Falling for You

I was so amused by the sound of my own footsteps scuffling clumsily along the sidewalk that I almost tripped twice. I was on a trip in a city called Southern Pines, although it was a northern city and there wasn't a pine tree in sight. It was a warm, yet breezy day and the wind was whistling louder in the great oaks than it was wafting against my skin. There was a statue not too far from here of a beautiful girl. It was said that if her soulmate took a picture with her, then she would spring to life and live the rest of her life with them. That's where I'm going.

After another quarter mile or so of hiking through the large city, though many of it's buildings didn't give off the skyscraper-y feel, I finally arrived at the place my map had led me to. But all I came to was a large crowd of people and I couldn't see the statue. I began to become slightly agitated after a long while of trying to push through the people. There hadn't been this many people in the picture! After a long while of trying hard to find out from anyone just what was going on, I finally saw it. The pedestal was empty.

At first, I was angry that I had come all this way and no one had told me that the statue had been removed, but soon it began to sink in. Someone had found their true love. The statue had fallen. But soon, the crown had turned to face my direction as a girl began walking this way. Unsure of what to do, I said nervously, "Let me guess, Capricorn right?" She ignored my question and continued forward, stopping a few inches away from me. God, she was beautiful. "Hello, my love."

Shocked, I was unable to turn around and see who she was even talking to. My knees shook, my palms got sweaty, and even worse, I couldn't seem to understand. "M-me?" I croaked? She looked taken aback that I was unsure. "Of course, you, who else?" she asked fiercely. I was so stunned at her approach that I sort of stuttered when I said, "S-so that's it? We're just like... a thing?" Again with the hot stare that made me nervous. "Of course not. You have to play the game."

The game. The game? What game? How, in all this mess, could she just want me to play a game? There had to be more to it than that. "What game?" I asked, now sounding more confident than I actually was. "Whatever game you want." She responded. "I'm guessing you know nothing of the rules," she stated plainly. I felt the crowd's eyes burning holes in my flesh as she continued. You must verse death in a game of your choice," she said calmly. "Any game you want and it'll be yours to play against death. You win, my personality changes to suit your needs and we live together as a happy couple until we wish to die. You lose, and death wins your life. I'll resume my position on my pedestal never to feel life again. This is the game."

Before I could let out my whimper of terror that was threatening to break through, I was being whipped through wind like one could never imagine, coming at me from all directions. I saw all colors, even ones that I've never seen before, and my shirt tore, revealing a tattoo of Sinon from my favorite anime. I was just an average nerd being put through this without permission from myself as to whether or not I would allow it anyway. I saw things from my past- memories that I had long since forgotten and my present predicament. But nothing from the future. Isn't this illegal? I think it should be.

Without warning, I landed hard on my back on a cold stone floor, although I had been facing what I thought had been forwards throughout the teleportal of death. My breath had been knocked completely out of me so that I couldn't move. I was pale-faced and trying to gasp for breath, but my lungs wouldn't move, as they had been flattened. I'm going to die, I thought. This was the end. But I had to fight. I couldn't give up, so I struggled against my empty lungs and forced air into them, gasping when I could finally breathe. D&D. That was the game. As if on command to my thoughts, I felt a shift in the world around me, if you could call it a world.

I was on a wooden floor and didn't feel like standing up, so doing so was forced. Once I had stood up and dusted myself off, I looked around. I was in what appeared to be a medieval tavern. People talking, laughing, and having a good time were everywhere in here. I wondered where I was. I looked around for the main counter and eventually found it to the right of all the tables of drunken fools. After a minute of staring suspiciously, I realized that these were no ordinary men, for they were all dead. Or UNdead, if you will. Though, they looked nothing like the zombies I had seen in all my survival games. They were mostly skeletons, some still with bits of stale skin threatening to fall off, which was curious as there was no smell of decay.

I quickly made my way up to the front counter to see if anyone could tell me where I was, carefully avoiding eye contact with any of the drunken table skeletons. As I picked my way through the tables and made my way to the counter, I began to wonder how they were drunk if they were skeletons. It didn't matter though, what mattered was getting out of here, and finding out where here was was step one.

Once I had reached the counter, I saw a person in a black shawl facing away from me. "Excuse me, ma'am," I began. "Could you tell me where I am?" Turning around, I saw that she was also a skeleton, except even more intimidating. I think she's a man. "You did this to me," he breathed, smoke filing out of his jaw space and eye holes. "So many orders, so much beer, so many drunk customers..." He looked at me as if he expected my help. "Look," I told him, "You're not going anywhere unless you roll. This is where we happened to spawn the game. I'm guessing you've never played D&D?" He shook his head slowly and deliberately. Here, your odds are one in two. Roll a four or higher and this place goes boom. Roll less than that and you're stuck here until I decide I want to bail you out," I say, laying a dice down on the counter.

Taking the dice eagerly, he rolled it with what seemed like it would be an intense stare, had he had eyes. Rolling to a stop, the dice finally showed one single face-up dot. "Ooh, tough luck," I grinned.