Master Maker

Chapter 5 - Let The Games Begin

I placed the CD into the disk reader and waited… this time he words master maker came up quickly and took me into a loading screen, where had to enter my email, a user name, and create a password. I pulled a face as each name I put in had already been taken. I eventually found something that would and used the same password I used for everything

Email: lilth665@network.com

Username: LilithTheDemon

Password:********

Once I had signed up and created an account the game logged into another screen that played a short video, at first it just went black then words in another language came up on the screen, a warning to plug in headphones soon came up and I quickly did as I was told.

 Great now a damn game is telling me what to do

I placed the headphones on my head and listened as the begging of the story unfolded

There was a time where kings and knights of every kind ruled the land. Dragons ruled the skies and creatures of the dark ruled the seas. Until he showed up… can you defeat him and become the new master?

Images of kings bloody from war, dragons soring the skies and blasting buildings with fire, huge sea creatures with shipwrecks and human bones, flickered across the screen until it went faded back to black and suddenly a face appeared, okay I say a face but it was more skull-like than anything else.

The screen went black again and started up in another loading screen

Create your Avatar

oh this should be I thought, I selected the gender and class options that were available, I waited for the damn thing to load but nothing seemed to be happening, my eyes searched for a way to exit so that I could start the process over, or just stop altogether, that’s when I noticed a picture icon I clicked on it

Upload image

Upload an image of yourself to create your avatar

I looked at the instruction feeling a bit stupid, that was something I had never heard of before, but I again did as I was told, I uploaded a photo of myself and waited for the thing to respond, soon a little mini-me was up on my screen, she looked exactly like me, well except for the pointy ears… I started to customize the clothing and armor that she wore as well as changing her hair from blond to blue. Once I was done I clicked a button that loaded me onto another page. I had to repeat a series of words and phrases that were shown on the screen, this would make the avatar sound like me if I typed out a message in the chat, the alternative was that I could communicate by pushing the G key on the keyboard and talk through a mic.

As I sat in the dark I was indeed transported to a whole new world right before my eyes, the trees were huge and there were one every few meters from the next, I could hear birds singing and it made me look around myself as though I expected to see them around me, I went through the training mission pretty quickly, learning how to move, and jump and fight, I was even awarded a tiny dragon that helped guide you around. As I leveled up I saw that my dragon grew in size, this was amazing. Throughout the missions and quests, I started to gain more armor and weapons. I hit level 25, a text came up on the screen saying that I could now join a group.

Suddenly a message flashed across my screen

Loki has invited you to join his adventure

Join

Reject

Without think, I clicked on join, a small message bar

Loki: move forward

Lilith: huh?

I waited a few seconds realizing that must have looked like a complete i***t

Loki: follow the direction to get to the cam

Loki: move forward

Okay then

Loki: stop

Loki: turn right

I let out a huff, yeah yeah shut up

Loki: your other Right…

Loki: stop

Loki: right then go straight until to get to the blue dragon egg

The what?? Oh, that, I found a massive blue egg that seemed to be on fire, I stared at it for a few seconds, I so wanted to reach out and touch it. The fire looked cold and I was curious enough to find out if it was cold or not.

Loki: Pretty isn’t it?

Loki: go forward

Loki: stop and wait

 I waited a few seconds moving my line of sight around looking at the trees and the shrubs, they looked a little different to the ones I had been around, the leaves on the trees looked like they were in autumn, showing bright yellows and oranges and reds with a few small brown pieces here and there, berries littered the shrubs around me.

“enjoying the view?” that Voice! I moved my vision around catching sight of… well him. His face was still and had that amazing structure. I kind of forgot that he had asked me something I was just staring at him

“cat got your tongue?” he said softly laughing, his face moving as the words were spoken I almost forgot that I was looking at him in the game and not in real life

Lilith: I don’t have a mic

I typed out the message but I heard my voice as clear as day

“we’ll have to change that,” Lucis said “there are a few limitations to what the game can do”

He smiled, I was taken away by how handsome he looked

Lilith: nice to see that I didn’t mess up your face  

I looked at him again taking in the armor that he had on

Lilith: think I like you in armor, you look… dangerous

I found myself thinking the word not sure whether that was a good or bad thing

I heard him chuckle as he turned and started to walk away, I quickly got to work on moving forward myself, following him as he walked down a path, the trees and the sky itself were starting to look darker. Soon we stopped outside a cave, the trees around were dead and the sky had clouded over making everything wet and gloomy.

Lilith: the trees…

Somehow the program seemed to pick up the sadness that I feeling, I heard the emotion in my voice. Lucis looked around looking uninterested

“This part of the woods is magically secured, we can’t be detected by other teams. The spell sucks the life out the all living things around, I looked around again only now noticing the skeletons on the ground of small animals. He moved into the cave without another word. I took one last look around and followed him in.

The cave was lit up by a massive fire that was in the middle of the floor, there was no one around it was just him and me. the place was decorated in furniture that looked like it belonged in a castle, red material along with fur was draped on chairs and benches. I move in a bit deeper, Lucis coming up behind me,

“you will get more stuff as you progress,” he said in a whisper, I could swear that I could feel his breath on the back of my neck, my heart began to race. It felt like I had been sucked into the game, I suddenly heard him take in a deep breath and sigh.

I was interrupted by an alarm going off, at first I thought ii had accidentally set an early alarm, but when I looked at the clock I realized it was already 6 am. I looked up from the screen to my window, a small sliver of light was peeking through the curtains. How had I lost so much time? I quickly signed out the game and set down my laptop. Laying back down on my bed. I suddenly felt exhausted. I suddenly bolted up realizing that an alarm went off, which means it was Monday… I lost an entire day????

“How,” I said out loud to myself, I checked my phone, yip it was Monday. What the actual f**k. I got up, my body was feeling stiff and sore. I kind of just grabbed a dress out of the cupboard and threw it on. Took a brush through my hair and walked out of the room.

“there she is,” my mother said with a smile “haven’t seen you all weekend” her smile fell away as soon as she looked at me closely. A frown replacing it. I shook my head and left the house grabbing my bag before she could ask any questions

It was damn bright outside. The sunlight stung my eyes and made me squint, I quickly dug in my bag and fished out my sunglasses, this… this was going to be a long day.

Walking to campus felt like it took ages, I was already missing the world of bright colors and odd animals. I was longing to be back in that bubble.

“Lilly?” I heard my name being called softly, I looked up to see Greg standing in front of me, his face was set in a frown. I didn’t answer I just stared at him

“your mother…” he started softly but broke off mid-sentence when something caught his eye. His face hardened, making me look back to see a stoned faced Lucis standing right behind me. He put his hand on my shoulder and I couldn’t help but suddenly feel safe. I moved closer to him without thinking, regretting my movement instantly.

“Tell your mother you are longer my concern” Greg growled and walked off, I moved after him wanting to call him back. I turned to look at Lucis

“that’s just perfect of course you will show up’ I shouted amusement flickered across his ever-changing face and he gave half-smile.

“I needed to make sure that my demon was ok, you disappeared so suddenly,” he said smoothly, his voice was like silk. His face instantly stopped on the face, that I came to know. He gave a small smile

“I’m not yours,” I said softly not entirely sure if I believed what I was saying.

“yet” he whispered close to my ear, “come” he started walking towards the opposite direction that I was going, stopping after a few steps “you look like you could use some sleep,” he said holding his hand out towards me. It took a few seconds but the idea of sleeping sounded amazing to me. And against my better judgment, I walked closer and took his hand.

We had been driving for what felt like ever, although when I had asked it had only been 15 minutes, I had closed my eyes not paying attention to where I was being taken to. The car came to a stop and I opened my eyes.

“Why are we at Greg’s lake house?” I sat up straight

“We aren’t” Lucis voice said coolly “that’s across the lake” he got out of the car without another word and came over to my door opening it, I started to move when suddenly, I was lifted out of the car and held against Lucis’ chest,

“relax” he whispered when I tried to protest “I promise to keep you safe” he kicked the door closed and started walking towards the front door of the house, this house was a lot bigger than the one across the lake.

“wait so you live here?”  he didn’t answer me, he more made a weird grunting noise. He set me down on a huge bed that was the softest I had ever felt. Wit in a few seconds of being put down I was out like a light.

I woke up a bit dazed and confused, the sun was shining through the huge panel of glass that severed as a wall, I got up trying to remember where I was. I walked to the glass wall and saw the huge lake, across it was another house, which I assumed was Greg’s. I made my way through the passage and came to a huge kitchen and open plan lounge. I made my way around the whole house but could not find Lucis. I went back to the room to find my bag laying by the corner of the bed, I pulled it up right intending to open it and dig for my phone. I old looking piece of paper fell off the bed making a loud heavy sound when it hit the floor, I picked it up. The feel of the paper was weird, almost like leather but it felt gritty.

In the basement

Well, that’s not creepy at all, I thought to myself. I looked at the handwriting it didn’t look like it was done by hand more like it was done by a printer, it was somewhat to perfect. Well, this is the part where you die because you are following a killer right into his domain I said to myself. I took a breath-holding the paper in my hand and walked around the house again until I came to a door that I thought might lead to the basement. I opened it to find sold wall inside, what? I closed the door reopening it, expecting the wall to have magically disappeared. Nope still there. I put my hand against the wall expecting it to be cold and completely solid. Instead, my hand went right through. I pulled my hand back staring at the wall in confusion. I pushed my hand through again this time taking a few steps forward. I closed my eyes and kept going. There was only one explanation for this. I was still asleep and dreaming.

“Lilith” I opened my eyes to see Lucis standing in front of me, well very close to me, so close that I could hear his breathing, I was searching his face, his green eyes locking with mine. We stood there for what felt like forever. Until he took my hand and kissed it moving away and walking down some stairs as he leads me to the underground world that he had created. I looked around the room, it was massive, half of the ceiling was in the lake its self, huge thick glass panels were put in place of the walls and roof, revealing the underwater world of the lake. You could see the sun shining through the surface of the water. It looked magical. The fish swimming in the lake looked like birds flying through the sky. I was in awe and hadn’t realized that I started to walk towards the glass. It was quiet down here, but it was nice and quiet. The world was far away and I was in a whole new little bubble that no one could get to. I jumped slightly when a hand suddenly touched the back of my neck making me turn and come face to face with Lucis again, this time our noses were touching.

“no punching this time” he whispered and without trying to stop him, Lucis’ lips were against mine, soft at first until I wrapped my arms around his neck. I pressed myself against him, he responded by shoving me up against the glass that was behind me, lifting me and wrapping my legs around his hips.

“Lucis?” came a man’s voice from above us. Lucis left out a huff and put me back down on my feet, he held up one finger and touched my lips,

“give me a second” he whispered as he walked toward the door, and he was gone.