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Aubrey and company had spent hours and hours attempting to find Basil, to no success.
Poor Basil, she thinks. He must be lost and scared.
It was almost frustrating, how there was no trace of him anywhere. It didn't matter where they'd look - Pyrefly Forest, Otherworld, the Junkyard - Basil was nowhere to be found. Asking the people nearby yielded no results, either. Like nobody knew he even existed.
The group had decided to take a small break at one of Mari's picnics. All of them, except for Aubrey - she'd zoned out, unconsciously separating herself from her friends as she reminisced.
She didn't express it much in front of the others, but God did she miss Basil. All of the memories they shared - the flower crowns, the picnics, the photos he'd take, the way he stopped stuttering when he spoke about his plants. Without him, it just felt so, so empty.
She hoped they'd find him soon—
“What are you doing so far away from everyone else, Aubrey?”
Her thoughts are then interrupted by a voice she didn't recognize. It sounded low, echoey, almost like a whisper carried by the wind.
Turning to find the source of the words, Aubrey spots a shadowy figure staring at her from a distance. It seemed to vaguely resemble Basil, with two white dots where his eyes would be.
A million questions run through her head, but her voice refuses to leave her throat.
This isn't real, she thinks as she rubs her eyes in an attempt to confirm that she wasn't hallucinating.
After a couple moments of silence, “Basil…?” is all she manages to mutter.
The… thing tilted its head, speaking again.
“I am not the same flower boy you are familiar with. I will ask once more; just what are you doing here, alone and away from your friends?”
Messing with her hands, Aubrey replies in a quiet, shaky tone, admittedly afraid of whatever this shadow thing was.
“I-I was just… thinking,” she half-mumbled as she avoided eye contact. “I needed some time f-for myself.”
What if it wants to hurt me? What if it wants to kill me? Why does it look like Basil? And how long has it been staring at me for?
The shadow, calm as always, hummed in acknowledgement, either unbothered by or uncaring of the fear in Aubrey's voice.
“I apologize if my appearance was unexpected. I was simply curious about your behavior.”
Moving closer to the silhouette, Aubrey takes a deep breath to calm herself down, and she speaks a little louder.
“Who are you, exactly?”
“I am typically referred to as Stranger,” it replies, offering a handshake. “Quite the unconventional name, is it not?”
Aubrey hesitates. Her hand moves close to Stranger's, but stops, trembling ever so slightly.
“Do not be afraid, I have no desire to harm you.”
Deciding to trust it for now, she finally shakes its hand, and it feels… off.
Its texture is unlike anything she had ever felt before - rugged, sharp, rough.
Aubrey didn’t want to think about it too much.
“You are looking for Basil, yes? I might be able to help you.”
Upon hearing that, her eyes widen - does it really know where he is? They’d been looking on and off forever, with him escaping their grasp every time - yet this (admittedly eerie) Basil lookalike seemed to know his whereabouts!
Any remnant of cognitive thought leaves Aubrey as soon as her mouth opens, “You do?! Then please take me to him! You have no idea how much I’ve missed him…”
“Believe me, I do,” is all it says before taking a hold of her arm.
——
In the blink of an eye, the scenery that was once surrounding the two is replaced by pure emptiness. Nothing but a black void stretching on for miles and miles, and it didn’t help that Stranger perfectly blended in with the area, looking simply like two white dots in the ocean of blackness.
“Where are we…?” Aubrey weakly manages to ask, voice taken over by terror. “Why would Basil be here…?”
“I’m not sure you’d like to know the answer,” it blankly replies, walking forward, and Aubrey takes notice of the red footprints it leaves behind.
She tries her best to stick close to Stranger, who moved around in a very specific way. Aubrey wondered how it knew where to go. To her, it's impossible to discern anything. Does it live here, perhaps?
Her train of thought derailed as the same rough feeling from earlier invaded her hand. It's holding onto her again, probably so she doesn't get lost. And no wonder - losing your footing in this void would most likely be a living nightmare.
Eventually, the chilling silence is replaced by a slow, discordant melody, playing from who knows where. A black door with a white outline - which Aubrey was positive wasn't there before - is now situated in front of the two, standing by itself, seemingly leading nowhere.
Stranger, noticing her confusion, begins to explain.
“No shred of logic applies here. This is where repressed memories are stored, those so hurtful and horrifying that you wish to never recall again. Chaos reigns above everything else.”
For a split second, Aubrey loses her grip on reality, the whole world around her becoming hazy, distant, incomprehensible.
She'd like to think she and Stranger crossed the door, as the next thing she sees is completely different from the pitch black nothingness she'd been standing in prior.
She recognizes the place as the Vast Forest, but absolutely not right. The grass, normally a soft green, was now a bright, gaudy blue. Everywhere she'd look, she'd find trees with cyan trunks and pink leaves—
Wait, is that Basil?!
——
The poor thing is trapped in a spider web, struggling and whimpering in sheer horror. It takes a while for him to spot Aubrey, but when he does, his eyes light up.
“Oh, thank goodness you're here, Aubrey! I thought I was gonna be stuck here forever.”
Weirdly, he didn't seem to notice Stranger - or maybe he did and chose not to bring it up.
Meanwhile, it turns away, becoming pensive about something Aubrey couldn't quite decipher.
She then realizes she'd forgotten a crucial detail - Omori wasn't around to free Basil with his knife.
Guess I'll have to do this the hard way, she thinks as she approaches her friend, attempting to remove the spider web with her own hands.
To her, it feels like an eternity, her palms and fingers entangled with the very thing she'd been trying to pry off of him, but eventually, he gently lands on the grass below, thankfully unscathed.
“Phew. That feels so much better,” he coos, smiling at Aubrey. “I can't believe you came here to save me. I missed you so much!”
Tears begin to form in her eyes as she attacks Basil with a tight hug. From the very moment that he disappeared, she never lost one shred of hope. And now, here he was, safe and sound.
She realizes then how much she needed his embrace.
He is quick to return the hug as well.
“I missed you too, Basil. You have no idea,” she mumbles, sniffling.
She couldn't cry now. She'd take him with the others, and then she'd let herself cry.
“Now that you're here, I can finally go home,” he says as his smile widens, and she believes this is the happiest she's ever seen him.
Pulling away from the hug, he holds her hand. “Lead the way, Aubrey!”
She nods in response, turning — just to realize that Stranger had mysteriously vanished.
It wasn't going to abandon them both, would it? After all, she had no idea where the exit was. It brought her here, surely it could take her out.
However, Aubrey didn't want to make Basil think she was lost - even though she very much was - so she trudged forward, pretending to know the right way home.
Avoiding the centipede-like things (Aubrey wasn't sure if that's what they were, though she wouldn't like to find out), they turned a couple corners, until a spider crawled on Basil, stopping at his arm.
He didn't seem too bothered - even smiling upon seeing it.
“You know… I think spiders are really misunderstood,” he began, glancing at the arachnid. “They might look kind of scary, but they never attack humans unless they feel threatened.”
Aubrey was, admittedly, afraid of spiders - although certainly not as much as Hero - so seeing him handle one so casually was impressive, to say the least.
“Not to mention they're also one of my biggest helpers when I'm gardening, since they eat a lot of the pests that can hurt my plants,” he continued, chuckling. “It's all about the balance of nature!”
Aubrey had forgotten how much she loved to hear him talk about his garden.
It was great to have him back.
As they kept walking, more and more spiders would crawl onto him, and soon enough there were about nine or ten of them on his body.
“There's so many spiders here all of a sudden…” Basil mutters nervously, trying not to provoke any of them by accident. “I can feel them crawling all over me. Maybe they're just saying hello?”
He pauses, trying to smile. “Hi, spiders! It's me, your friend Basil!”
Aubrey felt horrified. She wanted to get them off of him so badly, but something restrained her from doing so. They wouldn't hurt him, would they? He certainly knows how to manage them, doesn't he?
How on Earth is he so cheery when he has so many of those things on him?
Reluctantly turning around, she continues to traverse the discolored forest, hoping she'd find the exit (or Stranger) sometime soon.
——
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, or if she was going in circles, but one thing was clear - there was no way she was leaving this place without Stranger to guide her.
Aubrey tried to look for the same black door from earlier, which surely would be her ticket to freedom—
“Ack!”
She is caught off guard by Basil letting out a pained whimper, and once she turns around, she realizes the problem.
The spiders had about doubled by now, and they were starting to bite him.
No, no, no, no—
“Oh… I'm probably just scaring them,” he concludes, making absolutely no attempt to get the arachnids off him. Despite this, his voice was becoming shaky and quiet, probably out of fear. “There, there, spiders. It's okay! I'm not here to hurt you!”
Terrified for his life, Aubrey runs faster, but it only seems to worsen the situation.
Basil is now barely recognizable, covered head to toe in the things.
“There's so many of them… I can't get them off!” he cries out, trembling. “Aubrey… please… help…”
Frantically looking around to find something, anything that could save Basil, she sees it.
Stranger.
Whatever happened afterwards is a blur to Aubrey - maybe she called out its name, maybe it turned to face her, and just maybe, Basil's piercing scream of pain echoed through her ears.
When she regains her senses, all she sees is a huge pile of spiders scattering away, vanishing into the brightly colored trees surrounding her.
No.
It can't be.
He was right there. She had found him.
And now he's gone. Dead.
Worst of all, she let it happen.
She stood there like an idiot and let the spiders eat him alive.
Stranger slowly approaches Aubrey, wrapping its arms around her.
“My sincerest apologies. I should've known this would happen to your friend. It would've been better if I had not promised anything.”
Aubrey cries. Aubrey cries until it hurts.
She'd think about Stranger's words later - right now, she only wants to bawl her eyes out and scream.
It lets her cry. Frankly, it isn't quite sure what to say - simply resorting to rubbing her back, mumbling, “There, there.”
“W-Why…? Why did I let him die?” she mutters in between sobs.
“This place is cruel,” it admits, looking off to the side. “I do not believe it is in my best interest to let you wander around here. Your safety would be compromised. Allow me to return you home.”
“But what about Basil?! Can't you do something?!” Aubrey pleads, tears still flowing down her cheeks like waterfalls.
“I unfortunately cannot help you,” it declares, grabbing her arm. “I am extremely sorry, Aubrey. May you find him in your next life.”
Before she could ask any questions about what it could have possibly meant, they were both standing in the same dark void they'd found themselves in initially.
The distorted, almost melancholic tune from earlier is accompanied by a different sound.
Footsteps.
“...It seems we have company,” Stranger says, wide-eyed.
For the first time since she'd met it, she heard an emotion in its voice. Fear.
Aubrey turns to see Omori slowly walking toward them, knife in hand.
“He found out. Aubrey, I must confess something. Fragments of the imagination like yourself aren't supposed to be here. This is my fault, and my fault alone,” Stranger sighs, stepping in front of her.
She was used to it speaking in extremely cryptic ways - but this was especially confusing. “I don't understand, Stranger! What does that mean?”
Omori suddenly strikes, leaving a huge gash on Stranger's stomach. Blood pours from it as if it were a fountain, and soon it collapses on the ground.
It barely manages to mutter, “Perhaps we'll try again, some other time.”
Then, silence.
Aubrey is frozen like a deer in headlights.
Her mind is screaming, “run, get away,” but she doesn't move a muscle. Part of her wants to believe Omori wouldn't hurt her — though he doesn't hesitate. He approaches her, raises his hand,
and everything
goes
black.
——
Aubrey and company had spent hours and hours attempting to find Basil, to no success.
Poor Basil, she thinks. He must be lost and scared.
It was almost frustrating, how there was no trace of him anywhere. It didn't matter where they'd look - Pyrefly Forest, Otherworld, the Junkyard - Basil was nowhere to be found. Asking the people nearby yielded no results, either. Like nobody knew he even existed.
The group had decided to take a small break at one of Mari's picnics. All of them, except for Aubrey - she'd zoned out, unconsciously separating herself from her friends as she reminisced.
She didn't express it much in front of the others, but God did she miss Basil. All of the memories they shared - the flower crowns, the picnics, the photos he'd take, the way he stopped stuttering when he spoke about his plants. Without him, it just felt so, so empty.
She hoped they'd find him soon—
“Hello? Aubrey? We're going to leave!” yells Hero, snapping her out of her trance.
Oh, well.
She'll worry about it some other time.