I jumped from the pod and crab-walked a few steps away while attempting to catch my breath. Suffocated under the too tight fit, I tore at the neoprene suit and flung it across the room. “Fuck.” I ran a trembling hand through my hair. “Fuck.” My naked reflection gazed back at me, wild-eyed and too pale.

Was that shit my fault?

Fists pounded at the adjoining door between the two suites nearly caused me to jump out of my skin. I laughed at myself for being so skittish and tossed on a white robe before letting them inside.

Salvo and Cale, both as white as the terrycloth robes they wore, rushed in.

“What the fuck just happened? Does that mean she’s… Whatever Viv is?” Salvo asked and pulled me into a hug.

I rested my head against his chest. He was familiar and real after too much of the bizarre. “Static skin, right?” My body gave in to one last shiver, and I pulled myself away from the steadying hold.

“Shit, you saw it too?” Cale asked.

“The sword?” Salvo replied. “Saw it too. Right when it gave her the deluxe Marie Antoinette treatment.”

“Fuck,” I yelled and punched the solid steel doorframe. The searing pain in my knuckles tore me away from the haze of panic. That one hurt, I thought, I really need to quit doing that. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to go back in the game for a while. Just in case he’s waiting for us.”

Cale frowned at me and glanced down at my hand. “Salvo, get our laptops. If we go back in, it won’t be until tomorrow afternoon when there’s more players running around.” He took my right hand, the undamaged one, and led me to the bathroom where he ran my injured knuckles under cold water. “Find a better coping mechanism.”

My jaw clenched to avoid saying the first thing that came to mind, that he needed to mind his own fucking business. Instead, I took a breath and said, “Yeah, it’s shitty, but it helps.”

He turned the water off and dabbed at the cuts with a washcloth, ignoring my pained hiss. “Buy yourself a stress ball. There’s less chance of infection that way.” Neither of us spoke another word. He crossed his arms with an expectant expression on his face, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror.

It was obvious he wanted me to broach the topic of the ham-fisted attempt at a kiss from the previous night, but I had nothing to say, at least not until the game world of Arcadia was a blip in our rearview. I crossed my own arms at him and raised an eyebrow.

A sharp exhale left his nose before he turned and left the bathroom, mumbling about going to put some clothes on.

Yes, I might be using the situation with Viv as an excuse to avoid dealing with my intimacy issues. And, yes, okay, maybe I caught feelings for him. I groaned, got dressed, and joined the two men in the living area.

We searched for what felt like hours. More posts appeared about missing friends and loved ones not waking after a session in Age of Arcadia. There was some outcry about untested tech and how we’re all guinea pigs in the grand scheme.

In typical religious zealot form, there was a long and hateful message from an infamous pastor claiming “This is what happens when the devil runs amok.” As a collective, the three of us rolled our eyes.

“Isn’t getting caught sticking your dick in the 19-year-old nanny what happens when the devil runs amok?” Salvo asked, bringing up a scandal that somehow hadn’t ruined the pastor’s career.

“Eh,” I said. “Not so sure getting caught is the key issue there. More like the nearly sixty-year-old man cheating on his twenty-something trophy wife shortly after she gave birth. But, whatever.”

“Back on track,” Cale said and closed the message.

“Guys, this is going to sound shitty, but let me finish,” Salvo said and ran a hand through his hair. The humor vanished from his demeanor. “You both know I love Viv as much as the rest of you but we should go home before we get hurt. Yanno, let the professionals handle the rest.”

“Huh,” Cale said thoughtfully and raised his eyebrows. “Of all people to be the voice of reason, I’d have picked you to be the last.”

“Self-preservation,” I snapped and immediately regretted it the second it came out. “Sorry, that was rude. Look, you want to go home, be my fucking guest. But I’m staying. I gave my word I’d help Mark, whatever way I could and I’m keeping it. Even if that means I end up in a bed right next to Viv. At least I’ll have gone down swinging, fighting for someone I care about.”

“And,” Cale started, closing his eyes before he finished. “I don’t see Eternia doing much to help. Going back to my normal life now would only mean a lifetime of nightmares about what I walked away from and what I could have done.”

Salvo moaned and waved a hand. “Fine, fuck it. I’ll stay. But do we really need all three of us to search the same message boards right now? If I’m putting my life on the line, I need some unwinding.”

“Go on,” I said. “I appreciate you sticking around as long as you have.”

He smiled before retreating to his suite, for what I assumed would be the hour-long process that he called getting ready.

“All right,” I said and gently massaged my temples while thinking. “Just before Dawn got… whatever happened to her, she was talking about how an Eternia Entertainment employee might be behind all this.”

Cale frowned at his laptop. “Maybe Viv’s dad is thinking the same. Why else would he insist on paying for us to keep going?”

Since Salvo didn’t take it with him, I grabbed his dirty old laptop and got to work, looking for an employee roster of Eternia Entertainment. “Do you think there’s a way to access the employee forums Dawn was talking about?”

“We can try. I have a few friends that might know of a backdoor if we really need it.”

My fingers stopped typing, and I peered over at Cale. “Since when do you run with the types who’d have access to backdoors? Last I knew, you felt like the free mint bucket at a restaurant was stealing if there wasn’t a tip jar nearby.”

His eyes narrowed, but his fingers continued hammering at the keyboard. “Never came up.”

“Bullshit.”

“Long story. Look, how do you think I got in the beta for Age of Arcadia with no social media presence or game testing experience?”

“I dunno, Nerd reasons. Like you knew a guy who got in but was too afraid to leave his mom’s basement.”

He paused long enough to pinch the bridge of his nose and his eye developed a slight twitch.

“All right, so you know a guy who can get us access. I’ll start going through videos from the launch. See if there’s anyone extra salty in the crowd.”

The next hour, I went through every video I could find. Pausing it occasionally to ask Cale what he thought of various shady individuals. Not only did we discover I’m a terrible judge of shady characters, but the employees generally looked happy. In this era, having a job was reason enough for celebration, but even I could see the CEO, Richard Bouchard, was an overall well-regarded guy. He even had his own subreddit where he engaged with the members on a fairly regular basis.

So, I scrolled through Reddit, looking at pictures posted from various events. “Oh, shit, Cale, what about her?” I asked, pointing at an image of the CEO with his arm wrapped around a frail, white-haired woman. They both had smiles as wide as their faces. Her cataract blue eyes and his emerald green washed out by a crappy flash.

He shot me a confused look. “What about her? Liz, that’s a little old lady.”

“Yeah, well, what’s she doing at a game convention? Suspicious, don’t you think?”

“If she wasn’t there to celebrate her lifelong achievement award for her contributions to the gaming community, maybe. Did you read the title?”

I shot Cale the finger and moved on, he was probably right. In the next batch of images, there were multiples of the CEO with his family. His wife, Dana, was a gorgeous woman with crow's feet and a golden tan. Their son, Leland, was my age, early twenties with the same deep tan as his mother and shared his father’s vivid green eyes.

“He’s good looking,” I said, hoping to get a rise from Cale.

“If you like trust fund babies, sure,” he said and continued his typing.

Annoyed by his lack of reaction, I craned my neck to get a good look at what he was doing.

Only to have a palm pressed against my forehead to hold me back. “Not yet, still working.”

“So, what about the trust fund baby? Do you think he has something to do with it?”

“No. From what I’ve seen, he’s only interested in fast cars and supermodels. Neither of which are cheap.” He hit a few more keys and said, “And we have access to the employee board.”

My jaw may have dropped. Though, it’s hard to see if that’s happening on yourself or not. “By knowing a guy, you meant you know yourself.”

“I’m now understanding how little you pay attention to others around you.”

“I pay attention,” I said and crossed my arms.

“Look,” he said and read aloud, “What to say if you’re asked about missing persons.”

The blood rushed to my ears, banging in rapid succession. We found something.

Cale continued reading, “First, admit nothing. At Eternia Entertainment, experience is everything. Each player is our guest and should be treated as such. From the second their avatar enters our realm, it’s our job to cater to their every need… I’m going to skip the corporate speak.” He was silent while he skimmed, only to let out a long exhale through his nose. “The rest is the same. Guests good, rumors bad. Don’t talk about it for fear of job loss. Don’t talk to Mr. Bouchard about it, yet. He only hears the good news.”

“Wait, that’s fucked. They’re keeping the CEO in the dark about this? Maybe the person who wrote the email is the static assassin?”

“Looks like it was posted by their Media Relations guy.”

“All right, well, we have a little more to go on. I’ll call Mark first thing in the morning and see if he’s willing to share what he knows.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Cale said, packing up his laptop and grabbing Salvo’s. He stopped, turned, and his mouth worked to speak, but he shook his head. “See you in the morning,” he said and shut the adjoining door behind him.

“Mr. Williams, hi. Sorry to bother you,” I said, holding my cellphone between my ear and shoulder while shutting the curtains against the blinding light of early morning.

“You’re no bother at all. Have you found something?” His voice sounded more strained than normal.

My feet started pacing the floors and my palms grew sweaty. If he had the ability to extend our vacation, did that mean he could ensure our employment was terminated? Every conversation with this man was a new form of torture. A minefield of destroyed futures with one misspoken word. “Any word on Viv?”

“She’s stable but unresponsive. They’re going to try a few new therapies on her in the coming week.”

“We found a few things you should probably see,” I said and ran down the list of message boards with players talking and finishing with the employee notice.

“Excellent but I want to see it. I’ll be there in… Let’s say twenty minutes. Meet me at the restaurant. We’ll order breakfast and talk there.”

We hung up, and I rushed to the door of Cale’s room, where I pounded my fists with all my might. Salvo answered, half asleep and in the buff.

“Where’s Cale?” I asked and pushed my way through.

Salvo yawned and rubbed at his eyes. “Come on in.”

“Just realized I haven’t been in here. It’s just like my room but backwards.” Though, I guess that was to be expected. Instead of remaining polite, I ripped the covers from Cale’s bed and grabbed his arm, pulling it.

One moment he was asleep, the next he was panicked and flailing his legs. Probably wasn’t the nicest way to wake up, but at least I knew he’d stay that way. Adrenaline is a sonofabitch.

“Liz, what the fuck?” He fumbled for his glasses on the nightstand.

“Mark will be here in twenty minutes. Meet me in the lounge.” I patted him on the leg and trotted out of the room to get ready.

Mr. Mark Williams met us in the lounge in his typical punctual manner. If you’d met him without knowing what was happening in his personal life, you’d expect he was another businessman living a charmed existence. His faded copper hair coifed to perfection, his hazel eyes offset by a tan from hours on the golf course, his perfect bright white teeth.

Once Mark had been brought to speed on our findings, Cale opened his laptop and frowned. He typed a few more times. “What the fuck?” he said under his breath. “The bulletin on the employee site is gone.”

“Did you save it somewhere?” I asked, feeling the bottom of my stomach give way.

Cale put his head in his hands. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t see the need. It was there yesterday.”

Mark sat back in his chair and crossed his arms with an unreadable expression.

“Well, that’s a wash. Pull up the message boards.” The sinking feeling grew worse, I had a sneaking suspicion we hadn’t been the only ones scouring the web last night.

Cale swore under his breath, confirming my fears.

“It’s all gone?” Mark asked and raised an eyebrow. “Everything you found yesterday?”

“All of it.” Cale slammed his laptop shut and cringed, opening it back up to check the state of his screen.

Without a hint of disbelief at our story, Mark said, “That confirms my thoughts from the start. It’ll take some delicate convincing, but I should be able to access their employee records.”

“If it’s not too much trouble…” I wrote the name Dawnst4r on a napkin and handed it to him. “Can you look for this employee, please?”

He took it and glanced at the name before slipping it into his pocket. “She’s the one that was attacked while helping you?”

“Yeah,” I said and swallowed my rage before that became an additional issue to deal with.

“If I find her, I’ll be sure she’s taken to the same facility as Vivian.” His face attempted a comforting smile but failed to hit its mark.

We ate in silence until he checked his watch and excused himself. Said we’d hear from him soon and left.

With just the two of us alone at the table, Cale breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Don’t know why, but every time that guy’s around, I feel like I’m in a lion’s den. There’s something off about him and I don’t know what.”

I shrugged, not thinking too deep into the matter. “Nah, it’s just Mark. He’s wound a little tight but he seems all right.”

Cale gave me a look of something between disbelief and annoyance.

I didn’t want to get back in the pod, so I circled around it for a few minutes. It was getting close to our agreed upon time to meet-up in the game, but every time I thought about it, the static assassin was there, waiting for us. Helplessness was not an emotion I welcomed. Normally, anything that elicited that feeling would be ignored.

“Stop being such a whiny bitch,” I told my reflection and got in before another wave of doubt could hit me. The equipment whirred to life, and the world came into view.

Devilkin Salvo lounged atop the Bates monument as if he’d never left. He flopped a lazy hand in greeting and noted, “You’re late.”

Next to him, Cale’s bored elf leaned against a monument, inspecting his shield. “Now that you’ve finally graced us with your presence, we’ll head back to the werewolf dungeon. It’s good experience but more importantly, it’s instanced. Once we’re there, no one else can get in.”

“I’m not that late,” I said, and bit the inside of my cheek, wondering if my body was mirroring the same action.

The two men grunted at me, and we made our way to the dungeon.

And found we hadn’t been the only group to run an instance for safety. The area surrounding the dungeon was busier than any part of Lighthall had ever been. Some enterprising players set up stalls to sell potions and other food items. A game of kickball was happening dangerously close to those lounging while they socialized. Duals broke out in the middle of a picnic, scattering food and beverages. And for some goddamn reason, there were at least twenty idiots with nothing better to do than dance in their underwear.

We pushed our way to the entrance, nearly passing the priest Ang3lB4by without a hello.

But she wasn’t about to let that happen. “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she exclaimed and pulled me in for a hug.

Not ready for the contact, my body froze, arms hung limply at my sides. The hug lingered. “Okay, that’s enough.” I forced a smile at her while internally screaming about not touching random people you barely know. Some people are just touchy feely like that. Probably the same type of person who plays a healer priest. I bet she smelled like pumpkin spice in real life.

“Hey, Angel,” Cale said with a little sparkle in his otherwise dull eyes. “Why’s all this happening?”

“Hey yourself, handsome,” Angel said and winked.

Salvo and I rolled our eyes at each other.

Angel flourished a hand, and a smirk played on her pouty red lips. “We’re having a little end of the line party. A lot of the folks here are so afraid they’re about to cancel their accounts. They wanted one last hurrah before that happened.”

“Wait,” I said, rubbing my temples. “These people are afraid of the game enough to cancel their accounts. So, instead of avoiding it and not logging back in, they’re having a party? How does that make sense?”

She shrugged. “If big ugly comes around, we all just run inside the dungeon for safety and log out.”

“And you know what he looks like?” Cale asked, his own face looking especially doubtful.

Angel watched a gnome in her underpants run by, chugging like a choo-choo train. “Not especially, but safety in numbers, right?”

I bit my lip and typed,

Ri0tGrrl: Static. Look for electric snow. NEVER say it out loud, it might call him.

Ang3lB4by: Got it. THX. UR cute. Wanna chat later?

Ri0tGrrl: Nope.

With my good deed done for the day, my party of three entered the dungeon to slaughter more werewolves. Cale pulled and blocked the first attack with his shield.

The werewolf slashed his off-hand down with a snarl. A foamy spittle dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

Metal ting-ed as the attack was caught with the side of Cale’s blade. He spun and slashed at the wolf's flank.

It howled in anger and turned again to face him. Exposing his back to the rogue sneaking on the sidelines, waiting for his chance to strike. The shadows swirled and parted. His weapons gleamed with sickly green ichor before they sunk deep into either side of the wolf, just below his ribcage.

The wolf howled again, spun, and his teeth sunk into Salvo’s shoulder with a crunch of bones.

Salvo cried out in pain as his hit points drained to 15/300.

“Motherfucker,” I screamed, as I cast heal after heal and my poison spell at the wolf. It wasn’t much, but that ugly bitch hurt my friend.

Cale yanked on an ear to grab the monster’s attention, drawing it away from the squishy rogue. The beast swung around and staggered, Salvo’s poison and my own taking its toll.

The werewolf shook its head one last time, emitting a small whine before it collapsed.

After hours of claws clashing against a metal shield, a sound best described as nails down a chalkboard, my nerves were shot and I was exhausted. We’d gained a couple more levels, leaving us all at 15.

My slow heal spell gained a level, increasing the amount healed per tick. The vines spell leveled and would now sprout thorns.

It felt good to make some progress, slow as it felt most of the time.

“Hey, I was just invited to head over to the warfields for some PvP. You guys mind if I call it on this dungeon?” Salvo asked. I was half expecting him to say he was leaving for another night on the town.

“I’m about to go to bed. It’s been a long day. Just stick with people. If you see…” I couldn’t finish that thought.

Salvo tsked. “I’ll log off if anything weird happens. Have a good sleep, Liz.”

“Night. I’m heading to bed too. Had a rude wake up call this morning,” Cale shot me a dirty look but the corner of his mouth turned upwards.

“See you both in the morning,” I said and exited the game.