CHAPTER 33: SOMETHING’S WRONG

"Alright, so we got that out of the way..." I whispered, "But why was it so easy? It’s like there’s no challenge at all."

Hailie tilted her head at me like an anime perking up its ear, all confused. Those bright eyes of her scanned through my face with quiet worry. She didn’t hear me, of course. I forgot again, how ironic it was the fact that she has disabilities both in game and in real life, lol.

The soon-to-be-cleric just stood there, expression soft, curious, her lips parted like she was about to ask a question but remembered she couldn’t so she started blinking at me faster, body language was too expressive for someone so quiet.

"Too... easy." I mouthed slowly, which she nodded with a smile... No idea if she understood or not.

With that out of the way I exhaled and shrugged off the weird feeling, chalking it up to just overthinking... I mean, it’s just a Warlock quest, what’s the worst that could happen? No way the game would throw me an impossible task on an Cleric escort quest while giving me the Pacifistic Curse, right? Yeah no, no one is that cruel.

I swear to god Eirlys, if I fail to protect Hailie and you blame it on me, I’ll sneak into your room at night and shave off one the legs off your chair so it’s uneven and you have to be uncomfortable for an entire day until you get a replacement chair.

"C’mon," I muttered under my breath, more for me than Hailie. "Let’s just wrap it up."

The two of us began making our way toward the location marked for the final prayer. It was deeper into the Hollow now, past the rust-colored stone ruins and down a winding slope flanked by thorny brush. The light dimmed gradually, not like a day-to-night transition per se, but more like someone was slowly pulling a heavy lever, slowly squeezing the color out of the world, if that analogy makes sense.

The soundscape had changed too. I heard no ambient birdsong, no insects, not even the creaking of wood that normally echoed through the Hollow’s skeletal trees, those background ambient noises that immerse you into the game, making the purchasing of the pod worth was gone. It’s only silence, oppressive and heavy silence.

Then, Hailie stopped, her feet to the ground like a lamp post.

I already took a few steps ahead before realizing she wasn’t following. When I noticed that the sounds of our footstep was cut in half, I finally turned around, and she was staring at me.

Not with the innocent curiosity she usually had, but with something stiffer. Her brows were slightly furrowed, her fingers twitching by her side as her pupils widened in fright, an image that I could not get out of my mind, and before I could ask, she ran towards me and hugged me tight from behind, one of those kinds of hug that really got my guts running rather than my libido.

"H-Hey, Hailie, cutie, sweetie, honeypie?" I said, turning my head around, almost laughing it off, but she was making me worry. "What’s going on?"

But she didn’t laugh back. Her hand only trembled harder, and her avatar pressed closer to mine with silent desperation. My skin prickled, not because I was scared, but because she was. And if someone like Hailie—blissfully cheerful, serene even when deafened—was scared, then something had to be seriously wrong. So I opened Party Chat to try and see what was up.

[CJS69Real]: What’s wrong?

There was a delay. Her hands were slow and uncertain, made typing out the letters looked like it took effort.

[Hailie]: I’m scared, I feel scared... Something’s off, I don’t like this, it feels wrong.

[CJS69Real]: Wrong how? It’s just the third prayer. No enemies have even shown up.

I was very confused, because I knew the game down to its core, and can’t fathom how anyone could grow a "Feeling" to danger if any. Maybe she was just scared of the environment and made up her worries?

[Hailie]: I don’t know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry but I really can’t go forward... I don’t know.

That was quite frustrating to read, I was starting to get tad bit less worried about the fact that she only got 2 hours of gameplay, but now this, this would pull that 2 hours up to our last second.

I looked ahead, into the fog-draped grove where the third shrine was supposedly waiting. The trees formed a half-circle around a small clearing, their roots arched like crooked fingers. There was a strange haze that shimmered near the center, and the leaves, which normally swayed gently with the game’s wind physics, were oddly still. They were frozen midair... As if the entire place was holding its breath.

That was when I noticed one leaf drifting down from a low-hanging branch. It twisted lazily, its edge catching the gray light.

But it didn’t fall.

It stopped just a few inches above the mossy ground, and hovered there like it was trapped in invisible. My pulse quickened... What the fuck? Did I just saw a leaf dangling midair before touching the ground? Some Naruto ninja stuff? That was... What? No... What??? Huh?

That fucked with me so bad I started hyperventilating.

Then, without warning, the leaf dropped like a stone, a loud sound of it hiting the ground. No flutter, no bounce, but just a sharp, unnatural thud.

Hailie whimpered behind me, and I felt her fingers tighten on my sleeve, she held onto it as we removed each other from the hug. Her character avatar had no voice, but her fear radiated in waves that I can feel, as if I was an empath.

[Cory]: It’s probably just ambiance. The devs do this kind of psychological stuff to mess with players. You know, like... mood setting. You know what it is right? SFX and whatnot?

[Hailie]: Um... I guess, but you’re freaked out too, right?

I stared at the screen for a while before typing my reply.

[Cory]: ...Yeah, I am, kinda, like, uh, yeah, I am...

I looked up from the keyboard to vague catch the image of some faraway trees. Somewhere far off among the treelines, a tree creaked violently. Then, with a heavy groan, it toppled over in the distance.

We didn’t see it fall, but we heard the snap then the heavy crash. It echoed far too long, like it had fallen down a never-ending slope.

It was just... A tree falling in the woods, why was that so scary? And why was that so... So... Why was that there? Is that necessary from a game coding perspective?

I whipped my head around all 8 sides. The map didn’t show any players nearby. No enemies, no bosses. Just... the two of us (we can make it if we try ♪) alone. Or at least that’s what the interface claimed. My eyes flicked to my minimap again, but it was blank as expected.

I started to feel like the world was lying to me.

We kept walking, though slower now. Every step forward was met with mounting resistance, not from the environment, but from inside us.

"God, this feels so eerie, like a cemetary or an abandoned church, having lesbian sex here would be a dope core memory."

I felt the same terror as Hailie did, a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. I couldn’t explain it, but it was like gravity itself was different here, heavier and thicker. And the silence had a texture, like cloth being drawn tight.

Another leaf hung in midair.

Another one swirled, then vanished before hitting the ground.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, something’s not right."

Once or twice, I swore I saw shapes in the fog. Not monsters, not humans, just shapes. They were tall, square and round, unmoving, the moment I blinked, they were gone. I didn’t tell Hailie, I didn’t want her to know that I was losing it. I have to protect this innocent and white piece of paper if that’s the last thing I do.

I tried to make sense of it. Tried to remember if this was some hidden boss mechanic or maybe a world event, was it even documented? Did no one find this yet? It started to gnaw at me, that possibility... That there were things in this game I didn’t know.

And the realization cut deeper than I expected, for someone who knew that she was a god-forsaken a veteran, a top player, a profesional, walking wikipedia, it felt like drowning in foreign waters.

The third shrine was now just barely visible, nestled beneath the twisted roots of a massive, dead tree.

Black moss grew around its base, the altar stood there like it had been waiting for centuries, not moving.

We stopped walking when Hailie pulled me back by my sleeve, then she typed again.

[Hailie]: Should we go back?

I stared at her and the party chat for a long moment... Should we? I mean, everything in me wanted to say yes. But something deeper, something bitter, competitive, stubborn forced body to shake. No, not yet.

And just as I opened my mouth to say something, the ground beneath us gave a soft tremor. Not enough to throw us off balance, but just enough to feel. Like something large had just shifted, somewhere below.

I grabbed Hailie’s hand, squeezing it tight.

And I whispered to no one but myself:

"...Wait... No way, no way, no way, no way, no way, NO FUCKING WAY I MISSED THIS."

It was in front of my eyes the entire time...

Something so simple, something that even a fucking 5 years old could point out was wrong.