Chapter 1

“You’re going to do what?” Kit yelled, slack-jawed. Leah was briefly grateful her mother wasn’t home, positive Kit’s loud voice would have made her come running within seconds to check if they were okay. Under normal circumstances, Leah wouldn’t hesitate to share with her mom. She was a little embarrassed to admit that, at twenty-one years old, her mom was definitely one of her best friends, along with Kit, and her cat, Zelda. More so since her stepfather had passed, a little over a year ago, taking a toll on her mom’s wellbeing. As much as she tried to hide it, Leah was no stranger to feelings of depression, recognizing when her mother’s smiles didn’t fully reach her eyes, much as she tried to pretend. This time, however, she thought it might be better to keep a secret. Her mom would only worry if she knew what Leah’s plan was.

“Leah, you can’t be serious,” Kit said when Leah didn’t respond. With her eyes, Leah hoped she was conveying she was very, very serious. “Isn’t that dangerous? I mean, that whole game is full of monsters and fighting and whatnot, isn’t it?” Zelda, sitting in Kit’s lap, meowed, as if to agree.

“It is,” admitted Leah with a sigh. “But I can’t choose yet another education that depresses me, Kit. English Lit wasn’t it, remember? Psychiatry wasn’t it eithe—”

“Your stepfather died that year!” 

“I hated the classes before he died.” 

Kit pouted, brows creasing with worry, and Leah would be lying if she said she didn’t understand Kit’s point. 

“Look—Echoes is full of dangerous robot creatures and human enemies. Hell, I could probably be mauled by a bear or some shit. But if I can find Valda, she can tell me everything I want to know. Besides, I’ve been playing for a while. I know the drill.” 

“And if you can’t find her?” 

“I’ll come right back.” 

Kit dropped her hands at her sides, knowing Leah well enough to be able to tell when she couldn’t win. “I don’t like this, Leah. Besides, how would a character in the game know how her world works? It’s not like you know what keeps our world turning, exactly.” 

Leah shrugged, smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “Capitalism?” 

Kit couldn’t help but snort. “Shut up, you know what I mean.” 

She did. She had simply wanted to see Kit smile. Leah reached out to grab her best friend’s hand and squeezed it in both her own, grateful that she was allowed to see that soft side she barely ever showed anyone else. 

“Leah, can’t you just—”

“I promise I’ll be—”

They burst out laughing at the same time, telling each other to go first a couple of times, before Kit finally continued her sentence. 

“Can’t you just go to some orientation day? Make friends with someone online who can tell you about it?” 

“That didn’t work out for my English Lit either, did it?” 

Kit chewed her bottom lip for a moment, knowing very well that Leah had done hours of research, and even emailed a professor at the college she eventually attended. “You emailed a professor, though!” 

“Kit, who else would know all about the curriculum?” 

“I know!” Kit groaned before Leah had fully finished her sentence. “I just… I’m worried. How is it safe to put yourself inside of a game in the first place, never mind one that has robots and enemies and, apparently, dangerous bears?” Her brow furrowed again. “I don’t see how this is safe or how it’s going to help you figure out if you made the right choice.” 

“Because I don’t just want to study Game Art, I want to go into Game Development, do the whole thing from start to finish. Write the codes, create the story, play testing—what better way to know if those things suit me than to be in the middle of it all?” 

Silence reigned between them for a second, during which Leah tried to give Kit her most convincing look, while Kit let her worries seep into her blue eyes without holding back, looking sad and scared despite the black liner and deep purple eyeshadow. Tension hung in the air between them, neither of them relenting in their wordless battle of willpower. 

Kit inhaled, a glint in her eyes, and Leah braced herself for Kit’s next question. A question she’d anticipated, but hadn’t found an answer to just yet. 

“What are you going to tell your mom?” 

That was the easy question. “Nothing. I’ll do it this weekend, when she’s working the night shift at the hospital. She won’t even notice I’m gone.” 

“And say something goes wrong and you won’t make it back… Then what?” 

“That won’t happen,” Leah argued, her voice wavering slightly. 

“You don’t know that.” 

“Reviews wouldn’t be five out of five stars with over a thousand ratings if it wouldn’t work.” 

“Unless not working means never coming back.” 

Sleep wouldn’t come when Leah lay in bed that night, thoughts running full speed ahead despite Leah trying to quiet them, going over her conversation with Kit again and again. She could hear her mom rummaging around in the kitchen, probably preparing food for tomorrow, if not for the rest of their week. Her mom’s noises usually made Leah feel at ease. Comforting, in a way. 

Not this time, though. 

Now all Leah could think about was what her mom would do if things did go sideways, somehow. Leah was pretty sure she’d done thorough research on the device she’d bought. It seemed so simple; attach the small device to your console of choice and put the bracelet around your left wrist. On the bracelet was a button, which would transfer you in and out of the game. If that didn’t work, there was also a backup remote control with one simple button. The only warning that came with it was to absolutely not take off the bracelet while inside of a game. Ever. Once it would come off, putting it back on might not be enough to save the connection between game and home. Not only would you be stuck inside, but whoever found that bracelet later if you lost it might be able to transfer into the real world, which seemed a bit far-fetched to Leah. People were clumsy, and Leah could hardly imagine nobody had ever lost their bracelets. For at least the fifth time in the past twenty minutes, Leah reached for her phone to do yet another search, losing her exact question when she heard something in the hall.

“Mom?” Leah ventured when she heard her mother’s slippers on the creaking floorboards, passing right by her room. She could hear her mom backtrack and carefully open the door, as if thinking she may have imagined Leah’s voice. Leah sat up in bed, clicking her bedside light on. 

“You’re still up!” 

“Yeah,” Leah muttered, unsure now of why she’d called for her, her mouth opening to say something, anything, only to shut again. Her mom smiled at her, eyes soft. It was genuine, that sadness barely there today, to Leah’s relief. Leah’s mother was a nurse, working ridiculous hours, meaning Leah didn’t get to see her own mom as often as she’d have liked. It was hard to keep track of her moods sometimes. 

“What’s on your mind, dear girl?” she asked, settling on the edge of Leah’s bed and resting a hand on her leg.

Leah asked the first thing that came to mind. “How… how have you been lately?” 

Caught by surprise, her mom was quiet for a moment, likely considering how she was feeling, exactly. Her mom did that often, taking a minute to really think about a question before answering. It was something that annoyed Leah sometimes, when she asked her mom something and her mom would be quiet and take a moment to parse the question. 

“It hasn’t been easy,” her mom started, pausing there, her eyes roaming around Leah’s room without settling on anything. She moved her leg to nudge her mom, wordlessly reminding her there was more to be said. Her hazel eyes landed on Leah’s own, so similar in color. “It will never be easy. But it has been a little less heavy on my shoulders.” She smiled again. “Only took me a little over two years.” 

Leah scoffed. “You’re allowed to grieve. Two years isn’t all that much.” 

Her mom let out a sigh and reached out to put her hand on Leah’s cheek, eyes full of nothing but love for her only daughter. “When did you get so wise?” 

“I’ve literally always been this wise,” Leah joked, making her mom laugh. 

“Sure you have, sweetie.” 

A comfortable silence enveloped them, quiet, aside from a car driving down the street outside, its tires audible on the asphalt. Then, quiet.

“I’m sorry you had to grow up without a dad, Leah. And that your stepdad—”

“Mom, stop,” Leah interrupted. “You’ve always been more than enough. You did what you could. I don’t need a dad.”

“Sometimes I think you might have liked one. You and Jeremy got along so well whenever you two talked about games…” Her voice trailed off, reminiscing. 

Leah had liked Jeremy, mostly because he’d made her mother happy. It had always been just the two of them, Leah’s biological father not much more than a sperm donor in their lives, running as soon as he heard her mom was pregnant. Leah was fifteen when her mom met Jeremy, and like any teenager, she was intent on bullying him out of their lives at first. Until he showed Leah how good he was. Patient, caring. He was smitten with her mom, and Leah warmed up to him quickly. Jeremy moved in with them, supposedly temporarily, until they could buy a house together. They saved every single penny they could spare, which wasn’t much. Jeremy wasn’t rich either, but they were happy. Nobody could have imagined he’d die so suddenly, hit by a drunk driver. 

Leah still grieved him, too. She just refused to show her mom as much, though Leah suspected she knew. Both of them were being stubborn and overprotective of each other, both pretending to be stronger than they actually felt. 

“I’m glad,” Leah said, smiling a little. “That it’s less heavy, I mean.” 

“We’ll get there.” Her mom reached for her, pulling her into a tight, nearly suffocating hug that Leah didn’t mind one bit. She squeezed her mom just as tightly, trying to convey just how much she cared with a single hug.

“Sleep tight, Leah. Are you working tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, but I start at eleven, so it should be fine.” 

“Fridays are always busy though, aren’t they?” Leah was always busy, working in a second hand clothing store, always receiving new shipments of clothes that needed to be checked, washed, labeled, and so on. Not to mention the customers… 

Red letters on her alarm clock told her it was nearly two past midnight, meaning she would be tired tomorrow no matter what. Despite that, when her mom got up and left her room, telling her good night once more, Leah reached for her phone all over again, her thoughts now confirmed: it was of utmost importance that Leah made it back home safe and sound.

After that particularly exhausting shift, Leah couldn’t wait to get home. If only Paul, her manager, hadn’t gotten his hands on her, complimenting her on her hard work, making small talk about how her mom was doing. Leah had worked here part time since she was sixteen, so Paul knew a lot about her life and what had happened. He had met her mom, had a couple of lengthy conversations with her, and in some strange, alternate universe, Leah could see them be together, if it hadn’t been for Jeremy. Or, of course, Paul’s wife. 

Now, all Leah wanted was to get out of here, so she could go home. She checked her watch, which she had dug up out of a drawer last night, to make sure it was still working. That way she could track the time when she was inside of Echoes. And right now she could watch her time to be spent in her game dwindle by the minute, the more Paul talked and asked questions. When Leah checked her watch for the third time in as many minutes, Paul finally seemed to catch up. 

“I’m guessing you have somewhere to be?” he said, not unfriendly and mildly curious. “Don’t let me keep you.” 

“Sorry, I didn’t want to be rude.” 

“No worries. Have a good weekend. It’s been a while since you had one off.” 

“Will do, Paul. Thanks!” 

“Oh, and Leah…” She stopped in her tracks, hand already on the door handle, forcing herself to turn around and smile at her boss, hoping he couldn’t see the corner of her mouth shiver from utter impatience. “Tell your mom I said hi.” 

“I will,” Leah repeated, rushing out the door before he could start another conversation. A breath escaped her as she unlocked her bike, realizing she’d made it and he wouldn’t keep her anymore. No more wasting her time she could be spending figuring out the inner workings of her game. 

“Rude,” she muttered to herself under her breath, guilt settling in her stomach as she considered her words. Paul wasn’t wasting her time, really. He was likely just looking out for her. Leah had heard a horror story or two from friends in high school, suffering through the worst bosses and managers, whereas Leah got lucky. She vowed to appreciate his small talk more, starting next week, unsure if she could stop herself from wanting to rush home after work. 

Now, Leah biked home as fast as she could, scraping three minutes off her usual time. She locked her bike in front of the apartment building and flew up two sets of stairs instead of taking the elevator like she usually did after work. Not another second would be wasted. 

In the living room, Leah checked for her mom’s usual note on the table, smiling as she read it. There was leftover pasta if she didn’t feel like cooking, and she had bought Leah a fresh chocolate chip cookie from the bakery. That was always a good sign near the end of the month; it meant they had been careful enough with their spendings that there was something left over for little treats. Leah beelined for the kitchen to grab it, stomach growling audibly at the thought. 

Cookie in hand, Leah made her way to her bedroom and sat down at her desk to retrieve her things, barely tasting her food. Device to attach to her console, bracelet for her wrist, backup remote—it was all there. Zelda got up from her bed, stretched, and walked over to Leah, jumping onto her desk and sitting down on Leah’s letters she’d started for her college application, unfinished. Handwritten, to give herself some time to really think her words through, rather than typing them and losing the plot halfway through a sentence. Leah found that her writing was cleaner, more logical, when handwritten. Underneath the first one were at least ten drafts, if not more. She had stopped counting. Once she came back from Echoes later today, hopefully with more information, she would finish this last letter, type it out, and send it. 

Tomorrow, she swore to herself, knowing in the back of her head that its deadline was approaching fast, confirmed by the date on her watch, which still seemed to be running accurately when compared to her alarm clock. Now she could only hope its years old battery wouldn’t run out all of a sudden. 

When her food was finished, Leah looked up the instructions once more, not trusting herself to have memorized them all, though she remembered every single step when reading them. 

Aloud, she read, “First, place the small device as shown on your console,” followed by images of different consoles and the perfect placement. It should stick automatically, no tape or magnets, easily showing you the right spot. If it didn’t stick, it wasn’t the place. Leah wiped the cookie grease from her fingers onto her trousers and grabbed the small, square device, fitting perfectly in the palm of her hand. Carefully, afraid to damage it, she moved from her desk to her console, sitting under her TV. It was supposed to fit on the side, which made sense, considering how full of cables and wires the back was. 

“Right… here,” Leah muttered, gingerly placing the device. It was as if her console had desperately wanted to be with that small device, sucking it in place, as if there were magnets involved. When she prodded it a little, still careful, it didn’t move at all, as if glued in place. Leah had to assume it was the right place for it to sit. 

“Okay! Bracelet next.” 

Something stopped her from putting it on. Her stomach churned, and Leah had to actually sit down at her desk again and take a couple of deep breaths. She was mostly excited, but there were definitely some healthy nerves climbing their way up her throat as well. Who knew what the hell she was getting herself into? Kit’s words about the lack of bad reviews were still stuck in the back of her head, too. While Leah didn’t want to believe it, Kit might be right. 

“Too late now,” she told herself, clicking the bracelet in place behind her watch. Leah tugged on it a couple of times, hard, to make sure it was secure. Lastly, she grabbed the remote, checked its batteries, and shoved it in her pocket. Just like that, Leah was ready to dive into her game headfirst. Visual Reality, but even better. 

Fuck, she needed another minute. There was no way she would get anything to know anything if she wasn’t at least a little level headed. She sat down in her comfortable armchair, positioned in front of her TV, and dialed Kit for a video call. Zelda joined her on her chair but, scared that her cat would somehow transfer into the game with her, Leah got up to put her on the bed. Zelda mewled, displeased, but accepted her fate.

“Took you long enough!” Kit said, blue eyes accentuated with her bold graphic liner. 

“I know, I know! Paul wouldn’t stop talking.” Leah sat back down in her chair.

“Aw, Paul! How is he doing?” 

“Kit!” 

“Right! Not the time. How are you feeling?” 

Leah shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it or I’m going to be sick.”

“Fair. Do you feel prepared?” 

Hesitant, Leah nodded. “Yeah.” 

“Leah…” 

“Of course not! I’m about to do something I haven’t heard anyone else talk about, ever. Maybe I should watch an instruction video first. Or better yet—a review!” 

“Leah, look at me,” Kit said sternly. Leah did as she was told without hesitation. “You’re being a coward. Are you a coward?” 

“No!” 

“Then do what you have to do and go!” 

Leah puffed her cheeks and blew out some air, shaking her hands loose, hoping to get rid of some of that nervous energy that seemed to currently be forcing its way into her lungs, constricting her throat. “Right, right…” She fished her controller from underneath her cozy blanket, half shoved in between the pillow and armrest. “Are you screen recording?” 

“I am… now!” 

“Cool. Remember, I will text you as soon as I’m back. I’ll try to keep track of time in there.” She held up her wrist, showing off her watch to Kit. 

“If that ancient thing holds up in there, I know.”

“Shut up, it’s like, early 2000’s!” Leah bit, offended. Her pink G-Shock would hold up perfectly fine. She thought to check the time. 6:02 pm. With a final deep breath and a firm nod, Leah turned on her console. “Okay. I’m going in.” According to the instructions, all she had to do was press start on her game and she would be sucked in there. 

“Good luck, soldier!” Kit saluted her with a nervous giggle, and Leah couldn’t help but let out a nervous laugh as the Echoes menu appeared on screen. 

Leah pressed start, not allowing herself another moment to hesitate. “See you soon!” 

Everything around her went bright, bright blue. So bright Leah had to squint, fighting to keep her eyes open as the light enveloped her. Despite her open eyes, she couldn’t see a damn thing, as if she were looking straight at the sun. A roar of thunder boomed nearby, deafening, contradicting with the light.  When her surroundings dimmed a little, it changed to white, then gray, and… was that sand crunching underneath her feet? Anxiety rushed through Leah’s veins all of a sudden, all kinds of worst case scenarios running through her head and dragging down her spine like sticky slime.

“Kit?” Leah ventured, a soft response sounding nearby that sounded an awful lot like Kit calling for her. More thunder sounded, softer this time, drowning out Kit’s voice, the light dimming further and further, her senses dulling until everything was completely dark. 

Chapter 2

When Leah came to, temples throbbing, there were a couple of things she noticed even before opening her eyes. First was that she couldn’t hear Kit at all anymore, directly followed by the insane heat, and finally, some strange, incessant chittering and scratching she couldn’t explain. As the throbbing in her head subsided a little, Leah could feel sweat drip down her temples, her back, pooling in crevices she didn’t think could sweat. Why was it so damn hot? 

And what was that fucking scratching noise? 

Leah scrunched her nose, and gave in, opening her eyes to slits, forcing herself fully awake from her dream-like state. 

“Kit?” She tried, as loud as she dared, startling a small creature crouched in the corner, digging at some sort of tarp. When it rushed past her, dropping something in its haste, Leah could finally process its gray butt and black and white striped tail. A raccoon. Those were unusual back home—the Netherlands wasn’t exactly known for its raccoon population. Nor was it known for its particularly hot climate.

An apple rolled over the wooden floor, covered in some sort of deep pink sand, tiny, raccoon-sized teeth marks still fresh in its juicy flesh. It must’ve dropped it in fear, before making a break for the doorway, similarly covered in fabric, still flapping in the breeze. Leah had assumed a breeze would cool the room down a bit, but those hopes were quickly dashed. 

Fanning herself, Leah got up from where she was seated, toes crunching in the layer of fine sand, dropping the blanket she was covered with to the floor. Memories of what she’d done came back in flashes; preparing herself, a bracelet clicked onto her wrist—she glanced down at it now, tracing its shape with her other finger. She’d been on a video call with Kit as she started up her game, bright lights and thunder surrounding her before she got knocked out. 

“Holy shit?” Leah hissed, not quite ready to believe it just yet. While the armchair she’d been sitting on was most definitely her own, the room itself was unfamiliar and full of strange furniture. Her eyes roved over the space, hungry for more information. Warm terracotta colored walls surrounded her. Worn floorboards were covered in a pinkish sand that crunched when she stepped on it, gathering in heaps in the corners of the room and against the furniture. That is, if these abstractly shaped pieces of nature could be called furniture at all. In front of her was a table made of a slab of wood that looked like it was cut from a tree, directly dragged towards this house, and deposited on top of four uneven rocks. When Leah brushed her hand over what she could see of its surface and immediately caught a splinter, sharp in her palm, making her wince. Whoever its maker was, they hadn’t cared for sanding it or treating it. In their defense, most of it was covered in paper, scrolls, books, and so on. Four logs cut off at different heights served as stools. Behind it, Leah could see an ornate chest resting against the wall, sitting beneath a hole in the wall that was likely supposed to be a window. The chest itself looked strange to Leah, almost as if the outlines were too sharp, too high in contrast compared to everything else in the room. There was a bed in the corner, right behind her own armchair, standing out like a sore thumb with its bright green fabric. In the other corner the tarp where the raccoon had been scavenging earlier. Next to that, between the pile and the chest, a fireplace which Leah thought was deeply unnecessary in this climate. Leah thought to pick up her blanket from the ground, shaking it hard to get rid of the sand before draping it back over her chair. 

Leah wiped her sleeve of her hoodie over her sweaty forehead, messing up her bangs. If only she’d been more prepared for this insane heat… She took her hoodie off and threw it over her armchair as well, making her way towards the table to peruse its contents. Leah quickly came to the conclusion that none of the words were familiar, despite her speaking three languages. In fact, they seemed to be made up of an entirely different alphabet altogether, not at all like the alphabet she’d grown up with, nor did any of it remind her of Asian or Arabic characters, though her knowledge of those was limited. She opened the nearest book and found a map on the inside as if it were a fantasy novel, though this was equally impossible to decipher, no matter which way she turned it. 

A strange, mechanic buzzing outside startled Leah enough that she dropped the book, sending up a cloud of dust and sand, prickling in her throat, making her cough. It had been quiet this whole time, Leah now deduced, unnoticed until the air was filled with metallic clangs. Abandoning the pile of useless information on the table, Leah made her way towards the door, still coughing. She did her best to stop, before finally pulling the fabric over the door aside to see what the noise was, a strange familiarity poking and prodding her brain.

Leah gasped when she pulled the fabric aside, revealing what could only be described as a vast desert. Cacti stood tall and proud, some of them bearing fruit. Pink sand had kicked up into a sandstorm nearby, hovering in the air like a fine mist, making Leah cough all over again, her eyes watering. Even through the cloud of sand, Leah could tell that the sun was bright and vicious, explaining why she’d been sweating so profusely. It was a horribly dry heat, too, scratching at her already irritated throat, nothing at all like the humid summers Leah was used to. Something stirred in her at the sight of the pink sand, somehow familiar. Recognition. Leah knew where this desert was, remembering it from when she had played the game herself. Pink Sands desert was right at the start, all the way in the west of the map, one or two towns over from the start. There was a town nearby, not too far from here, but she couldn’t remember its name, trying to remember what the map looked like exactly. 

Something was moving through the sandstorm, pulling Leah from her thoughts, slowly creeping closer and closer. Leah couldn’t make out what it was with all the sand limiting her vision, wracking her brain over what machines walked around in this specific desert. All she could glimpse was an outline of something big, almost like a spider or a scorpion, but huge. It moved strangely, robotic almost, and Leah gasped as the truth dawned upon her, only to send herself into another fit of coughs. She barely had time to conceal herself before the thing spotted her, two bright yellow lights turning in her direction. Her throat burned as she pressed her back against the warm wall and stared at her feet, urging herself to be fucking quiet. 

“It worked,” Leah whispered to herself, shaking her head ever so slightly. It had fucking worked. She had stepped inside of her game! It wasn’t surprising or strange, per se, as this is what she’d set out to do, but the fact that it had actually worked was something Leah hadn’t let herself believe until she saw that machine walking around. 

“Oh, fuck,” she hissed, as the reminder of the machine made its noises return, suddenly closer than she would’ve liked. Could she chance another peek, to see where it was? Her hand shook as she grabbed the fabric, needing a couple of deep breaths before opening it a sliver, moving just enough to check her surroundings. The scorpion—called a Guardian, she recalled now—screeched at something, throwing two of its legs in the air, before attacking, legs flying down and sending up another wave of sand. It wasn’t a sandstorm at all, it was the machine’s doing.

With its prey presumably dead, the Guardian started moving again, inching closer to Leah’s hideout. Leah ducked away again, letting the fabric fall shut, hiding her from its eyes. 

“Well, shit,” she grumbled, looking around the room for something she could use if that thing found her and she would have to fight it. Her eyes scanned the table full of paper, and Leah briefly considered hurling a book at its head. It won’t kill it, but it might confuse it enough that she could get away? Though she had no idea which direction to run in, assuming she could run at all through this loose, dry sand in this heat. The chest, then? She walked over to it and tried to open it, but its lid wouldn’t budge, too heavy for her to lift, though Leah prided herself on her strength back home. It must be locked. She started pacing, muttering ideas to herself and rejecting them almost right away, all in the lowest voice she could manage, goosebumps rising on her arms at the thought of drawing that Guardian here. With another hissed curse at her own stupidity, thinking she could just march into an open world fighting game without much preparation, Leah kicked the apple, reminded of the raccoon and its scavenging corner. She could nearly feel the light bulb appear over her head as she marched over and found just what she was looking for. Weapons. A bow and quiver with a couple of arrows, a sword, a spear, a shield hiding some more… Now she just had to figure out which weapon to grab, and fast. 

Another awful screech sounded, like nails on a chalkboard, shaking the room and sending shivers down Leah’s spine. It had come closer. Panicking, Leah grabbed the spear, similar to the one she always chose for Valda to wield, quickly concluding that choosing a weapon for a video game character was not at all the same as wielding that weapon yourself. 

Spear in both hands, Leah moved back to her spot, right next to the doorway, pressing her back against the wall once more. The Guardian was too big to come inside, so if she wanted to make it past, she would have to stab it hard enough to distract. Would she be able to stab it in the eye? Would that blind it or just anger it? She looked down at her bracelet, right behind her watch, which told her it was 7:47 pm, nearly two hours later than last time she checked. How long at she been passed out? Her bracelet’s single button looked inviting all of a sudden, the idea of being back home suddenly the best thing ever. Leah couldn’t help but reach out, considering. Maybe this had been a bad idea from the start… Part of her knew she should’ve picked something else, something easier to visit, but where was the fun in that if this was the type of game she would want to make herself? 

Her inner turmoil was interrupted by a series of loud clangs sounding right outside the building. Metal on metal and scuffling feet, both human and machine. Hissing steam, followed by another one of those ear-shattering screeches. A whack and a pained, distinctly human moan. Something tumbled and rolled, smacking into the wall she was pressed against, sending Leah off balance enough to drop the spear. She bent over to retrieve it, just when a pointed piece of metal pierced the wall, right where she’d been standing. Astonished, mouth agape, Leah fell backwards. If she hadn’t dropped her spear…

“Got you now!” a familiar voice shouted, followed by another metallic clang, then a sound Leah couldn’t place, and finally a strange gurgling groan. The silence that followed was like a heavy, suffocating blanket. 

“That was that,” the voice said over the sound of the machine’s steaming remains.

Leah didn’t know how fast to scramble to her feet, nearly falling out the door where she was met with Valda, now crouched over the dead machine to scavenge it for scraps and parts. Leah was about to reach out for Valda’s shoulder when, before Leah could even blink, never mind utter a single word, Valda had her own spear aimed right at Leah’s throat, the tip of steel cold against Leah’s skin. Liquid golden-brown eyes pierced hers, dark and angry. Breathing no longer came naturally. Leah was frozen in fear, hands up, her heart pounding so hard and fast in her chest Leah was sure it had to be audible outside of her own body. 

“Shit! Valda, wait, please!” Leah begged, pulling her head back as far as she could, away from Valda’s weapon, only for Valda to move in closer. It would be so easy for Valda to kill her, Leah knew. She had done it herself, playing the game. “I’m not an enemy, I don’t have any weapons,” she thought to add. “My name is Leah, and I…” she trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence. Would Valda understand if she said she wanted to learn more about this world? About Valda herself? More importantly, would Valda be willing to share with a total stranger? Valda had never exactly been forthcoming or open as a character… How advanced of a character was Valda, exactly? 

Valda didn’t answer, simply taking her in from the top of her head to the tips of her bare toes, pressing ever so slightly closer with her spear, the tip of it nicking Leah’s skin. It seemed to radiate a cold air against Leah’s throat, so close she was afraid to swallow. All of her focus went into standing as still as humanly possible. 

“What are you wearing?” Valda asked, easing up a little.

“Huh?” Leah didn’t dare look down to check. With that spear now less than a little more of a respectable distance removed from her throat it was a little less menacing, but Leah could still feel its presence. From what she remembered she was wearing a T-shirt with baggy jeans, her hoodie still on her armchair inside the home. She quickly glanced over Valda’s barely warrior-esque outfit in tones of green and brown. Her shirt was basic, deep green, short sleeved, a dark brown corset wrapped around her waist, over her breasts and resting in her neck like a halter top, which was the only thing that looked remotely sturdy. Her items rested mostly on her hips, entangled in belts, except for her bow and spear, resting on her back. Her trousers were two tones of brown, striped, cinched just below her knee, leaving her legs half bare, all the way to her brown boots, which reached just above her ankles. Not much of camouflage in a desert with pinkish sand, but Leah knew it would serve Valda well in a ton of other areas in her world. This world, that Leah was also currently occupying…

“Look, like I said, I have no weapons. So could you, maybe, you know, lower yours?” Leah bartered. 

Squinting momentarily, Valda did as Leah asked, though from the tension in Valda’s shoulders Leah could tell she wasn’t at ease just yet, still suspicious. 

“What are you doing here? Where are you from?” asked Valda, sheathing her spear on her back where it stuck like magic. “And how do you know my name?” 

Leah scoffed. “As if anyone here doesn’t know your name?” Valda’s eyes narrowed again. “It’s… hard to explain,” Leah finally sighed when Valda didn’t relax.

Valda crossed her arms over her chest. “Try me.” 

A sigh of relief escaped Leah’s lips. She wasn’t there yet, but at least Valda was willing to listen to her, which was a start. “Okay, put simply, I’m not from this world,” she started. “I’m… Fuck, how do I even explain this. You’re a game in my world. I can watch from a distance, through my TV, and control yo—” Leah stopped herself. “Control certain characters,” she amended. Valda blinked rapidly, as if debating whether or not Leah was messing with her. “I know, it’s insane, but—”

“Let’s say you’re telling the truth,” Valda interrupted, holding up a hand to shush Leah. “Why in Delphina’s name would you come here knowing what it’s like?”

“That’s… It would significantly lengthen the story, if you want to know all of it.” Leah frowned. “And I don’t know who that is.”

“Delphina is a goddess that most of my people believe in.” Valda looked up at the sun before walking past her into the home. “I’ve got a little bit of time to spare. And I wanted to check this place out anyway.” 

Now it was Leah’s turn to blink rapidly, confused and full of disbelief as she followed Valda inside. 

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You want to study… What was it?” Valda had her nose buried in the chest Leah had spotted earlier. Its strange looks made a lot more sense once she had followed Valda in and Valda beelined for it. Of course it held items for Valda to take. She couldn’t wait to ask Valda all about how she knew what to take and what was off limits, but it would have to wait until after her interrogation. 

“Game Development.” 

“You want to study Game Development and to make sure this will definitely suit you, you decided to step into a world you’re not familiar with—Delphina may know the technicalities—and you expect me to simply let you tag along and ask questions about every goddess damned breath I take.” 

Leah flinched at Valda’s words, before muttering, “Well, if you put it that way it sounds like a terrible idea.” Leah had barely finished her sentence or Valda butted in.

“It is a terrible idea.” Valda was visibly frustrated with Leah’s stupidity, when her eye fell on Leah’s armchair. She walked over and inspected it, walking around it and tentatively touching its fabric. “Is this yours?” 

“It is,” Leah answered truthfully. 

“Do you live here? The blanket seems way too warm,” Valda noted, before lifting the offending blanket to her nose and sniffing it. “What animal is this made of?” 

Leah scrunched her nose at that. “It’s not made of anything animal. I’m a vegetarian.” 

“A what?” 

“I don’t eat meat. And do my best to avoid other animal products while I’m at it.” 

“You mean a plant-eater?” 

Leah rolled her eyes, remembering the term from when she played the game. “I guess.” She checked her watch, wondering how much time had passed. 9.17 pm. No wonder her stomach was rumbling like crazy. 

“Whoa, does that work?” Valda asked.

Leah frowned, assuming she had meant the bracelet. “I mean, I hope so. It’s supposed to get me back home.” 

“An old, start of the century wrist clock is what allows you to travel here?” 

“What? No! The bracelet does.” Leah scoffed. “And my watch is not that old!” 

“At least five hundred years. If not more.” 

Leah could vaguely recall something about the year in which Echoes took place, but she had forgotten the exact number. Out of habit she felt around her pockets for her phone, ready to look it up, only to remember that she had used it to video call Kit and hadn’t thought to grab it. That is, if she’d even been able to do so with how fast it all went. This was going to make taking notes so much harder. When Leah’s eyes went to Valda again, she noticed Valda had tensed again, hand reached back as if to grab her spear, only relaxing slightly when Leah stopped searching her pockets. Before Leah could say anything, Valda started speaking again. 

“Look, Leah, I want to believe you. I do. But—”

“But you don’t.” 

“No,” Valda said bluntly. “And frankly I don’t have time to let an inexperienced fighter tag along with me.” 

Leah scoffed. "Who said I’m inexperienced?” Valda put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow. Not another word was necessary. Leah chewed her bottom lip as she thought. There had to be a way to convince Valda that she was telling the truth and for her to appeal to Valda’s curiosity enough to let Leah tag along. Desperate, she looked around the room, feeling as if a pair of hands were ever so slowly getting to her throat, cutting off Leah’s air supply. If Valda didn’t take her with, all she could do was go back home. 

It came to Leah out of the blue. 

“Check your quest log,” she suggested, earning another quizzical look from Valda. “If I would be from here, I would probably have a quest for you, right? Normally you don’t interact with people all that much, unless they need you for something.” 

Curiosity got the better of her, prompting Valda to do as Leah suggested. Her right hand moved up and made a couple of swift movements in mid-air, her eyes scanning as if she were reading something. Leah couldn’t see anything, aside from a faint, bluish glow on Valda’s face, reflecting in her eyes, and a sort of blurry square in the air where Leah suspected the interface was. The further Valda read, the wider her eyes went until, with a swift flick of Valda’s wrist, the blur and blue glow disappeared. 

“Strange,” was all Valda muttered, barely loud enough for Leah to hear. She seemed to be mulling it over, reaching for a flask at her hip and taking a sip, as if that would help. Would Valda need food and water like Leah did? 

“Is there any information in these papers?” Leah asked then, pointing towards the table littered with information she couldn’t read. “They’re not in English, so I can’t read any of them.” 

“English is pretty much a dead language. Not many speak it anymore.” Valda glanced over the table. “How come you don’t speak Common?” Now Leah crossed her arms and raised a brow. “Right,” Valda filled in. “Not from here.” Without further conversation, Valda put her flask on the table and grabbed a sheet of paper, letting her eyes move over it before picking up the next. Her finger trailed each line as she read it, taking her sweet, sweet time. For some reason, Leah had expected her to simply look at text and have the ability to absorb every single word within seconds. Leah tapped her foot, grateful for the first time that she wasn’t wearing shoes so that Valda wouldn’t notice.

Or so she’d thought. Valda all too soon told her to stop tapping. “What does it say?” Leah asked, instead of getting annoyed with the one person she intended to tag along with. 

“It’s mostly Echoes’ research. It looks like some sort of plan for a device to make the machines obedient. It also mentions something vague about opening a portal, but it’s unclear if that’s what they were after or if it’s just a side note.” 

Leah shivered. “This house belongs to one of the Echoes?” 

“The Echoes aren’t really the problem anymore,” Valda sighed. “It’s that cult within them that causes problems.” Leah frowned, wondering why the hell the game was named after a group of people who weren’t even the main characters. “Besides, this place looks abandoned. I don’t think whoever lived here is coming back anytime soon.” 

A thick silence hung between them, during which Leah gave Valda her very best puppy eyes. Not that Valda noticed, too busy looking at something in her quest log from the looks of it, that blur appearing in between them again. 

“So,” Leah started, trying to prompt Valda to say something.

“So?” Valda repeated, voice going up a little, making it a question. 

“So, where are we going from here?” 

Valda closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, before meeting Leah’s eyes again. And fuck, Leah was grateful that she no longer looked ready to kill her. 

“Look, Leah…” 

She did not like where this was going. 

“I don’t think I can take you with me. I have quests to fulfill, problems to solve, machines to fight… With all due respect, you do not strike me as a fighter at all, let alone an experienced one.” 

Leah’s cheeks heat up, her hands balling into fists at her side. “I’m a quick learner! I told you, I just need to figure out what this game”—fuck, she hadn’t meant to say that, and now Valda flinched—“what this world is about and I can’t do that without help.” Another silence, thicker and heavier than the last. Shorter, too, due to Leah’s impatience. “Please?” 

For a moment, Leah thought Valda might say yes, but she still shook her head no. Leah’s shoulders sagged, that bout of anger she felt earlier draining out of her all at once, defeated. 

“Okay.” Leah replied. Anything else she would say would be unfriendly, so she kept her mouth shut. “Thanks anyway. For saving me from that Guardian.” 

“No problem. Maybe we’ll run into each other again.” It felt like a kindness, not something she genuinely meant, to Leah. 

“Yeah.” 

Without saying goodbye, Valda turned and exited the small house, leaving Leah to her own devices. Literally. 

Leah eyed her bracelet, felt her pocket for the remote, and found both to be safe and sound. A part of her almost wished she couldn’t go back, and she found herself lingering when she should just accept defeat and go home. She checked her watch, unsure of the time with how light it still seemed to be through the small window. It was 22.35 pm, four and a half hours since she arrived. It wasn’t what she had hoped, but it would have to make do. At least she had gotten small glimpses of how Valda worked, what caught her interests, how helpful she was, though nothing much more than what she had gleaned from simply playing the game from the outside. Something she could tell Kit about.

She glanced over the papers and books once more, but there really wasn’t a single word to be found in a language she could read. 

Finally accepting her defeat, Leah put her hoodie back on and pushed the sleeves up her arms, exposing the bracelet. She got into her armchair and, without any more hesitation, pressed the button on her bracelet to go back home, waiting for that light to envelop her again, assuming it would be much the same the other way around.

Except that nothing happened. 

She took a deep breath and pressed the button again, closing her eyes this time. It was likely she had closed her eyes the first time. Maybe it was part of the trip.

Still nothing. 

Leah’s heart started pounding again, trying a third time, pressing longer and harder. This time, the sweat gathering on her back was cold. Pissed off at the bracelet, she shoved a hand in her pocket for the remote, grateful she’d thought to bring it. She sat back in her chair, getting comfortable and forcing herself to take a deep breath before pressing it. When she did, she closed her eyes.

And still, nothing happened. Not even when she had sat and waited with her eyes closed, counting down one minute. And another. And a third, to be safe.

Leah’s mouth went dry as she tried everything she could think of, making sure she copied all her circumstances exactly from when she arrived. Sleeves of her hoodie down. Buried under her blanket. Eyes open, eyes closed. None of it changed a thing.

With a shaky breath, Leah whispered, “Well, fuck…” as the severity of her situation began to dawn on her;

She was well and truly stuck.