Chapter 22: On the rooftop

The corridors were softly lit by numerous chandeliers but still, the whole place looked dark and dingy. A lot like a place where you would expect a vampire to lurk at you. Thankfully, vampires didn't exist, even in this game.

I was thinking of paying a visit to the kitchen. I turned around the corner when someone-or something bumped into me. I screamed. 'It' screamed and I fell down.

"WHAT IS THE NAME OF HEAVEN ARE YOU DOING HERE? AT TIME TIME OF THE NIGHT TOO!" It was a voice I recognized only too well. It was Jorge. "Then care to tell me what YOU are doing here?"

He cracked into his usual grin. "None of your business. But still, scavenging for food," he said.

"Oh...I was on my way there. " I confessed.

"AHA! Can't blame me then can you? Anyway, I'm done with stealing. I have cupcakes." he said and withdrew a whole box from behind his back.

"I'll only share two," he warned me.

"Fair enough." I said.

"I'm on my way to the rooftop. Wanna join or would you like to sleep?" he asked.

"Rather the former," I said and followed him. That's when I realized that changing my appearance had no effect on him. We climbed endless stairs which made me think why the hell can't there be an elevator in this luxurious place?

The view was every bit as breathtaking as from my own room, only better. It didn't feel real. Distant noises of cars are trains were all garbled up and the rest was quiet. We sat with legs crossed eating in silence and staring beneath. We didn't talk for maybe ten minutes. Then it was Jorge who spoke.

"I may be all that fierce, intimidating, charmingly talented person by day, but at night, I'm just as normal as a regular human. I wonder sometimes what it is like for them...." He said and let the last sentence trail away.

I didn't say anything. He spoke again.

"Don't mind Ivy's competitiveness sometimes, it's just that...she has a traumatizing experience. Or maybe it's a backstory. That's one of the quirks of being a game character."

" I wanna hear it though," I said not sure if I referring to 'experience' or 'backstory'.

"I'm not much of a storyteller but here it goes:

You see, she had never known her mother or her siblings. It was just her and her father. Her father was the leader of a gang. Unlike ours, they simply killed people-part in the game and not the players. They killed them all for fun. They stole and all that. Ivy was always alone. Her father never had time for her, didn't even love her, really. He said that she had to show her competitiveness. To prove it to him.

So, there she was trying to get her father's validation. But the worst part, she couldn't kill innocent people. She had perfect aim and all that but still, unwilling. She shot one of her father's men to save some innocent lives. The news spread somehow and her father renounced her-disowned her. Well, in reality, he had been looking for an excuse to do that anyway.

My mom was her mom's sis, she took her in. She could be only twelve at that time. I could say that living with me and my mom did bring out the best in her. Still, the instinct lives on and to this day, her only motive is to find respect. No matter how."

Silence

I couldn't move. This made my heart break. That's why Jorge always cared for her, making sure she could feel loved. This story revealed the most answers about her. She simply covers up her tragedy with her arrogance of toughness.

"I am going to sleep. Good night," I said and tried to leave as soon as possible.

"Never ever under any circumstance tell Ivy that I told you this." he said.

"Fine," I promised and left.