Chapter 11

Waking up the next morning felt like a giant was taking a pickaxe to his head. Derek didn’t usually drink that much and it showed. He barely remembered walking home… and a convenience store? After what felt like an eternity, he pushed himself out of bed with a groan. Light sent lances of pain through his eyeballs directly into his gray matter. A glance at his table showed the remnants of a devoured chicken sandwich, the wrapper strewn across the table.

Walking over to close the blinds was torture, but the light they flooded the living room with was worse. Sitting in a chair, Derek held his head in his hands and just sat there. A half empty glass of water sat on a coaster that he greedily gulped down, hopeful that it would ease his pain. He didn’t even want to check his phone, the blue light would sear into his retinas. ut he had to be sure he didn’t text or call anyone he shouldn’t have, it would be extremely embarrassing to see that he called his parents, or even worse, drunk dialed Xrn.

Just as expected, the instant he turned his phone on he regretted it. The light bathed his face in its radiance and he winced in pain. Powering through his rapidly worsening headache he checked his calls first, not seeing anything amiss he checked his texts next. Words blazed up at him like some angry portable sun.

Hey! It’s Xrn. I got your letter, it was sweet. Thank you. I’d like to see you again soon next week if you’re not busy? I have a work trip this weekend. Let me know what happens on Monday!

Time sent, four am. And he hadn’t responded because he’d been dead asleep. A small blessing really, drunk Derek might have said all sorts of crazy things. Like how he was pretty sure he was falling for her, or perhaps worse. The headache stabbed through his mind again, reigniting his memories of last night. The convenience store. Isabella had been working. Did he…really see her tits? Perks were stronger than he thought, even with negative scores she had shown him and then asked for his approval? What the fuck. He was never going to drink again.

Absolutely. I went out last night. My buddy Gimble can be a bad influence sometimes. Headache is killing me.

Followed by a gif of a cartoon brain exploding.

Actually, something pretty crazy happened last night. I stumbled into the convenience store and got an eyeful of Isabella's tits.

It felt surreal that he could tell that to his girlfriend and not expect her to get mad at him. He had seen another woman's tits, and somehow he knew that she was just going to be supportive. Still, the blue light was killing his eyes so he put down his phone just to fill a cup with water. Surprisingly it wasn’t very difficult to do so in the pitch darkness, and he made his way back into his bedroom after only bumping into two chairs.

Laying down felt like being embraced by a cloud. The duvet covering his body warmed not only his body but his soul. What he wouldn’t give to just use a spell to cure his hangover or afford some alchemist brew. Maybe even transform into a dwarf, Derek doubted Gimble could even get hungover. That chipper bastard. He thought with a smile that transformed into a wince.

Rotting away in bed wasn’t the best way to spend the day though, and after an hour and a half Derek forced himself out of the bed. Wincing but trying to ignore the pain as best he could, he slowly walked out in the living room. Throwing on a pair of shorts and a shirt, he trudged out into the hallway. Walking up the stairwell, Derek was unintentionally doing his best impersonation of a zombie’s shuffling. After six flights of stairs, he finally made it up to the roof. Opening the door, sunlight shone upon his face like a spear of pain directly into his brainstem. Still he persevered.

Sunlight was good for the soul, especially here in Paeth where the vampires tried to choke it out as best they could. Even hungover and in pain, the warmth of the sun felt good against his skin. Stumbling over to a small bench placed conveniently at the center of the roof. Derek sat down hard, keeping his eyes closed and just leaning back. Letting his body drink in the sunlight, breathing deeply, he tried to remember more of what had happened. Just how Isabella's tits had looked, and the jokes he and Gimble had shared at the bar. What a cool venue too, next time they had to try and get up into the ship.

That was when the air started to cool around him, the warmth of the sun fled and a small film of frost began to form on his shirt. Without even opening his eyes, Derek grumbled.

“You know that this is a serious workplace violation. You can’t just track me down to my home.”

There was no response to his words. Derek frowned, Celia might be here, but she would never stay silent to provocation. Annoyed, he slowly opened one eye to get a good look at whoever had come to disrupt his time in the sun. If it wasn’t Celia, then who the hell was it?

A shadow stared at him, floating above the rooftop like some kind of dark god. It was as if a being shrouded in black fire had come to visit him. Red eyes stared at him from the void inside the flames, it uttered no words, made no sound, and did nothing but look at him. A tendril of fear wormed its way into Derek’s heart. What the fuck was that thing? And why did its eyes look so angry?

Half a second later it was gone. Simply vanishing into thin air leaving behind no evidence of its existence save for the chill that had spread into his heart. Without even realizing it, his hands had begun to shake. After a few moments, when it was clear that whatever creature that had been wasn’t coming back. He took a shuddering breath and laid down on the bench. Whatever it had been, he was lucky to be alive. With a groan of annoyance, he realized that he should probably report whatever this was to the police.

Dialing the non-emergency number through squinting eyes, the line rang for a minute before someone picked up. The voice of a slightly overworked policewoman came out of his phone's speaker just slightly too loud. In a customer service voice that he knew all too well.

“Hello, thank you for calling the non-emergency line of Paeth’s police force. How can we assist you with your non-emergency?”

The voice sounded slightly familiar, but Derek shook it off. He had something to report after all.

“Uh. I’m on the roof of my apartment building, and I just saw something. Some kind of floating black shadow I think? Made me feel cold, stared at me for a bit, red eyes. Should I seek cover or head inside? What the fuck was that thing?”

On the other end of the line, he heard someone in the background.

“Another sighting? Put Cole on it, he’s the best for a reason.”

Before the woman spoke again.

“Don’t worry, you’re not the only call we’ve gotten about something like this today. We believe it’s just some kind of shade or apparition. If you see it again, call the emergency line. Otherwise, Illuminator Cole might come by in the next day or so to ask you some questions. Is that all?”

“Uh, could you just send someone by when you can? I’m a little freaked out right now, on the roof of 168 Greenwarden Lane.”

Clacking of keys sounded over the line followed by that slightly familiar voice.

“Yes we’ll send someone right over momentarily. Have a good rest of your day.”

The line went dead, and Derek couldn’t do much besides lay there on the bench, with his eyes open from now on. Despite the pain. If that shade had decided to take a chunk out of him, there wasn’t much he could’ve done about it. Maybe it was time he tried to get into better shape. If just to be able to run away from things like that in the future, or to be more in shape for Xrn. The statuesque beauty deserved better than his slightly pudgy body. That was the extent of his thoughts before a shadow crossed over his face.

“Did you make the call?”

A masculine voice echoed on the rooftop, and Derek was forced to crack his eyes open again. Beholding a massive specimen, a green Orc so large it beggared belief. Suffused with a golden light that seemed to emanate from the man's very being. The creature glanced around, holding a staff capped with a glowing crystal and carrying a grimoire bigger than Derek’s head. The Orc was clearly some kind of spellcaster, although without a badge to be marked as an Illuminator, Derek guessed he was slightly below that in rank. The Orc wore pure white robes with golden runes stitched into it that fluttered in the wind and a hood that covered the top of his head.

“Yeah, it was floating a few feet from where you are now. Still gives me goosebumps. Mind warding the area for a bit? Temporarily? Trying to get some sunlight here and would hate to be interrupted again. If that thing comes back and kills me, you’d be pretty liable…”

With an annoyed look on his face, the Orc nodded and began to draw runic symbols in the air. Etching out some kind of golden shield that hovered in the air. With that done he nodded at Derek and floated off deeper into the city. Disappearing behind one of the black stone buildings that was so iconic to Paeth.

The pain of having his eyes open was slowly abating the longer he sat outside. Wondering why Xrn didn’t come up here more often. Why were the fluorescent lights in the building better than the pure light of the sun? He found himself missing her already, a work trip? Why hadn’t she told him? A faint hint of nervousness entered his mind as he considered it. Away all weekend, while he didn’t control her. Could be a recipe for disaster. Not that he couldn’t fix everything, but with a painful shake of his head Derek dislodged the thought.

Even though he had a reality altering app, he still had to trust people. After all there were people he couldn’t control, he hadn’t tried to add a man to the app yet and likely never would. He didn’t swing that way, not fully at least. After ten more minutes of laying in the sun, Derek finally opened his eyes to look at his phone again. A text from Xrn stared back up at him, the blue light still searing into his retinas

Hell yeah, that girl is going to be eating out of the palm of your hand. Think you could get a pic for me? I saw her stream the other day, she’s a good one.

Xrn was quite the handful, her eagerness infected him in a way. A rueful grin stretched across his face as he typed out a reply. Best girlfriend ever. He thought to himself as his fingers tapped away.

I’ll try, we still don’t know if events can be failed or have a negative outcome. I promise that eventually you’ll get to see them. Maybe when her obedience is higher?

After a minute or two of no response, Derek typed out another text. The dreaded double text, he tried not to let it bother him. She was his girlfriend after all. It wasn’t like he was being some clingy or annoying guy.

Have fun on the work trip! What are you up to?

Ten more minutes passed with no response, and Derek grunted before getting up and heading back down to his apartment. Honestly there wasn’t much to do this weekend, beyond holing up again and playing DracoFight4. He had seen rumors starting to swirl about the fifth, and it had gotten his mind churning once more with strategies. New tech trees, better logistics coordination, more powerful AI opponents for single player, and even an entirely reworked lineage system.

He couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into the sequel of his favorite game. So he booted up his computer and got to playing. Letting the rest of the world fade away until there was nothing but the blue light of the screen washing over his eyes. Troop coordination, resource allocation, strategic marriages, avoiding all kinds of political fallout, and even a rare random event clouded his thoughts. Just as Derek was about to hit his stride, at the beginning of the eighth consecutive hour of playing his favorite game. Something painful began to build within his chest, then his head shook as he sneezed. His lungs spasmed, his neck ached from the force as it exploded out of his body.

ACHOO!

Without time to put his arm up to catch the spray, his entire desk was covered in little specks of snot and phlegm. Today was really not his day. It took ten minutes to clean the desk, and during that time he went through at least five tissues. He knew what was happening, a cold was coming on. Hopefully it would just sideline him for a day or so, and wouldn’t interfere too much with trying to relax during the weekend.

Another ten hours later, swaddled in blankets, drinking a cup of warm tea, and some herbal remedy behind his ears. Derek finished his first full DracoFight4 game in the last week and a half. Since he had gotten the Idle Harem App. A deep sense of satisfaction overcame him, and as he finally laid his head down on his keyboard, exhaustion was about to claim his waking mind. His phone buzzed. A text from Xrn.

It’s honestly pretty boring. Would you want to come on the next one? Free hotel room, and we could keep each other company? I hope you’re sleeping well sweetheart, I can’t wait to get back to you.

AUTHORS NOTE: I am back, so sorry about the wait. Several chapters will be posted relatively soon.