“What are they doing to me?”

  “Do you want to get into that tonight? I am game if you are.”

  My head felt heavy and my eyes gritty. I had been awake for days at this point. Even if she told me tonight she would likely have to tell me again tomorrow.

  “No, I think the morning would be best. I don’t think I could comprehend if anything is complicated.”

  She smiled. “Some of it is a bit convoluted. Morning over breakfast then?”

  I nodded. She finished her tea and left Dekka and I to dry off and head to bed. My brain was muzzly going in circles as I buttered a thick slice of bread. I glanced over to the fire and saw a little nose poking out of the burrito watching me. I cut a sausage up into terrier bite-sized pieces and pulled a chair up beside her. I ate my bread and fed her the sausage and let the fire warm me. The firelight danced across the room as the flames never died down. There was the occasional pop and crack. If only the game was this.

  I caught myself falling asleep on the chair and with a huge sigh of effort stood up. Dekka wriggled out of the towel and I spread it out on the back of the chair and we went up to find a bed to fall into.

  I awoke the next morning to bright sunshine streaming into my room, but not my face. The reason was a small terrier sitting on my chest waiting for me to open my eyes.

  “Morning Dekka.”

  She wagged her tail.

  “I suppose you are hungry?”

  That elicited some excited licking of my face. She is excellent at dodging hands and getting her tongue all over. I think she enjoys it the more the human protests. She did her signature trick and got her tongue up a nostril. And then bounced off the bed to avoid my inevitable flailing. Terrier tongue up the nose is a particular sensation I wouldn’t wish on others.

  All I was wearing was the towel from last night. I had to think for a moment about where my clothes were. Right, I had left them in the bathroom. I wrapped the towel around me and went to the bathroom. No clothes. I was sure I had just left them in a heap by the tub.

  After freshening up I went to go find Saoirse and my pants.

  The kitchen was devoid of life but my clothes were folded over a chair. A door I hadn’t noticed last night beside the hearth was open. Dekka went trotting out to do her business and I heard the Ranger greet her. I quickly donned my now exceptionally clean garments, planning to go outside and see what she was up to. However she came in with a small basket overflowing with fruit and vegetables.

  “Good morning. I thought I would let you sleep. Are you hungry?” She asked and Dekka hopped up on a chair at the kitchen table and wagged her tail affirmatively. Saoirse laughed at my dog and patted her on the head after putting down the basket.

  “I am starving, can I help you make a meal?”

  “You could peel some of the veggies? I was going to start a stew for tonight.”

  “Sure.” She pulled out some carrots, some sort of green-bean-looking vegetables, except they were quite large, some onions and celery. She put a bucket of water, a little scrub brush, a knife and a cutting board on the table in front of me. Taking a seat, I reached for the scrub brush. “Um. How did my clothes get so clean overnight?” I plopped a carrot in the water and began scrubbing it.

  “I have a potion for that.” Saoirse put the kettle on and began rummaging around the cupboards. “Not that I normally would have picked up after someone. But you were exhausted last night.” She found what she was looking for, a large soup pot.

  “Sorry about that. I don’t normally hang my clothes on the floor. Even if they are dirty.” I started on the next carrot attacking it with the brush.

  “Good to hear. Don’t make a habit of it. But if they get that filthy again let me know and I can show you how to use the potion and you can do it yourself.”

  “Thank you. That would be amazing.” I sniffed my shirt. It didn’t smell of me at all! “This is the cleanest they have been since I got them.” Most of the time I just rinsed them in a river or at best a tub. Hand soap wasn’t the best at washing whole garments, though it would get out the odd stain.

  After cleaning the veggies I chopped them up. Saoirse filled the pot with water, then rummaged some more till she found some salt and dried spices. Dekka put her chin on the table and let out a soft howl of desperate hunger. My stomach rumbled along with it.

  The ranger went over to the fire and put the pot on a rack over the fire. She then took a couple of eggs and, cracking them on a skillet, she added them. “Don’t fret, Dekka. Just waiting for the water to boil for tea. The eggs won’t take long. Dekka responded with sad, terrier eyes.

  The veggies added to the pot and the table cleared, we were ready to eat and talk. Dekka got three eggs. I ate three as well but also had a wedge of cheese, a couple of slices of bread and strong tea with milk.

  “Have you met that GM?” Saoirse started without any preamble.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “As much as you can meet someone who can’t see you.”

  She tilted her head and looked at me. “How did that work? Neil- I mean Rose mentioned that.”

  “Basically it was like I was completely invisible. At the world event, all the players could see me, but the GM couldn’t. I also met them on the road and I tried to touch them and they seemed confused but couldn’t see or hear me.” I shrugged. I thought it had been really weird.

  “Huh. Well, anyway. The GM, who’s name is Aeven—”

  I nodded; I think I had known that.

  “— they had indeed been very confused by your existence. They had taken the incident with you at the World Event to their bosses and were told to just ignore it. That someone else was on it. This didn’t sit right with them. I mean who would leave that alone? A person stuck in the game, but never mind, nothing to see here?” She shook her head in disbelief of Aeven’s managers. “Anyway it bothered them so they reached out to Niel/Rose at his personal email.”

  “Yeah I knew that. Rose shared that email with me. Also you calling Rose Neil is weird.”

  “That isn’t the only correspondence they had. And yeah, it’s weird for me too. I have known him as Neil for most of my life but to you she is Rose. I will try to stick to Rose. But.. Rose.. and Aeven emailed back and forth about your situation. The GM was very concerned the more they heard. You shouldn’t be possible. We still don’t know why you are stuck.”

  “I thought that was a given.”

  Saoirse seemed very uncomfortable and looked away. “It’s even weirder than you can imagine.” She looked back at me, right in my eyes. The look on her face made my stomach drop and my blood freeze in my veins.

  “What is it?”

  “Please don’t freak out.” Her voice had a slight pleading tone.

  “Um, no promises. You are freaking me out right now.”

  “Fair. Fair,” she ran her hand over her scalp. “Ok out with it. You shouldn’t even be in here as you are also out there. Right now.”

  I was stunned. Was she saying what she thought she was saying? The ranger kept staring at me with her piercing eyes waiting for my response. But how did one respond to that? Maybe I had misunderstood her? “What?”

  “You are in the outside world too. Aeven tracked you down — the real you,” she thought better of that phrasing, “I mean the flesh and blood you — outside of the game. You are living with your parents and thus were a bit hard to track down.”

  That made a kind of sense. It would be hard to find a random daughter living on her Amish parents' farm. My mind didn’t want to focus. I thought of my parents. I thought of the farm and the memories of growing up. The good and the bad. And why I had left to go to school in Toronto. Why would I have gone back to the farm?

  “We don’t know how you exist in both places. We haven’t tried contacting you — the outside you — about the you in here because we don’t think you know about this you.” She gestured to me sitting in the chair.

  “Wait,” I said, trying to stave off mind-shattering panic. This was confusing and terrifying.

  She paused.

  “You are telling me I don’t have a body to return to? I am also using my body… this version of me is only virtual?” my voice went up as the sentence progressed. I was trapped in here. Forever. I had no way out. My breath began to come faster and faster, and I couldn’t slow it down. If Dekka was here then I could be here. Dekka was dead. But Dekka was on a chair beside me. At least I wasn’t dead. I might as well be dead. How dare I be using my body? ...Our body? Did Dekka know she wasn’t real? Why couldn’t I be a hellhound! I was here forever. What if the game died? What if they turned the server off? Do electrons go to heaven?

  My breathing was ragged and I was starting to get dizzy. Maybe they were wrong? Maybe there was another girl living at my parents' farm? No, Rose would be sure before she does this to me. Wouldn’t she? He? My head was swimming in thoughts and emotions.

  “Hey, hey! Elizabeth,” Saoirse’s voice cut through my panic, though it sounded like it came from the far end of a tunnel. Oddly distorted.

  “What?” I asked dazedly.

  “Breathe with me,” she said and then started to inhale. “In, two, three, four,” then she exhaled, “out to three four.” We did that for a bit till my head wasn’t swimming.

  “Well, that is stupid,” was the first thing I said when I calmed down. “That I can hyperventilate when I am electronic.” I noticed Dekka was now on my lap and I was petting her.

  “Stupid or not, that had to be one hell of a shock.” She said as she sat back down. “Tea?”

  “Hell yes.” The hot familiar liquid would be something mundane to focus on.

  She poured us both a fresh cup. “When Rose found you at your parent’s farm Aeven realized that you — this you — were truly trapped here. At first, they thought it was a glitch: that the… physical you must have logged into the game, and when they logged out, a version of you somehow kept playing. But Rose said that didn’t make sense. And explained that you were more than an echo. That you were a person.”

  “Wait. This might seem trival. But did Rose go to my family’s farm? Like how does she know I am actually there.”

  “No, Neil, and I, live in Germany, but he sent you, physical you, a physical letter posing as someone from Universit?t Hamburg, which is a German university, and included a self addressed stamped envelope for her to reply. And you did. She did.”

  “Ok next question. What’s an echo?”

  “That happens sometimes in these immersive VR games. Though not so much anymore. Basically it happens when someone logs out but the avatar persists. It usually only can do basic repetative actions. Like a very simple NPC. Aeven took a bit of convincing you weren’t one of those. But once they were they were even more adamant that something was up. They again took it to their managers. Rose told me that they brought it up at a large meeting that had some of the more upper level members of the team at it.

  “This caused a problem. The senior staff kicked everyone but Aeven and their direct managers out. They were grilled and then had to wait in their office for hours. Then they were pulled in and told they were off Infinity Tale."

  “Well Fuck nuggets.”

  “Indeed,” she agreed. “Aeven still works for FunCore but has been put on a game that is early in development and not considered important. They have been told if they speak about this it will violate their non disclosure agreement."

  “Clearly they aren’t too worried about that.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about people taking risks for me. Especially if I wasn’t even real.

  “Elizabeth,” the ranger said with grave seriousness, “what is happening to you should not be possible. There are other weird things going on.”

  “Like what?” my voice might have been a bit petulant. Me being alive out there had to be the biggest of the weird things and I felt that she was belittling this recent traumatic revelation.

  She was about to open her mouth when a snail that must have come in earlier with the veggies slowly made its way up over the lip of the wooden table. All three of us paused to look at it as it slimed its way leisurely towards the centre of the table.. I have no idea where it had been going but all of a sudden its eye stalks quivered and then pointed at me. The thing did a sharp turn and started slowly, but with the impression of urgency, to come at me.

  I stood up sharply and backed away. Dekka growled.

  “Not that this was one I was going to mention, but that is certainly a weird thing. Saoirse said as she watched the snail moving with a creepy amount of determination.

  Also big apology to the patreons who are not getting much in the way of backlog. I am not sad if you unsub (well I am but I do not blame you one iota). I will get a bunch up in the next few weeks. I have a bunch of really rough drafts I need to get to.