Nick’s instructions were clear. Sleep was best when recovering from a concussion. He needed to turn his brain off. Not focus. Not use screens. No reading. Hardly anything. Once he heard a verbal confirmation that Walt believed the crash was punishment enough, Nick slept. Slept through Thanksgiving. Slept through most of Friday. Had the same dream, over and over.

  Nick watched, almost in slow motion, as the car slammed into him. He should have felt pain, but he felt nothing. Pieces of glass were moved away from him. His arms, legs, and neck were braced by something he couldn’t comprehend, no doubt saving them from getting shattered. Something stopped the shard of glass from slicing his eye before his head slammed against the air bag.

  Nick opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling to stop the dream. He hated when his dream lasted long enough to hear Evelyn screaming.

  The only person that could have been was Order. But he had no recollection of what she did. Not until he had his first dream.

  And yet that was all she did. With all the talk of keeping her brother in check, she didn’t push his car to narrowly miss an accident. She already admitted it was too much, so why not that? Why keep him injured?

  Nick reached up, placing his fingertips against the stiches on his cheek. Unheard of. That’s what the doctors said of his condition. Should have lost an eye. Should’ve broken a few bones. They were all flabbergasted he didn’t even have a cracked rib. Minor concussion with some cuts and bruises, that was it. Nick was lucky. Guardian angel was another word passed around. Reckless, at fault, but a miracle he survived. Nick knew all these phrases were responsible for Walt refusing to give Nick a punishment. Walt didn’t even ask why he was in the car by himself, though that was undoubtably a conversation they’d have when Nick’s concussion went away.

  Nick reached over for his pain medication on the small stool they set up next to his bed. He grabbed the pills, but there was no water. He grumbled, sliding out of bed before walking down the hall. He still had a headache, and his ice pack for his bruise was warm. He got out of bed and plodded down the hall. He got to the kitchen and saw Evelyn on a stool, scrolling through her phone.

  “Hey,” he muttered, grabbing a glass from the cabinet.

  “Hey,” she said.

  There was silence as Nick filled the glass from the tap before downing the pills and setting the glass in the dishwasher.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Nick said, heading for the bathroom.

  “Right. Um, just know the session’s starting soon, and Tyler said he wants to meet with you after,” Evelyn said.

  Nick almost screwed up his face in confusion but forced himself to stop, afraid it would pull at the stitches. “I thought we weren’t having a session today.”

  “Yeah, we agreed today would be a good day to go. Probably spend all day grinding. There’s not as many creatures in town, so they want to keep that up especially since people can see our characters now,” Evelyn said.

  “No, we decided to do that Saturday,” Nick said.

  Evelyn’s face fell, the worry apparent. “Nick, it is Saturday.”

  Nick blinked. Today was Saturday? How much of Thanksgiving did he sleep through? This morning there was a slice of pumpkin pie waiting for him. Or… was that yesterday.

  He touched his head, blinking a few times.

  “Are you okay?” Evelyn asked.

  “Fine.” Nick dropped his hand. “Fine. Just… lost track of time.” He pulled up Grizzizzik’s character sheet and scanned it. “It’s just… Grizzizzik didn’t get any extra experience points. I thought it was Friday’s session.”

  “Oh, he didn’t go to the session yesterday,” Evelyn said.

  Nick’s mouth went dry. “What?”

  Evelyn shook her head, her eyes traveling to her phone, no doubt so Nick wouldn’t see the anger she felt. “Everyone agreed that Milo and Grizzizzik had enough experience points that they could take a break while the others caught up. Derek was still with his family, and you were… recovering. So the two of them hung out, and Grizzizzik’s punishment was to listen to Milo talk about mana for a few hours while Hraktar, Princess Clarissa, and Ezekiel did a session by themselves.” Evelyn gave a particularly angry scroll with her finger. “Got off too easy, I say.”

  Nick didn’t answer. Technically there was nothing that tied Grizzizzik to the car. Nick admitted that it was his decision. His decision so the deadline wouldn’t move up anymore. Which meant Grizzizzik didn’t attend a battle for three days. While everyone else got experience points. His character was probably anxious to get going.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “So, um… how many experience points does the princess have now?” Nick asked.

  Evelyn glanced at the character sheet only she could see. “11,820.”

  Nick nodded, closing his eyes. Clarissa had the lowest experience points before. Now it was Grizzizzik. After Nick almost lost an eye and shattered his arm and leg, Grizzizzik was now in last place among everyone else.

  He doubted anyone actually cared. They needed to level up together after all. But he lost track of time. It was Saturday, which meant there were three more days until Tuesday, the start of the new weekly contract. Three days for Grizzizzik to get over two thousand points. But also Grizzizzik needed to get caught, by his friends.

  He was wrestling with his feelings. He did not want to do another chaotic thing, but he told himself that he would not let Grizzizzik get away with this. All Grizzizzik got out of this would be a sword and a huge boost to his charisma. Grizzizzik needed to tell the truth, or else everyone would assume Nick did this on purpose. Or, rather, listened to Grizzizzik and chose for himself to do these things.

  “Nick?”

  He brought himself to the present, glancing at his sister who had set her phone down, staring at him with concern plain in her eyes.

  “Hmm?” Nick asked.

  “Are you… okay? Do you want to talk about it?” Evelyn asked.

  Yes. God, yes. Time is running out. You need to find out. How can you find out.

  Nick shook his head. “I’m good.” He returned his trek down the hall toward the bathroom. “I’ll take a shower now. Where’s mom and dad?”

  “Out.”

  Nick grunted, then grabbed some clothes from his room before going into the shower. He closed the door, locked it, then leaned his arm against it, staring at nothing. He didn’t want to lean his head against it, as he didn’t want to touch the stitches. It was a relief to finally close and lock a door, and he allowed himself this moment of peace when he had complete and total privacy.

  Saturday. It was Saturday. Late morning. He was supposed to be careful with screens, but considering he didn’t have any, it didn’t matter. Walt had taken his phone Wednesday night, and he hadn’t gotten it back yet.

  Nick eased his shirt off, giving his torso a good look. His shoulder bruise from the seatbelt looked the worst, and Nick tenderly touched it, understanding the shock and awe the doctors must have felt. He should have broken something. Yes, his head had been stitched together in two places and he was walking a bit stiffer than usual, but it should have been so much worse. Order protected him because Chaos had finally took it too far. He should feel relieved, but he didn’t. Order should have stepped in way before all of this. Before Grizzizzik made the deal. Hell, before Neal made the deal.

  Nick took a quick shower. He was worried about possible dizziness coming back, and taking a shower was not the place to be when that happened. By the time he turned the water off, he was already rolling for a battle. That had to make Grizzizzik happy.

  Nick was careful to pat his stitches dry. He followed instructions and tried to keep them as dry as he could while showering, not soaking it in water. He eased his clothes back on before glancing at himself in the mirror, touching the stiches on his cheek. He hadn’t noticed it before, but it almost looked like the scar he got from his first car accident naturally led into this new one. He didn’t like it. He remembered his dream. Remembered hearing Order’s voice and feeling the slice of the glass that should have hit his eye. He remembered, three years ago, looking into this same mirror and realizing he was lucky to still have his eye. A promise that no matter what, he needed to make better choices. Even if no one else believed he would do better.

  Nick gripped the end of the sink, feeling the dizziness come back. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to gently sink to his knees. When his knees started smarting from the injuries he got from kneeling on broken glass, he moved to resting flat on his back. He kept rolling as time froze, feeling worried. Trying to judge how many turns he was taking to guess how many monsters they were fighting. He hoped it was something with a large amount of experience points.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Nick?” It was Walt. The doorknob jiggled. “Nick?”

  “Coming.” Nick eased himself to his feet. He unlocked the door, bracing himself for a fight, even though Walt had almost gone out of his way to avoid Nick. It couldn’t have been that hard, what with all the sleeping Nick had done.

  “Hey,” Walt said, arms folded. “Good shower?”

  “Yeah. It was nice,” Nick said.

  “Good. Um,” Walt scratched his head, not quite looking at him. “I… don’t want you to lock the door for a week. The dizziness spells might hit, and… if you fall in the shower, we want to be able to reach you fast to make sure you’re okay.”

  Nick blinked. It made sense, of course. He should have thought of that. What shocked him, though, was that Walt explained his reasoning like an adult without demanding he was right and for Nick to do what he said.

  “Right. Yeah, I’ll… do that,” Nick said.

  “Thanks.” Walt cleared his throat. “Also… for Monday, you’ll go to school for the first half of the day. Your mother will pick you up after lunch and take you to check your stitches. They might take the ones out of your cheek, though it sounds like they might wait a few more days for the one on your scalp.”

  “Okay,” Nick said.

  “We’ll take the next week slower. If… you have a headache or anything, make sure you take your Tylenol. You can judge Monday if you think you can do a full day of school Tuesday. Also, Ike and I both agreed you need your rest. He won’t see you Monday, and Wednesday he only wants you there if you want to be. And if you need to go home early, you’re more than welcome to.”

  There was a silence. Nick wasn’t sure what to do, but he did know Walt was treating him like a human being, and it was strange. He didn’t know how much of his car crash Walt knew about, or how much Evelyn said about what happened.

  “Alright. I’m… going back to sleep.”

  “Take this with you,” Walt said, holding out Nick’s phone.

  Nick said nothing as he took the phone, sliding it into his pocket. Walt stepped out of the doorway so Nick would walk through.

  “I’m… glad you’re okay,” Walt said.

  Nick was relieved his dad could only see his back. So he wouldn’t see the flash of pain that crossed Nick’s face at his words. He hated moments like this. Moments when he glimpsed what it would be like if Walt wasn’t a selfish jackass. It made everything else hurt so much worse.

  “Yeah. Me too,” Nick said before moving into his bedroom.