There was again a flutter of movement in the corner. She stepped around the blood as she wiped her blade off and tapped her pen light on again. The gloom still covered the far corner, yet Calista could see something was cowering there. Something pale with long, black hair. It has to be chained to something. Holding her pen light up, she stepped forward and as the light penetrated the dark it revealed a young woman with jet black hair and skin like porcelain. Her eyes were deep pools smothered in black makeup and she was peering back at Calista through the fingers of her hand as she shielded herself from the light.
“Are you okay?” Calista softly asked.
Chains rattled as the woman backed further into the corner.
It’s either a ghoul or a prisoner and I’m finding out which before I leave this room. She took a few cautious steps closer, stopping at a pike’s length. The young woman looked up at her with eyes full of fear. Calista could see the collar around the young woman’s neck and the shackles around her wrists and ankles.
“How long have you been here?” This time, Calista let the question hang in the air.
The pale woman stared for a long while until finally, she blinked as her eyes grew distant. “I can’t remember.”
“What is your name?”
There was a pause. Another blink. “Nylvani.”
“Why are you here Nylvani?”
The pale woman lowered her hand and brushed back her hair. Her eyes still squinted against the light but Calista could see they were not the eyes of a ghoul, nor was her skin the color of the undead. She indeed appeared to be a young woman in a white, frilled dress with a black corset over top. In all, she looked like stepped out of a Gothic horror movie.
“Let me ask you,” Nylvani said, “have they unwound the clock yet?”
Calista was taken aback. “What?”
“Are you stuck here same as I?”
“What do you mean by ‘stuck here?’” Calista asked. “Are you a player?”
Nylvani paused for a moment, as though she were trying to read how Calista might react. “I am.”
“Then what do you mean by ‘stuck here?’”
Nylvani’s eyes went wide with fear and confusion. “I mean, can you log out?”
Calista shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not right now. I’m not sure what’s wrong.”
“What is wrong is…” Nylvani’s voice trailed off and her eyes went distant for a moment before she blinked again. “Then the clock is wound and we are all gears in its timepiece.”
“What do you mean?” Calista asked.
“Get me out of these chains and I’ll tell you.”
Calista felt a moment’s hesitation. She didn’t know this woman, nor why she was imprisoned here, but she did know that the owner of this dungeon was clearly very evil. So finally she took out her thief's tools and went to work on the manacles. Lock picks in hand, she was amazed at how quickly her hands and fingers went about their work. It was like she had been doing it all her life, but now here she was in the game picking a lock for real. What kind of crazy shit is this? When the shackles fell to the floor, she had to look at them for a moment just to convince herself that she had picked the locks.
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When she looked up, Nylvani was standing and rubbing her wrists. “That feels so much better. Thank you.”
Calista mumbled “You’re welcome,” as she turned around and saw the body of the dark elf. The blood had pooled around the pillory and the edge of it was oozing into the fire pit. The elf’s lifeless eyes looked past her and Calista was nearly undone by the stillness of the corpse’s stare.
I’m in a game. I’m in a game. I’m in a game. But was she? This Nylvani said she was stuck here. What did that mean? And what was that about the clock being unwound? She stared at the dead elf until she felt a hand on her elbow.
“Let’s go before any more of those guards show up,” Nylvani said.
“Sure,” Calista replied.
Nylvani stopped at the table and plucked a piece of twine up, pulled her hair back, and tied it into a ponytail. Then she grabbed a curved knife and stuck it into her belt. “This is no place for a girl to be unarmed.”
“Agreed,” Calista said as she walked to the door her attackers had entered. She suppressed a shiver as she took one last look at the torture chamber and then opened the door. With Nylvani at her back, she entered the hallway with her sword drawn.
As she crept down the hallway, she found herself again surprised at how different things felt. For one, she could smell the dank, musty smell of the hallway. That didn’t make sense since her V.R chamber had no hardware equipped for smell. For another, she could feel things, like the stone beneath her boots, like the leather of her jerkin and the hilt of her sword. This isn’t like the normal game. Normally, it’s the same sound every time I walk, almost like a pendulum with feet. Now it sounds like I’m really walking on this stone with my boots. What happened? Is this some kind of bug?
There seemed to be nothing she could do about it for now. She had tried to access her interface and failed and so all she could do for now was move forward. And moving forward she was, even if she was surprised at how quiet she was. But why am I surprised? My character is high level. I’m just playing my character, right?
She decided to distract herself by talking to Nylvani. “So, tell me,” she whispered, “what you mean about the clocks?”
“This world is going to end,” Nylvani said in a matter-of-fact tone that made Calista wonder if this woman was out of her mind.
“What do you mean?” Calista looked back, but the Gothic woman seemed almost uninterested. “This world? Why is this world going to end?”
“Because …” the Gothic woman seemed to think for a moment, “… because there are forces at work that are pulling at the strings of reality. This world will be undone and remade.”
Calista faced forward so Nylvani couldn’t see her expression “And … just how do you know that?”
“Because I was listening when Severin was talking to one of his lady friends. He said that it would happen tonight. So if you are here and you can’t get out, then perhaps it has already happened and if it hasn’t, then perhaps shortly it will.”
Calista kept her voice neutral. “Has it crossed your mind that he could have been lying? I mean, he is evil and everything.”
“He is evil, but he also wants to keep playing this game. He thinks he is very good at it and so he has made arrangements with its owners that he will move on into the next world. I heard him talking about that. I think that would be a very clever lie if he said that when he did not know I was listening. Don’t you think?”
Their steps echoed softly against the stone walls as Calista considered this. “So … you know this is a game world, right?”
“Yes,” replied Nylvani.
“And so, you know this world isn’t real.”
“Yes. I guess that’s why it’s being remade. So that it can become real.”
“Why would it need to become real?”
“That I don’t know. Severin didn’t go into that part, at least not while I was listening.”
“What else did he say about it?”
“Not much. I only overhead a little bit. He said that there was going to be a transfer or something. He said that people were going to be selected, but that he had gotten his name on the list because he knew a guy. That’s about it.”
This sounds really weird. “He knows a guy at Concept?”
“I don’t think he was talking about a gaming company.”
Also weird. “What makes you say that?”
Nylvani’s tone became defensive, “Just the way he was talking about it, okay? Look, if you don’t believe me, we don’t have to talk about it anymore.”
“I’m not saying I don’t believe you, I’m just asking questions,” Calista said.
“Yes, but you’re not saying you believe me and so I don’t see any point in continuing this conversation. I’ve told you everything I know anyway.”
“Are … are you moving on to the next world?”
Nylvani’s reply was sharp. “I have no idea. I’ve told you everything I know, okay?”
“Look, you don’t have to get all defensive, alright?”
“Well if you want to hear me say something crazy, then here you go. In the future, if you want a Goth girlfriend with big boobs you can order one from a government program where they’re obligated to provide every military-aged male with a breeding partner. I’m from the underground Goth girlfriend resistance who sent me back in time to save all of my comrades from the horrible bondage of being sold into sex slavery to kissless neckbeards. Is that good enough for you?”
Calista shot an apologetic look to Nylvani, “Okay how about we just stick to figuring out which way we need to go.”
“Deal.”