Book 1, Volume 1

Chapter 5

Michael made his way up the steps, heading towards his two best friends. They were standing next to their group, gathered around some stone benches.

A group of people walked past Michael. Quite a few female eyes repeatedly peeked over towards his buddies. By the snippets of the conversations that he overheard, he could tell they were talking about Aiden and Thomas.

Who could blame them? Aiden exemplified the good looking auburn hair, green-eyed intellectual type, while Thomas sported the gray-eyed raven hair guitar playing musician type.

Both were fit and in shape with Thomas having just a tad more muscle tone. They were friendly, outgoing, and easy to get along with so it was not surprising that they drew so much unnoticed female attention.

“My, my, my... look what the cat dragged in,” Michael said smiling. He walked up in front of them and gave them fist bumps. “Aiden... Thomas... how's it going? Ready for the hype?”

“Well, speak of the devil... I'm doing good. Can't wait to get in the game... just look at this place, it's amazing.” Aiden said looking towards the building.

“Michael! Looking good I see,” Thomas greeted him. “Doesn't this feel unreal? They built this place so fast... in mere months. And so nearby, just half a mile outside our city. We're so lucky they built it in our neck of the woods.”

“I'm surprised they chose here too, not like we have a huge population, but I ain't going to complain about it. Still...” Michael looked over to the large company sign, “I don't get the name... Goddess Lokaini Entertainment. I mean, what type of person calls themselves a Goddess? Narcissistic much?”

“Well, I'm guessing it's the type of person that can create a world,” Aiden answered. “Even if it is virtual.” They shared a happy laugh.

“That's a very valid point...”

“Hey Michael, you here alone? Where's your tribe?” Thomas asked.

Michael turned around, spotted them, and pointed them out. His group was still gathered around Koko and her mother. He felt relief when he noticed a huge smile on Koko's face; Koko's mother looked to be talking happily with his mother.

Michael turned back toward his friends. “They're talking with a classmate of little Rori, adding her to our group since we had an empty pod in our suite. Looks like our guild will now have 6 members, 8 if you 2 join too.”

“Sorry Michael, we'd love too, but our group already made plans to form one. The name has already been decided: The Puppet Asylum Guild.” Thomas patted Michael's shoulder. “Otherwise, we'd join you.”

“Still, we can always form a guild alliance, and we'll be on each other's friends list. Just let them know our names and that we're from the blue pawn suite, number 222.” Aiden said.

“Cool. We're in red bishop suite, number 311. Our guild's name is going to be Amaranthe Hearts Guild.” Michael said with a hint of embarrassment on his face. “Don't look at me, I didn't choose the girly name. I was badly outvoted...”

“Amaranthe?...” Thomas had a puzzled look on his face.

“My big sister Cara said it means 'Unfading'... basically Unfading Hearts guild... I'm not giving up hope on convincing her to drop the heart part of the name. Anyways, what class are you loo...” Michael's words suddenly stopped.

Time seemed to slow down as the color left Michael's face; His eyes looked past his friends, past the group. He spotted two people walking, hand in hand, towards them.

The cute brunette girl on the left had on a short sleeve evergreen top, beige shorts, and a pair of matching walking shoes. She was chatting with the person walking next to her. Her smile genuine, reaching her dark eyes... she looked the picture of happiness.

As for the pretty delicate-looking girl walking beside her on the right, holding her hand... well she was none other than the boy named Valentine. The boy who claimed to be Michael's good friend for well over a year. The boy that betrayed him by making out with his at the time girlfriend; the cute brunette girl that he was currently walking, hand in hand, with towards him.

The newly formed love birds didn't seem to have noticed Michael standing there in the group, next to Aiden and Thomas. They were lost in conversation, off in their own little world, probably talking about all they planned to do together in the World of Abrynth.

Delicate and pretty... I can never be... Michael thought to himself as he looked at Valentine. … soft locks of hair like golden caramel and eyes to match... face that takes after his beautiful mother... a lean lithe body that's a bit below average height... everything I'm not... pretty...

Alarm bells went off in Aiden's and Thomas' heads as they noticed the distressed state in which Michael seemed to be frozen in.

“Damn, they got here before we could warn you.” Thomas stepped up to Michael, gently shook him, and then turned him to face the opposite direction of the new love birds. “Sorry Michael, we were going to tell you, just didn't expect them to get here this early. Our group is scheduled to enter at 12.”

“Yeah, it's like Thomas said... we really didn't think they'd come until after 11...”

“Why are they even here?” Michael asked with a confused look on his face.

“About that, remember how we said that there was 9 of us in our group and that the suite we won had 12 pods? I believe we mentioned that we were going to raffle off the 3 open spots...”

“Now that you mention it, I thought about that earlier this morning,” Michael said.

“Well, as luck would have it, (“Yeah, our bad luck...” Aiden interjected) they ended up winning two of the spots. Aiden and I wanted to not give them the tickets, to give them to anybody else but them...”

“But legally speaking, we couldn't,” Aiden said sadly. “On the bright side, Abrynth is a huge world and they're not on your friend's list so I doubt you'll see each other in the game.”

“And even if you do, you probably wouldn't even recognize one another right? So don't let this get you down and ruin your fun okay? Just forget about them and focus on having fun with all the people that really matter. Okay, Michael? Let's make loads of great memories there!” Thomas encouragingly said.

“... Michael....”

“That's right Michael...” Aiden was in the midst of saying.

“... hey, little brother... it's time...”

Michael looked towards the sound of his sister's voice, saw his family and friends waiting for him. He looked at the happy smiles on the faces of Koko and her mother, thought about all the hardships they went through, before strengthening his heart.

He then looked back at his best buds, put a smile on his face, and said in good spirits, “Yosh! Looks like I'll be going down the rabbit hole and seeing what's on the other side of the mirror first.”

Michael gave them each a quick 'man hug', “I'll be waiting for you both on the flip side.” He then made his way to his family.

Michael laughed as he heard Aiden asking Thomas, “Yosh? Michael is not part Japanese is he?”

“No, he's part Manganese.” Thomas jokingly said.