CHAPTER 44: I WISH YOU LUCK

Nellie looked at Dante, her expression caught somewhere between fear and irritation. It was a given, after all the process by which she got here to begin with filled her with silent rage. "So what now? Do I get to prepare, or are we doing this right away?"

Her tone carried the clear annoyance of someone trying not to sound desperate but failing miserably. Her lips twitched as if her body was still waiting for him to say "you’ve got time." But she already knew better. Dante doesn’t seem like one to care.

And she was right, as Dante was calm as ever, the faint blue hue from his monitor reflecting in his eyes. "Sadly I can’t allow for any immediate preparation." He said flatly. "The game will begins immediately, I will not die delayed."

"What? Come on!" She blurted out, throwing her arms up in disbelief, then slamming them on his desk. "A game like this needs at least a day or two of prep time! You can’t just...

"It wouldn’t be fair." Dante cut her off, his voice firm but oddly casual, like someone stating a law before a civilian. "It’s either now or never, Nellie."

Her mouth opened, then closed again. She wanted to argue, maybe curse, maybe even beg him to reconsider, but deep down she knew this was inevitable. Every instinct in her body screamed to run, yet something in his tone told her that there was nowhere to run to. She sighed, lowering her head slightly. "Fine." She said softly. "We’ll do it your way."

"Atta girl." Dante replied. His smile didn’t change, but his eyes did, just slightly, as he looked at her with a devious look. "Then let’s begin."

Behind him, the asteroid his desk rested on began to drift further into the endless reaches of space. The void shimmered with silent ripples as the stars around them twisted into thin lines of light. Dante’s hands glided over the keys of his keyboard typing something to Virgil.

As he said to it. "You can do your thing now, and start the game." Moment’s later Virgil responded saying.

[I will now start the creation of the limited game world]

And with that single command, the emptiness outside began to bend. Far below the floating desk, something massive took shape, a planet forming out of scattered light. Fragments of dreamstuff and newly made memory swirled together, compressing into a sphere that glowed faintly with a pale green haze. From above, it looked beautiful. From below, it was terrifying. A world base on the genre or supernatural and horror.

Continents drew themselves like brush strokes on a cosmic canvas. Oceans flooded their outlines. Clouds began to twist into being. The whole thing was chaos as the world slowly began to form quickly with without and and within.

Nellie’s eye open wide in vivid shock. She had seen weird things before, encounter truly terrifying and powerful people in their world, but this... this was something else. The sheer scale of it all, the idea that he could just make a world like that, a literal playground from nothing but his will made her chest tighten. "What the hell?" She whispered under her breath.

Dante didn’t look at her. He was still typing, his eyes locked on the screen as data scrolled across it’s form.

When he finally did speak, it was to Nellie this time and not to Virgil. "The game will take place on that world. Try not to die too quickly. And... good luck, Nellie, I really do look forward to see you play my game." Before she could respond, her vision blurred. A sudden dizziness hit her like a wave, her knees buckled, and the world twisted. She tried to call his name, but no sound came out.

Her consciousness folded inward, spiraling down into darkness till eventually there was nothing but silence.

For a moment, she thought she was dead. But then...sound began to return. The low hum of an engine. The soft rattle of a car driving over gravel hit her ears. As her eyes fluttered open. Everything was different now.

She was sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, some beat-up SUV with mud caked along the doors and a cracked windshield. The dashboard lights glowed dimly in shades of orange and green. Outside, the night was thick with fog, and rain pattered softly against the glass.

She tried to move, to look around, but she couldn’t. Her body didn’t respond. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel, but not because she told them to. It was like being trapped behind her own eyes.

Her voice came out on its own, tired, uncertain, a little sarcastic even. "Alright guys... this is it. The final stream. Either I make it tonight, or my channel’s officially dead."

Nellie’s mind reeled. "Wait... I didn’t say that." Her head turned slightly as if someone else was controlling it. A camera sat mounted on the dashboard, its red light blinking softly. A small chat window floated near the bottom corner of the cracked phone screen next to her, comments rolling in, the text was unreadable, but definitely there.

She felt her heart hammering, even though she couldn’t control the pace. Every breath was real. Every sound, the rain, the creak of the seat, all of it was wat too vivid to be fake.

Then her body, or whatever was puppeting it, chuckled lightly. "Tonight’s the big one. Supposedly this place was shut down after the fire back 1874... but if I can get inside, maybe I’ll finally hit a million views."

The car rolled to a stop in front of a rusted gate. The headlights illuminated a sign barely hanging by one hinge. The letters were half-burnt away, but she could still make out the words:

"Santa Mortuum EST. 1874."

A chill crawled up her spine. The whole atmosphere of this place have her a bad vibe. But her actions at the moment was not her own.

Her body reached for the door handle, her camera still recording. The rain grew heavier, tapping louder against the metal roof. Then the sound cut. Static flickered across her vision, and for a heartbeat, everything was frozen. Then, like a tape being unpaused, she was back, stepping out of the car, flashlight in hand.

The gravel crunched beneath her boots. She could smell the wet earth, the old wood rotting beyond the fence. The world around her felt real.

And yet, it wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. This was the dream world Dante and Virgil had built. But knowing that didn’t make it any less terrifying.

Her body spoke again, her tone low and nervous but forcing cheer for the imaginary audience. "Okay, chat... we’re going in. If I die, make sure to clip it, alright?" The gate creaked open. She walked through it as the Asylum grounds of Santa Mortuum loomed ahead. Old and corroded brick walls, and shattered windows could seen, alongside some old doors, one of which was hanging open. Vines crawled up the walls, and the trees, uncut due to neglected had grown to point where the branches push the fence down, parting it and bending their holdings.

Lightning flashed once in the distance, and Nellie finally had control over her body again. "Ughhh, that is a creepy feeling, still so this is the world of Survive The Night!? I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting this place to be as real as it is." Nellie said to herself.

But then, she was taken by suprise when she heard a voice echoed in her mind, the voice was a exact replica of her own voice, as it began lay out a welcoming introduction.

[Welcome to Survive The Night]

The message said, making Nellie question it’s existence. "D what is this supposed to be?" She instinctively question, pondering if what she was hearing was real, she figured that if this was world made by Dante, then it goes without saying he should be able to answer her.

But no, he didn’t reply, leaving Nellie to silence of her own thoughts. "Tsk, what am asshole, fine don’t answer me."

"Still what should I do now?" She asked, then the voice rang out again, informing her of her new tasked. Or rather guiding her in the more if missions to survive this game.

[Look around the outer regions of the Asylum and find a way to get in]

"Fuck!" She said bluntly, she was preparing herself for the worst now. "So we are really doing this ha!? Ok, yeah, yeah, this is for your freedom Nellie." With that she began to walked, exploring the area to find a way to get it, easier she did spot a door, leaning widely so it shouldn’t be a problem to get into the asylum itself.

Walking towards that door, she was filled with fear, walking into the unknown, as thousands of thoughts enter her head. "I swear to God if I survive this, the first person I am going to kill when I get back is that exorcist bitch."