Screentrips

Something flickered. Oh, god, now what? Her vision flickered, and tried to gray out. She held desperately to it, the succubus in front of her an ugly sneer in her vision. Flicker. Something sucking at the back of her mind as she screamed and swung at the face before her with all she had.

"Elves!" the cry went up, and she felt herself falter in despair. No…not now…

The succubus fell and she turned. The world flickered around her again, and it almost seemed she was seeing through two sets of eyes, the perspective just slightly altered, like a double image. The gray pulled at her and she saw the enemies running forward. She reached for something, anything to focus on as the edges of her vision dissolved. Flicker. Then her body froze, her mind encased in a shell, it seemed. She saw an enemy caster looking at her, and realized she had been spelled.

It was like walls around her mind, and she braced herself against it, finding in it the anchor she needed. Maybe having some outside piece of programming directed at her did it, she didn't know, but the attack held her there when she didn't think she'd have had the strength left to do it. Things flickered again, then a surge of energy washed through her.

She spell was gone, but so was the despairing grayness that had been pulling at her. She raised her sword to attack and was hit from all sides before she could swing a blow. Her body fell and she thought RELEASE with all her strength.

The screen finally loaded, having taken so long he thought it had frozen up. The thoughts that went through his mind during that long wait were gone, and he never wanted to remember then again. Finally the familiar halls of the deep dungeon appeared, and his former group going down before the onslaught of an elven incursion. Shinelle barely raised her sword before falling to 5 of them hacking at her and he almost cried out, reaching for the screen. Then she gasped beside him, and the game was forgotten as he turned and dragged her up into his arms.

Warm! She was warming to his touch. She coughed and moved weakly, gasping for breath. "Jim?" her eyes opened and closed, blinking, unable to focus yet.

"I'm here, Jill, I'm here. You're all right. Oh, god, you're all right. Oh, Jill," he crushed her to him until she weakly struggled for room. Gently he held her across his lap. "Jill, are you ok? Oh god, please, tell me you're ok."

Slowly her breathing slowed and her eyes opened, looking dim. Her arms wrapped around herself and she shivered. "Cold. I'm so cold. Jim?"

He clawed at the bed, dragging covers up around her and cradling her. "You're back, honey. I'm here. You're ok."

She focused on him finally for a moment, thoughts slowly catching up with her. Suddenly she clung to him, sobbing violently. "Jim! Oh, god, I was so scared…you were right, I should have listened to you…"

He rocked her as she cried, just glad to have her back. Visions of her cold, waxy body floated in his mind and he knew he would have nightmares of it. "No more, baby. No more. You are too important to me here to lose you to some game. No more."

She stilled in his arms, finally, clinging to him. Shivers ran through her occasionally. "Yes. No more."