Without hesitation, my eyes scan the ground. There’s a sewer grate… but that doesn’t feel right. No. I feel my hair stand on end, I feel the tingling burn against my skin. Something is wrong. I look at my own shadow.

  It twitches. Something shifts, and the soles of my feet prickle.

  I jump back. My shadow stabs upwards in a bed of spikes. The landing is rough, making me stumble, but Inu catches me. “Thanks.”

  “What the hell is that?!” her dad, Norman, yells.

  The speck of darkness is still there, nails slowly sinking into the ground again. It’s just a splotch, like someone spilled a bunch of ink on the floor. Well, not quite, it wasn’t that dark. More like an invisible umbrella hanging in the air, darkening a bit of rubble.

  Slowly, it shifts. Then vanishes. It doesn’t sink into the cracks in the ground, just vanishes from my sight. Gone, entirely.

  A pinprick sensation rises from my side, and I instantly cast [Suppression] at it, throwing a knife. It hisses through the air, harmlessly clattering to the ground.There is a cut on me, a shallow one, but it’s filled with a creeping darkness.

  I [Select] it, keeping it in view, as it seeps underneath my skin. A tiny, inky block of darkness, sitting just next to my ribcage.

  It hurts. It hurts like all hell, like someone pouring molten metal into my insides as it burrows and writhes. It hurts enough to make my eyes tear up and I grit my teeth. I [Suppress] it. My mind wraps around the dark thing, the piece of shadow, and clamps down on it.

  Mercilessly, brutally, I target it with all I have. I don’t care what it is, I don’t care what it will do, I simply force it to cease. Each action of it becomes sluggish, terribly slow, and near impossible.

  A shiver runs down my spine. It hasn’t stopped. Tendrils of darkness lurk beneath my skin, burying through me. But it has slowed, and that is the best I can do now. All I need to do is maintain it like this. [Suppress] it. [Suppress] my pain and function, as always.

  I take a deep breath. “Snow, you okay?” Inu asks. My friend. Always so caring.

  “Yeah,” I lie. I know it’s a lie, and I’m almost sure Inu will see through it. Why did I lie? Honesty felt so difficult, sometimes. It just slipped out, before I even knew it.

  Her eyes narrow, ever so slightly. She’s caught on, already. I keep my face neutral, placid, as it always is. “Okay,” she says.

  “I’m just glad it’s gone,” Inu’s mother - Jess, as I’ve learnt - says.

  “Yeah,” I reply. I’m sure it’s following us. “I’m glad, too. Come on, let’s continue.”

  My first step is agony. I focus. Breathe. Lock down my mind.

  [Suppression 2 > 3]

  The pain ebbs, and I breathe. One step after another, even as the darkness digs its way through my flesh. Trying to not notice the way it writhes underneath my skin.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Let’s go get Thatch.”

  - - -

  More goblins attack us, and I help the others kill them. It doesn’t take too long to get Norman and Jess to level one.

  They’ve finally started using their skills, too. Inu’s dad is good at stopping attacks, especially on others. [Protection] manifests as him casting barriers, and [Unassuming] makes him harder to notice. Jess, on the other hand, displays more violent tendencies.

  [Freeze] lets her target enemies directly, throwing icy bolts at their legs. I tell her to butcher them with [Dissect], studying their muscles to see if they have weaknesses.

  I’m a little curious if they’re edible, but refrain from giving it a try. Not that desperate yet. Instead, I chew on a granola bar from the ranger store as we walk. We don’t stop, even as we grow exhausted. Higher heart scores help ease the fatigue, but it still builds.

  My vessel feels strained. I barely have any mana left inside me. Still, I need to [Suppress] it. I’m infected. Like in a crappy zombie flick or something. It hurts like hell, and I scrape the bottom of the barrel, each grain of mana left within me, to keep the skill active, to slow down the burrowing.

  It’s scraping against my bones. Eating my ribs.

  Are monsters like this supposed to drop so early? How terrifying.

  - - -

  We arrive at Thatch’s house. He lives with his mom. His dad abandoned them when he came out as trans. Some of the windows on the apartment building are broken, but I ring the doorbell anyway.

  Silence.

  I ring it again, then for a third time, before someone picks up. “Who’s this?”

  The shaky voice on the other side makes me smile, ever so faintly. “Hey Thatch,” I greet my friend. “It’s Snow. Open up?”

  “Ah, yeah!” His tone shifts, now sounding excited. “Yes. Come in.”

  With a buzz, the latch on the door releases and I open it.

  The first step on the staircase is the worst. Agony spreads through my side. I grit my teeth, setting my jaw. My eyes go glassy for a moment, but I walk onwards. Thatch lives on the third floor. I need to get to him. I need to.

  Inu places a hand on my back, steadying me, making it a little easier to walk. She doesn’t say anything. No accusations, no callouts. I just walk, and she steadies me.

  A girl with a hole in her shoulder helps me up the stairs. Eventually, we make it to the third floor. I knock.

  Thatch opens the door. He’s taller than me, too, just a bit. Blonde hair, curly and cut short, framing his face. His eyes are… emerald? They didn’t used to be. I tilt my head. “Thatch?”

  “Yeah!” He says, then pulls me into a hug. Miserable pain explodes from my side at the pressure, the creature of ink squirming under my skin. I focus on it, on my tether to it, on keeping it quiet.

  [Selection 1 > 2]

  It’s worth it. I hug Thatch back.

  “Good to see you,” I tell him. “Your eyes are green.”

  “Ah! Yeah, my mom said so. It’s a side effect, we think. One of my skills,” he explains.

  I nod. Thatch had been into games the most out of all of us. “Which do you have?”

  “Just two,” he says. “[Piercing Gaze] and [Rage].”

  At that, I blink. “Rage?” I ask.

  He turns a little red, blushing. “Ah, well,” he scratches the back of his head. “I can get a little angry. Sometimes.”

  Inu gives him a smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t sweat it. Come on. Let’s talk.”

  I hold out a hand. “No,” I say. “We talk on the road. Opal and Sylves next.”

  At that, everyone gives me a look. Norman scoffs. Thatch takes a long moment, staring at me. His eyes dart to my side, but he ends up nodding. “Okay,” he says. “Let me fetch my mom, and we can go.”

  Jess seems afraid to go back out, but it’s necessary. I need to find my friends. I need to. I need to.

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Thatch’s mom says.

  I stare at her. This might be a problem.