Lilli grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me hard. “You can do this. Remember the hang gliders at Dragon Ops? You didn’t think you could do those, either. But you did. In fact, you helped Ikumi and me get ours under control. You’re braver than you think.”
“I don’t know about that,” I floundered.
“Look, I’m going,” Lilli said. “You can decide for yourself what’s worse. Falling forever or being eaten alive by cyborg spiders. Your choice, dude.” And with that, she dove off the cliff, leaving me alone.
Awesome. I turned back to the cliff. Sucked in a breath. Tried to remember the hang gliders. Tried to remind myself that in real life I was safe in bed. That this was just a virtual thing. No big deal. Come on, wimp. Do this!
Suddenly I heard another noise. A roar that sounded distinctly unspiderlike. I looked up to the sky, my eyes lighting on a soaring shadow high above.
A dragon-shaped shadow.
Relief flooded through me. “Yano!” I cried, waving my hands in the dragon’s direction. “Yano! I’m here! Down here! I need your help! I need—”
I broke off midsentence as the dragon swooped down below the clouds, giving me a better look at him. And what I saw? Well, it almost made me fall off the cliff right then and there.
“No…” I whispered, fear sliding down my spine. “It can’t be.”
But it was. The dragon circling above me was not our friendly guide.
It was Atreus.
There you are, tiny human, his voice whispered in my ear. I’ve been waiting for you.
Oh no.
His mouth creaked open. A stream of fire shot out, scorching the ground below. The cyborg spiders screeched in surprise and horror, scattering quickly to avoid getting burnt. The dragon dipped his snout as if ready to dive-bomb the earth.
And I dove, headfirst, into the abyss.
“Ahhh!” I screamed as I dropped like a stone, the trash mountain flying past me until it was no more. The wind rushed at my face, cold and fierce. My stomach plunged to my knees. My arms waved wildly and uselessly at my sides as I continued to fall, down, down, into the void. Going faster and faster until everything was a blur. At one point, I dared look up to see if I could still spot the shadowy dragon swimming through the air. But there was nothing. Only endless sky and space and falling.
Which was good. But also… not good. Was I glitching out? Would I fall forever?
Suddenly my eyes caught a flash of brown below, coming up fast. It took me a moment to register what it was. Ground. The pit wasn’t bottomless, after all. Which meant I was about to crash.
But weirdly, I didn’t crash. Instead, I met the ground and went right through. As if plunging into a pool of water that looks solid on top, but isn’t. But unlike water, there was nothing beneath this thin surface. Just more open space. And now I was no longer falling. I was simply floating. Like Alice going down the rabbit hole.
Wow. Just… wow.
Once I caught my breath, I looked around. I spotted my sister and Starr floating, too, not that far below me, their eyes wide with awe. And who could blame them? It was as if we’d entered another world. The sky above looked as if it was made of Minecraft blocks. Nearby a purple tree floated in midair. To my right I saw what looked like a zombie swimming through the sky. It growled at me and gnashed its teeth before floating on by.
Okay, this was really getting freaky.
Finally, we landed. Floating down to a new level of solid ground. I collapsed in relief, still breathing heavily. Wow. That was intense.
I looked around, trying to get my bearings. Which wasn’t easy, considering everything looked very odd. There were some finished parts. Patches of grass here and there. A small path winding into the distance. But much of it was unfinished. Just a purple grid stretching out in all directions. In the far back, you could see weird squiggly lines rising up. As if placeholders for future mountains or cities.
“Wow,” I said, rising to my feet. “This is crazy.”
“And completely freaky,” Lilli added, looking a little nervous as she tried to lean against a nearby tree. Instead of supporting her, the trunk gave way and she fell right through it, landing hard on the ground. Evidently the object hadn’t been fully rendered yet.
She scrambled to her feet, looking embarrassed. “Are you all right?” she asked. “I’m sorry I left you up there. I just… didn’t know what else to do.”
“It’s okay,” I said, scrubbing my face with my hands. “You did the right thing.”
My mind flashed back to the mountaintop. Atreus soaring through the sky. A feeling of dread rose inside of me, and my heart pounded in my chest. Now I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really here. Actually here, in the game, and not simply a figment of my tormented imagination. His fire had scorched the ground. The spiders had scattered in terror. If he had been a hallucination, that wouldn’t have happened.
Do you want to play again?
Do you want to play again?
“Lilli,” I started to say. “There’s something I need to tell you—”
But a loud noise suddenly interrupted my words. Looking out, I was shocked to see that the squiggly lines in the distance were beginning to straighten. A moment later, they burst into color, morphing into green mountains with gray craggy peaks, sprouting as if they were giant, fast-growing flowers.
“Whoa,” Lilli whispered. “Are you seeing this?”
But I had already turned to my right, where large gray squares were springing up in the ground everywhere. They started out flat, then began to stretch before my eyes, taller and taller until they became buildings. Skyscrapers. Windows poking through their facades. Doors rising. Balconies popping into place. At first they looked like cartoon sketches. But they quickly filled in with
