InterLife

Chapter 9

Flashback.

"You want to do.. what?" Amancio frowned. "I know you think we don't have a life outside the game, but this is seriously pushing it."

We were standing in our lavish penthouse we had recently purchased for the four of us. We all paid one fourth of it, Amancio and me using our racing money and Athanase and Ambrose.. Sometimes I wasn't entirely certain how they got their money. Most likely something illicit. It had five bedrooms, three upstairs and two downstairs, an extensive living room and Ambrose had insisted on getting a nearly equally large kitchen. Apparently he loved cooking, which coming from the man who I had literally seen kick a puppy, was quite surprising. After looking for a couple weeks, being baffled by the ridiculously high prices and the consequent disagreement between the guys, we had finally settled on this one.

And I loved it.

Not for the soft light blue bedroom downstairs that the boys decided should be mine. The room that in every single way was an absolute contradiction to the entire crime city game outside. Not even the king-sized bed with the white canopy, the variety range of cloudy pillows or the glowing strings of little lights that were hanging all through the room was why I had been so persistent on buying this apartment. It was the view that came from being on one of the tallest skyscrapers in NWM, that made me treasure it so much. Just stepping onto the balcony and staring at the city beneath my feet, it could only be defined as magical. I had had a fear of heights, and a fear of a lot of other things, when I first started the game. It was Athanase that had told me that the best sights here came from the highest perspectives.

And so he took my hand and together we climbed my first building. He had told me to keep my eyes on him the entire time and kept on reminding me; it was just a game. None of it was real, there was absolutely no danger.

He would never put me in danger.

By the time we reached the top, he had smiled at me and told me he was fairly impressed. He told me the first time he and Ambrose climbed a building, Ambrose had felt so nauseous he had logged out and thrown up. Athanase had finished the climb on his own and as he arrived the top, he looked down; only to see that Ambrose had clearly forgotten that when he logged back in, he would still be at the exact same place. Well, sort of.

Ambrose forgot to actually hold onto the building and Athanase watched him plummet back to the ground. His brother never climbed another building again.

"I don't think it's that crazy, it could be fun," Ambrose retorted as he placed his feet on the coffee table. He was leaning backwards on the couch and grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Spending Christmas Eve and Day? In a game?" Amancio sighed. "Do none of you have any family that require your presence?"

"Ah! You see, all the family I need is right here," the brown haired brother gestured at the rest of us. "I find it a wonderful idea Ace! Amancio, you can even invite that girlfriend of yours, what was her name? Lucy?"

Amancio groaned. "Lily, and she's not my girlfriend, we just.. hang out."

"Naked hanging out?" Ambrose raised his brow suggestively, before Amancio grabbed a pillow from behind his back and swung it at his friend. "None of your business," he grumbled under his breath.

I laughed softly, then turned towards Athanase who was shoving dishes into the dishwasher. "How about you? Will you spend Christmas Eve and Day here with us?"

Athanase looked up and for a moment he seemed to hesitate. His eyes skimmed from me to Ambrose, like he was having a silent conversation with his brother. He nodded: "Yeah, it sounds more fun than anything Ambrose had planned. Haven't you got any plans with your parents though?"