could control their strength, I certainly had no other explanation on hand.
I finally forced myself to stand, staying on edge against any incoming strikes. Although I severely doubted my ability to see them, let alone avoid them. After a short yet intense staring match he spoke again.
“Are you ready yet? Or will you continue to waste my time?” The way his hand twitched I knew what the right answer should be. That didn’t mean I was going to ask it however.
“Ready for what exactly?” I said, as I backed away slowly. He did nothing to follow me, and stood there watching me impassively.
“Your training of course.” He folded his arms as he said this, his apathetic expression slowly turning into a frown.
Of course. My training. The training I didn’t really want, or ask for. The training that I had bargained for thoughtlessly, intent as I was on escape at the nearest opportunity. Well thanks but no thanks. Getting my ass handed to me by some giant lizard was low on my list of priorities, but I had the sinking feeling that I didn’t have much choice here.
“Run.” He said, lifting up a scaly finger and pointing off into the distance.
I hesitated for a second.
“Or I hit you.” He offered.
I started running. I promptly tripped. Now, I’m no cross country athlete, or a sprinter. Honestly though, how the hell could I fuck up running? It’s something humans have done since the dawn of time. It’d be no exaggeration to say that our bodies were designed to sustain running at an elevated speed for a long period of time.
How was it possible, after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, that I managed to fuck it up? Nothing to do but keep going, I decided as I stood up, looking behind me to see the lizardman approaching at a leisurely pace.
I took off running again. This time I went at it like a bat out of hell, gratified to see I’d forced the new nightmare behind me to pick up his pace a bit. Of course that quickly turned to ashes when I realized that meant fuck all as I still had an eight foot tall behemoth lumbering after me.
I ran my little heart out I’m pleased to say, straining until I could hear my breath rasping in my throat, and my legs felt like little volcanoes were exploding with every excessive push. Of course this wasn’t hard to do, as every time I began to slow down I had hot lizard breath all over the back of my neck.
It took all of a minute and a half before I collapsed. My heart was racing and I was seeing stars, and I’d given up all hope at surviving the day. Death wouldn’t be so bad, I thought as I imagined the lizard cracking open my bones to drink the marrow. At least all of this would be over with.
My contemplations were interrupted, not by as I’d assumed, some angry lizardman coming to eat me, but rather by the crashing noise of several blue screens popping open at once.
NEW RESOURCE UNLOCKED
Stamina 0/50
Through physical exertion you have unlocked a very standard resource. Rarity N/A
STAT BONUS
Dexterity +1
STAT BONUS
Dexterity +1
All my worries disappeared like that, and a goofy grin took it’s place. Two stat gains for such minimal effort, a trade I would have made in any game I’d ever played. This was also the first time I’d seen any sort of stat’s, and the idea that I might have them and they might be improved gave me some desire for the first time since this whole fiasco started.
Rocky crouched down next to me, seeming to understand that I’d stopped running not because I wanted to, but because I just couldn't anymore. Although I was still wary about the big guy, I just couldn’t bring myself to retreat any further. Hitting 0 stamina made my body feel as though it was filled with lead, and I couldn’t move if I wanted to.
As I lay there gasping for air, Rocky gave me his verdict.
“Weak.” He said, his taloned thumb and forefinger curling around my bicep. Yes I know the term might be a bit generous, but really, we all have biceps it’s just basic science. Even me, although you couldn’t tell by looking.
“Soft.” He continued, poking my belly with another one of those wicked talons. Any harder and he would have poked right through me.
“Slow.” He said a final time, prodding my twitching legs.
Was that a hint of pity I heard in his voice? I looked up towards him, and he met my eyes. Yep. Definitely pity in those cold snake like eyes. My opinion of Rocky rose like an elevator. After all we now had something in common. I pitied me too.