Chapter 12
IvoryKnight: I missed you yesterday.
I stared at the words, and something squirmed inside me. The same something that a certain person’s smile seemed to awaken with no effort whatsoever.
Still in my lollipop PJs and cozy in my room, I thought about how to answer him. We were meeting soon to complete the next boss in the quest. Maybe I could respond then. This would be our last big quest because I’d told everyone I was taking the next few weeks off to prepare for the game jam.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard.
Mom knocked once before bursting in. “You have something to tell me, young lady?”
Her angry tone caught my attention before I even processed the words. I swiveled toward her, taking in the folded arms.
My mind spun like a loading screen. What had I done lately?
“I just got off the phone with your father.”
Nothing clicked. I mean, Dad always made her mad, but why would talking to him make her upset with me?
“You didn’t go with him for Christmas, so where exactly did you go? And why didn’t you tell me?”
Uh-oh. Recognition dawned. That terrible slushy day seemed so far removed from today’s sunny summer, but in Mom’s world there was no statute of limitations.
Dad... Why the idiot would go and make himself look bad, I didn’t know.
But Mom got him to say things he hadn’t meant to.
I was honestly surprised he’d lasted this long.
“I didn’t want you to miss out on spending time with your friends.”
Honestly, I had wanted her to have her own life without it being screwed up by Dad’s failures.
She moved forward and took my hands in hers. “Are you okay?”
I looked down at the floor and grunted. The carpet was filthy, despite my vacuuming it a million times. I also hadn’t wanted this worry. Did neither of my parents remember I was almost an adult? Besides, that was over and done with, and now I had an appointment with my gaming group.
“Why can’t you talk to me about important things? I’m your mom.”
“It’s fine, Mom. I’m used to him. I just hung out with some friends.” I winced. DragonByte was kind of like friends.
“But Christmas is for family! And the weather was terrible.”
Some family... “I’m fine. Mom, don’t you have work?”
She looked at her watch and jumped up. “I’m not done with this yet. We’ll talk later.”
Great. The sword of Damocles hung over my head.
I stared at those words on the screen—“I missed you”—and my palms started to sweat.
The front door shut as Mom left for work, and I was alone in my cramped room with its still-bare walls.
My bed, dresser, and desk had been part of a set that had come from our old house, but pieces had been left behind because they hadn’t fit.
Just like I no longer fit into Dad’s life.
Maybe Mom was right; maybe I should be more honest with her.
And myself. Because as I looked at those simple words, they hit like a critical strike straight to the heart.
He had missed me. And I had missed him, too.
Maybe a new life awaited me where I did fit.
The group’s avatars began arriving for the next hidden boss on our quest list. So I shook off the emotions, settled my headphones over my ears, and changed my settings to voice-to-text.
My chair wasn’t as comfortable as DragonByte’s special gaming chairs, but a pillow helped.
The others arrived, and we went looking for the next boss on our list.
IK, of course, had sussed out the meaning of the next couplet.
The poem led us to a mountain, which we had to climb, clearing out giant wasps with their nasty stings and poison all along the path.
Expecting a horde of minions and a boss fight when we reached the top, we were blindsided by an angelic being.
He hovered over a stone slab, glowing pure white with flowing wings.
He assigned us a laborious task—only for the most heroic.
We had to go back down the mountain, to the forest at the base, and defeat the lich protecting an evil stone.
Our task was to get the stone and return it to the angel so it could be destroyed.
Finding and defeating the boss, then giving the stone to the angelic being, took some serious teamwork and quite a bit of my morning.
Before the handoff, we all took a quick break.
I grabbed a bag of chips and a grape soda from the kitchen before settling back at my desk.
As I popped the tab on my can, my mind drifted to this morning and Mom.
Dad had let me down—both me and Mom—but people around me lately were proving that not everyone was so two-faced.
I crunched a cheesy corn chip while ShadowImp handed the angel the glowing orb.
A laugh began echoing all around us. An evil laugh. A demonic laugh.
The angelic aspect melted away, and a huge demon burst out of the stone slab; the orb shattered. The lighting changed from white to red, and thunder clapped all around us.
I quickly sucked the cheesy powder off my fingers and readied for a fight, my fingers hovering over my keyboard and trackball.
“Fools. You have doomed yourselves, the town, and the entire world. Aeons ago, I was trapped in that stone, and only the power of the Infernal Stone could break the spells imprisoning me.”
Appearances could be deceiving. I was suddenly reminded of Ni’s angelic smile and the dangers it could conceal. What secrets did Ni hide behind that charming facade?
The demon’s face was black, but glowed red from within like an evil jack-o’-lantern. It had long claws and a long, bony tail. The most disconcerting aspect of his appearance was the two skulls that were each part of a shoulder.
He was fast and strong, but he didn’t summon any adds, so we could gang up on him.
He trapped us at the top of the mountain with an impassable circle of flame so we couldn’t retreat.
Other than his obvious fire powers and health-draining claw attacks, he could also create hidden sigils on the ground that sucked life when stepped on. Those were more than annoying.
IK proved he was worthy of my trust by coming up with a brilliant plan.
Each of us equipped any fire protection we had; then we worried the demon.
Each time he turned his attention to one of us, the others would hit him hard.
Then he would turn his attention to another, allowing the one before to recover with potions.
I took the brunt of the damage, since I could pull health from the demon himself. I had to dance around as best I could, trying to slip in ability-enhanced swipes of my blood sword. His claws dug into me, one after the other, but my blood armor helped minimize the damage.
IK did some serious damage with his divine abilities.
VerdantArcher was mostly keeping his distance.
He had holy water-dipped arrows, which were doing a good amount of damage.
ShadowImp was—as his name said—a shadow that would dodge in and hit vulnerable parts of the demon in a barrage of sneak attacks.
The demon’s health bar steadily fell, but so did ours.
IvoryKnight: Now, everyone!
In a final blow, we combined all our abilities into one super attack. We defeated the demon and saved the world. The sky went from an ominous red to a cheerful blue with the sun and animals returning to the mountaintop.
A real—I hoped—angelic figure floated down from the sky.
I readied what little abilities and potions I had left after that epic boss battle, just in case.
But we knew he was the real thing when, after presenting us with a loot chest, he started in with the long, boring speech about the consequences of our actions.
I felt like I had this morning, tuning out Mom’s lecture.
IK was voted MVP for his winning tactics, and chose his loot before the rest of us, as per the plan. There was so much that it was impossible to see the names of all the loot items.
When the others disappeared, we once again returned to our willow tree overlook. I switched back to typing only, as usual. I didn’t want to say those personal things aloud.
IvoryKnight: I have something for you.
He handed me the Blood Moon. He hadn’t even been there for that conversation, but he was aware enough to know what I was missing and use his turn to get it for me. Unless the guys had told him about it. They could’ve told him.
ScarlettSaber: Wow. Thanks. This is exactly what I needed.
IvoryKnight: I know. You can do the same for me in the future.
I knew how unlikely that would be. However, staring at the bloodstone gem that would complete my set, I had an epiphany.
I could see Charisse doing my makeup and Lin offering me a place to stay at college.
The only reason I was able to play right now with IK was because of the generosity of Ni—whatever his intentions—and Buzz.
I had learned how to graciously accept the many things my friends had done for me over the last year, both big and small.
ScarlettSaber: We talked about working toward overcoming our weaknesses. Im not ready with, you know, the one we talked about before. But I just realized that Im not the best friend at times. Im going to start doing things for others. You may laugh, but Ill get you that Dragons Eye Opal.
IvoryKnight: Ive no doubt. Ill leave that to you then.
He always knew exactly what to say.
ScarlettSaber: Not for the next few weeks though. I wont be on much because of I have a game jam coming up.
IvoryKnight: Im going to be busy too. Good luck.
I felt a connection with him. There was something I could give him right now. Honesty.
ScarlettSaber: I dont know what Im going to do without you.
Immediately regretting what I’d done, I logged off. Coward.