Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 14

Reid moved his butt a little on the edge of his bed until he felt comfortable again. His phone slipped slightly in his sweaty palms. He had written and rewritten the message to Maple and Issac a dozen times now. Sometimes it had everything: dimensions, Gilphorus, Marrus. Sometimes only one of them. Sometimes none.

Reid ran his fingers through his hair, feeling some of the natural grease that had built up from the day. He ran into a little rough patch, a small scab of unknown origin. Maybe he picked it up in Hollow Twilight, maybe he just bumped his head at some point. It wasn't uncommon for him to find mystery cuts or bruises on his body.

There was a shuffling in the hall as Reid's dad moved from the living room to his own bedroom, packing it in for the night. When Reid had logged out, he had noted the time. Barely any had passed. He had spent the rest of the evening wrestling with what he would send his friends.

Finally he decided on something in the middle. He would let them know about the boss and the fact that he had some sort of shadow powers. But they didn't need all the details. Gilphorus would remain his own problem. The app would remain a game as far as his friends knew and he would just make sure nothing happened to them.

His phone started to buzz immediately as his friends responded. He glanced at the reactions and sometimes threw in an emoji of his own to keep up before tossing his phone to the side and falling onto his back. His ceiling was blank but his head was buzzing. He wanted to express...something to someone, he just didn't know what.

Reid fumbled his hand around, searching for his phone. He already regretted throwing it aside. What else was he going to do in his room? It was basically empty. He immediately felt the allure of Hollow Twilight the second it appeared but thought better; that was enough for one night. He flipped into his texts, spotting out Reily's in an instant.

Reid: r we walkin tomorrow?

Reid gulped. He felt the nerves slowly travel down his throat. He had sent it off before his anxieties could catch up and stop him.

Reily: no lol

Reid's heart stopped. For a full second, nothing moved in his body. All the prior fears of this trap flooded back. What an idiot he was for thinking someone would even want to ta-

Reily: its a saturday?

The vibration from Reid's phone shook his body back to life. How could he be such an idiot? So quick to jump to the worst possible outcome. He could almost hear echoes of Gilphorus laughing. That wasn't going to be fun if it was haunting him even outside of the game. He resisted the urge to check his own shadow.

Reid: rite im dum

This didn't help solve his problem. He had to discuss it. Somebody needed to know, even if it was in coded language to someone with no clue how Hollow Twilight worked. He would just have to hold it in and wait for a weekend. And possibly resist the urge to jump right back in and play it all over again.

Reily: i mean we can walk if u rly want

Reily: nobody at school

Reid: ya lets pretend to go to school like nerds

Reily: ok!

Reid dropped his phone to his side and stared at his fingers. They were buzzing with an excited energy. He felt it in his toes, on his tongue. It rippled over his face, pulling at the tight skin of his cheeks and wrapping around his ears.

Texting was special. Texting required choices. You could just send an "ok" and be done with it. But if you choose to add an exclamation point? What did that mean? It's not like you could accidentally slip and hit it. You had to change keyboards sometimes or just find the button. You had to go out of your way to send that. So you didn't just send it for no good reason.