"Have you ever heard of a deceptor?" She asked, watching him closely. His eye popped open again, shifting to a crimson red, not going back in. Valeria waved her hand in front of her face, "Alister?"
His mouth opened, but what spoke wasn't his voice.
Val, King of Arizona. Please tap the screen of your watch and locate the EJECT selection under your settings.
The voice was female. Not American; or English like Alister's. It was slow, yet direct, possibly Middle Eastern.
"Teresa," Valeria mumbled as she tapped her screen. She scrolled to find her settings and found the red EJECT button at the bottom, just above DEACTIVATE.
She selected EJECT.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Waking up from a deceptor was different from a time limit. Like the difference in the taste in your mouth when waking from a nap versus a deep sleep. Her mouth was dry, her eyes felt bloodshot and she felt an urge in her body to keep going under; like a high she couldn't escape.
Carefully removing the needle from her arm, she placed it on the comforter of the bed and quickly made her way to the kitchen to drink a cup of water. It was still daylight out, which was a good sign. The light streamed through the blinds of the windows, gracing its presence along the couch cushions and wall decor. She worried about the time difference, it'd only been about forty-two minutes in Sweven.
"Forty-two times twelve," she did the math in her head, writing the multiplication mid-air with her finger. "Five-oh-four divided by sixty ... three minutes, thirty seconds."
She checked the digital clock on the oven, reading 11:23 AM. Her cell phone began to ring and she reached for her phone in her back pocket; an unknown number from California.
Valeria unlocked the screen and held the phone up to her ear, "Valeria?" It was a women's voice.
Her body froze, "Yes?"
The voice sighed in relief, "Oh, good, okay. I was hoping it was you. This is Tessa — Teresa. I came to your job — "
"Oh, yes! Hi, how are you doing?" Valeria stammered.
"I'm doing well, how about yourself?"
Valeria leaned her elbow onto the counter, "I, uh, just got out of Sweven."
"Good, so that was you who is trying to get to the Grove?" Teresa asked. "I got a notification on my phone saying someone was trying to gain access."
"Yeah, that was me. Alister said it's off-grid?"
"Yes, so I create the island for me when I still was CEO but now I share it with players who are unable to leave," she explained. "The only way to get there is by boat. You can find one at Castlevania, it's forty-one degrees east of — actually, I can link it to you. I'm about to go under anyways; I haven't gone yet today."
"Are you sure? I mean, I can find it, no problem."
"No, it's fine," she insisted. "The boats — they're more like um, like a dingy, they have an automatic route to shore so all you have to do is sit. It's a twenty minute ride to the island."
"Yeah, the thing is I lost Gabriel and my friend — the White Rabbit wasn't helpful at all, we went through a portal — "
"Wait, you what?"
Valeria paused, "Alister gave me a portal gun. Was I not supposed to take it?"
"Shit," she said to herself.
"Why, what's wrong?"
"That was meant for Eldervair — never trust a bot to do a woman's work, Val. Believe me."
"What's the problem?"
Teresa sighed, "Colonel Stone designed that portal gun to expand the travel time. He's an ally of your sister's and mine, we were trying to get him a higher ranking."
"What are you trying to say?"
"You were in that portal for twelve days in the game," Teresa sighed.
Valeria blinked, "I've under for a whole day?"
Teresa paused, "Yes — "
"How much time did we lose?" Valeria put the call on speaker, so she could pace back and forth. Her heartbeat quickened and she felt the heat rise underneath her armpits and around the nape of her neck.
"Val, are you okay?" She heard Teresa.
From her peripheral, she caught a glimpse of a slim, pale, young woman with blonde and blue hair standing in the corner of the room. Valeria could feel the shakes coming and she ran back into the bedroom, locking the door behind her. She got onto the bed and hid under the covers, keeping her phone with her.
Steadying her breathing, she lower the volume.
"Can you meet me at the boats?" She asked.
"Yeah, yes," Teresa stammered. Valeria could tell she knew she was having an attack. "We can go under together, okay?"
Valeria nodded, grabbing the IV and hovering it over the inside of her elbow, "Thirty seconds?"
"Thirty seconds," she agreed.
Watching the time of the call increase, Valeria kept track of the time and ended the call with four seconds remaining. She inhaled a deep breath and inserted the IV back into the same vein.
