Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 17

"It's just so weird to come here," Maple remarked, blowing some of her hair out of her face. A few strands had managed to escape from her bun and she was having none of it. "Like who made it?"

"Like the company?" Reid replied. He was trying his best to keep calm through this experience, heart slowly winding up, constricting each second like a boa. "Yeah, you never hear about it."

"Not that." Maple swept her arm in front of her, gesturing at all the buildings. "Like this space. Cause it's not a game."

Reid coughed as his response evaporated into gas in his throat. A tingle ran across the skin of his arms, down into his fingertips. He felt the tiny pricks as little bumps raised and then faded. "What...what do you mean?"

"Come on, Reid." Maple gave her typical disappointing sideways look. "This can't possibly be a game. You just push a button on your phone. Issac is dumb enough to not notice but you I expect would figure it out."

"Yeah, I guess." Reid felt the sweat rolling down his back. Maple thought of him? Thought positives? His back rippled with nerves. "We don't put anything on to play. It's weird."

"I'm sure somebody here knows how it works. We can ask around. Except nobody is ever around. So I said this place is weird."

"Checks out." Reid's eyes snapped to the side, to the thing that always flirted with his vision. He was relaxing slightly. It seemed Maple didn't fully know what was behind Hollow Twilight. She was speculating and he was beginning to realize he was trapped by his prior choice.

Can't tell her it's a dimension without revealing he hid that information.

Couldn't take her to Kari because she would reveal she already told Reid.

So there was no way to inform her that they were in another dimension. If she guessed it, he would support her. If she never got there, she never got there. He would at least enjoy getting to spend time with her in his own little videogame.

"Have you logged in a bunch?" Maple was examining a building as she spoke, half-engaged in the conversation, half-processing something else Reid couldn't make out.

"Like a bit but not a bunch," he lied.

"When does a bit become a bunch?"

"What?"

Maple chuckled. "I'm just messing around. You're so serious here, lighten up."

"Right." Reid ran his hands through his hair, unsure of what to do to get out of this. He had previously dreamed of spending time alone with Maple. In his fantasies, they would slowly grow closer until one day they were just together. He had never visualized asking her out just that, somehow, some way, they would be a couple. At a certain point. Maybe. He really wasn't sure how it happened.

This was none of that. Maple was doing her own things, interested in her own path. Sometimes they crossed, sometimes they didn't. Even when he was right next to her like this, he couldn't reach out and touch her, hold her hand, or even give her a high five. So they would simply stand and talk, separated only by tension.

"I'm like, super strong, right?" Maple flexed her arm. "We proved that last time. But I guess only when I punch? Since it's called fist."

"Makes sense," Reid replied. As far as he could tell, Twilights were pretty straightforward in their definition. "Mine is just a shadow." He gestured down at the long darkness that trailed him. "It's very exciting."

"I'm sure," Maple scoffed. She wound her arm back and punched into the wall of a building. She blew straight through it with ease and didn't flinch. "Super cool." Maple checked up towards the roof a few stories above. "I bet I can make it."