00: When Night Fell

   𝕀𝕋 𝕎𝔸𝕊 𝕊𝔸𝔽𝔼 𝕋𝕆 𝕊𝔸𝕐 𝕋ℍ𝔸𝕋 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕊𝕄𝔸𝕃𝕃 𝕋𝕆𝕎ℕ 𝕆𝔽 ℝ𝔸𝕍𝔼ℕ'𝕊 ℍ𝕀𝕃𝕃 𝕎𝔸𝕊 ℕ𝕆𝕋 ℕ𝕆ℝ𝕄𝔸𝕃, thank you very much. There was an unordinary amount of mist or rain for being in the north eastern United States and the ocean never went above forty-six degrees exactly.

   People called it a godless place, but, then again, those people also hated the cold.

   (Perhaps those were not the best people to go by then; however, they spoke more of the town than others did.)

   Nevertheless, something otherworldly about the town drew you in and almost convinces people to stay no matter how dense the fog around the town tended to be.

   Holly Thompson looked out her window across the way to her best friend. He grinned at her mischievously and held up his hand with three fingers in view. "Three minutes and then I'll be on, Holly Berry." Eyes rolled overdramatically at the old nickname. The young boy scoffed at his best friend. "Honestly, you were the one who said she liked it."

   "When I was five!" The girl exclaimed as they mirrored each other with similarly raised eyebrows.

   "God forbid I find a cute nickname for 'Miss Witch'," he shouted back with sarcasm.

   "You better hope I don't have the supernatural forces smite you for that!"

   "Tell Junior I say hi while you're at it!"

   "Dylan, I swear to god I'll kill you and steal all of your EXP!"

   "That's not how games work, Holly Berry!"

   A feral growl came from Holly's throat and Dylan choked back a laugh. Before she could volley back a response, someone from below exclaimed that they needed to shut the hell up or both sets of parents would be spoken too. The two glanced at one another with a scheming gleam as obsidian eyes met forest green ones. The sun set, probably giving an exasperated sigh if it could, as the antics of two teenagers led to their common enemy of the night being doused in flour and water.

   Cackling could be heard from the two windows in the two identical cul-de-sac houses, Holly grinned to Dylan and gave him a wink. Dylan nodded and closed his window as his best friend did the same.

   Raven's Hill knew the notorious reign of the duo of Holly Thompson and Dylan Lee for about eleven years now. Friends until the end, they met at the young age of five. The story itself felt quite cliché to Holly.

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   Holly skipped about the cul-de-sac alongside her Doberman puppy during their late afternoon walk. The sky painted itself in a fancy array of pale oranges and flowery pinks. "Pretty," she breathed as her dark green eyes widened at the most colorful sunset she's ever seen. Her Doberman named Brownie barked happily in reply.

   Holly and Brownie made their way back towards the end of the cul-de-sac, where a two-story greyish white house that overshadowed a small girl and her puppy waited with warm fires and hot cocoa. As the two walked on the sidewalk, a young boy climbed a tree in front of his new home.

   His shaggy black hair covered his eyes, but he felt he could see just fine. The tree was too short for uniformity purposes, by three-and-a-half feet, but it was larger than it should have been by the standards of Japanese maple trees. When he climbed to the top, in what his mom called his "Sunday best" (nothing less as his Baba came over for dinner), the boy wobbled once then twice then three times. Next thing he knew, he lost his balance completely and fell onto the lawn with a loud thud.

   Holly heard this then her head spun around. She ran as fast as her little legs could take her and slowed down as she saw him just laying there with his eyes squinting. Her hair, as vibrant red as holly, fell in front of her face and the boy felt his eyes widen in surprise.

   The sun lit her hair ablaze as it died into the west and he smiled. It reminded him of the flag his Baba gave him. All white with a red circle in the middle to represent the rising sun. "Are you okay?" Holly asked as she kept Brownie from trying to attack him with doggie kisses.

   "Yeah, nothing hurts," the boy replied as he lifted himself up into a sitting position.

   "You sure? I could take you to my mama, she's great with making pain go away!"

   "It's okay. Baba says that a true warriors are proud of bruises. Maybe I'll get one and be like my Jiji!" His grin brightened the slowly darkening sky and Holly couldn't help but giggle.

   "Okay!" She replied sharing his grin. Holding out her hand in an instant, the five-year-old girl gives him a semi-serious look. "I'm Holly Thompson. I live in the house right there," the young girl pointed to the house next to his. The boy's eyes followed the invisible line she kept drawing between where they stood and the greyish white house next to his.

   Taking her hand, he pointed to himself. "I'm Dylan Lee. I live in the house right behind us. I'm new!" Her grin widened at the thought of having this boy she just met as her neighbor. Finally, someone her age lived on the street!

   From there things sort of flowed. Within the first week of knowing her, Dylan dubbed her "Holly Berry" and she enjoyed the nickname up until freshman year of high school. The two learned how to annoy people from Holly's older brother "Junior", who stopped them at every turn from learning why he was called "Junior".

   They were inseparable, always had been.

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   So, on the particular night where the two were locked into their own rooms playing an online together, something went awry in a way that could only be explained as fantastical. Hours and hours were spent playing in friendly competitions with one another in the game known as Yggdrasil's Awakening.

   They finally called it a night around three in the morning. Quickly changing and calling one another to say goodnight.

   No one saw the computer turn on or the game boot up.

   No one saw the forces that were controlling it as an update started loading.

   No one would know how they would wake up in the morning in a world they both did and did not know.