“Hey Madison, we’re going to get into trouble anyways, right?”

The book looks at me, floating around. “Yeah, probably,” she says, her voice drifting off as it always does, as if she gets lost in her own head at the end of every sentence.

  “Can I ask you for a favor then? Can you channel some of that good, old fashioned dungeon-magic through you?” I ask her, finishing with a - “Pleeeeeease?” She stares back at me, responding with a deeply troubled sigh. She already knows where I’m going with this. We’ve worked together for a whole life of mine, after all.

“That’s going too far, we can’t do that.”

  I roll my eyes, she’ll come around. Madison is great at sticking to her principles until the very last second, but then the pressure always gets her to come around. Every time. She just doesn’t have the same conviction that you or I have, guy. But that’s okay, she’s perfect as she is. I wouldn’t have Madison be any other way.

  The hollow armors come up the staircase, the sunlit grass crunching underneath their ash filled boots. A strange waft of magical energies comes up to meet them, snaking up from the ground. It winds around them, like the faint aura of a serpent coiling around their throats. But none of them are bothered by it. The spell of this floor has no effect on creatures that can’t sleep. They understand the importance of a strong work ethic, maybe take a page from their book, eh, guy? I begin channeling white-magical energies into my hands to prepare for my escape plan.

“Go,” I tell the monk. Leaning over her shoulder so that I can talk into her ear. I pull my hand free from hers. “Save them,” I say, my hands wrapping around her shoulders from behind.

“But-!”

  “Ssshhh…” I hiss into her ear. Don’t give me that look, guy. I can feel you watching me. I want to get out of here, okay? I do. But I’m also not going to let the hero die in his sleep. What kind of person would do that? I could never let you look me in the eyes again if I sat by and let that happen. No. No… My fingers grip her body tighter. If the hero is going to die, then it’s going to be because I fought him, head on. One on one. A real hero’s duel. None of this cloak and dagger, magical, stabby-stabby mumbo-jumbo. That’s not what we do. You and I. But she won’t leave me to save them, I know her. She’s chosen me. I can’t have that though. I won’t. I refuse. After all of the work I put into drawing those eyes? No way, guy.

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She’s crying, there’s no time for that. I appreciate her keeping her eyes moisturized though. “Go.”

“BUT-“

  “I’ll wait for you at the apex,” I lie. Is that wrong of me? Maybe. But it’s the only thing I can say that will get her to let me go. My hands find their way to her back and with everything I have in my soft body, I push her forward, as I whisper my parting words into her ear. “I l-“ LALALALALA YOU CAN’T HEAR ME, GUY, LALALALA.

Are those words a lie too? I don’t know. It’s complicated. I’m not going to tell you what they were, guy. Mind your own business.

She lets out a surprised noise and stumbles forward, turning around to reach back for me.

“Madison!” I shout and slam my hands into the grass. A tiny vertical wall of white-magic appears before me. Five steps wide and only a single human tall. Laughable in the face of the scale of this floor.

  The book lets out an angry, frustrated shout that I very much like the sound of. It sounds like it’s full of energy, like it’s humming with an electrical charge. It’s full of CONVICTION. Her eyes are angry. That’s fine. She’ll forgive me for making her do this. Am I a bad person? Maybe. But I do it for them, after all. So I like to think it evens out.

  A stream of energy channels out of the grass, the sleeping spell that flows through the floor twisting and turning into a concentrated stream, that rises up into Madison, flowing through her pages as she redirects the energy to the wall. It explodes in an instant in a jubilant light that is so glorious and bright that it hurts my eyes just to look at. I don’t close them though. The burning feels good. The white-magical wall cuts through the entire floor, sealing it off between me and her in an instant. I wave goodbye to her and turn to run, hoping that she’ll do the same. If she hurries, she can still save them.

“Thanks Madison! See you tomorrow!” I call out to the book as I run off on my own. Shouting back, I cry a final - “I’ll make it up to you!”

  “You’d better!” cries out the dreamy book, floating there and channeling the energies of the dungeon through her body to keep my spell in place for me. I hope she doesn’t want me to do anything weird. This life has been traumatizing enough for my shadowy introverted heart already. Grass crunches beneath my boots, the dungeon shakes anew. The dungeon-master must be beyond furious now, which is fair. I can picture them there, sitting at their table, slamming their fists onto it and smashing wine bottles left and right. That’s a problem for tomorrow though, for now, I have work to do.

My eyes see the staircase before me and I sprint up towards it, my leather boots slapping against the stone surface as my sprint continues, now upwards. For a second however, I stop and turn around to peer through the shimmering pristine wall behind myself. A smile grows on my face and I clutch my blushing cheeks, as I see the suits of armor flying around left and right as they are smashed into pieces. Sorry guys, I guess I owe you one too.

  Turning forward, I keep running up the staircase. I’ve never made this much progress so quickly before, I can’t stop. I can’t stop! I need to get in as much distance as I can. Before this body gives out, before my time runs out. But as long as I stay alive, the hero-party will pursue me upwards as soon as the wall falls, which won’t be long, once the hero starts smashing against it. But that’s fine. Because as long as they’re after me and as long as I stay alive and keep running, then nobody else has to die today.

I narrow my eyes to keep them from rattling around as I move. I can’t believe it’s only floor seventy-six ahead of me now.

There’s still so much work left to do.