Chapter Text
Avery what's in your inventory"
"What?"
"What's in your inventory"
...
"?>wdaswadd"
"WAIT"
..
"Until next time friend"
No. Nonononononono. Why? Why would he do that? Dammit, I'm so sorry, Derek.
I look at the red "You Died!" screen with shock. He pushed me off the cliff to prevent me from staying. There's gotta be a way I can help him. But there isn't, is there? I spawned in front of the gates in my world again. It's definitely too far to get back there from here. Dammit, no! I know I only knew him for a few hours, but why does it still hurt so much to see him do that? He cared enough to warn me.. Putting it into perspective, there's so many other things he could've done.. He had all that forbidden knowledge, and the first thing he did with it was to warn me.. All this time... He's been trying to protect me... He sacrificed himself for me.. He distracted me twice, just to get me away from that thing... Out of all the things he could've done.. He's not only smart, but he's incredibly caring.. so I have to try harder. I need to find something. While I'm running through the rooms once more, I notice the fireworks that have already started. They started a while ago, actually, but I paid them no attention.
I go into the first. I go the way I know to go to the big tree. I enter the gate at the roots of the tree. I go through the other door. I follow my paths again. Door after door, room after room. And then I realize it's already been almost 30 minutes, and I'm nowhere near where I need to be to help him. I start crying out of frustration and desperation, but wipe my tears quickly. I need to think harder. Do more for him. How would he solve this puzzle? Wait, didn't he write something weird in chat earlier? I got footage of it.. It was from when we were in the library place.
"1oKnSYbxE2tilcmJiGiRGxuQPX0owEZS"
I found it.. But what does this mean? I'm looking through all my footage, seeing if I can find anything, but to no avail. How would he solve this..? Wait, that might be it..! I looked through my past recordings as well, and I think it might be a link.. I even looked through that weird video that the guy made about us, and he mentioned something about a google drive folder... I'll try that.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oKnSYbxE2tilcmJiGiRGxuQPX0owEZS is what I typed out.. And it worked.
I look at the folder and it has a video and a document. I should probably look at the video first, and that I do. It's.. Derek's perspective. In this whole thing. His exploration of the strange rooms. I look through the footage. He goes through all the places I did when I was there. Except, he never went to the red sandy place, the red field, or the scary place. Well, he did go one different place than me. He went to the top of the tree in the place with the disappearing mountains instead of the bottom like I did. He’s also the one who placed those signs. Not even gonna lie, that really touched me. He saved me again.. The thing that intrigued me the most is that in the puzzle that I couldn’t figure out, he actually solves it. I don’t think I could’ve solved it even if I didn’t kill that zombie for food.
Then, it’s the same scene that happens for us at the library. He meets me, we talk about that strange book, and then I black out. After I black out, I realize that he’d killed me. I wouldn’t know why, but after he’d done that he sees this.. thing… I think it could be that “King in Yellow” guy that he was telling me about. Afterwards, he goes to a couple rooms that I’ve never seen before. One seemingly had no exit, but he clipped through the floor with a boat. The other had a book and quill that gave him the chant to merge with the King in Yellow. Then the rest speaks for itself. Dammit, why would he do that for me?
I didn't realize that I was crying again until a drop fell onto the laptop. This time, however, I don't care. I don't even wipe them off of my face. Just off of the laptop. I’d finished watching. I should probably move on to the document, but I can’t help myself from crying more. Why? Why? Why would he do that?! I wish we had just a little more time.. He’s saved me time and time again, shouldn’t I have returned the favor? The blocks that guided me like a trail.. The signs at the church.. The two times he distracted me to protect me.. He’s so kind and thoughtful.. So why..?
I should at least look at the document.. And that I do.