Chapter Fourteen: D&D And Arguments

(The Case Of The Missing Lifeguard, Pt. 2)

***

"You ready?" Alistair whispered to Will.

His best friend grinned. "Yes."

Alistair returned the grin and he headed over to the stereo resting innocently next to the campaign table as Will stood at the head, dressed in his purple wizard's robe and matching hat, a staff in his hands. In front of them, Lucas and Mike were still asleep, and currently unaware of what was about to happen.

It was the next day, and Alistair spent it in a dreamless sleep, with no ghosts or screams or icy pain tormenting him. No ghosts tried to strangle him either when he woke up, so that was a plus. Of course, immediately after he and Will had let each other's hands go and Alistair was vehemently trying to push down the fluttery feeling that he held Will's hand the whole night, they got the campaign ready, the final touches being Will's wizard outfit for his character and Alistair getting the mixtape for their D&D campaigns, ready to play it.

As Alistair's finger hovered over the PLAY button, a rumble of thunder came. It had been storming all day, and Alistair took that as good luck—his sister giving him and Will her blessing to do this.

Alistair grinned and he pressed the button.

Immediately folky, medieval music roared to life, startling Mike and Lucas awake as Lucas shouted, "Yes!"

Alistair stood beside Will, a smirk still on his face as his best friend stood tall as their friends blinked the sleep out of their eyes before Lucas asked, "What are you doing?"

"Yeah, Will, can you or Al turn down the music?" Mike requested, squinting as the haze of sleep still hadn't entirely left.

"Please address me by my full name," Will said.

"What?" Mike questioned.

Will slammed his staff down and yelled, "My full name!"

Alistair arched his brows, grinning at his best friend fully getting into character as Mike groaned.

"Oh my God. Okay, Will the Wise, can you or Al please turn down the music?" Mike questioned sardonically.

"That is not music," Will stated. "That... is the sound of destiny! I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day! A day... free of girls!"

Alistair smiled, giving a supportive thumbs up to Will as Lucas asked in a confused, sleep-groggy voice, "What is happening right now?"

"Surprise, guys. Welcome to the D&D takeover," Alistair said, grinning wickedly.

"Will, Al, come on," Mike groaned, but they ignored him as Will crouched over the table and said dramatically, "A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan."

"And after sending many a men to stop it, they are in need of our help to stop it for good and ensure it shall never come back to trouble them or the wider kingdom again!" Alistair declared, channelling Eddie's dramatic Dungeon Master energy as much as possible—even as he thought Eddie would love Will as a DM and probably have him as his protege when they started high school and joined Hellfire.

"Will, Al, it's so early," Mike complained.

"Is it?" Will asked, standing up and glaring daggers at Mike. "Is it early, Michael? Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children so frightened, they cannot sleep. Are you truly going to let them perish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and become the heroes you were always meant to be?"

Alistair smirked. Eddie is definitely gonna make Will his protege and successor for Hellfire.

Mike and Lucas were silent, until Lucas raised his hand and asked, "Uh... can I at least take a shower first?"

Alistair's eyes widened and he looked at Will—neither of them had expected that.

"Uh, yeah, sure. The villagers can wait a little bit," Alistair said.

Lucas grinned and ran up the stairs, leaving them behind. Mike, Will and Alistair awkwardly stayed where they were before Alistair cleared his throat and said, "Wanna come over here, Mike?"

Mike hesitated before he stood up, heading over to the table with a sigh. Alistair and Will sat down, Will staying behind the DM's screen as they waited until Lucas was done.

When he did and joined them at the table, Will grinned as he leaned forward and said, "You have arrived in the village of the Khuisar tribe. You see houses falling apart, most abandoned. The villagers are staring at you warily, and hiding their children away. The feeling of distrust is thick in the air, but still you head in, right to the town's centre where the tribe's chief is waiting for you..."

Alistair grinned, feeling the energy of a campaign settle over him, already tasting the high of victory. He wondered if Mike and Lucas could, too—he hoped they did.

The campaign had officially begun.

***

"Do you guys hear that? It sounds like... thunder."

Alistair leaned forward, gripping his pencil tightly as epic music boomed behind him, a gleam in Will's eyes as he looked at him first, then Mike and Lucas. It had been a few hours since the campaign had started, and he was honestly enjoying it. He missed playing it, and while Mike and Lucas had looked more disinterested, he wasn't letting that dampen his spirits or enjoyment of this campaign, this game.

He eyed Will as his best friend gave a small grin before he revealed, "But, no, wait. That's not thunder. It's... a horde of juju zombies!"

Will turned to Mike and said, "Sir Mike, your action!"

"What should I do?" Mike asked, turning to Lucas.

"Attack?" Lucas suggested.

"Okay. I attack with my flail," Mike responded, sounding as apathetic as he looked.

Will grabbed the dice, rattling them before releasing with a "Whoosh!"

At the reveal of the numbers, Will cried, "You miss! Your flail clanks the stone, the zombie horde lumbers towards you and.. the juju bites your arm! Flesh tears! Agh! Seven points of damage."

Alistair fought back a smirk as Mike said sarcastically, "Oh no, my arm. Lucas, Al, look, my arm."

Alistair shot a glare at Mike as Will turned to him. "Alistair the Fearless! The zombie horde comes closer! What do you do?"

Alistair grinned, taking the dice. "I raise an undead army and counter the juju horde with my own!"

He rolled the dice, watching the it roll across the table before it landed. Will grinned and declared, "Success! Your undead minions rise from the ground, fallen Khuisar warriors avenging themselves and their brethren! The juju horde is taken by surprise and gives you and your Party a fighting chance!"

Alistair grinned.

"But, wait. There is a noise... a roar," Will said, voice grave, before he revealed, "Another horde comes rushing in! More than your army! Your warriors are overwhelmed and many are torn to pieces!"

Alistair groaned. "Dammit!"

Will now turned to Lucas, who blinked heavily, and yelled, "Sir Lucas, the zombie horde roars! Do you fight back or do you run?"

Before Lucas could respond, the phone rang.

Everyone turned, and Alistair caught the hope in Mike's and Lucas' faces as Will cried, "No! It's a distraction! A trap. Do not answer it!"

"Yeah, let's ignore it and get back to this," Alistair concurred, Will sending a grateful grin to Alistair. Alistair returned it.

But Mike and Lucas shared a look before they stood up and rushed to the phone, Will's face falling as he said, "What... No!"

Alistair glared. "Come on, seriously guys?"

But Mike and Lucas ignored them as Mike picked the phone up and said hopefully, "El?"

A second later, the hopeful note died and he said, "No. Sorry, not interested."

He slammed the phone back and sighed. "Telemarketers."

"Maybe we should just call them," Lucas suggested.

"We can do that?" Mike asked, frowning.

"I think so," Lucas said, shrugging.

"Yeah, but what would we say?"

"We'll say nothing!" Will yelled, slamming his staff down again. "The Khuisar tribe still needs your help."

"Alright, then. I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus and saving the Khuisar. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar," Mike said, not even bothering to hide his disinterest anymore.

"Victory," Lucas deadpanned, and he and Mike high-fived.

Alistair gaped at Mike and Lucas, before he turned away, not able to look at them as Will's face contorted and he spat, "Okay. Fine. You guys win."

He ripped the hat off and stopped the music, spitting out, "Congratulations."

Realising he and Lucas had messed up, Mike said, "Will, I was just messing around."

As Will took off the robe and packed up, Mike walked forward and asked, "Hey, let's finish for real. How much longer is the campaign? Al? How much longer is it?"

Alistair only glared at Mike as Will muttered angrily, "Just forget it, Mike."

"No, we want to keep playing, right?" Mike said, looking to Lucas who stammered out a very convincing, "Y-Yeah, totally."

"We'll just call the girls afterwards," Mike went on, right as Will whirled and snapped, "I said forget it, Mike, okay?! I'm going home."

"But—" Mike tried again, but Will wasn't listening anymore, storming for the stairs. Mike tried to stop him by going in his path, saying, "Come on, Will."

"Move!" Will exclaimed, roughly pushing past Mike and running up the stairs.

Mike hesitated for a second before he ran after Will, leaving Lucas and Alistair alone.

A few tense seconds of silence passed before Lucas said, "Al, I'm sorry, it's a really good campaign, I—"

"You know me and Cami are friends, right?" Alistair interrupted, pinning Lucas with a glare. "We're friends and she honestly feels like my person. But I don't obsess over her or girls in general all the fucking time and and at least try to hang out with all my friends and be interested in what they're doing. And I definitely don't try to skip out on a campaign—a campaign me and Will have been planning for a month and have been waiting for Dustin to get back home and for you guys to be interested in it again to play it—to hang out with her. Because I'm not an asshole or a bad friend."

He stood up harshly, packing away his stuff as Lucas was quiet before he sighed and said, "You're right."

Alistair paused, turning to look as he saw genuine remorse on Lucas' face as he went on, "You're right. Mike and me... we have been pretty shit friends. I like D&D, I do, and I'm sure Mike does as well. I just... lost interest in it, I guess. But it's no excuse, I shouldn't have helped make it all about Max or El, and I should have made the effort to still try and be interested, especially when you and Will obviously spent a lot of time on it. And I'm really, really sorry."

Alistair looked at Lucas, before he sighed and said, "Okay. I accept it. But, you should apologise to Will as well."

Lucas nodded, before he gave Alistair a tentative smile. "Maybe we could play it again? This time, I'll definitely put in the effort, and I'll make sure Mike does, too."

Alistair thought over it, before he returned it. "Okay."

Grabbing his bag, he put the rest of his stuff in it and slung it over his shoulders. Lucas noticed, and asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going with Will. Make sure he's okay," Alistair answered. "See you tomorrow, Lucas."

"See you tomorrow," Lucas replied, waving.

Alistair returned it as he marched up the stairs, making a beeline straight for the garage. He gotten there just as he heard Will yell, "And obviously he doesn't either and I don't blame him! You're destroying everything, and for what? So you can swap spit with some stupid girl?"

"El's not stupid! It's not my fault you don't like girls."

Alistair froze, feeling the silence swell as he saw Will's face, a myriad of emotions crossing over Will's face—shock, hurt and betrayal—as he stared at Mike.

He couldn't believe Mike said that. After hearing Will being bullied for years about that—after Alistair had punched Troy and Mike had also shoved him for saying something like that years ago—he could not believe Mike had said that, to his best friend.

He could have said that to me if I didn't like girls as well.

"Will, I'm so sorry," Mike said after that heavy, shocked silence. "I... I'm not trying to be jerk. But we're not kids anymore. I mean, what did you think, really? That we were never gonna get girlfriends? We were just gonna sit in my basement all day and play games for the rest of our lives?"

"Yeah. I guess I did," Will said, hurt and betrayal still in his voice, mixing with bitterness. "I really did."

Will turned and marched to his bike, hopping on and riding out into the storm as Mike shouted, "Will. Will! Will, come on! Will!"

Alistair stared after Will, before he glared at Mike and said in a voice barely restraining his anger, "Wow, you really fixed things, huh? Definitely didn't act like a fucking prick at all, Mike."

Mike jumped, turning as his eyes widened. "Al? You... you heard all that?"

"Yes," Alistair said, his voice a growl. "And you better give me a good reason why I shouldn't fucking punch you right now."

Mike gulped, guilt flashing in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I was being an asshole, I didn't think—"

Alistair shoved Mike, yelling, "You know that Will's heard all that shit for years! You of all people know how much that's hurt Will! How could you fucking say something like that, Mike? How could you?!"

Cold burned in Alistair's eyes, icy fury roaring to life. The ground rumbled and Alistair forced his powers back down. No matter how angry he was at Mike, he wouldn't use his powers on him. He would never use his powers on his friends.

"I'm sorry," Mike said again, looking truly remorseful. "I'm really, really sorry. I screwed up. I'm sorry."

Alistair glared at Mike. "You better be."

He marched to his bike, pulling it up as Mike asked, "Al, where are you going?"

Alistair shot another glare. "What does it look like? I'm going after Will."

He hopped onto the bike and rode out into the storm, ignoring Mike's shouts.

Following after Will.

***

Yeah, this... this was a lot

The first half was very enjoyable to write (I love Will and Alistair bully Mike and Lucas into playing D&D) And yes, while I love Eddie and Dustin, I firmly believe that if Eddie had met Will, he would have loved Will and make him the person to take over Hellfire Club as the next Dungeon Master, not just Dustin

But yeah, then the latter half... that was not fun. I liked writing Alistair call out Lucas and Lucas apologising (and it being a catalyst to him apologising to Will/being interested in D&D again when getting the sauna test prepared) but then the Mike and Will argument scene... that was not fun. And yeah, Alistair was definitely angry at Mike (and would have punched him if he wasn't more focused on Will)

Next chapter will be soon. And it will be slightly better (and have one of my fave Alisill moments...)

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!