"John, wake up! You can't spend all your time sleeping in a hotel room!"
I sighed and rolled over in the bed. Isabella, my girlfriend of three months now, was staring down at me, pouting. Even when she was frowning, she was gorgeous. With her wavy, brown hair she kept in a braid that kinda looked like a halo, sea-green eyes you could get lost in all day long, and pink, full lips, she was the definition of a knockout.
A poor scrub like me would usually have no chance with someone like her. Luckily, she liked poor scrubs who couldn't seem to get their life together.
"You know how hard I worked to cough up 200 bucks to come on this trip? If I can lay in a comfy bed with room service and a TV, why else would I leave?"
She ran her fingers through my hair, "Because you want to spend time with your girlfriend?"
"We can spend time together here..."
Leaning down so she was almost kissing me, she whispered, "We're in Boston, John. Let's go have fun."
"I wanna have fun with you here," I said, pushing myself up so I could kiss her. Before our lips touched, she lifted her head, "You're not gonna kiss me unless we go out."
I relented and let her drag me out of the hotel room and out into the real world. As soon as we stepped out onto the sidewalk, I got that kiss.
She let it happen for a minute before pulling away and resting her head on my chest. "Let's go explore."
"For how long?"
She laughed, "We're only sixteen once, Johnnie. Let's live a little."
As soon as she said that, I snapped back into reality. I haven't seen or talked to Isabelle for nine years now. After I dropped out, we'd been on and off for a little while, before she ended things for good and wished me farewell.
If only she knew I was 16 again, but this time as some rich kid named Powyn Theeves instead of poor old Johnnie...
Speaking of snapping back into reality, I was tucked into a bed overstuffed with throw pillows and teddy bears. And everything was so pink...
I sat up, trying to figure out where I was. And then I saw the girl, standing by a vanity, like the ones moms had when they sat down to their makeup and whatnot. I don't know what women did at their vanities―it was a sacred space. I must also mention that this vanity was pink, like everything else in here.
She was stuffing the contents of her inventory into a chest, muttering to herself. I cleared my throat and said, "Um, hey, who are you and why am I in this pink infested room?"
The girl spun around so fast I thought she might get whiplash. Instead of answering my question, she ran up to the bed and jumped on top of me. "You're awake!"
I grunted. She might be slim, but dang, was she heavy! "Yeah, I am. Can you, like, get off?"
"Oh...sorry." She gave me this sheepish look as she went to sit on the opposite of the bed. Even though it was covered in pillows and stuffed animals, the size of such a mattress could not be dwarfed. It was at least the size of a car!
"I forgot Reincarnations don't keep the originals' memories," she said, sighing. Her disappointed face made me feel bad for being so rude, but I didn't like it when random strangers brought me into their room and then jumped on top of me. It was weird.
"Right...Anyway, who are you?"
"My name's Elenai and I'm 14. I got adopted here when I was 4. I'm a level 46 Cleric, too. I reached the Silver Rank about a month ago. Most people my age are still in the Bronze Rank, so I guess I'm strong. I-"
I cut her off before she could keep talking. "That's nice, Elenai. Cool. So...what am I doing here?"
She deflated a little when I interrupted her. "I, um, managed to convince Father not to drop you off at the Dungeon while you were passed out..."
"Oh." I stared at my hands. I got the feeling my relationship with this girl was going to be a bit unstable. On the one hand, she was annoying and talked a mile a minute. On the other hand, she got this look on her whenever I said something that made me feel like a prick.
Well, I mean, I am, but you know. It's not nice being reminded of it.
I cleared my throat. "Well, thanks for, you know, having my back. You're the only one who seems like a decent person around here."
She blushed. "I mean, the others aren't so bad...Okay, well, they are. But Mother's nice. She's just a bit...stiff."
"Yeah, stiff."
I remembered Mrs. Theeves. She stood by her husband and watched silently as her kids badmouthed me to no end. If my mother had heard of the neighborhood kids talking crap about me, she'd sit me down and tell me that violence would never be the answer to that. And then she'd go out and threaten small children.
She was cool like that.
Elenai sighed, "I get where you're coming from. When I first came here, I didn't receive a very warm welcome from the boys. They only cared about how strong I was...they've always been that way, even back then..." She gave me a shy smile, "You were the only one who made me feel like I belonged here. You looked out for me, even when I got on your nerves for talking so much or following you around everywhere you went. You were the best big brother I could've asked for."
"Too bad that guy's dead," I muttered.
She blinked. "Um..."
"I said that out loud. Shoot, um, look, Elenai-"
"It's fine," she interrupted, standing up. "I get it. Reincarnations are different. A lot more than I thought."
'John, you idiot! You're gonna lose your only supporter in this gosh darn house! Fix it!'
I pushed the covers off of me and rolled off the bed. "Elenai-"
She went back to the chest, "Here's your stuff. Powyn had some things he didn't want the others stealing, so he handed them off to me to give to you."
"Handed them...Wait, he knew he was gonna die?"
Her face darkened. "I don't know. But...he wanted to be prepared...for when you came."
I sighed. This is why I had a cat instead of a girlfriend. It's easier to make up with Chuffington if we have a falling out. But people? They're too difficult; relationships are so hard to maintain yet so easy to break. It's why I didn't bother with them.
Elenai wanted her brother back, but instead of him, she got some douchebag who can hardly strike up a conversation with a cashier without it leading to a fistfight. Getting people angry was my specialty.
But some part of me was telling me to fix this, that I couldn't lose this girl no matter what. So I did the only thing that would count as an apology without having to talk.
I hugged her.
She froze for a moment before hugging me back. For a 14-year-old girl, she was strong. Like, superman strong. I thought she might break me in half.
"Elenai, you're squeezing...a little too tight," I said.
"Oh! Sorry. I forgot your level dropped."
"Huh?"
She shook her head. "We don't have a lot of time. Father said he wanted Gayle to take you to the dungeon as soon as you woke up."
"But my level-"
"Powyn got a Player Book, but he couldn't use it before the PvP battle," she said, picking up the chest. "It's in here, though. You can sort through all the stuff when you get to the dungeon."
She handed the chest to me. It felt like I was carrying an empty cardboard box instead of a metal chest.
"It can hold up to 50 things in its inventory," she said. "You can stack stuff, too, so you don't take up space. As long as nothing too heavy goes in, it's relatively light to carry around."
"That's cool." I opened my inventory and tossed the chest in there. Before I closed it, I spotted the last gift box.
When Elenai saw me take it out, she frowned. "Where'd you get that?"
"From the original guy."
I told her about the instruction manual, explaining the stuff I had read in it.
She knit her brow and scratched her head. "I've never heard of something like this happening...But I guess you can never predict how the Game Master is going to do something. Don't open it right now; Gayle will be coming any moment."
Just as I put the box back in my inventory, the big guy opened the door and stepped inside. With a grunt, he said, "The Master wants you out. Let's go."
Elenai gave me another hug. "I'll see you in two months."
"Wish me luck."
I was going to need all the help I could get.