“Whoa, Déjà vu,” I muttered to myself as we made our way back up the hill to Stoneburg. I still couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling the Dark World was giving me. I felt like I was walking around in a trap that was ready to spring itself on me at any moment. Even the environment felt hostile, like it was out to get us. The rain had finally stopped, but with the clouds the way they were overhead, I couldn’t help but think it was only a matter of time before another downpour began.

“So, an artificial intelligence contacted you,” Gehman said, shaking his head as he tried to process everything I’d told him. “Unbelievable.”

“It is pretty cool,” Kodiak remarked as we came up the hill and headed towards Gehman’s shop.

“Yeah, well the sooner we get out of here the better,” I said, gazing up at the stormy sky. “

“Hey, D? Do you—do you know who killed me?”

I suddenly realized that Gehman had absolutely no idea about what had happened after his death, or who was responsible. He’d been shot in the back and never even gotten a glimpse of his attackers. One second he was talking to us, and the next, he was waking up here in the Dark World.

“Chaucey,” I replied. “Sinful. Shot you in the back with a fire arrow.”

Gehman shook his head and smiled sadly. “I could have guessed you’d say that. I was so stupid leaving myself exposed like that.”

Honestly, I couldn’t argue with him there. Keeping an eye on your surroundings was crucial in a PvP game, but I didn’t want to bum him out, so I changed the subject.

“Do you know where the others are?” I asked him.

“Sheol…” he said quietly.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Pretty sure,” he replied. “I was there.”

“You were there!?” I asked him.

“With Xavier and Cavey,” he said, a faint smile forming on his lips. “I was by myself for a while before they showed up. Only a few others of us were there, but more kept coming. It was so great to see them again, it was weeks before I was able to escape—”

“Wait a minute, weeks?” I quickly interrupted. Gehman nodded as we stopped outside of his hut.

“Yeah, why?”

“That can’t be possible…” I muttered. “I was only home for eight days.”

“Eight days?” Kodiak asked, sounding confused. “No way. I’ve been here for 45.”

“Are you sure?”

Kodiak frowned at me. “Pretty sure. I’ve been counting.”

“And those are like…real life days? Not in game days or something? I asked. It was a silly question, but I was having a hard time accepting what he was telling me.

“Of course,” he replied. “It’s a 24-hour day cycle here.”

“So…it’s like Inception then.”

“What are you talking about?” Gehman asked. “Are you saying time goes slower here?”

“I can’t think of any other explanation,” I replied. “Can you? 8 days in the real world, 45 days here? That’s five times slower than normal.”

“How could that be?” Gehman asked slowly.

“I think it’s obvious the Wellspring interface is no working properly,” I replied angrily. “We can feel pain, the world’s an absolute mess, we still can’t log out—is it really too hard to believe that we’re experiencing time at a slower rate too?”

I looked up at the storming sky and closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath. When I’d first introduced Jack to Carrethen, I’d been the experienced beta player that already knew how the game worked and where to find things. But now the world had been turned upside down, corrupted and twisted, populated with monsters I’d never even seen before. It may have looked like Carrethen in some places, but it was something else and I was lost—lost in a new world, the Dark World, and had absolutely no plan on what to do next.

“What’s it like,” Kodiak asked Gehman timidly. “Being Sunken.”

“It must have been awful…” I said slowly.

“It was,” he nodded. “It was like being on autopilot, or watching a cutscene from a game that never ended. I’m uh…sorry about whacking you in the head. I didn’t mean to.”

“Oh, it’s not your fault, Gehman,” I replied quickly. He smiled back, holding my gaze for just a second longer than he needed too, and my heart sank when I realized why.

He thinks you’re cute!

“Ahem,” Kodiak cleared his throat behind us and Gehman quickly looked away as he tugged open the door to his hut. “You sure like it smoky in here, Gehman.”

“Yeah, I just get excited when I’m smithing,” he blurted out awkwardly, beating a path through the soot. “I can’t make you a bow, D—”

“Jane,” Kodiak corrected him. I turned and scowled.

“Right. Jane!” Gehman stammered. “It’s going to take a me a while to get used to that.

I can’t make you a bow of course as I’m not a bowyer! But I can make you a short sword or a dagger or something. Do you have any secondary melee skills trained?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied, pulling up my character sheet. “Let me check.”

I scrolled down after briefly marveling over my 410 bow skill.

“Yup!” I said happily. “I’ve got daggers trained.”

“Copycat,” Kodiak smirked.

“Perfect!” Gehman said excitedly, grabbing a couple of metal bars from his bench. “Gimmie a few minutes and I’ll have a sick set for you!”

“I’m having a serious case of déjà vu,” I said, shaking my head and heading out the door as Gehman’s hammer began to ring out behind us. I walked forward and leaned against the doorframe, standing there a while, gazing out at the ruins of Stoneburg, thinking about everything that had happened. Part of me still expected to see Xavier and Cavey walking over to us, wanting an update on our quest.

I heard footsteps behind me, and even though I knew they were Kodiak’s, I let myself pretend for a moment that they were Jack’s, and he was coming out to let me know everything was all set and we were ready to go.

“All stocked up on kits,” he’d say. “You full up on arrows?”

“Good to go!” I’d tell him, and then I’d lead the way to where we were headed next.

But Jack wasn’t here. He was lost somewhere in this world and I had absolutely no idea how to find him. I had no equipment and not the slightest clue as to where to start looking either. I didn’t know if he was in Sheol or had been lucky enough to be one of the Unchained, and if so, had he been able to survive, or was he one of the Sunken, like Gehman, wandering aimlessly across the world?

So many questions, and absolutely no answers.

“So, he seems nice,” Kodiak said cheerfully from behind me.

“Yes,” I said, gazing up at the tree line where we’d first met Og. “Too nice. That’s what got him killed.”

“Did you lose many of your friends?” He asked.

“All of them,” I replied. “Every last one.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low.

“Don’t be,” I told him, balling my fists. “I killed The Ripper. Finding them in this place will be a cake walk! I just—need to find some gear.”

“We could try to the West on the road to Cragrock,” Kodiak suggested. “There’s a bridge over the waterfall there.”

“Yeah, I remember it. There’s nothing there.”

“There wasn’t back in Carrethen,” he replied. “But here in the Dark World? Things are a little different.”

“How so?” I asked, turning to face him.

“Nasty high level Verasyths—80s and 90s. Good drops. We could farm them a while.”

“Verasyth,” I repeated. “Aren’t they those wraith things with double scythes?”

“Yup,” Kodiak nodded. “They also cast nasty Void Magic spells now too.”

“They drop bows?”

“Sometimes,” he replied. “It’s a shame I didn’t know you were coming; I would have saved you one. I just threw them away; the general merchant here wouldn’t even buy them off me.”

I sighed and threw my hands up in the air. “Well, it’s as good a plan as any I guess.”

“Hey, D—uh, Jane!” Gehman called out behind me. “I got your daggers!”

I turned around to see him racing up to me, a pair of shining serrated daggers in his hands, but just before he reached me, the ground exploded between us.