Welcome to my re-write/re-upload of my story 'Darkness in Sanctuary'. It died a slow, writer's-block death and it is only now, after some help from one of the main characters, that I am able to try again. Most of what follows will be what was there already, with some tweaks where I see fit. If this is your first time reading, hope you like it and let me know what you don't like or what I messed up. If you're one of five people who started reading my first two attempts, thank you for giving me one last chance and I hope I don't let you down.

"Hey G, you finally gonna tell me what's got you so jumpy since Wednesday?" my best friend Danielle asked me. The two of us had lived together since third grade and I'd heard more than one person wonder, loudly, when the two of us were going to hook up. We were in tenth grade after all, just about everyone seemed to be hooking up randomly. Then again I'd also seen the massive fights and fallout as the rest of our class randomly switched partners. Me, I reckoned that there's no point messing with something that works and Dani shared my sentiments. The object of my musing poked me in the side, reminding me that I hadn't answered her. "I'll show you this afternoon. Hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight," I answered with a grin. It had been a week since my pal Rowan had showed me Diablo, and I'd been salivating about it ever since. Finally I'd managed to convince my mom to advance my allowance a bit so I could buy it that Tuesday, and the resulting anticipation was what Dani was talking about. The two of us were going to make a dent in the forces of darkness that evening in a marathon gaming session that hadn't been seen since the two of us had split the cost of soul edge.

"So what is it?" she asked me for the hundredth time that day as we were deciding, read flipping a coin, on the soda we wanted in the little market on the corner across from school. "Not telling. If I can manage to not touch it for almost a week, you can take not knowing till we get home." I replied barely suppressing a grin. She kept badgering me half-heartedly as we trekked home and I managed not to snicker at the fact that she hadn't noticed that I was carrying her bag without her trying to take it back. We'd gone about two-thirds of the way when she resorted to bribery. "I'll... I'll let you play first if you tell me?" I barked out a laugh, "It's two-player." She thought about that for a bit, but it didn't exactly narrow the list of games I could have gotten. Her slight frown made me suspect I wasn't going to be allowed to head into town on my own again, which was going to make getting something for her birthday in April difficult. "Come on! You know you can't do this to me!" I simply laughed at her, she'd done the same thing to me in the past and I'd given the same complaint. I pretended to think about it. "I'll consider it for a kiss?" I asked only half-joking. She stared at me, which was a rather impressive feat considering we were walking and dodging traffic signs and street lamps occasionally. After a while she asked, "Left or right?" I answered "Center" without skipping a beat and she frowned at me. None the less she stopped and when I turned to look at her she stood on her toes and kissed me on the forehead. Mentally I added another tally to her score, she got me good with that one. I looked at her and smiled widely. I added two to my own score and said "I have considered it and decided that since we're almost home I won't tell you."

I pretended to have a sore shoulder all the way home as we split up at the gate. She went on to her house to change out of her school uniform while I went to get the PlayStation and game. When I finally wound up in her living room she was waiting already. I told her to cover her eyes and got a blink in reply. Normally that would have set off a staring challenge but I wanted to play the game just as badly as she wanted to see what it was. So I took it out to show her and her smile made it all worth it. "Looks scary!" she said excitedly. Knowing her preference for horror games I headed off any disappointment and explained it was an Action RPG. she shrugged and the two of us set up what would be our world for the next thirteen hours.