The reddened baseball bat leaned up against the side of the bathtub, seeming to stare at me as I cleaned the laundry basket. Wiping the outside of the basket with the same bit of wet toilet paper I'd used on the bat, I managed to clean off the rufous residue from the wicker.

Objective for "Blood on the Carpet" Complete

Remove the Bloodstains from the Washing Basket (2/2)

Jamming the baseball bat into my inventory, I wandered out of the bathroom, brandishing a wad of toilet paper, as I headed toward the apartment stairwell. As I passed by the kitchen, Jenny saw me walking toward the door.

"Going somewhere?" She asked.

"Just feel like getting a breath of fresh air," I said. "That's all."

As I stepped outside of the apartment, I approached the cigarette-laden stairwell. It took me a moment to find the tiny bit of spittle that had left my mouth only moments earlier. I knelt down to wipe it up. What a massive waste of time, I thought to myself.

Objective for "Blood on the Carpet" Complete

Wipe up your Spit from the Stairwell (1/1)

Great. That was totally worth the effort.

As I wandered back up the stairwell, I looked over the balustrade down at the parking lot. There was no sign of Leo. He came back pretty late most nights, although I guess "late" was pretty subjective nowadays. By the time he was back, Jenny would've probably left for her shift at the Royal. That was how it was for both of them. It was pretty straining on both of them, but they seemed to be weathering the storm for now. I don't know how they did it - but they managed, somehow.

I left the stairwell, walking back toward the apartment. At the far end of the walkway, a woman stared out at the night sky, smoking as she stared up at the sky - a screaming child audible through the open door of her apartment. I knew her; she was the one that had left most of the cigarette butts around here. Someday, I'd probably grow enough of a spine to tell her to at least get an ashtray, but that day probably wouldn't come any time soon.

As I stepped inside my apartment, I closed the door behind me, throwing the little bit of paper waste into the kitchen bin. Wandering out of her room, Jenny had gotten dressed into some black work slacks.

"I'm headed out," Jenny said, as she stormed off to work. "I'm taking your car tonight."

I glanced into my inventory, reaching for the keys.

Items Retrieved

1 Set of Keys

"Sure," I said, throwing them over to her. "Take care of her."

"You should probably try that yourself sometime," Jenny replied snarkily, snatching the keys from the air as she exited the apartment. Sometimes, I wondered whether Jenny let me stay here just so she could borrow the car.

Wandering over to the tea jar, I took the spare door keys from inside, and stowed them in my inventory. I was alone once more. Still hungover and tired from last night, I flopped down onto the couch after that, picking up my beer from the table and taking a sip from it. As I sat on the couch, bored, I lazily opened my stat menu.

Oscar McAllister

Spectrotacher (Spirit Scout)

Level 4 - 763 EXP to Next Lvl.

██████████ 105/107 HP

██████████ 101/101 MP

██████████ 114/114 SP

STATS

STR (Strength): 10 DEX (Dexterity): 10 AGI (Agility): 13 INT (Intellect): 11 CHA (Charisma): 12 WIS (Wisdom): 7 MTL (Mettle): 8 LUK (Luck): 10

ABILITIES

Spirit (1/8)

Fade Step (Level 1)

Sometimes I felt like the stat window was a bit of a backhanded slap to the face. Looking at that Wisdom stat always made me feel like a dipstick, and as much as it offended me, it only really hurt that much because I knew it was probably true. I once slipped a disc doing a keg-stand in the back of a moving ute. Needless to say, I was not at all surprised by the system's declaration that I was likely a dumb-ass.

Looking closer at my stats, I noticed that I'd levelled up a fair bit from killing that monster. It had taken me nearly most of my adult life to get to level 3, and I'd jumped to level 4 in a day. If I'd known what Level 4 would've taken though, I probably would've been happy just waiting. My Agility had gone up a bit, as well as my Health, Stamina, and definitely my Mana. For starters, actually having a mana bar was a marginal improvement.

For most of my life, my mana bar had been a measly 1/1. That wasn't exactly something I was particularly proud of.

As I sat staring at the stat screen, I took another sip of my beer. The numbers really didn't mean much to me. All I knew was that ten was the baseline. Beyond that, and I was a complete novice to the world system. I never quite cared all that much about it anyway. Leo was more into that side of things, numbers and all that shit. Made sense I guess.

I closed the stat menu, as I stared blankly across the room, taking a big swig out of the beer can. As I sat on the lounge, alone in the darkness, I pulled out my phone. "Missed Call: Mum (2)". The message still stared at me. Considering the fact that I'd almost died today, I guess I at least owed her a phone call.

I dialled the number; it didn't pick up. I guess she'd call me back anyway. Sometimes, I wished I could give up all of this and just go back home, and just talk to her myself - but I couldn't bring myself to do that. Not yet, anyway. I'd told my mum I wouldn't come home until I'd made something of myself. She'd spent an awful long time waiting. As I waited for her to call me back, I took the television remote from the table and turned it on, vacantly staring at the flickering of the television screen - waiting for her answer.

***

The sound of the door opening came before the sound of the phone call. As Leo stepped into the apartment, he took his shoes off at the door, before sitting down next to me.

"What are we watching?" He asked.

"Some anime series that was in my recommended," I replied. "Dunno what it was called, wasn't really watching it."

In the world of the screen, some misproportioned hero lifted a massive sword - bringing it down against the gleaming axe of a villainous looking woman wearing a strange lace dress. Out here though, in the real world, there was no heroes or villains - just two dudes who'd seen hell and back sitting on the couch, trying to forget about it all.

"This looks like shit," he said abruptly.

"Probably is," I replied. "I wasn't really watching it, so I wouldn't know."

As I paused the show, the two characters were left motionless in a blade lock as they stared into one another's eyes. I turned my attention away from the TV, and looked over at Leo.

"Are we going to... like, talk about what happened today?" I asked.

"I don't like talking about work," Leo replied. "I'm sure you can guess why."

I was about to press play and continue the show, but as I stared at the flickering lights of the show, I summoned up the courage and put the remote down.

"Leo, I have to ask you something," I said.

He sighed, as he looked over at me. I could see in his eyes a sense of frustration, but also a sense of worry, as his languid gaze seemed to stare straight through me - as if constantly trained to keep a watch on the world around him.

"What is it?" He asked.

I stammered as I tried to string my thoughts together.

"Leo, I almost died in there," I began. "I almost died... and I probably would've if I hadn't awakened. I know you apologised for being late, but I was counting on you, Leo..."

"I'm sorry, Oscar," Leo said.

Looking over at the TV, the characters frozen in time, I flicked off the screen. I wasn't going to go back to it anyway. As I switched it off, I sat back in the couch - taking the final swig from the beer can and polishing it off.

"It made me think, Leo," I said. "How many people have died... how many people were you too late to save?"

Leo didn't answer. Whatever the number was, it was high enough that he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud. I continued.

"Your job isn't to save people," I said. "You're just there to clean up the mess, aren't you?"

"We do what we can," Leo said.

It was a vague answer, but one that gave me a glimpse inside the horrors of his world - albeit for a moment. I could see it in his eyes as I said it. The sorrowful look as he thought about what I'd said, as his mind lingered on my words. I sat back in the couch, retrieving the last few beers from my inventory, passing one across to Leo.

Items Retrieved

2 Beer Cans

"Here," I said. "I think we probably need them."

"Thanks," Leo replied, as he took the beer can.

With a hiss, I opened my beer can, taking a sip from it. Leo did the same. As we sipped on our respective beers, they helped to wash down the heavy conversation.

"Hey Leo," I asked. "I was wondering about awakening... How does the awakening spirit decide what powers you get, anyway?"

Leo stared blankly at the empty television screen, putting his hand against his chin and thought about it.

"It reads the intentions of your heart in the moment of need, from what I've read," Leo replied. "Why do you ask?"

I thought back to the moment I awakened. Every fibre of my being had told me to turn and run for my life, and though I'd told the spirit I wouldn't fade into the background to save my own skin, it saw through my lie - and gave me the ability to do just that. That moment of weakness would forever define my power. The spirit had read me like a book.

"I guess I just wanted to know," I answered.

As the two of us slowly drank our cans of beer, Leo flicked back on the television, the two anime characters continuing their lengthy battle on the screen. The show might've been trash, but it was a welcome distraction from whatever conversation that the awkward silence could draw out of us.

We drank together, yet we remained despairingly alone with our thoughts.