Leo and Draven stared at the forest before them. It had been a solid three minutes and both of them said nothing, only stood side-by-side. Lara was somewhere jubilating or doing god knows what, but Draven was sure that she was stupid enough to think this would be a trip. When he called Leo to come look at what he discovered, the poor guy didn’t say anything but stare at the forest before him. Draven cleared his throat to begin with.“You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right?”Leo chuckled dryly. “Yeah, I’m seeing what you’re seeing.”“So you know this is bad news.”“It is bad. It is really bad.” Then he turned to look at Draven. “You know why it is bad? Because this is all your fault!”“What? How is it my fault we got to pass through an evil forest?”“It is your fault because my life and game are synced with yours now. Why can’t I have a different path from yours? Why do I have to follow your own path every single time?"Draven scoffed. “That’s what happens when you’re in a group. And gue
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
The forest swallowed the boy whole. One minute he was there and the next he was gone. There was nothing left of him but black dust rising in the air. They all knew what it meant: death.“You’re asking me to walk into this with both my eyes wide open,” Leo said.“It’s not so bad if you think about it,” Draven replied.“Not so bad? Someone just turned it into a puff of smoke!”“Maybe it was meant just for us?”Leo shook his head. “Nope. Maybe it was meant just for you and you wanted to drag me into this.”They heard a rustle behind them. Leo and Draven turned, only to see that the other guy was running. They let him go. It wasn’t like he was going to survive long anyway. He was alone, injured and without weapons. He’d be dead either by a monster or a human. Either way, he wasn’t going to survive long.Draven and Loe looked back at the forest. It was brimming with thunder, and not inviting. Draven wished there was another way to go through this, but the system had already declared that h
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
“I know you guys are talking about me,” Lara said. “It’s alright, I didn’t hear a single word.”“It doesn’t matter what you hear," Leo said. “But you know what? Why don’t we talk about this now that the topic is up?”“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Draven said, his hands raised palms up in mid air. “Let’s not get into a heated 6 here, alright?”Leo scowled at him. He wanted to say so many things at once, but he also knew he needed to keep his chill. Truthfully, Draven was the patient one. He would never be as patient as she was concerning any matter. Or was he just patient when it came to Lara? Leo squared his shoulder at the thought that had just entered his mind. This was serious. Was he really hesitant because it was Lara? Did he… like her? Leo internally vomited from his organs. He belched and gagged just thinking about it. It’s not that Lara is unattractive—well, she was unattractive since she’s practically bald now— but this was also a game. Everything in here would be a game; what was the
Lara was not one to regret things, but she began to feel a deep sense of regret after the last revelation. She was not ready to die of thirst or hunger or who knows what else just because they had limited time. All she wanted to do was increase her level and get the wealth she was supposed to get. Any other thing was way out of what she bargained for and now it was happening right in front of her. Not even smart ass Leo saw this part coming. Now they were all stuck in the forest to finish up their business or get swallowed up.But not Lara though. She could leave right now and nothing would happen to her; nothing at all, except that she would not be armed and she could easily get killed. Lara cannot risk it; whatever they had to go through, she would finish it to a certain point until she got what she wanted.They started to walk further and further into the forest. Sometimes it got light, sometimes it was as dark as a gloomy devil. None of them said anything until Leo decided that he
Draven pointed to one side of the map. “Look at those three dots there? I think that’s us. We’re moving, and the rest of the place is moving with us.” Leo’s face was so white with horror that if they weren’t in a crucial position, it sure would have made Draven laugh. “What do you mean by that?” He asked. “It means we better hurry the fuck up because things keep changing in here,” Draven answered. They looked at each other for a moment and they swung into action. It was the most plausible thing to do at that very moment. They jumped into the hologram portal or a thing and ran. As they went through, the hologram stretched and allowed them to pass, revealing an even more dangerous world than the one they’d just been in. This one was more creepier, more alive. Draven felt goosebumps at the back of his arms rise to his neck and thighs. [congratulations, you have won your first round of wealth and a new level.] They all jumped at the intrusive sound. It was the hologram speaking, bu
Leo refused to stay like that for one minute longer. If Draven was resigned to his fate, then that was on him. As for him, he wasn’t and won’t be resigned to waiting for death. Not when he had just attained a new level and was about to get the second one. Leo finally understood what the game was about: life and death. He was in this silly evil forest, covered in goo and forced to live or be sniffed out. Imagine dying inside the game of another game. Nope, not on his watch. He took off for the second time. Draven didn’t have to follow him, he thought. He just had to stay back there and battle the monster and he would bring them both victory. Lara was oddly quiet; maybe she’d gone into hiding just as she always did. When he glanced back behind him, he saw that Draven was chasing after him but not Lara. “I can’t just wait back there for the thing to get me!” Draven called after him. Leo however, was not focused on Draven. It was Lara, and she was not running beside Draven. That was o