After school, I’m changing out of my sweaty band practice clothes when I hear a knock on the door. Since my room is right next to the front, I can also hear some low voices. After I get fully changed, I peek to see that there are a few cars in front of the house, and- my anxiety spikes- one of them is my dad’s.

I quickly get out my phone and open Collin’s messages.

Collin?

What’s up sis?

I see our father’s car in front of the house.

Oh shit

You mean Ashley’s house

Yes.

Well I guess that explains why neither of our parents are here right now.

Did you hear them say anything about what they were doing?

Well, this doesn’t seem good.

I did happen to overhear something yesterday.

They were talking about how to get out of this situation

They said they don’t want to give up but the police weren’t helping them

Oh shit, you know what

I just realized, Dad did say something about doing something tomorrow

And that was yesterday

So

Uh oh

Collin, do you think they’ve come to try and get me?

Yeah

They’re going to try.

Dad was gonna come up with some plan of how to get you without causing a fuss

I gulp heavily. That would explain why there are more cars out there. They must’ve brought along some others in the church, thinking they’d have strength in numbers.

I run out of my room, breathing shallowly as panic overtakes my senses.

Ashley’s dad happens to be walking past at the same time. He looks at me curiously. “Hmm, is something wrong?” he asks.

“They’re at… it’s my… the door…” I have to stop and take a breath.

“Yes, I heard the knock,” he says calmly. “How about you spend some time in Ashley’s room while I meet with the visitors?”

I nod, and head for her room without needing to be told twice.

I barge into her room… and it looks like she was in the middle of changing clothes…

“Oh… I’m sorry…” I stammer, starting to back out. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Zoe, it’s okay. Just get in here,” she tells me. “Close the door behind you, though.”

I step back in and shut the door, my face turning red. “Ashley… it’s them. They’re at the door. It’s just like I was afraid of,” I tell her, all the while trying not to look at her.

“Hmm. That’s not good,” she says. “Well, looks like we have a palace to go clear out.”

I gasp. “W-wait… right now?”

“Yep. Don’t get me wrong, I trust my parents to handle this, but I still think it’s time. By the way, you can look now.”

I turn to her, and she’s dressed back in regular leisure clothes.

“Ashley… I’m scared,” I tell her.

“I know. Come sit next to me,” she says.

I do as I’m told, sitting down pressed up against her. She gets out her phone.

“It’s time to get the team together,” she explains. “I think it’d be easiest to have them wait at the church so we can grab Ted, and we’ll just sneak out of the house using the Metaverse app. We just need to make sure we’re back before anyone checks my room, which should be easy given how slowly time moves on the other side. I hope that there’s nobody hanging around there this time… we might want to think of a new base of operations at some point.”

I nod, not really absorbing anything that she’s saying, and instead trying to steel myself for the task ahead.

In order to save time, we walk to the Baptist church through the Metaverse as a group. On the way, we run into a few shadows, and the others recommended that I use the opportunity to get used to using my Persona. Apart from the sleeping move I used on Moloch, I also have some type of move that hits enemies with a blast of radioactive energy.

Nova says that my skills seem to be well-rounded compared to the others in the group, because I have the shotgun to hit people up-close, the nuclear attack to hit people who are far away, and the sleep move for support. In contrast, Ted and Anja’s abilities are better at hitting enemies at a distance and supporting the rest of the team, but if they’re cornered, it’ll be difficult for either of them to fight their way out of it. On the other hand, Ashley and Nova have abilities that are extremely potent up close, but this means that they usually have to go directly into the fray to do damage.

All of the enemies we fight are distorted variations of wildlife you’d usually see around here, which makes me feel a little bit bad about killing them. Especially the coyotes, given how they’re a bit too similar to dogs. The others keep telling me that the animals aren’t real, so I’m not really harming anything, but it still makes me feel a little uneasy.

Eventually, we reach our church, which looks just as strange as Ashley told me it would. Even by the standards of everything else we do in this bizarre world, I feel pretty weird about walking into this fleshy, slimy building. Nova and Anja clearly share in my reluctance, as they both look slightly sick just looking at it. But Ashley is convinced that the entrance to the palace is in the sanctuary, so inside we go.

We have to carefully step through to avoid slipping. We walk into the sanctuary, where a huge, black void is instead of the stained-glass window.

“You think that we have to go through there?” Nova asks Ashley. “I don’t know, it looks like we’re just walking into a black hole or something.”

“Well, we can test that theory by throwing something into it,” Ashley explains. “If it seems to just get frozen there infinitely, we’ll know it’s a black hole.”

“Really?” I ask. “Why would that be what happens?”

“Well, you see Zoe, black holes have these things called ‘event horizons,’ in which…”

“Ashley… I get enough of this shit during chemistry class,” Anja interjects tiredly. “Can we just focus on the mission?”

“Hmmph. I always have to shush you two when you’re making pop cultural references and talking about hentai for no reason. And yet here I am trying to teach you something meaningful, and you don’t want to hear it.”

“Hey! The hentai thing only happened once!” Anja jabs at her. “Don’t go bringing that up again!”

I don’t know what “hentai” is, but I feel like now is the wrong time to ask.

So we continue walking towards the not-actually-a-black-hole, Nova laughing as we walk, as he was apparently very amused by the previous conversation. I, in contrast, feel successively more anxious with every step I take, and the uneasy feeling in my stomach grows more unpleasant. I just wish none of this had ever happened…

When we step up onto the stage, Ashley turns to face the rest of us.

“Okay, this is it. Any questions or comments before we begin?” she asks.

“Yes, I have a question for you and Zoe specifically,” Anja says. “Doesn’t it feel… a little weird to you two that we’re basically launching a full-out assault on your church?”

“Why would that feel weird?” Ashley questions her.

“I mean… you say that you still believe in your religion even after all of this, but we’re also about to attack a religious institution, which will probably have the effect of lessening its influence. Doesn’t that give you a little bit of cognitive dissonance?”

“No,” Ashley says simply. “You’re not really lessening your own food supply when you throw spoiled food into the trash, now are you?”

Anja shrugs. “Damn, all right. Just curious.”

“Okay. Well, if nobody else has any comments, let’s get this started,” Ashley says.

And so the five of us pass by the choir pews and walk into the void…

I open my eyes, and everything looks normal. The sun is up, and the world looks as it should.

I look around. I appear to be in the commercial district of town, right across the street from the Buc-ees. I don’t see anyone around, but everything looks so… normal. Was I somehow sent back to the regular world?

…No, something is still strange here. I’m holding a weapon, but it’s not my usual sword; it’s a submachine gun. I glance down and identify it as an MP7. I also see that my clothes have changed- I’m now wearing what looks like an US military uniform.

What the hell? What happened to my Persona? Where are the others? I start to look around the area, keeping both hands on my new weapon as I do so.

Then, I hear gunshots, and something whizzing past me. I turn quickly towards the sound and see someone running towards me, gun pointed directly at my head. Acting on instinct, I take aim and fire. It’s a hit, and I see the other soldier fall down. I knew that going to the range with Mom and Dad was gonna pay off someday.

I walk over to the other soldier to investigate. He’s also wearing camouflage, but it’s a lighter, yellower shade than mine in. In addition, he has a mask around his head, covering everything but his eyes. He doesn’t appear to be actually dead, but he’s definitely incapacitated for now.

This churns in my mind as I walk past the Subway. It seems as if I was dropped into the middle of a war zone of some sort… but if that’s the case, why did I only run into one rogue soldier? Soldiers usually travel in packs during war… speaking of which, my priority for now should probably be to find the others. Presumably they also got dropped somewhere random in the middle of this mess.

Man, this is freaking me out. Where the hell is everyone else? Why am I by the tax office, of all places? Why am I dressed like some military dude? I have some really heavy gun in my hands with a really long muzzle. I gotta say, having the powers of Thor was much cooler. I mean, I guess this is kind of cool too, but it’s just not the same.

I walk across the street, where there’s some sort of other building. God damn it, I really wasn’t expecting this. No… come on, we’re in a war. I need to hold myself together… Hey, wait a minute. Isn’t that other building a police station or something? Oh man, I wonder if I’m going to get arrested for carrying this gun around, this looks seriously military grade. Actually, wait, never mind, I’m in Texas. I should be fine. Actually, wait, even if the gun is legal, I don’t have an open carry license. Shit!

As I’m halfway across the street, I hear footsteps. Uh oh… I don’t have anywhere to take cover! I swing around wildly to try and see who it is, but I’m too late. Before I can see my attacker, I get several lacerations right through the chest. Welp.

“Heehee… this is like shooting fish in a barrel!” I hear some lady say from behind me as I fall over on my face. Man, fuck that bitch!

Well, I suppose I’m dead now. I know my life kind of sucked, but I’m sad that I wasn’t able to live long enough to play the next Smash game…

…Except, wait. I’m actually fine. I’m suddenly standing on my feet again. I now appear to be near the Jack in the Box by the highway that runs through town.

Oh, okay. So if I get shot, I’ll just respawn. That helps take some of the pressure off. Still, that was humiliating. I need to be more careful about how I move around from now on.

It’s a good thing I had practice using a gun from wielding my Persona, because otherwise I would’ve been totally clueless right now. While the weapon I have now is a bit bulkier than the one I usually have, most of the mechanics carry over. By managing to hide behind buildings and some railroad signs, I’ve managed to pick off two other soldiers who tried to attack- not like I really understand what the actual objective is here. Anyways, I slowly walk around the side of the city hall, and then lock sights with two others. I raise my weapon to fire, and…

“At ease, soldier!” A man’s voice says. “We’re on your side!”

I pause, and then notice that the uniforms they’re wearing are different; they match my darker-green camo. The soldiers are two men; the one who yelled at me is thin and has short blonde hair, while the other one is a tall, hulking man with a bushy mustache. Neither of them look familiar to me.

“Oh… hehe, sorry,” I say, embarrassed. “Just getting a little paranoid out here.”

“Wait… Anja? Is that you?” The bigger man asks. In a rumbly voice that sounds really familiar to me…

“…Ted?” I ask, perplexed. “What the hell, man? You look completely different!”

“This is what I looked like as a human,” Ted explains. “Somehow, being here has allowed me to temporarily regain this form.”

“Well, does it feel good to not be stuck as an armadillo?” I ask him.

The blonde man gives me a funny look. “An… armadillo? What on earth are you talking about?”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. My name’s Anja, by the way.”

The man nods his head politely. “Nice to meet you. You can call me Cedric.”

“Ted and I need to round up the rest of our friends,” I explain to him. “If you wanna help, that’s cool with me.”

“Sounds agreeable to me. I’m trying to find out where my son ran off to.”

“Alright, strength in numbers!” I say.

“Be careful not to get hit, though,” Ted advises us. “You will be moved somewhere else in the town, and it will make it harder for us to meet up again. I learned that the hard way before I paired up with Cedric here.”

“Alright, noted,” I say. “Let’s go see if we can find everyone else.”

I’m next to some building that I don’t recognize, hiding in between the building and the dumpster, hoping that nobody will see me. All I can do is sit here in my hiding place.

I’ve seen a few people walking around in what look like terrorist uniforms. I really hope that nobody sees me… I had a hard enough time fighting the shadows. I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to kill another person.

I just don’t know what to do. This isn’t at all what the last palace was like, based on the accounts of the others. While I still have my shotgun, my magic powers are gone. I just wish someone else were here with me. I hope that Ashley finds me soon. She’ll know what to do…

My heart starts to race all over again as I hear someone close to me. And they’re running…

I scramble over to see what it is, to see someone in the terrorist clothing running towards me with a machete. This one is really short and skinny- not at all like someone who should be fighting in a war.

“I’ve got you now!” The terrorist says, in a girl’s voice. And then, completely on instinct, I fire on her with my shotgun, hitting her in the stomach while she was only a few yards away.

The terrorist screams and falls to the floor, clutching her stomach which is now pouring out blood.

Because of me… because I shot her.

I feel guilt cascade over me. “I… I’m sorry,” I say, even though I know it won’t do any good.

The terrorist doesn’t respond. She just writhes on the floor in pain.

This person I keep thinking of a terrorist… I don’t even know what she looks like. I slowly crawl over to her. I remove the mask covering her face, and then gasp when I find out that the person I just shot is none other than Yonca.