Draven was smiling when he went back to Leo and the girl. He reminded himself over and over that this girl was Lara, not Elena. Lara was stupid and clueless, and she would not last long in a game. He didn’t know why he cared, but it was these simple acts of caring that made Master reconsider his mind.He would never understand how the robotic man thought, but clearly hard work was a factor that finally gave him the sword. He waved the sword in the air, testing it. Actually, he had been testing it for the past 15 minutes, but what did that matter? He had a new one now—maybe better or less, but he would figure it out. He always does.Leo was making a fire to brew his medicinal tea when he came in. Both hands were behind his back, and so was the sword. Draven wanted it to be a surprise, but then he was just too excited to keep up with it.“I’m hungry,” Lara suddenly said, forcing his attention to her.He smiled. She actually cut off her hair; so low that there wasn’t any call down to her

He expected her to freak out. Matter of fact, he was counting on it. Lara was so simple-minded that he wouldn't be surprised if he found out that she died just breathing in the wrong air. So when she did not start screaming immediately at his unjust fairness, he was impressed. Leo seemed even more impressed than he was, watching Lara in a critical way as though he expected her to fail them and start crying all over the ground. The baby troll was still trying to wriggle its stone-like body out of there, so Leo pushed it with one foot and it rolled towards Lara. She jumped back when it touched her feet, then gripped Draven tightly by his arm. “I can’t kill it,” she whispered. “Why not?” Draven asked. “It’s a baby. We don’t kill babies.” “It’s a monster,” Leo chuckled. “This baby monster will grow up one day and bite off your ass if you don’t kill it straight away.” Draven bent down and hit the rock three times. The troll unraveled, showing itself. It was too weak and powerless to

They were killed and massacred for two days. Two. Literally anything in sight-monsters and fish. Actually the fish were for Lara. Draven was trying so hard to teach her. He wanted her to know everything there is to know about killing and whatnot. He killed fish, grilled them and ate them, all the while giving her the key knowledge to killing something.She seemed okay with this; perfectly fine, in fact. On the fourth day, Lara took her own fish by herself and killed it, then roasted it. She was very pleased with this. She danced around all day and Leo encouraged her, laughing at how well she’s turning out. Draven stopped checking his dashboard; he hadn’t even checked out his tasks yet and saw if they were processed. All he thought about was money.“Look how happy she is to have made a kill.”Draven looked up at Leo’s voice, confused for a moment. “What?”“She’s happy she killed a fish.”His eyes roamed about, not understanding where Leo was driving. “So?”“So, she shouldn’t be happy t

Draven wasn’t sure he should be surprised that Lara was being called a Beanie or that the teenage boys thought he and Leo were involved in whatever it is they were talking about or that he even had a gun in the first place! What were they doing with a gun? How did they get it? Was this game only partial to people with no influence because what in the hell was this?Leo gave him a ‘I told you this girl is sus!’ look while Draven struggled to grasp what the situation was. Lara’s head was held high, looking him straight in the eye. Her eyes were dark and blank.“And she cut her hair too, boys,” the leader said as he smacked her empty head. “Hear that? It landed without any obstructions!"Draven cringed at the sound of the slap on Lara’s head, but she didn’t move an inch. It was almost as if she was trying so hard to be brave when the both of them knew that she was as weak as a snail.Or was she?Have they been wrong all along? Okay maybe not, but he alone. Leo had told him several times

Nothing happened.Leo waited for a few more minutes, his eyes closed. Nothing happened! He opened his eyes with a smile on his face, and that smile automatically froze. They were in the forest, the forest that he specifically did not want to come to. He was pushed into this, and now he was going to die in a place he did not recognize; a place that other players couldn’t see. Draven released their hands and walked forward. There was a sizzling sound and when they turned back, they saw that the curtain of the world was pulling down over them. Lara was stunned. She hadn’t seen this before, until Draven pushed them all into it. Now it felt as if that curtain stretched to accommodate her and make her one of them. Now she could see what they were talking about and she immediately regretted taking that step.She could have easily said she didn’t see any portals or whatever this place was. One thing she was sure of was that it reeked of evil, and she never did well with evil. She couldn’t ev