Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) James Callum (best large ereader .TXT) 📖

She groaned in the back of her throat, a deep longing for a better time. “And the warmth of a summer’s sun on my skin. Ugh, I miss sunbathing. Back when the flame of the world wasn’t blown out. When you could get warm – hot even – just standing out in the sunlight.”

Jacob let her ramble on for several minutes. It was clear she was lost in nostalgia and he found himself slipping into that younger version of himself.

Virginia… that would mean this is roughly two, maybe even three years Post-Collapse. A year after the Red Plague but the worst is yet to come. We’re right on the edge of the Vile Kingdom’s territory.

The memory of the sudden betrayal by the Vile Kingdom and the reason they left the shelter of that private school in Virginia came back to him. Jacob pushed the painful images away.

“Jake?” Kim turned her brilliant baby-blue eyes on him. He never told her how he felt about her, but he was pretty sure she knew anyway. The way he blushed and stammered around her. How she could tongue-tie him with just a look.

“Am I dead?” he asked, unable to stop himself. On some level, he knew this must be a dream or something like it. But a small part of him – the shadow of his soul – hoped that perhaps his fight was over. Let some other person be yanked back and forth through time.

Hadn’t he lost enough already?

The moment of weakness passed as Jacob crushed it under his heel. No, he wasn’t going to just roll over and give up. Who hadn’t lost friends, family, and loved ones? Suck it up, he chastised himself.

Kim giggled and slapped him on the arm. Back in Virginia, it was safe enough that he didn’t need to wear armor all the time. Not that he had a full set of medieval armor yet. He wore a leather jacket though, more to ward off the cold than anything.

“No, of course not, dude!” She motioned around to the red sky and the burned-out shells of buildings around them. The streets were filled with strategically overturned cars that created a maze of corridors to slow any approaching threat.

“Then what are you doing here?” he asked. She wasn’t really there, he knew that. Despite that knowledge, he hoped she wouldn’t take offense at his tone and leave.

“I’m kind of… a whatchamacallit… a safe place, I guess,” she answered, still thinking of the word. Jacob knew what she meant immediately.

“This is my happy place?”

“Yep!” She looped a strong arm over his shoulders and gave him a sidelong hug. “Lazy days on watch, doing nothing special. And for the first time thinking about what could be, instead of what was lost. This was a good time, man. You forget that.”

All Jacob could do was shrug. Kim was dead, whoever was talking back to him wasn’t her. At best, it was his own subconscious trying to communicate through her or at least doing its best impersonation.

Which, he supposed was pretty good. The freckles across the bridge of her nose were just as he remembered. A flash of a bloodied smile invaded his thoughts and he scrambled to his feet suddenly, pushing off her arm and panting with sudden panic.

“Hey, hey, Jake calm down,” she said, getting to her feet and putting up her hands. “You’re safe here. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

He backed up a few steps and eyed her cautiously. “I’m not worried about me.”

That gave her pause. She let her arms fall to her sides. “That’s fair, y’know.”

“What am I doing here?”

“I believe you’ve already caught onto that.”

“Are you seriously pulling some psychoanalytical bullshit on me? You’re me, right? So just tell me.”

With a shrug, Kim collapsed into a cross-legged position in one smooth motion. “You’re unconscious. Stress, or maybe something the docs gave you. I don’t know, dude. I’m not there. Neither am I you. It’s complicated and the particulars of it would go right over your head anyway.”

He wasn’t entirely sure he believed her. In the end, he realized it didn’t matter. Kim patted a nearby spot on the roof, a pair of threadbare pillows to sit atop.

It barely rained anymore, so they left out blankets and pillows on the rooftop for people to sit and tend the garden or just to enjoy the little bit of greenery left in the world.

Sitting across from her, Jacob found himself staring at her again. “What am I doing here?”

“Resting,” came her answer. She leaned forward, placed her palms on her knees and grinned impishly at him as she always used to. Right before she got them both in trouble. “I have a secret, wanna see?”

“I swear… if you turn into some eldritch monstrosity I will be sorely disappointed in you Kimberly O’Neill.”

She answered with a throaty chuckle, took her hands off her knees, and raised them in the air between Jacob and herself. “I need your help though. Think you’re up for it?”

Humoring her, Jacob nodded.

“Good boy. Stick out your hands like this. No, cup your hands. Yep, now make sure all your fingertips are touching each other.” Kim gave him a flat look. “Ya got thumbs, don’tcha? Touch ‘em! Good. Now focus on me.”

Blue eyes dancing with mirth, Kimberly stared at her own cupped palms in that strange pose. Focused on her eyes, Jacob missed what she was doing at first. It appeared as a faint glimmer reflected in her wide eyes that he mistook for the setting sun.

Then a small fire blossomed in her palms and his eyes were torn from her beautiful pixie features to the tiny flame that shimmered and danced and grew.

Three heartbeats later it was a proper flame, dancing and filling up her cupped palms. She leaned forward, catching Jacob by surprise and planted a kiss on his lips. At the same time, she brought her cupped hands to his and tilted them over his.

Her lips tasted