It was an incessant rubbing and tugging at her chest that finally brought Rebecca back to her senses. Disorientated, her first thought was to look around – she was now sitting upright in the far corner of the bathroom, leaned up against someone – and then to look down, where she was flabbergasted to find her shirt unbuttoned, her bra tugged up, and someone else’s hand wrapped around her breasts kneading them endlessly. “Wha.. wha… wha…” She was so shocked and trembled so hard she couldn’t seem to get anything out.

“Shut it and deal with it,” Matthew answered from behind her, as he continued to stoke and caress her chest. “You’ll get used to it, or else.” His voice was a gruff growl whispered into her ear.

“Or... Orr… Or else what?” Stammering, Rebecca felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“Or else I’ll let you go, go my own way without you, and you’ll either end up dead or much worse off,” Matthew answered as he softly blew into her ear. Almost too soft to hear, he gently added, “I think you’ve seen enough to know that something not normal is going on around her, right?”

Cold chills running up and down her spine, Rebecca stared up toward the stalls, mesmerized by the stream of green-tainted water that slowly ran out from under them and towards the drain in the middle of the room. Slowly, swallowing deeply, she finally let her arms go limp and hand at her sides one more as tears began to flow freely down her face. “Wha.. what’s going on?”, she whispered, not certain if she actually wanted to know the answer.

“The game’s on,” Matthew told her, with a half chuckle. “I told you before, the gods play games with the fate of the world. The last time they played, most of the games took place in battles like the Roman Colosseums, or the Minotaur Lair. Man verses man. Man verses beast. Beast verses beast. It was all one giant set of contests that everyone participated in – many whether they wanted to or not. The gods held their competitions and through their champions rise and fall, they grew in power or perished.

“Well, I don’t think perish is the proper term, since the gods themselves didn’t die or anything,” Matthew corrected. “They simply lost the game and were forced to sit out and not interfere until they played again. The Babylonian gods, Greek gods, Norse gods, Roman gods --- all of them, one by one, they lost and were forced to leave the world as we know it. And, when it was all over, the One True God was declared the winner and got to play with the world however he wanted.”

Laughing lightly, Matthew slowly shook his head from side to side as he suddenly gave a tight squeeze on Rebecca’s breasts that made her inhale deeply to keep from crying out. “And want to know what happened after that?”, Matthew asked suddenly, and then answered before Rebecca had a chance to say anything. “Just like a little kid whose friends have gone and left them all alone to their toys, He was bored and didn’t want to play with them anymore. Sure, he might pick up something shiny and play with it for a bit – like Hitler – but in the long run, it’s just no fun playing by yourself, even if you are a god.

“But that’s all over now,” Matthew assured her, as he slowly released his death grip on her chest.

“How… How do you know?” Rebecca asked, voice quivering slightly, as she tried to blink away her tears.

“Because the new games have begun. It’s time for a rematch, and the world is the game board once again,” Matthew replied.

“But… how do you know?” Rebecca asked once again.

“Because I’ve been playing the game for a while now,” Matthew answered, as he chuckled bitterly and then gave her a push forward and away from him. “I’ve been stuck in this god forsaken reality for the past couple of years already, and nobody would believe me,” he snarled bitterly. “I’ve been trying to warn everyone, and they just claim I’m crazy!”

Taking the opportunity to scurry away, Rebecca crawled over to the other corner of the room. Clenching both halves of her unbuttoned shirt tightly together with one hand, she finally turned to stare at Matthew as she wiped her eyes with her other hand.

“Might as well let go of that,” Matthew chuckled, as he pointed with a single finger towards her chest. “I’m going to be doing a lot more than just looking at those, you know,” he told her matter-of-factly. “In fact, you might as well take those off. I’ll give you something different to wear in a few moments.”

“Ta… Take them off?” Bewildered, Rebecca shook her head from side to side and clutched both arms tightly around her chest. “I… I don’t think so!”

“You will,” Matthew assured her with a shrug, “or else you’ll probably die. I’m not going to force you to do anything, but we’re going to work up an agreement between ourselves or else we’re going to end up going our separate ways and I’ll go out and try and find Kristy. There’s no guarantee that she’s dead already. After all, it’s only been the first wave.”

“Agreement? Dead? First wave?” Rebecca’s mind was awash in questions, as she tried to make sense of what he was telling her. “What type of agreement do you think we’re going to make,” she finally asked, as she came to the conclusion that dealing with Matthew here was her first and foremost worry, and then she could deal with whatever was going outside of the room after.

“We’ve screwed ourselves,” Matthew told her, ignoring her answer and seemingly staring off into space once again, as he stared vacantly at nothing that Rebecca could see. “The gods like games,” Matthew chuckled slightly to himself, “and mankind was stupid enough to start trying to invent our own games. We couldn’t stick with the classics like chess, checkers, or cards. We had to push the envelope and every few years there was a new generation of games released – each one an improvement over the previous generation.”

Chuckling bitterly to himself, Matthew asked, “Can there be any doubt that the gods watched us, grew interested, and decided that this time they’d settle the next round of their endless competition with the games we created ourselves?”

“What are you talking about,” Rebecca asked, not being able to follow Matthew’s rambling explaination. If anything, she felt she was more confused now than she’d ever been.

“I’m talking about Final Fantasy! Dragon Quest! Zelda! All those endless role playing games that we made and put out on the market! The gods saw those, and now that’s The Game that we’re stuck in,” Matthew yelled as he slammed his fist helplessly against the wall. “I’m talking about those type of stupid games. That’s our reality now. At least it is, if we want to survive.”

As she stared wild eyed at her, Rebecca felt like screaming and running away – even though she knew the door was locked leading outside. “So.. Our reality is a game now?” She asked, just to have something to say and to perhaps get Matthew to calm down once again. “Wha.. What makes you say that? I don’t see anything game-like yet, except for whatever that was in the stall.”

“Gibberling,” Matthew answered reflexively.

“Gibber what?” Rebecca repeated, blinking a few times as she glanced back towards the stall once again.

“Gibberling. They’re fey from Irish folklore. Children of Loki, or some such thing. I don’t know their whole lore,” Matthew replied, shrugging slightly. “I’ve seen a few. Killed a few. In the right places I think they’d be extremely dangerous, but here they’ve got too many drawbacks and are nothing more than a nuisance. They can’t touch iron. They can’t cross running water, or a barrier of salt. They’re weak to holy relics.”

“How… How do you know so much about them,” Rebecca asked, curiously.

“Simple,” Mattew replied, looking up to half smirk in her direction. “I had the pleasure to be chosen to be a beta tester for the god’s game. I’ve already dealt with small fry like these several times.”