"Scarlet."

The girl was focused on her PSP, playing some sort of colorful game. She grinned at the sound of her character collecting coins, the cartoony "boing" when he jumped, the happy 8-bit music that played when she finished a level.

"Scarlet. Scarlet!"

"Huh? What?" Scarlet muttered, not looking up from her game. "I'm coming to save you, Princess! Don't worry."

Her PSP was snatched out of her hands. "Scarlet," the voice repeated, urgent.

She finally looked up. Her nine-year-old sister was standing over her, a scared look on her face.

Then the little girl sighed and sat down next to her. "Do you know where we are?" she asked.

"No," Scarlet replied, closing her eyes..

Her sister threw her hands up in despair. "You didn't even look around!" She grabbed her head and turned it to look at the settings around her.

It was exactly like the one from her game.

2: Chapter 1

"Oh my God!" Scarlet yelled, taking in all her surroundings. "Oh my God…"

"I know!" Ambrielle agreed. "It's probably just a dream, though. But it's so cool!"

"Ambrielle!" Scarlet snapped. "It's not a dream! Everything is making sense! Dreams aren't supposed to make sense!"

Her younger sister pinched herself a few times. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Hmm…I guess so. But then how do we get back?"

Scarlet looked around again. The landscape was pink, completely pink. The stuff on the ground looked like grass, except it was more sparse and it was pink. Actually, it seemed like the dirt underneath was pink. On closer inspection, Scarlet realized the grass was actually a shade of light brown. The sky was pale yellow, a single pastel blue cloud floating adrift in the technicolor welkin.

"I don't know," she said at last.

Suddenly, there was a weight on her back. "Woah!" Ambrielle shouted. She hadn't been attacked, she was just watching on the sidelines.

"Nesbit! Stop!" Someone yelled. Scarlet squirmed around, trying to get the weight off of her. Her vision went blind, and finally her ambusher toppled off of her, laughing.

"That reaction - that reaction was pure gold," he said between laughs, rolling around on the pink ground and clutching his stomach. He had tousled, light brown hair, and a mischievous-looking face that made anyone who looked at it feel distrusting. Another boy, who looked exactly the same, but his face more square and his eyes more stern, was standing next to her.

He held out his hand. "Sorry about that. I tried to stop him." He looked apologetic, which seemed almost impossible on his serious-looking face. "I'm Chalet," he added, when Scarlet didn't take his hand. "That was Nesbit, my twin brother."

She frowned, and got up by herself, dusting her clothes off. Well, this was awkward. "What were you trying to do, kill me?" she finally asked.

"No," Nesbit chuckled, standing up. "I just wanted to make things interesting. We don't usually get newcomers. Actually, we never get newcomers." He laughed again.

"Where are we?" Ambrielle asked. "I've already validated the fact that this isn't a dream. And where's Mommy? And Daddy? Are they here too?" Her face crumpled.

Chalet's eyebrows creased in concern. Then he and Nesbit shared an uneasy glance. "Well…" he began. "We should show you around first before we tell you. Don't you like this place? It's pretty."

Ambrielle humphed.

Chalet grimaced and turned around. "Well, follow me to our house and I'll tell you. You guys are hungry, right?"

And Scarlet was hungry. So they followed Chalet to his dwelling as he told them what was going on. "We were sucked in this game a month. It's hellishly-hard and we're still on the first stage. You, obviously, were sucked in this game as well." He sucked in his breath.

"So…? How do we get back?" Scarlet asked. There was a silence.

"By finishing the game," Chalet answered grimly. "There's the village. It's not far."

At Chalet's words, Scarlet realized how tired she was. Her legs ached from walking so much. Well, they hadn't walked that far. But Scarlet didn't exercise much at home. Her mom had given up on her in fifth grade.

"Nesbit!" a child's voice squeaked out of nowhere once they got to the village.

"Hi, Rovi!" Nesbit greeted the boy, bending down because he was so short. The child looked no more than seven years old, with chubby cheeks and blonde hair. He was wearing an old-fashioned red shirt, which was no surprise, since the game was taking place in the medieval era.

There were brightly decorated huts everywhere, and the villagers that came out of them had clothes that matched with them. They waved, all in sync, but Scarlet was used to it and didn't question it. The synchronized waving happened all the time in the games she played.

One fat, motherly looking woman hobbled up to Scarlet. Her chestnut brown hair was tied back with a yellow bandana and she had an oily spatula in her hand as if she had been interrupted from cooking by their arrival. "Hello!" she said cheerily. "Welcome to our village. Take this piece of food." A white cube appeared in her hand. "You just pop it in your mouth and it becomes the flavor you want it to be." Then she abruptly turned and walked away.

"Woah, kind of rude," Ambrielle, who had been watching, remarked.

"They're NPCs," Chalet explained, casting an impatient glance at his brother, still playing with the village children. "Non-playing characters," he added at Ambrielle's blank look. "So they aren't real people."

"Oh," she said, drawing out the word. "I know what those are."

"Well then, come on," Chalet's voice jolted Scarlet back to reality. "Let's go." He started walking, and the two girls followed him.

A few moments later, Scarlet noticed that Nesbit wasn't with them. "Where's Nesbit?" she asked.

"Don't worry about him. He knows where he lives. See, there's our house," he pointed to a blue and white striped hut that matched his clothes.

"Why do your clothes match your house?" Ambrielle asked.

"I don't know. That's just how the game is organized," Chalet shrugged. He opened the door and let them in.

The inside was round. There seemed to be no second floor, but there was a staircase leading down to what seemed like the basement. There were occasional mahogany shelves decorating the wall, with books or flowers in vases or other mundane things like that placed carefully upon them. A fire burned brightly on the other side of the room in a homely-looking fireplace, and a small, wooden table was placed just outside the mini kitchen.

"Wow! It's so cute," Ambrielle breathed.

Chalet creased his eyebrows. "Cute? More like-" he stuck his tongue out and made slicing motions across his neck. "Not my style. Too old-fashioned. Pray tell, are you two hungry?"

Scarlet's stomach growled.

"Well, I guess that explains it," he concluded, and walked over to the puny kitchen. He opened a cupboard and took out a leather parcel, and grabbed out three of those white, marshmallow-y looking things that the woman from earlier had given to her. "This is a sustenance cube," he said, walking back to them. "Take one. Oh, wait, Scarlet, you already got one, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I think," she agreed. Then blindly looked around for it. "Wait. Where'd it go?"

"It probably went into your inventory," he told her. "Make a down wards swiping motion. That's how you open your inventory."

Scarlet did as he instructed. A gray menu appeared, with grids showcasing the items in her pocket. In the first box of the grid was a sustenance cube. The rest was obvious to her. She pressed the item, and it appeared in her free hand.

"Just pop it into your mouth," Chalet was instructing Ambrielle. Scarlet followed, and an amazing flavor filled her mouth. Marshmallows.

Well, of course. The thing looked like a marshmallow anyway. She remembered what the lady had told her. You can make it taste like anything you want to, or something like that. Probably, anyway. She imagined her favorite food, chocolate chip cookies, and the thing in her mouth instantly changed flavor. Mmm. Yum. Scarlet closed her eyes and smiled.

"What do you taste?" A masculine voice, Chalet, asked.

"Chocolate chip cookies," she answered. Suddenly, her eyes jerked wide open. "It's melting! I think. Probably."

"Well, yeah," he answered. "That's what it's supposed to do. It's like hard candy."

Scarlet pouted. "But that tasted good."

"You know, you're surprisingly immature for a-what? Fifteen-year old?"

"Yeah, fifteen. Probably."

Chalet lifted one eyebrow, but walked away.

"Wait! I'm not immature!" she yelled after him, pushing her chair back and standing up. "..I think."

"Mmm! This is so good!" Ambrielle announced from somewhere on her left. "It tastes like cotton candy!"

The door flung open, and Nesbit stood in the open doorway, panting. "Played tag with the kids," he said, laughing. He noticed them eating sustenance cubes. "Hey! I want some too!" He practically ran over to Chalet and dug his hands into the bag he was holding, and came out with two stuck in his fingers and popped both into his mouth so fast Chalet couldn't stop him from eating more than his fair share.

"Nesbit!" He groaned. "You were only supposed to have one!"

"Since he had two, can we have another one?" Ambrielle whined. "It's not fair if he gets two."

Chalet sighed. "No, you can't." He walked back to the kitchen and stowed away the bag. Then he turned around and began talking again. "You want to get out of here, right? Because time here flows differently than real life. One day in here equals two days," he told them.

"What?!" Scarlet and Ambrielle shrieked at the same time, their jaws dropping.

"How long have we been here?" Scarlet asked.

"Eh, one or two hours," he answered nonchalantly. "We've been stuck here for a month."

"A month?!" Scarlet's jaw gaped even wider. It might as well have hit the ground and knocked over a pile of bricks.

"Don't worry. We live alone," Nesbit interjected.

Chalet clapped his hands together, twice. "Come on! Up! If you want to get out of here, let's start training!"

Scarlet was not an athlete.

Only ten minutes had passed and Scarlet was ready to faint. "I've never exercised this much before," she complained. "I think."

"You want to get out of this game, don't you?" Chalet insisted. Scarlet did, but she didn't think it would be that much hard work. Plus, she never even asked to be sucked into the game.

"Come on, Scarlet! Or else I'll finish the game first and leave without you!" Her sister snickered, waving her wooden sword around.

She gritted her teeth, but stood up and joined the training session.

In all that day, they learned the uppercut, under sweep, quick jab, and other things. Scarlet collapsed into a thin mattress they spread out on the floor for her and her sister, and was immediately snoring.

3: Chapter 2

Everything was blurred by the effects of sleep. Groggily, Scarlet sat up, and rubbed her eyes.

This wasn't her bed.

Her room wasn't round and wooden. She didn't have a fireplace in her room either.

She became aware of a stirring beside her. Ambrielle, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as well, groaned and looked around.

Scarlet looked around, too, and spotted a boy with messy brown hair standing in what looked like the kitchen, his back facing her. And all the memories came rushing back.

"Chalet!" she yelled suddenly. Ambrielle jumped.

"You don't need coffee," her younger sibling remarked, annoyed, but now alert.

"Hm?" he turned around with a leather bag in his hands. The one full of sustenance cubes from yesterday. "Hungry?" They both nodded. "Then come here."

Scarlet's clothes were wrinkled. She got out of bed and immediately fell back down. Everything was sore. Everything. Her legs, her arms, her back and neck especially, and her feet. She groaned.

"Owie," said Ambrielle, who had tumbled back down also.

Chalet laughed. "It'll get better. Try to get yourself to the table, and sit down," he suggested.

Nesbit rolled over in his sleep. Scarlet watched him sleepily throw the blankets off, and then, he jumped out of bed, wearing the clothes he was wearing yesterday. Literally jumped!

"You don't need coffee," Ambrielle said, amazed.

"Well, I just remembered that I had guests to tend to!" He stretched and yawned, grinning. "Hello, sun! Hello, Scarlet and Ambrielle! And hello, Chalet!"

His stern brother just rolled his eyes, and gestured for Ambrielle and Scarlet to hurry up and get to the table.

Once they were seated, he stood at the head of the rickety wooden slab, and opened the leather bag. "Take one. One only," he added quickly, glaring at Nesbit. Nesbit moaned and sat down at the table across from Scarlet and Ambrielle. Chalet handed out one sustenance cube to everyone, and another one for himself. He closed the pouch and put it back in the cupboard.

"What are we doing today?" Ambrielle asked.

"Hunting," was the response.

"What?!' Scarlet almost yelled. "But-I'm so sore all over!"

"Do you want to get out of this game or not?" Chalet said the words slowly and deliberately, like he was talking to a child.

She frowned. "Well…I guess so…" She popped the cube into her mouth and began sucking. Today it tasted like noodles, another one of her favorite foods. She felt the energy returning to her and her soreness began to subside a little

Chalet was throwing things together, grabbing leather bags and putting bottles with red liquid inside them, and many other things Scarlet couldn't identify. Obviously, the red liquids were health potions.

He lay two, plain-looking swords on the table in front of the girls and said, "You're going to use these. They're a bit more heavy and a lot more sharp, so be careful with them. Put them in your inventory." He gave a meaningful look at Scarlet, as if to say, Take care of your sister.

She nodded, and they stood up after pocketing the item. It seemed like Ambrielle already knew how to access her inventory, so there wasn't much said. The pain was duller now, and she could walk just fine. Nesbit led them out of the door and they walked along a trail extending out of the village. A huge mass of trees appeared over the horizon, and the sun was just a little higher than them. The warmth on Scarlet's bare arms calmed her.

They were approaching a forest.

"Take out your swords," Chalet told them. Scarlet and her sister nodded.

"We're going to be fighting some monsters!" Nesbit exclaimed. "The more deeper you go in, the more stronger the monsters get, so we're just going to stay at the front of the forest."

The four walked into the forest and was almost immediately met by a monster. The scenery around them began to flash, and with a bright light, a skinny-looking bear was standing in front of them "Who wants to go?" Chalet asked.

"Me! Me!" Ambrielle volunteered. Chalet nodded, and gestured for her to step into the battle. She did as she was told, and held her sword out. Scarlet watched her sister do an under sweep to the bear.

The bear began charging at her, faster than it looked like it could. Ambrielle yelped and dashed out of the way, but the bear had already tackled her. Then her foe walked back to his circle, and it was Ambrielle's turn again. She looked confused, but dealt a simple blow at the enemy, and it collapsed. She waited a moment, then cheered. Sparks exploded all around her, and she said, "I leveled up!" and then smirked at Scarlet.

Scarlet glowered at her, then said, "I call the next one!"

"Okay," Chalet responded.

It wasn't long before the next monster materialized. This time, it was a flying eyeball encased in a bat-like leather, and demon-like wings. It's eyes were a creepy yellow, and Scarlet hesitated.

"It's not real," Chalet called from outside the battle. "Just kill it."

Scarlet complied, and swiped at the eyeball as hard as she could. A large, red scar appeared on the middle of it's eye, and slowly faded away. She could see that it didn't have much health points left, but it was now the flying eyeball's turn.

It flapped it's wings, and a fireball formed in the air. It somehow hit her, and she felt a hot but dull pain in her stomach where it clashed with her body. Scarlet retaliated by jabbing out and that was it for her enemy. It dissolved into gray dust, and a menu opened up in front of her. "Level Up!" it read. "You have leveled up to Level 2." Below that, it listed a few things she had unlocked. A silver sword, leather armor, and more stuff she didn't recognize.

"Hah! I leveled up too," she jeered at Ambrielle.

The four walked around a bit, ran into a few more enemies, and the sun was already setting. They made their way to the front of the forest where they had entered, but Scarlet soon became aware of something following them. More than one thing, actually. She turned around and looked everywhere, but she didn't see anything.

They got to the clearing in the entrance, and-no surprise-three boys around her age stepped out. One had raven-black hair, an orange side-zip jacket, black shorts, and orange skater shoes. He looked pretty rad in Scarlet's opinion. He was standing proudly and drew Scarlet's attention to him, not the other's.

The boy was frowning. "What are you doing in my territory?"

Someone on his left stepped out of the shadows. "Our territory," he corrected. With blond-almost white- hair and punk clothing, he looked almost as rad as the first kid. He fixed his eyes straight at Scarlet. They seemed to have been outlined with black eyeliner, making his stare even more terrifying.

Chalet sighed beside Scarlet. Nesbit growled and stepped forward. His brother made no move to stop him, but looked worried. "This isn't your territory. It isn't even real, we're in a game, remember?" Nesbit spat.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Ambrielle added, angrily. It was a line from a show she always watched with their mother.

The orange boy laughed, turning his face to the side. "Dyke's the name. That's Caddie-boy right there." He jerked his thumb at the blond.

"Cadere!" he interjected, making Dyke laugh again.

"Who's that?" Ambrielle asked, pointing to the other boy, a redhead.

"Oh, that's uh-" Dyke threw a quick glance at the inconspicuous boy hiding in the shadows-"Wyatt. Whatever." He turned back to them, an annoyed look on his face. "Anyway, what are you doing on m-our-" he rolled his eyes- "territory?"

"I have a sword and I can stab you!" Ambrielle taunted. Scarlet grimaced. Dyke was skinny but he looked strong.

Dyke threw his head back and howled with laughter. "That's new!I could bend that sword of yours without hesitation," he said, making bending gestures.

Ambrielle didn't look deterred. "Oh yeah?" She started to rush toward them.

"No! Ambrielle!" Scarlet tried to stop her, but they took the sword from her and Cadere had her in a headlock. Ambrielle squirmed, but couldn't get out.

Dyke curled his fingers at Cadere, motioning for him to hand over the girl. Scarlet had her hands over her mouth, surprised and scared. "Get some rope," he told Cadere, snapping his fingers impatiently while holding Ambrielle.

They soon had Scarlet's younger sister tied up.

"Ambrielle! No!" Scarlet screamed after them as they walked away, jeering. She tried to run after them, but they'd already somehow disappeared.

The tears began spilling out of her eyes. She wished she could apologize for every mean thing she'd done to her and let her watch her play games. She wallowed in despair, covered in grime and dirt.

Chalet and Nesbit were standing over her with a concerned look. "Are you seriously losing hope so easily?" one of them asked.

"I'm bipolar," she said without hesitation. "..I think. Probably."

Scarlet looked up at the two boys. They were sharing a look that said, She's crazy.

"Come on, we'll go look for her tomorrow," Chalet said after a long silence. "The sun's already set and we'll probably run into a few monsters if we don't hurry and run back home."

That was enough to jolt Scarlet back onto her feet. Yes, they would go look for her tomorrow.

"We have information that they want," Nesbit tried to console her. "They wouldn't kill her."

"What kind of information?" Scarlet asked, her voice shaky from the tears.

"We…uh…can't exactly tell you," he responded uneasily.

"What? Why!?" She was already starting to return into her normal mood.

"Maybe you are bipolar," Chalet remarked.

She didn't respond.

The walk(rather, run) home was long and awkward. The moon had risen when they had reached the village, and there was no one in sight. All the villagers were sleeping in their huts, safe and sound. Chalet unlocked the front door of their striped hut, and Scarlet went straight to sleep, worried.

4: Chapter 3

"Rise and shine." A bright light blinded her when she opened her eyes.

"Ow," Scarlet moaned, but got up. Her muscles were less sore today, and she stood and walked over to the table without much difficulty. She looked around at Ambrielle sleeping in the bed-

She wasn't there.

And Scarlet remembered- they were going to go look for her today.

"Come on, you guys!" she said suddenly, at Chalet and the barely-awake Nesbit, still in bed. "Let's go! We can just pack some food in our bags and go!"

"Hey, don't be in such a hurry," Chalet protested. "We told you yesterday, they won't kill her. I'd be surprised if they did." He set the leather bag of food on the table and invited Scarlet to take one.

Still in a hurry, she grabbed one and put it in her mouth. The flavor was the same as yesterday-chocolate chip cookies. She savored the taste, almost forgetting about Ambrielle, but soon the soft cube turned hard and started to melt, which jolted her back to attention. "Let's go now!" she insisted.

Nesbit stumbled over. "Not so fast. I need my morning caffeine."

"You don't need caffeine," Scarlet told him, remembering yesterday morning.

"Today I do," he asserted, and grabbed a sustenance cube. Tossing it into his mouth, he sucked it for a while, and then sprang to attention, completely different than his previous state. "Let's go!"

Chalet sighed and rolled his eyes. He took some food, too, grabbed the leather pouches they'd used the day before, and handed them politely to his companions. They walked out the door, Scarlet leading.

She found her way to the forest easily. "Let's split up," she suggested.

"Roger!" Nesbit saluted, then started marching towards the other direction.

"Well, I guess that leaves us two," Chalet remarked. "Let's go, then." The duo strode into the forest, always on the lookout.

Chalet was listening carefully for the three boys, Dyke, Cadere, and Will-Will? Was that his name? Dyke had said it so quickly she had missed it.

Whatever. Scarlet copied Chalet, but soon got tired of it. They ran into a few monsters, and Scarlet leveled up some, but they still had no clues as to where Ambrielle was.

"Over there!" Chalet suddenly cried, pointing at some oddly-shaped bushes. There was a shadow behind it, but the shadow was suspiciously too big. Chalet parted the bushes, revealing a secret tunnel.

Scarlet's heart soared. She surely would find her younger sister in here. "Come on, let's go in," she proposed, and crawled in, leading the way.

The tunnel was only a bit larger than Scarlet. She was short, and she knew her friend behind her was having a hard time. It was dark and damp, and water droplets fell tunnel started to narrow, and a light started shining. It got closer and closer the more she advanced, and she could hear the sizzling and the smelly scent of burning things, and a constant chatter.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they looked into the light. The tunnel had widened now; so it was able to accommodate both of them. In front of them was empty air, and farther ahead was another wall with more holes and people emerging from them, climbing down rock ladders. She looked around first, and it was all the same thing. Then, she looked down.

There was a HUGE lake of bright, orange lava and natural rock bridges so that the people could walk on them without falling into the lava. The bridges led to more chambers and rooms, and everything was illuminated by the lava, so they had no need for torches.

On closer inspection, the beings she thought were people, did not actually look like people. They had dark skin and piercing golden eyes, and they were tall and looked healthy. Very tall. Like Martians.

One started climbing up the ladder leading to the tunnel they currently were in, and it was too late for Scarlet to realize he was one of the workers.

"Hey, if you aren't going to move, then get out," he said harshly, and shoved past them.

She gave a sigh of relief once she was sure she was gone. But he wasn't truly gone. A moment later, a screaming arose, and a bell started ringing. "Alert! Alert!" someone yelled. "Intruder alert!"

They'd been caught.

The next few moments were in a blur. Scarlet's fast-acting instincts from playing so many games kicked in, and she knew she couldn't waste time. She meddled in her inventory a little, clumsily trying to be quick, and picked her sword.

"I'll do it, you run," Chalet's voice sounded in her ear, and knowing that protesting would just eat up the few seconds they had, she nodded and waited for her friend to make a distraction for her.

She stood behind him as he whipped out his sword and engaged in an ambiguous battle. Both were equally skilled, and she kept an eye on a possible space to slip through. She tried to make herself insignificant so that the enemy would forget her in the flurry of the battle, but she knew she didn't have much time. There were already people climbing up the ladder that emerged into the hole she was in, and so she just absconded as fast as she could.

To her surprise, Chalet's opponent didn't notice her. He didn't seem to be very attentive, she remembered, thinking back to when he had almost disregarded them when they meet.

She dashed out the cave and hid. A small ditch in the ground caught her eye, and she jumped into it, not thinking of what was in it.

When her sneakers touched the ground, the ditch was more flighty than she thought it was at first glance, and it made a squelching noise. At first Scarlet thought it was just mud, but then an absolutely horrid smell wafted to her nose.

She'd landed in a pit of poop.

The girl made a sick face and was about to get out of the ditch when she heard voices. She recognized them almost immediately-the boys they had ran into yesterday. Cadere, Dyke, and that other guy.

Scarlet quickly ducked, trying not to breathe too much because of the stink. She heard them saying something.

"Aw, is Caddie mad, now?" Unmistakably, Dyke's voice.

"Don't call me that!" came the sharp response.

"Oh, but there's nothing stopping me." Dyke laughed. "Anyway, we gotta check on Am-whatever."

"You're horrible with names."

"I don't care. Anyway, we'll try to find those people again, and then we'll ransom her for the information. If that doesn't work, I'll just beat it out of them."

Their voices eventually receded, and after a moment, Scarlet carefully, quietly peeked out of the ditch. She was covered in dung, but that didn't matter. She was more concerned about Chalet's current state, and whether he was still alive or not.

She had to find Nesbit.

The girl pulled herself completely out, and looked around. Wiping her hands off on the pink grass, she spotted a movement in the trees. She froze.

It was the boy. The one whose name she couldn't remember. It seemed like Cadere and Dyke had left him behind, or something. His bright orange hair stood out.

"Hey! Come here," he whispered loudly, peeking out from behind the tree.

Scarlet hesitantly walked over. "What?"

"Don't tell them that I'm here, but-"

"Of course I wouldn't tell them!"

"-I'm on your side."

Scarlet blinked, confused. "Really?!" she asked after a while, then blew out a sigh of relief. "Good."

"You believe me that easily?" the boy asked, sounding just as astounded as Scarlet had.

"Yeah! I mean, who'd want to work with them? Anyway, what's your name? I forgot it. I think."

"..Wyatt."

"Okay," she answered, feeling jubilant. "Do you know what they've done to Ambrielle?"

"Yeah. She's in the cave, over there, behind those bushes," he pointed to the rock that Scarlet had just come out of. "But it's very deep."

"Yeah, we saw," she told him. "We found it just now, but Chalet got into a fight with one of the people." A wave of worry washed over her. "He hasn't come out yet."

"Well, first things first, I'll show you where your sister is, and then we'll rescue Chalet. Deal?"

Wyatt was more advanced than he seemed to be. "Deal!" Scarlet replied happily, and he lead them inside the cave.

When they entered the hole, Wyatt stopped and looked around before walking straight in. "All clear," he muttered, and walked in, Scarlet following.

Soon they got to the main part of the cave, and even though she'd already seen it once, it was still an amazing sight. The lava bubbling, and the seemingly unnatural rock formations were a sight to take in. Wyatt climbed down the wall, rocks jutting out at random points for handholds and footholds. "Come on," he beckoned, when Scarlet hesitated to follow him. It was deep, and if she fell, she could die.

"But what if I fall?" she protested.

"You won't," he said, not calming Scarlet's fears one bit. "We have to save your sister, remember?"

That got her moving. She nodded, biting her lip, and slowly lowered herself down, hands shaking. Her palms were covered in sweat, and she was scared to death that she would slip and fall. What would Ambrielle think then? And Chalet? They'd hate themselves forever. She wiped one hand on her navy blue sweatshirt and put it back on the dry, red rock.

Finally, finally, she was at the bottom. Wyatt didn't praise her or anything, and she felt that she deserved it. Oh well. Ambrielle was more important.

Her new ally walked fast, and the workers seemed agitated. They stared at her. Probably from the fight earlier, with Chalet. She wondered where Chalet was and if she was okay, and walked faster.

Wyatt seemed to know that she was in a hurry and understood the urgency of the situation now, and started running, dodging through the mass of white-clad workers. Scarlet, whose legs were somewhat more strengthened from the training she'd done with Nesbit and Chalet a few days ago, almost easily caught up to him.

A few days ago…Seemed like years since she'd first got here. So much had happened and Ambrielle was caught. They'd already made rivals. And Chalet said that time in the game ran half as fast, too. She'd gotten here three days ago, if you counted this one. That meant she'd been here for about five or six days. Her parents would have already called the police.

She worried.

5: Chapter 4

Wyatt made a sharp right, and then slowed. "Your sister should be here somewhere," he said.

"Her name is Ambrielle, if you didn't know. Are you also bad with names?" Scarlet asked it lightly and curiously, so she wouldn't offend him.

It was a while before he replied, and she started to think he hadn't heard her. "…No. It just feels wrong to say your sister's name out loud."

Scarlet was confused. "Why? Ambrielle, Ambrielle, Ambrielle," she tried. "No. It doesn't feel weird. It's just not a common name, is that why?"

He puffed up his cheeks, and didn't answer. They kept walking through the red rock hall, which was dimly illuminated by wooden torches held by holes dug into the wall. The flames seemed to be from the lava, as if they'd taken a wooden stick, dipped it into the fiery liquid, and then dropped it into the crevice designed to hold it.

There was an occasional room, no doors, dug out into the wall, and sounds were issuing from them. Different sounds like growling, and unintelligible noises.

They seemed to walk past a million of them, and the hall seemed to go on forever before Wyatt came to a sharp halt and stood outside a room. This one had a door on it. A wooden one, like the kind you'd see in a medieval castle.

"This is the one," he told her. "Surprisingly, it's not locked."

"Why?" Scarlet was baffled.

He gave her a tired look. "Why do you need to know everything?"

"Why don't I need to know everything?" Her response to all "why" questions.

The redhead sighed, and opened the door. It swung in with a creak that made him flinch.

The inside was dimly lit, and Scarlet blinked to get her eyes adjusted as soon as she walked in. She looked around, expecting Ambrielle to be sitting in a chair, tied up and gagged.

But she wasn't.

She wasn't there.

Wyatt cursed, something that Scarlet did not like. She was about to reprimand him when he sharply turned around and said, "I should have known. They said they would check on Amb-your sister, so that must mean they've taken her."

He put one hand on his hip and ran his other through his hair, exasperated. Then he looked farther down the corridor they'd come.

"Close the door," he instructed. "And follow me."

She shut the door and trailed after him, confused, and getting more worried by the second. They ambled down the tunnel for a while, and it started to get darker, the torches on the walls getting less sparse. Even Wyatt was starting to get uneasy. He was always looking left and right, and behind him to make sure Scarlet was still following.

After an eternity, they reached the end of the hall. There was a staircase that seemed to spiral down forever. "Gosh, this place is big," Scarlet remarked.

"Of course it is. They're trying to get to Hell."

"Why?"

Wyatt didn't answer, just went on down the cracked, brick-red stairs. Soon, Scarlet started to get dizzy from turning round and round, and she was huffing and puffing. "We'll reach the end soon," the boy reassured her.

He wasn't lying, either. Scarlet could see the bottom now. It was getting colder and damper, and Scarlet considered herself lucky that she was wearing a sweatshirt. But, on the other hand, she was wearing a skirt that reached her knees, so her legs had goosebumps all over them.

Finally, they reached the end. There was another hall, and of course, they went down it. "Let's run," he suggested, and ran, leaving Scarlet no choice but to go after him. She didn't want to be walking alone in this creepy place.

The two reached a door at the end of the hall. This time, it looked like it was made out of diamonds, and there was a rug in front of it. It was the same color as the ground, which was now a dark brown, and she almost missed it. Wyatt reached underneath it and pulled out a metal key.

"They trust you that much?" Scarlet was incredulous.

"No. They think I'm stupid," he told her, thrusting the key into the lock.

She frowned. "Oh. Okay then."

She heard a lock click, and the door swung out wards, making her take a step back to avoid getting hit.

Inside was Ambrielle, and Scarlet was so relieved to see her that she forgot to take note of what kind of position she was in.

The walls were a smooth white, in huge contrast to the dank, brown walls she'd been walking past for so long. The ground was the same, but it looked softer, like felt. Her younger sister was sitting at a smooth, marble-cut table on a matching chair. Two other chairs sat on the other side, and two cuddly stuffed animals were on top of them. One was a teddy bear with a blue bow around it's neck, it's fur light brown, and the other was a felt, pink rabbit holding a yellow daisy.

Ambrielle was in the middle of pouring tea out from a pretend tea set into the bears cup, when they came in. She looked up, and her face brightened. "Scarlet! You came to find me!"

"Shh," Wyatt put a finger to his lips. "They'll hear you, and then we won't be able to get out."

Ambrielle made a confused face. "What do you mean? I like it here."

Scarlet was shocked. "What?! You want to stay here?"

"They have lots of toys!" she protested.

"You'll grow out of them if you stay here," Scarlet reasoned, the only fact that popped up in her mind. "Besides, you have better toys at home."

"No, I don't," she denied. "You guys never buy me anything. You have all the games." She pouted.

Scarlet pursed her lips.

"We have to get out of here quickly," Wyatt interjected, tapping his foot impatiently. "Come on!"

Ambrielle crossed her arms and closed her eyes, frowning. "No. I'm not leaving."

"They'll kill you eventually, if you stay," he told her. Scarlet's jaw dropped open. Who would tell that to a nine year-old?

But it got Ambrielle's attention. "They will?"

"Yes! So come on!" he beckoned impatiently.

Ambrielle sighed, but nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, good. Now follow us." He immediately set off on a fast sprint, and the siblings followed. They trailed after him all the way up the stairs. It was harder this time since they were climbing up, and Scarlet lagged behind.

"Now you're the one slowing us down," Wyatt sighed, exasperated.

"It's not my fault," she protested, but to no avail. They didn't slow down at all. But Scarlet knew the way. It was quite a simple route, and it didn't take long before she caught up with them again, this time in the hallway above the stairs.

They hurried back, darting in and out the workers, and climbed the ladder. "Get on my back," he instructed Ambrielle, squatting so she could jump onto him easily. Scarlet's eye twitched in anger, but she didn't say anything.

Wyatt was stronger than he looked. He climbed up the rock stairs with amazing speed, and Scarlet, as usual, struggled to keep up.

"I'm not an athlete," she called up to him. She looked down, and gulped. The workers paid her no attention, not even when they were rushing past them.

Soon they got to the top of the ladder, and Scarlet heaved herself onto firm ground, breathing heavily. "I never want to go back down there again," she murmured.

Suddenly, she snapped to attention, firm and rigid like a soldier. "Wait! What about Chalet? He must be down there!"

Wyatt seemed to wilt. "Oh, come on," he moaned quietly.

Scarlet brought her finger up to her mouth and started biting her nails, even though they were dirty from the journey they had just come from. Would they be able to go back and save Chalet?

"Well, we could try to find Nesbit first, and then…" Scarlet suggested, trailing off.

"Nesbit? That's Chalet's twin, right?"

Scarlet nodded.

"Alright, sounds like a plan to me. But we have to hurry." He started to crawl back out of the cave, motioning for Scarlet and Ambrielle to follow her.

"Ew, this is disgusting," Ambrielle stuck out her tongue. "I didn't have to do this when we went in."

"Soon we'll be able to stand," Wyatt assured her. "Or at least, you can stand, since you're so short."

He was right. Scarlet and Wyatt were too tall, and their heads kept bumping the ceiling when they rose to full height, but Ambrielle was just fine.

When they came out of the cave, the trio's shoes were all sopping wet. Scarlet's knees ached from crawling back and forth so much. She breathed in the fresh, cool air. It was nighttime now, and Nesbit was probably looking for them.

"Nesbit!" Scarlet called.

"Shh!" Wyatt interjected. "The monsters will find us."

"Oh. Don't they appear randomly?" she tilted her head.

"No. The game is much more advanced than you think. What I suggest is either waiting here or going back to your house."

The thought of having to walk around in the forest at night was a scary thought. She shivered. "Could we wait here?"

"I could accompany you," he told her. "It wouldn't be a hassle…I guess. But I have to be back before they notice me missing."

Scarlet's eyes widened in shock. "Then you better go, now! It's been a while!"

He shrugged. "Are you sure?"

Scarlet nodded vigorously, and he ran off after giving her a small smile.

And now, she was afraid.

6: Chapter 5

Scarlet grabbed Ambrielle's hand and pulled her along. "You better keep up," she warned her.

"You better keep up!" she answered. "You're such a slow runner!"

Ambrielle was right. The little girl was already in front, and Scarlet accelerated, not wanting to be in this forest any longer.

Suddenly, her vision started to flash. Scarlet had forgotten-there were still monsters out there. And they were still pretty deep in the forest.

She stood, petrified in fear for a moment, and then spoke as a monster the size of them stood in front of the two girls.

"We have to kill it together."

The beast had poisonous-looking mushrooms growing out of its back. It was like a giant turtle. Like, a really, really, giant turtle. It's beak was long and pale, and it was so sharp it seemed to slice the air. It's marble-white shell covered most of it's light-colored body, and it's claws were sharper than any turtle's should be.

Scarlet stared into its red eyes, and then looked away, scared. "You go first."

"No!" Ambrielle whined. "You're older! You go first!"

Scarlet touched her face, and then sighed. Her little sister was right. But she didn't want to do it. "No. You go."

"Why should I?"

"Because…!"

Ambrielle humphed. "Scaredy-cat."

"You, too."

"You're older! There's no reason for me to-" she started to protest, but then the enemy came charging towards them. Two faint bars hovered over it's head, and above that was the name of the foe-Toxic Turtle. Scarlet could see that it had way more health points than them two combined. They were doomed.

The two girls began screaming and running. Running for their lives. Not caring whether the trees cut or scratched them, just run. Like an animal, their only instincts were to survive. So this was how they lived. In constant fear.

Scarlet stopped and turned around, her heart sinking down to her stomach. Ignoring Ambrielle's pleas of turmoil, she stared hopelessly at it, breathless. She would never be able to outrun it. It was hopeless. She was sinking into despair.

The turtle snorted, the steam that was coming out of it's nostrils were visible. It's red eyes narrowed, and it began to walk towards her, capturing her in it's gaze. It lunged, and-

"EYY!" came a sudden, familiar voice. A sword cut through the air, and the next thing Scarlet knew, there was loud sobbing and the turtle was gone.

The crying came from her little sister. She was sitting down on the ground, covered in dust. No way she could have done it. Scarlet looked around some more, and spotted a boy dusting off his messy hair, and looking casually into the distance. He was carrying a sword, the same one she'd seen. The one that had cut through the giant turtle.

"Nesbit!" she exclaimed, and he stopped dusting his hair and looked at her.

He grimaced at her. "I thought you were going to be dead. Why'd you do that?" It wasn't as stern as if Chalet had started talking to her like that, but she still felt a stab of guilt.

"I…" she stuttered. "Well, I…"

He brushed his hair back and sighed. "Where's Chalet?"

Another not-so-good question.

"Well…he…uh, well, I-we went-"

Nesbit's face darkened. "Is he…"

Scarlet looked away. "I don't know."

"They only need one of us to get the secret out," he thought out loud. Then, he jumped to attention, so fast it made Scarlet jump herself. "We have to go save him! Do you know where he went?"

"Well.." Scarlet relayed to him all the information she could remember of that day. She blinked, realizing she couldn't see much anymore. It had gotten dark, and the sun was just setting over the horizon. "Are we going to go now?"

"Yes!' he insisted.

The girl thought that a little hypocritical since when they went to find her younger sister, they waited a day instead going immediately.

Before she knew it, though, Nesbit had run off. She saw his blue and white shirt flutter out of sight, and turned towards it. "Come on, Ambrielle."

Her younger sister stood up and rubbed her eyes. "But I'm tired."

"Then I'll leave you here," Scarlet threatened, keen to catch up with Nesbit.

"You wouldn't," she answered.

"Bye, then." Scarlet turned to walk away.

"Wait up!" she heard Ambrielle's voice. "Don't leave me here alone!"

So the two ran and caught up to Nesbit, who was seemingly looking for an entrance to the cave Scarlet described. She came over and pointed him in the right direction, he thanked her, and crawled into the cave. Scarlet's heart plummeted at the prospect of once again going back in there. This was the third time, wasn't it?

The tunnel soon ended and they climbed down the ladder. Scarlet wondered if they'd see Wyatt, but then they'd probably see Dyke and Cadere as well.

Dashing through the mob of workers again, she tried to remember where Wyatt had taken her. Maybe Chalet would be there, somewhere close to where Ambrielle was.

She turned-right, was it? She wasn't sure. But she didn't remember turning left, so she led the two others down the corridor to the right.

This corridor was practically deserted. The white-clothed workers only seemed to walk around the main sections and climb up and down the rocky ladders. She eventually found the huge staircase at the end of the long hallway, and Ambrielle didn't have much time to react to it because they were already practically falling down the stairs. Nesbit seemed to get the vibe that they had to go all the way down, so he took the steps four or five at a time, restlessly. He looked worried, a huge contrast to his normally chipper face.

When they got to the end of the staircase, he stopped and turned around, seeking Scarlet's guidance. "This way, right?" He raised his arm, pointing at the only corridor you could go in the direction of. After a nod from her, he raced down the hall before she could tell him which room might hold his brother.

A few seconds passed, and then his footsteps became louder again, coming back to her. "Which one?" he asked impatiently.

Scarlet shrugged. "I think it was….over here." She paced over to the end of the hallway, where Ambrielle had come out of. "Or something near this one. Maybe-"

There was a sudden yell from the other side of the door. Indisputably, it was Chalet. Nesbit's eyebrows shot up and his eyes widened, and he immediately began to pull and yank on the door. "It's locked," he cried.

Scarlet acted fast. She motioned for him to step off the carpet, and she found that the key Wyatt had used was right under it, back in it's place. She thrust it into the door's keyhole, and there was a satisfying click. The door swung open, and Nesbit dashed in.

The room that met her eyes was completely different from the smooth, marble one she'd found Ambrielle in. It was dimly lit, with torches lining the walls, and on the other end, sat a horrendously-looking…goblin? She couldn't tell. But it was ugly.

It's skin was a sickly-looking green, it's ears were hairy and pointy. It's eyes were large, fitting proportionately on it's large head, but his head was way too big for his body. It also had an incredibly thin neck. Maybe it's brain was full of mush. And the skin was covered in a sheen of what looked disgustingly like oil or sweat.

And in front of it, was Chalet, sitting against a pole, tied up. He seemed to be unconscious, or dead. Scarlet couldn't tell. She hoped it was the former.

The ugly creature spoke. "You've come just in time." It's voice was thin and nasally, like a doll's voice, only more watery and evil. Scarlet flinched. "Just in time for the execution."

"No!" Nesbit yelled loudly. He stepped forward, fists raised. Ambrielle clutched Scarlet's hand, tightly.

"I've been expecting you for a while now," the demon went on, ignoring him. "I was hoping you'd come so I could kill your brother right in front of your eyes." It grinned wickedly, revealing it's massive array of sharp teeth.

After some fumbling, Nesbit's sword appeared in his hand. He started advancing towards Chalet, and stuck his blade through the ropes, meaning to cut it away, but the demon stopped him by yelling, "Guards!" like an evil queen would in an old-fashioned movie.

All around them, figures dressed in black cloaks stepped out of the shadows. Floated, rather. They didn't seem to have faces, Scarlet noticed. Maybe they were ghosts. At this point, she didn't care.

Nesbit yanked on the rope with his sword, but it barely even budged. One of the ghosts dashed forward and nicked him on the ear. Blood blossomed around the wound. He flinched, and instantly lashed out. But his sword was stuck in the rope. Pull it down! Not out ward! Scarlet wanted to yell. But she was too scared. She didn't want them to notice her. At least, they didn't seem to notice her. She and Ambrielle both seemed to be nonexistent.

7: Chapter 6

The ghost-like figures rushed towards him again, and Scarlet closed her eyes, heart pounding it's way out of her chest. Should she go in and save him? No! She would probably die. Was she for real? Of course she couldn't go in. She'd die. She'd seen Nesbit fight before, she thought. He could survive on his own.

No yells came. All there was was a shing- like someone pulled a sword out. She opened her eyes again. There were two Nesbits.

No, wait! There was no Chalet!

In the time that Scarlet had closed her eyes, Nesbit must have cut the ropes holding Chalet when he regained consciousness, and now they were fighting like there was no tomorrow. The ghosts fell one by one, and looking ahead, she saw the ugly demon-like creature's face contort into an agitated scowl.

Nesbit(or maybe Chalet) sliced his sword upwards, and the last ghost-person fell.

Then the two turned around to face the demon, expectant.

It didn't speak for a while, just glared at them with red eyes overflowing with hatred. Finally, "Go! Get out!" It was a shriek, a high-pitched voice tainted with despair and fury. The screeching went on even after the twins rushed out. Scarlet, not wanting to hear it anymore, pushed the door closed.

She leaned on the door, breathing heavily, even though Chalet and Nesbit had fought off a million guards just a few seconds before. Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them again.

"Sorry," was all she could say. They were staring at her. Ambrielle, too. No one looked mad, but you could never trust calm-looking faces these days.

"Sorry what?" The boy on the left said. His voice was serious but had a joking tone to it. Chalet. This one was Chalet. Of course it was. Now that he was up close, his hair and clothes were disheveled, the blue and white stripes stained gray and brown.

Scarlet stared at his dirty shirt, not thinking about the shirt, but thinking about how close she was to losing them. They could have died. And they would have no one to guide them.

And all of the sudden, there was crying. Loud, babyish crying. Oh no. Not again, Ambrielle.

But it wasn't coming from Ambrielle. It was coming from her. Scarlet. They'd only met a few days ago and she was already attached to them like a baby to it's mother. She couldn't imagine the game without them.

Chalet and Nesbit stood there, stunned, then Chalet-Scarlet knew-knelt down and hugged her. Tightly. He smelled like he had been burnt. Maybe they held him over a fire or something. Even so, Scarlet didn't want him to stop hugging her.

When he stood up again, Scarlet who had been sitting on her feet, stood up again and stretched her legs. She'd been in that position for longer than was comfortable, and wiped the remaining tears away.

"So, are we going to get out of here or what?" Nesbit finally said, jolting them out of the awkward silence.

And then, they were on their way. Scarlet was too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice the pain and soreness of her legs while running up the stairs for, like, the fifth time. She didn't notice it when they were sprinting through the now-deserted halls. She barely even noticed herself climbing up the rocky walls, nothing to support her.

They soon made it through the tunnel, and Scarlet vowed never to go there ever again. It was disgusting. Her skirt was ripped, her sweatshirt was dirty, she was soaking, and overall felt disgusting.

"You want to take a shower?" Chalet offered. She nodded tiredly, the movement making her dizzy. "When we get home, you can," he reassured her.

"What about me?" Ambrielle whined. Immediately, Scarlet glared at her with the intensity of a lion. She was not in the mood for this. Ambrielle got the vibe and quickly looked away.

Scarlet was feeling irritable. She was dirty, she wanted to go home. She wanted to give up. What would she do if Chalet or Nesbit or both of them went missing again? Her chest ached at the thought, and she quickly whisked it away, but the ache still remained.

She found herself back in the twin boys' house, turning on the faucet and feeling the hot water wash over her. She looked with disgust at the brown, murky waters that she was being cleansed of, and grabbed the soap. She scrubbed herself thoroughly. The soap smelled good, like lavender or vanilla. Maybe a mix of both.

Her shower stall's door was a sliding door. It was made of glass, but it was glass that was misted-over, so no one could see her showering. At home she took baths with a curtain surrounding her. She rarely took showers, and even if she did, that tall metal thing where the water sprinkled out of would eventually start making weird, creaky noises.

At last, she turned off the water, opened the door a tiny crack just to make sure no one was there, and stepped out when she saw nothing but the deserted bathroom. Grabbing a white towel and draping it around her body, she dried herself off as best as she could.

The mirror had not fogged over. That was because the shower stall was a closed one, meaning the steam could not escape. At home she would take especially hot baths, and the steam would rise over the blue curtains and cover the mirror with watery haze.

She looked into it. Her naked body, half covered by towels, looked back at her. She expected to be grossed out, because she'd always been quite overweight.

But she wasn't. Over the past few days, she'd lost a lot of fat. She still was a bit chubby, but the girl was still amazed. How could she have lost so much fat in just four days?

Eight days, she corrected herself. Maybe that was why?

She'd been missing for over a week now. The whole town had probably gone crazy looking for her. The town she lived in was small, and disappearances like this were rare.

"Are you done?" a voice called out from outside of the bathroom. Ambrielle's, probably.

"No, don't come in," she called back, annoyed, and then quickly rushed to dry herself off.

"Hurry up," the childish voice whined.

"If you say that again I'll go slower," she threatened her, irritated.

Finally, Scarlet stepped out of the bathroom. Her hair was still a little wet, but otherwise she felt clean. Somehow her clothes had magically washed themselves, they were clean and looked brand new.

Nesbit was sleeping on his side on his bed, hands covering his mouth like a cute little boy. Chalet, sitting at the table, was furiously scribbling something on a piece of old fashioned-looking paper.

Her younger sister looked up from the other side of the room. She seemed to have been examining the various arts that were hung up on the wall. "Can I go in the shower now?" she asked, turning to Chalet. He nodded absently, more absorbed in his own work than Ambrielle's hygiene. The little girl rushed off, and Scarlet spied her lifting up her sweater before disappearing around the corner leading into the bathroom.

Scarlet stood there awkwardly for a moment, nervously glancing back and forth between Chalet and Nesbit. Then she finally decided that she didn't want to wait around for instructions anymore. She was sleepy from the hot shower, too. Before going to bed, she walked over to Chalet.

"What's tha-"

There was a slam on the table. She flinched, and Chalet had his hands covering up the paper, hiding the words. "Go to sleep," he muttered shakily.

Scarlet was taken aback. What could he be hiding that he was so scared of someone else finding out? She felt guilty, but her curiosity overpowered it.

The mats from the nights before were already set up for them, and Scarlet took the blanket, crawled under the covers, muttered a 'goodnight' to no one in particular, and finally fell asleep to the sounds of her sister's footprints padding on the ground next to her, already back from the shower.

8: Chapter 7

"What? Come on, they're just kids."

"Both of us are twenty. Not much older than Scarlet."

"How old is Scarlet?"

"Fifteen. A five-year difference seems big, but it's not really, if you think about it."

"But why?"

Silence.

"I already told you why."

Footsteps sounded close to Scarlet's head, then faded away, followed by the sounds of cabinets opening.

She opened her eyes, shielding them from the sudden bright light. Turning her head, she spotted Chalet at his usual place in the mornings, at the kitchen. He was taking out the basket of food cubes, pretending that nothing had happened. Nesbit was dozing off at the table. She wondered what they had been talking about.

Scarlet noticed Ambrielle covered up in her blanket. The only thing that was showing was her wavy, light brown hair.

She sat up and got out of the blank, taking her seat at the table. It was a game- it wasn't a problem if you slept in your clothes. The wrinkles would immediately iron themselves out, even accomplishing the feat of making it look natural.

"Morning," Chalet yawned, bringing the basket over. "Did you sleep well?"

Nesbit slowly raised his head with sleepy eyes, took a cube, popped it in his mouth, and put his head back onto the table where he dozed off again. Scarlet took one as well.

"Pretty well. That's not much of a question though, since the game kind of controls your sleeping habits," she pointed out, dropping the cube in her mouth. "I think."

Chalet nodded. "True, true."

Scarlet fiddled around with her thumbs for a bit and sucked on the cube, wondering if she should ask the question or not. But she was dying to know.

Ambrielle stirred in her blankets behind her. In fact, she sat straight up, pointing an accusing finger at Chalet. "Why don't you want us to stay here? Where else can we go?"

There was an awkward, confused silence(at least to Scarlet) for a few seconds, with Chalet paling and Nesbit lifting his head up and looking at her.

Then, with a click, the puzzle pieced together. Was that what they were talking about? Was Ambrielle awake this whole time?

"You…don't want us to stay?" Scarlet asked incredulously, jaws agape.

"W-well," Chalet stuttered, shockingly out of character. Ambrielle stared harder at him, and put his hands up in surrender. "To be honest, our food supply is diminishing and it's really quite…troublesome…to have you guys around."

The two girls were only level threes, no house to live in and barely any money.

But the more Scarlet thought about it, Chalet seemed right. She felt a little bit of remorse for suddenly intruding upon them. That was okay, though..she'd played lots of games like this before. She could gain gold from fighting monsters and maybe stay in an NPC's house if possible. Then she and Ambrielle could move on and support themselves, and eventually finish the game.

She looked back at the two boys. Nesbit's mouth was wide open, eyes, too, and Chalet had a newfound interest in the table. Obviously Nesbit had not agreed to this. And what she'd heard backed up that information.

There was silence for a long time. Finally Scarlet spoke up and said, "I think we can manage on our own."

Chalet suddenly stood up and opened his mouth as if to protest. Then he closed it again and sat back down, remembering he was the one who made this decision.

"We can house you for another day," he said after another awkward, taciturn moment.

"No, thank you," piped up a voice behind Scarlet. Ambrielle. Turning to face her, Scarlet noticed that she looked defiant and angry. "Like sis said, we can manage on our own. Come on." She grabbed her elder sibling's arm and pulled her out of the house.

Ambrielle stopped after she closed the door. She seemed scared, and had moved her grip on Scarlet's arm to her hand. "Where do we go now? We have nothing.."

"Don't worry," Scarlet said after thinking a while. "This will be kind of awkward. Follow me."

Ambrielle followed her to a house that she randomly picked on the spot, but it was quite far away from Nesbit and Chalet's house. She didn't want to be anywhere near them, and she was sure Ambrielle felt the same.

Scarlet raised her hand to knock the door. She knocked twice, and a young-looking woman answered. She smiled happily. "Hello! Isn't the weather nice?"

"It sure is," she muttered in response. "Um, may I ask for a place to stay?"

Without missing a beat, the woman nodded. "Of course! Please come in!"

The fake smile glued on the NPC's face the entire time, she told them that her name was Nala, and she lived alone in this house. She showed them their beds, which were already magically laid out for them- the game, probably- and gave them two leather bags identical to the ones at their former home, only this time, packed with stuff.

"That's all," she concluded. "If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask me." She nodded politely and walked away to some random place.

"How much gold do we have?" Scarlet wondered out loud. "Ambrielle, can you check?"

Her younger sister nodded, and simultaneously, they pulled up their game menus and checked the top right corner, where their money was located.

Combined, they had 421 pieces of gold. Scarlet wasn't sure about the prices in this game, but she decided that it was enough.

"Let's go fighting," she suggested, meaning it as an order. What else was there to do? Ambrielle didn't protest much and agreeably followed her out of the temporary house. Scarlet had yet to figure out how to buy her own house.

Since they were low levels, they leveled up quickly and easily, and by the time they had gone home they were both level six. The experience bar was demanding more now, so leveling up steadily became slower and slower as the days progressed.

Four days passed, they were still living in the borrowed house but now they were level ten. They'd been in the game for two weeks in real life, maybe more. Already level ten, they'd been exploring more and more of the woods. They were still very cautious about not dying, though.

Soon, they reached the end of the forest. The end of the forest? Scarlet had never imagined such a thing. It seemed so vast at first, but it really wasn't. The two girls had recently advanced to level eleven.

Scarlet led Ambrielle to the edge of the forest, where there was a bright light- but not bright enough to blind them. It just restricted their vision and all they could see was white. Scarlet cautiously stuck her right foot in, then stopped. A menu had opened up in front of her, and Ambrielle seemed to have seen it too.

The menu read: "You cannot advance to Swampland just yet! First, you must defeat the boss of the Wyldwoods."

Wyldwoods. That was the name of the place they were in right now. Scarlet never knew there was a boss, but it should have been just as much. There is always a boss at the end of a level or stage, it was almost a fact of life for her now.

She looked to the bottom of the menu, finding that there was a hint there. "Hint: If you stay around this part of the woods, it might turn up."

She frowned, not liking the vagueness of the message. "Well, then, come on. Let's walk around."

They paced up and down the borders of the forest, running into lots of monsters, but never the boss. She was started to get frustrated. They were starting to get frustrated.

Suddenly, Ambrielle pointed to something above Scarlet and exclaimed, "Your health bar!"

The older sibling looked up and saw the same shocking thing as her sister had seen- she had very low health. After a quick look at her sister's bar, she had the same reaction. "Yours too. We did pack some health potions, did we…?"

They immediately checked their bags in a panic, until Scarlet pulled out one vial half-filled with the desired substance. But it was half-filled. That wasn't enough. They were about to die. No wonder Scarlet was hurting all over. She'd barely noticed in their intense search for the boss.

She stared worriedly at the bottle, wondering what she should do. Obviously, they were going to split it, or else one of them would be dead.

"Give some to me," Ambrielle said, trying to make it sound assertive, but Scarlet could hear the tremble in her voice. Immediately feeling sorrow for her, she marked the bottle's contents halfway with her fingernail.

"I'll drink first," she said. Maybe it was selfish, but she knew she could make an accurate measurement so they got exactly half, even though this wasn't the perfect time for that.

She could feel Ambrielle's vehement rolling off of her in waves as she lifted the bottle to her mouth. She tried to keep her fingernail in place, but it was difficult. It slipped lower on the bottle, and after drinking she had- without knowing it- drank more than half of the red liquid available. The liquid warmed up in her throat and traveled down to her stomach, where she waited, watching her health go up.

"You drank too much!" Ambrielle shrieked, jerking Scarlet out of her healing stupor. And she was right. There was only enough to heal maybe five or ten percent of someone's health, and Scarlet's health bar was a little more than half full.

She immediately felt guilty, but there wasn't much time for that, because suddenly, a shadow fell upon them both.

The boss monster.

9: Chapter 8

It positively towered over them. Scarlet had to crane her neck all the way to see it's entire body. It's entire body consisted of different shades of blue, and strongly reminded Scarlet of water. Maybe this was a water-type, or something like that. The monster took the form of an evil-looking mermaid she'd seen in another game she had played. League of Legends, was it? That game was so old, but she liked it and tried not to let anyone else know that she actually played it. The only difference was their size.

What Scarlet didn't understand was that it should have been in water, not floating above the forest surface. This was an abomination to the unwritten laws of all games. Sea creatures belong in the sea. Land creatures belong on the land.

It's fish tail extended into a thin string at the end, with a spade-like shape topping it. There was something sparking at the end, and she immediately thought that lightning and water shouldn't go together. Of course not, she'd learned that from Pokèmon. That was another abomination. But then again, games had their twists.

Before she could examine more of the boss monster, it spoke. It's voice was feminine, so Scarlet immediately assumed it was a girl. But then, it could be transgender. Or genderfluid. Ah! Yes! Genderfluid! Fluid as in water. She laughed mentally at her own joke, but the atmosphere soon became gloomy and ominous.

"Are you going to battle me or not?"

She considered her options. "…Not?"

"…You have no choice but to battle me," was her answer. Yes, now she was going to refer to it as "her".

"But…!" she protested, her heart leaping into her throat. "We'll die! We didn't expect this!"

She scoffed, a sound that reverberated throughout the entire forest. "Of course you expected it. I know you play games."

Her cheeks turned crimson. "W-well…" she said, trying to think up an excuse.

"Whatever!" The monster flipped her hair, which looked like eels.

The monster information had appeared. This time it was eye level to Scarlet, since the game had probably automatically assumed that the monster was too tall for her to see the top of it.

The boss's name was Effluvia, and she had twice as much health points as Ambrielle and her combined. Scarlet felt an immense sense of dread as she knew that they would die. The girl wallowed in her self-pity for a moment…then realized nothing had happened. She looked up.

Effluvia was staring scornfully down at her. "Well, what are we waiting for? Go!"

Scarlet stared blankly at her for a while. And then she regained her composure. If they were going to die, they shouldn't go down without a fight. So she chose a random move that Chalet had taught her, and pushed it into the highest part she could reach, which was her knee. How were they going to defeat? For a moment, she considered giving up, but there was next to her, there was a passionate yell.

Ambrielle.

It didn't seem like she had noticed Effluvia's monster information, and thought that the two of them could defeat it easily. She glanced at it's health points. Barely any had gone down.

Now it was Effluvia's turn. She was floating on the ground, and some invisible force was keeping her up. Her tail flicked, and a wave of water washed over them. Scarlet barely had anytime to close her eyes before she was engulfed in water.

She floated around for a moment, trying not to let the liquid go up her noise. She could feel the water, already have crept into her clothes. It was still and calm, and she just floated, her eyes squeezed shut.

And then she was running out of breath. Her chest ached and she was starting to feel immensely uncomfortable. Finally she could hold it no longer. I'm ready to die.

She opened her eyes and exhaled, breathing hard. Wait, why was she breathing? And why was everything blue? Wasn't she dead? Was blue the color of hell? Or the afterlife?

Something tapped her shoulder. She turned her head, and standing beside her was Nesbit, who grinned, flashed a peace sign at her, and rushed ahead, where something huge was standing. He was rushing amazingly fast through the water. It was water, wasn't it?

She was still alive. But where had Nesbit come from? How was she breathing underwater? Was she underwater? She felt sleepy. Maybe this was a dream. What a long dream, she thought. Ambrielle was standing next to her, too. At first she thought she had died, but it didn't seem so now.

"Come on!" Ambrielle gestured with her head to Nesbit, who was engaged in a very quick battle with Effluvia. She started running, and Scarlet followed, confused. She remembered she felt like this before. She'd taken a nap in the afternoon because she had jet lag. She'd just gotten back from visiting her relatives in Japan. Scarlet normally never took naps in the afternoon, but this time, she fell straight asleep. And woken up at midnight. She thought it was morning and hurried to get dressed for school, but then she remembered that it was summer, plus it was still dark in her room. She'd sat up for the longest time in her bed before remembering what had happened.

And now she finally remembered that she wasn't at home anymore- she was in the game. The True Damsel in Distress. She was fighting the boss monster called Effluvia. She had a weight in her chest that she at last, recalled why she felt such a sense of doom. There was Nesbit. Of course that was Nesbit, Chalet wasn't the one who would flash a peace sign like that. So where was Chalet?

Oh…but he had abandoned them.

She shook the horrible thought out of her mind and sprinted even faster. She was getting closer and closer. The water seemed to have a temporary "forgetting" effect on her, but now she remembered everything.

Effluvia's health had only dropped to half, but that was enough. Especially since it was now three against one. She fought harder than she ever fought in her entire life, which was never. Except in games. But she stabbed and sliced like a madman. Her hair floated around in the water and got into her eyes; they seemed to have been transported to another place because she didn't recognize anything around her. She couldn't see anything. She just wanted to get out of this water. Sure, she could breathe, but it was starting to get uncomfortable and she wanted to talk to Nesbit.

Finally, it became a struggle to lift her arm and thrust it forward. Her movements became slower and slower, and her yells softer and weaker. Something gripped her wrist and she heard someone say, "It's okay, you can stop now."

She instinctively struggled against the iron grip, but the words finally sunk in and she stopped. The vice relaxed, and she saw the forest again; grassy and green and patches of sunlight filtered through the trees. Everything was calm. In front of her were a few items, one of which were glowing and seemed to have an aura of royalty around it.

She turned, seeing Nesbit and Ambrielle. Ambrielle seemed to be preoccupied with something glowing in her hand, and Nesbit was running his hands through his hair as if nothing had happened.

"I gotta go before Chalet notices me gone," was all he said, and then he zipped off without even saying goodbye.

The two girls watched after him long after he disappeared, and then Scarlet turned around and knelt down to adjust the tiny floating items on the ground. She picked up the ones that weren't glowing one by one, shortly examining it after it went in her inventory. And then she finally came to the glowing one. She picked it up and it expanded into a broadsword, one that looked a lot better than her current one. She pulled up it's in-depth information menu. Her old sword had materialized into her supply, and she was left with the new one.

Obviously, it was better.

She grinned like an idiot. Scarlet considered this a huge achievement. Looking at Ambrielle, she noticed that her younger sister was wielding two small daggers, similar to her old weapon, but better, like Scarlet's. The boss had evidently dropped some rare items.

After they were done examining their new equipment, Scarlet looked around. She was back in the forest, of course. But on her right side was a glowing wall, beckoning her to go through it. The swampland.

"Let's go," she spoke into the silence that was only disturbed by chirping birds and woodland creatures scampering about. The sisters put their arm through the wall, and let themselves be sucked in.

10: Chapter 9

Woosh.

Scarlet felt a vague sensation of her skin being ripped off, but instead of being agonizing, it was pleasant. It was as if you put a gentle vacuum hose onto your arm.

The feeling faded away and eventually stopped all together, and she opened her eyes. All around her was swampland. The air reeked of moisture and dankness, almost like the tunnel from before. Bugs buzzed and the dirty-looking water bubbled.

"This is the swampland, right?" Ambrielle, standing beside her, asked. She replied with just a nod.

They walked wherever they could. The water had soaked into the grass, making it wet and squishy. It saturated their socks with moisture and eventually they took off their shoes to walk barefoot on the troublesome ground.

Soon, the two girls became aware of smoke rising over the top of the trees. They smelled something delicious. It was like a fairy tale, where the kids get lost and find a house. Goldilocks. Hansel and Gretel.

"I'm so hungry," Ambrielle panted. And Scarlet was famished, too. But her instincts got the better of her. Of course those stories would somehow be applied to real life.

"I'm not sure if we should follow the scent," Scarlet said uncertainly.

"Come on! It's not like anything will happen," she protested.

The older sibling sighed. It was tiring to be suspicious all the time, even if it was just for one second. Plus, would they find another house or whatever it was to stay in? But, no. Because Scarlet would be suspicious of that, too. She was outnumbered. "Okay," she conceded.

The house soon came into view. It almost blended into their surroundings, but she could still see it just the same. The steam that emerged out of the chimney wafted towards their noses. It smelled like cinnamon rolls.

"Oh, that smells so good," Ambrielle started walking towards it. "Hurry up, Scarlet."

The two girls arrived at the front door of the house. From here, the smell was stronger, and it made even Scarlet's mouth water, although her mouth had already started watering a long time ago.

"You knock," Ambrielle whispered.

She sighed but complied. Raising her fist, she took a deep breath, and…

Knock. Knock.

They waited. Soon they heard footsteps through the door, and it opened. A kindly old lady stared back at them. She looked just like a typical grandma- white afro-like hair, half-moon glasses that hung from a chain and rested on the bridge of her large, crooked nose, pale, wrinkled skin, and half-closed eyes like a baby just out of it's wound but older. She was wearing a home-knit pink dress that looked extremely itchy, and faded blue slippers.

"Hello," the lady said, chuckling. "Would you like to come and stay? I'm baking some cinnamon rolls."

"Yes, please!" Ambrielle answered immediately. The old woman laughed feebly, again, and made inviting gestures.

"Come in. Take off your shoes, please. You must be cold and hungry, children." She seemed almost too eager, but Scarlet was too hungry. You can't think on an empty stomach, the saying went.

The elderly woman led them to a table in what looked like the kitchen, where a bell ding!ed and the oven glowed. She shuffled over, grabbing some oven mitts on the way. Then she tipped the oven's door open, carefully, until she let it drop just hovering above the ground.

The table they were sitting at was like the one at home. Her real home. This smooth, polished wood table was nothing compared to Nesbit and Chalet's rickety old slab of wood. The chairs weren't stools, they were actually chairs. For the first time since this game, Scarlet felt at home. It was pointless to have worried.

The old lady gently set a metal tray of steaming cinnamon rolls on the table. "Wait," she said, before Ambrielle had the chance to take one. She went to the dishwasher and got two large plates, and placed them on the table. "Eat up!" she smiled.

As they were wolfing down the sweet treats, she introduced herself to them. "My name is Beatrice. I live here alone, but my daughter is the trapped princess...you've heard of her, right? I would do anything to save her, but alas, my old bones do not support me anymore."

Scarlet was confused at this because she had acted so energetic before, but maybe that was because she rarely got any visitors. But her daughter was the princess? Maybe they could find out her whereabouts and get out of the game faster. "Where is she?" the girl asked.

Beatrice lifted the corners of her lips into a smile. "That, I can tell you. She is in the next world ahead, the Ash Desert. I can show you a shortcut if you'd like, but only if you promise to come back with my poor, little baby." She dabbed away a tear that to Scarlet, seemed nonexistent.

"Of course we will!" she leapt at the chance to be able to get out of the game. All they had to do was take the shortcut into the Ash Desert, save the princess, and take her back home. Easy as pie. "Show us," she insisted.

"First, finish up your food, sweetie. Don't rush," Beatrice told her playfully. Scarlet and Ambrielle didn't listen. They cleared the plate in record time, and sat there, looking at the old woman with expectant faces.

"Oh, children," Beatrice mused, smiling and shaking her head. Then she turned to the two girls. "Prepare yourselves, we're going to head out soon." She hoisted herself out of her chair with a simple "Wait for me at the door" and strolled out of the room.

"We don't have any more health potions," Ambrielle exclaimed suddenly. "We used the last one when we were fighting that monster. Should we ask if she has any?"

Scarlet nodded. "If she's living in the middle of the woods, she probably has some. Come on, let's go wait at the door."

They stood up, pushing their chairs back, and headed towards the door and waited for Beatrice to come back.

She came down the stairs that were next to the door, with a big leather purse and a foldable umbrella in her hand. "Come, my children," she said as she put on her shoes, which were "old lady flats".

"Um," Scarlet spoke up. "Do you by chance have any health potions? We're…low on them."

Beatrice looked innocently at them, deep in thought. Then her expression changed and she held up a finger. "Ah. Yes, I do. They are in my bag. A poor memory I have, I'm afraid. I will distribute them to you when needed." She gestured for them to follow her as she opened the door.

Soon they were outside again in the gloomy place. Scarlet wondered why she lived in such an isolated zone, but didn't say anything. All her earlier traces of suspicions had disappeared, though. The old lady didn't seem hostile at all, in fact she was very kind and seemed very innocent.

They followed her along a barely worn path that only she could see, and all the while she sprayed something into the air around them.

"What is that you're spraying?" Ambrielle asked after a while. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her, and so had Scarlet's. She was dying to know.

"It's so that we don't get attacked by monsters along the way," she answered casually. "It makes things quicker and saves time."

"Oh," Ambrielle responded in understanding. No wonder they hadn't gotten ambushed at all yet. Scarlet had assumed it was because they were walking on a path instead of the "tall grasses" like in that DS game she always played.

"It's going to take a while, I forgot to tell you that, my dears," Beatrice rasped. Her umbrella had now become a walking stick and she seemed to be breathing more heavily and walking more slower.

Feeling impatient, Scarlet piped up, "I think I can see the path more clearer now. We'll be able to find our way on our own and if you need to tell us anything, you can tell it to us now. You seem tired, too."

The old woman's almost closed eyes wrinkled and she smiled, revealing her misshapen teeth. "Of course, my darlings. I just wanted to walk with you and make sure you were safe. Are you sure you can make it?"

"Are you sure you can make it back to your home alone?" Ambrielle interrupted with genuine concern, jabbing Scarlet for her manners. "We can walk back with you the rest of the way, and then come back."

The woman shook her head. "We've already walked so far, but thank you for considering me, child. Now hurry along! I just would like to warn you that there are Elementals guarding my daughter's castle." Then she reached into her big, leather bag and took out four health potions, distributing them evenly among the sisters. "Here are your health potions. Stay safe!"

"Oh, thank you!" Scarlet and Ambrielle called after her as she hobbled away.

"She was nice," Ambrielle remarked. "I really liked those cinnamon buns, too."

"I did, too," Scarlet agreed. They stood in silence for a while, watching Beatrice's receding figure in the distance. Then Scarlet snapped to attention. "Okay, come on, let's get going."

They walked at a brisk pace along the trail. It seemed to be getting more worn, so Scarlet didn't have to squint to see the path anymore. A light came into their view, just like the one at the end of the forest in the first world.

Ambrielle broke into a wide smile and started running. "Hurry, Scarlet! We're almost there!"

And then, suddenly, she stopped cold, as their surroundings began to blink and flash.

11: Chapter 10

Because Beatrice wasn't around anymore, the anti-ambushing spray didn't go into effect, and therefore they'd been attacked. How could Scarlet have been so stupid?

The flashing colors faded and in front of them was a monster twice as tall as the first boss! It was a level twenty, and the two girls were only level eleven. They had no chance against it. They were going to die.

Scarlet cradled her head in her arms. Just kill me. Kill me now, she pleaded silently. Spare me the wait.

"Scarlet!" Something jabbed her arm. "We have to fight it!"

"We can't," she whispered, almost inaudible.

"What do you mean we can't?" Ambrielle protested.

She didn't want to tell her. She didn't want her sister's hopeful face to be erased. But most of all, she didn't want to let down her sister, and Ambrielle's broken expression tore her heart in half. At least if they fought, they'd go down nobly.

"Okay. We can try," she said, swallowing back tears and trying to sound optimistic.

Ambrielle grinned and rushed forward. "I go first!"

While she slashed and hacked at the boss, Scarlet watched from afar. Was Ambrielle seeing something different than her? Something smaller and less fearful, perhaps? Or did she know something that Scarlet didn't know? She wondered why her younger sister didn't seem scared at all. After all, the beast was a million times bigger than her. A normal person should have been scared.

"Your turn," a yell sounded from her left.

Scarlet immediately switched gears. Clutching her sword so hard her knuckles turned white, she charged at the monster. She didn't care about it's stats; it's name. She just wanted to let her sister know that she could be trusted.

Her sword slammed into the monster's skin. There was some resistance, but eventually it sunk in, and black blood poured out. With difficulty, she pulled it out and ran back. Now it was the monster's turn. Who would it attack?

Obviously, it attacked the first one who attacked it. Ambrielle. Scarlet had completely forgotten that this monster was way above their level. So she stood on the sidelines, thinking that Ambrielle would be okay after the attack. They'd gotten used to the monsters only taking away about five percent of their health.

But oh, she was so wrong.

Before she knew it, Ambrielle's health bar was dropping rapidly as the monster drew away, finishing it's move. Scarlet screamed and dashed forward. It had struck her a little above the heart, and her life was fading away fast. Scarlet sobbed, quickly rummaging through her leather bag to find a health potion. She hurriedly uncorked the bottle and forced it into her sister's mouth. Please be alive, please be alive, she thought desperately. How could she have been so stupid? Twice, now. Without Chalet and Nesbit they were powerless.

Just then, there were running footsteps behind the pair. More than one. She turned her head toward the sound, not caring whether they saw her tear-stricken face. Because who wouldn't cry if they saw someone die?

Scarlet's mouth dropped open in recognition.

Cadere, Dyke, and Wyatt.

"Hey, I called that f-" Dyke began, but then stopped when he saw Scarlet. He suddenly drew back. "…First…" he hesitantly ended.

Cadere noticed the bloodied Ambrielle lying on the ground, and started walking towards her. Scarlet instinctively tried to cover her younger sister with her body, but Cadere just knelt down beside her. He was silent for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Health potions won't help," he finally said. "We'll have to rush her."

Scarlet didn't know what he was talking about. Rushing to the hospital? There was no hospital in this game, as far as Scarlet knew. But she was too scared to be curious. Ambrielle was dying, and it was because of her. "Don't let her die," she choked out.

Cadere carefully slid his arms under her little sister, and picked her up with ease. "Come on, then," he jerked his head towards a direction that was off the path.

They walked at a brisk pace through the swamps. Every step Scarlet took, she felt the ground squish beneath her shoes. She felt a bit reluctant, seeing her in-game rival carrying her sister. Wyatt made no sign of knowing her. He didn't make any eye contact with her, just acted like he'd always had. They walked in silence.

Finally, Scarlet heard a faint chatter. Pottery clinking, merchants yelling, and laughing reached her ears. Dyke parted some bushes in front of them and Scarlet peered over to see the view.

There seemed to be a whole village. It was very traditional, like the one in the Wyldwoods. The houses were different, though. They were round and seemed to be made out of what looked like plants and bamboo-like sticks, mostly a dark blue-green and looking like huts.

They had emerged behind a merchant standing behind a vendor, and they crept along so that he wouldn't see them and accuse them for attempting to steal his items. At least that's what Dyke had muttered later.

Speaking of Dyke, he had become a totally different person. No longer a jeering, dominating bully. He smiled at the kids and patted their heads.

"Aren't those NPCs?" Scarlet whispered to Wyatt.

Wyatt shook his head. "Not this time, unlike in the Wyldwoods. These are real kids. They've been stuck in the game for a while and haven't been able to come back home. They just stay here because the village is pretty big and rich here."

They hurried up to catch up with Cadere, who was still carrying her sister. Scarlet peeked over his shoulder- which was hard because he was tall and she was short- and saw that Ambrielle's health was at 18/110. It didn't seem to be dropping, but Scarlet had barely any time to look at it because Cadere stopped in front of a hut bigger than the others, making her bump into him.

"Hey, keep your distance," he warned, frowning at her.

Scarlet glared at him back, and he turned his head back to it's original forward position and continued walking.

"Ethra? We're coming in," he called, pushing back the bead curtain.

When they stepped in, Scarlet smelt a strong scent of incense. Lavender, was it? Her mother would light incense candles all over the house on special occasions, and they were usually lavender-flavored. She was more than familiar with this aroma.

There was a dim light in the center of the room, illuminating a young woman, maybe in her teens or older. This must have been Ethra. She was clothed in silk that flowed gracefully around the room, and Scarlet took care not to step on it. The girl seemed to be praying, and upon closer inspection, Scarlet could see that the source of light was actually a translucent round orb with glowing blobs inside it, like a lava lamp.

They waited for a few seconds, and then the girl daintily placed her hands on her knees, keeping them relaxed. She finally looked up at them, and Scarlet was astounded by her beauty. She had a small, petite, peaches and cream-colored face that didn't seem to have ever seen the sun. Her baby-like lips matched her curved nose and shining purple eyes. Her caramel hair was carefully put into a fishtail braid that trailed over her left shoulder and stopped above her torso.

Cadere was stunned into silence for a few moments, and then he spoke. "U-um, I have a request to make."

Ethra closed her eyes and nodded knowingly. When she spoke, her voice was like honey, producing a soothing effect on them all. "Set her down, please."

Cadere complied with her orders, and gently placed Ambrielle down on a white, cushiony mat that wasn't much thicker than her arm. Ethra then stood up after gathering up all her silk garments and moved over Scarlet's younger sibling until she was sitting so that Ambrielle was horizontal to her.

The ceremony began. She began chanting words in another language unknown to Scarlet, but red, glittering dust and sparkles materialized over the unconscious patient, and the color seemed to drain back into Ambrielle's face. Her dried up wounds closed up in a matter of seconds and when she was done, Ethra kept her hands hovering over Ambrielle for a moment, her eyes closed, and then put them back down onto her knees. Ambrielle opened her eyes and looked around in confusion.

"Done," she said. "That was a close one."

Scarlet felt like she should say something. "Um, thank you!"

Ethra nodded and smiled at her, and Scarlet basked in this golden glory. Her smile would have lit up the saddest of people. "Is there anything else you need?"

Cadere shook his head. "No. Many thanks."

"Come on, Ambrielle," Scarlet nudged her younger sister gently.

"Where am I?" Ambrielle asked sleepily as they walked out of the hut. Scarlet blinked in the bright sunlight.

"You almost d- passed out," Scarlet caught herself just in time. She didn't want her little sister, who admired her so much, to know that she had almost let her die.

"But why are we with Cadere? And Dyke?" Ambrielle had already almost returned to her original, curious and hyper state.

"Well…" Scarlet had completely forgotten that they were rivals. "They saved you."

"What do you mean, save me? I wasn't dying, was I?"

Oops. Scarlet had spilled the beans. Continuing to lie, she said, "Well…no." She rubbed her face.

She was about to continue when Cadere interrupted. "You were dying, Ambrielle. No use in hiding it. She's alive and healthy, that's what's important."

"I was dying?! Why didn't you tell me?" Ambrielle burst out. Some of the villagers looked at them.

Scarlet turned her head and didn't say anything, embarrassed.

"You should stay here for a night and rest," Wyatt suggested out of the blue. "We have a house here."

"Okay," Ambrielle agreed almost immediately.

"Um…Aren't we enemies?" Scarlet spoke up. This question had been bothering her ever since Cadere had rescued her sister.

He gave her a hard, piercing look. "For now, we're not," he said in a voice so quiet it scared her.

12: Chapter 11

"You'll have to share a bed," Wyatt said, patting a cushioned mattress just like the one at Nesbit and Chalet's house, but this one was lifted and placed on a bed frame. Scarlet's heart dropped at the thought of having to share a bed with Ambrielle. She would hog all the blankets and it just wouldn't be a pleasant experience for her. Still, at least they had shelter and food.

Scarlet nodded. "Thanks."

"Do you want to take a shower?" he asked. Then he looked ashamed of himself. "I mean, not like…you know. I swear we won't peek…" He cussed, blushing furiously. "I didn't mean it that way."

Scarlet hid a smile. She was familiar with this in the story-type games she played. Girls showering, boys peeping. The usual. "Okay." She didn't feel like taking a shower right then, though, so she asked, "Ambrielle, do you want to take one first?"

Her little sister gaped incredulously at her. "Are you really asking me that? Is this a joke? Are you tricking me?"

There was no persuading her. "Okay, I'll take a shower first, then." Scarlet looked at Wyatt questioningly. "Where's the bathroom?"

He spun on his heels, beckoning her to follow him. "Here," he said, stopping at a door in a small hallway in the house.

Scarlet pushed the door open and closed it. There was no lock on the door. Why wasn't there a lock on the door? At least the shower had curtains.

She eased the tap on, and watched the water pour out of the sprinkler as she undressed. The water was cold when she stepped in. At least she could think. The sound of the water hitting the tiles was comforting to her, like white noise. It was something she could listen to.

How long had they been stuck in the game now? She'd lost track of the days. But it had been more than a week. Which meant more than two weeks in the real world. She wondered if they'd ever get out. Freedom was up ahead. But the game couldn't be that easy, could it? There had to be a catch. There just had to be.

The Damsel in Distress…The True Damsel in Distress…What could they mean by 'true'? Was it just supposed to be poetic?

Maybe the damsel was a fake. The one Beatrice had told them about. Maybe that was fake. Maybe that was why she seemed so suspicious…

And suddenly, everything made sense. Scarlet's heart started pounding. She'd figured out the game. All they needed to do now was to find the true damsel! She couldn't wait to tell Wyatt and the others.

But…they were her enemies. Cadere had even said so. Only for this time they would be friends.

Then, a horrible thought occurred to her. What if they'd already turned their backs on them? What if right now, they were strangling Ambrielle? Or waiting outside the bathroom door, ready to kill her? If so, they would have already broken in. There wasn't a lock, after all. Even though the curtains were blocking her view, she still turned her head to the door, waiting for someone to burst in with a knife.

Nothing did happen. She turned off the water anyway and dried herself off. She put her clothes back on quickly and exited the bathroom, running to the main room where everyone was supposed to be sleeping, expecting to see the three boys ganging up against her younger sister.

But the exact opposite happened. Cadere was sleeping on the ground in a white sleeping back. His eyes were closed and his mouth was open, his hand half-clenched and brought up to his face. He was really quite cute and vulnerable when he was sleeping. After a small glance around the room, Scarlet's heartbeat decelerated and she felt calm again. But there was a chance they might stab them in the middle of the night. She promised herself she would stay half-asleep all night so that she could keep an eye out.

Dyke was sitting on the marble kitchen counter, knees pulled in and shirtless. He was still wearing his black shorts and his back was faced towards her. He seemed to be holding something and had his head in his knees. The boy paid no attention to Scarlet

Meanwhile, Wyatt was murmuring quietly to Ambrielle on their bed. Every so often, they laughed quietly and soon it became apparent to Scarlet that he was telling her a bedtime story of some sort. What a caring boy. Everything seemed innocent and safe. She didn't want to keep her guard up anymore. It was tiring. She'd been being suspicious for too long. She felt tired.

They seemed to have the nicest bed in the whole dwelling. There were sleeping bags spread across the room, one of which Cadere was sleeping on.

"Sorry the door has no lock on it," Wyatt apologized when he spotted her. "I forgot to tell you that."

At least no one burst in on her ready to murder her. "It's okay," she responded.

"Are you tired? I'm just telling Ambrielle a story here."

"Yeah. I can wait until you're finished," she offered.

"You can listen too, you know."

She politely declined the offer, wanting to know what was up with Dyke, and walked towards him. As she got closer she noticed he was holding something glowing. A cell phone. He looked downcast.

Quietly sliding onto the kitchen counter to sit next to him, she asked, "Why do you have your cell phone?" Wrong question. She meant to ask what was wrong, but her curiosity got the better of her, again.

He glanced at her, then back at his phone. "Promise not to laugh."

"I won't."

"I'm trying to get a signal."

This was not the sort of thing Scarlet would laugh at. It sounded totally normal. Something she would do, at least. It was just kind of ridiculous…if that made sense. Of course they wouldn't get any signal in the game. But it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

She leaned over to get a closer look at his phone. He smelled like sweat, but he seemed to use some sort of nice-smelling shampoo, which overpowered the sweat.

Her eyes found the signal bars on the top of the phone screen. There were none. Of course not. But he seemed to be waiting. Would there ever be a signal?

"Hey, could you give me some space?" Scarlet heard him speaking. It was only then she realized how close she was leaning towards him. She felt embarrassed.

"Sorry," she apologized, leaning back and sliding off the counter. Wyatt seemed to have finished telling his story. Ambrielle was rubbing her eyes, ready to go to sleep. Scarlet deemed she was ready too.

Looking around the room, it suddenly occurred to her they hadn't lived with any other girls in the game, if you didn't count Beatrice. They'd only stayed at her place for a few minutes. It was all boys. Scarlet and Ambrielle had unconsciously grown accustomed to it, and never noticed. Ambrielle didn't even seem to mind, seeing as she was already taking off her pants and revealing her underwear. That wasn't much of a problem, though. She was sure none of the boys in the room were pedophiles.

Wyatt was standing over his sleeping bag, taking off his shirt. He had a skinny and flimsy body, in contrast to Dyke's broad chest. Scarlet quickly turned away and got onto her side of the bed. With her back facing the boys(because she was still a little self-conscious), she wriggled out of her skirt and jacket, taking her glasses off and setting them gently on top of her clothes thrown in a heap on the wooden ground. It looked like it was made of bamboo. One of the rooms in her home was made of bamboo.

Dyke was still sitting on the counter. "Dyke, are you going to be there all night?" Cadere called sleepily from his spot. He seemed to have woken up but was ready to go back to bed.

"Don't screw with me," he growled, shutting his phone and jumping onto the ground. He sighed as he landed and not-too-gently set his cell on the counter. The boy seemed exasperated.

Scarlet climbed into her bed, tired and hungry. They hadn't offered her any food, just a bath. She hoped her stomach wouldn't rumble, though, because she didn't want to make them feel like bad hosts. Even if they were her enemies.

The lights went out, and everything was dark. She remembered…The True Damsel in Distress. She needed to tell Ambrielle that. But it wouldn't do to wake up any of the others. Deciding to wait until morning, she slipped into innocent unconsciousness.

Eyes snapped open. It was dark. Very dark. So dark, she couldn't see anything. There was a window nearby and what seemed like a full moon, which provided some illumination. As her eyes got adjusted to the darkness, her alarmed heart rate slowed down. She was confused. Trying to remember what time it was. Again, with the waking up in weird places. She suddenly realized that she was cold and uncovered. She groped around for the blanket, found it, and pulled. It was stuck. She pulled harder. There was a groan on her left.

Shoot. Was there someone sleeping next to her?

She turned around, not wanting to see who it was, but let out a sigh of relief when she spotted Ambrielle. She was hoarding the blankets. She remembered now.

Scarlet got out of bed, slipping into her skirt, which was still clean after all this time. The game auto-washed the clothing that you wore, so it was never filthy and in need of washing. She took a look where the boys were sleeping and realized that one of them was missing…Cadere. It really did seem like something he would do, though- get out of bed in the middle of the night. What time was it, anyway?

Walking a few steps forward, she peeked out of the window to the left of her destination- maybe Cadere was out there. If not, where could he be? There wasn't a single other sound in the house she had heard since she had awakened.

Nothing. Tiptoeing back to fetch her jacket and slipping it on, she opened the door, quietly going out and shutting it behind her. She looked around. No Cadere in sight. Check the back?

Nothing there, either. Where could he have gone? Scarlet shouldn't have worried. He was her enemy, after all. But she did, anyway. Why?

She shivered in the nighttime wind and decided to head back in. She hurried back to the front door, and opened the doorknob. It didn't budge. The doorknob didn't budge.

She was locked out.

13: Chapter 12

The night winds were cold. Shivering, Scarlet pulled her hood over her head and knocked the door repeatedly, hard. She knew Ambrielle was a deep sleeper. She didn't know about Wyatt or Dyke. And Cadere wasn't in the house…Was he?

She didn't want to wake anyone in the little town up, but she needed to be let in. She was starting to get goosebumps on her legs and her cheeks were red with cold. Where was Cadere? She regretted going out to look for him. If she'd just stayed in bed this wouldn't have happened. Sighing, the girl started to resign herself to an entire night in the outdoors and sat down.

After a few moments(Scarlet got impatient easily, especially if she was bored), she stood up again. No sign of Cadere. She tried to knock on the door some more, but there was no answer. It really was getting cold.

Finally, Scarlet decided to actually go look for Cadere. This very thought gave her the creeps, as if she was standing outside her door in front of her own house and thinking about running away. But how bad could it be? After all, there was nothing else to do.

She first started by taking a brisk walk outside the house, eyes peeled for the missing boy. After seeing nothing, she shuffled back to the front of the house where she could exit the front yard path and actually search the whole village. Hadn't Wyatt said something about that these kids were real? Yes, they were. She hoped they were all asleep so that she could avoid any unnecessary confrontations.

Not a soul was in sight. It was dark but the moon shone brightly and her eyes had long adjusted to the dim lighting. Where was Cadere?

The paths led right, left, or forward. She chose left. There would more likely be a dead end that way and the right side, as well, and so she decided to get that over with first. As she rounded the corner, her hypothesis was right. The end of the road was not far, and it ended abruptly as a hill covered with trees rose up and out of sight. The village lived in what seemed like a crater, or a large depression in the earth.

She didn't see Cadere anywhere, but she decided to check, anyway. Rounding the corner, her eyes scanned her surroundings for just any trace of the missing boy, or any movement at all. Nothing. Just like the conclusions this entire night had revealed: Nothing. She turned around and walked towards the other side, to the left. After a few paces she gave up, and turned to the route ahead of her.

There was suddenly a shifting noise ahead of her. The kind of noise that was like when she was trying to be quiet but her clothes brushed against something. More paths branched out from the one she was walking on, and a quick three-sixty movement caught some motion on her right.

Two people. Huddled against each other. They were mere silhouettes in the shadow of the moon, on the sides of the street. But that wasn't enough to keep Scarlet from knowing what they were doing.

Kissing.

She immediately felt disgusted. Any form of love was a complete turn-off to her. She looked away, just before they broke apart and saw her. She knew who one of them was. Cadere. But he didn't seem like the kind who would do this kind of stuff. Scarlet had assumed he was out doing some secret-agent nighttime business, like what she'd always seen in movies and TV shows and games.

Scarlet heard them talking quietly, and then she heard footsteps behind her. Cadere started walking backwards swerved over to the left of her, hands in his pockets. His face, illuminated by the glowing orb in the sky, was serious and questioning. The shadows cast by the light made him look sinister.

He stared at her. Scarlet didn't look at him. She didn't want to see him. Not the traces of bacteria left on his lips by whoever he was making out with. She inwardly stuck out her tongue.

Cadere seemed to be trying to find words to say. Not in a dorky, unprepared way, but with that steady, calm look. His Adam's apple was bobbing up and down his throat, Scarlet noticed out of the corner of her eye.

Finally he said, "Were you locked out?"

Scarlet nodded, still not exchanging even a single glance with him.

He grabbed her wrist and was about to lead her back to the house, but Scarlet shook him off. She didn't want to hold hands with a boy. With a girl, like her mom or sister, would be okay. The only exception was her dad. This was awkward and she couldn't wait to get away from him. "Don't touch me," she said.

They walked back in silence. A few moments after Scarlet's demand, Cadere asked, "Are you jealous?"

"No!" Scarlet whipped her head towards him, shocked. But then she remembered the kiss and turned away before she could see the "huge globs of bacteria" that she would imagine to be on his lips.

It was silent for a moment, and then he started chuckling. "I don't know why I said that. I'm sure you hate me."

"Wash your face when we get back," was all she said.

Morning came. Last night they'd gotten back home without further ado, and Cadere had unlocked the door with a key he pulled out from under the doormat, causing Scarlet to repeatedly face palm herself in her mind. She could've avoided all this, if only she'd thought to check under the mat.

She sat up in bed, running her fingers through her hair in an effort to tidy it up before anyone woke up. Scarlet was always an early bird, which was a surprise since she seemed so lazy, always playing DS games and whatnot. She could thrive on less than seven hours of sleep for a little more than a week.

Climbing out of her sheets, she pulled her clothes on and rubbed her eyes. Someone on the other side of the room stirred and she prayed that it wasn't Cadere. But if it was, she hoped that he'd washed his face last night. She'd been too traumatized to listen for the water running.

At least they weren't stabbed.

As that thought crossed her mind, a jolt shook her body. They could kill her at any moment, in her vulnerable state. Scarlet, and Ambrielle as well. Turning around, she shook Ambrielle in an effort to wake her up. Her little sister groaned and turned to face her. "Let me sleep a little longer."

"No. We have to go now. Do you want to get out of this game or not?" she threatened.

"Fine," Ambrielle drew out the word. She threw the blankets off and started to clothe herself in the same clothes she'd been wearing, for what, the past…month? Scarlet had already lost track of time.

"What's the hurry?" a voice asked. She sighed inwardly as she recognized the voice that was Cadere's.

"You know. Need to get out of this game. Don't you?" She said this in an exasperated manner, finally looking at him. Scarlet was sure the bacteria from the other girl's mouth was gone. It was an irrational thought, but she was more than one hundred percent asexual. Public shows of affection grossed her out and made her feel all icky inside.

Cadere had no pants on. Just some briefs and a white T-shirt in desperate need of ironing. He was in the process of putting his black jacket on. "Don't you want to stay for some breakfast?" He talked as if nothing had ever happened the last night.

"No." Scarlet cut him down as soon as he finished his sentence. Before Ambrielle could protest, she dragged her to the door. "We're leaving. Bye."

"But I'm hungry!"

She opened the door and walked out, slamming it behind her. The sun was just over the horizon. No one was up, yet.

"Scarlet, you're so mean! Why would you starve me?" Ambrielle whined. How annoying, she thought. But she didn't say anything, knowing this would shut her up eventually. Scarlet kept an iron grip on her sister's wrist. "You're hurting me," the little girl continued.

She pressed on her complaints as Scarlet led them farther and farther away from the village. They exited from to the swampland. Scarlet stopped to take off her shoes.

"Are you going to take off your shoes?" she asked her younger sister.

She stubbornly shook her head, and Scarlet shrugged indifferently, and continued to pull her along. She started running, ignoring Ambrielle's wails. One hand held her sister's wrist, and the other held her two shoes. Mud and water splashed all around them, but by this point, Scarlet was desperate to get out of the game. And they would. She was sure of it.

She'd even leave Ambrielle behind if that was what it took.

The black-haired girl shook that thought out of her mind. What would her parents say if she came home alone, without Ambrielle? She would probably regret it in the long run, too.

It wasn't long before Ambrielle started to become a weight to her. She stopped and let go of Ambrielle to stand on her own, resting one hand on her knee and breathing heavily. Ambrielle had also gone silent, being too winded to talk after all that running. Scarlet knew that they were lost. It didn't matter. This game was straightforward, she was sure. They'd get out of the swamp eventually.

14: Chapter 13

Scarlet was ready to drop. Her feet were freezing, and Ambrielle's energy had seemed to have faded as well. A look around yielded nothing; no place to stay comfortably. So long were all the dreams of Scarlet's wanting to be in a video game instead of real life. She would've never known it would be this hard.

She considered giving up.

But a look at Ambrielle swept that thought away. Her little sister, as annoying as she was, would always be her motivation to continue this game, and finish it. But for all she knew, she might not even have finished half of the game. She had to pick up the pace.

Hoisting the half-dead Ambrielle onto her shoulders, Scarlet realized how strong her arms had become and how much weight her younger sibling had lost. At least this game was good exercise. Then, she began to run with newfound strength. Her legs still hurt and burned the more she ran, but she was sure that if she ran fast enough no monster would be able to catch her. Cramps formed in her stomach, but she just ran even harder, focusing on the pain in her legs.

She stopped, catching her breath while leaning on a tree. The pain had all caught up to her now; it spread through her body like wildfire. She felt sick to her stomach, a side effect of running too hard for too long. Her legs gave way and she sat down, closing her eyes and blindly removing her little sister off her back and resting her head in her lap. The girl almost didn't hear the little, menacing growl to her right.

At first she had just assumed that it was a rustling of leaves. But she was almost about to drift off when she realized-

Her eyes snapped open. It seemed darker than it had been. And there was breathing, of more than one animal.

She was surrounded by monsters.

Ambrielle was sleeping, unprotected. Scarlet grabbed her and protectively wrapped her arms around her. Some of the monsters snorted and pawed at the ground impatiently at the sudden movement, but they seemed to be waiting for something. Waiting for what?

"Ambrielle," Scarlet whispered as loudly as she could, not sure how to wake her up without looking like a stupid girl harassing a younger child. She flicked Ambrielle's head multiple times until she came around.

"Wh…..at…?" Ambrielle asked slowly, waking up. Then her eyes grew wide as she noticed all the monsters in the vicinity of the two. "Oh no. Where are we? How'd you do this?"

"I didn't do it," Scarlet snapped, putting her on the ground to let her stand on her own. "We're going to…" she stopped herself. Not die. "Fight," the girl finished, determinedly.

Ambrielle gave her an "are-you-crazy" look, but then smiled and pulled up her inventory, choosing a simple staff with golden tendrils wrapping around it. Scarlet took this as an "okay" and grabbed her sword as well.

"Back to back," she commanded, going around Ambrielle, slightly turning her so they could touch backs. She trusted Ambrielle to fight on her own, to protect her back. Even if she was younger, it was still worth hoping. The monsters growled and lowered themselves more closer to the ground, as if getting ready to pounce on them. Scarlet knew it was futile, but they wouldn't go down without a fight. That would at least be a better death than being slowly eaten.

She swished her sword around, making wooshing noises and in general trying to intimidate the monsters. But they still didn't attack. This was starting to confuse her. Maybe she and Ambrielle should attack first.

Suddenly, all the monsters started charging towards them. All of them. All at once, at the same time. Scarlet heard someone scream- Ambrielle, it was. Soon all she could see was dirty, white tusks or elephant-like wrinkled skin, belonging to the monsters. She squeezed her eyes shut, holding her sword out in front of her in a futile attempt to protect herself.

Just before she thought the monsters were going to hit, there were roars all over. Keeping her eyes shut for a few more moments just in case, she swung her sword around, feeling the air. Nothing. And then she opened her eyes.

All the monsters' heads were snapped back with rope. Their necks were tied with the sturdy string, and they seemed to have been yanked with so much force that their heads had literally "snapped" back, possibly causing some injuries or death in a select few of the foes. Scarlet looked around, trying to find the source of the strings.

"Up here!" a girl's voice yelled. A girl? It had been so long since she'd seen another girl. Or heard, but now she'd seen, as Scarlet looked to the voice's origin.

Blonde hair caught her attention. In a flurry of movements, she tied the rope to the branch she was sitting on and jumped down, somersaulting a few times and landing on the swamp floor with a squish. Scarlet, glancing around, saw that they were not alone. People were squatting or sitting on the branches of trees all around them. A few jumped off, making the branches bend under their weight as they gathered momentum. The smaller ones stayed in the air.

"So!" she smiled. "I'm Kip. Just Kip. This is my clan. The Clan of the Swamp." She spread her arms wide, proudly displaying her mates.

"You're not the leader, Kip." Something came up behind her, dressed in dark, brown clothes. Scarlet had to crane her neck to see his face.

The man's jaw was strongly defined, and his face was streaked with mud. He had a deep, bass voice. "I'm Proc," he introduced himself. "Just Proc. This is my clan. I'm the leader." He nodded politely.

Kip seemed tiny compared to Proc, skulking in his shadow. She was like all the female protagonists she'd seen in other games- strong, boyish. Even her voice was confident and like a boy's. She dressed the same way as Proc, dull brown clothes but considerably more revealing. Like all female video game characters. Revealing. Fan service for the men.

Were they NPCs?

"I'm Scarlet, and this is Ambrielle," she told them, cautiously. Just in case they weren't NPCs. But Scarlet was pretty sure no one would normally dress this way. She came into the game with her normal clothes. So if Proc and Kip weren't NPCs they wouldn't have come into the game dressed so "weird". Plus, they were the leaders of a clan! High five, Sherlock.

The monsters had mostly stopped struggling against the ropes, at least the ones who weren't dead. Proc and Kip just plain ignored them as they conversed with the two girls.

"Untie the ropes and make sure they're all dead," Kip called. She seemed like the co-leader of the clan. "You guys need a place to stay?"

"Uh, yeah," Scarlet responded. They'd depended on a lot of people to help them in this journey of theirs…but they barely knew this game, plus, they had to move fast. It would only be just one night, Scarlet assured her guilty-feeling self. "Thank you."

"No problem," Kip answered cheerily. "Just come with me. You came from that village over there, right?"

Scarlet nodded, straightening her jacket and grabbing Ambrielle's wrist to help her catch up with the clan, which was starting to pack up and move along, back to their base or something.

"Cool, cool. So, where're you headed?" Kip asked, making small talk.

"The Princess," Scarlet told her.

She made a funny and skeptical face at them. "Really? I haven't heard of you, though."

Scarlet was confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean to say, you're not really famous for anything. Are you sure that you can rescue the princess? You must know that the most famous heroes in history have been trying to save her, but they've always failed and never came back."

Never came back?!

"You mean…they died?"

Kip assumed a solemn face. "Yeah. It would be a shame if you died. I'd really suggest not going for the Princess. I mean, I understand that you want to save her, but…The job would be more suited for a boy. You know. Like a Prince Charming."

Scarlet was surprised to hear these words coming out of someone like Kip's mouth. Kip seemed pretty boyish, and from the beginning Scarlet thought that she didn't care much for gender roles. "I think that after how long the Princess has been stuck in that tower, she wouldn't care who saved her," she finally said after some thought.

Kip laughed. "That's true. But she deserves better. Maybe she should get a Prince Charming. You seem like a good person, though. I guess it would be worth a try." These last few words she seemed to choke out, but it might have been Scarlet's imagination.

"Well, we're gonna go save the princess and get out of here," Ambrielle spoke up.

"Eh, what's that? Hehe, whatever," Kip replied. Probably the standard response from an NPC like her. "We're not too far, now." She pointed up ahead at a huge colony of trees that seemed to be connected by hammocks and branches and whatever knick knacks they could find. "It's right ahead. We're a bit low on food, though. Sorry about that."

"It's fine.." Scarlet mumbled. The sun was down and the mosquitoes seemed to have already come out. She was sick and tired of all this running around.

After they reached the colony, Kip showed them around, relentlessly dragging Scarlet and Ambrielle around on their tired feet, and it seemed like an eternity before they were escorted to their beds after a light snack that Kip told them was their dinner. They sure were low on food.

Scarlet lay in bed, too tired to fall asleep. And too worried to fall asleep. Finally her thoughts drifted and she was snoring gently on a rocking hammock located at least 15 feet above the ground.

15: Chapter 14

Screaming.

There was screaming. Scarlet could see people running around for some reason. She was on something suspended high in the air, and as she noticed that, she jumped, her heart beating crazy fast. She could have fallen! And died!

Maybe this was a dream. Like, who wakes up and sees people screaming and running around? Oh well. Scarlet carefully sat up in her hammock thing and looked around, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Something suddenly hit her arm and she jolted awake. Ouch. That hurt. But, Scarlet realized as she was looking around…

This wasn't a dream.

She looked down at the yelling crowd again, and spotted…that girl from yesterday. Kip, was it? And where was Ambrielle? A quick look to her left confirmed her search. Ambrielle was sitting up in her hammock, ready to barf. Scarlet's younger sister was afraid of heights. There was a ladder hanging down Ambrielle's hammock. Scarlet looked on the side of hers, too, and saw that she had a ladder as well. The ladder was red and rope-like, reminding her vaguely of licorice. She slowly eased herself down and yelled up to Ambrielle, "I'll hold the ladder steady for you!" She faintly saw her sister nod slowly with a worried and scared look on her face, and Scarlet immediately felt pity for her. How horrible it must be to wake up fifteen feet above the ground with a bunch of screaming people under you. But Scarlet had woken up like that, herself. Oh well.

She continued to climb down the ladder. Her heart was beating so fast as the unstable structure swayed to and fro. Suddenly, twisting her neck to Ambrielle's side, she noticed that someone was sawing the ropes off of her younger sister's ladder. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.

Scarlet hastily hurried down, and jumped off the last three steps and battled her way through a few angry-looking people. She wasn't sure what was happening, with all the screaming people and such. Some of them had been carrying sharp weapons, and Scarlet was forced to take out her sword from her still-intact inventory to fight off some of the people. This time she'd actually dealt some wounds on some real people. Wincing at the thought of blood spurting out a cut from her own sword, she scurried towards Ambrielle's ladder, afraid and nervous to face the person who was sawing the ropes off.

Stealing a glance upwards, she spotted her sister squeezing her eyes shut and slowly lowering herself down. No! She wanted to yell. There's a person sawing off your ladder!

"Get away!" she yelled at the man who was working on the rope.

The man glared at her, then smirked and spat on the ground. He had a messy beard and looked old, slightly shorter than Scarlet herself. He only seemed to have 4 or 5 teeth left in his mouth, Scarlet noticed as he growled, "Why don't ye get yer face outta mine, kid." He said 'kid' like 'kee-yid'. "Or else ye mite git hurt." He uttered a big, mighty laugh at that and continued to saw at the rope, which was almost broke.

Suddenly Scarlet tore a great, big gash in the man's arm. All she saw was skin flying open and blood screaming out, as she battled him away from the rope. Other people saw, mostly men, and she fought them all off. She could tell who was on her side because the enemies looked exactly like pirates. But the most significant thing was that they had red arrows on their heads. A universal reference that this guy was a baddie. None of Kip's clan had any of those. But no green arrows, either. She wondered briefly about what happened to those, but her thoughts were cut off as she had to protect the ladder that was seemingly getting attacked by someone from the other team all the time. Her arms were starting to tire out, one held on tightly to the rope, and the other grasping the hilt of her sword that was swinging around with amateur skill.

"Hurry up, Ambrielle!" She yelled, not even bothering to look upwards because she was so exhausted. It didn't look like she'd slept for long, it was still nighttime and she could see a faint brightness where the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. Plus, she'd been walking around so much. The lack of sleep had taken it's toll on Ambrielle, as well. She was climbing ever so slowly down the unsteady ladder, and Scarlet could see her hands shaking and her feet struggling to get a hold on the rope.

When her sister was almost down, Scarlet yelled, "Jump!" over the din of roars and screaming, and she dropped her sword, placing it under her foot, and caught Ambrielle as she fell the last few feet. "Oof," they both grunted, and Scarlet gently set her on her feet, then pausing to take her sword out from under her soles.

Ambrielle rubbed her eyes and looked around. "What's going on?" she asked, having to scream over the others.

"From what I've deduced, the community's being raided," Scarlet responded. "I think."

"What do we do?" She looked at her with wide eyes.

"We either stay and fight or run away," Scarlet told her grimly.

"Let's run away," Ambrielle pleaded, tugging on her sweatshirt. "I'm so tired and hungry and cold. I want to go home." Her eyes filled up with tears and she lifted on hand to wipe them away.

"Okay," she said, giving in. She was tired, too. It was so easy. "Let's go. Grab my hand." Scarlet felt around for her little sister to latch onto her, and when she did, they ran off. Ambrielle was able to keep up with her, thankfully. Scarlet fought off everyone who tried to hurt them, but for the most part no one paid them any attention, because they were all fighting their own enemies. She'd lost all sense of direction and didn't care where she went- she just wanted to get her and her sister out.

They spied a place ahead that was clear of people. The exit is that way, Scarlet thought. The two girls, sensing each other's excitement, hastily hurried onwards.

Suddenly, they bumped into something that was like a wall. Scarlet jumped back, momentarily disconnecting hands with her sister to rub her aching nose as tears gathered in her eyes. "Ow." The nose was always a sensitive place.

Scarlet looked at the wall- then realized there wasn't a wall. Nothing. Just thin air So how could they have-

Oh.

She reached her hand forward, fingers outstretched, until she hit something solid. An invisible wall. A barrier. She'd encountered this before, in cartoons and games.

What did it mean? It meant that they were stuck. Fleeing was not an option. They had to stay and fight until the enemy was obliterated.

Scarlet checked her and Ambrielle's health. Almost full. The damage done prior to them trying to run away wasn't too bad. They were level twenty-three now. Not too rusty.

She nodded at Ambrielle. "Well, let's get this over with."

Her sister slouched, raising her head towards the sky with an undignified groan. "I'm so tired."

"After this…we'll be able to get some sleep. Hopefully," Scarlet added.

"You didn't have to tack that on there."

Scarlet rubbed her eyes with one hand, breathed deeply, then walked slowly into the midst of the battle. Faintly, "Wait! Scarlet!" which ruined her entrance.

She turned around and waited for her sister to catch up, at the same time trying to defend herself as people tried to attack her. So. Tiring. But she didn't want Ambrielle to get hurt. Her first priority was just that, as much as she annoyed her. It was a sisterly relationship.

It grossed Scarlet out to have to cut and wound all these people, but Scarlet knew she had to and it was a half-second decision, for her life. So far she'd managed to not bleed, but she'd gotten a few bruises and her health bar was starting to drop. Ambrielle's was still in the green zone, since she'd joined slightly later. But at this rate, Scarlet would die in just a few minutes.

The thought hit her like a bullet, and adrenaline coursed through her. To die was…not a possibility, she assured herself. The thought of leaving Ambrielle alone in this game world terrified her. Scarlet fought harder. Soon her hair was in her eyes, dirt and dried blood caked her skin and clothes. No matter. It would disappear anyway.

No more health potions. What was she going to do now? Maybe she could try to avoid the enemies. But now they had been pushed to the middle of the battle. She scolded herself for being so stupid. They should have stayed around the perimeter. It would be a miracle if the rest of the clan had already taken care or could take care of the rest for her. She knew the game would give her a challenge, she wasn't born the day before.

"Scarlet! Your health bar is dropping!" Ambrielle's voice, behind her, shouted urgently. Scarlet had already known that, but she hoped that her sister wouldn't notice. Somehow, though, she felt like Ambrielle could help in some way. Her health bar was still almost full, probably since she had long-range abilities.

Scarlet closed her eyes in exhaustion. Then, they snapped back open as a blade made contact with her skin. All she felt was searing pain in her upper arm. Someone next to her screamed. Or was it her? Her vision turned white. Nothing but pain. It was almost numb now. Don't concentrate on the pain, she told herself. But she did anyway. It hurt like fire. Like someone had stabbed her with a knife, twisted it, then pulled it out. Someone yelled, "I can heal you, hang on, Scarlet!" Her voice was high pitched. But it hurt Scarlet's head to think about who it was. She couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain.

Scarlet could see the dim outlines of something. Lots of things, actually. Her arm's agonizing pain had dulled to a faint throb now. Maybe she was dying. Maybe she was going to heaven or something.

16: Chapter 15

Scarlet glanced around, trying to will her peripheral vision to clear faster. She could make out movement, lots of people moving. Her back was bent over, hands on knees, and the throb in her arm had subsided.

A finger tapped her on her arm, almost making her jump. She could tell it was a small finger, maybe a child's. Scarlet turned around to see the source- maybe it was an angel or something.

Ambrielle's face stared up at her.

Time seemed to slow down. Scarlet stole a glance at her arm, saw that there was nothing. It was clean, pure. A baby's skin. Her arm wound was gone. She hadn't gone to heaven, but she at least felt a little better. After giving her sister a brief smile, she twisted her body back and searched for her sword on the ground, locating it quickly. She picked it up and swung, just blocking a hit that was coming for her neck.

If she wanted to survive, she'd have to stay on her own two feet.

She and Ambrielle had somehow gotten into the back-to-back position. It was one of Scarlet's favorite battle techniques. It didn't work as well as she'd read in books, but there was no better option.

The once-innocent girl slew countless enemies, but she'd already gotten it through her head that they were NPCs- just another challenge that the game had thrown at them. She'd lost track of time, but soon the land around her looked like a sea of dead bodies. Still-bleeding corpses lay everywhere. Scarlet, being used to this, dismissed it. There seemed to be no smell coming from them, making the scene much less realistic. Still, she tried to keep her eyes off them. They were still disgusting. Scarlet gagged.

Ambrielle was behind her, breathing heavily. Obviously she'd managed to keep most of the foes away from her. "You okay?" Scarlet asked. She nodded.

"Scar!" someone yelled. Her voice was unmistakable. It was Kip. She was running towards her, her face badly scratched. When she got to her, she put her hands on her hips and smiled confidently. "Not bad. Maybe I was wrong. And your sis, too." Kip nodded at the little girl standing by Scarlet's side. "I wasn't expecting that to happen. Sorry 'bout that. Now we have even less food. I suggest you get going on your quest, though," she told us. It didn't sound like an excuse to get the two girls out; she actually sounded sincere about it. As if they'd earned her approval to go save the Princess.

Kip smiled and nodded as if she knew what Scarlet was thinking. "You have proved yourselves. Go save the Princess! You still have a long way to go." She grinned, teeth showing, and then turned around, walking away, one hand raised in farewell.

"Bye," Scarlet said, her voice fading as Kip walked off. She stared at the girl's receding figure, then whirled around on her heel. "Let's do what she said to do. Come on, hurry up!" she called, as she ran ahead.

"Hey! Slow down!" Ambrielle called after her, laughing. All thoughts of the battle seemed to have been wiped clean from the little girl's mind. Scarlet was still somewhat scarred, though. But she decided that, at least for now, she'd put on a brave face. Oh, the things she did for her sister.

The invisible barrier was gone now. Scarlet passed through it with ease, and Ambrielle followed shortly after. They seemed to have leveled up in the middle of the battle, because now they were one level higher. The monsters they encountered were quickly defeated and Scarlet couldn't wait to get out of the swamp. She was tired, a little bit. At least the blood stains had disappeared.

They walked aimlessly through the murky place. It was hard to remember what home was like now. How long had they been gone, Scarlet kept asking herself. Maybe she should have kept track; wrote a diary or something.

Soon, the afternoon sun beat down upon them and Scarlet could hear voices. She was low on health potions, low on everything. Her stomach rumbled. She knew Ambrielle was hungry, too. If there were voices, there must've been food. In fact, it sounded like they'd stumbled upon another village. Naturally, Scarlet followed the source of the din.

Eventually the drooping trees petered out into a clearing. Up ahead was a gate, the doors closed. Soldiers stood to the right and to the left of the doors. The gate was made of a black metal. They looked old, but Scarlet could see through the bars that the village looked very alive and healthy and modern. Almost.

Before Scarlet could observe any further, the soldiers spotted her and yelled, "Hey! What are ye doing?" They were dressed in black metal, like the gates. Their faces were hardened and cross and black cloth lined with gold embroidery draped across their shoulders and torsos. Both wielded a black spear in their hands.

"Uh," Scarlet stammered, not sure what to say. The words tumbled out of her mouth. "We're looking for shelter."

The guards looked at each other, then the one on the right nodded and said, "Of course we would house two young women. For as long as ye want." His voice was low but crisp, with a touch of friendliness. "Open the gates," he called to the soldiers that were standing on the other side of the black bars.

"Yessir," they replied, and then, with a loud creaking, they pulled the doors open. Now they swung inward, welcoming them in.

"Um, thank you very much," Scarlet said, giving them a polite nod. Then she reached for Ambrielle's hand and escorted themselves in. Behind them, the doors closed.

Finally Scarlet had the chance to look upon the village- or rather, city, further. The houses weren't modern at all. In fact, they were futuristic. Round and white they were, and somehow had more than one floor. They looked like circles piled up on each other. The roads were paved with clean, sparkling white tiles that glittered in the afternoon sun. People walked around dressed in formal-looking outfits. The women wore skirts that varied in length, and dress shirts that were half-transparent and flowed behind them as they bustled back and forth. They had their hair done, with glittering brooches fastened securely in them. It was aesthetically pleasing, and Scarlet felt out of place in this fancy world, with her rumpled, informal clothes.

The people passing by seemed to walk at a leisurely pace. Some of them threw the two visitors scolding looks, as if they weren't wearing the proper attire. Scarlet decided that they should find a place to get some essential items, and then leave. She gently tapped Ambrielle, then ushered her along.

There weren't any vendors set up anywhere. Most of the stores were jewelery stores, fancy attire stores, or fancy restaurants. Probably all too expensive for Scarlet to afford. She wondered how the guards from before were so nice, in contrast to this unwelcoming city for the wealthy.

She tapped a blond-haired girl on the shoulder who was passing by with someone who seemed like her boyfriend. The girl turned, facing at Scarlet. Her skin was peaches and cream, baby-smooth. She had bangs that seemed to be messily cut(but still good-looking nonetheless), and petite, pastel pink lips that fit on her face perfectly. Her expression was light, eyebrows raised, but when she saw how Scarlet and her sister were dressed, it turned dark and unfriendly. Her lips turned into a scowl. "Don't touch me," was all she said. Then she whipped her head back, straight hair flying, and continued walking.

Scarlet flinched. This was why she was introverted. But firmly telling herself that these were NPCs, she tapped another one. "'Scuse me, do you know where the…uh…item shop is? For lack of a better word." The person she'd tapped this time was an elderly looking man with a slender, gaunt face, and greying hair combed back. He wore a tuxedo and dress pants, not unlike most of the other men.

"Item shop? Keep going the way you're going. It's about six buildings away, and then it's right across the street." His voice was nasally but had a somewhat nice tone to it that didn't really make Scarlet feel as bad as the other girl.

"Thank you," she said, even though he was an NPC. Then, grabbing Ambrielle's hand, she scurried off to where the old man had directed her to. Six houses. One, two, three, four, five, six. The sixth house was a jewelry store, sparkling white diamonds on display in the windows. There were no cars, Scarlet noticed. The ground in the street where cars usually were driven over was tiled with smooth, rounded stones in a grid pattern, which made it hard for a car to travel over. Ignoring other people's glares, she raced through the walking mob of upperclass people and across the street to the item shop.

It was tiny. The item shop was just wide enough for a door and a minuscule window that had a sign that said OPEN on it. It was very different from the other stores, run down and made of rotting wood. Scarlet eased the door open, and it swung open with a slight squeak. Inside was like the outside- small. The shelves were stocked with things like potions, sustenance cubes, books, weapons, and floating, misty, glowing balls of different colors and sizes. She was taken back by the sheer stock of all these things gathered in one place, and just stared around the place before someone called, "May I help you?"

The voice was from all the way across the store, which wasn't very far away. Everything was crammed into the store and Scarlet had to turn sideways to squeeze through the tiny cracks between tables. Ambrielle had to be careful as well.

"Uh, we're just looking," Scarlet said, wanting to browse everything. She figured she and Ambrielle both needed an upgrade on their weapons. On everything. It was so tempting. They were rich on money(not enough for the other stores and restaurants, though) since they hadn't spent a cent of it since she'd entered the game. Each monster they'd fought had yielded them lots of gold.

The person who'd spoken, standing behind the counter, nodded and looked back down, scribbling things on a piece of paper. Scarlet couldn't tell if that person was male or female, but assumed it was male. His black hair was shaggy like a girl's, but he had a masculine face.

She and Ambrielle squeezed through some more tables, and approached the floating balls. The girl cupped her hands around one, assuming they were safe to touch. The one she'd chosen was green and had a relaxing, fresh scent. What exactly were these for, she wondered?

17: Chapter 16

She looked back at the person standing behind the counter, maybe hoping for some explanation. To her surprise, he was staring at her. Watching her. It was kind of creepy. Scarlet quickly averted her gaze back to the mysterious objects. She'd never seen these before.

There was a label stuck to the shelf underneath each of them. "450G", it said. "Vitalité Orbs". They were expensive, but not to Scarlet, since she and Ambrielle had earned so much money. She'd never had to spend it on anything.

Scarlet guessed that the word "vitalité" meant "vitality", although in what language she had no idea. Under the name and price was a short description about it- the green one was for healing. It listed some numbers, which was how much the orb would improve your stats. Each one was priced differently depending on how much boost they gave you. Some of them she couldn't use because her level was too low. She could still buy them- just not use them.

A red orb, Scarlet figured out from looking at all the names and descriptions, was used for attack stats. Blue was for magic power. Purple was a mix of the two. Logical.

She couldn't exactly hold it, but she could cup her hands around it and take it off the shelf. It seemed to gravitate about a few centimeters from any surface and bobbed up and down a bit. Maybe she'd buy two, one for her and one for her sister.

Ambrielle had been very quiet ever since they'd walked in, Scarlet realized. "Hey, are you okay? You seem kinda quiet," she asked her sister.

"Y-yeah, I'm good," she said suddenly, as if awakened from a trance. With a sigh of relief, she knew that Ambrielle was just a big awestruck by the place. She'd never been exposed to it as much as Scarlet had been, from games.

"Well, I was hoping to buy us some weapon upgrades and maybe one of these for each of us," Scarlet told her, feeling nice.

"Yeah!" Ambrielle's eyes lit up, her eyes reflecting the circular lights hanging from the ceiling. "That would be cool. I want a pretty weapon."

"Okay." They spent the next few minutes looking deciding which orbs they both wanted. Ambrielle wanted a purple one, the one that boosted physical attack and magic damage. It was more expensive than the others, but Scarlet figured they could spend a bit more. The black-haired girl herself got a green one. She was still quite scared after that time when she thought she'd died. This way, in case Ambrielle was unable, she could be more dependent and heal herself.

It took them a while to choose a new weapon. Ambrielle kept switching; she would keep pointing at everything and say, "Oh! That's pretty! I want that." "Ambrielle, you can only choose weapons from your own class. You're a mage. You look at the wands and staffs," she kept having to explain. Scarlet was much more picky and always found something wrong with the blades she observed.

Finally Ambrielle chose one. It was a staff, not a wand, but the staff was finely cut out of smooth, white jade and was comfortable to hold. There were red ringlets around the part you were supposed to grasp, and the bottom eventually thinned out to a sharp point. She'd have to be careful not to stab her foot while she was walking. The staff was adorned at the top with an old-fashioned lamp shaped like a pentagon. A blue flame burned brightly inside it, giving off no scent or fumes. The tip of the lantern had a small, shiny, black star on it, like a Christmas tree. Except the star was black.

Ambrielle only had to wait a moment longer before Scarlet picked hers out. It was a relatively simple one, compared to the others. But it was the best one she could buy.

The sword was called a White Serpent, and, true to its name, it was white, long and slender. The hilt was, on all three ends, adorned with two light blue beads stacked on top of each other. The hilt itself was covered in marvelous Victorian carvings. Towards the bottom of the sword where it protruded from the handle were some curls carved into the metal. They eventually evened out, giving the carvings a misty look.

The sword, Ambrielle's staff, and the two orbs altogether cost 2,000 gold, but Scarlet had 4,000 bits saved. The man at the counter gave them a quick glance as he was counting the gold(he somehow did it extremely fast), as if he thought they were rich people. Which, in a way, they were. But just for their time in the game.

Scarlet and her sister walked out of the store, feeling satisfied and content. "This place is so fancy and pretty," Ambrielle marveled. "I wish we could stay."

"Me too," Scarlet agreed. "But we have to keep moving." It took all her willpower to say that. Never had a place hit her aesthetic senses so well before. Ignoring the other people's glares, they made their way out the gate.

"Good day, mademoiselles," the soldiers standing outside said to them as they walked out, bowing.

"You too," Ambrielle called back. "Can I take out my staff now?"

"You should," Scarlet answered.

"I will." A moment later, the intricately carved staff was in her hand. Scarlet took out her new purchase as well.

They trudged through the swamp place. Scarlet wondered when they'd ever get out. Where was the path Beatrice had shown them? That was her main goal right now. Another day would soon be over.

A monster appeared, and the sisters were able to show their new weapons off. "I call this one," Scarlet grinned, tapping her sword blade on the mushy ground. Ambrielle huffed and fell back as the older one stepped up.

The monster was about the same level as her. It was called the Watchful Banshee. It's ghostlike tail wiggled as it hovered about a foot off the ground. The tail had a greenish tint to it, and so was the rest of the banshee's body. At it's head were many eyes. Each had a purple pupil and they all blinked at the same time. It's dark, wavy hair streamed out from behind it and as soon as Scarlet and the banshee met, it let out a long, piercing howl.

Scarlet went first. She went with the classic cross attack, swiping horizontally and then finishing it off with a vertical slash. Her sword cut easily through the banshee, which was somehow solid all the way through even though it looked translucent. Much to Scarlet's dismay, it's health only decreased by a little. She'd have to resort to another move.

The banshee retaliated by reaching her wart-blanketed hands towards her. Scarlet stepped back but those long, bumpy tendrils still reached her and scratched her arm with their lengthy, black nails. Blood spurted out of the wound but it soon quickly closed back up, courtesy of the green orb she'd bought.

Now it was Scarlet's turn again. She stepped forward, faked towards it's bottom, and then, faster than electricity, moved her sword and swept towards the banshee's seven eyes. She was able to hit two, both of which burst out a thick, green, bubbly liquid. Scarlet shivered but then shook it off. This one was more effective.

It responded with a screech, one that hurt Scarlet's ears. Badly. It left her dizzy and unfocused. This was supposed to knock her off track, and it had worked.

While Scarlet was dawdling in her confusion, the banshee took its chance by attacking again by throwing a disc at her. The disc was sharp, spinning fast, and it nicked Scarlet's arm. This one didn't heal as much but the pain was dulled by the magic orb.

Scarlet finally regained her senses and shook the dizziness off. This time she was able to attack and she went quick, launching a series of frenzied attacks. She cut the banshee four times before it jumped out of her blade's vicinity. It's health was dropping. Only one more attack and she would have obtained victory over it. Her health was still in the yellow zone, which was okay. Looking closely, the orb was slowly but surely restoring her health points.

The banshee then again used the same attack as it had first used- stretching its long, vine-line fingers towards her. Scarlet was able to block off most of it, but one nail made it's way through the barrier, puncturing her skin. The blood clotted and dried quickly, and Scarlet, eager to finish, just faked some moves and then swiped at it when it wasn't aware.

It flickered, and then finally, its life was snuffed out and it disappeared. The battle scene around them disappeared and Scarlet stepped back into the swampland.

"Wow, that was so cool! Your sword is so pretty," Ambrielle praised. "Okay, my turn, my turn!"

They walked along the path, Ambrielle's fingers crossed for the hope of meeting another foe to battle for herself. Scarlet kept a close eye on her health bar the whole time, feeling a vague sense of satisfaction as she watched the bar go into the green zone and then to full health.

Ambrielle was finally able to battle. She jumped from one foot to another the whole time; she couldn't seem to keep still. Waving her staff around, the young girl blew a raspberry at the new foe. It was like the banshee from before, but this one had a purple tint to it. Just like Ambrielle's orb. With a start, Scarlet realized that the banshee she'd battled before had the same tint as her own orb. What a coincidence.

Ambrielle gave a cry of pre-battle triumph- "Ha ha!" And then she began with a magic attack from her delicately carved staff. It glowed in the light as she raised it up to point at the banshee. A crackle of lightning burst from it, and hit the enemy. For a little while after that, small sparks danced along the banshee's outline.

So fast Scarlet missed it, the banshee extended its arm and knocked Ambrielle over. She fell to her side, scraping her knee. If she used Heal now that would count as a turn and Ambrielle wouldn't be able to do anything offensive, just defensive.

At least, that was how Scarlet, a more offense-type person thought.

Ambrielle quickly got up, displaying the same perky attitude she'd shown earlier. Dirt covered her knees and shins, but she still came strong. Light reflected off her shiny, white staff and electricity crackled at the black star on the tip. The blue fire burning brightly inside the lantern suddenly swallowed up the entire upper part of the staff and shot itself at the banshee with flames that had a gradient of dark marine to pale sky colors as it stretched across the battle grounds towards the enemy.

They were on their way to becoming legends.

18: Chapter 17

Suddenly, the banshee threw its head back and shrieked. Then its body started to spasm, and tree trunk-like tendrils grew out of it, waving themselves wildly. They were dark purple, in facsimile with it's violet-tinted body. Something big was happening, Scarlet could tell. But what?

Ambrielle covered her eyes in the light that shone brightly soon afterwards, and then when it faded, she uncovered them and blinked a few times. The banshee had one of the scariest and most scarring faces Scarlet had ever seen in her history of horror games...She didn't want to keep staring but she forced herself to continue looking at it.

It now had long, tangly, oily hair that was all over the place. It stuck out from odd ends. The skin was dry and wrinkly, like a crumpled-up paper. It still had the same tint of purple. The banshee's nose stuck out greatly, one big, round wart on each side. One was split open, and purple puss gushed out. It's mouth was pretty much just a hole in it's face, but Scarlet could see the remains of a bloody tongue in there. The eyes - oh, the eyes. She could only stare at them for a few seconds until she had to fight the urge to vomit.

The eyes had emotionless, black, spidery pupils..And so many veins that the whites looked red.

Scarlet's stomach rolled and turned, the contents of her last meal ready to spill out. What exactly had happened?

She swallowed the bile that was threatening to heave, and focused herself on Ambrielle. She couldn't jump in, that was against the game rules.

Before Ambrielle could defend herself, the banshee roared, it's voice cracking. Millions of severed tongues shot out of her mouth, but they were elongated like coils. So she did have a tongue. More than one, too.

Each tongue was just long enough to cover Ambrielle and they wrapped themselves around her. They were all red- but too red, like fresh blood from a new wound. Soon they turned ice blue and froze, ice forming over them. Then, suddenly, a large butcher knife appeared out of nowhere. It made it's way towards the part of the tongues that hadn't frozen over yet, and cut it off from the ice. Blood spattered, Scarlet raised her arm to shield herself from getting hit.

Oh god oh god oh god oh god-

What was going to become of Ambrielle now? She'd tried her best to protect her little sister. But even her best didn't work. She hadn't become strong enough. Would they ever get out of this game? No. Scarlet wouldn't be able to face the world if she'd been too weak and lost Ambrielle. No, no, no. What was she going to do? Nothing? Just jumping in would be foolish. She'd probably die, as well, after Ambrielle. But maybe she deserved it. Maybe she deserved to die for letting her sister die. Maybe she should just jump in and die. It wouldn't be a noble death, but Scarlet sure as hell did not deserve a noble death.

What happened to becoming legends? How had the atmosphere changed so quickly?

Scarlet couldn't bear to watch any longer as the tongues became transparent and she could see Ambrielle frozen like a statue inside the solid ice. It didn't seem to be melting. Her sister would be stuck like this forever.

The older sister closed her eyes tight, and ran in, brandishing her sword. Fight to the death. It wouldn't last long, Scarlet knew. The banshee would kill her immediately. Or slowly.

She reached out with her blade and attacked blindly. Wildly. She kept hitting something. The banshee. She screamed over and over again, crying. Salty tears flew, sweat sailed through the air. Scarlet wasn't sure what she was screaming. "No, no, no. My sister- don't kill. Her. Don't make her die. Kill me. No, no kill. Please. Stop." It became incomprehensible as the words melted into blubbering. She was bleeding, it was cold and wet and the swamp was not a good place to fight. She fell but forced herself to get back up.

There was a vague feeling at the back of her mind saying that she shouldn't have been able to jump in; the game should have stopped her somehow. But the battle was far more concerning. What had happened that made the banshee go berserk?

Soon it became a repeated motion, swinging the sword back and forth, back and forth. She would be lucky if she even hit anything.

Finally she stopped. Quickly, Scarlet stepped back right before the banshee curved it's arm en route for her, nails sharp and talon-like. The monster was bleeding in some places- no, not really bleeding. It was as if you got your jeans hooked onto some thorns while walking outside and pulled really hard so that the fabric came loose and hung out. Or stuffing bulging out of an old teddy bear.

"Scarlet!" Ambrielle yelled. "Run!"

Scarlet was too tired and panicky to ask if Ambrielle was going to run, too. Of course Ambrielle would run, wouldn't she? Right now her desperation to get out alive was greater than her sister's determination and will to fight the banshee. "Come on, Ambrie," the older sibling tried to yell, but it came out as more of a whisper. She became aware of a stinging on her arm, her feet hurt and the pain coursed through her legs and tired out her whole body. Scarlet waited for the green orb to take it's effects. She didn't know how many health points she had left and could barely raise her head to check.

"Ambrie...elle." She panted, bending her knees and placing her hands on them. Her chest hurt, she was winded, but she gathered enough willpower and energy to turn around and look for her sister. Her head hurt and her eyes felt heavy. And then suddenly she blacked out.

"Scarlet?"

A flickering face appeared in Scarlet's vision. No, the flickering was just her. Scarlet forced herself to keep her eyes open. The flickering stopped. A jolt of pain slowly made it's way through her. The orb had done a lot of work and she could dimly see that her health bar was crawling into the green zone. But her head still ached.

The face belonged to someone, someone with brown hair and bright, chocolatey eyes. The hair was messy. Scarlet resisted the urge to smooth it back down - messy hair attacked her OCD relentlessly.

There were two of them. Two of the same faces. Both looked different but shared many of the same features. Nesbit? Chalet…?

It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't seen these two in forever. But Scarlet could only summon enough energy to say, "Hey. I'm hurting."

One of the faces grinned. The other one stayed stern. The grinning face- Nesbit, went out of her peripheral vision and then suddenly she was being lifted up. Scarlet allowed herself to space out for a bit. The scene around her was not swampland. It was sunny and hot and dry and windy and humid and empty except for the occasional dark green plant. The heat burned into her face and soon she felt faint.

She started to descend. They were walking down a flight of stairs. Come to think of it, why were they called flights? Flights of stairs..so weird. Her mind wandered again.

It became dark for a brief moment, but then the light came back and the sun was gone. It was refreshingly cool. There was supposed to be someone else with her. No, not Nesbit, not Chalet. Hmm. Oh, such a nice breeze.

She couldn't focus. Focusing gave her a headache.

Ambrielle!

That was the person who was supposed to be with her. She tried to sit up but it was difficult to do that in Nesbit's arms. "Take it easy," a voice said to her left. It was Chalet.

"But…" she struggled to remember her sister's name. "Ambrielle. Where's-"

"She's here, don't worry."

Scarlet instantly felt all her worries drain out of her, and she relaxed. "Good." She was so paranoid. She had been so paranoid, that she'd deserted her sister, the one she'd worked so hard to protect. Had she worked hard to protect her? Maybe not.. But maybe she had. Or maybe she hadn't.

Not wanting to debate with herself anymore, she switched her train of thought to looking around her. The stairs they were walking on abruptly ended and widened out into a room where the ceiling height varied. There was a lantern in the middle, with blue flame. Scarlet instantly recognized it as Ambrielle's. So it was detachable.

"Scarlet!" someone yelled. The figure that was sitting next to the fire. Well, now she was standing. Nesbit lowered her down to the ground until she was in a sitting position. Ambrielle's face shone brightly, illuminated by the fire. Oh boy, was she happy to see her little sister again.

"Ambrielle," she grinned. Arms wrapped around her, and Ambrielle's familiar, indescribable scent enshrouded her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay! I ran. Don't worry. Did you think I had died?" She laughed, lightening the mood. "Anyway, are you okay? You don't look good."

"Yeah," Scarlet said quickly, not wanting to worry her. "The orb helped me."

"Good. Nesbit and Chalet brought some food, are you hungry?"

"I guess so."

Nesbit sat down next to them and took off his bag, throwing it on the ground. "The snacks are in there. Take what you need." Then he threw his arms behind his head and slept against the wall.

Ambrielle crawled forwards, opening the satchel and digging around. Not long after, she found the familiar sustenance cubes, and passed two to Scarlet. She didn't take any for herself.

"I already ate," she explained before Scarlet could ask.

As Scarlet sucked on the cube, not quite caring what it tasted like. Ambrielle had been being especially strange. Like, more mature. And more caring. It was as if she'd become the older sister. Maybe she was just thankful that Scarlet had jumped in. Or something like that. No, that was selfish thinking, Scarlet scolded herself. Or maybe not. Who knows.

She plopped another cube into her mouth, her last one. Her head still kind of hurt and she didn't want to ponder about why Ambrielle was being so kind. It was okay to just accept her sudden hospitality.

Scarlet didn't know when or how, but soon she was delving deep into the realm of dreams.

19: Chapter 18

Her dream was blurry and unfocused, but Scarlet could make out outlines of people moving around. Not people, a person. Just one person. The person looked like a woman, as far as Scarlet could tell. She was pacing around in a medium-sized circular room.

She became aware that she was inside a dream. Her consciousness slowly awakened and she half-way opened her eyes, still dreaming, still watching the woman walk around. Someone shook her awake.

The girl grumbled but opened her eyes. Ambrielle had woken her up. "We're going now."

"Going where?" Scarlet asked groggily, but she was too slow, and Ambrielle was already packing up. She handed a leather satchel to Nesbit, and then proceeded to put the lantern on the floor back onto her staff.

"Come on," she held out her hand to Scarlet, who still hadn't stood up. The older one took her sister's hand and allowed herself to be pulled to a standing position. Then she followed her up the stairs where daylight was starting to pour in. Nesbit and Chalet had already went on ahead.

As they emerged into the open desert that Scarlet had so briefly seen before, a hot sun beat down on Scarlet's face. Again, just like the day prior to this one. She tried to use her hand to shield her forehead, but her arm eventually became tired.

"Where are we going?" she asked again after a while. It seemed like a few hours had passed when in reality it was just a few minutes. The scenery around her looked the same.

"To the Princess. Hopefully we'll cross this desert in a day but we don't know anything," Nesbit called back.

The two older men had started fighting a strange-looking armadillo thing that they'd run into, but it was covered in golden metal scales that reflected off the sunlight. The only thing Scarlet could think was, "Wow, it must be hot in there."

After they defeated the armadillo, they walked on for a bit until Chalet called a break. Now Scarlet had some questions other than "Where are we going?"

Nesbit passed her a sustenance cube and Scarlet took it but didn't eat it. Instead, she asked, "So...Haven't seen you in a while." It was a discreet way to ask why they had kicked them out.

Chalet, mostly Chalet, looked uncomfortable about this. "Yeah."

"How'd you find me?"

Nesbit answered this. "We were walking through the swamp looking for the boss when we heard some screaming nearby. Ambrielle was running but then she stopped, and then we saw you. Chalet led Ambrielle to the underground cave. You were battling the boss of the swamplands, that was why it was so hard to defeat. We finished it off, though. Then you came around, and we took you back to the cave."

Scarlet nodded. "Oh. I see. Is that why we're here, and not the swamp? We cleared a stage?"

"Yes," Chalet responded. "You'd already done some good damage to the banshee, although I will admit that your tactics were not very strong." He gave her a hard look.

"It was mostly Ambrielle, she was the one who battled it initially," she said modestly.

"No, you did more damage to it, that would only make the most sense, because I saw you," Ambrielle butted in. Her face glowed with pride as she looked at her elder sister.

Scarlet, embarrassed, busied herself by eating the food cube she'd received moments earlier. She liked compliments but when she actually got one, she was never sure how to respond.

Soon they were back on track again, making their way through the desert. No breath was wasted on aimless chatter, it was burning hot and they were all tired and aching. Chalet had forewarned them, though, that it was top priority to get to the Princess as fast as they could. His face had been deadly serious, and Scarlet could hear the urgency to his voice. Nesbit didn't show it as much but he'd been eager to get back on the road as well.

The desert seemed to stretch out for forever. Chalet had let Scarlet and Ambrielle participate in some battles to strengthen themselves so that they didn't fall too far behind, level-wise. The monsters in the desert did not vary much from the armor-plated armadillo. Most of them were rodent-like creatures with metal scales, and all were a dry, dusty color.

The four travelers soon started to run out of food. Each of them was only allowed half of a food cube each, and only two meals a day. Things started to get more and more dire. Scarlet had never been this hungry before. It made it a pain to fight the monsters that seemed to pop up more and more often. Food started to become rations, half a food cube and now one meal a day. Sometimes they went a day without eating. When Scarlet received her food, she tried to keep it in her mouth as long as she could, and turned it to water as much as she could. Her throat was parched and her lips were cracked and bled often.

Journeying like this wore them all down. They barely talked to each other anymore, each lost in his or her own thoughts. Ambrielle was the last one to run and jump around, but unfortunately her childish energy soon also diminished and she fell silent, dragging her feet.

Their food supply eventually ran out. Their faces had all turn gaunt and skinny like a skeleton.

Nesbit was the first to sit down. "Ugh, I can't do this anymore," he mumbled weakly. Scarlet and Ambrielle fell down to the sandy ground after him. "Me neither," Ambrielle agreed.

Chalet looked like he was about to protest but didn't, and took his place on the sand. "This is the longest stage I've been through."

"Every stage seems to get longer and longer," Scarlet told him desolately.

They all fell into silence. Nesbit laid on the ground, arms laying uselessly by his sides.

It was a long time before they began to walk again. They initially had tried to travel by night to decrease hotness but their now messed-up sleep schedule changed their minds. But they at least had started walking later in the day, where the temperature dropped slightly.

"I see something," Scarlet, one day said. "It's shimmery...Sparkling.." Her voice faded, too tired to say anything more.

"I do too," Ambrielle muttered. "Someone go check it out."

"Chalet, you go," Nesbit said, almost a breezy whisper.

Chalet didn't say anything, and slouched off towards the sight. They barely watched his diminishing figure, but then suddenly he turned around so fast that they all snapped to attention, alert, if only for a few seconds. Chalet's face was lit up as bright as the sun, they could see his smile from that far away. "Come on!" he yelled. His voice was faint but the team dragged themselves onto their feet and half ran, half walked to catch up to him.

When they got there, Chalet was kneeling near a large pool of water, greedily gulping up everything.

"Water!" Ambrielle croaked, but Scarlet could hear the excitement in her voice. They all dived in, drinking the fresh, pure liquid that they had missed.

"And food," Nesbit pointed out after he'd finished drinking. There was a strange, magical-looking tree next to the pool. A whole bunch of them, in fact. They all had greyish trunks with blue foliage and glimmering, sunset-colored fruit hanging from the branches. It was beckoning to them, inviting them to eat it's juice that was bursting with delicious juice, Scarlet could almost feel it.

"Come on, come on," she yelled, the first to reach the fruit. Nesbit, though, was the first to grab one.

"Wait," Chalet called, but Nesbit had already taken a bite. "Oh." Scarlet and Ambrielle both took one, ignoring his command. "Maybe it's okay." He took one as well.

But right after he had, Nesbit started to retch and cough. His eyes took on a crazed look and his face turned red. His mouth foamed at the corners. As soon as Scarlet saw this, she immediately threw the fruit she was holding away and threw a protective arm in front of Ambrielle...who had devoured the fruit as well.

"Oh no, oh no," Chalet's eyes grew wide. "Nesbit! Are you okay?" He placed his hands on his brother's shoulders firmly, trying to still him, but the foam dropped onto his exposed arms and Chalet quickly shook it off and removed his hands.

"Ambrielle!" Scarlet screamed, looking behind at her sister. But her sister wasn't experiencing the same thing Nesbit was. In fact, she seemed completely normal. Immediately, Scarlet was paranoid that it might have been different for people with different ages- Nesbit and Ambrielle had an 11 year difference, after all. It could kill her slowly from the inside out. "Ambrielle, are you feeling okay? Any weird feelings?"

Ambrielle shook her head and pointed at Nesbit. Fear crept into her wide, bright eyes. "What's wrong? I ate the fruit too. Nothing's happening to me, though."

Scarlet was shocked and scared as well. "I…" she stuttered. Her voice cracked.

"Nesbit. Listen to me. Calm down," Chalet moaned desperately. Scarlet had never seen him in such a terrified state. When it became evident that Nesbit would not stop, Chalet dropped his hands to his sides and his shoulders drooped.

Suddenly, Nesbit stopped and became as still as a stone. The whitish-yellow froth stayed on his mouth, but then dissolved.

20: Chapter 19

A long silence ensued after that. "...Is he...alive?" Ambrielle ventured uncertainly.

Chalet gave no response, his back facing them. Scarlet answered for him, "I don't know, we'll see," but she really hoped that Nesbit was alive. She didn't want to think about the other possibility.

Nesbit's limp body lay on the floor. Not a single trace of foam was found on his mouth, it seemed to have dissolved into nothing. Not even dust. Just nothing. Maybe the atoms were still floating in the air somewhere.

His skin and body overall seemed to be perfectly clean, it didn't look like something was killing him from the inside. For now Scarlet could set her worries about Ambrielle aside, and try to come to a conclusion about whether or not Nesbit would die. It was time to think scientist, not emotional.

She, who was sitting a few lengths away from the body, stood up and quietly walked over to Chalet's side, and kneeled. Scarlet was going to inspect the body. She felt professional, even though she had no prior experience with it.

"I'm going to check for any problems," she assured Chalet, finally getting a good look at his face.

What she saw surprised her, but not much. His eyes were blank and empty, his mouth in a straight line. He didn't seem to be seeing anything. Receiving no answer(again) from the man, she proceeded to raise Nesbit's neck. The neck was the most vulnerable part, she thought. Or was it the stomach? Her hands hovered over his body. This was kind of awkward, but oh well.

There was nothing strange on the neck. It was completely normal. Then she raised his shirt up, exposing his stomach and chest. Suddenly, the most mischievous idea occurred to her. Without thinking, she extended her arm and tickled his stomach.

Miraculously, Nesbit twitched. Once. Scarlet continued tickling. A smile tugged at the corner of the once-thought dead man's lips. He twitched again. Then he started to laugh. "Stop that!" he cried, rolling onto his side.

Chalet's head shot up, a look of disbelief on his face. "But - what - how..?"

Nesbit opened his eyes and pushed himself up. "That was horrible," he said casually, as if Scarlet'd just asked him what tomorrow's weather was. "I couldn't control myself. Oh, and that foam." He shuddered. "Eugh. That was so gross. That tasted so gross."

"Nesbit!" Chalet yelled.

He turned to look at his stern brother. "What?" Nesbit's face was totally innocent.

"We were so worried about you! How can you be like this?"

Nesbit's face fell. "It wasn't that bad. They're mildly poisonous." At this, Ambrielle's eyes bugged out and she clutched her neck. He noticed, and then added with a light chuckle, "Don't worry. It doesn't affect you until your body starts to adapt to the game. Which is about a few months or so."

Scarlet blew out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. They'd stayed here a few months, but Nesbit seemed to know all about it. "So what are these called?" she asked.

"They're called Ontfruit." He pronounced them like "oont". "Mildly poisonous, but they taste so good. I completely forgot about them! But what's a little poison do to your body? Ambrielle and Scarlet, you can both eat as much as you want and it won't affect you."

Scarlet clapped her hands together in delight. Her stomach had been screaming for food for the past few minutes. She'd done her best to ignore it, but now she could eat as much as she wanted! "But are you sure it's okay for me to eat it?" she checked one last time, hoping that Nesbit would say yes.

"Yes, I'm sure. Right, Chalet?"

Chalet didn't move for a long moment, then nodded grudgingly. "I'll be the only one who hasn't ate at all."

"Oh," Nesbit remembered. "The seeds inside are edible, not poisonous. We just have to clean the juices from them as good as we can. You can have those, Chalet."

"How will we get the seeds out, though?" Scarlet asked.

"They're all in the center, so you two just eat your way through." Nesbit grinned at this. He didn't seem jealous at all that Scarlet and Ambrielle could fill their stomachs and he couldn't.

Scarlet immediately dug in, not wanting to prolong the brothers' hunger for any longer. The moment she punctured the skin of the fruit, juices and flavors burst into her mouth. Oh. It was so. Good. Like a mixture of mangoes and strawberries and cotton candy or something like that. And there were crunchy things dotting all along the inside of the fruit that looked like the things you found in cookie dough icecream. They were crunchy and blended magnificently with the fruit flavor.

"It's good, isn't it?" Nesbit was now laying on his back, staring dreamily at the sky.

"Yeah!" Ambrielle exclaimed, speaking for both of them.

The two girls soon reached the core of the Ontfruit, and there were masses and masses of seeds. They were a little bit smaller than sunflower seeds, and blue. "Could I try one?" Scarlet asked, and immediately regretted it. Chalet and Nesbit were starving themselves for her and Ambrielle.

"Go ahead," Nesbit replied cheerily.

Scarlet gingerly took one, holding it between her index and thumb finger. Then she popped it into her mouth. It was bitter. She squeezed her eyes shut, it tasted so- GOOD! The bitter taste suddenly morphed into a sweet one, and she kept chewing on the seed, it's contents crunching in her mouth.

A weird, misty gas seemed to emit from the crunchy remains, like the feeling when someone has a blown-up balloon in their mouth, then they let all the air go but they let the air into their mouth. It pushed down her throat, but the gas had a sweet, sour taste. And it felt interesting, pleasant, actually.

Nesbit was watching Scarlet all this time with a knowing smile. "You're feeling the Miasma?" he asked. "That's the gasy thing."

She nodded. The seed was soon swallowed, but she felt a lot fuller. "They are very filling," Nesbit told her, as if reading her mind.

Immediately Scarlet didn't feel as bad that the brothers weren't able to eat the fruit. The seeds were an equally pleasant meal. She handed the small bit of fruit that was left- the part that had all the seeds on it- to Nesbit, who reached out his hands to take it. Ambrielle had evidently ate one, too. "It's good!" she exclaimed, then gave the remaining seeds to Chalet.

The two males then started to clean the fruit juice off the seeds, Nesbit with his shirt, and Chalet, at first, with his leather bag. It proved to be difficult, the leather would not absorb the juice, and reluctantly, Chalet switched to using his shirt like Nesbit. It seemed that he didn't want to ruin his shirt and make it all sticky with the juice.

The brothers both ate two, then Chalet put the rest in a pocket inside of his bag. "Ontfruit is useful," Nesbit remarked.

Scarlet, upon hearing this, took two and put it in the back of her sweatshirt hood. "Good idea," Chalet commented. "Let's fill up our canisters of water."

After doing so, they decided to stay for the day. Not the night, they would start to travel in the cool darkness instead of the sweltering, bright heat that seemed to tire them too quickly. The trees had big leaves and provided good shade, and the sand beneath was cool, even if a bit slightly moist.

Nesbit and Ambrielle fell asleep almost immediately, leaving Chalet and Scarlet, who were still awake but trying to sleep. Scarlet tossed back and forth on the sand, trying to find a comfortable sleeping position. Chalet was able to stay still for the most part but Scarlet, every so often, caught him staring at nothing.

It was hard to sleep in the heat. She'd much rather have been in the swamp, even though

it was dirty and wet everywhere. Scarlet had never hated the sun so much before.

Scarlet didn't know when but eventually she fell asleep. Boring, insignificant dreams twirled around in her mind. Something about her mom, yelling at her to get off her computer. Nostalgia surrounded her in salty waves, stinging her open wounds that had somehow appeared on her skin.

She couldn't wait to go home.

At last, she drifted back into reality as she heard some shuffling around. The wind was cool on her neck and it was dark. Already she'd gotten used to waking up at random times and places. Chalet was up, beside her, Ambrielle and Nesbit were rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. Scarlet sat up as well and straightened her hair, which was in her face.

"We're leaving now, grab your bags," Chalet announced once he saw they were all

awake. Sleepily, the other three stood, slinging their bags over their shoulders, and set off with Chalet.

Soon they were wide awake, walking through the bluish-tinted desert. The moon and the sky cast a navy-colored hue onto the soft sand, and the breeze was cool and fresh on their skin, giving Scarlet renewed energy. Considerably less monsters attacked them, since most were not nocturnal. There were some that did, obviously, the ones who slept during the day and got up at night. They were no match for the four-person team. That was one good thing about traveling at night.

Voices reached her ears. Nesbit and Chalet and Ambrielle's mouths had not opened at all, maybe Scarlet had heard wrong?

21: Chapter 20

Scarlet perked her ears(or, tried to) and looked around. "Did you hear that?" she asked, keeping her voice low, just in case. Chalet's face was stoic, and he seemed to have heard the voices too. So Scarlet wasn't going insane, that was a relief. Nesbit and Ambrielle stopped walking along with the two others, and listened closely.

There was a group of people. Their shadows were outlined in the dim lighting of the crescent moon, and they seemed to grow louder and louder, yelling at each other. They were of different sizes, one fat, one tall, another seemed so miniscule Scarlet wondered whether it was a baby or not. They seemed like a very disorganized group; Scarlet counted about five or six.

Someone from the small crowd turned around. It looked like a boy, from what Scarlet could tell. He pointed at them- what a stupid move! And the group started moving towards them. Some ran. "Hey!" the boy who had pointed earlier yelled.

Soon they caught up with him. A glance at Chalet told her that he was annoyed and even before the conversation began he had just wanted to leave.

"Are you guys stuck in the game, too?" the boy asked. Now that he was up close, Scarlet scrutinized his features. He was quite short, fat, and had curly black hair.

"Um..Yeah.." Scarlet said slowly. How many people had gotten stuck in the game?

"Great! Let's join together," a tall, slender girl from the back cried, clapping her hands together in delight.

The four were all kind of skeptical about this, even Ambrielle.

"So," the chubby boy continued, automatically assuming that they had joined forces. "We're headed to the Princess. I'm sure you guys are too, right?"

Not wanting to be rude, Scarlet nodded. "Yeah..probably." She didn't want to seem too sure about it, because she wanted this annoying kids to go away. They were being kind of rude.

"Okay! Well, you guys are going in the wrong direction. It's that way," he turned slightly to his left and pointed that way.

"I'm pretty sure we're going in the right direction," Chalet said with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Woah! How old are you? Maybe we should go with him!" Chubby Boy turned around to look at his teammates, seeking their approval.

"Yeah," came the scattered cries of the others. They all seemed to agree readily to anything, but as Scarlet looked closer, they seemed to be just kids. The oldest one looked around 14.

Chalet rolled his eyes a tiny bit. But something in his heart softened just enough to let him say, "Alright. But be on your best behavior."

"Okay!" a few kids cried out.

The now huge group organized themselves for a moment, and then started to walk towards their destination. Introductions came after that, Chubby Boy's name was actually Oren. The tall, slim girl in the back was Liesl. The muscular, blonde-haired boy who Scarlet had thought was the oldest was named Leo. He gave off the impression of a mechanist, because his face was slightly smeared with some oil and he was wearing overalls with pockets bulging full of bumps that Scarlet could barely see.

There were six people in total of the new group. The first one was short and small, her legs like sticks and her arms the same. Her name was Gretel, but the other members seemed to just call her Gret. She seemed extremely shy and withdrawn, and seemed about the age of six, even younger than Ambrielle. Scarlet wondered how she'd gotten into the game. She noticed that Gret seemed to stay close to Leo, and that their features were somewhat alike. Similar to Scarlet and Ambrielle, their hair colors were vastly different, with Gret having dark brown hair and Leo with blonde, but their ears were both pretty big and stuck out, and their eyes both had the, what Scarlet called, "under-eyelid".

The second one was another girl, but slightly taller and her nose stuck out a little. She had circular glasses and black hair made into two braids that reached the small of her back. Her name was Justice, and said this with a murderous tone, like she didn't want to be here.

The last one was a boy with fiery orange hair and clothes that consisted mainly of blue and white colors. He looked so familiar, but too young. His name was William.

What was the other one's name? Scarlet'd initially thought that that other guy's name was William, she always tended to forget his name. Wyah, Wyatt? Wyatt! Something struck her.

"Do you have an older brother named Wyatt?"

The child's eyes opened wide. "How do you know him?"

"Yes," Scarlet nodded. "You look like him. I met him in this game." But before she could elaborate, William interjected excitedly.

"Do you know where he is? I didn't know he was in the game! I was just playing his DS when-"

"Wait, wait, calm down. I don't know where he is, but I met him...A few days ago." Remembering was a difficulty. "I think." She tried to think back when they'd last seen each other...Was it the village in the swamp? When she'd seen Cadere kiss some other girl. Her stomach convulsed at the thought and she quickly pushed it away. "I last saw him in the swamp, I think. You went through the swamp, right?"

"Yeah," William answered. "So he's in the swamp right now? We have to turn around and look for him!"

"Woah! No!" Scarlet stopped him. "He's probably in the desert just like us. I don't know where he is but we have to keep moving forward, and hope we'll meet him. He's with two other guys, by the way."

"They must be Cameron and Devon," the little boy said confidently. She'd never heard of these two boys..But…

Could Cadere and Dyke possibly be those two? Cadere as Cameron, and Dyke as Devon. Wait, were they real-life friends?

"Cameron and Devon?" Scarlet repeated, thinking hard to connect the puzzle pieces. "Do the names Cadere and Dyke seem familiar to you?"

William nodded vigorously. "They use those names online. Oh no," he suddenly clapped his hands over his mouth. "They'll be mad when they find out that I told you their real names!"

"Don't worry, I won't tell," she promised. The worried light in his eyes faded to relief.

"Thanks."

Scarlet was surprised they had such normal names. She was so used to the names Cadere and Dyke, both having a "cool" ring to it. "So Wyatt doesn't have a screen name?"

"No," William replied.

"I see," she said.

"Well, come on," Chalet suggested, sounding more like an order. He began walking and Nesbit shortly followed. The rest of the group trailed after him.

"Did you find the oasis?" Oren asked. When Scarlet nodded and said yes, he continued, "Mm. The fruit was so good. And the seeds too! They started out really bad but then they became all sweet! Like the sweetness was exploding in my mouth!" He made a gesture with his hands that symbolized something exploding.

"Yeah," Scarlet agreed. "Did you know they were poisonous?" Before she could explain any further, Oren's eyes widened and he broke in.

"What?! Does that mean I'll get poisoned? We'll all get poisoned? How are you not poisoned?" He was panicking and his face had turned all red.

"Don't worry!" Scarlet was panicking now, too, because she didn't know how to calm him down. "They only start affecting you when your body adapts to the game, like for a few months, I think. Right?" She looked to Nesbit. He nodded in confirmation. "And they have immediate effects. The seeds aren't poisonous, though."

"The seeds were like farting in my mouth," William remarked. Gretel and Justice snickered a little at this.

"Ew, that's disgusting," Liesl said, sniffing. Those were the first words Scarlet had heard from her.

A whistle came from the front, startling them all. It was from Chalet. Scarlet hadn't known Chalet could whistle, but Nesbit did not look surprised. "Okay, guys. You're all gonna get a turn fighting the monsters that we encounter. We need to toughen you guys up, too," he added after hearing a moan from Oren. "No ifs, ands, or buts.

"I've already fought one so next is Chalet. Then it's Scarlet, Ambrielle, Leo, Liesl, William, Gretel, and Justice. Oh, wait, Oren. You can go after Liesl."

The newer people talked amongst themselves while Scarlet and Ambrielle watched Chalet fighting the next monster, which was a white-plated armadillo. He took it down with some difficulty, but Scarlet was not worried for herself because of her green orb. She had never once regretted buying that.

Next Scarlet fought. In her spare time while walking she would distance herself a little bit from the group and practice some moves. She was no longer the frail, lazy girl who spent all her time being antisocial and playing games. She was pretty surprised at how much she'd changed.

In this battle she used some of her new moves. There was a feint, a more advanced version of it, where she would dash to the enemy's side, duck or jump when it would try to hit her, and then momentarily disable it's legs. She did this to the blue-plated wolf she encountered and executed it with some hitches but she'd never tried it on a real target. It was good for her first try, she congratulated herself.

At least Scarlet had successfully disabled it and the wolf was now limping and inspecting its wound. She used this chance to try to get under its stomach where the plated armor did not reach.

Finally, she was able to slice a cut in the wolfs neck and it died quickly, leaving one blue plate of armor. Nesbit and Chalet had gotten one of these as well. They walked on and Scarlet used her free time to inspect her newfound treasure, missing Ambrielle's performance with what looked like the wolf she'd fought earlier on but leaner and it was covered in dull bronze armor.

What Scarlet had received was literally just a blue scale. After a few minutes of inspection she still had not found anything. It shined in the light and was pretty, at least. It was about as wide as her two hands placed side by side, palms up, and as long as that, too, but just a bit more longer. She found no way to wear it on her for more protection and wondered how the wolf she'd tackled had worn it on it's fur.

22: Chapter 21

When it was Leo's turn to fight, Scarlet watched with interest. Obviously this guy was the lead fighter, as the other team members looked on him in fascination and admiration. Scarlet could have sworn that he was as good as she was now, maybe even better.
He had interesting weapons. His hands had black, metal bracelets on them that Scarlet hadn't noticed before, and they morphed into cannons that encircled his wrists. Fire erupted from them. He was fast, of course, not as fast as Nesbit or Chalet. But she had to give him credit. He was pretty good.
Leo was fighting some kind of bird. Good thing he had long range weapons, Scarlet would not have achieved success if she'd fought an avian. The bird was not plated this time, but it's feathers were thick and had a gradient-like tone to them, fading from a magnificent aqua blue to sunset purple. It was almost a shame to see Leo have to kill it, but it was vicious and tried to tear his leather overalls, but luckily the thick material did not rip.
His barrel-encased wrists enclosed his fingers that were jutting out the middle, protecting them from the flame that shot out seconds after. The fire burst out and licked the birds feathers, melting them and leaving a path of destruction wherever the blaze touched. Scarlet watched him through the rest of the battle.
He danced, almost. Waving his fire cannons, he moved quickly and stealthily and threw flame punches and drew pictures made out of smoke in the air. The bird was almost always a few seconds behind.
Before Scarlet knew it, Leo had defeated the foe. It gave a final shriek before collapsing to the ground and dissolved, leaving a single blueish-purple feather in it's wake. Without missing a beat, he picked it up, put it in a pocket in his overalls, and walked away as the battle field disappeared.
Next to fight was Liesl. She gave an arrogant sniff and made her way to the front, her lacy white dress swishing around. It was a long time before the next monster appeared.
"You have food for yourselves, yes?" Chalet asked the group after a little while.
Leo bowed his head and raised his gloved hand, signaling that he had food. "He keeps all the food for us," Oren explained.
"How much? How long will it last?"
"Three or so meals," Leo said in a gruff voice, thickly accented and slurred. It sounded British or Australian. "Depending on how hungry Oren is."
The chubby boy blushed. "Come on! I'm not used to eating so little! It's not my fault I'm fat."
While Leo and Oren (mostly Oren) were arguing, Liesl ran into a shrew. It was big and had claws coated in sand and dirt. It was, once again, plated with armor, this time silver. Scarlet averted her attention to Liesl, interested to see her fighting style. It better be good, Scarlet thought.
She did not disappoint. The white-clad girl pulled out a fancy-looking, white rapier that had a handle encompassing her hand.
Liesl was obviously less experienced at the art of fighting but she was still good and put on an entertaining show nonetheless. She moved her rapier gracefully and with ease, struck whenever she thought the oversized shrew was undefended. The girl was very accurate with her guesses and had soon dealt a large number of scratches on the shrew. It was bleeding in many places but not enough to kill it.
Scarlet was extremely baffled as to why she wouldn't just kill it. A quick glance at the shrew's health bar showed that it was steadily dropping, and obviously Leisl wasn't using her full force.
Did she enjoy torturing the monsters?
Scarlet wasn't sure if that was good or bad. These monsters were fake, after all, so it wouldn't matter too much. But the simple fact that she was trying to slowly inflict pain on them deterred Scarlet from liking her. She was arrogant, too. Scarlet didn't like to talk to arrogant people. Or else she would cry.
Finally, finally, Liesl dealt the final blow on it. It died quickly. At least. It promptly dissolved and left behind a silver plate of armor. She picked it up and stored it in her inventory.
"Don't waste our time," she heard Chalet chastise her as she walked back. She just ignored him.
Oren was next. He was looking fairly nervous but he gulped and walked towards the front of the group. It was starting to become fun to learn about the new team's different fighting styles. Leo's was quick but destructive, and Liesl's was elegant, plain elegant.
Suddenly, Nesbit yelled. "There's a pyramid!" Heads turned. He was right, there was a faint shape in the distance. Scarlet took off her glasses, cleaned them with her skirt, and put them back on. The pyramid was clearer now. And she could see figures moving around. Could there perhaps be civilization there?
As they neared, some broke into a run, yelling. Among them was Oren. Scarlet had started running, too, but was not yelling.
Some of the denizens turned to look at them. They were dressed in white togas or golden jewelry, similar to the ancient Egyptian attire that Scarlet often saw in textbooks. For most of the people, their hair was black and shiny.
Officials, or what Scarlet thought they were, rushed out. They welcomed them with open arms. "Welcome, welcome!" one of the officials said in a heavy Egyptian accent. "We will accept weary travelers in need of shelter, come along with us." He seemed very happy to see them. Really, really happy. It almost seemed suspicious, but, oh well.
He and the other officials led them inside a small, square-shaped building. "May I show you your room?" a pretty lady decked out with jewelry asked Chalet. He blushed and politely declined. "I would prefer it if you showed the younger ones first."
The woman smiled and curtsied, then made her way towards the children. Scarlet held Ambrielle close to her, hoping not to be separated from her. Ambrielle held on, too.
Gretel was also doing the same thing with Leo, which confirmed her thoughts earlier on that they were related. Justice was led off, and then William, and then Oren, and then Liesl. Finally, when Leo was escorted away, it was Scarlet's turn. Or so she thought.
Instead of turning to her, the remaining woman snapped her fingers at a male servant and pointed at Nesbit and Chalet. The brothers, both glancing back at Scarlet one more time with worried faces, followed him. Scarlet's stomach clenched with nervousness.
She could feel Ambrielle's grip tightening on her hands. The woman smiled. "You have been chosen. You deserve a better room than the others. Come with me." She waved her jewelry-clad hand, in a gesture to let a confused, but excited Scarlet go first.
As they walked, the woman introduced herself. "My name is Vanessa." She paused.
"Um, I'm Scarlet. And this is Ambrielle," she blurted.
"No need, we already know your names," she smiled slyly again. Now that was kind of creepy.
The halls around them were starting to become more fancier. They were lined with gold and pearls and marble.
The corridor, up ahead, Scarlet could see, expanded into a large, circular room with a high ceiling. "This will be your room," Vanessa told her. "Do you like it? If you need anything don't hesitate to contact me." She smiled again, turned, and walked off.
"Wow," Ambrielle breathed. She was the first to walk in and try the sofas and couches littered around the room. The small, round table in the middle of a circle of couches had a white bowl of food on it. "Come on, Scarlet!"
Scarlet needed no beckoning. She was already extremely excited. This was where they were going to sleep! She never wanted to leave.
She stepped in with no hesitation and just stood there, marveling at the huge room. The back of her mind nagged her, though- why was she chosen? What did Vanessa mean by that?
But, she was happy nonetheless. Scarlet went around the room, testing the softness of all the couches. "There's our bedrooms," Ambrielle squealed not too far from Scarlet's right. "And we have separate bathrooms, too! This is great!"
Over the next hour, they just explored the room. It seemed to have endless wonders. The food in the bowl that was sitting at the table in the middle tasted sour but sweet and they were actually pretty good, in Scarlet's opinion.
Soon they all completely forgot about their mission and their teammates. It was simply wonderful to be in such a richly decorated room.

Chalet was bored. He and Nesbit had both been lead to a small, dark room with a single window. There were two beds, one in each corner of the room. The place was slightly dusty and looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. There was nothing else aside from those beds, and every so often a servant came in and gave them food and drink. It was like being in prison.
At the beginning, Nesbit talked. A lot. About random things. The subjects changed dramatically. Chalet was only half listening but it was good to have something at least slightly interesting to concentrate on.
Eventually, Nesbit's throat tired and he curled up on the bed and went to sleep. Chalet then walked around the room, stared out the window, walked around some more, stared out the window some more.
Suddenly, a servant came in. But this one was dressed slightly differently. Most servants wore simple, white gowns. This one wore a dark blue gown. He was muscular, too. Chalet stared at him for a while. He stared back. Nesbit groaned in his sleep, and that's when the servant lunged.

23: Chapter 22

Chalet had barely any time to move when a shiny blade headed straight towards him. It seemed that the servant had been hiding it and pulled it out right when he lunged. Luckily, Chalet had dropped and rolled.

Unluckily, he'd rolled into a corner, the one that was farthest from the still-open door. Nesbit stirred, and then moments later, he sat up and looked around in confusion. He caught his brother's eye and made panicky movements. One of them included him balling his fists up and then pretending to stab himself in the chest. Hopefully that would convey that the servant was trying to kill Chalet.

The servant looked back towards the now-awake twin, and grunted. "Where is the girl?"

Chalet was trying to push back the thought of Scarlet. Was Scarlet the girl? Maybe, hopefully, it was one of the people in the other group. Like Gretel or Justice. It was selfish for him to think that, but maybe perhaps they just wanted to talk to them. Not kill them.

"Where is the girl?" he asked, this time more forcefully. He raised his knife and pointed it at Chalet's throat. Chalet could now see that it was a butcher knife. A huge one that fitted the servant's form perfectly.

"What girl?" Chalet asked, trying to disguise the wobbles in his voice. He took quiet, deep breaths to calm himself.

"The Asian one," the servant barked. "With a blue jacket and skirt."

Nesbit had gotten out of bed and was standing around, confused. "Scarlet?" he asked. Chalet groaned inwardly. Knowing the girl's name would make his search more easy.

"Scarlet? Her name is Scarlet?" The muscular servant asked. Before Chalet could break in, Nesbit nodded, still trying to figure out who the servant was. "Where is she right now?"

"I have no id-" Nesbit broke off as he met his brother's terrified gaze. "I don't know."

"Tell me!" The man growled, suspecting that one of the two knew. "Or else I'll kill you," his voice lowered down into a growl.

Now he was staring at Nesbit. Chalet quickly took this chance to roundhouse kick him, make a mad dash to his bag, and take out his dagger. "Nes, watch out!" he yelled, and then threw the knife. He glimpsed his brother running and ducking.

What happened next was a dull thud, and a splatter of blood. Nesbit and Chalet ran out of the room, both carrying their bags. He'd killed the servant. Chalet had even gotten experience points from him. It was kind of gross and a very not-so-subtle change from killing weird, plated-armor animals, to actual people.

They ran back to the way they'd came from. Both of them knew what to do next; get Scarlet.

Scarlet was appalled. After the kindness which Vanessa and the others had shown her, (well, not really) she had been locked up in a stone room that had a barred window for light and a door that was covered in chains and padlocks.

The only good thing was she was allowed to take her bag and Ambrielle along with her. In her bag was a Swiss pocket knife. It probably wouldn't do any good until someone opened the door. Then she could stab that person. And then kill him. And then escape.

Scarlet was so tired. Her thinking was going to get her nowhere, she thought. And it was dark, and she was feeling sleepy. "I'm going to bed" was all she said, and then she hit(rather, gently laid down) on the cement ground and was snoring in seconds.

She woke up soon to someone's hands on her. They felt small but clenchy and annoying. She was being shaken. "Urgh," Scarlet moaned. She pulled her eyelids open.

"Shh," whispered Ambrielle. "Someone's coming."

Scarlet rubbed her eyes and sat up. As soon as she got her bearings, she listened closely. There in fact, was someone coming. She dug around in her bag, trying to find her pocket knife. Then the window slid open and there was the smiling face of Nesbit! Chalet was behind him, working on the lock. Nesbit waved. Scarlet and Ambrielle grinned and waved back.

"What happened?" Scarlet asked.

"They attacked us," Nesbit murmured. "Well, tried to. Then we escaped. We figured you were this way or something. By the way, what a nice room."

There was a quiet click, and she heard Chalet fumbling with the lock. Then the door swung open and the two girls scrambled out and stretched their legs and arms. "No time for dawdling," Chalet chastised, and then they were on their way.

"Oh. What about the others?" Ambrielle asked, just remembering.

"The younger ones got themselves locked up," Chalet explained. "We met Liesl and Leo on the way here and they decided to go check on them. We planned to meet with them when they were done, but...there's only two of them and a lot of kids to free. Plus, I don't think they know how to pick locks. So. We have to hurry."

They broke into a quiet, light jog, following Chalet. What a bother, Scarlet thought. She didn't like the other group very much, being the recluse that she was. But even so, they where still kind of annoying, especially Oren. Only Liesl and Leo seemed secretly hoped they would part ways soon.

Leo and Liesl soon came into view. Liesl was bent down, talking to and trying to console the kids, who were locked up in boxes just like Scarlet had been. Leo seemed to be inspecting the locks. All was quiet. Scarlet was surprised that no one had found them yet. Maybe they were only searching for Scarlet. Or maybe - hopefully, they'd given up. But that wasn't likely.

Chalet rushed forward to work on the other locks. Nesbit did the same, but instead started to assist Leo in opening the locks. There were many clicks and whispers.

Then, they herded everyone up and stole away. Scarlet didn't know where they were going, but she didn't ask. Chalet was leading the way. She decided to trust his judgement for now.

Suddenly, there was a clank behind her. And then murmurs. The murmurs got louder until it was talking. There was a group of people coming their way, and they were in wide open space right now.

"Run!" Chalet yelled, just as the group turned around the corner and spotted them. And they ran, each one trying not to trip. It was a stampede. Scarlet was sure everyone in the village could hear their feet pounding on the ground. They blindly followed Chalet around.

The team reached a four-way route. Chalet all of the sudden stopped. "Come on, let's go! Just pick a random one," Ambrielle begged.

"No, I'm trying to remember," He said, his eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "This way," he said, pointing at his right, and then dashed ahead. The rest followed.

"Okay, now, when we get out," Nesbit called out after a while, turning around and running backwards to face them, "Keep running. Run as fast as you can. Follow us. Even if you're tired. This is a life or death situation. Got it?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned back around and doubled his speed.

Scarlet and Ambrielle were beginning to tire. Their breaths came in short, small gasps and their legs were shaking and felt like unstable sticks. The others were experiencing the same problems. Scarlet considered giving up and dying. Even the thought of staying alive for her sister didn't motivate her as much. But she kept running. Maybe it was just a bad dream.

Light flooded her eyes. They'd finally got out of the mazelike pyramid. Why did they want her? To do something bad to her? Obviously, since she'd gotten locked up. Maybe they just wanted to question her, but after seeing Vanessa's evil smile as she'd locked her up, she deemed that next to impossible.

Remembering Nesbit's words, she kept running, ignoring the pain in her legs. She focused on the gates. Ambrielle blasted them open with her staff. Hot, hot sand squished under her feet. But they were out.

"Keep running," Nesbit called breathlessly. His voice was slightly quieter and more interrupted with heavy breaths. They were all tired, and sand was not a good surface to run on. Especially when the sun was beating down on them. How long had they been stuck in the pyramid? This led to an even more important and dreadful question that Scarlet was trying not to think about: How long had they been stuck in the game? Years, maybe, in real life. But she was sure it had only been a few weeks. So, a few months. But that was still enough for the police in the real world to deem her dead, probably. And how would she explain where she'd gone?

You'll probably die in the game, anyway, so it won't matter, she thought, still running. The pain had almost subsided. She was numb all over. She knew that when she finally stopped running, she would have a horrible pain in her legs and her stomach would kick up a storm.

Then, more light. At first Scarlet assumed it was just the sun. But it wasn't. It enveloped her and the whole team. She squeezed her eyes shut. This sensation was familiar.

When she opened her eyes again, they were in a different world. The next stage of the game.

24: Chapter 23

The first thing that struck Scarlet was the massive amounts of dull grey. Dull grey, dark grey, light grey everywhere. And faded things. The roads had faded, yellow lines on them, littered with cracks. The street lamps flickered.

They were in an abandoned city.

"When are we gonna get to the princess," William moaned. "It's like we're getting farther and farther away!"

Nesbit and Chalet both seemed to be gazing around at the abandoned structures. Chalet was the first to regain his senses. "Okay, guys. Who's next for fighting? I think it was Oren."

Oren jumped. "M-me?"

"Yes, you," Chalet sighed.

Leo slapped him on the back. "Don't sweat it, kid."

Oren genuinely looked nervous. Scarlet wondered if he'd even had any fighting experience at all. What if the only people in their team who could fight were Liesl and Leo? She immediately felt shame for disliking them. They had a reason to want to join her group.

Even so, why weren't they questioning Chalet's orders? If the younger ones didn't have any fighting experience, why wouldn't they try to at least explain to him?

She was jumping to conclusions. Maybe Oren was just really bad at fighting. Yes, that would make more sense. His chubby form would not make a good warrior.

"Wait," Ambrielle suddenly piped up. "Does anyone have any leftover food on them? If we don't…" she trailed off as moans were emitted from everyone's mouths. This was an abandoned city. They would not likely find any food here.

Will voiced her thoughts. "We won't find any food here...And I'm so hungry, too."

"You know," Nesbit spoke up. "We should conserve our energy and get some rest. A short one. Someone keep watch. Oren, if you don't want to fight, you should keep watch."

The chubby kid blew out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. I was worried I would have to fight...And I don't know what these monsters look like. Alright, I'll do it!"

"Okay...good," Nesbit looked kind of shocked. "Then let's find some shelter. Oh, and Oren, when you keep watch, you might have to fight the monsters for us."

The boy deflated like a balloon. "Oh," he said dejectedly.

They trekked on through the lifeless city. Each one's eyes were peeled for any kind of potential shelter. The whole team was exhausted but still putting in their last amounts of effort into this task. Finally, Scarlet spotted one.

It was a little cul-de-sac with the houses caved in. There were a few trees poking up through the cracks in the cement. It seemed safe, and the rest of the team, too tired to argue, agreed to stay there. Scarlet could not tell if it was night or day. It was dark but still light enough to see quite well.

Most of them fell asleep immediately. Chalet had to remind Oren to stay awake to keep watch. Scarlet had a feeling that he would keep one eye open while sleeping to make sure Oren didn't snooze on the job.

Scarlet was tired, too. Tired of the feeling of being tired. Oh well, there was nothing she could do about it.

Her eyes closed and she fell into a deep slumber.

She woke up to people stirring. A few of the team had sat up and were looking around frantically. What was going on? She mirrored their movements, looking left, right, and behind her.

Rats!

The vicious rodents had surrounded them. But it was the city. It made sense that there would be rats.

And Oren was gone.

"There are rats," she said to the people who where awake. Chalet was up, of course he was. So was Liesl, William, and Ambrielle. Scarlet was surprised to see that Leo was still deep in slumber.

"We've noticed," Liesl replied in a monotone voice, standing up and gathering her dress. "Oren is missing, too, if you couldn't tell."

Geez. Hopefully Liesl was just cranky. If she acted like this all the time, well, then…

The rest of the group stood up. Ambrielle was shaking everyone awake. Scarlet dusted off her clothes and checked if any rats had crept into her bag or hoodie. Fortunately, there were none.

"Ow!" William cried. "I think it bit me!"

It took a few seconds for the group to respond. When Chalet did, his eyes widened and a frightened look came into his eyes. "They're not just normal rats," he gasped. "They can kill."

A look of pure terror crept into Will's face. "Am I...am I going to die?"

"What's going on?" said a sleepy-sounding voice with an Australian accent. Leo was awake. The others had started to slowly rise out of their sleeping positions as well.

Ambrielle quickly explained to the rest of them. "But, Chalet, how do you know they can kill?"

"There was a library in the first stage," he told her. "In the Wyldwoods. You remember the place we first met? I used to go to the library all the time there, and I read about these rats. You can tell that they're lethal because they have a bluish tint to their black fur."

Scarlet leaned in closer to the rats that where squirming around the ground. He was right. In the dim light she could see a colbalt tinge in their coats. "More importantly, though, what are we gonna do about them? Is there anyway to help Will?" She tried to keep her voice steady but it was impossible.

"Nesbit, Scarlet, and I will figure out how to help Will. There was a remedy, I know. I just need to remember," he said after a short moment, assuming a commander-like disposition. "The rest of you, be careful not to get bit, and exterminate the rats." He waved Scarlet over as the remaining team members finally jolted awake and began their tedious task.

"It bit me here," Will sobbed, wiping his nose and then pointing to the bite, which was on his wrist. It was turning black and while Scarlet and Nesbit waited for Chalet to remember the remedy, it started to pulse green.

"Ah! I think I remember," Chalet announced. "Sand. We'll need sand. Of a special kind. From the desert stage."

"Is that possible?" Scarlet asked. "To go back a stage?"

"Actually, I kept a small jar of sand," Will said breathlessly. He was fading quickly. "It's with Leo. I kept a souvenir of every stage…" He struggled to breathe.

"Leo!" Nesbit called. "Do you have Will's jar of sand?"

Leo paused in his fighting. "Yeah. Hold on." He set fire to a rat that was getting in his way, and then made his way over to his backpack that was laying next to Scarlet. Opening the zippers, he dug through a little, and then his hand emerged with a tiny jar no smaller than his pinky.

"Thanks," Nesbit said, and took it.

"No problem," Leo replied, and went back to defending the four from the rats.

"Let's keep a little bit or else he won't have a souvenir from the desert anymore," Scarlet suggested quietly.

"We'll try," Chalet answered grimly. "And...we'll need some glass. Any will do. Also, some small stone pebbles."

Why were all the required materials so plain, Scarlet wondered? She decided not to question it and said, "I'll go look for the rocks."

"Good idea, glass might cut your fingers. I'll go look for that," Nesbit suggested.

It didn't take long for Scarlet to get her hands on some small stones. They were everywhere, after all. But she hoped Nesbit's task would be as easy as hers. Glass didn't seem as commonplace here as pebbles.

As expected, she was the first of the two back to Chalet. While spearing and crushing the killer rats, they waited anxiously for Nesbit to return.

The amount of rats seemed to be diminishing now. Scarlet did not have to worry about any rodents climbing into her jacket anymore. The rest of the team had calmed down, as well. Occasionally there was a stray rat or two, but it was quickly killed.

Soon, they saw Nesbit's shadow emerge. As soon as they saw each other, he started running. When he got closer, Scarlet noticed that his hands were covered in red.

"Sorry, my hands started bleeding," he said casually, as if talking about the weather, and gently set the glass down.

"Don't worry," Scarlet said without hesitation, and dug around in her bag for her healing orb.

It was taking an awful long time to find. Where was it? In fact, her bag seemed to have gotten lighter. There was no way an orb could be in there. Her heart raced, and she opened her bag wider to take a better look..

There was her pouch of money, some healing potions, crumbs and random pieces of paper, but no orb. Could she have lost it?

25: Chapter 24

She began to dig through her bag more rapidly. The faces around her began to darken and look worried. Finally her shoulders slumped. "I can't find it."

"Are you sure?" Ambrielle asked. "I still have my orb."

"Well, we could always use Ambrielle's magic," Chalet suggested. "We'll just have to deal without your orb for a while."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" she cried, and then laughed sheepishly. "I forgot about that. But the orb did cost a lot…"

"Justice and I are mages," Liesl spoke up seriously. "Our healing powers may not be as good as Ambrielle's, but I think we'll be able to make do with at least three mages on the team."

For once Scarlet felt thankful that the other team had joined them. There were disadvantages but there were also advantages. The group quickly calmed down after that and settled with Ambrielle's healing magic. In no time, Nesbit's hands, caked with dried blood, were as smooth as a baby's again.

"Okay, now," Chalet clapped his hands together. "We make the potion."

"How?" Ambrielle asked skeptically, looking at the pile of seemingly mundane objects.

"Each object in this game is slightly enchanted," Chalet explained quickly. "If you look closely, you'll see blue swirls on the rocks and the glass, for the city. The sand from the desert has purple swirls in it. But-" he interjected as the younger children leaned in closer to try to examine the objects- "We have no time to look at it now. Will needs our help."

They respectfully withdrew, and Chalet called Ambrielle over. "We'll need your magic to easily crush the stones. Can you do that?"

Ambrielle nodded confidently. Then, she concentrated hard. The blue flame in her staff turned purple. They all looked on in awe. The rocks started to shake, and then they broke into pieces. Finally, they had been crushed into a rocky powder. "Is that good?"

"Yes, thank you," Chalet nodded approvingly. Scarlet was impressed.

He gathered all the power into a pile. "Can you do the same with the glass, too? Crush it?"

Ambrielle withered. "Crushing the rocks took up a lot of my energy. But-"

"I can do it," Justice spoke up. Liesl patted her back with a small smile and the girl stepped forward. In contrast to Ambrielle, Justice had a wand. It had a handhold at the bottom and was carved with beautiful designs. There was also a green gem just above the handhold. As she pointed it at the glass and focused, it began to glow, illuminating the ground and casting shadows onto her face.

Every piece of glass rose up, then threw itself on the ground, breaking it into a million little pieces. The pieces, now a powder just like the rocks, gathered themselves into a pile and were subsequently mixed in with the rock powder.

"Thank you," Chalet said with a polite nod. "Now we can make the potion." He took out a bottle of water from his bag and sprinkled the enchanted powder in. Nothing happened for a while. They watched the ash-colored flakes dissipate in the water.

Then, the water began to glow bright red. Scarlet had to squeeze her eyes shut momentarily, for the color was so bright and the light so strong she was sure it would have blinded her.

The neon red color soon faded away and they were left with a water bottle filled with a thick, murky, black liquid. It smelled like rotten eggs.

Scarlet wrinkled her nose.

"Don't worry, he's still unconscious," Chalet muttered as he put the bottle to Will's lips. "It won't be as bad for him."

Nesbit spoke up. "While we're doing this, we should organize search parties for Oren."

"Good idea," Chalet approved.

"Alright. We'll have to make them small because of the lack of people and the large amount of space. And one more person will stay here with Chalet. How about Gretel?"

Gretel's face fell. "But I want to go with Leo," she whined.

Leo patted her shoulder. "If he says to stay, then you should," he told her gently. "We'll be back soon, I promise."

Scarlet flinched. In all the RPG games she had played, whenever someone promised that they would be back, their fate was sealed. They wouldn't come back. But this was...not like the RPG games she'd played. These were real people, she was sure of it. So, they would be back. For sure.

She was still worried though, so she volunteered to go with Leo. He didn't seem to mind, in fact, he seemed pretty happy with Scarlet. Liesl cast a dark, murderous look at Scarlet. She decided that, while Liesl was good at fighting, she was not her type of person.

Nesbit went with Liesl and Ambrielle paired up with Justice. She and Justice seemed to be getting along well. Justice smiled around her and no one else. Scarlet smiled inwardly.

Chalet directed them all towards their separate ways and the pairs began leaving to their destinations. Scarlet began the conversation with Leo.

"So. Are you Australian, or British?" she asked.

"Australian. I actually live there, in Sydney. How about you?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I'm a Japanese and European mix. My dad is European, and my mom is Japanese."

"Ooh. I've never met anyone like that," Leo mused, staring off into the distance. "Oh," he remembered. "I'll fight first, I guess. Unless you want to?" He was talking about when they would run into a monster.

"Sure, I don't mind."

"I wonder what kind of monsters this city will bring. Robots?" He chuckled.

"It's a possibility," she replied. "Maybe giant rats."

"No way," Leo said, horrified. "I've had enough of those."

"Speaking of rats, I hope Will's okay. I met his brother."

"You did? Wyatt, right? I heard you guys talking. He never told us that the had a brother. How could you tell?"

"Wyatt looks just like him. And they both have orange hair, I put two and two together. I wonder if we'll see them. Wyatt and his friends, I mean."

"Cameron and Devon?" he asked.

"Yes, or Cadere and Dyke," Scarlet confirmed. "Wyatt doesn't have a screen name. Nor do I."

"I don't either. I'm pretty sure Nesbit and Chalet do, though. And when we asked Liesl if that was her real name, she didn't want to talk about it. Justice snapped at us too, when we asked."

"Mm," was all Scarlet said in response, thinking about things.

"Monster," Leo announced, jolting Scarlet out of her thoughts.

"Oh! Good luck," she said. Although he didn't really need it.

"Thanks," he said, as their setting flashed colors and finally faded into a battle ground.

The monster that appeared was totally unexpected. Well, maybe a little. But not much.

It was a bird. A big one, like a predator bird. It's wings could for sure wrap around Leo, maybe even twice. The giant bird was blue and had decorations on it that symbolized that it's powers were solely based on ice. Scarlet laughed inwardly. This bird would be no match for Leo's fire cannons.

Leo rubbed his arms. Man, it must have been cold with that bird's presence. Scarlet was outside of the battlefield bubble, so she couldn't feel it. All of the sudden, she noticed that the walls of the bubble were starting to freeze over. How strange! But she wasn't going to worry yet.

The boy powered up his arm cannons, and then blasted them all over the bubble. The ice melted, but as soon as it did, it came back. This was going to be a harder battle than Scarlet had anticipated.

The bird attacked. With a mighty flap of its wings, a huge, visible gust knocked Leo back and his fire went out. Now Scarlet was starting to get concerned.

Leo staggered back up. Powering up his cannons again, this time, he focused on the bird and not his surroundings. His skin had turned a bright, rosy red and his boots were covered in snow. Fire shot out and hit the foe, but judging by Leo's stunned face, it didn't do much damage.

This bird was tough.

Scarlet knew that it was possible to jump into battles. But she knew that it was not allowed. It was an unspoken rule of the game. But she just had to. Leo stood no chance against that bird. And even with the two of them, they might not defeat it, either.

She wondered how the other teams were doing. Foolishly, she hoped that someone from the other teams would come running to their rescue. Obviously, that wouldn't happen.

After a few rounds of fighting, Leo seemed to be almost dead. He was in extreme pain, Scarlet knew. It had been hard suppressing the urge to jump in, but now she made up her mind. She could not let Leo suffer anymore.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she ran in and burst through the soft, rubbery material of the bubble.

26: Chapter 25

Scarlet opened her eyes again to be in the familiar, ovular bubble of the battlefield. "H-hey!" mumbled Leo, behind her. He was clutching his arm and his strong legs where wobbling. He sounded angry, but his voice was shaking.

"Shh," she held a finger to her lips, and gave him a reassuring smile. Then she turned back around to face the bird. It's name was Artica, and it was a level 33. Scarlet was a level 32. Leo, she knew, was a lower level. Somewhere in the mid-twenties. Hopefully, this was going to be easy.

"Me first," she announced, like a child, and then charged, with her sword ready to swing. The closer she got, the faster she ran. And then, timed perfectly, Scarlet's sword veered and cut the bird's head cleanly off. It's talons put up a fight, and made two, long, deep scratches on Scarlet's forearm.

Pain shot through her body. She willed herself not to look at the wound and clutched her eyes shut. Her hand had an iron grip on the wrist of the wounded arm, and she writhed around in agony. It hurt so much that she was almost numb. Breathing heavily, she tried to lessen the pain by will. Finally, curiosity overtook her, and she looked at her scarred arm.

Two, bright crimson, jagged lines in her skin. Blood gushed out of it. Scarlet felt dizzy. She wanted to throw up. The last thing she heard before she fell unconscious was Leo.

"Scarlet..Scarlet!.."

It was going to be okay. She had defeated the bird.

She fell into a deep sleep. It felt like she was dead, and floating around in space. Eternal space that stretched on for infinity all around her. Nothing else. Just space, and her. How lonely. This was death, wasn't it? She was going to be stuck here forever. It wasn't worth exploring. Everything looked the same, anyway.

She turned her head left and right. Stars surrounded her. Beautiful, glowing stars. She was close to them but they only gave off a little heat, enough to warm her cold skin. It felt good.

Something was missing. It should have been there, but it wasn't. And there was no way that it couldn't have been there. And it struck her. Scarlet examined her forearm. There was no pain, just a dull numbness in her arm. And her skin was as new as a baby's. No scars, no nothing. She rubbed it, cautiously. It felt normal. So she was dead. Finally. After all those near death experiences, she had finally passed on.

And her sister? She would cope, especially with Nesbit and Chalet and Leo and Liesl there. Maybe, if Oren died, even if Scarlet didn't really like him, she'd at least be less lonely, if he joined her. Because if not, then she'd be in solitude forever. Forever and ever and ever. It was scary, almost. All this dark matter around her, no one to talk to. And no one would hear her, either, no matter how softly or loudly she screamed. This was an empty vacuum. Sound particles could not travel through it. She'd be alone forever.

With a sigh, she resigned herself to her fate. But the sigh was unheard. It was silent. Spookily silent. And dark everywhere, except for the stars that glowed but cast no light.

Suddenly, there was a faint voice above her. "...e out for a little while."

"Looks like she's waking up," another one said.

"Right on cue." There were three people. At least. And these voices sounded familiar.

Scarlet blinked the sleep out of her eyes. Above her she could see colors. Blue, white, orange. And black.

She lay there for a while, not really seeing anything but a blur of colors. She was tired and her body ached all over. Then, something struck her.

"Wyatt!" Scarlet tried to sit up. "Wyatt! I have something important to tell you." She twisted around to try to find him, but her chest pushed her back down.

"Oh, don't move too quickly," the orange and black one said. Dyke. She was back with the three musketeers again. And Cadere? Where was he, Scarlet wondered.

"What is it?" Wyatt asked, coming into her field of vision and crouching down in front of her. She was lying on the ground, on a makeshift bed. More like a piece of cloth.

"Your brother." At this, his eyes twitched, but nothing else. "William. He..I don't know. He's alive. Maybe. I met him."

"Wait. Alive? Are you sure? In the game?"

"Yes. I saw him, we talked, he said you were his brother," she explained breathlessly. "He got bit by one of those rats. Did you guys see them?"

Wyatt shook his head.

"Anyway, apparently those rats were lethal or something, and he fell unconscious, and Chalet made a potion and gave it to him. Another one of our party members were missing so we were sent off to find him." She gasped. "Oh no! Leo! Where is he?"

Dyke turned around and pointed. "Cadere's tending to him." Scarlet straightened up, peering over Dyke's shoulder. Sure enough, her teammate was lying on the same kind of makeshift bed as her. He was unconscious, though. And there was Cadere, stretching out a bandage.

She stared at them for a while. These three kids, even though they were rivals, they kept saving her. Why?

"Where are we?" Scarlet asked, instead of that.

"A building. Abandoned," Dyke explained. "We found you two unconscious. That bird was from the desert stage, ironically." He laughed quietly. "An ice bird in the hot desert. I'm surprised. Anyway, it somehow came into this stage. It's not common, I think. Right, Cadere?" he raised his voice.

"Yes, you numbskull," Cadere replied. "When they come in another stage that's different from their origin, they become three times stronger. You're lucky it didn't rip you apart."

"That means we can't be far from our base," Scarlet muttered. "William is there."

Wyatt sighed. "I'm going."

"Alone?" Dyke interjected. "No way. I'm sure Cadere can defend our quarters, right?"

"Alone? With a girl?" Cadere protested, imitating Dyke. "No way. I'm sure...okay, you know what, I don't want to think about it." He continued to pat the bandage onto Leo, and his words trailed off into an awkward silence.

Dyke threw his head back, laughing like a hyena. "Cadere, you're the best. Bye!"

Cadere looked like he was going to stop them, but then he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Wait!" Scarlet yelled. Wyatt had already disappeared out the door, but Dyke poked his head back in.

"Yeah? If you need something just ask Cadere."

"No. I mean, do you know where you're going?"

"Oh yeah, no. Do we go the way you guys came from? Straight line?"

"Probably," Scarlet tilted her head. "You'll know when you see it, I guess."

"'Kay thanks bye!" Dyke squealed like a little girl, and closed the door. She heard him laughing outside.

Scarlet lay back down. There was a long scar running down her arm. She'd get Ambrielle to heal that, when they met up again.

Healing orb! She'd almost forgot. Maybe they had seen it? "Cadere," she called.

"Hm?" came the reply.

"I lost my green healing orb. I was wondering if you guys had seen it."

There was a pause. "And you expect us to give it back? We're rivals, you know."

Scarlet sniggered.

He looked at her with scalding eyes. She didn't flinch.

"You know what I mean, right?" Scarlet asked, smiling.

Cadere resumed working as he spoke. "I saw it. But I didn't know it was yours."

"Where?" Scarlet snapped to attention.

"Some thugs we ran into had it. Good news or bad news?" He asked suddenly.

"Uh," she muttered, taken aback. "Bad news?"

"They smashed it. Good news, we obliterated them."

Scarlet's mouth froze in the shape of an 'o'. Then she continued to mouth, "'Kay."

"Don't know when you're going to run into another one of those again," he said casually, tipping his head left and right to some imaginary music. "You don't need those anyway."

"What? Why?" She wasn't angry, just a bit curious.

He didn't say anything, just stopped shaking his head and stood up. Leo stirred. "Still alive," the half-conscious boy muttered. A quote from one of her favorite video games. A smile crept onto Scarlet's face.

Cadere went out of sight. She heard him moving things around. He came back in the room, holding something white. He threw one to Scarlet. "Heads up!" Luckily, he had good aim, so Scarlet didn't have to move around to catch it. It landed cleanly in the middle of her palms. It was a food cube. She hadn't eaten one of these for a while.

Scarlet watched as Cadere placed a cube into the palm of the now-conscious Leo. Leo moaned. "Eat it," Cadere beckoned.

She plopped her cube into her mouth as well. It tasted like stir fry noodles, like from a Chinese restaurant. So that was what Scarlet was craving.

With nothing to do after digesting the cube, she rested her head on the pillow behind her and closed her eyes. She listened to Cadere shuffling around, and Leo asking, "Who are you?"

"Cadere. Leo, right? Scarlet's right over there. She's sleeping..I guess. No, she's not," he changed his mind, as she smiled without opening her eyes.

"Ugh, I can't get up," Leo groaned. "Oh," he remembered something. "Oren."

"You're too injured. The others are out looking for William. He was with you, right?" Cadere queried.

"Why William? Why not Oren? We were looking for him."

"I don't know who he is. Anyway, Wyatt's one of the others. He's Will's brother, remember."

"Really? Wyatt's with you?"

"Yes," Cadere said curtly. "We're waiting for him and Dyke. They're both out looking."

"I have to go look for Oren. That's what we were doing," Leo protested.

"They'll probably come back with word from our group," Scarlet spoke up, opening her eyes.

The door opened. It was raining, hard. Dyke and Wyatt were there. William was holding Wyatt's hand. Behind them, was the rest of the group. Oren was still missing.

27: Chapter 26

"Scarlet!" Ambrielle screamed, and ran towards her sister. "We came back and waited but you guys still didn't come! You are so slow!" She looked almost angry.

Nesbit came up behind her and patted her shoulder. "Did you find Oren?"

"No," Scarlet replied. "We found these guys though." She meant Cadere, Dyke, and Wyatt.

Nesbit cast a look back at Wyatt and his brother, reunited. "Yeah. Good for Wyatt."

"So is William gonna leave us?" Ambrielle asked. Scarlet couldn't tell how she felt about this. Sad that he was leaving? Happy that he would be able to beat(hopefully) the game with his brother?

"Chalet says we're getting closer and closer to the princess. She's really close. So, we've got plans. That I don't know of. He won't tell me. He just says, 'We've got plans.'"

"Those plans better be good," Ambrielle pouted.

Chalet was currently talking to Cadere. Cadere was listening carefully to Chalet's every word, while Chalet outlined some thing that Scarlet couldn't hear. Justice and Liesl were leaning on the wall with the same bored look on both of their faces. Sometimes Scarlet wondered if they were related.

Gretel was making funny faces to Leo, trying to cheer him up. At times she would try to pull him out of bed, but he would cringe and tell her to stop.

"Are you hurt, too?" Ambrielle asked, noticing Gretel and Leo's antics as well.

"Yeah. Don't pull me. I feel like I broke my rib or something." Scarlet didn't know much about the anatomy of the body.

"That monster must have been really strong, if it could wipe out Leo's fire that easily," Ambrielle reflected. "Dyke said that it was from another stage and if a monster comes into a stage other than it's own, then it becomes really, ridiculously strong."

"Yes," Scarlet confirmed, half-listening.

"Guys, could I have your attention?" she heard Chalet call out among the talking. Not everyone heard, and some kept chattering.

"Guys, shut up!" Dyke yelled. "Nesbit needs to say something." That got everyone's mouths closed.

"Okay," he began. "I've decided that we are going to let these guys come with us." He paused. Everyone was silent. "We don't know how hard it'll be to get into the Princess's tower, and we need as much strength as we can get. I know that her tower is at the boundary between this stage and the next. It's hard to find, but we could get ambushed. And the chances are higher here, since we're getting closer and closer to her tower. From here on out, everyone has to stay alert. And we'll have to take extra safety precautions. You may only go out in groups of three. We're low on food, potions, and weapons. We'll be lucky if we find any treasure chests containing what we need or anything like that. We're in danger." He stopped to take a breath. "Now, the plan goes like this: We train and get stronger as we make our way through the city. Keep your eyes peeled for weapons, food, and potions. When we get to the end this stage, we split into two groups and look for the tower."

"What about Oren?" William interrupted.

"About Oren. We've been stuck in this game for a few months now. We've been missing from the world for, about, a year. Game time is half as slow as the time in real life. I always make it a point not to be gone for too long. This is the longest I've ever been. We can't afford to lose time. If we can't find Oren, so be it. We'll search for him while we're moving through the city."

This speech left everyone stunned. But Scarlet knew he had a point. Even if Oren was a real person, he was...not very useful. He had next to no fighting ability. Oren would just slow everyone down. But he was still a real person. He deserved a life.

So, she decided that she would keep her eyes open if she saw the boy. That was what a video game protagonist would do.

"Any objections?"

"No," the whole group agreed. It had become almost habit to submit to Chalet's word. It wasn't like he was a dictator or anything. He had just proven himself to them many, many times.

And now Cadere, Dyke, and Wyatt were joining Scarlet's group. It was weird. She'd always felt like they and her own team were something separate. But now they were one.

From that point on, things got a lot more organized. Scarlet found it hard to believe that Chalet's mind had so much room. He put Scarlet, Cadere, and Gretel into a group together. Leo looked disappointed. Scarlet was a bit let down, too. He had been a good partner. At least his little sister was with her.

And Scarlet's little sister was put into Leo's group. Leo, Ambrielle, and Chalet. The other teams were: Dyke, Wyatt, Justice, and Liesl, William, and Nesbit.

"These teams are the people you have to stick together with. Each group is going to have a leader," Chalet announced. "Scarlet will be the leader for group one." She gave a start at the mention of her name. " I will be the leader of group two. Wyatt will be the leader for group three, and-"

"Hey!" Dyke interrupted. "Why aren't I the leader? I'm easily the strongest out of these three."

"You may be the strongest but you lack patience," he responded curtly, then continued his instructions. "Nesbit will be the leader for group four. Remember your group numbers. Group leaders will come to me for instructions after this. Dismissed."

Cadere turned to Scarlet. "Well, you better go."

"Yeah, I probably should," she said.

Scarlet made her way through the mingling crowd. Nesbit and Wyatt were already standing next to Chalet.

"Alright, guys. You are the leaders of your groups. That means you take the responsibility of all them. Make sure you guys look out for the other groups, too. Focus mainly on your own groups but if another team seems to be in deep trouble, help them. Secondly, trust each other. Very important." Chalet looked them all in the eye. "Third, you're going to have to train them. Make them stronger. I will give you guys training instructions, and then we'll have training every day. Teach them however you'd like, as long as it is effective. I think it goes without saying that you can't abuse them, verbally or physically."

"'Course," Wyatt muttered.

"Alright. Here are your training instructions: We'll train until sundown, and then we will designate the night guard for today. The group that keeps watch all night," he clarified. "For training, we're going to begin with quick reflexes. Swing a kick at them, they have to try to avoid it. Throw a punch, they have to try to avoid it. Once that's mastered, move onto blocking, if you have time. Got it?"

"So, why is it only body combat?" Scarlet asked. "We have weapons."

"It's not necessarily just that. You can use your weapons too. No magic yet. Okay, I have faith in you. Good luck!"

They nodded and walked back to their groups. Cadere and Gretel were sitting together in silence. When Scarlet got back, Cadere asked, "How'd it go? What are we supposed to do?"

"Training," she answered, tired. And nervous. Scarlet had never really been a leader. Or a physical fighter. But she had chosen the warrior class. "Hey, Cadere, what class are you?"

"Rogue," he answered. Not surprising.

"So, is Dyke a warrior, and Wyatt a mage?" Scarlet queried.

He nodded, confirming her guess. "It's better to have a variety of classes."

"I'm a warrior," Gretel announced.

"Just like your brother, huh," he said.

"Yep!"

There was silence for a moment. "Where do you guys come from?" Cadere asked, breaking the silence.

"Toronto," Scarlet said.

"Sydney, Australia," Gretel told him.

"Wow, that's far. I can't believe I'm the only one in my group who lives in America."

"Where do you live?" Scarlet wondered.

"Texas," he said. "So do Dyke and Wyatt. And William, I guess."

"Oh yeah. I heard that you were friends in real life," Scarlet mused.

Oops, she didn't mean to say that out loud.

"Who told you that?"

"Uh-"

"Oh, whatever. You know that I come from Texas. I just didn't want you to know my real name." Oh, she knew it. Good thing she didn't spill those beans.

They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Chalet called, "Training time! Groups, go find a place for yourselves."

Everyone shuffled around. Scarlet's group found a corner that was wide and spacious, perfect for their training. They could still see the other groups, but they were in a world of their own.

Scarlet wasn't sure how to begin. "So, uh...We're supposed to work on fast reflexes. With or without weapons." She paused. "So, Gretel, since you're a warrior, do you have your own sword?"

The little girl shook her head. "Leo says I'm too young and I can't even lift one."

Scarlet nodded. "And you?" She turned to Cadere.

"Daggers," he replied simply.

This was going to prove difficult.