When Love Lasts: A Sapphic Short Story Collection

⚡️ The Lightning Mage: The Game, Part V

July 09, 2022

Word Count: 2,048

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After a moment of shocked silence, everyone lets out a relieved exclamation.

"Wei! Oh my god!"

"You're here too!"

"We missed you! How have you been?"

"Why are you also here? And why are you not a character?"

Wei's glare softens as the realization dawns on her. "Wait... there's so many of y'all. Who are you?"

There we go again, the introductions need to be repeated every time. "I'm Nia," I say with a raised hand before pointing around. "This is Gabby, Ayah, Kitty, Lorraine, and Benji. Oh, and this rat here is Seth."

"Hey, Wei!" squeals Seth.

Wei's face contorts into a disgusted scowl.

"Why are you all here?" she asks, shaking her head. "I thought you wanted to try the couple's version of the game with Kitty, Nia? How many people did you end up inviting to play?"

Kitty casts me a curious glance. "Couple's version?"

Not wanting to dwell on that, I quickly add, "Yeah, we didn't end up playing that. We did the multi-player version instead." Unfortunately.

"Yeah, I can see that," Wei grumbles. She lowers her head and pinches her nose bridge. "No wonder y'all are ruining the plan..."

I frown. "What plan?"

"Nothing, nothing." Wei lifts her head again to show a forced smile. "Well, good to know now, and I can adjust some stuff for y'all later on. How are y'all enjoying this game, by the way?"

"Uh, it's alright, I guess. But we have a huge problem. There's no log-out button. You might want to fix that."

"Ah," is the unexpected response from her. Actually, a lot of her responses are unexpected and... strangely sinister.

"Yeah, it might be a bug or something," Gabby chimes in. "But it should be an easy fix. For now, can you help us log out?"

"Oh yeah, I want to go back now," Ayah agrees. "I want to finish the pizza."

"You want pizza?" Lorraine asks. "You should have told me, girl, I can conjure some for you."

"Real ones. I want real pizza."

"And I want to get out of this stupid body!" Seth screams, brandishing his blackened tail that must have caught fire again during the battle.

"I also want my sexy body back," Benji says. "This body is sexy too but I miss my chocolatey abs goodness."

"Ew, Benji."

As my friends tease one another, my eyes fix on Wei. No matter what everyone is saying, the expression on her face remains the same—cold, detached, deep in thought. Dread knots in my gut. Something is seriously off with Wei.

The banters soon evolve into chatters and laughter, but Wei is still furrowing her brows and chewing the inside of her cheeks. Finally, she says, "I can't let you out."

An uncomfortable silence fills the empty room.

"What? Why?" Gabby asks.

"I just can't. Not yet, at least."

My frown deepens. "What do you mean by that, Wei?"

"I mean, I need y'all in here."

"What? Why?" I demand.