Urban Legends

"What happened? Are you okay?" Naomi asked me as she helped me and checked me for injuries. I looked back at the spot where I saw the figure and saw that no one was there. "I'll tell you when we get back home," I told Naomi. We quickly left the house and walked at a brisk pace back home.

We arrived at home and I quickly unlocked the door and rushed in. I strode over to the couch before dropping myself onto it. I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Alex telling her I needed her to come over as it was urgent. I was going to send one to Yuki but I decided I could just wait until she was done with classes.

Naomi sat down on the couch next to me. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Not really. I need a minute, then I will explain everything" I told her.

About 15 minutes later there was a knock on the door. I got up and answered the door. It was Alex. I let her in and closed the door behind her.

"What's going on" Alex asked.

"Remember that figure we saw in the game last night?" I asked Alex. She nodded her head in response. "Well, I saw it again today. We were looking at houses and I saw it in the distance. I couldn't look away from it and then I felt someone's hands cover my eyes and heard a woman whisper to me. She said he will get them if you don't get rid of the banshee."

"Okay, so who is he, the banshee, and the woman" Alex asked me.

"I don't know. I thought I was going insane and then Naomi and the realtor woke me up and I was sitting on the sidewalk" I explained to her. "I didn't see a banshee in the game last night. As for 'he', it could refer to the faceless man in the suit. But what did she mean by he will get them? Who is he getting?"

Alex stood silently for a few moments. Her face was mostly flat like she was deep in thought but her eyes were opened wide. "Did we walk into an even deeper conspiracy that spans both the game and real life?" Alex finally asked.

"I know I said we should do an investigation quest but I didn't want one in real life," Naomi complained as she sunk further into the couch. "OK, so we have a change in plans then. Sarah and I will try to follow leads in the real world while Alex and Yuki look for clues in the game world."

"But how will we contact each other if half of us are in the game?" I asked.

Alex gave me a confused look for a moment before answering. "Just download the message app for the game on your phone. I am guessing you didn't know that came out did you?"

"No, no, I didn't. I wanted to pay more attention to the game and not so much the game's announcements as you put it." I responded. 

"I think we need some supplies then. A whiteboard and some notebooks to keep notes in. I think we may need to pose as P.I.'s" Alex said to the group. I nodded my head in agreement but then had a thought occur to me. "We need licenses if we are going to pose as Private Investigators. We could do it without but then we run the risk of getting caught." I said.

"I will worry about that. I can get us some licenses. We also need to make a website for appearances and get some business cards too." Alex said in response.

The plan was to look for evidence, catch some kind of strange entity, and save someone whom we had no idea of yet. Naomi and I weren't trained for this, but that shouldn't stop me with the psionics I got from the game, but there wasn't the benefit of respawn.

"I wonder if we are putting too much thought and work into pretending to be P.I.'s rather than just trying to figure out whatever is going on," I said to Alex. I love my sister dearly but sometimes she could make a mountain out of a mole hill.

"All right, fair enough. I will still work on getting the license though. It may prove useful. We can worry about the other stuff later if we need it." Alex conceded. "But first we need to figure out who 'he' even is. Once we figure that out, we can work on figuring out who 'them' are. and how a banshee plays into all this."

"I think Yuki said she was the Queen of the Unseelie. Maybe she can figure out the banshee part." I said to everyone. I got up from the couch and went to the kitchen and rummaged through a drawer until I found a pencil and a notebook. I returned to the couch and jotted down what we discussed so far and sketched the figure so the others could see what he looked like as only Alex, and I saw him.

"OK, we need to find the guy, then the banshee, then the person in danger." Naomi listed out.

"Yuki should be here in a few hours. Once she is, we will dive and try to see if we can find any clues in the game." Alex said. 

"I am going to do a quick search online to see if there is anything on this suit guy," I said as I pulled out my ancient laptop. I did a quick query on 'tall man in suit' and I got some modeling agencies and shops selling suits. I quickly readjusted my search to 'faceless tall man in suit'. A few results popped up and I clicked on some of the more pertinent items.

"I think I found something," I said, which quickly gathered the attention of everyone. I read through some of the things I found on a Wiki site, one of the few sites that still existed almost a century after its inception. "So according to what I am reading here a tall faceless man in a suit was just a made-up story that came about sometime in 2009."

"If it is a made-up story from 2009, then why are we seeing it today?" Naomi asked as she peered over my shoulder at my screen.

"It doesn't make sense unless whatever this goddess is doing is not just bringing the game to the real world but what if she is bringing every folktale, myth, and urban legend to the real world?" Alex said with a hint of nervousness. "What else does it say?"

"Um...apparently he has some connection to an old German folktale about a tall man who abducts children. It seems to be the motive of the suit guy too. The page hasn't been updated since 2020 and from what I am reading here it seems that the German folktale may have also been fabricated." I said as I scrolled through the page.

"Why are these urban legends and myths becoming real now? This is such a headache." Alex said as she leaned back in her chair and sighed.

"Hold on. You said that this guy kidnaps children, right?" Naomi asked.

"That's what it says," I responded with as much enthusiasm as a dying fish. Suddenly my eyes flew open as a thought hit me. "No way! Remember on the news this morning it mentioned missing kids?"

"You think that's what the 'them' part is for? So, we have got to investigate some missing kids now? Why can't we just do shit in the game?" Naomi complained.

"We might have to still do things in the game. He did appear there too." Alex replied.

"I think we might need those licenses and business cards after all. We need to find out where the kids were kidnapped from and find a connection to the tall man. Alex and Yuki will go back into the game and see if any kids were kidnapped there and possibly get information on a banshee. Maybe a banshee came to our world, and we have to get rid of it or something." I said while rubbing my temples as I felt a headache oncoming.

"What's the next step?" Naomi asked.

"Let's wait for Yuki to show up and fill her in and then we can go into the game and see what's going on there," I suggested.

"Sounds good. Let me go and start getting those licenses and cards." Alex said before standing up. "You guys will probably need something to wear too." Alex headed for the door.

"Be careful Alex!" I shouted as the door shut.

"This is crazy."