I struggled to get myself together. First, I took a mental inventory. [Mechanical Hades Crown] had enough souls for a few [Empowerment]s. My boots were still tied and served as a buffer between me and a slick looking floor. Twisting my feet either way failed to get a response.

The ARC interface was in operation, but it kept flickering out. Everything else about the game world started fading in time. Both weapons refused to shift into new shapes I felt almost plain.

“ARC,” I shouted.

“Awaiting input,” its voice dragged as if the battery was dying.

My face went through a series of motions trying to figure out if that was good or bad. It responded, which meant something. ARC devices all over were in need of constant repair as the system errors became more obvious. Maybe mine had finally conked out. Could I be trapped in here?

The hallway turned darker with each step forward. An old fashioned light bulb swung above my head and it powered on at random intervals. Every time the light came on, it clicked. The thin metal chain with a wire woven through only served to make the setting worse. I looked for my message box to Xin and watched in growing panic as the box vanished every time the ceiling light went out.

“Awesome,” I muttered dryly. My heartbeat started thumping as the clicking kept me company. This was a video game. This was only a video game.

I took another few steps toward a second light in the distance. A table sat at the end of a narrowing hallway and atop the ratty looking surface was a torn lampshade with dull yellow ambiance. Both Morrigu weapons refused to shift shape, leaving me with two small looking sticks with hooks on the end.

It didn’t matter, I had played this game long enough to use any weapon at hand, especially when the rules for this Island were inconsistent with everything else. This disconnect from the normal motions of a virtual world felt familiar.

Stepping forward was easier but the air became heavy in exchange. Each breath felt like taking in a heavy fog laced with musk. The sound of air passing out became amplified.

I continued forward while trying to remember my wife’s words. Move only forward. Be like Orpheus and don’t dare look back. The walls grew closer together while the ceiling up above distorted out of place. The light I had been wandering toward started to flicker in time with the first one. They both pulsed and clicked.

I came around the corner with [Morrigu’s Gift] raised, ready to club a monster, but instead found nothing aside from a long stretching hallway. Halfway down sat two doors. One laid open a few inches. The room beyond was dark and shadowy.

Further ahead sat a window to the outside. Lightning flashed where there had been zero stormy weather before. I crept down the hallway; sure something was going to jump out and try to eat my face at any moment.

“I’m on your side?” I whispered while feeling uncertain.

The door to my right creaked on rusty hinges. My eyes drifted to the barely visible room in search of movement. Two sharp raps came from behind instead causing me to jump and turn around. The handle on the closed door to my right turned slowly.

I readied both weapons in case a fight would break out. Even though they were only foot long sticks I planned on beating something to death. The door knocked again, softer this time.

There was a rattle of chains behind me. I looked away at the wrong moment. The closed door opened rapidly into a deep dark room which the faint hallway light couldn’t penetrate. Two impossibly long arms with clawed hands shot out. They latched on to me before I could react.

My feet tried to dig in but they pulled tighter. A thin bony looking body pulled its way out the more I resisted. The smell of dead fish and bathroom rot assaulted me and my stomach twisted.

I tried to fight the hands off but failed. They were overpowering, or my [Brawn] amounted to nothing. It, whatever it was, pulled me back into the dark formerly closed room and additional hands grabbed on. There was a squelching noise as my arms popped. Sharp pain overrode sense and red laced unstable vision. The urge to throw up hit me while both eyes closed.

Then the pain stopped. I felt myself upright once more. Gravity pulled in the correct direction and pressure against both shoes felt normal. I gradually opened my eyes and looked around. There was no game over message or player death notification.

Hecate: Gee? Gee, are you okay?

The message flickered in and out as the starting hallway light flashed above me. Somehow I had been sent back to the beginning.

“ARC?” I asked again.

“Awaiting-" it sounded worse than before and couldn’t even finish the response line.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down my heart. It raced from the sensation of being ambushed then having limbs torn off. Virtual reality sometimes reached a level of too real, and this macabre landscape of a twisted house certainly was interactive.

Fingers swiftly reached out to type a response to my wife. The touch keyboard would only accept a few buttons before everything wavered out. Stifled messages got through with less grace than I might hope.

Hermes: No! thi

Hermes: s plac

Hermes: Fuc it

Hecate: ??? Be careful! I hear people fighting, I think Dusk is nearby. And that demon brother of yours. My skeletons aren’t working right either.

Hermes: Be saf

Reading her response took at least four clicks of the light. I heard a hiss of noise behind me and turned, worried another creature might leap out of shadows and dismember me. Nothing happened and I sighed.

Dance music fluttered through. The calming tempo of a waltz helped. I remembered my wife’s lips and smile. Hopefully, the place she ended up didn’t involve this sort of horror show.

Feet moved forward once more. The desk lamp at the corner hall flickered in time. Every time lights went out the room felt a bit distorted. I walked past the two doorways with my weapons ready. No knocking came forth until I reached the window.

Spider webs sat in opposite corners of the frame. Dust lined the sill. I looked outside and saw a landscape illuminated. There was a tree, and in it sat a single black bird with a massive moon serving as the backlight.

The bird squawked loudly and ruffled its feathers. Lightning flashed again then the reflection of myself took over. I stared at the man. Paler skin than normal dragged downward like melting clay. Black eyes were nearly comical buttons.

“What’s going on?” the man who almost looked like me asked.

My head shook back and forth but looking away felt impossible. The man in the mirror twisted with an ugly expression. One hand lifted with a jagged looking [Morrigu’s Gift]. The frightening doppelganger started shouting and lights swirled. Lightning curled along dense clouds outside. Thunder rattled the frame as he swung.

Feet hit the room's back end and I quickly looked around. There were no places to escape to. A second bolt of lightning flared as the window shattered towards me sending shards all across the room. Both hands went up in front of me to ward off some damage. The pain was intense, and looked up to find myself once again reset.

I tried again but ignored both doors and the window. There was a small opening hallway with a decrepit recliner sitting on the right. I eyed both of them as the lights clicked out. The small alcove went dark and the furniture moved.

I backed up and the light clicked out again. This time, when it came back on the small couch and recliner were closer and had wide open mouths displaying between cushions. I readied my weapon and the light went out again. My arms started whacking again but failed to fend off all of them. Teeth tore into exposed flesh and soon I was standing back at the beginning hallway, shaking with fear and anger.

Both shoulders lowered as I let out a scream powerful enough to strain my neck. “Dammit!” This whole situation was frustrating beyond belief.

The fourth time through I tried to sprint down the hallway for the door on the other side. I intended to bypass every single scary spot and stop paying attention to the wrong portions of this house. There had to be an outside, bedroom, garage, or anything new.

As I neared the far end of the hallway a black mass descended and pulled me up. The motion was so fast that all I felt was a sudden thud as force attempted to drag me through the ceiling. My digital flesh screamed in pain and discomfort as the house won and I felt the ARC feedback twist my perceptions into a flat pancake.

It kept going. Each repetition brought some new jump scare and another death. I started to wonder how many ways this building could end a life. Whose insane idea had this been? What was the point other than making it to the other side?

On the next lap through I died from the walls closing in. Beating on them with my restricted versions of the Morrigu weapons did no good. When the world came to, I was back at the start again. How many laps had that been? My health bars were gone. Only the heavy weight to every part of my body provided any indication of my time. The ARC clock kept fading out. Outside in the real world, it was near eleven at night.

I didn’t care anymore. No matter what happened they shoved me back to the beginning. Everything that happened served as a creepy jump scare. These clammy fingers, wet sounds and strings of spider web or filthy hair against my face. All of it was designed to scare the heck out of me.

The first few times worked. Now I was just pissed. This place kept sending me in circles and subjecting me to painful game deaths. I didn’t even have the comfort of most ARC limitations on feedback since starting this stupid event. Everything hurt more than normal. Only the knowledge that my physical body remained unharmed gave me the willpower to move forward. That and Xin.

I stomped down the hallway with both weapons out and proceeded to break everything that looked remotely threatening. [Morrigu’s Echo] slammed into the desk lamp. Electricity sparked across the floor and fire licked up one side of the room.

Knocking came from the door on my right. I turned and kicked it open with my shoe and proceeded to start swinging before the hands reached out. There was a growl of something from behind which latched onto one flailing arm while the other creature got my legs. My body hung suspended between their hands and I saw the edge of that strange female figure draped in stringy hair. Her impossibly long arms and sharp teeth only aggravated me further.

“Fuck you, lady!” My face dripped with cold sweat. “I’m trying to help this stupid place!”

Hands clasped across my mouth and I bit down hard. It yelped with a confused squeal and one of the arms holding my shoulder let go. I twisted rapidly then got an arm loose and started banging away at her head. The monster’s nails dug into my flesh but I didn’t care anymore. This disturbing game had pushed me far enough.

“Stop, getting, in, my way!” I yelled while slamming [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] down repeatedly. Fingers tore into my back. Overwhelming strength grabbed at legs. The face being beaten looked wounded and confused but I kept smashing even as the other one rent me limb from limb.

Then it started over. An aftertaste of rotten fish hung in my mouth. I started spitting and trying to wipe the gross paste or blood off on my toga.

“Oh my god,” I said while trying not to throw up. That had been one of the more disturbing things I had ever done, ever. Biting that grimy horror story character ranked up there with crawling inside a giant space eel’s anus to blow it up.

However, all the items which I had destroyed now looked exactly the same as they had the first time. The light clicked above me as it swayed. My distorted shadow danced wildly as I smashed into the bulb.

Clicking stopped as the hallway went dark. The silence comforted me. All that remained was the sound of deep slow breaths and a fuzzy pale light at the hallways corner.

I took time to right myself then started walking again. One spot had been conquered with two dozen more to go. I planned to stomp every single spot that had scared the daylights out of me than fight with all of them. As Wraith had confirmed, I wasn’t the scared little wimp anymore.

My other options were limited and puzzles were difficult. There could have been hidden clues in the walls or paintings or inside cabinets. Patience and time were not on my side. I tried to yank out a shelf under the desk lamp but found nothing but gibberish numbers scribbled in red paste. The drawer was slammed shut. I yanked the entire desk off the ground and heaved it down the hallway where it shattered into pieces. Lightning illuminated the path, and it looked like the edge of a chair had crept away from the wreckage. Perhaps it was frightened by my rampage.

This place was creepy and kept sneaking up on me, but it wouldn’t win. I had lived the last moments of a server legend. My efforts brought a war between kingdoms to a halt. I had trekked across the stars and fought an army to rescue my wife. Prison didn’t stop me, undead zombies eating each other didn’t stop me, and a nightmare only pissed me off.

Other noises filled the hallways. Whispering came from a vent as I walked by. The sound reminded me of a madman raving while some bird cawed in the background. Their noises went back and forth as I moved past the two doorways. One sat boarded up with caution tape and looked flat. The sight of this strange hallway admitting defeat made me happy.

Four more laps saw me destroying random pieces of the room. Each one shut down one of the places that had killed me before. This program apparently didn’t like me beating the crap out of it.

On the next lap, I arrived at the window to confront the reflection of myself. The other me stood there with eyebrows knitted together, one lip being chewed and a wrinkled forehead. Fog formed around where his fingers pressed against the glass.

“What’s going on!” I shouted at the other man.

He drew backward and looked confused. Its arms came up and prepared to break through. My teeth ground together and shoulders hunched tightly. One foot pressed against the nearby back wall for extra force. I dove through the window, ignoring the pain of glass tearing at my skin, and tried to claw at the other man.

A bright flash of light came from inside as the desk lamp overloaded. Thunder sounded throughout the hall and walls rattled. A bird’s cawing could be heard.

The world reset before I could get to the doppelganger and end his mocking existence. Heavy gasps came as the pain from leaping through a glass windowpane faded. My head hurt.

My head hung back as I walked forward again. Down the hall I went, past the lights which flickered in unison all the way to the alcove with furniture. I smashed the chairs without pause then stared absently at a bookshelf.

A small man hung onto to the wooden ledge at eye level. He couldn’t have been more than four inches tall. His feet kicked wildly while he looked around with a panicked expression. I put my hand under him and lifted the person to a higher shelf. He took no note of the hand helping him and ran for a back corner of the bookshelf and looked around wildly.

I knew that man or at least the situation. He was one of the people that superheroes could rescue in that other game. Progress Online? Either way, getting him off the ledge felt like the right thing to do. I had no idea why an augmented reality feature had shown up in Continue Online.

Maybe this wasn’t Continue anymore. Maybe I really had walked into another space between virtual reality settings. This place did remind me of the [Mistborn]’s tower. Feet slowly stepped toward the next room and lightning flashed yet again.

When I could see, the ARC program had placed me back at the start.

There was no energy left to scream. My eyes hung heavy and head still pounded. I leaned to one side and started rubbing stiff muscles and hoping for relief.

Hecate: Gee? Are you okay?

Hermes: no. stuck in hel

Hermes: Not getti

Hermes: anywhere atall

The game kept removing my interface in time with the light above. Every time the system display returned the chat box had reset and any partial message was lost.

I walked down the hallway again. Both rooms were boarded up. The crushed items from before had taken on a new tougher coloring. I debated the challenge than simply kept walking. Maybe the game was trying to test my persistence and not rage.

The window flashed, and my strange twin no longer hung there. Instead, the huge moon lit up a large world outside. This location appeared to overlook the ocean just beyond a sheer cliff. One lone tree hung on an outcropping with the bird cawing.

I stared. The bird's head, which had to be hundreds of feet away, slowly turned. Both red eyes gleamed like lasers or jewels. Lightning flashed again. The bird's face appeared right outside the window. Huge feathers ruffled as it shook.

“Never mind!” it shouted.

“Voices!” I blurted as my mind went blank with horror.

One hand when to my forehead while the other banged on a wall to release frustration. That scared me enough for my balls to shrink up. My voice was high pitched and the thumping heartbeat refused to calm down. This place was seriously starting to stress me out, and for the first time in a long while, I wanted a drink. However, I had sworn off that vice.

The giant raven tilted its head to peer through the glass. Its orbs locked onto my form. Quickly the beast jerked its head back. Sharp jabs of its beak started cracking the glass.

“Go away!” I waved [Morrigu’s Gift] at it.

Its head tilted at an odd angle. The raven cried out, “Never!”

I gulped. First animated furniture, voices from vents, monsters in the ceiling and side rooms. Now a dark bird with eyes that burned red seemed intent upon resetting me back to the hallway's beginning. I looked in both directions to figure out which way might lead to an escape.

The raven hopped on one claw and hooked its thin beak through the hole. An absolutely huge claw burst through the wall taking out portions of the window and frame. Debris crumpled and groaned while I tried to get away. Rubble pressed around me as the four dusty orange claws clenched together.

“What?” I shouted.

The bird proved far larger than expected. Its slick feathers puffed slightly and the immensity doubled. This raven started Dusk sized then became a thirty-foot tall nightmare. Giant wings fluttered and the world jerked sideways. The hallway fell apart behind me as we traveled up into the air.

My fist waved but without my abilities, it was impossible to get a good purchase. All the coordination points in the world meant nothing when the virtual world chose not to care.

“What? Where the hell are you taking me!” I shouted while trying to find an escape. The bird was big enough to ignore my badly angled slams with [Morrigu’s Echo].

“Never mind!” shouted the raven.

“You never mind!”

“Never!” Our altitude dipped as it squawked out the word.

I looked down at the ground below. My former bit of hell was only one part of a huge mansion that sat on top of a hillside. I could see an inner courtyard of some sort. Xin’s body fluttered around swinging the skeleton staff at creatures. Nearby were Dusk and Wraith, both fighting alongside her. Steam and flame were tossed around as weird barely discernible monsters mobbed them.

“Put me down!” I demanded. “I have to help them!”

“Never mind!”

“Damn it!”

The bird kept flying and each additional caw thereafter sounded like mocking laughter. I tried not to freak out about the shrinking world below and worried about my wife and Dusk. We traveled over land and sea. ARC interface boxes remained missing.

A cold sea below lapped wildly as wind danced along its surface. The black bird carrying me demonstrated indifference and kept going until another island appeared. This one jutted into the air like a flat-topped tower in the crashing sea. Twisted trees battered down by sea winds wove their roots through the island's exposed edges.

The bird carried me closer. Small gray spots grew in size as we approached. Statues of all sorts lined the island. In between them were thin flat bricks. My mouth went dry at the sight of a virtual graveyard.

The claw let loose. I and pieces of the broken hallway wall tumbled to the ground. My body broke upon a sharp gravestone's corner. Eyes crossed while my chest struggled to take in air.

I flopped to the side then stared upwards at a shorter statue. The worn carving depicted an angelic woman cradling a bundle of cloth. My eyesight fell down to the epithet carved into stone.

Here lies Xin Yu,

And her unborn child

They are missed

I sat there blinking fast. Water flooded my face. The sea spray washing through only accounted for some of it. This was the gravestone I couldn't bring myself to buy. Xin’s body had been cremated, not buried, despite her father’s wishes.

I coughed then sniffed. Physical pain from the recent events had worn me down once again, as everything in Continue Online seemed hell-bent on doing. What was it about this game that stripped away my defenses until only raw emotion remained?

“This is only a game,” I said while closing both eyes. The ARC interface would come up if I demanded it. Escape, however desired, couldn’t solve this situation. It wouldn’t bring me any closer to Yates and the third part of this forsaken quest.

I could log out, or [Recall] back to [Haven Valley]. Then I could summon Xin and let her escape. This place, this world torn to shreds by a deletion program could not be allowed to turn into a mass graveyard.

My head lifted. There were hundreds of gravestones, maybe thousands. The longer I sat on this island the wider its surface started to appear. Was there a grave for everyone? Had it been a coincidence that the raven dropped me in front of one for my wife?

Other people appeared as I stared across the landscape. They were ghostly creatures who wept in sorrow over different tombs. Their bodies faded in and out as I watched, soundless but clearly in grief.

I looked down and noticed a plain looking shovel a few feet away. Wrapped around its top was a tattered parchment that flapped in the breeze. I grabbed the implement then unrolled its attachment.

Thy soul did find itself alone

'Mid dark halls and gray tomb-stone

For thou who sought far shores for gain,

Seek thee still? Then ‘ware the pain

My forehead wrinkled and teeth gnawed at a lip. Something thudded once and the ground moved. There was another thud, followed by another until a rhythmic pulsing started. The ground beneath my wife’s virtual grave glowed slightly with a golden aura. The hint was clear enough, a shovel, and the grave. I started digging. The first scoop hurt like being poked by a sharp nail.

The back to back stimulus had turned my mind to mush. How long had I wandered the hallway? How long had I been carried over the ocean? Was this a real ARC program, or a fever dream? There were too many questions.

“This is only a game,” I muttered while working.

“Never!” the large bird cawed. I saw it hopping around on an ever wider island of graves. Its feathers fluffed and wicked red eyes gleamed.

I longed for Dusk to leap in from nowhere then barbeque this annoying bird. He did not, and I didn’t feel completely confident killing it myself. There was always the possibility that I might be reset back to the hallway.

The shovel moved under my guidance and relocated dirt to one side. With each jab of earth my chest thumped with pain. Dirt flew onto a pile as I kept going down. The pulse of a heartbeat sounded louder with each scoop to be tossed aside. Until, an unknown amount of time later, there was a solid thump as I tried to sink in the sharpened edge.

I cleared a space off the top half of my discovery. Under the statue of an angle and babe was a coffin. I creaked off the top, hoping that this psychological nightmare might end, only to find the container was empty. I sat there with one arm strained to keep the lid up and wavering badly.

“You would risk so much for the stuff of dreams?” a male voice spoke from behind me and sounded confused. “As mad a soul as the rest of us, it seems.”

I didn’t turn around but sat there staring at the unearthed object. There should be a body there, but Xin wasn’t dead anymore. Not inside the digital box. I looked around for my screens, the only items which separated this ARC born world from reality, and found they were still missing.

“She’s not here,” I said, feeling confused. The lid fell shut and slammed. Dirt went everywhere. My toes felt dry and cold. “Who are you?”

“Who am I?” He was confused that I needed to ask. “Beware asking for names. They are symbols and a token.”

I didn’t understand at all what his response had to do with this situation. How could a name be a token? My eyes closed briefly as I tried to let the lingering ARC feedback fade.

“Never mind!” screeched the raven.

The other man standing above me wore a robe much like William Carver's. He looked nearly as old but far wilder. Hair went everywhere in ways that William Carver could only have dreamed of. He held a book under one arm that looked familiar.

The giant bird had hopped over and stared at the hole. It started pecking random tombstones. Whomever the wild hair man was scowled then waved off the bird.

“Curse you! Show the dead respect!” The unknown man waved an arm wildly. Shadows moved at strange angles. Some crawling along the ground toward the bird.

“Never!” the raven repeated before pecking some poor soul’s grave. Regardless of its protests, something about the moving shadows caused it to be wary. It eyed me as if I might be stabbed next by that wicked beak then flew off in a brush of giant wings.

The man shook his head and sighed before looking at me. “Welcome, Grant Legate to a heart of the other world. I am Yates, and I am the last true founder of this beautiful nightmare.”

My eyes slowly blinked. Eventually, it dawned on me, Michelle, or M. Shell, said Yates liked poetry. What poems inspired all this madness? And how, by all the Voices, did he start this mess?