We were in a room at the inn when the rumble was felt. It was faint, but Evan and I could still feel it.

"That must be Alice falling from the sky," Evan said. "So we are truly at the beginning…"

"I'm kind of surprised that a sports player like you plays games like this," I said. "Not trying to be discriminatory, but you look like you'd be popular with the girls."

Evan and I had been talking for a couple of minutes, he was a 20 year old football player in Illinois, he was practicing for a game when he was struck by a lightning bolt in a freak thunderstorm. We both found that suspicious enough on its own. This was no accident.

"Nah," Evan smiled half heartedly. "To tell you the truth, I'm kinda shy when it comes to women."

"Huh," I said. "That's another thing we can add to the list of our similarities. I had a girlfriend for a little over a month in high school. Didn't last long."

He chuckled, "Yeah, that's probably how it would go for me."

It was then the chubby guy who we'd put in the bed next to where we were sitting started to stir. I looked at Evan.

"How do we break it to him?" I asked.

"I think we should be straight with him," Evan suggested. I nodded, it was risky, but why not. The guy turned onto his back and opened his eyes. It took a second for him to register that he wasn't where he should be.

"W...what?" he stuttered as he sat up. His eyes locked onto us. "Who are you people? Where am I?!"

He started to hyperventilate, "Calm down man. It's alright, we're not gonna hurt you or anything."

My words seemed to calm him down, thankfully. He spoke up again, looking at both of us, "Who are you guys?"

"I'm Gary Damoore, and this is Evan Trevdale," Evan gave a smile as I said his name.

"Where...where am I?" he said looking around the small room. Evan and I looked at each other, he nodded at me to do the talking. I looked back at the guy.

"Have you ever heard of the game Monster Girl Quest?" I asked, this could go one of two ways.

"Yes…" he eyed me nervously, then his eyes opened wide in shock. "You're joking right? This is a joke…"

I shook my head, at least he knew what the game was, that was a relief, but also suspicious. Why three people that knew the game, why us?

"This isn't a joke sadly," Evan sighed. "I'm sorry."

"'Sorry'?" the guy smiled. "This is amazing!"

I looked at him in disbelief, "I was not expecting you to say that."

"Um...Why is this amazing?" Evan asked.

"Two reasons," the guy said, holding up two fingers. "I've always wanted to be transported to a game, and two, since it's this game I have a chance of getting laid!"

"But what about your home?" I asked. "Did you not like it there?"

"I mean," he said. "I was happy, but this is awesome, and besides, I'm sure I'll be able to go back eventually."

"Not if you get eaten or raped for eternity!" I exclaimed. This guy was weirdly optimistic given the situation.

"What do you mean?" he questioned. "Isn't this after Luka defeats Ilias?"

Evan and I looked at each other.

"Oh fuck…" he muttered. "Well, I'm sure everything will be alright."

Yeah, weirdly optimistic. "So...what's your name?" I asked.

He held out his hand and said, "Jeremiah Hunt! Pro gamer!"

He said that like it was the biggest accomplishment ever. But I shook his hand anyways as he smiled. At least one of us was happy. Though I had to admit, his optimism was getting to me.

"So," he started. "What's the game plan?"

So Evan and I told Jeremiah what happened up to this point, and what we were planning on doing.

"Won't they be suspicious if three guys suddenly wanted to tag along?" Jeremiah wondered.

"True…" Evan muttered.

"How about this," I started. "We're travelers that got attacked by a monster, we lost our stuff as we tried to get away, and we need help getting back to the continent of Sentora. We can figure the rest out when we get there."

"That's a good idea Gary!" Jeremiah said. "I guess knowing the game is gonna help us a lot."

"True," Evan said. "But we can't reveal ourselves, telling them the future is probably a bad idea."

We nodded, "They probably wouldn't believe us anyways." I said.

"Alright," I stood up. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Sounds good," Jeremiah smiled and stood up.

"Good," Evan said. "I wanna go home as fast as possible."

Jeremiah snorted and Evan glared at him. I just rolled my eyes and motioned for them to follow. I had a feeling troubling times were ahead. We headed downstairs where the innkeeper, Betty, greeted us.

"Hello you three!" she said cheerfully. Then looked at Jeremiah, "Glad to see you're doing alright!"

"Uh thanks…" Jeremiah said.

"So what are you three planning on doing now?" she asked.

"We're hoping to head back up to Sentora," I said.

"On your own?" she looked at us worriedly. "You said you lost all your stuff right? How are you planning to survive?"

"Uh," Jeremiah started thinking.

"We'll be alright," Evan said quickly.

Betty looked between the three of us. Then sighed. "I have some surplus food, take that at the very least, so you don't starve. Here, I'll put it in this backpack."

Like she said, she put some food in a backpack and gave it to Evan. "You look sturdy enough. You can carry it, right?"

Jeremiah and I snickered as Evan solemnly took the bag.

I looked at Betty, "Thanks for the help!"

"You're welcome," she said as we walked out of the building. "Don't die out there for me, okay?"

We all nodded. Once we left the building we looked around.

"Anyone see Luka?" I asked.

"Over there," Evan said pointing to the left. Sure enough, as I looked, there was Luka heading into a house. That spiky purple hair was easily recognizable.

"Alright," I said walking towards the house that Luka just entered. "You guys remember the backstory right?"

They both nodded as I looked back at them. In a second we were at the front door. I raised my hand to knock when Evan hissed, "Wait!"

I looked at him, "What?"

"Don't you remember?" he asked. "This is where he talks to Alice, after the failed baptism."

"Oh shit, yeah," I said. "Let's wait then."

"Uh oh…" I heard Jeremiah say, I looked to where he was. He was walking over to us.

"Where'd you go?" I asked.

"I might've peeked into the window...and Alice might've seen me," he said nervously.

I really wanted to facepalm, but decided to just say, "Oh dear."

The door to the house opened to reveal the one and only Luka, "Can I help you guys?"

"No no," Jeremiah said. "Not yet, get back to talking with Alice."

That was when I facepalmed. And I think Evan did too…

Luka looked at me confused, "You know her?"

Jeremiah had a face of regret, "Welp, damn…"

"Kinda?" I said nervously.

"Oh," Luka said. "Well, um...you just missed her. She said she was gonna wait outside of the village. This village doesn't take kindly to monsters. By the way, who are you guys?"

We introduced ourselves and then told him our made up backstory.

"I see," he said. "Well, I wouldn't mind it, the more the merrier."

"Good," I said. "If you don't mind we'll meet you outside the village as well, I need to have a talk with my friends here."

I could almost feel Jeremiah's nervousness.

"Okay," Luka nodded. "I just need to say goodbye to the villagers."

"Sounds good," I said. With that out of the way, we headed towards the outskirts of the village. Once we were out of the Village I angrily looked at Jeremiah.

"I cannot believe this!" I exclaimed. "You had one job!"

Jeremiah seemed to take offense, "Well I'm sorry! I'm not the best at lying for one, and two, you're half baked idea wasn't the best in the first place!"

"You said it was a good idea!" I yelled back.

"Uh guys…" Evan said.

"Well, I lied!" Jeremiah spat.

"Well, I lied too," I exclaimed. "I am definitely going to hurt you!"

"Guys…" Evan said again.

"Bring it on, Slim Jim!" Jeremiah shouted.

"You got it Tubby!" I said, we were about to get into an all out brawl when Evan shouted.

"GUYS!"

We both turned our attention to where Evan was looking to see a very suspicious Alice.

"Do you three mind telling me what's going on here?" she glared. "And don't lie."

Welp, there goes our plan down the drain. I felt like the worst was yet to come.