Chapter 9
Rohan
It takes us making it all the way back to town for me to come to terms with the fact that Tyson might be telling the truth.
We’re trapped in Understory. We walk through Halia, the main town’s gates.
It feels like such a real place, different than when we’re playing it through a screen.
There are merchants selling their wares, children running through the dimly lit stone streets, and NPCs, or more like people chatting.
The world of Understory is alive.
I stand in the middle of the road, my body frozen as I stare up at the castle that sits atop the town. It’s even more beautiful in real life, with its massive brick crowns and beautiful, gold-crested sconces sitting along its walls.
We’re in the game.
“Rohan,” Tyson says, tapping me gently.
“Yeah…” I respond slowly, turning my attention to him.
“Let’s head inside. Get a room for the night and figure this all out tomorrow, okay?” he says, his voice steady.
I stare up at him and nod.
We step into the inn, and there’s customers at tables, drinking and playing games. Some of them are finishing up their dinner as it’s getting pretty late. It’s so strange to see these characters as real people.
“What can I do for ya?” the usual innkeeper says to us as we approach the counter.
“Can we get two rooms? Just for the night is fine,” Tyson says.
“Uh, sorry, hun, but we only have one room left,” she says, leaning against the surface. “Is that alright?”
“What choice do we have?” I say when Tyson looks at me, probably for a rebuttal, but I’m way too tired to argue right now.
“We’ll take it.”
“Great!” she says, handing us the old key. “Try to come down early for breakfast in the mornin’, alright? First come, first served, and these boys are hungry at dawn.”
“Gotcha.” Tyson nods, and I follow him up the stairs. We walk in silence till we get to the last room at the end of the hall. He puts the key in and opens the door, chuckling when he steps in.
I stand in the doorway, looking to see what’s so funny, and I freeze at the horrific sight before me. You can’t be serious.
“No fucking way.” I balk.
Tyson shakes his head and rounds the bed, the only bed.
It sits in the middle of the small room, which has a fireplace and a small basin in it that I’m sure we’re supposed to bathe in at some point.
Hopefully never, because we’ll be out of here in the morning or when we go to sleep.
I’m praying we wake up in our rooms and that this was all some epic, cosmic joke.
“Are you going to stand there all night?” Tyson sighs.
“I’m not sleeping in that bed with you,” I declare, folding my arms across my chest.
“Didn’t think you had it in you to sleep on the floor.” He chuckles.
“I’m not sleeping on the floor, you are!”
“I’m not even going to acknowledge that.” Tyson rolls his eyes, taking off his black cloak and throwing it over the back of a small wooden chair that’s also in the room.
“I’m serious, Tyson!”
“I know you are.”
“Okay, so use your cloak and sleep on the floor.”
“Chandra! I promise I won’t lay a fucking finger on you! So either shut the fuck up and get in the bed, or sleep on the fucking floor. I don’t care!” He snarls at me, and I stand frozen, staring at him, my heart feeling like it’s beating in my throat.
“You’re unbelievable,” I breathe, finally stepping into the room and closing the door behind me.
Tyson just stands there, looking at me, his expression growing bored. “What a waste of a pretty face,” he scoffs.
“Oh, you think I’m pretty, Tyson?” I sneer and use the game’s interface to change out of my armor and into regular clothes.
“Who wouldn’t think that? I’m not in denial like you,” he says while I kick my boots off, placing them by the door.
I turn around swiftly. “What am I in denial about? Enlighten me!”
“That you’re attracted to me. And I think you like arguing with me. You like it when I yell at you and tell you what to do.” Tyson smirks.
“Oh, you’re definitely not okay. Did you hit your head on the rocks back at the tomb when you fell asleep?”
He ignores me, looking up at the ceiling instead. “Ah, and what happened to calling me daddy? I liked that Rohan.”
A chill runs down my spine; I can’t do anything but glare at him, my face burning with embarrassment. Truly, he’s the worst, and I can’t believe this is happening to me. He’s right, this has to be a nightmare. The worst one I’ve had yet, to be exact.
I can’t believe they’re the same person.
I don’t believe that.
“Exactly,” he says as I stand quietly. And it feels like he’s beaten me at something yet again. I fucking hate it. I hate him.
“You’re such a fucking asshole!”
“Yes, yes, I know, so you’ve been telling me.
” He yanks the blanket away, uncovering the bed, and lies down, spreading his long limbs out.
I swallow, watching his movements, the way his tongue plays with his snake bites, and the way his bicep flexes when he puts one of his hands behind his head makes my mouth dry up.
And he’s so fucking big.
Ugh.
“Move. Over.” I grit my teeth as I drop my knee onto the other side of the bed.
He rolls his eyes and moves his legs closer to his side so I can get in.
I lay beside him with my back turned away and try to keep as much space between us without falling off this stupid fucking bed.
Which there isn’t much, because it isn’t even that big to begin with.
What did I do to deserve this?
Who did I piss off?
“I can hear you thinking from here.”
“Shut up, Tyson,” I say, and he lets out a small laugh.
* * *
The sun coming through the small window feels warm against my cheek, waking me up from my sleep.
I blink once, twice, three times. My head is hazy, but I’m hoping I’m back in my room and last night was a weird nightmare in which Tyson is tormenting me even more after losing the competition.
Maybe my mind was playing with me because I couldn’t stop thinking about the loss or something.
But no.
I open my eyes fully, and my body is curled flush against Tyson’s large, warm form. He’s still asleep, his breathing even. But once my brain catches up to what my body is doing, I flinch away, noticing how close we got throughout the night.
Thank God I woke up first.
I would’ve never heard the end of it.
“Morning,” Tyson croaks. I bite my lip at the sound, his voice is even deeper when he’s still half asleep.
“Morning,” I mumble and turn over before slipping out of the bed. I pad over to the window and look down into the town square. The townspeople are already awake and setting up their stalls. It’s even busier during the day.
“We got a quest in the middle of the night. Can you see it?” Tyson says, making me turn to him. A quest?
I check my log, and he’s right. This wasn’t here last night, though, and I don’t remember accepting a quest before falling asleep on the game before getting trapped here.
“Where did it come from?”
“Who knows? At this point, none of this makes sense,” Tyson says, stretching his arms above his head.
“Yeah, I swore we’d wake up in our rooms,” I whisper.
“Me too,” he says.
And that might be the first time we’ve ever agreed on anything.
“Apparently, there’s a NPC in town that we have to find, and he’ll tell us more about the quest. Only thing is, I’ve never even seen or heard of this character before.”
“I mean, anything is possible, right? We’re trapped in a game,” I murmur.
“Yeah. Let’s head out then and see what he says,” Tyson replies, getting up from the bed and throwing his cloak back over his shoulders.
“You think this quest is the way out?” I chew on my bottom lip and look over at him.
“I hope so,” he sighs.