I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 104 - Into the Woods

It felt good to walk.

Evangeline took her time stepping over the roots and through the brush under the trees in the surrounding forest. It had been a long time since she had been simply alone and it was like eating a chocolate bar after a two week fast. Way more delicious than it had any right to be.

The walk was part of a test her and the party were doing, to see how far they really could get from each other, especially after Blue had revealed another little trick of the collars that none of them had realized, but he had after reading the runes. As long as one member of the party was within 100 ft of another, they could separate further from each other in a line, which could allow one of them a maximum of 500 ft from the initial person in the line.

They were testing it now with Valerian being the beginning point, since he was still pinned down by the sun. Already, following down the line, they had started out as four and continued walking until they reached the end of the tether, then one would stay behind and the others would keep going.

"Now there is just me left," Evangeline said, as she picked her way along. If it wasn't for the trees, she knew she would probably be able to see Hagor behind her and if she shouted he would definitely hear her.

But he wouldn't be able to come to her.

"I suppose that's the risk with doing this technique," she said out loud to herself. They were still locked in, just in a different way.

And just like that the collar pulled on neck, bringing her up short. She didn't push it, she knew there was no point, but that was it.

500 feet.

Stepping back to a nearby log, she sat down on it and sighed. All around her the trees swayed in the breeze, birds chattered and an occasional twig snapped somewhere nearby.

Evangeline knew she needed to get back to the others, that they were waiting on her, but it just felt so good to sit quietly and think for a minute.

As she sat there, she realized that she had no real sense of how much time had passed since she had been sucked up into this real life version of the game.

"It's all just game," she said out loud to make the reminder feel more real.

There weren't any real consequences, she was free to do whatever she wanted.

It was just a game.

"So why doesn't it feel like it's all just a game."

She thought back to her little apartment and her gaming set up. The hours she had put in on this quest alone. She had always avoided the pathway that led her to needing to make a choice on whether to assassinate First Lady Enrichetta or not. And if Valerian hadn't gotten his amulet stolen, they would have been on the other side of that conflict. The quest would have been to figure out and stop whoever was planning on assassinating her before it was too late.

If only there was a way to go back and be on the right side of this quest.

Opening her menu, Evangeline flipped through the translucent boxes floating before, looking at every line and box for some clue as to how to go back to a previous time. A previous save.

But she found nothing other than her stat window, her inventory, her relationship trees, her skills tree and abilities list, and finally her background and note blocks. No save or load page. No user page or account settings.

Scrubbing her face she groaned. "It's just a game," she repeated, "It shouldn't matter what I choose to do. Assassinations should be fun. It's just a game."

But it didn't feel like a game. And no matter how hard she tried to play this character, this rogue with no regrets and a terrible crush on a vampire, she just didn't like pretend. And she couldn't escape who she really was.

"Meta?" she asked out loud, for the first time daring to directly address the one who brought her here. "Can we talk? Please?"

She waited, but all she heard was the wind blowing.

"I need some clarification, okay?" she continued. "Like, does anything I do here actually matter? And is there something I'm supposed to be doing here? Or am I just supposed to play the game? Do I really only get one shot at things?"

She turned around on the log to look back the way she had come. "I want... what do I want? If I only get one chance to play this game, what story do I want to tell?"

No answers came and she sighed with exasperation. "And what about Valerian? I got into this whole thing because I wanted... a real chance with him, but nothing has gone right. I mean, I finally started the romance thread with him, but nothing else is happened since..." Remembering that night where they were closer, she touched her lips in memory of his. "Why hasn't something more happened? What am I supposed to do?"

Do I even want something more to happen? she didn't dare to ask audibly.

"He's just been a whiny child since we left Two Trees."

"Yes, that does sound like my brother. He can be quite the sulker when he doesn't get his way."

Passive Perception. Failure.

Evangeline jumped as Reverie appeared from around a large tree just a few feet away. She hadn't noticed or sensed the vampiress at all. And around her neck was Valerian's pendant, the Midnight Sun. She brushed a finger over it as Evangeline's gaze landed there. "It's simply not fair that big brother gets all the best toys. This pendant really is a wonder to have."

She stepped further from the tree into a patch of sunlight, her face lifted to its glow. She put her hands out on either side of her and spun in place, letting the harmless radiant energy play over her skin.

"What are you doing here?" Evangeline asked.

Reverie stopped her twirling. "I'd like to have a word with my brother's... whatever you are."

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