Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Finding a place for a deep conversation has proven difficult. The sun started setting when we reentered Ismarus, so all the taverns filled up with hungry NPCs and players alike. Newbie players who helped us with Orpheus filled the temple. The markets are teeming with players looking for new gear.
Finally, we wind up sitting at the table in Doug’s room. As incredibly awkward as this is, I’m glad that I can go straight to Cait and Guy right after this conversation ends. I told them I was right next door beforehand as well. I don’t want them to see me leaving Doug’s room and not know why.
The polyam thing is new to all of us, and we’re still figuring out our rules, but I’m pretty sure we’re all on the same page about honesty.
Doug is my ex. It’s not unheard of for two former lovers to hook up.
But I will never do something like that behind their back.
Besides, there’s no spark between Doug and me, hasn’t been for years.
This is a meeting of old friends in a strange situation.
While I caught Cait and Guy up on where I would be for a bit, Doug grabbed some drinks and food from downstairs. Now, I’m sitting at the stained, weathered wooden table in the corner of his room, toying around with food I really need to eat, but my appetite is nonexistent.
“So, when did you wind up here?” I ask.
“After you,” he answers. “I was watching the news, and there was a missing person story. About you. They found your abandoned car at the store with your wallet inside. When I woke up in Peripeteia, I knew this must have been why. I tried not to get my hopes up that I would find you, but…I just felt it deep down. You were really hyped about this game before it came out.”
“Well, you were right,” I say. “I was shopping and realized I’d left my wallet in my car. When I left the store to get it, there wasn’t a parking lot or store anymore, just a forest. You said you woke up?”
Doug scratches the back of his neck and looks away. “This is going to sound pretty creepy.”
“Can’t be any creepier than Orpheus.”
“Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that,” he says. “I still had the keys to your apartment and decided to look for clues there.”
“Okay, that is a little creepy,” I say. “But I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. Doesn’t explain how you wound up here, though.”
“When I didn’t find anything, I remembered about how obsessed you were with Legends of Sacrifice,” Doug explains.
“You must have just started playing when you disappeared. So I took it home and played your save, thinking maybe there was a moment that made you decide to walk away from your life. Man, you sure put a lot of effort into that Alexander relationship.”
“Ugh, yeah, I totally did.” It’s so weird thinking about it now. Alexander? That guy? Really?
“Anyway,” Doug says. “I fell asleep at the computer, and then I woke up in this farmer’s house, and…yeah. Here I am.”
“How did you become a Fist of Hephaestus?”
“When I woke up in a stranger’s house, I punched my way out of there.”
I gasp. “You punched the farmer? Celeas?”
“Look, he was acting all weird! Repeating the same stuff over and over!”
Remembering back to my experience with him, I can’t help but agree. “Yeah, he was pretty disturbing.” Posing with my arms bent like a robot, I mimic Celeas. “‘I haven’t had a guest in a long time. I’m not used to making myself presentable.’”
Doug laughs. “Yeah, he said that a lot when I asked him why the hell he was still smiling.”
“But why Hephaestus?” I ask.
“I don’t really know,” he says. “I have a theory, but it’s not a strong one.”
“Go on,” I say.
“Because you’re the Cleric of Aphrodite, and you dumped me.”
Doug looks hurt, actually in pain, inside and out. He’d shown nothing but indignation when I’d told him to hit the road, and since then, all I’d seen of him were photos of him with his new girlfriend.
“But you’re with someone, right?” I ask.
“Melissa?” Doug asks. When I nod, he says, “We just started dating.”
“All over town, it seems,” I say. “And with a ring on her finger.”
Orcs have interesting features. Their resting face is angry. So when Doug winces with embarrassment, it looks like he’s baring his tusks at me.
“So, that was a joke,” he says. “Did you notice the date we posted the ring pic?”
I shake my head.
“April Fools’ Day.”
“Oh, my God,” I mutter.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Doug continues. “Melissa’s a wonderful person, but we barely know each other. I’m not just going to jump from an eleven-year-long relationship into something serious within a few weeks. That’s not who I am.”
I look over his shoulder at the wall he shares with mine.
“Hey,” he says, bringing my attention back to him. “I’m okay with you being with Cait and Guy. Am I surprised? Yeah? I never thought of you being bi or polyam, but there’s nothing wrong with you being in a romantic relationship with anyone else. And I get it, too.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“In the game, you put in all that work into leveling up your relationship with Alexander because he was giving you all the romance I probably never gave you. I’m not that kind of guy, but you have always been that kind of girl. You’ve waited a long time to be loved the way you deserve to be loved.”
My eyes mist. I didn’t expect to hear such thoughtful words pass Doug’s lips, but I guess he’s grown a lot since the last time we saw each other.
“But I’m beating around the bush about something I’m sure you want to know,” Doug says.
I wipe my eyes. “What’s that?”
“Before I went to your place, I thought I’d try seeing if you left anything with your mom,” he says.
My heartbeat and breathing halt for a second too long, and my chest aches from it. “Mom? H-how is she?”
Doug looks down, but I can still see the tears in his eyes. He’s known her since we were both teenagers. She’s always been so kind to him. I’m sure it hurt him to see her like that. Even just thinking about the way she said “Lauren” the last time I saw her makes me want to sob.
“Lauren, her room was empty because…because…”
I shake my head. “No! You went to the wrong room or maybe they moved her to a different facility or—”
“They asked me if I’d heard from you,” Doug continues. “They…they tried calling to tell you, and they needed you to sign some paperwork…to figure out which funeral ho—”
I bolt upright from my seat. “No, you’re wrong. She was saying my name the last time I saw her. I’m getting out of this game and going to see her. She can’t die before I see her again. She can’t!”
Doug reaches up to grab my hand, but I shirk away. “I’m sorry, Lauren. I wish you were right, but she’s dead.”
“Fuck you!” I shout. “Fuck you!”
I storm out of his room and slam the door behind me. Guy opens our room door and rushes out to hug me.
“What was that bang?” he asks. “Are you okay? I heard you shouting at Doug. Did he hurt you?”
This is too much. His touch, his questions. Cait comes out to join him with her own words, colored with concern. I don’t comprehend any of them. My head swims with the chaos of their affection. I know I’ll need it soon, but I can’t handle it right now.
“I need to be alone,” I whisper.
“What?” Cait says. “Sorry, you’re whispering. What did you say?”
I push away from Guy’s embrace. “I need to be alone.”
Cait’s face shifts from confusion to anger, and her eyes dart to Doug’s door. “Did he do something to you?”
I shake my head. “No, he just gave me some bad news, and I need to go process that by myself.”
“Bad news?” Guy asks.
“Lauren, is it…about your mom?” Cait asks.
The word “yes” can’t seem to pass through my lips, so instead I say, “I promise I’ll talk about it when I get back.”
“I’m not sure it’s safe for you to be alone,” Cait says.
“Is there really any time I am safe?” I ask.
I don’t wait for an answer. I just turn and walk away.
Doug and I must have talked for much longer than I thought we had because the streets are dark and empty.
Cait’s warning about it not being safe for me seems ominous now.
Anyone or anything could hide in these shadows.
Still, going back to my room and trying to explain how much everything hurts to Cait and Guy feels like too much.
A few blocks away, a building radiates a comforting glow.
The temple.
If the streets are empty, maybe the temple will be, too. Even with Zeus’s statue there, I’ll probably be safe. Temples are sanctuaries, right? Aphrodite is there, and she’ll protect me. I wonder how much she knows about Mom.
I wrap my cloak tight around me so that the icy breeze doesn’t cut through my chiton and no one recognizes me. I’m not sure having my title turned off is enough to hide my identity anymore, not after the speech I gave earlier today.
When I enter the temple, I’m tempted to take my cloak off. It’s so warm, almost too warm, like they have the heat turned up to 75o to overcompensate for the weather outside. I don’t dare do it, though.
Despite the emptiness of the temple, I can feel the statue of Zeus staring at me. It’s probably just my imagination or an optical illusion, like one of those paintings where the eyes follow you everywhere. Just in case, though, I use my hood to obscure my face.
I make my way to Aphrodite. This statue of her is even taller and grander than any I’ve seen of her before.
“Hi,” I say simply. “I don’t need anything. Well, nothing big, anyway. I just thought maybe we could talk? Please?”
It isn’t a prayer, but Aphrodite answers anyway.
She pulls away from her statue, and the entire world shifts.
It no longer looks like we’re inside the temple.
Instead, we’re once again standing on her pink sandy beach.
It’s got a tropical climate here, causing sweat to pool up under my cloak immediately.
My discomfort must be evident because Aphrodite says, “You can take off the cloak for now. I’ve shielded you from the rest of the temple.”
I let out a long breath of relief and untie my cloak. It goes into the mysterious inventory, pocketed away into nothingness using game logic.