Chapter 1

August 9th, 2024, Texas 9:30 pm

Spoolberg City. Population: 700~

Scotty watched as the smash burger patty sizzled on the black stove-top, caramelized onions sitting on top of the meat. It popped as the low quality burger cooked. A piece of cheap "American" cheese slowly melting on top. He hated that cheese. He hated that a cheese so bad was called "American". He hated his ugly brown shirt he had to wear with his stain covered pants. And he hated this job. He had been in this restaurant for a while now, back when it was good, but now he didn't see the reason why he stayed.

Ever since the old owners had sold it, the business had gone downhill. There were no more regulars at Buck's Burgers anymore, just the occasional traveler too hungry to wait till the next town. First to go had been the little things, the niceties that made work just a little easier. Provided morning donuts, coffee, and other such things. Next was the food quality. Cheddar cheese and lettuce turned to cheese wax and paper. Then benefits got cut as sales began to fall. Then the paychecks got smaller and smaller.

All this had happened in the span of just a few years. When the original owners were still in charge, he had applied as a freshman in high school, looking to earn some extra money. the work hadn't been anything special, but his bosses at the time had been great people. They'd been smart and fun to work with, but they were an elderly couple. "A damn shame.", he thought. The burger popped again and a drop of hot grease landed on his cheek. "Augh!", he shouted, turning his head away from the grill to wipe his face with his shirt. He stepped back from the counter and took his hat off, taking his hair net with it. "God dammit." He muttered under his breath. The new burgers were a lot more greasy than the old ones. He sighed, put his hat back on, tucked his red-brown hair in, and got back to work.

As he did, he heard a sound coming from the freezer as the door opened.

Jackie, his coworker, walked out with a box of fries in her arms. She closed the door with her foot and called out to him. "You alright Scotty?" As he turned towards her, he could see that the box was almost as big as she was. "Yeah I'm fine", he called back, "just got splashed a bit, ya know." He put the spatula down and walked over to help her. Jackie was here long before Scotty, back when the original owners were around. She could barely see over the top as he took the box from her. "You know you're gonna hurt your back this way Jackie", he said as he set the box down on a stool they had in the back for when business was slow. And for when Karen wasn't around. "If you want to take over the grill, I can take this for ya.", he said. He pointed over his shoulder toward the kitchen. "Thanks Scotty.", she said as she walked off.

He opened the box and began pulling out bags of fries to thaw before going into the fryer. After finishing the box, he picked it back up and began walking towards the back door to dump it, when the the TV in the front of the near empty restaurant caught his attention with the news.

"Hello everyone, my name is Katie Garman, and this is Dallas Daily News. We've got a long list of topics to talk about today, but highest on our list here is the firefight between the 7th Lancer Group and a full company of low-ranked goblins that attacked just last night. The 7th Lancer's Bravo company was stationed at Checkpoint Delta of the Austin Exclusion Zone, when they came under attack from what is estimated to be a war party of at least one hundred goblin and Hobgoblin soldiers. Bravo company sustained only light causalities however, thanks to the poor coordination and weaponry of their attackers." The image on screen switched to a military checkpoint on the old Austin highway. There were soldiers in US military uniforms and Light Steel body plates manning it, though it looked a little rough now. There were bullet holes and what looked liked a mortar shell lodged in a concrete wall next to the road, with basic looking firearms and piles of smoking ash scattered over the road. Someone began clapping at that, and when Scotty looked to see who it was, he wasn't surprised. Joseph Johnson, one of his old classmates, was clapping his hands about as loudly as he could, as far as Scotty could tell. "Yeeeeaaaahhhhh!!! Fuck'em up boys!" He was cheering on with a group of other guys around the same age. Scotty could tell that they were all of Joseph's old football teammates. Joseph saw Scotty was looking towards him and gave a "What do you want", look.

Joseph and Scotty were two very different people. Always had been, always will be. They used to be classmates back in high school, but they were never friends.

Scotty was short and underweight as a kid, while Joseph had always been taller and stronger. Coupled with the fact that they had more or less been forced into every class together growing up, it shouldn't be too surprising that Joseph and him almost never got along. Even when they finally got into high school and Scotty finally put on a little weight. It wasn't until they graduated that the two could even be in the same room as one another without fighting. Life had taken them on different paths however, and it seemed to Scotty that Joseph had finally moved on from high school. They certainly didn't respect each other, that was for certain, but if Joseph didn't want to renew their little feud, then that was just peachy with him. "Fine", he thought, "Whatever man."

Ignoring Joseph's attempts at getting a rise out of him, he turned his attention back towards the screen. "Here we have an interview with the checkpoint commander, Lieutenant Christopher Jacobsen, from Bravo company's first platoon." The image switched again to a blonde soldier in his thirties wearing casual fatigues. Behind him was what looked like an improvised office.

"Lieutenant, what can you tell us about the engagement you and your men found yourself in last night." The man on screen folded his hands and, with a look of calmness that looked fake as hell to Scotty, said, "Well Katie, I want to say thank you for having me here today." The lieutenant paused, glancing at something off screen, then continued. "And I want to thank the men and women under my command for their exemplary conduct in a potentially stressful situation."

The screen changed to a blue background with both the newscaster and the lieutenant side by side. "Glad to have you lieutenant, we heard you had a bit of a surprise party over there. Something about the local pests getting uppity?" An image of the aftermath of the battle began to play. It showed a fortified military checkpoint with a heavy machine gun positioned in a tower surrounded by sandbag walls. Barbed wire fencing and concrete barriers were placed in front of the gate. The checkpoint seemed to be overlooking a large open area in front of it, all trees and other cover having been cleared away already. The image switched back to the officer and the newscaster and the lieutenant smiled and replied to the camera, "Yes, we had a bit of a scrap with another force of wanderers making it's way from the city. Likely just another raiding party for a bigger clan." The newscaster made a not-all-that convincing look of shock, and asked another question. "Lieutenant, we've heard reports of this being a rather sizable group of Monster Soldiers. Are you sure this is just another group of marauders? Could this be a scouting party for a much larger force?"

The lieutenant shook his head, aiming his confident smile directly towards the camera this time. "I'm quite sure Katie. Believe it or not, groups that size are not uncommon or that difficult to deal with. Most of the time they don't usually come out in war parties more than twenty, because of our airpower. But I guess these fellas thought they could catch us with our pants down. And they were sorely mistaken about that." The newscaster made another look of shock. "Wow lieutenant. Sounds like just another routine then, although we've been hearing reports of Orc Regulars amongst the raiding party. Care to give any comment on this?" The lieutenant chuckled and replied, "I can assure you ma'am, there were no orcs among this group. If there were, I'm sure we would have noticed when the bullets started flying. They're not the type to show up unannounced." The image changed to a scene of a military field hospital. There were quite a few beds in the tent, but only two of them were occupied by a pair of distinctly bored looking soldiers. "As you can see, we have the situation well under control. We only had two troopers wounded in that scrap and those two will be up and about again in just a few months if not weeks."

"Scotty!" He heard his name being shouted and he recognized who's voice that was.

"Shit." Of course Karen had to get off her phone when he wasn't doing something, not when when actually working, no. Why would that happen after all?

"Are you doing something right now?" Karen walked into the kitchen area with her usual look. One that, in his opinion, made her look like an upset horse. She was an older woman in her fifties, short, and was quite possibly the most infuriating person in the world. And Scotty definitely had the experience to back that statement. She had been the new manager hired by their new corporate overlords, and it had been obvious why they'd dumped her here after getting rid of the old manager. She was an angry, intrusive, unapologetic ass with a superiority complex that would make elven legate blush. He turned towards her, "Well actually Karen, I was just about to-", but before he could finish speaking, she held her hand up to stop him. "Yeah, well when you're DONE with that, maybe you can take the trash out while you're at it." She pointed towards the half full can. "In fact, you can just go ahead and do that right now." And before he could respond she walked out of the room. Scotty took a deep breath as she left and let it out slowly. "I'm going to quit", he thought as picked up the trash bag and placed it in the empty food box. "I'm going to fucking leave." He picked up the box with both hands and pushed opened the back door with his foot. "I'm going to quit this damn job and never come back." He walked over to the dumpster, tossed the box inside and walked back into the kitchen. "I'm fucking done", he thought to himself as yanked the door open and walked back inside.

The next morning...

Scotty pulled up to the parking lot with his beat up sedan. His car was old, sure, but it worked. He'd had it since he was sixteen, and he'd come to cherish the little trooper of a car. So much so that he'd begun to see the it more like himself. They'd both been through a lot these last few years, but despite it all, they were still here.

He got out and went over to unlock the restaurant. After that, he began setting the kitchen up for the morning. He had a double shift today and it was going to be awhile before Karen got here. The sooner he got done, the sooner he could make himself some coffee and read off his new book in peace...

"No sir, we do not have chili dogs." He said into the headset. He had been working the grill like usual until around four o'clock, when Karen had come in yelling about the usual drive-thru manager not showing up today. Scotty suspected that he'd finally quit, but for all he knew Ryan could've just been too stoned to show up again. So, obviously, he'd been the one to "volunteer" to pick up his shift.

The customer on the other end was not happy to hear this. And said as much. He thought. Scotty was very certain the man on the other end of the line was drunk. His words were slurring and, man, was he angry.

"The hell kinda place is this then, huh?" He shouted. He flipped Scotty off through the window and sped out of the drive-thru. He watched him go for a moment, the turned back towards his book. The Weaves of Magic, it was a hell of a read. At least, it was to Scotty. He remembered his times trying to research how magic worked as a kid. He hadn't got very far on his own, until his Dad bought him a hand-me-down magical tome at a Gnoll's merchant Truck. As he thought of his old man, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was his Dad.

At store. Got milk. Do you need anything?

Scotty began replying no, when he heard Karen call his name. "Scotty! I need you over here NOW!" He groaned inwardly but responded nonetheless. "Right. I'm coming." he said, putting his phone and book down and walking over to Karen's "office". It had actually been a storage closet before, but it was surprisingly large for all that. Karen had made it into her office when she took over and he had come to dread that room ever since. Especially because she only ever called him into it when she had something she couldn't be bothered to do herself. Making his way past the kitchen, he knocked on the door with the sign, "Manager" printed on stamped metal letters. A voice called from the other side, "Enter." Opening the door, he saw Karen sitting at her desk, typing away on a laptop. The desk was made of simple wooden boards, but done well for all that. Handmade, probably. Currently it was covered in various folders and papers that he didn't know the purpose of. She looked up from her computer, "Good, your here." She handed him a stack of papers and an envelope. "Here's your W-2, and your overtime bonus." She went back to her computer and said, "Ryan's sick today, so you're gonna have stay on his station until we close." "Great." He thought sarcastically, then asked, "This the second time this week he's called out, did you talk with him this time?" She didn't look up from her desk and instead said, "Yes, Scotty, of course I did. Now get back to the window. We're gonna have the dinner rush soon." With that, she shooed him out and slammed the door behind him.

She was lying, he knew. Scotty always knew when people were lying to him. It was a talent he'd always had and had never really been able to explain. It was to the point that sometimes he wondered if he had telepathy. Which was possible these days. But not for him, a regular human. He wasn't a Lancer, even if he secretly dreamed of one day getting an Awakening and joining a Freelancer Company. Fighting monsters. Getting loot. And women. The usual kind of power fantasy. He chuckled to himself. That was what a lot of media often depicted life as a Lancer to be like. Everyone wants to be a Hero. They even had a name for it these days. Main Character Syndrome.

No, he didn't have telepathy. But could pick up on other people's tells rather quickly. For Karen, it was her tone and how she looked at you. Whenever she tried to bullshit him, she would always raise her voice to sound more authoritative, all the while looking anywhere but your eyes. Like in the office, when he asked about Ryan. She hadn't called. Probably knew why he wasn't here and just didn't care. He thought about just ignoring her, but his better judgement won out over his annoyance. Walking back to the ordering window, he grabbed his phone and replied to his dad.

If u could get some of those green apples that would be good

Scotty heard another car pulling into the drive thru. He sighed and put his phone back into his bag. "I'm going to quit." He thought to himself, "This is my last day here." He was sure of it this time...

The day after that...

Scotty walked out of the back door and over to the dumpster holding an overstuffed bag of trash. It was somewhere around eight in the evening and work had been busy. Ryan had quit, it turned out, and the new girl replacing him wasn't up to snuff yet. Scotty didn't think she would be, truth be told. She was alright to be around and nice enough, he supposed. But she clearly couldn't care less about this job or getting fired from it. Which normally, shouldn't have bothered him at all. He didn't care, really, but unfortunately for him he'd been assigned to train her, on account of having been here the longest.

It started out well enough, he was doing his best to teach her what she needed to know right then and there, rather than just dump a bunch of useless information on her. And she was at least pretending to listen, but he could already tell she didn't give a shit.

And unfortunately for him, that meant he was stuck cleaning up after her.

He opened the dumpster lid and, holding his breath, tossed the bag in. Closing it, he let his breath out and walked over to the door, grabbing the handle. "I'm going to quit.", he thought. "I'm going to..." He stopped and let go of the door. "Am I going to quit?" He said that yesterday and yet, here he was. He keeps telling himself that, and yet, he never does. He always says so, then goes home, and comes right back to work the next day. Scotty let go of the door and began to lean against the wall. Why? Why does he keep coming back? There was nothing left for him here. The arcade here closed down ten years ago. There wasn't really anyone else here hiring right now. And all his favorite places to go here had been his favorite because his friends had been here.

Even those friends of his had moved on from from this place. Matthew, one he'd made in middle school, had been someone with prospects lined up for him for years. He had been one of the smartest people Scotty ever knew. Matthew was the one who taught him most of what he knew about chemistry and physics, both subjects he'd had struggled in back in school. He'd shown Scotty how to handle people who tried to manipulate you into working for them without any reward, something he'd been thankful for even now.

Smitty, a kid from originally from the Midwest, had moved down to Texas with his family and had simply gravitated towards their group. He'd been ostracized for a lot of his childhood for being, to put it kindly, an ugly duckling. Overweight, asthmatic, and covered in acne, Smitty was nonetheless an incredibly charming person. He had a natural sense of humour and a wit as sharp as a razor. When Scotty became friends with him, Smitty made it almost a personal mission to get rid of Scotty's stutter. He used to find it a little annoying, but his persistance had eventually won him over and now he was glad for it. Eventually, the issues with his health decreased, his acne went away, and his pudge turned to muscle. Soon, Smitty went from being the ugliest kid his class, to one of the most popular.

And Zach, well, Zach was a stoner. Even before high school, Zach was a huge stoner. It wasn't even a secret either. Dude would regularly show up to class completely baked. But he was also one of the most genuinely nice people Scotty had ever met. He never seemed to have any enemies. Even Joseph seemed to actually like Zach. He wasn't even dealer either, just smoked it himself. He'd known Zach practically since the beginning. Scotty had been sitting alone on the playground back in elementary, when a weird blonde kid had dragged him from his hiding spot to play. That, incidentally, had also been the day he'd met Curie. She'd already been friends with Zach by that point, and it wasn't long before they hit it off. To say they clicked would be an understatement. Curie became his best friend, no doubt about it. They did practically everything together at that point, games, books, movies. They were two peas in a pod, their folks would say. Until, one night, when Scotty and her were going to see a new movie she practically begged Scotty to take her to, Curie had an Awakening. The car had filled with golden light and blinded Scotty, nearly crashing them into a light pole. When they calmed down and took Curie to a Meritas Hospital, they found out that Curie had been given and incredibly rare ability. Pyromancer. At first, neither of them really knew what to do at that point. Scotty had a lot of knowledge about magic, but mostly surface level things. Curie also wasn't really sure what to do either. She knew about Scotty's interest in the arcane, but she didn't really share that insane level of curiosity that Scotty seemed to have. And it probably would have ended there, if not for That Bitch. While they were at the hospital, a woman in robes from a Spellcaster's Union approached them. She was an Elven woman, one of the many Refugee Races that came to Earth when they lost their worlds. She told them her name was Aurelia and that she was a council member in their union. She told them that she had been listening to them and that Curie's class was not only rare, it was exceedingly powerful. She wanted to take Curie in as an apprentice.

Scotty didn't like the sound of that. He'd always been good at reading people, and this woman, despite her friendly demeanor, was practically making his skin crawl. Curie also didn't sound very interested. They were just about to leave when she made another offer. Two million dollars. On the spot. Wrote the check and everything. That wasn't even the real bribe, just a "gift" to show her sincerity. Once Curie signed on, they'd get another five million. In this day an age, that was simply not money either of them could pass up. So they took it, despite Scotty's misgivings. And things changed after that. Slowly at first, then more quickly. At first, the only thing that was different was that Curie's new job took her to Dallas a lot more, so Scotty couldn't see her quite as often as he'd like. When Curie would come home, she would immediately go and vent to Scotty about how her new employer was such a bitch. Always making her do this or that, never really giving anything to do with magic. He would usually brew up a cup of coffee for her That was when she was just an apprentice. Things got worse after about a month in however. Once Curie started getting tutored in her magic, he began to see her even less, her lessons often going long into the night. She would come home exhausted, sometimes too mentally tired to even change her clothes. She began talking to Scotty less and less, often napping during the day and working at night. But she was progressing. Quickly too. She once told Scotty that Aurelia said Curie might just be the most powerful magic in living memory. Soon, she was getting trained in combat, magic, and teamwork, though, HER training mostly revolved around her spellcasting. Things went from lively around their apartment, to quiet most of the time. Aurelia would often send Curie on "important business for the Union", which would take her away for days, sometimes weeks. Scotty couldn't call or text her, and no matter how many times he tried, Aurelia would never answer him. Then, one day, Curie lied to him. 

"Business Trip?", Scotty asked as he poured her a cup of coffee. "I thought that's what you were doing already?" Curie turned away from him, propping her red hair up in a ponytail. "That was Union business. This is a business trip.", she said as she finished her hair. Her red robes were neat and trimmed with gold, showing the incredible progress she had made in. Most Lancer mages take at least a year before they leave their apprenticeship. Curie had managed it in just six months. Scotty was proud of her. She'd come far and it was clear that whatever doubts she'd had about becoming a Lancer, they were clearly out the window. She was becoming more...mature, in a way. Scotty liked it. He liked seeing her go from somewhat shy to being much more confident in herself. It was honestly, quite attractive. He put the cup down on the counter for her. "How long are you going to be gone for this time?", he asked gently. She'd been getting a little touchy with question about the Union. Which should've been his first tell that something was up, but mages were secretive like that. Even in this age, where it was hard to hide things from the public eye, they still managed to keep their trade secrets. Granted, it was mostly through copyright laws and IP firms. She walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. He was making breakfast again. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Normally Curie insisted on cooking for them both. She would always nag him about eating all the right nutrients and trying every way under the sun to get him to eat more veggies. He would make a small fuss about it, and then they would eat. He appreciated her nagging, truly. It showed how much she cared about him. Nowadays, he was lucky if he could even get her to sit down and eat with him. "Only for a few weeks.", she said, attempting to breeze by him. "A few weeks?", he said, turning towards her. She turned to meet him, but then looked away again, like she had something in her eye. "Oh please Scotty, it's not like you haven't been here alone before. You'll be fine." Curie looked at the coffee. She seemed like she was about to grab it but then shied away. "It's not me that I'm worried about, babe.", he said, slightly blocking the doorway. He wanted to talk to her about this and he knew he wasn't gonna get another chance. Curie finally looked at him, her lips pursed in annoyance. "Scotty I don't have time for this, I'm late enough as it is.", she said. She tried to slip past him but he put his arm out. "Well, if you're going to be gone for a few weeks, then this is exactly the time we should talk about it.", he said. Curie folded her arms and, in a tone that was getting progressively more impatient, said, "Scotty, don't start acting like a child. I have to do this." He took a step towards her. "Do you?", he asked. "Well, yes Scotty.", she said. "How else do you expect us to pay for this place?" She raised her arms and gestured around the room. When Curie got her sign on bonus, they'd moved to Dallas and got a high end apartment to live in. It had been great living here, being eighteen and capable of living it up in the city. But not lately. Lately, this place has been nothing but quiet. Scotty had lowered his head slightly when he'd started this conversation, but now he was her looking directly in the eyes. She seemed reluctant to meet them. "Do we?", he asked simply. She gave him a blank look. "What?", she asked. Scotty looked at the apartment. It's expensive furniture, it's large kitchen, the gigantic wall of glass in front of the living room giving an incredible view of the city. "Do we really need this apartment? It feels like I'm living by myself here Curie. You don't stay to eat, you don't come home to sleep. It doesn't feel like I'm living with my girlfriend anymore Curie, it feels like I'm living with a random friend that pops up every now and then." His voiced had raised somewhere in all that. This conversation had been building for a while now and now that Scotty had started, he had to say this. "Scotty I'm not-", he interrupted her before she could finish however, and said, "Whenever you're gone on "Tower Business", I don't see you at all. You're gone for days, weeks sometimes and I don't know where you are." She stepped forward to him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you needed to be aware of my EXACT positioning at all times!", she said, raising her voice in a sarcastic tone. Scotty's frown deepened, then softened after a few breaths. She was being very defensive today. He wasn't trying to accuse her, but he wanted answers. "I don't, Curie. But I do get worried. Whenever you're gone, I can't call you, I can't text you. I have no idea what you're doing half the time and I'm worried.", he said, attempting to put his arms around her. She pulled away before he could, turning her back to him. "I can handle myself Scotty, it's you I'm worried about." She grabbed one of his books from the shelf he'd put up near the door. It was one of his copies of, Arcane Astrologies and their significance. One of the few books he had that Curie admitted to being at least somewhat reliable. "And you should get rid of these. You know you don't have any talent for magic.", she said dismissively, tossing the book onto the floor. "Ok, that's enough.", he thought. Scotty picked the book up and returned it to the shelf. When he turned back to look at her, she seemed to shrink slightly. When he spoke again, it was in a low, controlled voice. "I know, Curie. I know. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy doing the research. But that's not the point." He put his hands on her shoulders and she didn't move away this time. "I don't see you anymore Curie, I don't know where you go, I don't know what you do. If something happened to you, I wouldn't know about it until later. And Aurelia sure as shit wouldn't tell me!" Curie pushed his away. "Why is Aurelia supposed to say anything? She's as busy as I am!", she shouted. Her nose twitched slightly. Scotty frowned harder. He was about to say something else but she brushed past him towards the door. "We can't always get what we want Scotty, grow up!", she shouted, wrenching the door open. "Curie!", he called out to her. She hesitated, then turned towards him. "What?", she asked quickly. He looked at her, all the anger from just a few moments replaced with a look of deep concern. "You're just going on a business trip, for few weeks, right?", he asked. Scotty had more to say. A lot more. But right now, he just wanted Curie to tell him the truth. She looked at him. looked at the deep worry written on his face, and her expression softened a little, then hardened again. "Yes. Now, goodbye Scotty. I'll see you in a few weeks.", she said, closing the door. She lied. He knew she lied. He didn't even need his strange ability to tell either. He'd simply known her for too long. Her nose always twitches when she fibbed about something. This time, it was like she was trying to avoid his eyes the whole time. "Why?", he thought as he stared at the door. He looked back at the counter, towards the still hot cup of coffee. Why couldn't she just tell him the truth? Curie knew he could tell. She had to. Scotty picked up the mug and emptied it. He didn't feel like drinking it. One week went by. Then two. Then four. Eventually, while Scotty was on his computer looking at new job openings, she finally came home somewhere around three in the afternoon. He'd tried to call out for her, but she seemed to tired to respond and went straight to bed. 

Scotty closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. Why was he thinking about this now? That was years ago by now. "C'mon already man!", he thought, "Pick yourself up. Either quit and go home or get back to work and quit your bitching!" There was no point in reminiscing about it. She'd left him. That was that. What do you want to do, huh? Go find her and crawl on your knees to take you back? No. He wasn't going to beg. Certainly not to someone who wouldn't listen.

He got up from the ground and turned to open the door, when he heard a sound from behind the dumpster. It sounded like tearing fabric.

He turned to the trash and looked around for the source of the noise. He saw, something, glowing behind it.

"What the hell is...wait.", he thought.

He remembered something. He'd once read a book written by a veteran Lancer about his career. He had mentioned something about that. He moved closer to the dumpster. The sound was gone, replaced by a strange droning hum. He could almost see what was behind it. What had the book said? He struggling to remember as he shoved the dumpster aside, screeching on it's rusted wheels. Something about...portals?

He stopped. There it was. A portal. An honest-to-God portal. He couldn't believe it. "Holy shit!", he thought to himself. He was standing in front of a purple tear in reality that led to God-knows-where.

He could see that it wasn't a perfect circle like he thought they were. In fact, it looked like someone had taken a piece of cloth and stretched too far. It was ragged around the edges and he could even see some "strands" were still attached to either side. Sides that were growing further apart. Then reality hit. And he was suddenly aware of how stupid he was being right now. "Oh fuck." , went through his mind as he began to back away. "Oh fuck Oh Fuck OH FUUUUCK!"

This was bad. This was so fucking bad. What the hell was a portal doing here? There hasn't been a dungeon portal in Spoolberg in over ten years. Why now?!?

The portal widened further, ripping a bigger hole in reality. Scotty could see, something on the other side. It looked like a person. "Is there someone in there?" He thought he could see the silhouette of someone... or something. Against his better judgement, he moved closer. His sense of curiosity overtaking his fear. If he could just get a closer look...

The creature jumped at him with a knife already in it's hands. He so surprised, Scotty didn't even have time to move. He felt the blade of the creature slice across his face, cutting a line below his eyes and above his nose. He screamed, turning his face away, and the monster leapt at him.

By luck more than judgement, Scotty managed to catch it's arm before it stabbed into his neck and the two slammed into the wall. Acting on instinct, he threw the monster as hard as he could to the right. It went flying and hit the ground with it's knees, poorly.

He could see it more clearly now. It was a goblin. A real monster. A feeling of excitement rushed through him, briefly overtaking his fear. Then common sense took over again and he realized he was in danger again. Hard. He'd thrown the goblin, sure, but it looked like he'd just pissed it off. The door was between him and it but he wasn't sure he could open it and get away in time. "I have to tell someone. Anyone. This a terrible fucking problem!" , he thought. He had to tell the police, the local militia, his dad! He took out his phone and began calling nine-one-one. He could hear it was getting up now. He had to move! He made a break for the door, throwing it inwards, but before he got one step in, the bastard was on him again. It jumped on him, driving him back. Scotty grabbed the knife, but it was all he could do to keep this thing from mauling him with it's other hand. He fell back further and further. He could here, something, behind him. The portal... The portal was right behind him. This thing wasn't trying to kill him, it was leading him!

Scotty tried desperately to throw the monster off again but this time it had grabbed him by the neck, slowly strangling him. He lost his footing and, with a final scream, he fell backwards.

As his head passed through the portal, the sound of tearing grew louder and louder in his head, until I was all he could hear. When he passed through, the ground was gone. Suddenly, he was falling, him and the goblin. They'd both let go of each other, screaming as they fell. It was probably no more than a second, but it felt like eternity, until he hit some kind of floor. He heard the goblin hit the ground too, although it sounded like it had landed wrong. He couldn't see where it had gone. He couldn't really see much of anything right now. He'd slammed his forehead onto the floor, and everything was blurry. 

He felt hurt. He felt tired. He wanted to rest his eyes. Something caught his attention. It was his phone. When had it fallen out his hand? Before the fall? After? He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember much right now. Except... he needed to call his dad. He had to let him know there monster's in town. He reached for his phone but his arms felt like lead. He just barely touched the screen when they gave out. He couldn't focus, he couldn't think.

He saw darkness closing in. He had one last coherent thought before he slipped into the darkness. "Dad. Help. Me..."

Then, he collapsed...