What can I say?

I got bored.

I started scrambling around the dungeons. I felt more than a little awkward surrounded by the dead bodies of the raiders. I’d never been in a room with so many corpses before, yet alone multiple dead bodies, and add to that, a lot of bodies in a lot of different pieces.

I felt sick to my stomach just looking at them. I glanced around the corner. I saw the light of a nearby torch reveal a room just off to the side. The only problem?

The alligator-jackal thing was still stoned in the corner, rolling around on its pack while it pawed at invisible prey. I thought about grabbing a sword and offing the creature, but it just didn’t feel right. Besides, I didn’t want to take the chance of accidentally awakening the creature from its acid trip.

I got lucky once with the berries.

I didn’t want to test that luck.

Instead, I just squeezed by the clearly tripping-balls monsters. It made no effort to lunge at me this time, its glassy eyes fixated on invisible creatures dotting the ceiling. I found a nearby opening and quickly entered.

It took a couple of moments for my eyes to adjust to the roundness of the room, with the shadows slinging to see spots in the corner. Once I was confident no surprises lurked within the darkness, I moved to explore the large room.

I moved my hand cautiously against the walls. I half-expected to activate some hidden trap which would launch poison darts right into my deck. Then Teagra would find my oversized body a couple of minutes later, knowing I’d totally failed to heed her instructions.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. A gleam of metal shone through the darkness. I immediately reached for it. A small dusty piece of paper immediately fell out. I quickly pocketed it in the folds of my robe, but my attention remained fixed on the metallic shape I had brushed with my fingers.

I pulled the small item into the light. My eyes widened as I recognized the item. It was a compass, and a thoroughly modern one.

Jason’s compass.

It was one of those rugged, high-end compasses you could chuck out of a 747 in midair and still find it pointing in the right direction. It also doubled as a bottle-opener along with half a dozen other features.

Teagan gave it to Jason as a Christmas present. I was always surprised he never tossed it given how things ended with them, but maybe Jason was secretly more sentimental than I gave him credit for. In any case, it served as definite proof Jason was here.

There was something else lodged in the wall. It looked egg-shaped. I went to remove it, pulling out an oval-shaped gemstone.

“Paydirt,” I said to no one in particular. I would have been more excited about finding a rare stone if I had any hope of getting back to civilization.

“Pretty, ain’t it?” a voice behind me said.

I spun around to see an old man in a white button-up shirt held up with suspenders. He wore black shoes which matched his smooth black pants. His face was a wild collection of wrinkles that matched his graying hair, jutting out in all directions.

I nearly leapt back but the man gave me a cautious smile.

“Sorry, I have that effect on people,” he said.

That’s when I noticed a faint cerulean glow around the man. But that wasn’t the strangest part. I could see the hallway through the man’s image, as if he were some sort of hologram or…

A ghost.

I gazed into the man’s features. It took a second to recognize him, but I did put the pieces together.

“Holy shit,” I said. “You’re Roy Fritz.”

I was looking at, or rather, looking through the creator of Shields at Dawn.

I didn’t know what to say.

“Guilty as charged,” the man said with a fake bow. “I’d give you an autograph but…my pen hand isn’t working so well.”

His translucent passed through a nearby wall like a cloud of air.

“How…how long have you been down here?” I asked, my mind frantically reeling from the implications.

“Since I died, probably,” Roy said with a wry smile. “That’s usually how these things work.”

“Riiiight,” I said. “Any idea how long that’s been?”

“No clue,” Roy said. “Time flows much differently in this place. You have a tendency to lose it…and yourself…if you’re not careful.”

I found myself thinking of Teagan as he said that last part.

“But you didn’t die here,” I said. “You died over there…in the real world.”

Roy regarded me with a mirthless smile. “Does this place seem any less real to you?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. I can’t say dragons and alligator-jackals were all that common in Vermont.”

Roy chuckled. “Our world is more closely linked than you might think. Anyway, when I died, my ghost ended up here.”

“I just…didn’t expect to see you here,” I said.

“I get that a lot,” Roy said with an equally noncommittal shrug.

“Really? Get many visitors down here?” I said.

“No, not really. I was being sarcastic,” Roy said as his face dropped. “Or making conversation. One of the two. In either case, I’m out of practice.”

He turned to me. “I didn’t get your name.”

“I’m Karl Connan. Of the Evening Watch,” I said. I started to outstretch my hand, but then I realized I was talking to a ghost.

I’m talking to a ghost.

I must be losing my mind.

“Sorry,” I said, retracting to my hand to let it rest on the back of my head. “Force of habit.”

“Evening Watch? You guys are still in business?” Roy said with a slight twitch of his transparent mouth. “I thought you guys would have been swallowed up by all the dot coms. Or bought out by Merrit.”

I could feel my face darkening at the mention of Simon Merit.

“What do you know about Merit?” I asked.

“I know he’s set himself up as mayor of this place,” Roy said. “Though I don’t think he’s big on elections. Not that that stopped him in the past topside.”

“Where did all the people come from?” I asked from. Roy gave me an odd look.

“Please tell me you haven’t forgotten how babies are made,” Roy said. “Because that is not a conversation I would fancy having with a near-stranger.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I raised my voice. “In Shields at Dawn, there were no human characters, but I saw plenty of people in that town of his.”

“Oh great. A fan,” Roy said as he looked me up and down. “I’d give you an autograph, but I got a bad case of carpal tunnel…as well as a minor case of being dead.”

I didn’t say anything. I fixed my gaze at him and stood my ground.

“I didn’t create this place,” Roy said.

“But you wrote Shields at Dawn,” I shot back.

“I wrote my experiences here, in this place. With some minor embellishments,” he said, looking around the dark room.

“And you left out an entire race of human beings from your writing?” I asked. Roy shifted uncomfortably, even as he hovered inches above the ground.

“Not quite,” he said.

“I’m not much of a reporter,” I said. “But I know when someone is evading the truth.”

Roy sighed. “Merit brought the people here.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “What, did he sell tickets on his website? How much they going for?”

“Not like that,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I said, still laughing.

“I mean they weren’t brought here willingly,” he said.

My smile vanished. I looked at Roy Fritz’s ghost.

“So…all of those people up there are…hostages?” I asked.

“Not quite,” Roy said, pointing to his temple. “This place can do funny things to your mind. It worms your way into your mind, until your old life becomes a dream you can barely remember.”

Oh God, I thought. Teagan.

That’s what happened to her. All this time I thought she drank the Kool-Aid becoming part of Simon Merit’s cult, but what if that’s not what happened at all?

What if she literally forgot who she was?

Then again, that still didn’t explain how she treated us, how she broke off Jason’s engagement, how she turned her back on everything she knew. She must have been her for some of it.

“So those people in that town…have lost their memories?” I asked.

“Not just their memories. They become new beings up here. The air. The food. The magic,” Roy said. “It gets in you, and it doesn’t let go.”

He was looking away when he said it.

“Not that you want it to, either,” he said in a much smaller voice.

“Can someone regain their self, their memories?” I asked.

“Dunno,” Roy shrugged. “I never tried it.”

“Is that going to happen to me?” I asked.

“Eventually,” Roy said.

I need to get out of here.

“But,” Roy said. “I can teach you how to keep yourself, bit by bit. It’s not impossible…if you take certain precautions.”

Well, that’s a relief.

My thoughts then turned to Jason. Roy Fritz died of kidney failure, yet he was. Did that mean Jason…?

“Have you seen any other people…like me?” I asked.

Roy Fritz gave a knowing shake of his head. “Oh, you mean Outsiders.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not a big fan of that term.”

“Neither was I when I got here,” Roy said. “Though it does have a certain rustic charm to it.”

“Anyone else?” I said, trying to keep Roy Fritz on topic.

“Yeah, there was another fella came in not too long ago,” he said. “He got chased off by some scary-looking barbarians. He a friend of yours?””

“He was,” I said, emphasizing the past tense. “He died getting me the information.”

“I’m sorry,” Roy said. “Seemed like a nice guy.”

“I was hoping he might be around here…since you died topside too,” I said.

Roy gave a definitive shake of his head. “Sorry, Karl. I don’t really know how my soul got trapped here. I spent a lot of time in this place. In any case, he’s not here.”

I gave a soft nod. The brief hope of seeing my friend again, so quickly dashed, hurt more than the initial shock.

I heard rapid footsteps coming down the hall. I briefly tensed, only to see Teagra emerge from the shadows. She immediately locked eyes with me…and Roy Fritz.

“Teagra, this is–”

“The Cursed King!” she exclaims, before turning to me.

“I knew you couldn’t be trusted,” she said. “You vile necromancer!”

The only thing flashing brighter than her eyes was the sword she held in her head, as she plunged it towards my midsection.