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It all happened so fast.
The mace had found them and slaughtered every single member of Evbo’s family. Gone. Just like that.
Right?
That’s what Tabi thought, right before she heard the cold, hard mace slam into her skull and darkness surrounded her vision. She had died.
Which is exactly why the fear and confusion set in as soon as she heard Clownpierce's low, intimidating voice surround her.
“You won’t progress any further today if you sleep in so late. I thought you wanted to train?”
Tabi blinked her eyes open. Clownpierce semi-analyzed, semi-cleaned Tabi’s disordered room. Stolen items from other players littered the floor, creating a desired path in the middle of her makeshift kitchen towards her bed where Clownpierce paced back and forth, hands behind his back, hiding his axe. A pair of boots three sizes too big, a cotton dress, stained with the blood of the woman who wore it, and a pair of binoculars had been neatly tidied in the corner.
“What?”
“I thought we could go over stealth attacks today.”
Tabi held up her weapon to her face. Silver metal stared back at her, the familiar sleek-diamond sword felt like a dream miles away from her mind.
“Holy shit…I just had the weirdest dream.” Tabi rubbed her face, scraping sleep away from the corner of her eyes. She swung her arm down and plopped her weapon beside her. Fighting the urge to go back to bed and hope the fogginess in her brain goes away.
“I’ll be ready in ten.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time Tabi had reached the training arena, she had mostly forgotten about the vague memories of a mace slamming down on her and the face of someone she loved so dearly turn so horrified. It had reminded her of the day she had been attacked. Something she swore to herself she would never cry over again, because it was over.
She was here with Clown.
She was here to train.
By noon, Clownpierce and Tabi had turned red, sweat dripping from their scalps. Or, at least Tabi assumed he was sweating. With the mask you could never tell.
Maybe it was just her.
“Okay, now, when you come at me this time, remember to jump two feet away, not five.”
“I get it!”
“Do you? ‘Cause you keep doing it!”
Tabi rolled her eyes.
“Alright! Start..Now!”
Tabi crouched down, stalking Clown from the other side of the arena. Even though her eyes were locked on her opponent, her mind wandered back to earlier. The dream she had felt too real to ignore, and ever since, the real world had filled her with a sense of uneasiness. Something was different, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Even when she pushed the thought away, Tabi kept hearing the banging of the mace in her mind.
“Tabi?”
Clownpierce was now inches away from Tabi’s face.
“You forgot to jump.”
Tabi looked away and shrugged. “I got distracted, sorry.”
Clownpierce sighed and shook his head “We’ll try it again, go back to the starting point.”
“Two feet!” Clown yelled from across the arena.
Tabi rolled her eyes.
Once again, Tabi crouched down, keeping her eyes glued to Clownpierce.
BANG!
The loud, nauseating noise filled her mind again. Faces of people she never met gave her feelings she’d never experienced before, overwhelming her senses and making her eyes water. Tabi pushed forward anyways, jumping—
“Five feet, again!” Clown crossed his arms, pinching the bridge of his mask's nose. Tabi groaned in annoyance.
Tabi rolled her eyes.
Again, Tabi crouched down, looming towards Clown.
BANG!
She thought about the sound again and was suddenly less than a foot in front of Clownpierce, again.
Clownpierce let out a long sigh. “What’s wrong? You seem distracted.” He walked closer towards Tabi, turning his head
Tabi stood up, rubbing her legs trying to get the blood flowing again. “Things just feel off today.” Tabi shrugged.
“Off? Like what?” Clownpierce asked.
“Like something will go wrong, or already has.” Tabi questioned her own words. She knew something wasn’t right. Clownpierce slung his arm around Tabi’s shoulder “Let’s get some food.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surprisingly enough, there are a bunch of options for food on the iron axe layer. Not for cheap, obviously, but Clownpierce always pays, anyway. Today, Clownpierce had settled for some sort of bird meat with some sort of expensive artisanal bread loaf. Sourdough, Tabi figured. On the flip side, Tabi had gotten chicken breast with a plain barley bread. Tabi had knocked the bread after buying it, and it gave the same sort of sound that a wooden door would. Not the most pleasing thing, but she made do.
Tabi practically collapsed onto bed after returning to her room. While she was contemplating life itself, Clownpierce graciously assigned himself to cook the meat. Tabi still remembered the first time Clownpierce had tried teaching her how to cook. It was almost as hard as training her to fight. She still remembered what Clown had said after their first sparring.
“How’d I do?”
“We’ll…We’ll work on it. Your mind is stubborn, Tabi. It only remembers what it wants to. But, the things you do end up remembering—well, they never go away.”
Recalling such a memory filled Tabi with the same type of dread as before. Something was still definitely wrong.
“The food is done!”
Tabi’s head shot up like a sleeper agent being activated. She sat down on the makeshift living room floor and swiped the food from Clown. He sat down next to her and lifted his mask just enough to see his mouth. The only sounds breaking the deafening silence being the crunch of unwanted bones and the chew of rubbery meat.
“I think it’s because of that dream I had.” Tabi admitted.
“What dream?”
“The one I was talking about this morning. I don’t know if I actually told you what happened.”
“...”
Silence filled the room once more.
“This meat is quite stringy today, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know?”
“...Hm. Maybe yours is different.”
“Why don’t you care?”
“About what?”
“My dream! I think it’s the reason I feel weird today!”
“You think so?”
“I know it is!”
“Why not just say it like that, then?”
“That’s not the point!” Tabi stood up, knocking her plate face-down onto the sticky tiles. “I had this dream that some weird shit happened to me and I became a diamond sword and then I died and it felt so real! It felt too real.”
Clownpierce paused for a moment, then continued eating.
“Well how should I know what to do about that? I’m dead.”
Tabi’s heart sunk into her chest.
“Wh..What?”
“I died a long while ago, remember? Must’ve been a year or two ago.” Clown took another bite of his bird-meat.
Tabi’s face twisted into a display of confusion and sadness
“But..you..”
“I sacrificed myself, Tabi. I can’t help you.” Clownpierce stated again.
And suddenly all the memories came flooding back.
“You’re not actually here, are you.” Tabi slowly sat back down next to Clown, turning towards him. All he gave was a sullen shake of the head.
“You need to go back home, to the real world, Tabi.”
Before he could respond again, Tabi’s eyes welled up with tears, she spat towards him.
“I can’t go back.” Tabi pleaded.
“Why not?”
“I can’t go through the pain of losing you again.” She cried.
“Theres people who are alive that need you to survive.”
“I know.”
“Evbo needs you, Tabi.” Clownpierce placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I just wish you were still here.”
“...”
“I know.”