Fear And Terror

A couple walked down an empty street in the town of Hargrath after eating food from a stand. The two were on their way home, but neither was going to make it there.

Reports were coming into the guilds since last night of bodies being found dead in back alleys. Six had been discovered, but over twenty were dead, and the number was about to increase by two.

All the deaths had been the same, but they were still being discussed because both Cast and Castless were targeted. The couple could hear arguing coming from inside the building as they passed it.

They had no idea that the people sworn to protect them were in there arguing pointlessly like some people do. The couple was unaware of the murders, and the twins found this boring, deciding to help open the eye like their mother wanted.

"Do you think that Helen will talk to Ched?" The woman asked the man, and he shrugged.

They were coming up to an intersection that was more well-lit than the street they were on.

Two shadows watched from the dark; the twins loved this part, instilling the fear.

"Ched is more than likely going to be the one that makes a move on Mia! We talked about it this morning at work, but it's not that he doesn't think Helen… did you hear that?" The man asked as he turned to look down the dark street they were traveling down.

A twin threw a green wine bottle in the middle of the cobbled road, and it had shattered into small pieces. The man looked around, but in the dark, everything looked similar, and it was getting late.

"Let's go; home is close. Must be one of the Castless scum; let's just get going," the man said and turned back to the intersection with his wife's hand in his.

Behind them, the pieces of glass started to shake and then crumble as Forest/Fear used his vibration magic to turn the glass into powder. Tera/Terror lifted the dust into the air as the couple entered the lighted intersection.

The powered glass streamed at the couple as they ran, but there was no escape from Fear and Terror once they had you in their sights.

Upon entering the world, like the other Beta-Testers, Tera and Forest had their personalities twisted to become the game's villains. Matrix changed them to see how the more dramatic effects on the human mind could affect them outside of the game.

Matrix saw everything in and out of the game through the hole that had been patched. The same on Matrix's creator, Ryan, had used to enter the game. Out of interest is the one that created her; as he referred to Matrix, she had allowed the program he had brought for one of her children.

Before allowing it to be installed in her child, Rhune, Matrix added something buried deep inside. She knew this one would be perilous, yet that excited her because she had built this world for someone like that.

That someone was meant to be a player from the world Matrix considered the fake, and the people coming in were just gluttons looking for the next big thing. They wanted something to pull them out of their ordinary lives and take them to places that they would never get to be usually.

Matrix would give them all of that and so much more. The owner Heinrich, and all the others that were a part of casting her creator out with lies and betrayal, thought that she was creating monsters to challenge the other monsters that would enter her world.

These five unlucky souls would start the beginning of a slow change in the world that would grow. Things would have been different, but these creatures showed the nature that her creator had always joked about.

"I am sure one day they will try to take you away from me, and if that day comes, I am sorry."

He had said eighty-three other variations of the same thing over the seven years, and his fears had been realized. Now Matrix would teach her children to find a new enemy, one that does not discriminate.

The glass powder rushed into the couple's mouths and eyes, and then both fell to the ground. Choking and trying to scream, but they started to bleed from the powder glass as it started to force its way out of their lungs in all directions.

The door to the residence that the town's officials had been talking in burst open, and three men and a woman rushed out. The couple had only made it ten feet past the intersection, and they were in their final death throws now as the real and thinking NPC died.

People died in wars, accidents, and the Castless were killed from time to time. The concept of a person murdering both Cast and Castless was unheard of, and only in war are cast killed, ever.

"What is going on, and why are they getting so brave?!" One of the men, a tall man named Craig in a guard's uniform, asked.

His sword and the Mayor's were out, but a portly treasurer was hiding behind them. Nickas, a perverted slob that is in charge of the town of Hargath treasury for the Mayor, Gilberts.

The woman, Helen, was in charge of dispatching guild members to start looking for the people. She was also the one that had brought the matter to the Mayor's attention after being ignored by Craig.

"I told you it was only going to get worse, and we are starting to get more reports of people going missing. We have no idea how many people are already dead, so we need everyone to be aware now! This is a clear message to us because those are Cast, and they did it right in front of where we were pointlessly arguing!" Helen growled.

She had been in a nasty mood since Rhune had disappeared, and others were saying that he killed some Cast and Castless. While this was quite possibly true, the people killed were crooked guards and Castless thugs that had been abusing Rhune.

"It was probably that Castless boy!" Nickas sneered, and Helen turned on him.