Page 61 of Light Leech

“Stop. It wasn’t your fault.”

I put my arm around her and wondered if her true body was weeping for what her inner self felt. “We all failed him.”

“Don’t blame yourself either, Pet. You were still getting used to this hell of a life, and I don’t mean that in a good way.”

“I know, but you were there for me that entire time. You were the sister I never had. Are that sister. If it hadn’t been for your warmth as I learned to cope with all of this… I might have ended up like Keiro.”

“Stop. None of that. You’re here, so am I, let’s leave it at that, kay?”

“I love you, Ral. You know that, right?”

It felt so warm to say that. Neither of us thought it was anything close to romantic love. Just as it was with Boyband. This familial love had grown amidst our suffering and bound us together tighter because of it.

“Of course I do. I love you too, Pet. I want nothing more than the best for you. You’ll get Naoma. It’s bound to happen.”

I smirked. I wanted it to be true, but it was up to Naoma. My hand was ever extended. She could take it or leave it, but I was there. She was more than a special girl. She was my Neon Idol. Not the concept, but the girl herself.

I would have time with her later. Now was time to spend with one who was so much more than a mere friend. That itch for a socitab was gone. It did not mean that it would not return, but it was silenced by Ralia. If I had been in my body, I knew I would have felt a burning warmth in my chest, the kind that reminds one what it means to be alive.

This was what I lived for. People. Friends. Family.

I had a purpose beyond causing others to suffer. That pain would return with a familiar dental hunger, but I could worry about that later.

I was living. This was in a digital format, yet it was still life. A life I was thankful for after what felt like years of self-loathing since I gained my Bite. My hypothalamic implant was not me. My life had a price, but I felt like an occasional tooth was a better alternative to Gongtide’s efforts to turn the world to waste for their god’s consumption.

Small talk kept us occupied until the end of the path. I loathed senseless conversations and the tendency others had to talk about the weather, but with Ralia, it was refreshing. It was as if we were accepting that there could be time to speak about things other than business. Entertainment. Leisure. Love and the pursuit thereof, though she would not disclose her romantic pursuits. All of it was enjoyable. Enjoyment could still exist for people like us.

She stopped before a blue veil of light that stood like a door in the bright cube before us. “Looks bigger up close, doesn’t it?”

“How big do you think it is?” I asked. “Stadium size?”

“Nah, I’d say at least half a district. It’s fat and I like it.”

“Why?”

She shrugged and smirked. “The bigger it is, the bigger the mystery?”

“Ready to go in?”

“I don’t see why not.” She led the way, transversed the veil of light, and I followed.

Despite the cube having only one door visible to us, multiple lined the wall that stretched on behind us. More people entered through other doors, but there had to be at least a hundred already inside. It looked like we were in a massive white cube, as we saw before, but the ceiling was lower than the cube’s height. The only other feature we could see was a massive violet staircase that led up to the ceiling with no outlet.

“Hihow!”

We jumped as the enthusiastic person to our right appeared in a flash of light. Their body was made from blue light and featureless, despite a mouth in a cartoonish smile.

“Hihow.” Ralia collected herself. “Mind telling us where we are?”

The being laughed. “The Standardized Test, of course! Thank you for your timely arrival. Only thirty nine minutes remain until this batch of competitors will be allowed though!”

“And if we would have missed those thirty nine?” she asked.

“There are two more testing periods for this year. One tomorrow and another the following evening. Thank you for your timely arrival.”

“You already thanked us,” I said.

The being laughed again. “Thank you for your timely arrival. Please make yourself comfortable. The next floor will open in thirty eight minutes.”