“So… you up for a date tonight?” Maria asked shyly, her hands on mine. A stunning ten out of ten beauty, she was way out of my league, but had somehow climbed down the ranks to settle for me. I wasn’t gonna complain, but sometimes I had a hard time believing that someone like her would be with someone like me.

She was a blonde, with shoulder length hair tied into a ponytail. The magic of her cyan blue eyes were muted by her spectacles, but not completely removed. With unblemished fair skin, and a supermodel’s frame, she was enough to make the hardest of men drool. I would know, since I had drooled the first time I saw her.

“What on earth makes you think that I would say no to that? To spending time with you?” I replied with a grin, which made Maria smile happily.

“Well, you’re a big man Jay. I wonder how you manage to make time for me with your schedule,” She bantered in a relaxed manner, her eyes boring into mine and her hand caressing my cheek.

“Well, let’s just say that some people are not real happy with either of us right now.” I countered with an indulgent smile. We were relaxing on my balcony in my mansion, overlooking the quiet neighborhood we were in. Sitting in luxury Italian sofa chairs with a polished table between us, on it our drinks of spiced wine and our intertwined fingers.

“Oh? Would that include the media, the politicians and the presidency?” She retorted with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

“Maybe, I wouldn’t know. I’m just a nerd,” I snickered.

Maria and I met when I was still struggling to keep up in college as a chemistry major. Life was reasonably hectic back then. I was from a well-known and politically powerful family. That meant I had more eyes on me and my progress than I cared for. I also had problems making real friends and finding a significant other, not because I’m socially awkward or inept, but because it was hard to sift through those who approached me for what I was over what I had.

Eventually, I met Maria. She was a physics major and the belle of her class. She had proposals from guys who made me look poor in comparison, yet she saw me one day at the school’s café and did a double take. Then she came, sat down beside me and struck a conversation with my then dumbfounded brain. Sometimes I blush in embarrassment when I think about how awkward I must’ve been.

“You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?” She asked with a smirk.

“I didn’t know Newton taught how to read minds.”

“He didn’t. I’m special.”

“That you are. You’re one of a kind. Beautiful in body, mind and spirit. Perfection in human form.”

“Such sweet words. I like them. Say more.”

“The unstoppable marching of time is slowly leading us towards an inevitable death.”

Maria went quiet at that, giving me a look that was mixed between utter disgust and dark desire.

“That was hot. Say something darker,” She requested with a smile that was struggling to contain itself.

“Free will is an illusion granted to all sentient beings in order to prevent them from realizing that they are in fact, slaves,” I obliged her, fighting to keep my expression neutral as well.

“Now I’m all hot and bothered. What are you going to do about it?” She asked with a pout.

“Why I don’t I fix you a drink and we’ll brainstorm for solutions this conundrum?” I suggested idly, rising from my seat.

“You do that love. Though, I’m keenly aware that you’re going to spike my drink in order to seduce me,” She pointed out with a laugh.

“Damn, foiled again!” I exclaimed as I entered the upstairs kitchen from the balcony.

“You have some mad bantz love. It pleases me,” She called out from behind me.

Chuckling, I opened the fridge and quickly gathered the necessary ingredients to knock Maria’s stomach into the astral plane. I placed the arguably toxic substances into the shaker and used it to perform its namesake. When I was reasonably sure that the constituents had mixed properly, I poured it into a glass and added some ice.

“If she doesn’t start singing the national anthem after one sip, I’ll never mix anything again.”

Satisfied with my creation, I rotated to return to my babe and figure out how to seduce her. Tonight was going to be very good. The moment I did however, I came into contact with a singularity that was hovering in my kitchen. Just a few paces before me. A black hole. Or a wormhole? Or maybe a portal? My brain was having a hard time coming to grips with the inky black mass that was swirling before me.

My eyebrows shot up when I saw what came out of the portal. My years as an anime fan and a gamer made me think for a split second that some exotic alien woman was going to come out and tell me I was the chosen one.

Instead, I got a being that looked like it was ripped out of an Owlturd comic. Specifically, the depiction of life. With colorless grey skin that was muscular enough to make Dwayne Johnson file a lawsuit and an oval shaped head with only two eyes and a mouth, I was sufficiently bamboozled.

“You are the chosen one,” He said without any preamble.

“I am? I always knew-”

“I was joking. I just wanted to watch your emotions switch from happiness to dejection in the most painful way.”

“Well, if I’m not a chosen one, then what are you doing here, Shen boy?” I said, sizing the creature up as if I were looking for a fight.

“I am here to take you to an alternate dimension against your wishes to struggle, suffer and bleed for my own personal goals like any good deity.”

“That’s surprisingly straightforward. Are you sure you should tell me this?” I asked with curiosity.

“I hate mortals who assume all deities like to speak in riddles and play mind games. Some of us just want to achieve our goals with clear instruction to our champions, okay?” He growled angrily, his body tensing up.

For that matter, I took a step back and raised my arms to make a placating gesture. “Ay, whatever works for you hombre. I won’t stereotype you again, though I’m not entirely sure I did in the first place.”

“Hmph. I will take your apology since you are coming with me anyway. Still, you are not reacting the way I expected. Why are you so calm about my sudden appearance? You should be hysterical.”

I tsked and gave him my best ‘really dude?’ look. “Years of consuming anime and games have prepared me for this day. Maybe if you caught a normie, you might ruffle their feathers, but not a chad like me.”

“You disgust me.”

“Get in line.”

I lifted up the drink I fixed for Maria and observed it critically, checking to see if the volume was at the original level. Seeing that it wasn’t I clicked my tongue and let out a frustrated sigh.

“I should’ve known. I must’ve foolishly sipped some of this to test it out, now I’m hallucinating about… well, every gamer’s dream.” I lamented sadly. It was too good to be true.

“Sorry comrade, but this is where I take my leave. The longer I stay here, the longer my peepee remains unsucked. Adios.”

Sighing once again, I sidestepped the self-proclaimed deity and opened my mouth to call out to my baby girl so she could drink this and lose her sensibilities too. My attempt was silenced by a large hand clamping around my mouth with herculean strength.

“You think this is game mortal? I have chosen you to do my bidding and you will, regardless of your intentions. Prepare to be cast into the void.”

Cast into the void? For a hallucination, this was pretty realistic. I mean, it actually felt like his hand was clamping down on my mouth while he dragged me towards the black hole he spawned from. What a fascinating concoction. I might bottle more and distribute it after this.

“In you go.”

And then I was tossed into the void like a ragdoll, my body losing corporeal shape as I fell through the endless blackness of the otherworld.

* * *

“Oi, wake up you panzy!”

The command was accompanied by a resounding slap that could wake a sleeping dragon. Naturally, with such a power output, it made matters worse as I was decidedly awake, but also definitely dazed.

“Ugh what an entitled brat. Just my luck.”

I realized that the speaker possessed an above average chance of being a female given the pitch of her voice. Despite her obvious need for an attitude adjustment – yes, John Cena style – I ignored her for the moment and focused on shifting my brain from negative gear one to gear zero. After heavy amounts of stalling, I managed to finally kickstart my brain.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position, taking in my surroundings with a careful and critical assessment. I was in some sort of tunnel passageway, which was blessedly wide and high on both planes and possessed some form of unnatural lighting. Minus the obvious contoured rocky walls, there were a few stalactites and stalagmites scattered here and there. What was most eye caching about everything were the people I had been dumped with.

Huddled around me in differing states of panic and duress were men and women ranging from barely above the legal age to the age of retirement for soccer players. Some were shuddering and sobbing, some were joined in some form or argument and some had segregated themselves and were eyeing the rest of us dangerously. I mentally tallied everyone to about a hundred and fifty six including myself.

“Ah, you’ve finally decided to wake up pretty boy,” came the voice I’d associated with abuse and pain. Surprisingly – or rather unsurprisingly – the speaker was an attractive female. She was a dark skinned beauty that looked to be of Caribbean descent, with a body like the classic hourglass frame, but doubled at the necessary exit points. With dark hair peeking out from a blue bandana and rich hazel eyes, she was an exotic woman. She was the kind of woman who entered and room and dominated the attention even after she left.

“Well, at least your eyes are working. Had your fill of me? I wager every man in here had tried to approach me and that is why most have black eyes,” She stated with a laugh, “would you like to join them?”

And yet here you are. Standing above me like a mother over her cub.

Climbing to my feet, I dusted myself off before replying her. From our little intro, I had gleaned something very important. Things were not looking good and not just from the perspective that we were clearly in an alternate world trapped below ground with no easy way out. It was from the fact that we had a group of dudes eyeing everyone as if they were plotting how to slit our throats, another bunch who were arguing about something inconsequential compared to their wastage of energy when no food was available while the rest were broken down and generally hapless.

These people needed a leader. They needed someone to rally them together, suggest a proper plan of action and lead them out to safety. Fortunately, that guy wasn’t me.

“Hello, my name is Jay. Can you give me a rundown of what’s happening so far?” I asked the beauty beside me with an outstretched hand.

Snorting indelicately, she took my hand and shook it, her tone moving from condescending to reluctant respect, probably due to my manners and lack of general idiocy. “Verita. I was the first to pop in here and you were second. The rest came in different batches and tried to fool around with us until I sent them packing.”

I blinked and changed my assessment of the feisty woman. She’d stood guard over a stranger’s body in a situation where anyone would have struck out on their own. Though I’d like to believe Verita was a shining example of morality, I had a sneaking suspicion that she sided with me because we were the only two dark skinned people around.

“Thank you for that. What attempts have been made in regards to solving our predicament?”

“A few have tried to find a way out, but the moment they leave our field of vision, we hear screams and the sound of rending. That is why those miserable sobs are over there crying, because they think we are doomed,” Verita explained with a scornful gaze cast towards the people she highlighted.

Hmm. That shed a new light on things. I re-assessed the room and changed my conclusions accordingly. The Criers were in a full state of panic and the Arguers were trying to decide who amongst themselves should press forward. The Haters were probably waiting for the opportunity to break out on their own, preferably at the expense of our lives.

“So, three factions and none of them the kind I want to join. Great! Verita, you and I are forming the fourth faction,” I suggested while clapping my hands together.

The exotic woman gave a half smile and sized me up and down. “Got a nice brain on you minus that fine tush. Good. We’ll need it.”

I smiled and acknowledged her praise, I could tell she didn’t give it easily. Standing at a good height of six feet, I was a dark skinned fellow on the lighter shade compared to Verita. I wasn’t toned or muscular in anyway, but I was on the lean side in terms of build. With dark hair and dark eyes and a slightly round face, I was on the upper scale of handsome, if what my mirror, Maria and Verita tell me.

Maria…

I wondered how she’d feel about coming to the kitchen to see a broken glass and no trace of me. She’d probably panic and call the police, but there was very little law enforcement could do to a dimension hopping deity that had no concept of free will.

Verita and I were garbed in a cream roughspun tunic and dark brown pants with coffee colored pathetic shoes. In fact, everyone in the room wore the same thing. Huh. Starter gear then? Wait, why did starter gear come into mind?

Am I… am I in a game world?

“Verita, how did you end up here?” I asked her suddenly, turning to face her.

“The same way as everyone else. We had logged onto the new MMO game, Sealords Online when a wormhole ripped open and sucked us into this place,” She answered with a dark look to one of the Haters whose eyes lingered on her too long.

Our attentions were suddenly arrested when a part of a very well-known track was played while a pop up appeared before all of us, seeing as everyone’s eyes instantly unfocused.

DUN DUN DUN – DUN DUN DUN DUN

…

RUN!

“What on eart-”

The query was cut short by a resounding boom. Right on top of where the Arguers were was a large boulder. Minus the sudden seepage of blood from underneath it, no other movement occurred in the tunnel as everyone was shocked to silence but the suddenness of it.

Then, the stone started rolling, slowly at first, but gradually picking up pace. Snapping out of my trance, I grabbed Verita by the arm and started pulling her into a run.

Unfortunately, the others didn’t have similar quick thinking capabilities as they stood rooted in shock as the large rock casually closed the distance between them. It wasn’t until a noticeable splat sound was heard over a muffled scream that the rest realized that standing there waiting for death was not the best option.

Verita and I had a healthy head start on all of them which was slowly being closed by the fastest runners among the group, which unfortunately turned out to be the Haters. Those who had been lethargic up to this point did not seem to be able to get the necessary acceleration coupled with their precarious positioning. As such, they were brutally crushed by the monstrosity that cared nothing for our lives.

When I turned back to look at the boulder, I realized that it had cleared more than seventy five percent of us. My stomach dropped at the assessment, but I kept my wits about. I could lament on the lost later. Now, if I didn’t keep pumping my legs, I would soon be part of them.

“A light!” Verita exclaimed, removing her hand from mine to point ahead.

I followed her direction and saw that there was a bright light ahead of us, a few meters away. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. A burst of energy that was dredged up from increased adrenaline and excitement saw me increasing my velocity, Verita matching me step for step.

I took one more look back and almost fell over myself. There were only five people behind us, all of them just a few feet behind us along with the instrument of our death following them on their heels. A quick calculation told me that they wouldn’t make it, despite how close we were to the exit. With a clenched jaw, I realized the reason for it. The blood from the people that had been crushed had coated the boulder in its slickness, allowing it to roll faster.

“Almost… there…!!” Verita encouraged with a painful wheeze. There was no doubt that none of us were Olympic sprinters. Our power source was adrenaline and even that wouldn’t save you when you were running on fumes.

I turned my head forward when I heard the first muffled scream, two more following in quick succession as the damned rock picked up speed. I could hear it grinding against the walls, the noise sounding sickeningly like a dog’s excited bark when chasing a bone.

Just when I thought we were done for, Verita grabbed my hand and pulled hard as we jumped through the exit… right into thin air. The boulder hit the mouth of the tunnel with a sickening crunch and stopped moving, while my companion and I fell some distance, screaming all the way down. My screams were cut off when I felt my body hit water, the liquid filling my mouth rapidly.

Thrashing tiredly, I started dropping deeper and deeper into the ocean’s embrace, the blackness creeping from the edges of my vision taking control of my sight.