Yggdrasil Fallen, LitRPG Series
Book 1, Part 1 Obsidian
Chapter 7: Disbelief
Andre shot bolt upright in his bed a chill from the cold room running across his skin; his blankets and sheets having been kicked off at some point in the night made worse by his cold sweat saturated clothes. Pulling off his shirt; it wetly plopped to the to the floor at his bedside. Grabbing his heavy comforter Andre wrapped the thick blanket around himself, desperate for some warmth.
“Holy shit, h…ho..holy” he gasped shuddering under his blanket, his skin so cold he could still feel the intense radiant heat from his dream.
“Did her realm… did it truly burn.. or was that just another dream? Does this truly mean I cannot return there; that that road is now fully clos……” He stopped for a moment, finally taking in his surroundings, the details from the prior night filtering in through his dream addled state.
“How… how did I end up in my bed…?”
“Having monitored your nocturnal habits, it would seem you have quite the sleepwalking habit, I might suggest a few changes to your routine to reduce such occurrences.” Came a chiming reply from ALIAS.
“Ah, you’re still here… I was mildly hoping you were just an auditory hallucination.” Andre paused a moment, noticing the sun poking out from behind the mountain range on the horizon.
“OH FUCK! What time is it!?!” Andre had been so absorbed by the dream he didn’t even think to check the time.
“The time is currently 8:53.” ALIAS responded.
“Almost 9?! DAMNIT I’m beyond late!” He flew out of bed, rushing to get himself ready for the day. Grabbing his phone, he realized he had 5 missed calls, and 20 text messages; each sent with increasing rage from Curtis. For the moment he knew he had to ignore them as he pulled on his jeans and flannel shirt. Racing out of his room and towards the front door he gazed longingly into his little kitchen.
“Damnit, I’m going to have to completely miss out on my morning coffee.” He quietly bemoaned as he pulled on his coat and boots. Sprinting out his front door and towards his truck, he felt his phone begin to buzz, looking at the caller he groaned:
“Here we go…”
“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!” Curt screamed into the phone at him as he answered.
“I overslept my alarms, I’m on the way to the site now; about 15 minutes out.” Andre lied through his teeth, hoping to calm Curts rage even a little bit.
“I’ll just add this to the long list of your recent fuckups! You’d best hurry your ass here, you have some serious explaining to do.”
Andre paused a moment, his mind running through the events of the previous day, focusing on the work he’d done; trying to figure out exactly what Curt could be talking about.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t play dumb with me!” Andre listened as he drew a long breath before continuing:
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with you but get your ass here and I’ll just have to show you exactly what I mean.”
The line went dead before Andre could say anything else.
“Well fuck, what a great way to kick things off as a new sub.” He muttered to himself.
25 minutes later he was skidding into the driveway in front of the cabin, having broken the speed limit by a significant margin to make the time he had. Curt was standing by the open tailgate of his truck, staring at him as he parked and climbed out of the cab.
“15 minutes huh? About damn time you decide to show up. You care to revise your story?”
“I swear man, I completely forgot to set my alarms last night.”
“Those kinds of mistakes happen; just know I won’t allow it again. Other jobs I’d let you subs manage your time the way you see fit, but for this job in particular time management is especially important, the clients up my ass. Especially with what you’ve done to the insides of this place.”
“With the help you sent over yesterday, and my buddy showing up in the afternoon, I’m way ahead of schedule, all goes well I should be able to have this gut job wrapped up in a week.” Andre paused, taking in the last of Curtis’s words.
“Wait, what do you mean with what I did to the insides? All we did was remove some of the walls outlined on the blueprints slated for demo…”
“While I’m pleased to hear that good news, we have to address this other point of concern. Follow me.” Curt led him through the front door and back to the Main Suite.
“Care to explain this to me?” Curt growled.
“What the hell happened there?!” Andre started, visibly panicked by the scorched line running across the floor.
“I was hoping you could tell me; I was thinking we could inspect your Sawzall to make sure it wasn’t throwing sparks or overheating. Though with the way things appear here, I’m leaning towards you stupidly using a torch to loosen the floorplates glue.” Curt had seized control of the conversation, leaving no room for Andre to interject. When he finished, Andre looked from the burn line to Curt and back again:
“But boss… there were no floorplates, in fact removing this wall was one hell of a weird experience.”
“No Floorplate? I guess with timber walls that would make sense.” He shook his head before continuing:
“How about you run me through everything that happened yesterday.” Andre proceeded to describe to Curt the events of the prior day: from removing all the furniture to how the walls seemed to collapse; crumpling in heaps of thick, vine-like material as he cut through them, all the while leaving out the less tangible experiences.
“Man, I really have absolutely no idea what happened here, I just used my Sawzall to start cutting the wall out at the bottom, though once I cut through the bottom of the timbers the tops just kind of crumpled to the floor.” ALIAS cut in, its voice reverberating through his head, feeling louder than before:
“Come now; You do actually have a thought on the matter, is there a reason you wish to conceal the truth?”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Shush now, I really don’t think Curt would even begin to believe any of this. He’d probably think I am just as crazy as I’m coming to believe myself to be.”
“Very well; though it may be prudent to inform some of your populace as to the reality of the world in which they reside.”
“Andre, are you ok there?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry Curt I was just lost in thought. Were you saying something?”
“Yeah, I could tell with how you were staring off into space. I was asking what exactly you meant by “Crumpled to the floor”. That’s not something timbers do.”
“I mean, I can show you if you want, everything should be in the dumpster where we tossed them!
“Fine, this is something I have got to see.” Curt gruffly replied. They made their way back outside to the dumpster where they found nothing but a large pile of white ashes.
“What in the actual fuck?!” Andre murmured, panic and dismay a building pressure in his chest.
“I-i-i s-s-swear there wasn’t even smoke coming from this thing when we left last night! Theres no way it could have burned!” He stuttered.
“Well, fires don’t start themselves! This dumpster full of ash is all the evidence I need to see you were doing something you really shouldn’t have been doing here yesterday” Curt growled, his face growing crimson as the rage built.
“Curt, you’ve worked with me long enough to know I wouldn’t do anything like what you’re thinking! Please give me another chance to prove it to you. I’d planned to clear out the kitchen area to open up into the dining room.” Andre pleaded to the older man.
“Fine, I’ll supervise this removal, if what you say about the timbers “collapsing” I’ll be more inclined to believe you. He replied, turning towards the front door.
“I’m going to grab my Sawzall and a battery pack from my van.” Andre replied, a tinge of relief flowing through him.
“Alright, but let’s be quick about it, I have places to be. I’m only here because you damn near burned down Silderson’s cabin and I’m pretty damn sure I’ll be firing you before I leave here today, so I’ll have to find your replacement as well.”
“I didn’t burn a damn thing!” Andre shouted at the closing front door, as he returned to his truck to gather a few tools.
“Ill show him, prove to him I’m not some incompetent moron!” He muttered.
5 minutes later both Curt and Andre were posted in front of the wall dividing the kitchen from the dining area.
“Ok, so yesterday, I started about here” Andre said, leveling his Sawzall on the first timber about the same height as he had cut into the wall in the Main Suite the afternoon prior.
“Then, when I cut through the timber… only it would crumple to the ground, like a thick vine instead of remaining standing in place” he continued, firing up the Sawzall to demonstrate. As his blade bit through the last of the first timber the wall began to shift; halting he stood, stepping back next to Curt to watch. Rather than crumpling to the floor, and much to Andres dismay the wall didn’t crumple to the floor, just shifted a bit, leaning towards where he had cut.
“Just crumpled to the floor eh? Come on man, did you really expect me to believe that story? Especially with the dumpster full of ash. Just admit you tried to speed up the process by burning it out, then burned the evidence to hide it.”
“I swear that’s not what we did!” Andre responded, panic creeping into his voice.
“Maybe I just didn’t cut it deep enough!” Crouching down he grabbed his Sawzall to keep cutting but before he could even put his finger to the trigger Curt cut in:
“Listen, I’ve had just about eno…..” In a dull flash, the cut timber exploded in a shower of hot ash and wood fragments, blasting the entire kitchen, covering both Jeff and Andre in ash and smoking shards. The stunned silence that followed seemed to drag on for an eternity. Breaking the silence; staring down at Andre with a mix of terror and shock plastered across his face Curt stammered:
“Wh.. w…wha….what the actual fuck just happened.” Andre, his hands and face stinging from the blast responded.
“I have absolutely no fucking clue.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Unaspected gift: “Sturdy” has boosted your physical durability far beyond the damage “Minor Living Wall Self-Detonation” would have inflicted in this instance. “Well Rested” Secondary effect has activated, and has begun repairing minor flash/bang injury to right retina. “Well Rested” Secondary effect has activated and has begun repairing flash/bang injury to right eardrum” ALIAS spoke smoothly.
“Wait, did you say, “Minor Living Wall Self-Detonation?!” Andre thought back, shocked not only by the quick activation of his recovery ability but also by how he felt no pain, having been so close to the blast.
“Query: “Minor Living Wall Detonation: Once Item: Living Wall has sustained critical damage, it will detonate in the direction of the damage inflicted; dealing damage equal to the amount of “Terra” aspected energy currently remaining within the item.”
“Huh, would have been nice to know that in advance. Why wasn’t that little description included last time I checked a Living Wall?”
“Through repeated investigations of any item, its’ descriptions will fill in additional details, to include any latent abilities they may have. This effect may also be enhanced, modified or augmented with an increase to the “INTELLIGENCE” Statistic.”
“Andre! Are you hurt?” Curt spoke again while lightly slapping Andre’s cheeks, breaking through his conversation with ALIAS.
“I don’t think so?”
“Ok… you staring off into space has me very worried. Let’s get out of here and into the sunlight so we can better check for any injuries.” Curt spoke, his voice steadying a bit; not seeming to have taken in the seriousness of what had just happened. Both of the men, stumbled towards the front door and out into the morning sun, struggling to grasp exactly what it was they had just experienced.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t cut any additional timbers!” Andre laughed attempting to levy the extremely tense air that had fallen despite them being out of the house.
“Not fucking funny kid. Really not fucking funny. Get over here and let me check you out, you were point blank on that shit. Then you can inspect me.” Looking over Andre’s neck and face Curt continued
“Not a fucking scratch or burn, are you made of steel or something?! As far away as I was, my hands and arms got burned.” He continued showing off the blistering red welts on his forearms and backs of his hands. “How’s my face look?”
“As ugly as the day you were born,” Andre shot back, before he had a chance to stop and think about what he was saying. They both stood there in silence with everything that just happened washing over them; when they just started laughing.
“Real funny you little shit but seriously, I’m damn sure my face got it pretty good. Andre took a good look over his boss before answering:
“Yeah man, you’ve got some decent burns on your forehead and left cheek; also…” He paused, reaching out he pulled a 2-inch splinter that had embedded itself near his jawline; “There’s this beast, you should probably get yourself to the ER, or should I call you an ambulance?” Curt paled:
“No, I don’t need an ambulance, and do you think I’m just going to leave you here?! We need to get a bomb squad up here!” he stammered out, his fear evidently taking him over.
“Who knows what else is in this place waiting to kill anyone who enters! You’re really fucking lucky that nothing like this happened yesterday.”
“Curt, you need to calm down, we’re out just fine. Plus I think cutting into the wall was what triggered whatever the hell that was. Just get yourself to the ER, and I’ll be right behind you.” Andre spoke, watching as Curt calmed down; his demeanor changing from panic to angry suspicion:
“The hell are you talking about? That timber didn’t explode until you knelt back down. Did you set all this up?” Curt accused.
“What reason could you possibly have for me to even think about doing something like that?!”
“How should I know! You caused this, and there’s not a scratch or burn on you! And now you’re trying to push me off this site! What are you hiding!” Curt screamed at him, getting louder and angrier with each statement. Gesturing to himself in a general manner, Andre screamed back; the fear and stress finally getting to him:
“I was RIGHT up on that wall when it exploded! I’ve got more scorch marks and holes in my clothes than you’ve got brains in your head!
“Then why do you have no burns or splinters imbedded in you!” Andre stopped and just stared Curt down, not really knowing what to say. He didn’t want to mention his conversation with ALIAS, or how his “Sturdy” unaspected gift had completely protected him from harm. As though summoned ALIAS chimed:
“”Well Rested” secondary effect terminated: Right Retina has been fully restored. “Well Rested” secondary effect terminated: Right Eardrum has been fully restored.”
“Oh shut up, learn to read the room.” Andre shot back to ALIAS in his mind.
The tense silence that followed between them only lasted thirty seconds but seemed to drag on longer than the droning of biologist lecturing on the life cycle of a slug. Finally drained and dazed; the adrenaline having fully left him Curt spoke:
“I guess you’re right… after all… that I am a bit more inclined to believe your story… this shit…” He paused to gently rub his hand over his balding singed head.
“It really does not matter now, we both need to get medical attention, just because you look ok doesn’t mean you actually are. Are you ok to drive?” He finished.
“Yeah man, I’ll be right behind you! Just get yourself to the clinic.” Curt staggered off towards his truck; Andre watching as he climbed in and pulled away. Walking towards his own van he paused, looking back towards the open door of the cabin.
“Just what is the deal with this place?” He pondered as he slid into the driver’s seat.