Chương 20: A Party Forms

By the time I got back outside, the parking lot was nearly deserted, with only the two Sheriff's cars remaining. That was to be expected, but the color of the sky was not. The sun hung low on the horizon, burning pinkish orange. I squinted at it, trying to understand what I was seeing. I'd only been inside for twenty minutes tops, but it suddenly looked like 5: 00 PM.

"Nora!" Isabel jogged over, Tre clinging to her back.

"How'd it go?" Tre asked, climbing from her shoulder to mine.

"Was the sheriff a dick to you? He was kind of a dick to me." Also, did you see the sky? Tre added over the Mindbleed. One minute it's like 2 PM, and the next it looks like the sun's an hour away from setting. It literally sped across the sky. Maltheris just fast-forwarded the clock on us.

"What'd you tell him?" Isabel asked as I was trying to process what Tre was saying about the bizarre time change.

"I told him the truth. I think he's locked in on Evan for Austin and Doc Mosley's murders, though." Tre clapped his small hands together.

"We should head home, right, Nora?" I nodded, and the three of us left campus. As we strolled back through town, Isabel was staring at me, searching for something.

"How?" She finally said.

"How is the fire gone? Where did all the other kids go? What the fuck just happened?" Tre looked at me and shrugged.

"Gotta tell her eventually."

"Tell me what?" Isabel was trembling, either from fear or adrenaline, probably a little of each; it was hard to tell. I could insist she go home. Maybe save her from any further trauma… But I selfishly wanted her help.

"It's what you said in the bathroom," I started slowly.

"None of this is real." Isabel stared at me.

"What?"" We're real. You're real. But this place? The school, the town?" I shook my head.

"It's all a game. And we're locked inside." Isabel shook her head.

"Whoa. Slow down. A game? What kind of game? Who is running it?"

"A demon," Tre said, maybe a little too matter-of-factly.

"I don't understand. Start from the beginning and explain exactly what the fuck is going on." I nodded.

"Okay. But Tre and I need to keep moving." I gestured down the empty road.

"Walk with us. It's a long story."

"I'm literally not going anywhere else until I know what's happening."

"Fine." I flashed Isabel a smile.

"But just know you're probably better off not knowing." The streetlights blinked to life as we walked toward my house, then somewhere in the distance, a dog barked exactly three times and stopped. A few blocks later, Tre and I had explained everything we knew to Isabel. She said nothing the entire time. Then Isabel slowed, staring down a side street. Her first words came out small, meek.

"So, all my memories… might be fake?"

"We don't know that," I said delicately.

"But you can't say they are real, either." Isabel pointed down the side street.

"I used to come here every day after school when I was little. My babysitter, Mrs. Táng, picked me up and took me back to her house while my parents worked." Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked exactly three times and stopped. Again. Her eyes smiled as she recounted the memory.

"Whenever she picked me up after school instead of my parents, which was often, we would have a tea time together. But what I liked about it was the way she did it. My mom and I had tea parties sometimes, but always with the tea bags. Mrs. Táng did everything from scratch. She had me rinse the teapots and cups, then use the chopsticks to move the leaves into the teapot. We'd wash them and then refill them with new boiling water to steep them. And the whole time she'd hum this little song.

The ritual of it all is what I loved the most.

"But as sure as I am of those memories, I also know I've never been inside that house. Or made tea with anything other than a teabag. So, I... which parts of my life actually happened?"

"Doesn't matter. You're still you," I said.

"Whatever they did to create this place, your personality, your instincts, that's all real." Isabel nodded, doubt in her eyes.

"I hope so. Because if I'm just some made-up character, what's the point of any of this?"

"You were a real person," Tre said firmly.

"And you're really seeing through their bullshit. So the point is to fight until we get our lives back." Something hardened behind her eyes.

"How do we do that?" I resumed walking.

"First, we need to unmask the killer, and short of a miracle, the only way to do that is to understand what really happened in the crash."

"How do we do that?"

"Yeah… that's the tricky part. All the evidence we need to see is in the police station." Isabel laughed.

"Hardin's not gonna hand that over because you ask nicely. So, what's the plan?"

"I have no idea. But we need to figure it out soon." A muscled feathered in Isabel's cheek.

"Let me help. I want in." I hesitated.

"Isabel, you don't have to—" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I know I don't have to," she interrupted.

"But I'm already in it whether I like it or not. And if there's a chance to get out. I'd rather fight than sit around waiting to see if I'm real or not." Tre grinned.

"I like her."

"Fine," I sighed.

"But when we all die horribly—" Isabel almost smiled.

"Oh, I'm definitely going to blame you if we all die." New words appeared on the HUD: ALERT! A NEW COMPANION HAS JOINED YOUR PARTY. NEW COMPANION ADDED: ISABEL HOYOS"Another sidekick?! Bet she doesn't stick around long." ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! PARTY FORMED Unlocks: NO ONE IS ALONE"More humans to care about. You're welcome." SKILL GAINED! NO ONE IS ALONE (Passive) Effect: Group Fear Reduction 5% active while the party is together.

"Mother cannot guide you. Now you're on your own."

"Nora!" Tre jumped up and down.

"Did you just get that achievement too?"

"Yup. Pretty cool."

"What are you guys talking about?" I thumbed open the Companion app. Tre's avatar sat on one side of the screen, and next to it, a new entry glowed, showing an avatar of Isabel's face.

"Holy fuck," Isabel exclaimed, looking over my shoulder.

"That's me!" I tapped her icon. AWAKENED COMPANION: ISABEL HOYOS Form: Human Role: Awakened NPC – Bound Fear: 5% Loyalty: 85% ABILITIES: CALMING AURA (Passive) Effect: Allies within 15 feet gain an additional -3% Fear reduction. Stacks with other bonuses. ABILITY SLOT 2: [LOCKED] Isabel scanned the text below her own face, her brow furrowing.

"'Calming Aura'?" she read aloud.

"That's my power? Fuckin' lame." Tre let out a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a wheeze.

"Oh, it's actually great."

"How?" He hopped onto the back of the couch.

"Okay, okay. Check it. Nora's constantly balancing her Fear level; if she doesn't, her Lucidity crashes. That's why when she hit crit Fear in the locker room, she passed out."

"And my three percent is supposed to prevent that?"

"Right, so, no. Not on its own. But now we're a party. A team." He pointed to Isabel.

"Your Calming Aura stacks with other party buffs. Passives like that always stack. Which means it's running on top of the Fear reduction we're already getting from my Comic Relief buff." Isabel stared at him.

"You have a skill called 'Comic Relief'?"

"Hey! I earned that skill." He looked up at me.

"Does this mean we can unlock other NPCs to join our party?" Isabel sighed.

"Please don't call me an NPC."

"Oh. Shit. Sorry." If Tre could still flush with embarrassment, he would have.

"The, um, larger point is that that three percent contribution is more load-bearing than you think, Isabel."

"Pfft. Now you sound like my ex-boyfriend," Isabel deadpanned. I cackled, then scrolled through the rest of Isabel's Companion screen to turn on Isabel's Mindbleed, but it wasn't there. Why did Tre get the option but not her? It bothered me, but not enough to outweigh the relief settling inside, like warming up after a long time in the snow. A content sigh escaped. Finally, someone else on our side. Tre cocked his head.

"What's that look for?"

"Nothing," I said.

"Just glad Isabel's officially with us now."

"Me too," she agreed, still staring at the screen. We continued toward the cul-de-sac, falling momentarily silent.

"So… am I going to turn into a doll now?" Isabel asked with a droll tone.

"Is that part of it?"

"You'd better hope not. It sucks," Tre said.

"Plus, I'm the cute tiny one. Don't steal my bit."

"If you do turn into a toy, there's no way I'm carrying you both on my back," I said.

"I think if that were going to happen, it would have been triggered when you joined the party," Tre added.

"What about other skills?

'Calming Aura' sounds like I'm an aromatherapy candle." Isabel looked at Tre for guidance.

"Do I unlock more powers and stuff?"

"I haven't so far. And at least your skill isn't insulting.

'Comic Relief.' The game made me a literal joke."

"Maybe companions only level up at the end of each zone?" Isabel shifted tactics.

"Okay, different question. You guys are from Chicago, right?"

"Yup. Why?"

"I was going to ask what kind of music you like. My dad played a lot of Smashing Pumpkins when I was growing up, and it totally got me into the alt scene."

"My mom played Bullet with Butterfly Wings on repeat," I said. Isabel's expression darkened.

"But now I'm wondering if any of what I just said is true. Did my dad actually listen to Smashing Pumpkins, or is that just what NPC Isabel remembers?" Tre and I exchanged a look.

"Like, I can only remember growing up in Whisperwood, but none of that can be true because it's not even a real place. So… who am I really?" She was spiraling.

"Where did I grow up? Is my name even actually Isabel?"

"None of that matters right now. What you say and do is the person you really are underneath whatever 'character' Maltheris turned you into."

"How do you know that for sure?" I didn't.

"I don't think NPCs have small mental breakdowns like this," Tre said.

"They don't question their reality." Isabel nodded, but didn't look convinced. I tried a different approach.

"Look, forget what you remember. What do you feel? Right now, what do you actually want?" Isabel thought about it.

"I want to figure out who killed Austin. I want Sameer to be okay. I want to get out of this game." She paused.

"And I want to figure out who I was before all this."

"That's you then. That's all real."

"How do you know?"

"Why would the game care about any of that stuff? Maltheris wants us afraid, not… grieving or worried about your friends. Those feelings have to be yours."

"Okay. Okay, yeah." Isabel's shoulders slackened.

"That… actually helps. Thanks."

"You know," he said, "if someone had told me this morning, I'd be trapped in a two-foot vinyl body, I would've asked what kind of drugs they were on and if they would share them." Isabel surprised me with an actual laugh.

"I would also like some of those drugs. Today's been that kind of day."

"If someone told me this morning, my biggest worry wouldn't be billions of maggots destroying the real world…"

"Wait, what?" Isabel asked breathlessly"Long story."

"Jesus Christ," she said, shaking her head.

"We're all completely fucked, aren't we?"

"Spectacularly," Tre chirped. The familiar cul-de-sac spread before us, houses perfect and identical except for mine, which only looked identical from the outside. We stopped on the front porch.

"This is us." I pointed to the door with the neon thumbs-up symbol.

"Come on in." Isabel nodded but didn't move. She stared at the door; her head tilted with that same expression she'd worn when she told us about her babysitter memory. Isabel squinted at the porch, her finger tracing in the empty air.

"Why did you guys put up a neon thumb?" Tre's little plastic head snapped toward the door.

"Wait. You see the Safe Area marker? Like, actually see it?"

"It's bright enough to give me a migraine, Tre. Yeah, I see it." She looked between us, blood draining from her face.

"Wait... am I not supposed to see it?" Tre and I exchanged equally dumbfounded looks. The LifeLine's earlier words echoed in my head: Another sidekick?! Bet she doesn't stick around long. Isabel was bound to the system. For better or worse, she was one of us now.