The girl stared at him and he stared right back at her. Draven was serious about the jobless part, and she believed him. He
Draven found himself in a bar the next morning. He was in pajamas and was receiving judgy glances from others as he walked past. He didn’t blame them. He was in a reputable community and was walking to a bar in his pajamas. Also, he honestly didn’t care. He felt like this was the last day he would truly be happy, so he just wanted a shot of alcohol. Draven had no idea how he was going to pay for it, but he needed it desperately. He was going through a lot and that drink was just what he needed. A pajama was not the appropriate attire and it would send the wrong message, but he honestly had no more clothes and he just wanted a shot! Besides, people who are willing to drink in the morning should not judge him.As he walked into a bar, there was thankfully no signal that anyone saw him. It was the first bar he saw on the streets, and it was even farther from his house. He imagined his neighbors were too high and classy to go to such places and drink; which was why Gems was being unnecess
Draven heaved a huge sigh. The bartender pushed the shots to them and he downed his immediately, like he was depressed. He wasn’t disappointed in Leo, not exactly at least. He was even surprised to see him out of the game but that didn’t mean Leo wouldn't want to go back. He, on the other hand, didn't know what he wanted. Did he want to go back into the game and fight heavily for his life and money? This was his first death and he was already depressed about his other deaths. Having two lives was just… it was just depressing. It made you think anxiously about the two remaining lives. It made it more real, more precious. Draven had been taking this game on like an adventure—which it was, for sure. But that was the thing with people who had three lives. They were reckless, happy, eager to get to the top while eluding danger. Draven was not any different from them. He thought that with his big, monstrous sword, he would be able to successfully get out of danger. For the second time eve
They found themselves in the middle of a lonely street. Leo was near hysterical with laughter. He fell down to his knees, his both hands on the ground as he laughed himself to near death. Draven leaned on a wall as he tried to calm himself down too. “Jesus,” he said when he regained his breath. “We just fucking robbed a bar!” “It’s not robbery, it’s just not paying them,” Leo said. He took a deep breath and straightened his face. “God, I’m going to die of laughter!” “I’ll be sure to laugh at your funeral,” Draven said. “Jeez man, don’t go that far.” They started laughing again. Draven now fell to the floor, sick to his stomach with laughter. He wasn’t sure if it was alcohol that had this influence on him, but everything just seemed too funny. They lay there for a long time, until their laughter died down and they got themselves a bit. The sun was high and harsh, reminding them that they were in the street and on three dirty floors. Draven stood up first before helping Leo up. Leo
Draven looked around the place. He didn’t know what he was looking at. It felt like the world between the street and the windy field was merged together and were apart at the same time. Leo was grinning, spreading out his arms, marveling at the beauty of it. “What are we doing here?” Draven asked again, just to stretch the moment. Leo smiled slowly; the smile of one who is drunk. “We’re going back into the game, Draven. Are you afraid?” “How will this lead us back into the game?” He asked. Leo sighed like he was talking to a one-year-old, yet his voice was still calm and yielding. “We’ll walk to the middle of the field and get sucked into the game,” Leo said. “We’ll get sucked in?” “Yeah, it’s like gravity, you know?” “No, I don’t know. I don't know anything about this.” “Oh that’s fine. This is your first time after all. You’ll get the hang of it soon.” “I won’t be getting the hang of anything because I’m not failing ever again.” “Jeez, relax Draven. I’m not accusing you
Draven walked a great distance before he got back into the street. It seemed like going back into the street was harder than coming in. What was Leo saying, anyway? You just have to think about it. That’s right, all he had to do was think about going back into the game and somehow he would step on that road. There had been so very little time between him and Leo; they hadn’t even discussed their interests and other things unrelated to the game. Leo gave him the feeling of having someone in the world who thought of him and wanted to involve him in every single thing. He even supported murdering people without knowing who it was. Smiling, Draven endured the rest of the long walk until he reached the street. It was magic. He was in a sandy field and the next he was in the street they’d just been in. The street was still empty, thankfully. He didn’t want to be bursting out of thin air while people were walking past. Draven squared his shoulder and began his journey. It wasn’t much, ac
Draven looked around before dragging his eyes back to him. “Why are you following me?” He asked the man, simply because there were no other questions that were fitting for that moment. “You look lost and helpless,” the man said, shrugging. “I’m high as fuck right now. I would very much like to help you. You want this, no?” Draven stared at him. The man was bushy; that was the right description to use for him. His beard and heart kind of connected together, creating a halo of black bush around his face. He wore glasses, but one side was higher than the other. Draven guessed that one of the hands had broken and the man never deemed it important to fix it. His clothes seemed dirty but in a good fit, like something that hadn't been washed in a week but still looked manageable. All in all, the man did not look trustworthy. “No,” Draven said firmly. “Thank you but I’ve got to do this on my own. It’s part of my memorable journey, you know?” “So you asking for directions is part of this
“No,” Draven said as firmly as possible. “I can’t go with you. I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing, but I’m not going with you.” A broad grin came to the man’s face. Draven took a minute to curse his luck. Why did he have to always come across situations like this? “Come now, dumb American. You must come with me. The schivoka is waiting, you see.” “The… what?!” “The schivoka. The man who you have offended, the man who you must meet. Isn’t that why you came up to me, so that I could meet him?” “What the hell…? Man I don’t even know who you ski-whatever are. This is all just a misunderstanding and if you don’t mind, I have to leave now.” I tried to corner him but he blocked my way. That was a huge mistake. I shouldn’t have tried to corner him; I should have just turned back and run down the streets. It was busy, I could easily blend in with the people. The man saw my train of thought, he followed my eyes and shook his head at me. “Nah mate, I wouldn’t do that if I were
Draven woke up feeling fulfilled. He was in a cool house full of food. He stretched and stood up from the little round couch that seemed more comfortable than Leo’s bed. While strolling to the kitchen, he thought of Leo again. There should be a reason why the guy wanted to give away his house, right? There has to be something. Leo was too simple to just decipher. Why did he find this weird? Was it possible that he just decided to give everything he owed to someone he didn’t even know? Draven was lucky to have been there at the right time, yet he couldn’t stop thinking about it. At the same time, he believed it was possible. Leo was a spontaneous person. He acted so out of the norm so much that it became normal for Draven. While he was familiar with Leo’s issue with trust, it was bewildering that the guy would just give away his house and everything he owed, plus a stupid text and silly mysterious message. Draven opened the kitchen cabinet. It was stocked with cereals and all kinds o
Draven couldn’t believe it was over. Three months later he was still thinking if he was making the right decision. Assistant David sat in his living room with a bunch of documents in front of him. He paced up and down, not sure what he would do.“You can just sign here,” the man said for the umpteeth time. “It’s not really that hard. You sign that you’ve taken ownership of the game and you decide what you want to do with it.”“But I don’t want ownership of the game,” Draven said again. He had repeated this exact words countless times but the guy didn’t seem to be hearing him.“You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you challenged late game owner Timothy—” David paused and looked to the heavens. “May his soul not rest in peace. You should have known that killing him would automatically make you the owner of the game. Those were his rules.”Draven rolled his eyes. He was sure that Timothy had made that rule because he didn’t believe anyone would be able to defeat
Timothy laughed. His laughter was vivacious and full of life. This was what he wanted, after all. The very end of judgement day where he would punish all those who failed him; those who went against him and those who was party to his torture.Here was Draven, the strongest man to ever grace his game. Timothy knew he was going to be a lot of trouble in the future and so he had specifically looked into him. Now that Draven has waged war with his full chest over a woman, he was ecstatic. This was historic, and he was living a historic time in the present. How many men brought knives to fight for their loves, anyways?Smiling, he snapped his fingers. A single door opened and his assistant ran to him carrying a box.“You’re about to experience an historic moment with me,” He said to Draven. “Diane will be our goddess Diana, and we will be the lowly men who are fighting for her love.”Diane scoffed. “You don’t have to do it, Draven. The guy is nuts. Let’s just get out of here.”“But darling
Draven panicked for a minute. He thought for sure that the darkness and pressure meant he was losing his consciousness, but that wasn’t the case. One minutes there was stark darkness and the next minute they fell into an extremely white room with hard cardboard. They fell through the sky, hitting directly on the wood and groaning in pain. The stark white color of the room blinded them. It was brighter than a sky or white paint. It was so bright that Draven closed his eyes and tried to regain his or he r senses. He knew there was a betrayal in the group—which wasn’t surprising as their group was made of weird, diverse people, but he needed to see who exactly did it.He won’t even be surprised if to was Lara. She was the one who had led them to the cage, after all. She was the one who offered to test the waters and make sure the portal was okay. Who in their right senses tests water and portal to make a point of the portal not working? Unless he or she was working with Timothy and knew
No one said anything after Diane’s statement. They were so tired and hungry and unsure of what to do next. Draven’s goods felt heavy to him. His sword even felt heavier than normal. He didn’t believe he came back to this game to be ridiculed and placed in a very unstable condition because of a silly fight that was going on between two lovers. When he looked at Diane, he wondered if she was toying with them again. Was she afraid to meet Timothy or what? He knew that the portal might likely take them to Timothy as the owner can easily manipulate events, but at least he was ready for that stage. He could exactly tell what Diane was thinking when she was looking her nose down on the portal.“We cannot just stay here,” Lara said. “Do you want us to keep waiting for him to keep finding opportunities to kill us? We’re certainly going to die of hunger if we keep waiting!”“She’s right,” Draven concurred. “We can’t keep lying about in wait like lambs to a slaughter. We must make the first move
Everyone was super awkward after the kiss. Leo avoided for the rest of the morning. He didn’t want to talk about it but it was too late; Draven had seen them and announced to the whole pack in the morning that the kiss was probably the most hottest he’d seen.“Whoa,” Diane said excitedly. “You two kissed? That’s great. Are you like a couple now or something?”“It’s nothing like that, okay? It was just a kiss, and a mistake at that,” Leo piped up.Even though he didn’t want to talk about the kiss or look at Lara’s face, he was glad that Draven brought it up. At least he’d air his opioid publicly about it so he won’t have to be in an awkward space with Lara.“Ouch, Leo, you’re a player!” Diane said, laughing. “You can’t say those kind of things to someone when you’ve kissed them!”“I didn’t kiss her, okay? She’s the one who kissed me,” Leo defended hotly.“It’s still hurtful that you say it that way. Have some feelings, pal,” Diane said, her laugh increasing.It sounded mocking and cont
Leo could not sleep. Draven had been out for close to an hour, yet he wasn’t back yet. Lots of thoughts assaulted his brain, but the one that stayed the most was Diane.Diane. Diane. Diane.He bet she was here to true their life again, and that bet was true. If Leo was the one to handle this, he’d definitely not want to help her out the way Draven was. It was as if the guy didn’t want to learn any lessons about why it’s dangerous to just not help anyone for too long. Draven was lenient when it came to Diane and he didn’t like it one but.He turned his head to the side and saw her sleeping peacefully.“Yeah, like you didn’t just send someone to their death,” he murmured to himself.He wondered if Draven was still talking to the game creator or if he’s been killed. If he was truly killed, Leo won’t honestly know how to handle that. He tried not to think about it because it was depressing enough. He sat up now, still watching Diane. If she had been careful, they won’t be in this shit hol
Draven waited until everyone was comfortable with him being their security for the night before he left into the woods. Diane was surprisingly quiet and compliant. It was like she was into her head too much to care about what Draven wanted to do. Seeing that all odds were in his favor, Draven waited a bit before withdrawing to the forest. He walked deeper and deeper, wondering if he should just sit on a log and wait for Timothy to appear.“Hi Draven.”He yelped and fell to the ground, startled. His shouts of surprise startled the forest a bit, and so Draven waited it out to make sure no one was coming to check what the noise was before turning his head slowly to the side. There was Timothy, standing under the moonlight. He looked attractive and mysterious and just too handsome to be standing there. Draven sat up as he brushed away the small dirts on his body.“You scared me,” he hissed at Timothy. “You know you should learn not to sneak up on people like that.”“I didn’t sneak up on y
They camped inside a cave, just as Draven wanted. He’d taken his time and made sure they covered a 12 hour distance just so he could find the perfect place for them to camp. Finding a cave was not just the problem—and caves were pretty scarce. The problem was finding one that was deep and big enough to accommodate more than three persons. When he finally found it, it was nearing dark. The blanket of darkness that fell over them was just the right thing Draven needed to carry out his plans. He’d been thinking for hours how he would get away with talking to Timothy without anyone noticing and this was the best part.“A cave?” Lara asked in disbelief when they stood before the place. “Isn’t this kind of weird, Draven? Some crazy monsters might be in there!”Draven nodded in understanding. “Leo and I are going to check it out and see if it’s free of monsters; how about that?”“I thought you said we were getting to the end of the game,” Lara moaned.Draven gave her a confused look. “Lara,
They walked a long mile, Draven and Leo leading the way while Lara and Diane walked behind. Diane stayed at the far end so she won’t walk on the same lane with Lara. There was something suspicious about the young girl that she didn’t like. Diane wasn’t usually suspicious of people but when she does, her instinct was definitely right—just as it was right with Draven and Lara. Leo cleared his throat and glanced at Draven. “So… were you lying?”“Was I lying about what?” Draven mumbled.“You know… about what Diane said?”“Why would I be lying about that?”Leo cocked his brows at him. “Don’t forget that I know you all too well, Draven. I know when you lie out of necessity and when you lie out of leisure. I usually don’t catch the leisure one but the necessity one is very obvious.”Draven glanced at him with an amused expression. “Really?”“Yup. You get all tense and defensive and violet most times if you’re pressured about it. It’ll make you want to protect that little lie of yours quite