Chapter 4: Friends

Dante

"Nick, what do you want for dinner?" I knocked at Nick's door.

Only silence responded to me. The door slid open and light from the hallway entered Nick's room. It did not look like someone was in the room, but the lights of Nick's pod were blinking. I touched the pod and a holographic keyboard appeared together with a display.

"What do you want to eat?" I typed on the keyboard and immediately afterwards popped up a message from Nick.

"Can't. Not now. Am busy," responded Nick through the games chat.

With a sigh, I left the room and entered the kitchen. I touched the glossy white and slick wall. At the wall lit a rectangular cyan light up and at the glowing area came an empty drawer out of the wall.

"Sir, what can I do today for you?" a robotic voice resounded in the kitchen.

"Hmm… I don't want to cook myself today," I pondered about what to eat and told Chef, the kitchen's AI, "Chef, give me one dehydrated pizza."

"As you wish," at Chef's words a small pizza, the size of a wristwatch's face, got shot into the drawer.

After picking the pizza up, I touched another part of the wall and again a cyan light lit up. This time however, a wide plate came out of the wall. When I put the pizza on it, the plate drew back with the pizza and disappeared inside the dehydrator in the wall.

Five seconds later a much bigger pizza appeared out of the wall. It was slightly steaming and spread a tasty smell in the whole apartment. Afterwards I went with pizza into the living room and made myself comfortable on the couch.

Cheshire smelled the pizza and came to me, while purring, whereupon she snuggled with me. The cat just ate earlier and still wanted some of my food, that was I did not give her any. After petting Cheshire, I turned to the glass wall in the middle of the living room and said out loud, "TV on."

Light filled the wall and moving pictures appeared on it. From the two white rods at each end of the glass wall came out the sound of the TV. A female's voice, matching to a woman talking in the TV, sounded in the living room.

"—that was all about the weather for the next few days in Contessa," the woman on screen said. "Now let's move on to our breaking news. Currently a video uploaded by the player Kumabear became in a short amount of time the hottest topic to talk on among players of Another Life. Players are discussing whether Kumabear discovered a top secret quest or event, or that this mysterious thing, which even makes the viewers feel anxious because of unknown reasons, could have been a bug in the system. Anyway, see for yourselves and tell us your opinion in the comments below."

When the anchorwoman motioned below her, a window for comments appeared. Not long afterwards disappeared the woman and an in-game footage happening in a forest replaced her, which also got accompanied by a red warning—stating that it is not for weak hearts—at every corner of the screen.

The player Kumabear was chasing in a forest after a reptilian kid with shoulder long ears, from behind him flew burning projectiles past him, aiming at the kid. The reptilian kid soon reached the end of the forest and Kumabear followed, but they only happened to reach a clearance and stood still afterwards.

"Hmm, this seems familiar," I expressed my thoughts.

On the screen, Kumabear's view moved to the reason of him being in a stunned state. "Meow!" jumped Cheshire up to the ceiling, as the black figure of a person with stars all over his body, entered the view of Kumabear and a blue system notification appeared on screen.

"Chesh, calm down!" I yelled and hugged my scaredy cat and consoled her. "Don't worry, the one on the screen won't harm you. After all it is me you can see there."

I shushed the trembling cat in my arms, whose nails were slightly buried in my skin. "It's okay, it's okay," my voice turned soft as my fingers wandered back and forth from between her ears to her neck.

After some time passed, Cheshire, who had been burying her head on my chest and had whimpered non-stop, finally looked up at me. Our eyes met and I saw that water had accumulated around her eyes. I let out a sigh, as her claws finally left my skin. My shirt was tattered at the places Cheshire grabbed me and blood was seeping out of the deep scratches.

A female voice entered my ears, whereupon I looked up to the screen. On the screen was now the anchorwoman from earlier, in her studio. She was sweating a lot and her breathing could now be heard through the speakers.

"Everyone, who had watched this footage shared the same experience when they saw that black figure, who got the name Starchild because of the uploaded video's title."

"Look, nothing bad happened," I said, looking to Cheshire, who has been snuggling and purring in my arms.

"Many people have been trying to explain this phenomenon since the video was uploaded one hour ago," the anchorwoman continued. "But the real questions we should ask are, what is it? Why was its name and level not hovering above its head like it was on every other mob or NPC, was this just a bug?"

'Wait, players can see the names of others in the game?' I thought and blurted out afterwards, "Curse you, Another Life!" which surprised Cheshire.

"Many have already tried contacting Kumabear regarding on this matter, but he has yet to respond to any of them," she explained. "So, please if you get to know anything about the Starchild then contact us. Any additional informa—"

The anchorwoman's voice got cut off when I switched the channel, because I no longer wanted to watch it as I already knew the story behind the video. Although I gave up watching TV all together afterwards, as every single channel I usually watched, was now all about me, the Starchild.

"Starchild… couldn't he give me a better name? Seriously… maybe something like Mr. Universe or Cosmic Guy. This Kumabear has no naming sense, I am not even a kid…. Luckily nobody will ever call me that in real life," I said, scratching my head. "And now I am frigging celebrity, yay."

"What do I do now? Nothing on TV and I can't go back into the game for another two hou—" Cheshire jumped out of my arms, upon hearing my words and dashed to the hallway. "What's gotten into you, Chesh?"

When my cat was about to disappear around the corner, I noticed that Cheshire had many spots colored red from my blood on her fur.

"Cheshire, come back here," I called my cat, "now!"

The blue-striped grey cat begrudgingly came back. She meowed sharply at me. When I told her to wait a second, she hissed and turned her head back to the hallway.

As Cheshire seemed to run off, I immediately caught her before she could escape. She struggled and wanted to break free, but I knew how to keep her restrained and entered, while carrying her, the bathroom.

Cheshire's eyes opened wide when she saw where we were going to and her legs dealt out—even more vehemently than before—blows right and left.

After realizing her struggle was futile, she changed her tactics and looked with big droopy eyes at me, trying to appeal at my kindness.

"Don't give me that look, you are in a sore need of a bath," I said.

However, Cheshire did not give up yet and tried even harder. Water was accumulating in her eyes and she began to whimper softly.

"Aw… don't, just…" I wavered. "Alright, you win…"

Cheshire immediately relaxed upon hearing my words and let a few meows out in succession. I turned around to leave the bathroom, but when I reached the door, I quickly turned back.

"…Not!" I exclaimed and laughed like a villain.

"Meooow," Cheshire cried.

I did not let go of Cheshire, as I did not want to give her a chance to escape. Because both my hands were busy holding Cheshire (carrying her by holding her neck like one would do with other cats never worked because she always got somehow away), I used my foot to tap on the wall, so a bathtub would come out.

Though my foot missed the spot and a shower cabin came out instead. By re-tapping the same spot the shower disappeared in the wall. This time I tapped slightly to the left and knee high walls came out of the ground, which ultimately formed a bathtub.

Cheshire struggled and violently opposed me. The closer she got to the water, the more she would flail, but she had to go through this anyway.

While I shampooed her, she stood still and looked daggers at me and I just laughed out loud at that. Soon the blood was washed away and Cheshire was ready to get out of the bath.

After everything was done we left the bathroom. Cheshire, whose fur was now shining, walked stubbornly towards my room and I was left there, standing in the hallway. I was back again thinking of what I could do while waiting until I could dive back into the game.

"I may as well call Kore again," I said.

Cheshire stopped at her tracks and looked annoyed behind. Her blue eyes kept staring at my own pair. She did not even blink once and silently watched me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

Though she did not respond, like she was frozen still. It seemed my voice shook her awake from her state and she turned away from to enter my room. I on the other hand, proceeded to call my little sister, but took before that a glance in the mirror at the hallway.

I stared at my own reflection, looking for anything unusual, but—except for my wildly grown out beard, my unkempt hair or that my brown eyes were brighter and almost looked yellow, because of the strong lights in the hallway—nothing out of the ordinary came into my mind.

Whereupon I tapped twice at a random spot on the slick white wall and shortly afterwards a blue holographic clock appeared. It was already too late to call my sister, but I anyway grabbed the phone and raised it to my right ear.

"Hey, Korinna," I said. "I know I just called recently, but I wanted to know how you have been."

While talking, I looked out of the window and a crow flew closely past the window, at which I reflexively went a step back and took a deep breath in.

"No, nothing happened." I excused myself and asked after a short pause, "You know, I haven't seen you since a long time. How about we meet in the middle between both our homes and eat at the restaurant Charon? I heard people would die to be able to eat there."

Outside, on the streets walked a pair clad all in black, arm in arm. I could not stop gazing, because it was unusual for me to see a big man cry, while the woman walked expressionlessly besides him. Afterwards, they went out of the range of my field of view, when they passed a street lantern, which attracted a swarm of moths.

"Great, then let me handle the reservations. See you in around a month, or so." I bid my goodbyes and put the phone back on its place.

Once again did I have nothing to do. Furthermore was I now all alone, because Cheshire ran off to somewhere. Also it was not time to log back into the game. And truth be told, everything I had fun with before the game got delivered, turned out to be boring in comparison to Another Life, even though I have not been playing it the conventional way.

'Maybe I should watch TV…again,' I mused.

Eventually was that how I spent the rest of my time watching some news channels, although even the normal news were about the phenomenon, which appeared when seeing my other self, Starchild. Nevertheless, it somehow began to feel good to be one everyone's lips.

I looked at the clock and saw that I already should be able to dive back into the game. At last I went to my room. The only lights illuminating my room came from the hallway and also from my diving pod, which already seemed to be in use.

I thought that I unintentionally entered Nick's room, but this messy room could never have been his.

'Maybe he mistook my pod for his,' I assumed and went over to Nick's room.

The lights on Nick's pod were dimly illuminating his room. I rushed back into my room. A loud knocking sound filled the room as flesh hit the hard surface of the pod. All the lights on the pod turned red, indicating that it went into emergency mode and was soon ready to eject the user.

In my hurry I eyed my own room for something hard to use. But I only found my dumbbells and picked one up. I was standing ready to hit the stranger, who soon should come out.

Soundlessly opened the pod's lid all by itself. The red lights turned off. Something grey jumped at me and covered my view. It landed on my face and tightly clutched at my head. I let go of the dumbbell to get that thing on my face away.

A sudden pain on my foot shocked me and I cried out. When I breathed in, my mouth got full of hair and made breathing even more difficult. Shortly afterwards light reached my eyes again. Ignoring my pain I wanted to strike back, but I stopped when I saw a frightened blue striped cat shriek back.

The cat's head aimed at my feet, but her teary eyes looked up at me. When Cheshire noticed my fist in midair aiming at her, she covered her eyes with her paw. Upon seeing that, I pulled my fist back and spit out some of the fur in my mouth.

I crouched down and reached out my hand at her. Cheshire jerked when I touched her, but I took her carefully in my arms and sat down on the ground.

"I am sorry. I won't hurt you," I apologized. "I am so sorry."

Cheshire lied in my arms, she was still trembling. A teardrop flowed down my cheek and dropped on her.

'I am the worst. After all what Cheshire had experienced,' I felt miserable. 'I almost became one of those damned people, who hurt her, too.'

"Ouch, my foot hurts," I suddenly remembered the pain. "Cheshire, are you okay now?"

The little cat looked slowly up and I forced a smile, whereupon she with a soft meow responded and slowly out of my arms crawled. Her legs were still somewhat shaky, but she soon regained her vigor and stood there with confidence.

Thus, I pulled my foot back to inspect it. The dumbbell luckily only barely scratched my foot, but the place it came in contact with upon falling, turned blue and I did not dare touch the spot, although it was not that worse I thought it would be.

"So Cheshire, care to explain what you were doing in the pod?" I questioned my cat not expecting her to answer and laughed, "Ha ha, don't tell me you were playing the game."

However, Cheshire only avoided looking me in the eyes and shortly afterwards quietly left the room. My eyes widened and I stared from behind, while Cheshire was leaving.

'As if, ha, an animal's brain should not posses enough of computing and meta cognitive power, right?' I came up with an excuse. 'Although Chesh is very smart—for a cat…'

Eventually I stood up and walked with one limp to my pod, so I could finally play again. Soon I found myself back in my haven of peace, being surrounded by many colorful orbs in the far distance and I also was far away from the one dearest to me.

I looked around to search for a white orb. When I found it, I hesitatingly grabbed the orb.

My surroundings changed and in my hand lied the white orb, which shortly afterwards got crushed under the force of my fist grapping it tighter. Like every previous times, did I experience an agonizing pain surging through all of my body, while a white light enveloped my very being. But each time I crushed one orb, the warping would take longer and the strength of the pain would increase.

Each and every time did I scream during this process, but at that moment I did not cry out because of the agony I felt, no, I cried out because I felt remorse for making my best friend remember her worst memories.

The white light around me changed and displayed a motion of many pictures in quick succession.

A boy all clad in black was standing in front of three gravestones. His head was hanging down, while tears were flowing down his chubby red cheeks. He ran away—making the little girl holding his sleeve let go—and passed several more gravestones until he got through a gate.

He ran and ran, without stopping. The buildings surrounding him were neat and tidy and the ground beneath him was illuminated by the solar road itself. But after never taking a break from running, he got off of the safe solar roads and instead walked over a cracked cemented path, which only got used rarely.

Houses, which had broken walls or shattered windows, around him now were run down, moldy and mostly deserted. There was no light besides some sunrays shining into the dark alleyway and the boy would often stumble over trash lying everywhere. Furthermore, every step the boy would make, more cracks would appear on the ground.

Eventually he got out of breath and had to stop. The boy supported himself on his knees and the ground underneath him got wet, as it dripped one by one, which ultimately flowed into the cracks. His uncontrollable sobbing and crying reverberated on the ruined grey walls.

Under the boys weight began the porous ground to crack more and more. A cloud of dust flew high up into the air and the sound of big stones falling and hitting the ground could be heard. On the cement street a big hole remained.

Through the hole only few rays of light got through and shined upon the boy. No longer a sobbing sound could be heard, but instead his moaning and the sound of boiling water reached the boy's ears. Whereupon he got curious and stood up to search for the source of the sound, as soon as the numbness in his legs dissipated.

Although it was dark, the boy could still see enough, thanks to the light coming from the hole. He fell into a room underground, which contained many empty cages tainted in red. The sound however came from the corner, where blue liquids inside test tubes were seething and many syringes were lying around them everywhere on the table.

But then the boy heard an almost inaudible weeping coming from the cages. He sneaked to the cage, following the quiet sound. The sound got louder for him, as the boy neared his destination. But when he found it he could not believe his very own eyes.

Many blue striped grey kitten were lying in there. All of them were tainted in red and some were missing an ear, a leg or their tail. And their fur was so messy and sporadic that one could believe that someone forcefully ripped parts of them off.

Furthermore were none of the kittens moving and not even breathing, but the one who had been weeping quietly. In the next moment, something hard hit the back of the boy and he only saw the ground closing in on him, before he finally passed out.

The pictures disappeared and brought the whiteness back, which too, soon faded away and the pain I have been feeling, drew back. Once again felt I the slippery ground under my feet. The soft ticking of many clocks, sporadically water drops hitting the ground and steps of people coming out of her houses sounded everywhere.

As the sun was rising, the houses surrounding me bathed in a golden light and people slowly gathered on the plaza. They would ignore the kneeling me, as they walked past me to begin their work.

When I looked at the ground, I just thought, that I had welcomed the pain when shifting places this time, because I thought it was a perfect punishment, or rather a perfect lesson for me, so that I would never again forget what I had almost done today.

My mind had started to settle down after coming here and I got the urge to let out a last cry before moving on again. At that moment I did not think of my physical restrictions and I simply let it out. I raised myself, faced the rising sun and let my cry go.

Even so, the cry never really got out, but when I did—only for a second—every single light around me disappeared, but I still could see that everyone surrounding me stopped moving completely. Furthermore, everything turned either black or white. And in that split second, only the silence sounded.

But it did not take long until everything returned back to normal and the people around continued as if nothing had happened, the light reappeared and the silence retreated.

Once again was I standing on the plaza in Clock Town. The people were already crowding. Whereas the chattering of people, the laughter and happiness of children and ticking of the clocks filled the streets. Also were no clouds blocking the laughing sun and the birds were chirping mirthfully, while cats roamed the streets in search for prey.

But appearances were often deceptive, and it was especially so in this case.

"Wait for me!" out of one the streets came a little girl running after a boy.

'How?' I looked at the direction the shout came from. 'Is that not the girl who supposedly had died yesterday?'

I walked closer to the girl chasing a boy, who actually was her brother. The brother slowed down and looked behind him.

"Hurry up! They should soon be here," he urged his sister and then ran past me.

The girl hurried and tried to catch up, but then I walked between them and obstructed her path. In spite of that did her beamless eyes not register my presence on her path, but nonetheless avoided she a crash, by running in a wide arc past me.

This however was enough for me to take a good look on the girl, and she indeed was the same girl from yesterday. She was still alive.

'Interesting,' I thought. 'So NPCs can respawn too. Or, does this also have to do something with the weird even here?'

'I should have researched more on this game.' I regretted my decision not looking up more about the game, thinking that I would have learned it anyway while playing it.

After the girl ran past me, I turned around to follow her. She caught up to her brother and they waited sitting on a bench. Then other kids joined them. The little group picked up some stones lying on the ground and collected them at one pile. The stones got evenly distributed to each kid and they began playing some kind of game.

"Brother, don't cheat!" the sister scolded her brother.

'Déjà-vu?' I got confused. 'No, this is too similar.'

Deep in thought, I walked to the fisherman. The old guy hooked a fish on a fishhook and threw it that way back into the sea. The fish was flying and it pulled the string connecting it to the fishing rod with it to the sea.

'Wait, does this mean…' I quickly turned around to look at the little girl.

The kids were cheerfully laughing and playing. So I waited and watched closely. But no sound other than the residents' shouts could be heard. And neither did some shadowy beast jump out of the alleys.

'Huh? Nothing… happened.' However I did not stop observing. 'Did I miss the timing? Maybe they are after all not stuck in a loop.'

I continued to watch, but after some time passed, I gave up and instead looked all around me. The kids were still playing. Men and women were chatting, some were taking a stroll, little animals roamed the streets, all the clocks were ticking and the gray haired fisherman behind me did his job—no, he did not.

A fisherman usually would fill his bucket with the fishes he caught. But this one pulled one fish after the other out of his bucket, attached it to his hook and threw it back into the sea, whereupon he would pull the now empty hook back and attach another dead fish on the hook and repeat the process.

'This guy …' I thought.

After I had observed the old guy wasting food, I decided, 'I should seek the mayor for some Intel and solve the mysteries.'

I turned away from the lake and walked with little jumps towards the mayor's office. Along the way I listened to the conversations of the people around me and one in particular peaked my interest.

"Yesh, I can't wait to shee one of them," a bald boy said with a lisp.

"Have ya heard that the prophecy 'bout the wayfarers is soon comin' true?" A boy, who was a head shorter than me, asked the bald boy.

"Pleash don't be ridiculous," Baldy responded, "there ish no way the wayfarers are shtronger."

"But is they really immortal? Would that not make them stronger than tha gods?" The short boy asked.

"Don't push me," Baldy shouted.

"Oh, hurry. We have to hurry to ol' Nan," Shorty pushed baldy at his back.

'Hmm… the more I find out, the weirder everything gets.' I watched how the boys were walking away. 'I hope the mayor can clear things up.'

The sky darkened, water dripped on the ground and the people retreated back into their homes. And I entered the town hall. But the mayor was nowhere in his office or inside the town hall. I looked out of the window and noticed that it rained heavily.

Moments later it flashed outside and the rumbling of thunder sounded everywhere. And just like yesterday did the clocks turn crazy.

From the door behind me came a screeching sound. I turned around and hid behind the door. 'Mr. Mayor, you won't get away this time!'

The door opened and an armored man holding a heavy looking axe came into the office. He was followed by another man, who, however, was even heavier armored and had two shields equipped.

They walked in with heavy steps and made the floor wet with rainwater dripping down their equipment. The men walked towards the desk and had not felt my presence, yet.

"Man… the clocks are so annoying," the man with the shields said.

"I know right, let's get out of here as soon as the rain stops," the other one proposed. "Since coming here I got the shivers."

"Yeah, me too," he answered and then laughed wearily, "Maybe Starchild is here."

"Haha, then we wil——"

'Shit, they are players,' I made haste and escaped through the door.

I ran and ran. Water rained down on me and I entered an alleyway and eventually stopped running. Then a thought came up, 'Wait, why am I even running away?'

'That was my chance and I just ran away, stupid!' I facepalmed, 'Besides, should not they be the ones running, instead of me?'

And so I turned back and once again went into the town hall. However, the town hall was devoid of any life.

'Damn it,' I thought.

I then left the town hall. The streets were also empty and not even dogs and cats dared to take a stroll in this heavy rain. The clocks were ticking as wildly as ever and annoyed the shit out of me.

The players apparently already left and I missed my chance to try talking and partying up together with other players, although I somehow got used to playing in solitude, by now.

With a look at my satiety bar I noticed that it got low, whereupon I filled it up to ten percent again. Two footprints on the cobblestone beneath me appeared as I absorbed some of it and then it struck me. The footprints I had made yesterday on the streets of the town, were now gone.

The streets had returned to normal and were devoid of any other traces my eating normally leaved.

'Weird… it's really weird. At first the dead girl comes back to life and then my own footprints disappears,' I thought. 'Hmm… So, everything returns to normal the next day. I have to test some things out.'

I walked to one random house and tried to get in. But the door was locked, which though was no problem, because I simply put my forefinger on the lock to open it. In the next moment the spot I touched pixelated and disappeared, unlocking the door.

The brick walls inside of the house also had many clocks decorating it. But among the clocks were many different kinds of stuffed fishes and also many baits. Looking around more I found some fishing rods, nets and other equipment in the first room. The second room, which also was the only other room in this little house, had a stove inside and next to it was a single bed, on which a gray haired and wrinkled man was sleeping.

'Oh, that's fortunate,' I walked to the man's side.

Afterwards I put my hand on his face and apologized, 'I am sorry to do this. It's nothing personal… well… see you tomorrow.'

Glowing pixels appeared under my hand and the light filled the room in many beautiful colors. 'I am sorry.'

Outside it was still raining and the wind was blowing as strong as ever, while the clocks were still nowhere near normal.

The inside of the next house was dull compared to the old man's house. This house only had clocks at the walls, but it at least was bigger and was housing a married couple and one child.

'Not here,' I simply left the house.

The next house was not much different, it was as big as the last one and had a family of four inside. Because this also did not match the house, I was looking for at the moment, did I leave it. This time however, I only walked on the streets and watched the houses from the outside.

'Hmm… no. No. Neither this one.' I eyed one house. And then I finally found one, whereupon I jumped out of joy, 'Yes, this house will do.'

Thus, I walked inside, to check if this really would work. A lone woman on a swing chair was stitching a pair of pants. Her wrinkled face was smiling and her beamless eyes were focusing on her work.

The house was small, it actually only had this one room and it certainly was almost perfect for what I was about to do. I looked for where to begin.

When it was decided, I went outside, touched the wall and walked around it. Wherever I touched, pixels appeared and on the walls appeared a gap, dividing the wall into an upper part and lower part. At some point the still untouched parts of the walls could no longer support the weight of the whole roof and the whole building collapsed and crumbled into one big pile of bricks.

'Lets see, if everything truly gets reset."

I walked away from the ruin, while the dust behind got washed away by the rain. 'Alright…. Let's find the mayor.'

The search for the mayor began by finding out where he lived and the only clue leading to him was the town hall. But the only things which could have been of any help were the books in his office, which I already had read before. However, out of one of the books, I now realized the reason why the mayor did what he had done.

'Of course it was all about money…' I thought.

The book about the town's income and expenses showed me, that—before everything happened—the mayor borrowed money from the merchant's corporation, but was unable to pay them back. His debt increased and increased until one day everything stood at a stalemate, never increasing nor decreasing. And the money flowing from outside into the town suddenly went down to zero.

Furthermore, the book about the residents revealed, that since that particular day no new information got added, even though the population was increasing until that day, meaning that it somehow stood stuck in that current state. Also I got to know where the mayor was living, which was the most important at that moment.

Following the descriptions I went to the mayor's home. The rain had stopped and the moon was greeting me from behind some disappearing clouds. The mayor's house was one of the biggest houses in Clock Town and unexpectedly was every mechanical clock in there broken.

The house however was deserted. No mayor was inside. So I changed my plans a little and instead looked for any clues in here.

This house was by far the most spacious house, therefore it had more furniture than the other houses in this town. The dusted furniture here was made out of wood and most of them were decorated with gears, which could even move.

'Annoying…' I thought.

I scavenged the house for anything useful like an item I could use or some leads on the weird happenings here. Unfortunately, as I could not find anything of importance, I began to look in every nook and corner.

But there was nothing much of use in there either, but in the bedroom I found something suspicious, after all was it the only room with one single clock inside, which furthermore even was the only one intact in the whole house.

The pocket watch was inside a cabinet, whereupon I picked it up.

Eghwod Pocket WatchValue: Quest Item

This pocket watch was found in the mayor's home.

The superb and unrivaled craftsmanship shows that it was made by the now extinct race, the Eghwod, therefore it has an immense value. It is a wonder how a mayor of such a small town became the owner of it.

But it seems the pocket watch is past its days as it stopped to properly function.

It was a pretty golden watch with only one hand showing at twelve o'clock and it was silent—unusual for a mechanic watch.

'A quest item, huh.' I inspected the watch closely. 'What do I do now with it?'

After I looked for any details which could help me in this quest I rummaged the bedroom some more, but besides the pocket watch was nothing else noteworthy in the house and the watch did not help much either.

Outside was pretty much the same as before. I walked with the watch in my hands, turning left and right as I walked towards the town hall. Then suddenly the pocket watch began to tick slowly and I wondered why it worked all of a sudden. It could be said that it worked, although it ticked into the wrong direction.

The hand accelerated with every step I made and soon it was ticking at the speed a normal clock would do.

'Truly fascinating, but useless as a clock,' I thought.

When I was almost at the town hall I heard steps from behind me. I turned around to look who or what it was and saw a man coming out of one alleyway. His clothing indicated that he was a resident of this town, but unlike the others did he not ignore me.

'The mayor!' I remembered his face. The face of a man close to crying. His teeth were chattering and his body was trembling while he stood there, staring at me.

'Wait!' I walked towards him. This was my chance, as he was still like he had been frozen on the spot.

My steps were slow and soft, it was as if I was approaching a shy and timid deer. But when I had almost reached him, he ran away while leaving a bad stench behind.

He was fast, but this time I was determined to follow him as fast as I could. The mayor ran straight ahead, I had been close behind, but then he took a turn to the right and then to the left, while he went, with each step he made, farther away from me.

Not long afterwards did I lose sight of that guy. I was standing in a narrow alley with no human soul in my vicinity.

The biggest lead to this event was the mayor and it seemed impossible for me to talk to him. Even though I had another clue, it was just a simple and broken pocket watch. Although it was really unusual.

I took another look at the watch and noticed that it was now ticking into the right direction, although I was not even sure what caused it to tick right. But I had the idea, that it was somehow showing me the direction to where I should go, more or less like a compass.

Instead of showing directly where to go, the pocket watch would work right if I walked into the right direction—at least that was what I thought up. And so I adjusted the direction I would go by looking whether the handle was moving at the normal speed of a normal watch, and walked into the particular direction.

Soon I found myself leaving the town and entering the forest again. I walked for almost an hour and still had not found anything, and I began to question my theory. But then I saw something behind the trees.

It was the deserted cottage I had seen after I had left the clearance. The cottage however was empty and I had no idea whether the watch really led me here or that it was broken. But I was certain that it was not broken when I tried to continue walking into the same direction, while avoiding the cottage. Because the handle on the watch suddenly moved into the other direction.

'So… here I am,' I eyed the inside of the cottage.

There were planks made out of black wood—with white oval patterns and two circles in each oval—wherever I looked. The floor and the walls were marked by the passage of time. No windows. No furniture. Nothing. Only the feeling of being watched.

Each step I took made the wood planks bend slightly and left out a screeching sound.

'Why here?' I looked at the pocket watch, but it worked like a usual clock would do. 'The watch only shows me only one plane and not the height. So the place the pocket watch is leading me to is either above me and the cottage, or below my feet.

'Considering that this is a game then the way should be simple to access to, as no information saying it is upwards was given to me, it should be beneath me.'

I looked at the floor. Every plank looked similar to the other, not one of them stood out, although some had red stains, which probably was dried blood.

Anyway, there was nothing indicating that there would be something like a trapdoor leading into a secret underground passage. Thus I began absorbing parts of the floor to make some holes and looking for something other than dirt.

'There it is!' I looked down the hole I made in one of the corners in the cottage.

When I finally found a hole in the ground, I made a ring big enough for me to pass through by absorbing the floor and the round piece of floor dropped down the hole and landed with a dull sound in the dirt.

I jumped inside without looking back at the cottage, whose floor now had more holes than cheese had.

Not a shred of light went deeper into the hole and the faint light in here, appeared due to the stars on my own body. I had to walk while crouching in this smelly passage. The way seemed long, especially because there were only two ways—a way forward or the way back.

'Yuck,' I stepped on another group of maggots.

For a while nothing happened, but then I reached a fork and I went left, because when I looked right, then I could see the amount of maggots increasing, whereat I cringed at the sight.

This way was a lot easier to tread through, but it soon too did divide into more paths. This secret passageway turned out to be a maze—a three dimensional maze. There were ways leading up, down, left and right and naturally did I get lost. At least there were no longer any maggots on my way.

But however long I walked, I never saw the light at the end of the tunnel and I probably got deeper and deeper lost in the maze. And taking a look at the pocket watch did not help me either, because the hand stopped moving at exactly twelve o'clock when I entered the hole.

'If this was real, then my back would have hurt a lot by now,' I randomly thought.

I forgot how much time passed since coming here and although I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, it was not my style to give up—unless it was impossible and this was not. Furthermore, there still were ways, which I had not used yet and deliberately had avoided until now.

'You can do it,' I clenched my fist and looked at a path full of maggots. 'Do it!'

The more steps I made, the softer and squishier the ground felt. Normally I would not have minded some maggots, but this amount was crazy. And the more I followed the paths with maggots, the more they increased.

'Oh my…' A maggot dropped down from the ceiling. 'I wish I couldn't see them through this darkness.'

The sound the maggots made, when they wriggled, crawled and creeped around on every spot of the walls, was no longer inaudible thanks to their sheer amount.

Some landed on my head or my shoulder and I immediately absorbed them, instead of flicking them away.

Finally the path widened and I no longer had to walk while crouching, but this only meant more space for the many maggots to cover, but I continued following the paths with the most maggots and eventually I reached some kind of huge cave, where the maggots on my way now were so many, that they had to stack on each other, until I was walking in a knee-high deep sea of maggots.

The cavity was big and spacious. And still full of maggots. But in the center of this cavity was something else. Something different. Something which did not belong here.

However, the maggots did not dare to get too close to it and made a wide arc around it. But I did go.

Strangely enough was that the only place illuminated—even if it was only flickering—furthermore was there no light real source, as it was seemingly coming somehow from midair, and the light abruptly stopped expanding after it almost reached the borders to the maggots, leaving everything else in the cavity dark as black.

The maggots suddenly went silent as a grave.

In the very center of the light cone was slowly swinging a structure out of bones—a cradle. Next to it stood a human silhouette half of my size, swinging the cradle with one hand. Everything in the light was pure white, their shadows jet black.

A little girl's voice rang in my ears.

"Shush, he will come for you.

I wonder what you are

whether there are lies, only papa knew.

Shut your eyes, he is far.

Did you see, did you see?

Him hanging on the tree?

Shush, it's getting late

will leave you a scar.

From the south will mama bait.

Shut your mouth, he is not far.

Did you see, did you see?

He seeks liberty.

Shush, soon it will dawn,

awaken will our star.

Night has many fears and she was his pawn.

Shut your ears, he is not far.

Did you see, did you see?

Now he is free.

Shush, there is no light.

If we knew who you are,

for our screams are blank as white.

Shut into your dreams, he is not far.

Did you see, did you see?

He is here."

The light flickered. I was a step behind the girl at the cradle. My hand unconsciously reached out to her shoulder. The cradle stopped swinging. Neither one of us moved.

Minutes passed. The maggots were still silent. The light flickered faster.

Still nothing.

Suddenly the little girl's head made a one-eighty degree turn. I reflexively let go, but she twisted her arms so, that she could grab tightly my wrists. Her grip was so strong, that I could not get away from it. She pulled my head closer to hers.

"Papa… is here," she whispered.

All of a sudden she began to scream and the light rapidly flickered, whereupon it suddenly went off for a moment. Her screaming did not stop and she fastened her grip even more.

When the light was back on again, her screaming abruptly stopped and she was gone.

In front of me stood still the bony cradle, it was swinging again. I walked closer towards it to take a better look at it.

A pale baby with stitches all over its body and face lied in there. Upon leaning over the cradle, the baby suddenly widely opened its eyes and mouth, ripping off the stitches. A very high pitched scream coming from the baby resounded all over the walls. This scream, however, was worse than anything I had heard until now, it easily made one's head and ears ache, while driving one insane.

I had to hold my hands on my head to cover my non-existent ears and turned away from it. By the second grew the scream worse and I had to cower and later lie on the ground. The pain was almost as bad as when I had crushed one of my orbs, nevertheless was it still awful.

After some time the scream faded away and I was able to stand up back again. When I looked at the cradle I noticed that the baby was entirely gone and instead were everywhere around and on the cradle many dried up stains of dark red blood.

When I looked around where the baby could have disappeared to, I found nothing but maggots. And when I looked back, the cradle or the blood stains were no longer there.

Eventually the light cone completely disappeared too. Thus, hell broke loose.

Cheshire

"Miltonie!" A sweet voice rings in my ears as soon as I entered the so called gaming capsule. When I hear her voice, my mouth automatically wrinkles upwards and my lips separate, revealing my teeth. Whenever I see her, a smile on my face appears.

"Where had you suddenly disappeared to?" She says, whereupon she puffs up her red cheeks, while her teary blue eyes twinkle, looking at me.

"Hmpf… the capsule shop slave found me and he dared to kick myself out of the shop." I answer, as I cross my arms.

"Capsule shop?" She says with a questioning tone, while tilting her head to the side. Her golden hairs, which glow in the moonlight shining through the only window of the house, brush the pillow.

"Why are you not sleeping yet, Alice?" I ask.

"Because you were suddenly gone before dinner, a few days ago," she responds and looks on the floor. "And I was worried."

A white plush rabbit, wearing clothes and holding a pocket watch, lies a short distance away from Alice's bed. I pick it up, whereupon I say, "Here, you at least have Mr. Rabbit at your side by all times," and hand her the plush toy.

In a flash, her small white hands reach out for the rabbit. Soon afterwards the plush toy rabbit lies stuck in a tight embrace. "Thank you," Alice says softly.

I look around the small room, but there is only enough space for a fireplace, an empty bed and a desk, whereat a quill and some piles of many scattered sheets of papers lie.

"Where is Erwin?" At my question Alice's eyes wander for a short time towards the hearth. The embers inside it are close to burn out completely. "Since when was he gone?"

Alice twiddles her thumbs and finally says under her breath, "Daddy went out at dusk," she pulls her blanket up to her chin. "Daddy said, some friends wanted to meet him. He said they can help."

Water accumulated in her eyes and her nose begins to snivel. "He did not die, right? Right?"

"Don't worry, the serv—— your father will be okay." I say and sit next to her on her bed. I put my hand on her head and softly stroke her golden hair. "Just wait and see, soon the old guy will dash right through this door and happily make something to eat for us."

"Really?" she asks, whereupon I nod. "Promise me?"

"He will be okay, as long as you are here," I reply, poking her nose once. "More importantly, get back to sleep!"

A smile beams on Alice's face. She wipes her eyes and nose and snuggles once again to Mr. Rabbit, before she opens her mouth, "Can you tell me a story, pretty please?"

"Hah… I don't know any stories I could tell," I let out a sigh and say.

"Please," she asks again, however, this time she makes some big teary eyes and purses her lips.

I look at her, but by the second her eyes grow bigger and I eventually give up resisting, "Alright, but only this once!"

While Alice quietly observes me, I ponder about what to tell. At last, an idea enters my mouth and I begin telling a story, "Once upon a time, there was a little timid kitty cat. She had a loving family—an overly doting mother, a cheeky brother, a stormy sister, a clumsy brother and a daring brother. Despite all of that, she cared and loved her family very much and received an even bigger amount of love from them.

Like everyday played she with her brothers and sister, and they all would follow their most courageous brother to go on an adventure, where they would make new friends every day.

But one day, when they were cheerfully playing, the clumsiest brother ran into a coyote, who was playing with his own friends—a wolf, a fox and a raccoon.

The coyote was at first surprised and his head went red, but after some time he grinned and asked, 'Well, hello there. Do you want to play with us too?'

'Sure, why not,' the daring brother agreed.

At that the fox only snickered and proposed, 'Great, how about we play hide-and-seek?'

'Ha ha ha, we will win anyway!' the cheekiest of the siblings exclaimed and laughed maniacally.

Soon they all played together, and the kitten siblings had to hide first, while their new friends had to search for them. The timid kitten usually went to hide together with her sister, this time too.

But something was different, her brothers were that day unnaturally good at hiding, not even the two sisters could spot them. Eventually their questions would soon be answered, when the wolf jumped out and found them.

He showed his teeth and shouted, 'Found you! We win!'

The little kitten's sister immediately knew what had happened and pushed her sister.

'Run!' she shouted to the timid kitten.

Being frightened and not knowing what was going on, she ran to her mother, without looking back, to get her mother's help.

In huge worry mother rushed to the aid of her little children, closely followed by the last one left, the timid kitten."

I feel a tear run down my cheek and take a deep breath in, before I resume telling the story. "Mother cat and daughter kitten ran as fast as they could and soon reached the place where the siblings had played with their new won friends.

But nobody was there. Crying, the mother and daughter pair walked closer to the playground, and then suddenly the sibling's new group of friends jumped out and shouted at the same time, 'Surprise! Surprise!'

Soon they were closely followed by others jumping out of their hiding spots.

'Happy birthday, mother!' All the siblings shouted simultaneously. 'Thank you for everything you have done for us!'

Mother cat certainly got surprised by her children, whereupon they enjoyed the rest of the day celebrating her birthday with every friend they had made.

And they all…. And they all happily lived ever after."

I finish the story and many tears warm up my cheeks. After I wipe them off with my sleeve, I look at the Alice and notice, that she had closed her eyes and is breathing softly.

Afterwards I stand up to leave this house, but before I go through the door, I take a quick glance at the soundly sleeping Alice. Outside, the soft earth greets me. When I look up, I can see many buildings placed around the trees. Contrary to it, nothing besides the hut I just came out from is build anywhere near.

'Where are you, Erwin? Where?' I think and breath heavily, while running up some huge branches leading to the city Arboras high up the gigantic trees.

The way up is long and complicated, because there is not a single way leading straight to one of the platforms, the so called islands. To get to Arboras I often have to change branches, but after some time I finally reach an island—circling around a tree.

I am on the lowest island, where houses are randomly built without any skills and streets are so narrow, that only three people are able to stand side by side, just like those three men a short distance in front of me.

Two shabbily dressed men, with black and white tails like those of a skunk, are from each side gripping the arm of the man in the middle and seem to lead him to a much darker alley. The man in the middle has brown featherlike hair and above him is floating a familiar name.

"Found you," I whisper and follow them, while crouching and walking quietly on my tiptoes.

I get close enough to listen in on their conversation. "——re begging to help ya lil' human girl ya took in once. That's why our boss is now angry," one of the skunkmen says.

The other one adds, "Yeah, how dare ya help a human," and spits on the ground, "we are gonna punish ya for that."

"Please help my precious daughter!" Erwin pleads, "You are our last hope. Everyone else declined on the spot. So, please!"

They drag Erwin off, deeper into the dark alley and stop at a door. One skunkman then says, "Soon, ya are gonna tell us where she is, when we are done with ya" and licks his lips.

On the other hand, the other skunkman lets go of Erwin and puts both his hands into his pockets and rummages in them. Grabbing the opportunity, I dash out of the shadows, drag Erwin along the way and we run away together.

"Miltonie!" Erwin bursts out, with his yellow eyes widely open.

While running, I pull stronger on his arm and order him, "Don't stop running and follow me!"

Erwin is closely behind me and so are our pursuers. I take many turns to make them lose sight of us and fortunately is this island here almost like a maze, thanks to the many narrow streets.

But after some time, Erwin grabs my arm and we come to a halt. He is supporting his body by reaching his arms out to his knees. His breathing is quick and heavy, while his white spotted face is already red. Drops of sweat wet the streets and he says, breathing heavily, "Gone…. They stopped."

Looking behind, I confirm that they are no longer following us, but I still do not let down my guard.

"Who were they?" I ask.

"Friends," he says.

"Great, you are not willing to be honest to your savior," I snappishly retort. My voice turns cold as ice, "Do not play with me, owl." I grab him at his collar and look fiercely into his eyes.

"Th-They were Skrovin's men," he stutters, "I asked them to help me gather the memoria crystals, so that I would be able to help Alice, but…."

Erwin stops talking and simply looks into the distance.

"Anyways… we should get back to Alice," I suggest. "She was worried about you."

Together, we go the way back to Erwin's and Alice's home at the ground. We get inside and see that Alice is still soundly sleeping in her bed, tightly wrapped in her soft blanket.

I sit somewhere on the ground down and watch the sleeping face of Alice, while Erwin ignites the fire in the hearth. The room soon gets showered in warm bickering lights.

"What does she have?" I ask.

Erwin looks with drooping eyes at his daughter. The crackling and static sound of fire fills the room, as the firelight plays with the shadows on the walls.

"She has got the extremely rare disease, the Yurtsama disease, about which we almost know nothing about." He answers, whereupon he takes a deep breath in. "If she is lucky, then she will live long enough to see her 13th or even 14th summer."

"The disease makes her hallucinate and drains her magic power," he explains, "but that's not the worst of it, no, it even forces her to only see nightmarish things and everything bad which happens to her body in her hallucinations becomes real. Slowly, her mind and body breaks apart. Furthermore is there also—"

He does not continue, as his eyes begin to water and also because a soft yawn is heard from the bed. Shortly afterwards, Alice slowly opens her eyes.

"Well… I will go out to get some fresh air," I say and leave the two alone, as I go out through the door.

A cool blow breeze greets me, which even brought me some of the sweetest fragrance of this forest's flowers. The sound of crickets enters my ears and the moonlight, which manages to come through all the leaves, shines upon my face.

I enjoy the refreshing air and take in a last deep breath before going back inside. But as I touch the door, I hear some familiar voices, whereupon I immediately dash inside.

"They found us!" I shout out.

Realizing what I just said, Erwin grabs Alice and carries her in his arms. I open the door for them and we rush outside. However, two skunkmen are already waiting outside.

"See, I told ya that he will lead us to her," one of the skunkmen says.

"No, ya didn't," the other one responds, "after all ya said we had lost them, brother."

"Sh-shut yer trap!" yells the first skunkman.

Erwin is still carrying Alice in his arms, whose bare white legs, which have a lot of bloody marks and scars, are now visible. Alice looks once to the skunkmen and then back to Erwin, whereupon she asks, "Daddy, who are they?"

The father in question opens up and closes his mouth, he seems unable to respond to her. Instead, I grab the initiative and answer, "Friends, Alice…. They are friends."

Afterwards I turn my head towards the skunkmen and glare at them. "Right?" I say.

At first the skunkmen's mouths are gaping, then they look at each other's faces and then back at us again. Next, one of them says with a questioning tone, "We and friends of the likes—"

However, he gets interrupted by the sudden screams of Alice, "No! Don't come near me! Stop!"

"She suddenly got a high fever!" Erwin calls out, "Please help her… please."

On Alice's arms appear all of a sudden burning marks. Her smooth skin begins to show scratches and bruises. Out of her eyes flow huge amounts of tears and her screams make my heart ache.

"Can't you see that she needs help!" I yell at the skunkmen.

"Yes and that makes our jobs easier," a skunkman says and afterwards they both laugh out loud.

"Erwin, let's get her away from them!"

But the skunkman do not want to let us, instead they let out something different. In the next moment an awful smell spreads, which forces me to hold my nose and my eyes begin to get watery.

You are stunned.

For having a sensitive nose, the duration has been doubled.

Time remaining: 7 seconds

"Oh, brother! What the hell did ya eat?"

By the time the counter of the stunning effect reaches its end, the skunkmen almost have reached us. They point their daggers at us, ready to strike any moment.

On the other hand, I get my claws out and aim at the closest one to the screaming Alice. With a powerful jump, I dash towards him. He slashes with his dagger at me, but I spin in midair and avoid it. Afterwards I scratch him a few times in succession, until he slashes at me again, which I also avoid.

Surprisingly, a red line above the skunk's head appeared, after I hit him the first time. And it gradually decreases, each time I scratch him.

"Enough!" the other skunkman shouts. "I Summon imp!"

A skinny red person, the size of a toddler, with sharp and evil looking eyes, pointy ears, two small horns on its forehead and a long needle-thin tail, appears out of the blue.

"A ne-ne-needle…" I stutter.

My fingers are cramping. My body trembles uncontrollable. My heart beats faster and my chest tightens. I struggle for air. I breath in and out. No air enters my lungs. Everything in my view spins and turns round and round. It gets suddenly dead silent.

I feel my legs giving in. The ground comes closer to me. Dirt enters my mouth.

In my view I see Erwin hugging tightly Alice on the ground. A skunkman is about to stab them.

Everything disappears and gets replaced by a simple white.

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN

The capsule's sensors detected a foreign physical endangerment to the system.

The system will shutdown in: 2 seconds

Everything goes blank. And the next thing I remember is Dante's face in front of me.

A/N: Sorry for the delay... Could not manage to write even 500 words a day, no matter what.

Welp, consider my promise to get it out on Monday as an April fools It was an April fools... Ha Ha >.

Well, at least I think I improved since chapter 1, right? Gotta make some major edits on the earlier chapter... in the future.

Back to Main Page