Jamie sat around a small round table surrounded by his friends. According to them after passing out the girl had rushed out of the village along with the woman from the bar, and together they had carried him back to a small room on the second floor of the tavern. The girl in the mask had supported him as he had half walked half fallen down the stairs. As well as the masked stranger the man in the top hat had also joined them. They sat in awkward silence for some time as the bartender brought them glasses of cider. The girl thanked her and played with fourteen of the game tokens that Jamie had used earlier. She passed him a glass before doing the same for everyone else around the table. The man in the top hat took a long drink from his.
"What d'ya think Sara-ra? Are they players?" He asked with an accent Jamie couldn't place. The girl just stared at them.
"Possibly" she said before turning to address them.
"My name is Sarah, and that there is Pride." She informed them. The man grinned and swept off his hat as he bowed, revealing a nest of messy grey hair. Jamie took a sip of his own drink, the bitter liquid felt good on his dry tongue. He replaced the glass on the table and realised that the Sarah was studying him.
"All of you empty out your pockets." She commanded. Jamie was about to mention that everything had fallen out of his pockets when he was fighting the Lycan as Pride place a small big before him. Jamie sighed with relief, all of his stuff had been placed inside along with the magic dice and the Lycan's claw. Carefully he tipped the bags contents onto the table and Connor, Dan, Ryan and Emily each emptied their pockets. Each of them still had they're player card from when they were in the basement, with the addition of the tokens they had divided up at the start of the game. Sarah picked up Connor's player card and underneath the mask Jamie could imagine her lifting an eyebrow.
"So you are players." She murmured, scratching her head. "Have any of you got the instructions for the game." She asked. Emily nodded and produced a piece of colourful folded paper. Sarah spread it out across the table and nodded to Pride, who once more took off his top hat. He reached inside and pulled out the map that Jamie had brought earlier. He also spread this across the wooden surface. Sarah pointed to a small cluster of black squares on the map.
"We're here, and this..." She moved her finger a few centimetres to a lime green patch.
"...is where the first boss appeared. Just like it did last time." She continued. Jamie wanted to ask what she meant by last time but held his tongue. Sarah then grabbed the instructions and pointed to the silhouettes of some monsters. Looking closely he realised one of them was filled in, next to the gruesome image was a text talking about the mythology of the Lycan.
"This is one of four regular bosses. Then there's the Arch-Boss, the one you must defeat if you want to go back to the real world. Keeping up?" She asked. Everyone nodded even though they didn't have a clue what she was talking about.
"I've fought the second boss already, but since you joined I guess the game has reset." She sighed. Pride laughed.
"You defeated that bugger once, you can do it again!" He assured her. Sarah shook her head.
"I can't. It says here in the rules that a player or group of players can only defeat a boss once. Whatever the third boss is I can help, but the game will prevent me with helping kill the second boss again." She said sadly. Ryan coughed.
"Does this mean I'm not really high right now and Dan was right about freaky voodoo magic?" He asked, shooting Dan an apologetic look. Pride laughed again, this time loud and throaty.
"I like this one." He said, slapping Ryan on the back. "If I wasn't already going to help you I would be now!" He cried. Jamie couldn't help but smile. Pride was like a fatherly mad hatter. Only more sane than the one from Alice in wonderland. Sarah nodded.
"If you want to reach the arch boss, then you need to kill all the regular bosses first." She paused. "And gain the trust of the seven sinners if you want to stand a chance." Pride grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
"Six left" he beamed. Connor gasped.
"Wait, so Pride isn't just your name." he realised, glancing at the top hat. "It's what you represent?"
Pride tapped his nose and took another long swig of his cider. Dan gulped.
"So what, then the others are..."He stopped, trying to remember.
"Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath and Envy." Sarah finished for him. Emily raised her hand, as if she was in a class room and wanted to ask a question and murmured.
"So, erm...What do we do exactly." Sarah turned to face her. "You wanted to play the game, and now you have no choice but to."

Sarah swung her rucksack into her back. She had changed into a pair of dear skin leggings, a cotton shirt and what she said was a "Dragon scale waistcoat". Even though they were now travelling together she refused to remove the mask. Jamie didn't argue. She had purchased a bag for each of them, along with some dried food and a short, sharp knife. Pride said he would go as far as the woods but would them have to leave them there. Jamie didn't complain though, he was sure that this was just a dream, nothing these people were saying made any sense and he was sure that any minute now he would wake up back in his bedroom, or down in the basement. He was also sure that his friends felt the same way and that was the only reason they had agreed to come along. Behind them he could hear the shouts of thanks from the villagers who had been terrorized by the Lycan. Sarah led the way through the meadow, Pride skipped along at the back of the group, humming to himself. Even if this was a dream, Jamie felt ill. A nagging voice in the back of his head kept yelling at him, telling him to look around and open his eyes. This was all as real as he was. Then he could Pride's hand on his shoulder. They were almost at the edge of the forest. Now that the sun was setting the pine trees cast deep shadows along the leaf covered floor. The whole place looked eerie, like entrance into it should have been forbidden. Pride grinned, though it was clear he was nervous.
"Take care Sara-ra." He smiled, his voice shaky. "The others won't be won over as easily. You know how to find me."
Sarah nodded, and Jamie thought he could make a tear slip down from under her mask, but in the twilight it was hard to be sure. Pride flicked off his hat and bowed, just as he had done when they first met before he turned, walking back through the flowers towards the village. Jamie watched as the figure got smaller and smaller until it was nothing more than a dot in the distance. Just like that, the man named Pride was gone.