Interlude
For a flash, Louis was neither here nor was he there.
Later, when he would think back upon that briefest moment, from the time he stepped into the storage and until the moment he was pulled free, he would recall it with no small amount of confusion.
In reality, he’d been in the storage for but a nanosecond.
To his unconscious mind, however, it felt like much longer, years, perhaps.
Luckily, his human wetware wasn’t designed to handle this sort of weight, and when he awakened, disoriented, everything he recalled was a vague sense of his sanity eroding away, but it was now repaired, like fresh paint over a moldy wall.
He’d dreamed, of course. All of the crawlers who stepped into the fold had dreams.
For Louis, he dreamed of his mother. She’d been perpetually disappointed in him, always worried, always badgering him to do something, anything with his life.
“You’re rotting,” she’d said to him once. He heard that over and over during that eternal nanosecond.
You’re rotting.
But it wasn’t just his mother. He dreamed of Terry, the neighbor who would let young Louis hang out while he worked on his car.
He dreamed of Lucinda Fremont, the cop who’d jumped in front of the bullet and saved his life.
He dreamed of Lucinda’s husband. Who said that to a kid?
Who derailed someone else’s entire life just because you were grieving?
You better do something important.
He opened his eyes, taking it all in. The notification. The shouting. The heat. And even before he read it, he knew something had gone terribly wrong.
They were supposed to jump from the casino to the holding area, and that dude in the Pineapple Cabaret would pull him out. That was the plan.
But that’s not what had happened.
Entering Sheol.
Impossible, Louis thought. Sheol was the fifteenth floor. You couldn’t skip floors. Everybody knew that. But that’s what it said.
He turned, and Chris was there struggling, while a group of men and women he didn’t recognize held him down. There was a flashing warning over Chris’s head. Change imminent.
“Wha-what’s going on?” Louis asked, coughing. It was hot. Unbearably hot. Who were these people? He recognized some of them. Some were those who’d come from the club, but who were the rest?
He turned, and he spied Britney looking down at him with concern. She had that pickaxe out on her shoulder. Standing next to her was a Taurin, arms crossed. Pontiff. He recognized him from when he and Britney had been talking the first time they’d gone to the mercenary market.
Warning: You have exited the current playing field without a registered pass. If you do not immediately return to the playing area, you will be considered to have left the game. Please see .
“Huh?” Louis asked.
“Here, quick, Louis. Put this on,” someone said. It was a small red demon dude he didn’t recognize.
“He has gills. Will it work?” Britney asked.
“We’ll find out,” the demon guy said.
“Wha-what is that?” Louis asked, trying to sit up. “Britney? What’s happening?” He was in a cave. Confusion swirled. It was hot, so hot. He breathed out, and the water coming through his gills steamed.
“Louis, let him work, or you will die,” Britney said.
“This is a type of leech,” the demon guy said. “Keep it on, and we’ll give you a pet carrier with more for your inventory. As long as it’s on your skin, it’ll filter your blood and keep you alive here in Sheol. It should still work with your gills.”
A guy, a bald Crest, fired a bolt at Chris, knocking him unconscious.
“Hey!” Louis called.
“He’s a werewolf,” someone said. “Gotta knock him out before he turns and kills us all. Don’t remember seeing him on the feeds.”
“That’s Chris,” Britney said. “Got changed by the first Scolopendra attack. Don’t hurt him.”
The little demon guy laughed. “We separated out from the code just in time or we would’ve been hit, too.” He patted Louis on the shoulder. “Okay, buddy. I think the leech is working. You can sit up now.”
“What is happening?” Louis asked again. “Britney? What is this place?”
“My name is Forkith,” the demon said. “I’m friends, sort of, with your friend Carl. I am friends with Pontiff, and I am hoping to be friends with you.”
“What? How are we on the fifteenth floor? I was supposed to go to the Pineapple Cabaret.”
“It’s a long, long story, friend,” Forkith said. “The Pineapple Cabaret has more than enough hands to protect it. We needed soldiers on a different front, so that’s why you’re here.”
“Soldiers?”
“We’re almost there, friend. Almost there. A lot of us have been working for a very long time, waiting to make our move.”
Louis tried to examine the guy in front of him, but his HUD was acting strange. He was still getting messages, but nothing seemed to be working correctly. He had no map. No spell menus.
His messages still worked, however, and he had a blinking notification.
Samantha: HI, LOUIS! I SEE YOU IN CHAT. I JUST HITCHED A RIDE WITH TARANIS AND KRAKAREN.
THEY’RE AT THE TEMPLE, TRYING TO COMBINE A BUNCH OF THINGS TO MAKE WHOLE HIS MOM WIFE, BUT IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK BECAUSE THEY’RE MISSING A PIECE.
I SLIPPED AWAY. IT’S ALL PART OF MY PLAN.
I’M REALLY HERE TO KILL THE DEMON MOTHER LADY AND HER JERK SON, WHO I THOUGHT WAS MY FRIEND BUT HE TRICKED ME INTO GIVING BIRTH TO A MONSTER THAT WILL DESTROY ALL OF CREATION BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON.
DOESN’T THAT SOUND FUN? WHY ARE YOU HERE? AND WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
The End