“We’re not monsters,” I say, keeping the spearhead inches from her throat.

  Yes, I’m here threatening some strange woman with a blade at her neck, horns on my head, blood dripping from my mouth, with a previously armored war boar, and my silver haired Satyr with flaming hands. Okay, I can see how if you stretch your imagination, we might be viewed as monsters.

  “Then who are you?” she asks.

  “I’m the guy with a spear at your throat,” I say. “I’m the guy who asks the questions.”

  Now I need to think of some questions, fast. I knew that was my line, that’s always what some guy says when he gets the upper hand. It’s a rule or something.

  She waits. “Then ask.”

  Dammit, I wasn’t ready. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Jes.”

  “I’m Sadie.”

  “Sadie, we’re the interrogators,” I snap. “No need to introduce yourself to the subject.”

  “Sadie Satyr?” Jes asks. “Seriously?”

  “The name is formed by the summoner,” Sadie replies. “My name before being summoned was different. Once I became Dom’s bondling, I got renamed during the summon process.”

  “Wait,” I say, not turning from Jes. “I named you? I did not. You showed up and had that name.”

  “I showed up WITH that name. It’s okay, Dom, that’s how bondlings work. Just like you named Baco.”

  Jes raises an eyebrow. “You named the pig Baco?”

  “No,” I carefully correct her. “His full name was Baconator. But after we, um, vanquished him, we just call him Baco.”

  “You understand that’s not better, right?” Jes smirks.

  “And you named me Sadie. Maybe not in so many words, but my name came from you. Just like I’m the satyr you chose to create.”

  “It’s not like I had a menu to select from.”

  “You created her?” Jes asks. “That’s your skill?”

  “Yes,” I say. “And stop that, I’m the one asking questions.”

  “Sorry.”

  I look at Jes. Her eyes are black. I admit, we’re not in the best lighting, but her irises are incredibly dark. It makes her look like she stepped out of a Manga. I sigh. She’s human. I thought at first kill or be killed, but I can’t possibly.

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  “Before I let go,” I say. “There will be no tricks. You will not go for your big funky axe. You will not cast lightning doors through us. Any attempt will be met with a final retribution there is no coming back from. Am I clear?”

  Now THAT’S how you make a speech.

  She slowly raises her unpinned arm, palm open. “Swear.”

  I very slowly pull my blade away. “I would also appreciate it if you remove that spiky fist thing.”

  “Cestus,” she says. “Will do.”

  “Slowly,” I say, letting her arm go. I step back, spear trained on the spot right above her sternum, above where her hardened armor ends. She reaches and very deliberately unbuckles her spiky fist thing. She pulls her hand out, flexes it, and drops the weapon.

  “What are your skills?” I ask.

  “She’s a telemete,” Sadie says.

  “What?” Jes and I both ask.

  “You can warp the world,” Sadie says. “You were invisible. You moved too fast. You made portals. Telemete. Dom’s a summoner.”

  “I didn’t think anyone would know that word,” Jes says. “I haven’t met another living person who could tell me anything since the world broke.”

  Since the world broke. It hadn’t occurred to me that maybe the world I came from has been completely destroyed, and it’s not an idea I want to fully entertain without a bit more proof.

  “Where are you from?” I ask.

  “We called it Earth.”

  “More specific.”

  “California.”

  I let the spear point drop. “I’m a student at Berkeley.”

  “Same. Part time,” she says. “EMT, going pre-med track, but I just need some prereqs first.”

  “History,” I say. “Where did you get all this stuff? You have armor, three different weapons.”

  She scans me head to toe. “Those Air Run IIIs?”

  I nod, unable to contain my smile.

  “Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”

  “We had to stuff it in our ears,” Sadie says.

  Jes closes her eyes. “Singing snakes.”

  “Sirens,” I offer.

  “I just hope they didn’t get to my mom,” Jes says. “I don’t know where she ended up.”

  “Your mom?”

  “We just had coffee on campus. Then the stretch happened. You haven’t seen her have you? Early sixties, black woman, dressing and acting like she’s twenty-one, wearing black pants like mine and a pink top.”

  I shake my head. “I haven’t seen another human at all.”

  “There’s no humans where you guys are from?” Sadie asks.

  I turn to Sadie. “Flame off, Sadie. I meant here.”

  “In the system,” Sadie says.

  “Whoa,” Jes point at Sadie. “What? System? Is this just a simulation? Are we actually okay and none of this is happening?”

  “I don’t think she can answer that,” I answer instead. “If it is a simulation, that’s restricted information. For the sake of actually staying alive, I’m going by the idea that this is real life and we live here now.”

  “But you’ve seen the words, right?” Jes says. “When you get an award for a creative use of weapons and you get that star.”

  “You got an award?” I ask Jes, but I’m staring at Sadie. “You never told me there were stars.”

  Sadie grins and shrugs.

  “Let’s back it up,” I say, attention back on Jes. “How did you get your gear?”

  “I was exploring, chased by wolves. The ground gave out beneath me and I fell. I was in some ancient tomb, and there was a huge skeleton with these weapons. I pulled them from his dead hands and his skull fell off. I knocked the crust and grime off and then chased after the wolves.”

  “No shit?”

  She laughs. “No, that was Schwarzenegger in Conan. It’s just a way better story than saying I took them from dead guy next to me when I appeared. I had no idea how to use them. When I put them on, I got my first notifications. Few hundred rats, spiders, singing snakes and boars later, and I find you.”

  “Spiders?” I say. “We keep getting bats. What other skills do you have?”

  “I can juggle.”

  “Is that one real or just a better story?”

  “No, I really can. I mean, I could before I got here, but now it’s up to level fourteen and I can use it to confuse monsters.”

  “Fourteen?” I turn to Sadie. “Fourteen!?”

  “Bondling,” Sadie says. “Not the wise old trainer you wanted, remember.”

  The air buzzes, my whole body feeling like I licked a 9-volt.

  Jes has disappeared.

  Dreamlike LitRPG Psychological Thriller

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  Alex Dawson's quiet life of classes and gaming shatters when he dreams of a crimson sky, a fallen moon, and a stranger on a mirror-like sea.

  The dream doesn't fade. An ancient system awakens, and Alex is dragged into the hidden realms of dreams where some want him to awaken, others want him to break, and one wants him back.

  Free to read on Royal Road