[ ... ]
We stared at the door and each other in realization. Silence. Then Yi Mei Lu decided to break the silence and said
"We're definitely not going in there."
"According to the system, we have to."
I replied, crossing my arms as I looked down to her. She was being grumpy!
She pitched her eyes as she watched the door carefully.
"Hey, maybe we should. Qiu Jing is in there"
Surprisingly, he was there without us?
He might be onto something.
As we walked to the door, it opened a slightly opened jar. Leading her to go down the moment she saw the door was slightly in that position.
"Guess what."
"What?"
I asked in confusion with her sudden question, and she answered.
"We should not be just like those characters in most horror movies."
Excuse me? Horror movies???
I've never watched a single movie in my life other than just seeing it happen in real life, this is an average experience for me, youngster.
"No."
That was my final speech before I dragged her with me through the white door. We looked over to see Qiu Jing was reading a book from one of the shelves while standing.
In the white door, it seemed to be a room where a family would eat at and plus, the furniture here does look like home.
We looked at each other and back to him as he didn't glance at us a bit, just reading the book as he flew his finger over to flip to the next page.
"Woah, why is he reading so peacefully while we were shitting ourselves?"
"watch your mouth."
We whispered at each other as we watched him before he then glanced up to us and closed the book to put it over to its place.
We stayed quiet.
"Why are you guys so quiet?"
He asked, his eyebrow raised as his arms crossed.
We looked each other before turning back to him and answered,
"Are you the real Qiu Jing?"
Another minute of silence had gone by from our question, his face was distorted, seemingly confused with his eyebrow raised by our question.
"Do I not act like the "me" me?"
Brutal truth: she nodded her head.
Another silence went by, and we continued on staring at each other. So quiet, the only noises were our breath and the fan spinning.
Then finally, Yi Mei Lu broke the silence with,
"Okay, but can we not stare at each other? It is creeping me out..."
At that point, we stared at her instead. Standing still as we looked.
She's getting offended by our stares, walking off to the other door. It is locked and needs a key to open it up. But where is the key?
She looked around over to us, giving us a stare before walking up to the shelves. There were a lot of books on it!
There was one book she picked and the title was: "The Tale Of The Gods Beyond"
The moment she saw it, she lit up as she picked it up and started reading it while we watched her in silence.
No words spoken.
"You seem like you have read it 12th times now."
Said Qiu Jing, he watched over her reading. She slowly turned her head to him and smiled innocently.
"Actually... It is the 18th time now"
I watched them talk, before going to the paper placed on the table.
This is an important note for the following Scenario, so please do not forget.
- The Exit is far away from where you guys are right now, you might think it is easy as the answers are just around the corners but no.
You guys are being watched. He will be watching you guys as he sleeps, if one makes a noise. He will not sleep. He will chase and eat them alive.
Farewell on your journey
- SS
It has that same word again, and that name is not written in full name. It is not a name, it is a name to be addressed but not known.
Why did the creator let us know their name?
I looked over to the door and around the room, before going to the shelves and took the books one by one, flipping every page as they watched.
Until I found the key from one, the book was titled: "Tales"
The same title as the one from my phone, that file... What does it have to do with the Scenario?
"..."
Yi Mei Lu clapped her hands through the awkward silence, she responded,
"Wow... You actually found the key."
Then she added,
"What's that book?"
She looked over to see the title of the book, it was scrabbled. She tilted her head and turned to me, saying.
"Does it not have a title?"
I shrugged at her question as a response. Moreover, all of the pages were blank. No stories. No thoughts. Nothing.
I turned to Qiu Jing who was already next to the door that was locked.
He was looking at the holder, gesturing to me to unlock it.
As I walked towards the door to unlock, closing the book before placing me on the table.
Something had suddenly stopped me from the hand, it was Yi Mei Lu.
"Wait..!"
As she saw my face turned, she quickly slipped her hand away from my wrist.
She looked down to the ground in embarrassment.
"I'm not prepared for this..."
Shooking her head as she said, her face saddened with her own words.
"Do you want to rest?"
"... Yes."
She answered awkwardly, slowly glancing at me.
I sighed and sat on a chair next to the table, taking notice of Qiu Jing's expression after Yi Mei Lu stopped me.
He wasn't upset nor was he at least calm with it.
He just stared at us and looked away.
"Qiu Jing is onto something for real..."
I flinched as a sudden low voice was heard from my ears, I was surprised to see it was Yi Mei Lu being close to me.
Was she hissing to my ears or what?
[ ! Please rest before going into the next Scenario ! ]
She stared at the panel for seconds before sitting down next to me, leaning her head to her wrist on the table.
For a while, she started to make sounds. It was disturbing my sleep, flattering my eyes open as the room was dark.
For a moment ago, the light was on. But now it is not.
Like the system is playing with us in every Scenario.
Another hum was heard from the corner of the room, my eyes gazed around the room, even in the dark.
Something had poked me from the forehead and made me fall asleep.
Before I had been poked on the forehead, I had witnessed a viewpoint of Qiu Jing taking a peek inside the door. Watching as a loud step from the door had passed our area.
Before closing the door back and going to read a book from the shelves, completely oblivious of me awake.
I wished I didn't witness it, as I had just wasted a second in my life.
Never in my eight years of staying here, have I seen someone so stupid to take a peek of something they have already known what it is.
Perchance.
I could get information from tracing the patterns from the wall with my fingers during the Scenario without the entity noticing.
As I slowly woke up, I turned to see Yi Mei Lu was already awake. There again, she was quiet this time, she didn't burst out coming towards me for attention.
She was reading a book, does she love reading, too?
At one point, she glanced up to me and now I noticed her eyes were drained. It was just the light that had shined her eyes to look...
Alive.
She embedded the book back to the shelves before slowly approaching the door, which was locked with the key being on the table.
Her eyes gazed at the shiny, crimson key. Like a predator staring down at its prey.
Strange... To see a kid having that kind of stare over something.
I picked up the key to hand it over to her, saying,
"You want this?"
"Yeah.."
As she snatched it away from me, her grip on it tightened. Turning to me and back to the key before slowly reaching it to unlock the door.
Qiu Jing suddenly asked,
"Are you really sure that you could face the entity without pissing yourself?"
"... If it means to get out of here fast, then I'm doing it."
"So determined, are you?"
A grin appeared on his face as he teased her, he was crossing his arms, was this a challenge between them both?
.. Unexpected duo...
Silenced, Yi Mei Lu was holding onto the holder, her other hand reaching out to open it. Slowly after, I sighed at their awkward silence, gazing at each other intensely without doing anything.
"We can all do it, but... You have to go inside first."
"If you dare to face your own fears."
I spoke, my tone wasn't casual. It had struck something inside her that went around. Qiu Jing was surprised by my sudden request, although it wasn't a request.
She looked me in the eye before finally getting her hand to reach out to the holder and opened it to go in.
Silence filled the room as we waited and saw.
We looked at each other and went back to the door.
"You're crazy, don't you know that?"
"She insisted."
From his words, I knew that grin had come back to his face as he watched.
And I didn't back away from my words either.