Chapter 14

As Garcia trailed up the hill, she completely forgot about the "real" life she led when the tech helmet wasn't on. Se had become entirely absorbed in this imaginative game, the only thing on mind was finding the prince. She was thoroughly impressed with the helmet and it's many abilities. She took advantage of the opportunity, and could only hope she would survive.

The hot sun tickled her skin, and made her sweat. But Garcia trudged onward, she didn't have time to stop, especially for something so...petty.

Finally the top of the hill came near, Garcia was overly relieved as she reached the top and the castle was only a short distance away. The castle was incredible. It's large exterior was glorious, grey bricks accented the outer layer. Several large peaks gave the castle a medieval feel.

Engrossed in her thoughts, Garcia had arrived at the castle in record time. Garcia was bewildered at the incredible sight, and when fire came shooting out of one of the sides of the castle, it had very obviously caught Garcia by surprise.

"Oh my God!" Garcia cried.

She couldn't go in there! It was way to dangerous! Garcia then remembered it was virtual world, she needed to remember none of this was real, that was key to her sanity and survival.

"Come on Pen." Garcia muttered to herself.

Garcia flung the giant door open to the mysterious castle and entered. The door slammed behind her leaving her by herself in the dark interior.

"Hello?" Garcia cried out, trying to mask her fear. "I'm just looking for a prince, if that's you, you can come out now." Garcia tried.

She agonizingly waited for a response but was not surprised when she was left in the silence.

The castle was very large, many winding hallways gave Garcia a pounding headache. How was she ver suppose to pick the right one?

As if on cue, three hallways lit up, each held a mysterious word above the entry. The words were, computer, ocean, and winter. Garcia was thoroughly confused and couldn't think of anything to correlate between the words.

"What am I suppose to do?" Garcia called out.

She was surprised beyond measure when a deep voice answered her question.

"Think of your prince, madam."

"Oh my God, what was that?" Garcia said quickly.

The voice failed to answer, so Garcia contemplated the deep voiced words.

"Think of your prince."

Garcia's prince was Kevin. They'd been dating for some time now, Garcia could only imagine how he was feeling with regards to her abduction.

But luckily the thought of her loving boyfriend struck something in her. The voice told her to think of her prince, Garcia glanced at the words again, Kevin was a computer geek just like herself, and he hated the ocean, for fear of drowning, and winter was the season he hated most!

Garcia ran down the hallway labeled computer, and heard a ding as she exited, she was faced with three more halls that lit up as she approached. The words were different, this was like a "how well do you know your boyfriend?" test.

The words were, neighbor, pie, and picture.

Garcia immediately knew the word was pie, Kevin had always been a big sucker for a good pie.

So far this was easy, Garcia was impressed with her vast knowledge of her boyfriend. She thought she had jinxed it when the next words she approached were all things Kevin loved.

Penelope, sex, and sleep.

Garcia took the middle hallway in a wild guess. If he loved all of them, they should all be right, right?

That theory was proved wrong as Garcia met an odor at the dead end. The odor was pungent and nauseating. Garcia attempted to remove herself from the hallway as fast as possible, but it felt like several minutes until she was free from the torturous cave. Upon freedom, she chose the tunnel that had her name listed above, she walked through the tunnel with no harm, she realized that she was suppose to pick the one he loved most.

Herself.

Garcia nearly cried at the thought. He was such a sweet loving man, she couldn't wait until she could hold him in her arms.

At the end of the hallway she saw her prince, Kevin, tied to a chair. His face was bruised and bloody. Garcia ran to him, but she couldn't touch him, there was an unseen force surrounding his body.

"Enough of the games you sick son of a bitch!" Garcia cried, as she attempted to touch him once more. The barrier held strong, and Garcia fell to the floor at the feet of her lover.

She didn't hear the approaching footsteps, and when she was made aware of them, it was too late. The man had her in a sleeper hold.

"Who are you?" Garcia choked out.

The grip was released and the man walked out in front of her.

"Derek!" Garcia cried. She nearly jumped into his arms but stopped herself when she remembered the terrifying choke hold he had on her only moments before.

"It's so good to see you." Derek mumbled, he started walking in circles around Garcia and Kevin.

"What are you doing?" Garcia asked.

"I'm ready to dispose of this man you call a boyfriend."

"What?"

"Don't you know I've loved you ever since I met you! But no, you wanted this sack of crap. I can't even look at you." Morgan scoffed.

"What are you talking about."

"I'm here to show you what a real man is." Morgan said.

He pulled out a sword, and started towards Kevin.

"No." Garcia shouted.

"You really think you can stop me?" Derek taunted.

"This isn't real." Garcia muttered to herself repeatedly.

"Oh, this is very much real." Morgan replied with a devious smile.

Garcia found a sword in her hand somehow, but didn't have time to wonder how it got there. She immediately started fighting her chocolate Adonis with sword skills she didn't know she possessed.

"My, my. Miss Garcia I'm impressed." Morgan said.

Garcia ignored his taunts and continued to do everything she could to take this man down. He was impersonating one of the people she loved most, what she needed was to see the real Derek Morgan.

The pair fought for several more minutes, neither gaining dominance very often. Until finally Garcia found some buried strength and managed to flick Derek's sword out of his hand.

"It seems you have the upper-hand." Morgan said, completely un-phased.

"How do I win?"

"Oh, you must kill me." Morgan said with another grin.

In Garcia's awestruck stupor, Morgan tackled her to the floor and kicked the sword away from her. They wrestled and fought, until Morgan had Garcia completely pinned. She stared into his dark eyes, only now realizing how incredibly dreamy they actually were. His lips made a slow descent towards her own. Garcia let the passionate kiss happen. Only in her dreams would she admit of thinking about this moment. Of course she imagined it very different, more real, and less, "him being the bad guy." Garcia kissed him back, hard and full of love she didn't know she had. Her fingers swept across the ground, searching for the lost sword.

Finally she felt the metal in her hands, without a second thought, she plunged it into his back, not far enough to stab herself, just enough to kill him, or at least seriously injure him.

Derek's eyes shot open in pain, as the kiss ended and he fell off her body.

"I'm so sorry Derek. But you're not real." Garcia said.

She reached Kevin and was pleasantly granted the gift of touching him. She undid his binds and lifted him over her shoulder. Since this being a virtual reality, she was granted immense strength. The second he was lifted onto her body, the game stopped and Garcia found herself back in that small room where it all started.

She could feel that she had been crying, she felt as though Derek's blood was still on her body, and the arrow that skimmed her arm was still "skimming" her arm. The helmet fell of her head, and Garcia was silently led back to the prison cell. She was gloomy and not at all herself, as she entered the room, she fell to the floor in a fetal position and let the warm tears fall. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Jack had known exactly how to get to her, he had thoroughly traumatized her, and Garcia worried for her new future life, after the events she just experienced.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! I really appreciate the,, I want to hear from all of you.!

Also, it was my 16 birthday this past Wednesday. I have/had a black eye and a concussion, please some reviews would make me feel much better!