Chapter 3

The duo gamed the day away, mastering their respective niches as the sun slowly set beyond their windows.

Much to Riley's pleasure, the Druid class had not been as useless as he had initially thought. Finding power in the land around him, he quickly destroyed his enemies and supported his allies.

"Oh yeah!" Abel yelled out over the headset. His voice was so loud that Riley could hear it through the thin apartment walls.

Riley watched as the barken figure of Abel burst from a nearby tree with a stone battle-axe held aloft. With a heavy swing, he brought the sharp edge down on the unsuspecting goblin in front of him.

Ding! A golden arrowhead appeared on Riley's screen, denoting another level up as they completed the quest.

"Nice," He remarked into the headset as he mindlessly sorted his character inventory. "Five levels on day one, not too shabby."

"Yeah," Abel said as he moved his character closer to Riley and began to do a shuffle. "Down for the dungeon?"

"Yeah, I don't know, man," He replied, picking up his phone to look at the time. "It's eight thirty-two and—"

"And I've got to piss, and we will finish this dungeon by ten. Be-arr-beeee."

The sound of a headset clacking on a table came through the speakers as Riley rolled his eyes. Taking a deep inhale of herbs, he rested his head on the desk with a deep sigh.

“I should probably shower.” He mumbled to himself as he wiggled his toes against the tan colour of the vinyl flooring before closing his eyes.

Ding!

Riley lifted his head and looked at the screen to see the shimmer of green light around a nearby tree.

"Oh," He exclaimed sluggishly, pressing down on the push-to-speak button. "Abel, there's another one of those weird trees I told you about."

Riley clicked on the in-game object, allowing his character to auto-run forward. Glancing to his side, he cautiously eyed the tome that still rested beside the keyboard. Feeling the sudden urge to touch it, he reached out and ran his hand along the surface once more.

Leaning in, Riley looked over the tree etched into the cover, admiring its fine detail. He stared at the thousands of pinhead leaves that created the canopy and the thick ridges that formed the trunk.

Remembering what he had been doing, he returned his gaze to the screen, where a text box had appeared in front of the virtual tree.

"Nature is not in the sword that clears the undergrowth," Riley read out loud. "But the vines that choke out the light."

Clicking on the following dialogue only revealed the word "Succeed" before the bark of the tree split, revealing a dark cavern that disappeared within the trunk. Riley stepped his character forward into the tree without hesitation and was immediately consumed by the bark. The monitor quickly went black before the darkness seemed to creep and stretch from the screen to the world around it.

Riley's character reappeared moments later, but his outfit had changed. Leaning in, he stared at the avatar's blue jeans and red shirt before they turned to look back towards the screen and Riley. The head had transformed to resemble a familiar shaggy mane, piercing green eyes and a confused look—an uncanny resemblance of his own.

Pushing away from the computer quickly, Riley stood. His headset clacked to the floor as a few small figurines tumbled from their stands to the tabletop.

"What the fuck." He mumbled, staring at the character for a moment longer before looking over his shoulder.

Riley's world was painted in oppressive darkness as he was transported from his bedroom to an endless black expanse. Around him, the sound of steadily dripping water echoed through the void.

"Hello!" Riley cried out. "Hello! Help me!"

"Hello!" His echo returned to him, louder and more frantic. "Hello! Help me!"

Riley grabbed at his ears as the cries continued to amplify. He fell to his knees as the words rang like an alarm, growing louder and louder until it was only possible to make out one word, "Help."

Riley awoke with a start at his computer. Raising his head, the first thing he realized was the daylight as he took up the phone to his side.

"Oh fuck me!" He yelped, realizing that he was late for work.

Standing up from his chair, Riley looked down at the character selection screen that he had been forced into after falling asleep on the keyboard. Shaking his head, he tried to forget the dream as he quickly logged out. But it clung to the front of his consciousness, the feeling of the darkness gripping his mind.

Riley looked to the edge of the computer table, to where the tome had been, but it had disappeared. Peaking out of the room, he eyed the plastic bag on the couch with the two books positioned against the cushions.

"Yep. No more bowls before bed." Riley said to himself as he quickly threw on new clothes and raced from the apartment.

Stopping by Abel's first, he gave the door a quick and frantic knock. With no response, he continued down the stairs and out of the building. Hopping into his car, he backed out and raced to work.

Beeeep. Click. The door to the office unlocked, and Riley ran up the three flights of stairs before emerging into a labyrinth of cubicles. Half crouching, he raced as fast and quietly as he could, sneaking through a side passage of snacks in an attempt to avoid his floor managers.

"Hi." The monotone voice of Bethany Butcher, one of his managers, announced from behind.

Riley stopped, standing up straight before turning around slowly to look at her. Beyond the island of snacks, she stood tucked between the Canyon Bars and CocoCafe.

"Hey, Beth—" Riley said with a forced smile.

"You're late."

"Yeah, sorry, I—"

"We had a tier-three outage this morning." She huffed as she slipped a cup beneath the coffee dispenser. With a press of a button, it began to whine and groan loudly.

"Oh..." Riley replied, hesitating to say anything more. The two stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment before the coffee began to spurt out, and he found the courage to continue. "I'm sure they've—"

"We've moved tier-two to assist."

"Does that m—"

"Tier-one is taking on tier-two cases until we have tier-three resolved."

Riley paused again, looking at Beth awkwardly. He gulped before asking, "Who's taking tier-one?"

"Tier-one," She finished, reaching behind to grab her finished coffee. "Get in the queue."

Riley watched her walk away as he inhaled a slow, deep breath. As she disappeared around the corner, he exhaled a sharp sigh. Swiping a bag of chips from the nearby drawer, he opened it on his walk to the desk. Consuming a breakfast of cheesy triangles, he tossed the empty bag to a nearby abandoned desk before sitting in front of his work computer.

Riley slipped his headset on and logged into the computer, cringing as the phone began to ring immediately.