Chapter 18.5: Kayla

The Safari Resort, Etson - 12:30 PM

My heart was beating a mile a minute, and I couldn’t seem to calm it down. Ever since I had struck Anthony with Thomas’ hammer, I was stuck in a state of anxiety. So I sat here, in room 603, wrapped in the same plush white blanket I had used when Anthony started weaving his unbelievable tale of psychics and visions of the future.

Which seemed true enough. Aside from Thomas getting a class called Citizen’s Justicar, everything was going according to Anthony's plan. It had been thrilling to being a part of the plan and flexing my old acting skills, but the end was here. Whether Anthony would agree with it or not, I wanted to come clean immediately. I thought the benefits of coming clean outweighed the cons, at least. It would help Anthony if he wasn’t attacked on sight, too.

Under the blanket, I ran my hands over the supple leather of the pants he had gotten for me. I couldn’t decide what kind of animal the material came from, it was more of a gray-brown than the brown leather armors I saw others were wearing. They were very comfortable, though. The material was skin tight, but it didn’t feel like it restricted my movement.

The Leather Gorget of Protection felt the same way despite being tight around my neck. It was made of the same grayish brown leather and a dipped over my heart. The asymmetrical design had annoyed me at first, but once I put it on I barely felt it. Anthony said he hadn’t been the one to pick it out, but I still appreciated both pieces. I felt safer with them on.

Once again, I glanced towards the door. Thomas had practically fallen over himself to see if I was safe even though he was the one who had taken the beating. A shiver went down my spine as I remembered the look on Anthony’s face after he was surrounded. The way he looked at each of us in turn, I never felt more like prey than in that moment. It was almost as if he planned on going after me first for attacking him even though he was the one who said I should.

The relief that flowed through me when Anthony set Thomas’ hammer on the desk was palpable. His eyes still had that glazed over, manic look, but it had softened. Almost like he was having fun playing with us, and we were just there to fight for his amusement. Another shiver threatened to roll through me, but I steeled myself and shook my head. He was strange, nobody could argue otherwise, but he was a good man. I had been warned about the dangerous manic high he could have fallen in, I just hadn’t been prepared for it.

Thinking back at that moment made me remember the vials. I took a deep breath as I pulled them out of my inventory. The black liquid inside had changed brown in one and orange in the other. I examined the brown one’s properties through the menu.

[[Item]]

Wondrous Credibility Enhancement Potion

Imbibing this potion will cause your Credibility stat to rise to the maximum allowed by the system in the first scenario. This potion will work no matter how high or low the initial Credibility stat is but will fail if Credibility is already maxed.

My eyes nearly fell out of their sockets at the sight of it. I hadn’t had the time to look them over due to Thomas’ arrival, but now that I got a good look at them I was floored. Checking the orange potion showed that it was the same thing except it was meant for the Moxie stat. Were they inert until someone with a special stat touched them like me? He said not to ask where they came from, did they come from some method of cheating?

I shook my head. If I was going to receive this amount of help, then I didn’t mind letting him keep his secret. I had only gathered enough points to increase my dexterity by a measly two points and my constitution by one, but to increase them all the way up to the maximum allowed by the system? I paused, I wasn’t sure how much the maximum was. Glancing down at the enhancement potion, I uncorked it and gave it a sniff. The brown liquid did not look appealing in the slightest, but there was no odor associated with it. Steeling my nerves, I took a drink.

To my surprise, it tasted like steak sauce. Not the most pleasant thing to chug down in one go, but definitely preferable to the kind of things it could have tasted like. Though, I felt no different from before. Waving open my menu, I looked through my status screen.

[[Status]]

Player Kayla Mills

Class: Double Agent

Race: Human

Points: 6

Stats:

Hit Points: 80/80 (+50 constitution, +10 Leather Gorget of Protection, +20 Leather Pants of Protection)

Strength: 3 (2 base, +1 Ornate Dagger)

Dexterity: 6 (3 base, +2 purchased, +1 Ornate Dagger)

Constitution: 5 (2 base, +1 Leather Gorget of Protection, +2 Leather Pants of Protection)

Credibility: 20 (5 base, +15 Enhancement Potion)

Moxie: 4 (4 base)

My astonishment at the +15 increase was quickly overshadowed by the horror of how much unnecessary information was being shown on the status screen. Anthony had mentioned he was able to change how to open his menu in options, perhaps there was a way to simplify the menus as well?

I drank the Wondrous Moxie Enhancement Potion as I looked through the menu options. There were settings for menu color, transparency, how to open it, a sound dampening system for nearby music, which menus to simplify, and more. I changed it from Full to Simple, but left everything else the same as I returned to the status screen.

[[Status]]

Player Kayla Mills

Class: Double Agent

Race: Human

Points: 6

Stats:

Hit Points: 80/80

Strength: 3; Dexterity: 6; Constitution: 5; Credibility: 20; Moxie: 20

This one I approved of. I’m sure there would come a time where I’d want to know how everything I’m wearing increases my stats, but it just looked cluttered for now.

Anthony probably drank several of these, I thought to myself as the realization hit me. The pouch looked like it could hold at least eight vials, but only three were still there when he removed mine. Assuming he had one for strength, dexterity, and constitution, that left two vials missing. Anthony had said his class gave him stats that did the same thing as Mercurial Mind, which made sense for a psychic. So he has 20 in all of his stats across the board.

“He absolutely could have killed all of us,” I whispered to myself. I felt like that revelation should have scared me more, but I was surprisingly fine. In fact, most of the anxiety I felt about confronting Thomas had disappeared, too. Did it have to do with my stats increasing? Could increasing mental stats have a positive effect on my mentality or was it a placebo effect? What if I asked Anthony about it but it turned out to be the latter, would I go back to being nervous?

I didn’t have much time to think it over, which was probably a good thing overall, as a knock came about my door. “Who is it?” I called.

“It’s Tommy, may I come in?”

“One moment!” I stood up and walked towards the master bedroom. There was no need for him to see me wrapped in a king sized blanket like a child hiding from the world, though the thought occurred to me that I might have wanted to keep it if it weren’t for the Moxie enhancement. Whether it was the real deal or a placebo was going to drive me insane.

Instead of dwelling on it, I threw the blanket into the master bedroom and closed the door. I ran my hands over my clothes to make sure I was presentable. The buttons Anthony had popped off of my shirt were in my inventory but there was nothing to do about it without a sewing needle and thread. It had been a great way to make Thomas even more angry at him, but a part of me wished he had told me first.

I breathed out and opened the door. Thomas stood on the other side, looking better than he had an hour and a half ago but still not in perfect condition. His clothes were scuffed and he had taken off the bomber jacket at some point. Still, he offered me a warm smile. “Please, come in,” I invited, gesturing with my hand.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” he said as he walked in and looked around. I closed the door behind him and moved to sit at the table. Thomas followed me. “There were a lot of people who had a lot to say.”

“How are they?” I asked with concern.

“Not great,” he replied, and his smile turned grim. “There’s still a lot of conflicting testimony about that bastard, Anthony. Very few people seemed to have been lucid at the time, which made things hard. You and a couple of kids are the only ones who seem to have their story straight.”

I nodded along with his words. I remembered what it felt like when I had learned the Mercurial Mind skill. The difference between the Kingtin’s haze preventing me from thinking straight and how clear things were after the skill book was vast, like waking up from a paralyzing nightmare.

"A lot of them were distant, before the tutorial," I mentioned. "And during, like they didn't know what to do with themselves."

"There's still a lot of that. We've calmed them down some, but there's still quite a few people who can't seem to get over our… predicament."

"That's one way of putting it," I said grimly. I still almost couldn't believe it myself, but I couldn't ignore the evidence all around me.

“But they’ve been settled, so I want to know how you’re doing,” Thomas continued. “I know you refused Gloria’s help, but it’s okay if you need help and I can still get her if you don’t feel safe with just me.”

“No, Thomas, this is fine. Thank you,” I said, offering him a smile of my own. I had been told all about the qualities that made Thomas fit for the leadership position, but hearing and seeing were two separate things. He was a lot more gentle than I thought he had been, though I suppose it was natural to treat me with kid gloves after what I had cried wolf over. I took a deep breath, wondering how fast that attitude would change. There was no use in waiting. “I do have something we need to discuss, though.”

“Whatever you want to talk about, and please call me Tommy,” he responded. But I couldn’t call him Tommy, not yet. I took another deep breath and stood up. Perhaps it could wait for just a few more minutes.

On the counter were all the maps that the psychic had made last night. There were ten in total, all of varying shapes, sizes, and details. When he ran out of room on one of them, he had moved on to the next one and so on and so forth until he had gone through them all. It was only after he double checked them that he was satisfied.

I sat back down and slid them across the table. Thomas looked at them and picked up the top of the pile. “Anthony is a psychic. He made these maps and discussed them with me.”

"You mean that, what was the word for it? Moving things with your mind."

"Telekinetic," I replied. "And that's still psychic. It's a wide term."

“Well, that sounds like a load of bull, but I saw and felt him mess with my hammer, so I guess I can’t argue with it,” Thomas said, and I found myself nodding in agreement. I watched him carefully as he looked through the maps. “So what’s all these, then? Not only can he move things with his mind, but he can find treasure?”

“Almost,” I said quietly. “He says he can see the future.”

Thomas’ gaze lifted from the maps and he met my eyes. “I would say I find that hard to believe, but weirder things have happened." He paused. "So if that's true, if he could see the future, why didn’t he see that he would be running away today?”

I dry swallowed, but I didn’t feel as nervous as I thought. “He did see this outcome. Or, a variation of it. He… Sorry, this is all really strange.”

“Take your time,” he said, though I could hear the apprehension in his voice.

“Anthony said that you needed to take a class called the Guiding Light, but that you wouldn’t select it because while you’re a very righteous man, you’re also an overly cautious man. Said you would need to be… pushed into it.”

Thomas crossed his arms. He sat there in thought for a few moments before scowling. “Go on.”

“Apparently the Guiding Light class got better if you thought people were in serious danger when you selected it, and likened it to being a paladin. You only got one chance to take it, so he manufactured all of this in order to get you into that class.”

“But I didn’t get the Guiding Light class,” Thomas said. “I became a Citizen’s Justicar.”

“I think that might be because of me?” I offered hesitantly.

Realization dawned on the man’s face, and his eyes narrowed. “He didn’t actually abuse you, did he?”

“No,” I admitted. “He was a perfect gentleman. Anthony explained everything once I was up here in the room with him and even gave me a skill book that would help clear my mind of the Kingtin. It worked.”

“So he didn’t…” Instead of continuing, he waved his hand in the general direction of my body as if he had to confirm again.

“I actually had to tell him to do the stuff he did to me in public to make it seem more authentic,” I admitted. Anger rose on Thomas’ face, and I held up my hand. “Before you get mad at me for lying to you, I want to explain myself.”

"How am I supposed to trust you after this?" Thomas fell silent, and I could tell he was attempting to calm himself. I gave him time to do so. “There better be a damn good reason.”

I nodded. “While I was up here with Anthony and after I got the mind clearing passive, he insisted that he told me why he did this. I don’t know why he felt the need to do so, perhaps out of guilt of scaring the hell out of me or for some other altruistic reason. Maybe he was just bored, I don’t know. He went on about being able to see the future, and having a vision of the perfect timeline, and how it falls on him to guide everything forward.”

“Sounds like he’s just as crazy as it seemed when I first met him,” Thomas said with a snort.

“I thought so, too. I honestly did, and I had the opportunity to ask questions of him like why he’s trying so hard,” I said. Remembering how the question had thrown him into a rant, I continued. “He went on a tirade about how he has to save a barista, get the psychic class, save the resort from the Kingtin, and get you to pick up the Guiding Light class.”

“Which I didn’t.”

“No, but from his reaction the Citizen’s Justicar is better than that one,” I claimed. “He didn’t see that outcome because I’ve never helped him before. I got the impression that my actions were new to him, and he kept asking me questions like how come I decided to help him, or where did I think I would be if I wasn’t helping. It was strange and bizarre, like I was supposed to just know the answers to this question.”

“And why did you help him?” Thomas asked. “Why’d you decide to let him grope you in front of everyone and attack John?”

“First off, he barely shoved John,” I said. “I’m sorry for what happened to him, but he had no chance against Anthony in the first place. Which you know, because you fought him.”

Thomas paused at that, and then shook his head as he sighed. “I swear, his stats were too good,” he mumbled. “Damn doubled my own when I copied them.”

“Yes, I also came to the conclusion that he could have killed all six of us if he really wanted to,” I said softly. A pregnant pause fell over the room before I decided to address his actual question. “I helped him because he started having a mental breakdown.”

“Like the one that lead Daniel to say he had a crazy look in his eyes?”

I shook my head. “No, like a full blown anxiety attack where he went on about how he had to save as many people as possible complete with pacing and tears. Look, I had a rough upbringing. If I were ten years younger, then I’d probably be one of the people showing up at the shelter you volunteer at.”

“How’d you know about that?” Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Anthony knew, talked about how you fostered animals, gave away plates of food from work, and painted you as an all around good guy.” My words seemed to make the man uncomfortable, and I moved on. “I had a rough upbringing, and I know how people think. I work at a library that has a specially designated safe space for victims of domestic abuse. I know when someone’s lying or acting. He was real. Whether he’s crazy or not, he truly and honestly believes he’s the only one who can save… People, I guess. As many as he can.”

I watched as Thomas ran a hand over his face and shifted. He looked as though he was about to get up and pace as well, but instead settled for rapping his fingers on the table. “You think he could be crazy, though,” he said more than asked, and I knew what he was talking about.

The shiver didn’t go down my spine this time when I thought back to the look in Anthony’s eyes moments before he surrendered to the group, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it. It had been a crazed look complete with a savage grin that faded the very second he realized that he needed to end the fight.

“Maybe, but what I know is that he needs help,” I said firmly. “But so do you, and instead of just telling you things about yourself that I could have found out by asking around, I ask that you let me prove how accurate his visions are.”

Thomas stopped his rhythmic rapping and put his head in his hands. If the whole predicament gave him a headache, I wouldn’t have blamed him. Instead of answering me, he waved his hand as a gesture for me to go on.

I reached for the maps in front of Thomas, and he removed his elbow from them so I could. I grabbed a map for a Mexican food truck called Speedy Enchiladas and opened it up. It was by far the biggest map and marked the different locations where it could be found depending on the day of the week. I flipped it over and pointed on the outskirts.

“There’s a house that belongs to a doomsday prepper in Etson Hills. That should be the first stop, but there’ll be food, weapons, water, and a whole lot of it.”

“Etson Hills is about ten miles out and we already have food and water here,” Thomas said.

“Right, but there’s guns, which will make a lot of people feel safer,” I countered. “It’s the place he said to go to first. There’s a monster that’s using it as its home base, he said it was a lot like a Predator from the movies but without the cloaking tech. He also said that the cafeteria will stop giving out free meals after some time and that he paid extra for that feature.”

Once again, Thomas went silent. While he did, I opened up my menu and found the screen that allowed Anthony to transfer ownership of the safe zone to me. I navigated it, found Thomas’ name, and gave ownership rights to him. His eyes snapped to an invisible menu that would have appeared in front of his eyes. “Why?” he asked softly.

“Because I want you to trust me, and I want you to eventually trust Anthony, too,” I responded. “He’s gone to Stanley to find my husband, Jeff, and that’s asking for a lot from anyone right now. Whether he succeeds or not, I owe him a lot. For the information, the items, and for trying.”

Thomas groaned as he stood up, leaning over the table to look at the map in closer details. “You know this is crazy, right?”

“That’s the kind of world we live in now, isn’t it?”

“Doesn't mean I have to like it,” he muttered. After he folded the map, he put it in his inventory and straightened up. My eyes met his, and he nodded. “Be down in the lobby in twenty minutes. I’ll get a group together and we’ll go and get a good look at this doomsday house of yours. I’m only going to say this once, though: I don’t like the way you or Anthony have done things. You pulled the wool over not only my eyes, but everyone here, and you made a lot of people worry about you.”

I couldn't argue that. “I’ll leave it up to your discretion on who to tell,” I said. “I only wanted to make sure you knew at least.”

“Well, if this turns out to be nothing but a wild good chase, then we’re cutting ties,” Thomas responded in a grave voice. “I didn’t kill him, there’s no point to it, and I’m not going to kill you, but there’s no coming back to the Safari Resort if this turns out to be nothing.”

“Understood, I’ll be down in time to go.” Without another word, Thomas left me alone in the vast suite. I breathed a sigh of relief; that hadn’t been so bad. I couldn't help but wonder if it would have gone so well if it weren't for the Credibility and Moxie boost. That was a thought that was going to bug the hell out of me.

Now all I had to do was hope that Anthony was correct about the doomsday prepper. Getting exiled in Etson Hills didn’t sound like something to look forward to.