As I broke down shaking and crying, Sayori got up to join Natsuki who pulled me into a hug. I finally calmed down after a couple of minutes. My nose was running and my eyes were watery and they felt irritated.

"Noah?" Monika asked from the other bed with Sayori with a concerned expression and tone. "I've never seen you like this. What happened?"

I took a long and shaky breath to try to calm my nerves down. I gently pushed Sayori and Natsuki off so I wouldn't feel too congested.

"I...I saw some pretty bad things," I said as I made eye contact with Monika. Sayori pulled a tissue off the nightstand and gave it to me. I wiped my nose with it and thanked her.

"Like what?" Yuri asked, visibly nervous.

Trithfully, I wasn't sure if I should tell them, especially the parts about them killing themselves. I knew it would scare them.

"I don't know," I answered Yuri. "I'm not sure if I'm up to talking about this one."

Jacob sat up on the edge of the bed. "Noah, I have known you for years now. I have been there for you throughout everything. You can talk to us."

"He's right." Natsuki agreed. "You need to talk or nothing with get solved."

Both Natsuki and Sayori looked at me with deeply concerned expressions. I sighed and nodded.

"Alright."

As I told them everything that came to mind, I watched their faces change from concern, to fear. I told them about the female voice and the images that appeared. I watched Sayori tense up by squeezing my arm when I explained her part of the nightmare. I saw Monika look at the ground when I mentioned her part. Yuri looked at Jacob with a concerned look after I mentioned what she did.

I continued to hold back tears after I stopped talking. Monika pursed her lips and looked at the ground in thought.

"Do you have any idea who was talking to you?" she asked.

I sighed and slowly shook my head. "I'm not sure. She sounded similar to the angel, but it was different. I...I don't know."

"What was the difference?" Natsuki asked.

I thought for another moment. "She had a different personality. Maricana sounds good..."

I trailed off. They waited for me to finish my sentence. "She sounded evil."

Nobody said anything after that. Jacob got up and gave me a short hug. "Let's try to get back to sleep, alright?"

I glanced at the clock, and it was pushing six. We could sleep for three or so more hours before we'd have to get moving. It was already dangerous to stay in one spot.

Nobody argued with Jacob's suggestion and I rolled back over. Natsuki cuddled up close to me and put her head on my chest and cupped my face. I fell back asleep in the span of a few minutes, hoping another nightmare wouldn't come.

My wish was granted, but I had hoped Maricana would come so I could talked to her. She had been silent since after the fight against the Eye.

--------------------------------

"Hey! Wake up sleepy head!"

I felt a gentle hand shake my shoulder. I fluttered my eyes, and it was Sayori looking at me with an excited sparke in her eyes.

"We're gonna miss breakfast!"

I groaned from drowsiness."Ugh, you always want breakfast. Can't we sleep in?"

I knew that was a dumb question, and the lack of response answered it for me. I got up and put new clothes on.

Sayori was practically dragging everyone out of bed. "I want breakfast! Let's go!"

We all eventually trudged out of our warm bed and got ready for whatever the day had in store for us. I looked at my phone to see it was only 8:30, and breakfast closes at 11. We could've slept for another hour at most, but I didn't mind too much if it would make her happy. We all knew that Sayori was a breakfast eating machine, and I was happy that she wasn't showing any more signs of her depression.

I shook the vision of her last night away.

We finished getting ready and grabbed the room key and headed out the door. Sayori wanted to run to the elevator, but the rest of us were too tired to hardly even walk. We stepped in the elevator and descended to ground floor. As soon as the elevator door opened, the smell of food woke me up and it reminded me of the days when Natsuki would cook us breakfast every morning. She never failed to impress me with her cooking.

If I were honest, if we weren't chased out by the Third Eye, I probably would've stayed a little longer. I missed the calmer days in the game when everything wasn't so hectic. But, we're in the real world now, and we have to focus on getting home, wherever that may be. Natuski snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Hey," she nudged. "Are you gonna get your plate?"

"Huh?" I said, shaking my head. "Yeah, of course."

She suddenly got close to me. "You look so cute when you get deep in thoughts like that. I always wonder what's always going through that mind of yours."

I get a little nervous for some reason. Natsuki looks up at me and wraps her arms around my neck. Our faces were inches apart. I start to turn red and Natsuki giggled.

"I'm just teasing you," she teased and dropped the volume of her voice. "I love you, but try to enjoy today. No distractions."

She was right. I nodded. "Okay. I'll try my best."

A satisfied look came across her face. "That's all I ask of you. Now, go get some food."

I raised an eyebrow. "I think I should be the one telling you that, not me."

She stood on her tippy toes to kiss me for a quick second. "You take care of me too much."

"Ugh! Get a room!" Jacob yelled from a nearby table. Everybody in the room chuckled a bit.

A sly smile formed on my face and I motioed to him and Yuri. "Oh, just wait when I catch you and her do something like that. Just you wait."

After I grabbed my food, I sat down with my delicious-smelling pancakes and playfully punch Jacob in the shoulder after the fiasco earlier. I buttered and poured syrup over my pancakes and lean in to whisper something to Natsuki.

"Don't worry, your pancakes are ten times better than this."

"Duh," she responded with confidence. "I'm the pro, remember?"

I recalled the moment in the game where she said something similar to that. I smiled. "That's pretty obvious."

"It's true," Sayori picked up as she swallowed a piece of her egg. "I miss your cooking. You always cooked everything perfectly. Nothing was burnt or undercooked."

Natsuki gave her a desperate look. "You really think so? You don't have to sugarcoat it."

Sayori nodded. "I wouldn't lie when it comes to food. You know that."

Natsuki looked down and smiled. "You're the best, Sayori."

Meanwhile, Sayori pretty much had a vacuum for a mouth and devoured the food as fast as I can put away some good Chinese food, which is pretty fast.

"Mph, thish is good!"

Give or take about fifteen minutes, we all finished up and got ready to leave the motel. As Jacob was checking us out, Monika sighed deeply.

"I just wish we didn't have to worry so much."

I nodded. "I understand, but we just have to get through this."

"We just have to do our best," Yuri said.

We talked until about 10:45, and headed down to the parking lot.

I got the feeling of being watched again, and I turned around, only to see nobody there. I sighed and shook my head.

Monika nudged me. "Noah?"

I pursed my lips. "Don't turn around now, but I think someone's watching us."

Her face turned red, as she does when she gets nervous. "Oh, okay."

We climbed into the car and sped off in a random direction., not really having a plan. After about five minutes of driving in the Chicago traffic, I got an idea.

"How about we go to the lake today?"

Jacob and the girls looked at me.

"I don't see why not. It could be fun," Jacob said. "What about y'all?"

"Sure!" Sayori said with an excited smile. "I'd love to go!"

"Monika?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah. I guess so," she said with a small shrug. "First, if we're going swimming, we need to actually get some bathing suits."

Jacob led me to a mall that was about ten minutes down the road. After a minute or so of finding a decent parking spot, I made sure to lock the car and stay close to the girls. Once we walked in the store, nobody even said anything andwent straight to the store with all of the swimming supplies. While the girls were busy browsing the bathing suits, Jacob and I went to the men's section to look at trunks. I found one that was blue that had palm trees, while Jacob chose one that was red with a wave design.

I just happened to turn my head at the right time to see Natsuki come out of the dressing room with a red bikini to show Monika. I took a deep breath as she made eye contact with me. I tried to look away, but of course, it was impossible.

Jacob then elbowed me in the side to snap me out of it. "Dude! Do you like these?"

"Huh?"

"Do you like these?" he repeated. Why is your face red?"

I saw Jacob look to where the girls were. I saw Yuri come out with a black bikini, and Sayori nodded her head and said something. Yuri replied to her with a shy expression on her face. I turned away but swore that Jacob's nose was bleeding. Being the mean best friend that I was, I couldn't help but start laughing.

"Huh? Hey come on man, I saw you look at Natsuki!" he exclaimed, exasperated.

"True, but at least my nose didn't start bleeding!"

Jacob wiped his nose and went to the bathroom to clean up. After about another thirty minutes, we finally finished up and paid for our stuff at the front counter and decided that I needed to explain the concept of money to them.

On the way there, Sayori couldn't seem to shut up about building sandcastles and riding the waves. I remembered that none of them haven't even seen a beach before, so I didn't say anything to let her daydream. We finally made it, and the girls immediately ran to put their suits on in the restroom nearby. Jacob and I did the same as well.

Oh, lord. Someone help.

I had to will myself to not look at the other girls. I'm was sure that Jacob was in the same predicament, judging by his facial expressions and the occasional clearing his throat. I forced myself to look away from Monika and decided to focus on Natsuki.

Yes. I won't get in trouble that way.

Speaking of which, she suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. "We're going in the water! Let's go!"

I smiled and laughed. It was freezing cold, but nobody seemed to care. I splashed Natsuki with a big wave of water. Her hair became soaking wet

"Hey! You're gonna pay for that!" She tried to splash me back. I then dove into the water and pulled her down with me. We came back up and saw all of the others in the water with us. I paused for a minute to take it in.

Monika had tackled Yuri into the water, but after Monika surfaced, Yuri didn't. Monika and Jacob began to get scared, but she rose, and Yuri began to laugh. The other two rolled their eyes. Sayori, meanwhile, suddenly snuck behind Yuri and jumped on her back. Sayori raised her fist in the air as if she was a pirate aboard a ship. Yuri suddenly fell backward, and Sayori let out a squeal before she hit the water. Monika and Jacob laughed.

"You look happy."

I turned to Natsuki, who was looking at me with a satisfied expression. "What makes you say that?"

She sighed. "I don't know how to explain it. You just look...content. Satisfied. Calm. You know what I mean?"

I slowly nodded. "Yeah, you're right. It's a feeling that's hard to explain. It's just so nice to finally see them happy, especially the other girls. We never got a chance to really be happy besides when we went to get ice cream at the beginning. Anything after that was a lot of stress and everything else on top of that."

"That, and the weekend before the festival," she added on. "A lot of that was nice, too. When we got ice cream, though, that was a good night."

"Did your father ever say anything?"

She shook her head. "My father never came home until late. He always struggled to keep a job, but I guess that's what the game programmed him to be."

After I didn't say anything, Natsuki turned to face me. "Hey, Noah?"

I looked at her. "What is it?"

"Why me?"

I tilted my head. "W-What do you mean?"

She glanced at the other girls, who were then trying to drown Jacob. I couldn't help but chuckle.

Natsuki sighed and took a step closer to me. "Why did you choose me?"

I looked into her eyes for a minute. "Nat, that's a question that I don't really know the answer to. There was something about you that stood out over the others. I knew that you would truly love and care for me, unlike the other girls that I had dated in the past. It was just the feeling I got when I first laid my eyes on you in the club on the first day."

A huge smile formed on her face, and she suddenly jumped into my arms. I spun her around, and we kissed each other without a care in the world.

After we released each other, Jacob's voice called out to us. "Hey, I could use some help over here!"

We smiled at each other. Natsuki motioned to him. "Help to drown him, right?"

I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "Duh."

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