Etienne emerged from a side corridor. He aimed his crossbow at me, and I aimed my gun at him. We stood, frozen like that, for a very long time. I couldn’t figure out what was heavier, the silence around us or the weapon in my hands.
What made me eventually snap out of this, perhaps magical stupor was the fact that had the dungeon monster come back, he would not have taken the shape of Etienne again, as that illusion had been broken.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
Etienne slowly lowered his weapon as well, following my lead. He seemed still to be unsure if I were the real one.
“Tell me something only the real Laura would know.” He said, his voice uncharacteristically dry.
It suddenly hit me that I would have much preferred for him to take that tone more often with me than to keep all his secrets.
“The other day you burned me with your stripper money. A 50€ note.” I replied. My own tone had failed to be the joke I had intended it as.
“When was that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. A week or two ago? A lot has happened since then.”
We remained in silence for another few moments. I tried but failed to look him in the eyes, while he seemed to have no issue staring right through me. Something felt off, and it wasn’t just the dungeon that was likely going to eat us.
I suddenly felt very tired. Not through magic, or a skill, but simply because of everything that had led to this point. The monsters, the novel, Cain, Huang, there was just so much.
“We need to find Cain,” I spoke, my feelings no doubt slipping through into my voice. “Then think about how to kill this dungeon so we can go home.”
“He’s not really your cousin, is he?” Etienne’s question took me by surprise.
I sighed and shook my head.
“Can we go now?”
“Why can’t you find him alone?”
“Is this an interrogation?” I asked, rather than snapped, with a tired tone.
Something had happened to Etienne too, that much was obvious, but whatever it was, I was certain we could work through it outside of the monster dungeon.
“No, of course not … I …” He ran his hand through his hair, his tone softening, and his gaze averting mine. “I don’t know Laura. It’s just that there was this clone of you, and-” he looked up at me, his eyes meeting mine, as he shook his head, something between regret and anger painted over his face, “I realised I knew nothing about you other than the lies you constantly make up. And I thought it would be fine, you know, because you never lied about the important things, but then you bought Cain to the shop, and you started freaking out about customers, and – I don’t know you. I never did. But I want to! Or at least, I hope I do. But maybe, I’m just lying to myself. Just like you’re lying to me.”
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“I-” I was at a loss for words. All of that had come on so suddenly, but it had been so expected at the same time.
I took a few small steps back, until my back hit a wall. I slid down against it. I took a deep breath, hit the glowing mushrooms that were growing to my right, and took another deep breath, before bringing my knees under my chin. Etienne was right, I needed to come clean. And if that’s what it took for him to hold my hand to help me get out of here, then be it.
“You’re right. There are a lot of things I haven’t told you. Why I keep my ESW hidden, who Cain is, where I came from … Who those people at the store were, where I was when I took all those days off at the end of summer. What my actual skill do. Who Huang is…” I sighed again, trying to steady my voice as I held back tears.
“I don’t care about any of that.” Etienne interjected. “Well, I care about the you and Cain part, and whoever Huang is, and whatever you’re running from …” He crossed the distance between us, crouching down in front of me, “Just, tell me. Please. I can’t keep going like this.”
I nodded. He didn’t say it, but the way he looked at me, pleading, and his tone that was even more soft than usual, told me that if I didn’t we would never see each other again once we’d walk out of here.
“Alright.” I sighed, collecting my thoughts and courage. “It all started when I was going back to Paris after visiting my grandma in Lille. There was a terrorist attack on the Thalys,” I carried on with my story.
----------------------------------------
“That is crazy.” Etienne, who had long since taken the spot of those glowing mushrooms by my side, spoke. “Not only is there another world, but you had the exact same set of skills in that world than in this one. I’ve never heard of teleportation upon death. And the whole Oracle book thing? I can’t believe people are allowed to write that.”
“It’s not,” I shook my head, giving up on trying to explain to him that there were no skills or systems, or oracles in my world. I was sure he’d get his hand around it over time, but maybe not two minutes after hearing about it, in a man-eating dungeon. “We should get moving. I trust Cain’s survival skills, but he’s still a kid.”
Etienne nodded.
“You never got to that part.” He quietly added, before switching to his usual joyful tone, “When we get out, we better leave this place a 1-star review.”
“Not child-proof entrances to an actual, dangerous, dungeon.” I jokingly added.
He extended a hand, helping me up.
“Now, if I were a 12-year-old,”
“Deeper in.” I cut him off. “He went deeper in. He was way too excited about this whole trip, he won’t stop until he finds treasure.”
“Or gets hurt?” Etienne interjected with a questioning expression.
I shook my head.
“He’s an S ranker like me. In ‘immoral immortality’, he-” The sounds of claws raking against rock interrupted me before I could list off some of his exploits. Perhaps that was for the best, considering that his S-tier abilities were something to fear, unlike my own, and I didn’t want Etienne to do that. He seemed to get along with Cain so well –
Mind Stop
Effects of Fear negated.
Reaction time /1.5
Darkness took over the cavern intersection, as all lights were absorbed into a single, dark mass. For a second, thanks to ‘mind stop’, I was able to catch a glimpse of a humanoid figure, with glowing fangs, and a mouth that extended past its face, smiling hungrily at us from above.