Sleep

Part 26

Tightening my fluttering lids against the light, I rolled over, cuddling back into my blankets with a deep sigh of content. I slept really well last night.

Wait.

Shooting up, I threw my head left and right, eyes wide. There's my window, open curtains letting in bright sunlight, and my dark wood side table on my wooden flood boards. Looking down, I noticed that my stomach was bare, the blankets pushed down and revealing the same bra I'd fallen asleep in. Staring at my own pale skin, I thought hard. There was absolutely no recollection of anything happening during the night. Had I slept the entire night?

Poking my little stomach rolls with a giggle, I laid down and rolled closer to my side table, picking up my phone.

It was still only early, about 7am, and none of my notifications were from the group message. Opening it up, I typed out my message, almost bouncing with excitement.

"LunaLirious- Did I pop up in any games last night? Did no one play?"

Ok, while I wait for a reply, my bladder is going to burst so...

_____

By the time my phone buzzed with a reply, I was sitting on my kitchen counter singing loudly with music. It'd taken a few hours, but they were probably all still asleep till now. Although, the reply was not what I expected.

"Ohmwrecker- I played with Vanoss, Mini, Lui, and Marcel. Like all night. We didn't see you at all?"

Pursing my lips, I clenched my free hand around the bottom of my knitted overtop, slowly sliding my thumb across my phone screen.

"LunaLirious- I went to sleep, but I slept all night. Do you think it's over?"

His reply was fast.

"Ohmwrecker- I think we should wait a few days to see, who knows."

_____

Currently, I was curled on the couch, laptop in front of me and opened to a page filled with businesses looking for workers. My search wasn't going well, all I had written on the sheet of paper I had was a small musical cafe that let poets and singers perform as quiet entertainment for customers. It wasn't exactly practical work, but I couldn't shake my childhood dream of being a singer.

Sighing and lifting my hand to rub my tired eyes, I glanced to the couch cushion beside me. It'd been a busy day of job searching, and I really wanted a nap. I suppose, now's as good a time as any to find out if I'll jump into a game again.

With a shrug, I laid down and yawned lightly, shutting my eyes.

It was almost like I blinked, my eyes closed away my warm living room and opened to a large warehouse building seconds later. Pushing myself up, I noticed with shock that I had no lower body. My torso and up was there, but as it got lower it was transparent, legs completely nonexistent. Or, invisible at least, because I could still entirely feel them.

Looking to my left, I noticed a long mirror, reflecting all the different sports equipment pieces spread around. Maybe a large gymnasium? Shrugging, I started toward a dart board, looking around the empty room as I went. The air was quite warm and the entire area was void of noise, leaving a strange feeling in its place.

Stopping next to the wooden bench near the board, I picked up a dart and aimed. I'd played darts a lot in a smaller pub I used to visit when my aunt, or great aunt, used to work there, but she'd passed away from old age a year ago. I was never as god as a lot of the regulars, but they'd always encouraged me to join them in the games of pool or darts.

Throwing the first dart, I hit the 20 in the largest part, and smiled. Picking up my next dart, I aimed for the 19. It took a few attempts to land it, but it wasn't bad considering I hadn't played in a while. The first dart appeared on the table as I went to grab another, and I grinned at the convenience of it.

While I played, I made sure to keep my ears alert for any movement around me, but no sound came. Surely if I appeared here, others were around. At that thought I decided that after my game, I'd search for people.

When I was at 13, there was a quiet swoosh sound across the room, followed by a pop, causing me to turn with a raised eyebrow.

"Where did everyone go?"

It was a voice I recognized immediately, so I called back to it.

"Delirious?"

Seconds later, a person materialized at the corner of a hall, before disappearing again. Not that they were hard to re-find, as anywhere they left or appeared, the same swoosh and pop followed.

They had a blue torso shape, and a head hovering above it with brown hair poking out from under a viking hat. A hovering hand raised up beside them when they spotted me, and they waved.

"Hey Luna."

Within seconds, Delirious appeared in front of me, and I stumbled backwards in surprise.

"Woah, it's like you're really here!" The large palms raised up, pressing against my cheeks gently. "Well, you're a little pixelated, but the Vive does that a bit." He added, voice coming through a shitty mic, noise symbol appearing above his head each time he spoke.

"Guess I'm not out of this mess then, hey?" I grumbled a little, before plastering a large smile across my face when I realised I didn't even say hello. "Also hey Del, how're you?!"

His laughter filled the quiet room, and the mouth on the face changed to a smile.

"I'm good, you?"

"I'm pretty good, a bit tired." I said, yawning automatically at the thought.

"But you got sleep last night?" He asked, walking past me and taking a dart.

"Was searching for a job all day, I got fired when I got stuck in GTA..." I trailed off, watching as he launched a dart and completely missed.

"Oh... Dude that sucks. I'm sorry." He said, glancing over to me, and I sighed and frowned, deciding to voice my concerns I'd been thinking about all day.

"Its just, what do I do to pay for my house when I can't even stay awake to work shifts? And what about when I'm recovering from getting out of a game?"

I just watched him play darts in silence for a while, before he turned back to me.

"We just have to find out why you didn't go into a game last night." He said decidedly, walking toward me and placing his hands on my shoulders. "Now, cheer up! Lets go play charades to take your mind off of it all. We'll work it out." His hand drops to mine, grabbing it in the surprisingly warm clasp of his own. Then we teleported, materialising across the room in the blink of an eye. It threw me off slightly, but as I stumbled into Delirious' characters torso, we disappeared again, appearing in a new spot with a pop.

"What about the guys? Are you recording?" I mumbled, trying to think through the dizziness I was feeling.

"I never record VR, I was playing online, but everyone disappeared when you got here." He said, dragging me toward a door with laughter bubbling from him.

(1212 words)

Hey guys! I've decided, no hold. I feel bad leaving it not updated. Although, slow updates still, because I always have trouble with getting updates done often. I always say I'll do better but I suck, no matter how hard I try.

Also, I apologise that I'm not taking the game recommendations you guys are giving! I admit, the ideas have been great, they'd be funny as hell XD but, I already know how the book is going, and there isn't really room to add other games. I really appreciate the comments and the fact that you're reading though.