Page 54 of Our Final Game

“I helped him get out, but he had to leave you behind, that was the deal.” It grins at me, making my skin crawl. It’s an ugly fucking thing. Saying ugly things to me. Ugly things that can’t be true.

“No, he didn’t.”

“So, then where is he!?” It snaps suddenly; its shadows growing angry, whipping at my feet.

“I don’t know,” I bite out, standing my ground. “But he wouldn’t just leave me in this stupid fucking game!” I scream.

“I guess you couldn’t be blessed with beauty and wit, huh?” The creature laughs at me. “Or luck for that matter. Probably shouldn’t have trusted your so-called friend.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Tyson wouldn’t do that to me.”

“I gave him the key to the tower. He completed the quest and got out without you.”

“How do you know about that?” I say, taking a step toward the cruel thing. I use MP to cast a low-level magic to illuminate the space around it. The monster dissipates, leaving me standing alone in the alleyway.

I stumble back into the street, my body wracked with anger. Tyson wouldn’t leave me in this game alone. He promised me we’d get out of here. Together. He meant together, right? But he never said that.

He never said that, and Tyson has always beaten me at every turn.

At every game.

He’s even better than me at the one we’re fucking stuck in.

I clench my fist, staring at my feet. Was this all some huge fucking trick or prank like I originally felt? Did I let him win again without even realizing it? And why? Because his kisses made me feel like I was finally doing something right.

Because they were the only thing that was real here?

Because I couldn’t stop chasing that intangible feeling no other man has made me feel in so long?

You’re so pathetic, Rohan.

Tears well in my eyes, blurring my vision. My heart feels like it’s physically shattering. I suck in a shallow breath, triggering the tears to fall.

It hurts so bad.

Is my heart breaking?

Chapter 26

Tyson

Ithink another day has passed. I’ve had enough time to think, and I can’t keep dwelling on Rohan. I need to get the fuck out of here no matter what he’s chosen. Maybe he has made some fucked up deal to get out of the game. I cringe at the thought. But it doesn’t matter. The first thing I need to focus on is getting out of this cell and scoping out the map. I still can’t tell where I am. I definitely haven’t been to this map before. I know that much by now.

My head snaps over to the town’s leader, who has been knocked out cold this entire time. Not that I’m too worried, it’s a NPC. He’s moved a couple times, so he’s still alive. He must be under some type of magic. And the unknown monster hasn’t returned to check on either of us, so that’s been great.

I’ve conjured up a way to get the fuck out of this cell, only it’s going to cost me a shit ton of MP. I don’t have many supplies to recover it after that. I don’t even know what map I’m in to gauge the monster levels. But this is the only way.

I call up shadows using magic from my blade and let it consume my entire body, making us one. Kind of like the fucking creatures that put me in here, but a lot less creepy. I stay in my shadow state, slipping through the bars and materializing as myself on the other side.

The game sends alarms to my interface telling me my MP is dangerously low, as I already knew. At least I’m out on this side of the cage. I look to the town’s leader. I could probably get him out if I think hard enough, but I need to go out and see what I’m dealing with. And maybe where the fuck I am.

I turn and climb the steps, opening the door cautiously. I scan the cold, empty halls of the map. It looks like any other eerie-ass map right before something jumps out of the dark and attacks you. A long corridor of brick walls with lanterns burning with dim flames nailed along them. I make it to the end of the hall, to a bigger room, a kitchen. The kitchen leads to another fucking hall, only there are monsters.

This must be the main map.

I know where I am.

Fuck.