— CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT —

  Bright Lights and Deep Shadows

  -Fritz-

  I was sitting out on the hotel veranda, legs kicked up on the railing, chair tilted back as I got my wake and bake on with a joint of dreamleaf. It was a nice, quiet day in the resort city - one of those perfect days when everything felt right.

  But sitting there, I was wondering what we were going to do next. We hadn't received any explicit news from Eagle, but I was absolutely sure we were not welcome in Faustenburg. Maybe they were letting us stew in silence to make us feel safe and let our guard down, then they'd nab us. Or maybe they just had bigger problems than us - who could say?

  Maybe we could talk to the Protectorate - see if they had any rumors or things that needed investigating, like what the mob would give us, but without the skullduggery. We could try and figure out where those Fringe guys got their flying mounts; that'd be a good discovery.

  Lucy walked out of the hotel and stretched, then collapsed into the chair across from me. "Morning."

  "Hey. Want a drag?" I offered her the joint.

  "No, thank you." she smiled politely. "Have you been giving Percy drugs this whole time?"

  "I've offered, but he doesn't like the stuff messing with his head. Likes to stay sharp or something. And god bless him for it! I wouldn't have gotten half as far with the stuff we've done without him."

  "So what time does he normally get up?"

  "Uh... earlier than me, actually." I pulled up the group chat.

  [Fritz Carlton]: Hey, Perce, you up?

  No response. I shrugged, "It's a vacation; let him sleep in. You want to get breakfast?"

  "That sounds lovely." Lucy said.

  "Do you have the guidebook?"

  "Percy does."

  "Of course he does." I stood and stretched out my legs. "Then I guess we're scavenging the old-fashioned way."

  We set off wandering through the streets until we found a diner and got a good ol' full English to start the day. By the time we'd finished, it was nearly 11 AM and still no word from Percy.

  As we headed back to the hotel, I said, "We should get to the amusement park soon if we want to hit everything, so I'll knock on his door. What was his room number again?"

  Lucy paused in thought. "It was... 317."

  We climbed the stairs to the third floor and found his room. I rapped my knuckles against the wood, but the moment I touched it, the door swung inward. It hadn't been fully closed.

  "Hey bud, you good?" I called out as I pushed it open further.

  Lucy and I exchanged a look, then stepped inside. The room was vacant - and I don't just mean empty of Percy. It was completely undisturbed, like no one had ever been there at all. The bed was crisp and taut, the clock and lamp and flowers and accoutrement were neatly laid out on the nightstand and desk. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if Percy kept things that organized, but it was still suspicious.

  "Are you sure this was his room?" I asked.

  She pulled up her menu and navigated to her friends list, then held it out for me to see. Next to Percy's name, where his location should have been, was only a blank space.

  "Well... damn."

  ---

  The World Guard garrison was stationed in Florin's city hall - a white marble building dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers and set apart from them by a park that occupied the whole block surrounding the building. Walking inside, the only player in the lobby was a nerdy little guy with big glasses and a button-up sitting behind the counter shuffling a bunch of paperwork. He glanced up as we approached.

  "Hey, we've got a missing person to report." I said.

  The attendant sighed, looking unsurprised. "Another one?" He picked a form out of a stack and slid it across to us. "Fill out as much of that as you can. Do you have a photo?"

  "I... don't, actually." I rubbed the back of my neck. "He's not big on photos. I have some that he happens to be in, but nothing with a good view of his face."

  I scrolled through my photo album. Mostly it just showed me being an idiot in the foreground while he lurked in the background - or they were photos he took and sent to me.

  While I was looking for a good picture, Lucy asked, "What progress have you made on the other missing people?"

  "I'm sorry, but we can't share those kinds of details, Miss." The attendant gave a plastic smile.

  "Well, we could ask the newspaper for a picture of Percy." Lucy said. "They probably have one on file, seeing as he's a national hero."

  "What?" The attendant blinked owlishly behind his glasses.

  Lucy reached into a belt pouch, retrieved her Oxtongue medal, and slammed it down on the counter. The attendant flinched.

  "The two of us were in the raid that took down the first boss." Lucy stated. "And him?" she tapped Percy's name on the form. "He was the one that opened the gate. The one hand-picked by the World Guard as the single most instrumental piece in winning that battle." She leaned forward, blonde hair swishing. "Now, am I going to have to tell the Celestial Daily how he went 'missing' on your watch?"

  The attendant paled, stammering in the face of Lucy's controlled fury. "I-It's a small garrison and a very large city-"

  "Then accept the volunteer help!" she snapped.

  Looking like a frightened rabbit, the attendant scurried into a back room. I let out a low whistle as I filled in Percy's details on the form. "Nice girlbossing."

  Lucy retrieved her medal and tucked it back into her belt. She crossed her arms, jaw set. "There are some places where a foot needs to be put down. Frankly, I haven't done it enough around here."

  "Hey, can't argue with the results." I shrugged as the attendant returned, straining under a stack of files that he heaved onto the counter.

  "You... you cannot take these out of the building, but go ahead and look. This is everything we have." He retreated deep behind his desk.

  The files were dossiers on the other missing players. Lucy flipped through them, her frown deepening. "That's it? No extra interviews or case files? Just the initial reports?"

  "You would have to ask the primary investigator." the attendant mumbled.

  I pulled up my menu and switched to camera mode, snapping pictures of each dossier's pages. The attendant made a choking sound. "You can't do-"

  "What are you going to do to stop us, you self-appointed community moderator?" Lucy glared with the fury of the sun. The attendant melted like an ice cube in the heat, twiddling his thumbs and avoiding our gazes.

  Lucy said, "It looks like we're going to have to do all the ground work ourselves. Come on, it smells like incompetence in here."

  I stacked the dossiers back up and slid them to the attendant doing his best to hide behind a stack of papers, then we left.

  The salty sea breeze surrounded us as we settled at a table at a beachside cafe to go over the information. I went to order us some parfaits from the tiki bar while Lucy copied the details from the photos onto some loose paper, organizing the info into easier to arrange notes.

  As I set the fruity concoctions down, Lucy said, "Including Percy, there are thirteen missing people total. No consistency in sex, age, or any physical traits that I can see."

  Looking at the photos, I said, "I'll tell you one consistency - all these women are beautiful."

  "Fritz!" Lucy shot me an admonishing look.

  I held up my hands. "I'm just a man, man! I can't control the things I see!"

  She sighed and continued. "All of the missing people were visiting the city, not residents. Only five have known locations they vanished from. The rest were solo travelers, reported missing later by friends back in the capital. Three of them, Percy included, were staying at the same hotel as us. One was at a different place a few blocks away. The last one was supposed to stay at our hotel but never arrived. Every known disappearance spot is clustered in our area. That can't be a mere coincidence."

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I said, "That hotel was at the top of The Protectorate's recommendation list. Could it be a popularity thing? More traffic, more victims?"

  "Hmm, possibly. How does the Protectorate determine those recommendation rankings?"

  At that moment, a chime sounded and a message from Flora popped up in my field of vision.

  'I'm sorry it took so long, but the librarian just got back to me regarding Percy's query. Apparently it's a known system issue - whenever a player gets teleported, by any means, their location data bugs out and shows as unknown. It's benign; it fixes itself the next time they enter a new zone.'

  I quickly wrote a reply, 'Thanks Flora, you're a peach! Hey, are you still at the library? Could you ask about the source behind one of their recommendations? We need to know why a specific hotel is so highly rated in the Florin travel guide.'

  I read her message out to Lucy, who tapped her pen on the table. "That location glitch sounds like what we're dealing with here, on the location-hiding front. So does that mean there's a mechanic that is selecting people and taking them to a place they can't get out of? Although... the localized pattern and randomness of the victims feels more like opportunism - this could be done by a physical entity."

  "Maybe one of the NPC shopkeepers on the boardwalk got sick of the entitled tourists treating them like second-class citizens and is going on a rampage."

  "This is not the time for jokes, Fritz!"

  "I'm serious! You don't know what's going on in those things' heads! They remember things, and everyone ignores them!"

  She rolled her eyes. "Let's step away from that until there's any kind of evidence for it, shall we? This city is very devoid of NPCs, especially the 'lively' kind. But on the other hand, what would a player stand to gain from this? It can't be a simple robbery scheme - you can't actually take someone's items unless they are dead. Plus, how are they blocking all communication for so long? You can send messages purely with voice commands. You're sure the game's rules wouldn't allow for a kidnapping quest chain of some sort?"

  I shook my head. "Look, if you wanna talk hard evidence - I've never seen or heard about anything close to this."

  Lucy pursed her lips. "Okay then. Let's assume for the moment this is indeed the work of an individual or coordinated group exploiting that teleport glitch. I see two possibilities. One: They grab people, drag them to a spot that reliably triggers a location wipe via teleportation, then hold them captive there. Or two: They use something specific to their hunting grounds. In regards to the former, we know home tours last only a short time and trigger the location wipe."

  "Sure." I nodded. "But then you've gotta carry someone over to a rentable house without being seen."

  "That's true." she said. "The streets are well-lit, tourists are everywhere, and this has happened over a dozen times now, sometimes on sequential nights. It's brazen." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I think our best move is to investigate that hotel more closely. What makes it so special?"

  Just then, a message notification pinged in my vision. Flora coming in yet again. 'The recommendations are made by the librarians based on the reports they receive and their own research. In Florin's case, they have a bunch of letters from tourists describing their trips, all giving glowing reviews of the hotel. Funny to think, huh? There are people out there that spend their vacation time writing down the menus of all the local stores so other people can shop more conveniently. Oh, did I tell you I'm listed in the Protectorate's guide for Celestia Grand?!'

  'Congratulations, man, you're killing it!' I typed back.

  A few seconds later, she sent over a bundle of photos - snapshots of the donated letters she had mentioned. I forwarded the images to Lucy, and we read through them. Most focused on the hotel's bar and accompanying night life, the prime location with easy access to the rest of the city, and the rooms' furnishings.

  "I suppose it was adequate," Lucy said, "but I don't think there was anything worth writing home about."

  "Or writing the Protectorate about."

  "If you insist."

  I said, "The bar was deserted last night, too, which is its own vibe, but definitely no night life, especially on a Saturday. ... Hold up."

  Straightening up, I swiped back through a few of the letters. 'The night life here is alive.' 'But after hours, this place comes alive!' 'I'm telling you, these beaches, they're alive!' That was three separate letters.

  "Count up how many of times the word 'alive' is used in these things."

  She began rapidly flicking through the images, her eyes darting back and forth. After a minute, she looked up. "You're right. I'd say three-quarters of these letters describe something as 'alive'. That's... not the most common phrasing."

  Nodding slowly, I said, "I'm thinking these were all written by the same person. They were just sent in by random people, yeah? I doubt the librarians are checking too closely whether these reviewers actually exist."

  Lucy met my gaze. "We need to check that hotel."

  The hotel looked different in the harsh light of day. Standing out front, I realized how the surrounding high-rises seemed to pen it in, casting long shadows across the entrance. Everything felt more closed-off than I'd noticed the night before.

  Lucy spoke up. "You know, now that I think about it, the view wasn't great either. My room looked into the face of that other building."

  "Mine was facing the alley." I said. "But it's more of a practical location than one you want to spend time at, I guess."

  "Sure, sure."

  "The darkness does make it feel like someplace you could operate unnoticed, though."

  She nodded, then motioned toward the door. "So, should we start at Percy's room again?"

  "Works for me."

  We headed inside and rode the elevator up to the third floor. Percy's door was closed and locked now. Lucy and I paced up and down the hallway, examining the space.

  "The room keys are standard for inns." I noted. "24-hour temporary key."

  "That's way too long to use for triggering a teleportation glitch." Lucy said.

  "Yeah, and he should still have his key on him."

  She tapped a finger to her chin. "So we know he couldn't have been taken from his room. But he definitely got off the elevator on this floor..."

  We continued searching the hall but came up empty - no garbage chute, no ice machine, nothing useful. There was a window near the stairs at the end, but it didn't open.

  I sighed. "Gotta be the stairs then. Here, you be Percy, and I'll be the attacker."

  "Do you think he was unconscious?" Lucy asked.

  "He'd have to be. That kid fights dirty - nails out, biting clean through fingers. The only way anyone's getting him out of here is if he's out cold."

  Lucy leaned back into my arms, letting her body go limp. I hefted her up, locking my elbows under her armpits, and began to waddle backwards into the stairwell. Her legs thumped limply against the metal as we descended the tight switchback.

  "If someone comes to check on us," I grunted, "you gotta let 'em know you're okay."

  "Mmm." She mumbled in mock unconsciousness. "Where am I? What are you doing?"

  We made it down to the ground floor and I shouldered open the door to the lobby. Setting Lucy back on her feet, I glanced around, taking stock of our surroundings. There was a side door nearby, but the stairwell entrance was in full view of the entire lobby and adjoining bar.

  "No way you could get through here without being noticed." I said.

  "Didn't you say it was deserted last night?"

  "Yeah, but I was here until around midnight. And most of those recommendation letters mention the bar - that's like inviting people to watch your escape route."

  "Okay... But what about the roof?"

  And so I dragged her body back up the stairs, all the way up to the roof access.

  Setting Lucy down, I stretched my back with a grimace. "So it's possible, assuming our culprit has my... impressive strength and the victims are about your size."

  "Most of the missing are women." Lucy reminded me. We pulled up the dossier photos to double check. She was right - they all appeared to be on the smaller side, at least compared to me.

  "Okay, so they look carry-able. Could also be that bodybuilder types are just harder to knock out in an ambush." I said.

  Lucy walked to the edge of the roof, peering over. "Let's see if there's even a way down first before we worry about that."

  We circled the perimeter, but found no fire escape or any other means to descend from there. I mean, I guess the culprit could have used a parachute to jump into the alley, but that idea felt a bit too silly to bring up. Admitting temporary defeat, we headed back inside.

  Lucy asked, "The rooms are all the same layout, right?"

  "Usually, yeah." I nodded.

  "Then let's check inside my room next."

  We headed down to the fifth floor. Lucy swiped her key card and the lock clicked open.

  Inside, I gave the room a once-over. All standard stuff, as far as I could tell. There was a window that actually opened this time, but still no fire escape.

  Lucy, however, was staring at the messy bed in confusion. "I could have sworn I made my bed this morning..."

  "It's a hotel, Luce. Why would you bother making your bed?"

  "What am I, some kind of barbarian?"

  Suddenly, a disheveled man in pajamas came barreling through the open doorway behind us, panting heavily. "What the hell, man?!"

  I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey man, you good?"

  "No, I'm not 'good'!" He shouted, wild-eyed. "I was just trying to get some sleep on my day off, and then I got dumped outside! What did you two do?!"

  Lucy glanced at the door, then did a double-take. "Oh! This... isn't my room." She held up her key card. It said '506' while the door read '507'.

  I scratched my head. "Wait, then why did your key work?"

  Her eyes widened with sudden realization. Gently, Lucy guided the frazzled man back a step. "Sir, could you please use your own key to open the door?" Then she closed it in his face.

  A moment later, the world melted and reformed around us, and we found ourselves teleported outside, standing in front of the hotel's side entrance right by the alley.

  Lucy immediately checked her friend list and let out a victorious whoop, shoving her menu screen in my face. "Fritz, look!"

  I blinked at the display. Where my location had been was now just a blank space. "... I think we found our means. One hell of a bug in the key card system though." I opened up my own menu and filled out a bug report. "Now, how do we actually find Percy?"

  Lucy held up her fingers, ticking off points. "We know the location resets if you cross a sub-zone boundary, so he must be somewhere in this area. It'd need to be well-hidden from prying eyes. And large enough to hold at least thirteen people."

  I nodded slowly. "Alright. Let's get to canvassing then." Opening up the group chat, I sent off a quick message:

  [Fritz Carlton]: Hang tight, Percy! We've figured it out and we're on our way! See you soon!

  ---

  (Percival)

  My consciousness came back in the very loosest terms. The world was a haze, I couldn't tell which way was up, and I couldn't see or feel a thing. Occasionally, my head was jerked gently to the side, like I was being poked. No, it was my hair - there was something tugging on my hair. I tried to move, to twitch a finger or turn my head, but I wasn't getting anything back. It was all just... fuzzy.

  Then I heard a voice mumbling softly. Close behind me. "Look at that beautiful hair. So untamed, alive, like a wild fire. Absolutely beautiful." The tugging continued in rhythmic strokes. It was a brush. They were brushing my hair.

  Slowly, the world sharpened into focus around me. My mouth was not hanging slackly open - it was stuffed full by a gag. But that was about the only thing I regained feeling in. My arms were still unresponsive, and so were my legs.

  Shadows pressed in from all sides. As my vision adjusted, I could just make out a silhouette directly in front of me. A mannequin? No... a pale glint caught the shine of their eyes. Blinking eyes. They were... just a head and neck, ending abruptly at the clavicle. Mounted like a trophy on a pedestal. They stared back at me, the tears in their eyes glittering in the strands of light.

  I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move, and I couldn't even scream.