— CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE —

  Art... is Art

  -Fritz-

  I shivered and pulled my arms into the sleeves of my shirt. As night fell in the city, a fog rolled in from the lake, coating the streets in a dense, chilly mist. The high apartments could see it washing through the streets, rolling and curling as it broke on the buildings like a tide in slow-motion.

  On the ground, all the tropical charm of the resort city had vanished. The neon signs - vibrant pinks, electric blues, luminous greens - flickered in the gloom, and it was very much a late fall night. My breath fogged in the air, and Lucy rubbed her bare arms beside me, bouncing from one foot to the other.

  "Why didn't we bring coats?" Her teeth chattered as she spoke.

  "Because this place is supposed to be nice. Do you have any armor you could swap into?"

  "Only metal. Gah! How long is this going to take?!"

  We were huddled in an alley in a dark corner of the city a handful of blocks from the hotel. Most of the neighborhood was rentable space for player-owned shops, but with the slow rate of adoption of independent businesses, that left the place in an abandoned state. Across the street from us, a row of vacant, undecorated stores with 'For Rent' signs lined the strip.

  They were all empty, except for one. It looked like all the others - same blank windows and empty displays. But the door was locked, and the ownership panel listed it under the name 'Private'. No 'Coming Soon!' sign or anything to indicate what it was for - someone had deliberately left it to blend in with the other unused buildings.

  We had canvassed the entire sub-zone within the boundaries available to the location wipe glitch, and this was the only thing, other than the faulty hotel rooms, that was locked. This had to be our place. The question now was: How do we get in? We'd been watching the place, but no one had come or gone for hours, and we couldn't get through the door. As far as anyone knew, player-owned facilities were air-tight; you couldn't even pick into them with a good Thief level.

  Lucy kept squirming. "It's autumn! Why didn't we get winter coats at that clothing store!"

  "I've got some spare shirts you can layer up with. No long sleeves, though."

  "This is ridiculous!" she huffed. "Let's take a tour of the unit next door - they should have similar layouts. There might be a vulnerability we can exploit from the inside."

  I nodded. It was as good a plan as any. We took a glance up and down the street. It was as empty as it had been all night, so we darted across to the neighboring unit. Lucy pulled up the ownership menu on the access panel and started a one-hour tour. The door clicked open and she rushed inside. I followed close behind, shutting the door firmly as I crossed the threshold.

  It was like stepping out of a storm. The building was still cold, but without the wind carrying the fog and the sudden still silence, it could have been a summer's day. We both heaved a sigh, our tense muscles loosening.

  The store's sample layout was a copy of many of the generic NPC shops - aisles formed by chest-high shelves, a couple of sad, empty display cases by the front windows, and a service counter along the back wall. Behind the counter, however, was something different - a narrow corridor, hidden behind a partition wall.

  I reached over and squeezed Lucy's arm, pointing it out with a tilt of my chin. She nodded. Silently, we crept over to investigate. The hallway was bare, just someplace to put some extra boxes, but on the side facing away from the street was a plain, unassuming door.

  Lucy reached for the handle, glancing at me. I drew my spear and did my best to get in a defensive position in the cramped space, and she turned it slowly.

  The door swung open to reveal a cavernous, warehouse-like space. The room swallowed what little light spilled in from the shop floor, our shadows stretching long and dark across the concrete floor.

  Moonlight filtered in through narrow windows set high in the walls on three sides. It was just enough to make out the general shape of the space - the rentable shops were just a facade for a hollow core that stretched up the entire height of the high-rise. And it was empty. All of it, just blank, unused space. Except for the section behind the shop we'd been watching. There, a monolithic block of a structure occupied a large chunk of the warehouse. I got a flashlight out of my inventory and walked around it, footsteps echoing loudly. It was all plain stone - no windows or doors.

  "What is this?" I asked.

  "My guess? This is extra space for the shop owners." Lucy said. "Remember that clothing store? It had an elevator to a higher floor."

  "So someone's hiding a whole... lair behind that empty storefront?"

  "Must be. Do you see any doors?"

  "No, nothing."

  Lucy frowned at the back wall of the shop thoughtfully. "This add-on takes up the space behind several of the shops on this level. Look." She pointed, and I saw she was right - the monolith spanned the width of at least four of the rental spaces.

  I said, "Man, I can see this free-for-all extra space thing getting brutal fast. Imagine leasing a shop just to find a scalper's blocked off your back room. They could hold it hostage, make you pay a premium to expand.

  "That's too foreseeable; there must be a mechanic to prevent something that blatant." She looked at the wall for a moment longer, then turned on her heel. "Maybe we should find out." She strode back through the door into the shop we were touring. I hurried to follow.

  She paused at the shop's entrance, checking the street. It was still utterly deserted. We then ran down to the store immediately adjacent to our target. Lucy accessed the interaction panel and put down a payment for a month's rent.

  "That's the last of my part of the Oxtongue money." she said as she opened the door and made a beeline for the back hallway.

  "I'll buy you breakfast."

  We headed into the back, and Lucy tried the door there. It popped up with a menu asking if she would like to rent additional space. "Forget the breakfast; I'm going to need it now." I passed her most of what I had left, keeping a few marks for inn rooms.

  The map that came up to let her outline her additional space showed the other shop's territory ate up the space right in front of our door. She couldn't add any new space, but there was a small default chunk selected when the menu was opened, allowing her to overwrite a slice of the corner.

  When she confirmed the purchase, nothing appeared to happen, but the door clicked. She turned the handle and it opened. Inside was a space much larger than what we paid for - the back room of the dummy store.

  "Huh," I said, stepping inside behind her. "Is that a bug or intentional?"

  "Who cares?" Lucy moved further into the dim room. "Oh!"

  I followed her gaze. It wasn't a room at all. It was an art gallery.

  The space was dark and silent. It was an exhibition hall with amateur paintings of people on the walls. Between them, the starring show of the hall, was two lines of pedestals with busts. Real, human busts, cut off from their torsos at the clavicle. They were gagged and sleeping, some of them swaying slightly as they breathed.

  "Are they... alive?" I whispered. I reached out to touch a man, to wake him, but I couldn't do it. It was too... creepy.

  There were eight of them in the hall. Lucy whispered, "I only recognize a few of them from the dossier photos."

  "Jesus Christ; what is this? And what are we supposed to do now?"

  "Let's start by moving them into my store - get them safely away from... this place." Lucy reached out to pick up one of the busts, but she recoiled away in disgust. She tried several times, but couldn't make herself touch the heads.

  I told her, "You go search the rest of this place - see how big it is and find Percy. I'll... move them."

  She nodded and tip-toed out of the room.

  I mustered my courage and poked one of the busts until the man woke up. He blinked at me with wide, teary eyes. I smiled and waved awkwardly. "I'm going to, uh, ungag you here."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I gingerly reached into the man's mouth and pulled out the gag. The man started to cry. Trying to keep quiet, he sobbed, "I thought I'd never see another person again!"

  "Don't worry; we're getting you out of here. I'm going to move you into the other store here real quick." I tentatively reached out and cupped my hands around the man's neck at the base of his head, carrying him in front of myself. "Is that, er, comfortable?"

  "There's nothing comfortable about any of this!" the man said. "That man is insane! He keeps us trimmed and groomed like hedges or something!"

  I walked into Lucy's store. "So would you rather have a shelf, or be put on the counter here, or...?"

  The man said, "Anything I can lean back against would be good - I've been stuck on a pedestal for weeks!"

  I set the man's bust on an aisle shelf, leaning back against the backboard. "Sit tight there a minute."

  "Hah-hah." the man said, rolling his eyes. Then, more sincerely, "Thanks again!"

  I went back into the gallery of horrors and gently prodded the next person awake - a woman this time. She looked at me in fear. "Don't worry; I'm here to get you out!" I said. "Now I'm going to take this out of your mouth here - don't panic."

  She blinked at me rapidly as I tugged at the thing in her mouth, removing the gag. The woman let out a scream. I flinched and waved my hands. "Don't-! I'm here to help-!"

  I was cut off as something whacked into the back of my head. I can't remember a thing after that.

  {Lucy}?"Ahh!" a woman screamed.

  A series of crashes echoed through the dark gallery, then something muffled the scream. I took cover at the side of a doorway. I was in a completely different hall full of busts, but none of them were Percy! Just how many victims were there?!

  To complicate matters, the commotion woke all of the... 'residents' up. They were in various states of panic, some trying to turn and look in my direction, others trying to scream through their gags. I drew my bow. It wasn't an ideal weapon for the cramped hallways, but it was the only one I had. Nocking an arrow, I tried to listen in on what was happening in the rest of the gallery, but the scuffling and murmuring of the busts made it difficult.

  One of them - a man - wriggled back and forth, looking at me pleadingly. I cut my hand across my throat and whispered, "Quiet down! You're going to give away my position!" The man just kept wiggling.

  In frustration, I stepped over and yanked the gag from his mouth. "What?!"

  The man whispered, "Command Sharp: Equipment: Weapon One: Drop."

  A pistol spawned in the air in front of him and started to fall. I quickly caught it and turned it over. A revolver.

  "It's got five shots." the man whispered. "No cooldown between them but slow to reload. Aim for the head."

  I nodded. "Got it." My bow despawned as the pistol equipped itself to me. I cocked back the hammer, the metallic click echoing in the dark hall.

  Creeping toward the doorway, I could hear scuffling coming from the room we had entered from. Peeking through, I saw Fritz's legs splayed in the middle of the room, the top of his torso hidden behind some fallen pedestals. There was a dark, bunched up form on top of him, cursing and grumbling as they... I didn't want to imagine what.

  It was far too dark to get a clear shot. Instead, I backed off.

  A main hallway stretched between the exhibition rooms, lit only by the dim moonlight filtering through a skylight above. At the back of the store, it split to either side in a T-junction. I pressed myself against the wall, hiding around one of the corners. With a flick of my wrist, I opened the messaging menu and positioned it so that the glowing blue frame of the window was peeking out into the hall. I pinned it in place, then darted across the hall to conceal myself behind the other corner.

  Reaching into one of the pouches on my belt, I retrieved the Oxtongue medal. With a swift motion, I chucked it across the hall. It shattered a vase with a loud crash. The scuffling sounds immediately ceased. I waited, shrouded in darkness, gun aimed steadily at the corner of the main hallway.

  A shadow crept closer to the corner. Like a cat, it lingered at the edge, ready for the pounce. Then, it struck. With a shout, a figure leapt around the corner, swinging a sledgehammer. It passed harmlessly through my floating UI, slamming into the wall with a reverberating slam.

  I snapped my aim to their head and fired. A fraction of a second too late. They turned, the bullet grazing their cheek. It scraped off a narrow slice of texture, exposing a scar of shimmering blue wireframe. A small puff of sapphire dust billowed out from the wound.

  Enraged, they charged at me, hammer raised high. Panicking, I fired three more times in rapid succession. The gun's recoil dragged my aim around erratically. One bullet tore through their chest. Another pierced the shaft of the hammer. The final shot, just as they loomed over me, struck right between the eyes.

  With a choked gasp, they went limp. The hammer slipped from their grasp, brushing against me as they collapsed forward. I stumbled back, catching myself against the wall. Drawing in a shaky breath, I took a closer look at my attacker.

  Al Bert. The clothing store owner.

  I didn't know what to make of it. In truth, there wasn't much going on in my head at that moment. Just the rush of blood and adrenaline. He wasn't moving. Not dead, but a hit to the head like that - he'd be out for hours.

  I caught my breath, trying to calm my racing heart. It was over. We were safe. But we still hadn't found Percy.

  The T-junction hallway led to a third exhibition room at the back of the property. Half-decorated, with only some of the pedestals occupied. And there, on one of them, a redheaded boy wiggled, trying to brush a strand of hair from his face.

  Relief washed over me as I hurried over and ungagged him. Percy looked up at me with that goofy smile of his. "Hey Lucy."

  I stared at him incredulously. "Hey? That's all you have to say? Hey?!"

  "Well, what do you want me to say?" He paused. "Oh, heads up - that guy's coming up behind you. In the doorway."

  I whirled around to see Al crawling towards me, syringe in hand. I let out an undignified scream, jumping maybe six feet into the air. Without hesitation, I fired my last shot into his head. He went limp, the syringe clattering to the floor. I kicked it across the room for good measure.

  "Command Sharp: Equipment: Slot Eleven: Drop." Percy said. In a shimmer of light, his sword materialized in front of his pedestal and fell to the ground with a clang. "I recommend cutting his arms off. For safety."

  I nodded, retrieving the sword. "Yeah, good call."

  With a few swift slashes, I severed Al's arms and legs, reducing him to a helpless torso. Then I rushed to check on Fritz. He was alive, but badly dazed with multiple hammer wounds to the head. The madman had begun 'trimming' him into a bust. A saw lay discarded on the ground beside him. Fritz's left arm was gone, deep gashes carved into his torso, glowing faintly with exposed wireframe.

  This was beyond me. Too many people needed help. I couldn't do this alone.

  Grabbing Al's torso, I dragged him outside and down the street until I reached a main avenue. Flagging down a passing World Guard patrol, I watched as they mobilized. Within half an hour, the entire garrison was swarming the macabre museum.

  I had to explain the story a dozen times as I helped them move people out onto stretchers for transport to city hall. 23 in total - 10 cases completely unknown to the Guard. The only thing we could do was to let them recover naturally. In theory, their bodies would regrow like any other lost limb. At the very least, voice commands would allow them to contact their friends and loved ones.

  By the time it was all sorted out, morning had come. A crowd of curious onlookers had begun to gather, drawn by the scale of the operation. Exhausted, I just wanted to put this whole nightmarish affair behind me. Before the reporters from the Celestial Daily could descend upon us, I grabbed Percy's bust and helped a groggy, one-armed Fritz to his feet. We stumbled away from the growing throng and made our way down to the beach. Just as the sun began to peek over the horizon, dying the ocean in crystalline oranges and golds, we collapsed onto a bench and watched it glitter like a giant piece of amber.

  I cradled Percy's bust in my lap as Fritz got himself a mai tai. "Uh, can you hold this for me for a sec?" he asked, holding out the drink.

  I took it, and he rummaged in his pouch for a small vial. He uncorked it with his teeth and dumped the contents into the cocktail. Then he gulped down half of the drink.

  Leaning back on the bench, Fritz let out a contented sigh. "Ah, that's the stuff."

  "What was that?" I asked.

  "Regen potion we got off a quest. Helps limbs grow back faster." He held out the half-finished drink to Percy. "You want some?"

  Percy's bust shook slightly in my lap. "No thanks. I can still feel the... tranquilizer or whatever he injected me with."

  "You sure? I know you don't like the mind-altering stuff, but this one might be worth the discomfort."

  "You kidding me? How often do you get to be carried around like a trophy? I'm not in any rush!"

  Fritz chuckled, shaking his head. "Alright, man. Suit yourself."

  He leaned in to look closer at Percy's face. "Hey, are you wearing eyeliner?"

  "Oh, yeah, that guy did my makeup. How do I look?" He flashed us a cheeky grin.

  Fritz barked a laugh. "You look great - like they could put you in a museum!"

  "Was it scary?" I asked.

  "Not really. I could see the group chat, so I knew you were coming. ... Thanks for that, by the way."

  "Come on." Fritz said, waving his hand dismissively. "You think we'd leave you hanging like that? You shoulda seen Lucy, though - she was chewing out the World Guard receptionist, practically stole the case files."

  I straightened my shoulders. "A good thing, too - their investigators were completely incompetent."

  "So how'd he do it?" Percy asked.

  We launched into an explanation of the teleportation glitch, the hotel's broken key system, and how we wormed our way inside.

  "Nice!" Percy exclaimed. "Hey, speaking of pushing the limits of the game, if I eat, will the food fall out of my base?" He glanced up at me. "Lu, would you spoon-feed me?"

  I couldn't help but smile. He reminded me of an excited toy dog - I could imagine him wagging his little tail. I just needed a purse to carry him around in. "Sure." I said, standing up. "There were some food carts over there yesterday."

  "Oh boy!" Percy cheered as we made our way down the beachside path.

  Fritz stretched his arm overhead, his Hawaiian shirt fluttering in the sea breeze. "So, what do y'all want to do with the rest of the vacation?"

  I hesitated, glancing at the distant city skyline. "... You know, I think I've had enough of this city for one trip."

  "What about the amusement park?" Percy asked.

  Fritz snorted. "Let's save it for next time - when Percy's tall enough to ride the rides."

  Percy snickered morosely. "Up yours!"

  ---

  Next Time:

  Halloween nears, and with it comes one of the game's seasonal events - the Festival of Hallowed Stars! Spooks and ghouls and all things that go bump in the night rise in the Capital. Meanwhile, frustrations are mounting at the Vanguard's lack of progress in the Citadel Gardens. In these dark nights, as the late-Autumn cold sets in, there may be only one way to keep the monsters at bay and thaw the tensions: a bonfire.

  Episode 9 - The Festival of Hallowed Stars