Fear

“I’m afraid.” He says.

His words cause her to freeze up a bit.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“Being completely honest, I’ve known about how you felt for a long time. No amount of romantic movies or novels can teach you how to deal with the fear that comes with loving someone. We’ve been friends all our lives, and my biggest fear is that our current relationship is gonna change drastically. I’m worried that I won’t be able to meet your expectations. I just have all these fears surrounding the possibility of us being together.” Leo admitted.

Arte looks at the forlorn expression on his face and sighs.

“Leo, I understand how you feel, too. I’m also afraid, but we can’t let fear hold us back from the things we want to do. You don’t have to worry about this alone; rather than magnifying our fears, we can take a step back and work together at making each other happy.” She says. “If… That’s what you want to do… No pressure or anything…”

She looks away, and Leo exhales with a smile.

“No pressure? And you’ve got me leglocked, huh?” He chuckles.

“T-that was just to stop you from escaping!” She exclaimed.

“I know. I can’t say my fears have been completely resolved, but… I want to give this an honest chance with you. Let’s try to be happy together.” Leo says.

“Being with you already makes me happy.” She smiles.

“Same with me,” Leo says.

Leo wriggles his body forward, bringing his face closer to Arte’s. Her face is flushed as she closes her eyes, and Leo gently moves the bangs that hang over her forehead.

“Quit teasing me and kiss me already.” She says.

Leo gently plants his lips against her, and the sensation is like sparks dancing through their nerve endings. The awkwardness of their first kiss was drowned out by the sparks in their fingers and toes. The sensation of warmth grew between their bodies, causing them to roll onto their sides as they continued kissing one another as though locked in a passionate battle of control. Their lips parted, and Leo gasped for air.

“Holy smokes.” He says.

“Did you have fun?” She licks her lips. “We can stop there for now. We have to get some rest for tomorrow anyway.”

“Yeah… I think some rest is a good idea.” Leo says.

Arte stands up and stretches her arms upward.

“Ahhh! I feel super refreshed!” She exclaims.

She turns back, blows him a kiss, and grins widely. 

“Good night.” She says.

She turns and heads out the wooden door and up the stairs. Leo remains lying on the ground, arms and legs outstretched, while staring at the ceiling. He touches his lips with his fingers and sighs.

“This is what I was missing out on….?” He says. “After that… My fears feel kinda small in comparison… I guess it’s all about perspective.”

That night, Arte lay in bed quietly gazing at the ceiling and recalling what transpired that day. Leo was also stuck in a daze as he slept in his bed.

“I wish I had my own room.” They both thought.

“Ah…” Arte responded.

“I guess we were thinking the same thing.” Leo grinned.

“Let's get our minds out of the gutter for now.”

“Gutter? I was saying that because Caius snores like a bear.”

“Are you sure? I seem to remember something poking me earlier.”

“Probably my dagger. Welp, Good night.”

“Good night.”

Arte laughed quietly to herself before drifting off to bed. That night, she awoke within the dream archive, and her grizzled mentor sat there on a rock smoking from his pipe.

“It’s been a while. Looks like your training is paying off, eh?” He asks.

“I guess so if I’m here again. What’s the news this time?” She asks.

“A new skill. One of my favorites at that.” He says.

“It’s called Blood Drive. As for what it does…” He begins.

He’s interrupted by the sky turning yellow and slowly shifting to red.

“What’s going on?” She questions.

“You need to wake up! Something’s happening with your real body!” He exclaims.

Arte tries to awaken, but her surroundings turn to darkness as a tightness wraps around her throat. The darkness of the space fades away as her eyes gradually adjust to the dark room, and a face becomes visible in the dark. A dark figure sat over her with their hands wrapped around her neck like a vice. Her eyes could make up small bits of the person’s face, but the blurriness from a lack of oxygen didn’t help.

“Don’t fight it. Just fade slowly into the night.” She said.

Arte remembered her voice and grit her teeth as she reached her arm out for her sword, but there was nothing there against her desk.

“It’s no use. I made sure to throw it across the room already.” She whispered.

Arte’s strength started to wane, and her vision began to darken. She used her ability to draw blood to try and fill her sheath with her blood, but it was too far. Meaning she couldn’t use the blood loss from the ability to strengthen herself. She bit into her as hard as possible, causing herself to bleed, and used blood drive, her new ability. The blood from her lip bubbled up before being shot at the opponent in the shape of a crescent. The blade struck the perpetrator in the eye, causing them to scream in pain. They released their grip on her, and she kicked them in the chest, sending them back into the wall. She rolled off the bed and onto the floor and held her neck while catching her breath.

“Leo, I just got attacked!” She exclaimed.

“Dorm?” He asks

“Yeah.” She says.

“On my way!” She exclaims.

Steadily, Arte’s vision was restored after being brought to the brink. When her vision returned, she saw her roommate crouched on the bed, glaring while covering her left eye.

“You can’t be allowed to live. Not while our master makes his way over!” She screams. She leaped into the air and vanished into a black cloud of mist.

“She’s a shadowstalker!” Arte thought.

Shadowstalker is one of the few advanced classes available after thief, specializing in stealth and using short-ranged teleporting for lethality. Arte turned to quickly reach for her sword and caught a foot to the gut, sending her backward. Kerri pounced toward Arte like a panther and vanished as she swung her fist. Arte caught a knee to the side and a punch to her chin, sending her reeling into the wall.

“Shadowstalkers have a few flaws in their kit, but Kerri’s making it hard to exploit them. Most typically use weapons, but it seems like she specializes in martial arts. What a terrible match-up.” She thought.

Kerri’s fists were tightly wrapped in blood-soaked rags as she disappeared once more into the mist. On the other side, Leo and Caius were quickly running through the halls of the dorm to make their way over to Arte, when the building shook strongly, nearly causing them to fall over.

“What the hell was that?!” Caius shouts.

Other students begin bursting out of their rooms in a panic and run to escape.

“The building’s on fire!” A student shouts.

“What the hell is going on?!” Caius questions.

“I think they’re making their move now,” Leo states.