It was good to see Sayori back in a better mood after everything that happened today alone. Truthfully, I just wanted to lay on the bed that was waiting for me in the motel and sleep for the rest of the week. I could tell that Jacob was tired almost as much as I was. He was dragging his feet on the carpet.

We arrived at our room, and I scanned the card over the lock. I opened the door and smiled.

"Wow, this is nice," Monika said, impressed.

"You guys haven't been in a hotel room before?" Jacob questioned.

Monika turned to him and shrugged. "Well, in the game, there really wasn't even a town. It was made to be ambiguous."

Jacob nodded. "I never thought of that."

We stepped into the freezing room and threw the little stuff we had onto the two, king-size beds. I took the one near the door.

"Ah, I'm so tired," Sayori said with an exhausted sigh.

"I thought you wanted to go to the pool," I said with a playful tone.

Her eyes lit up with some energy, but it was clear that it wasn't a lot. "Yes! I wanna go to the pool!"

All of us chuckled at that comment, and I could tell that we all missed Sayori's funny personality. However, the laughter was dry, considering the fact that none of us had even slept since the battle against the Third Eye.

That bed suddenly started to look very comfortable.

"Well," I said as I clapped my hands together. "Shall we go?"

Jacob and Yuri were already asleep. I only shook my head, wishing that I could be them. For Sayori's sake, however, I knew that I could put it off for a little while longer. It's not like it won't be there tonight when I could finally rest my head against that pillow.

Sayori had already grabbed a towel and looked at me with excitement built in her eyes. "Yep!"

Natsuki had come out of the bathroom with a towel as well. I tilted my head, admiring how naturally cute she was without even trying, whether or not she'd admit it.

"You're going too?" I asked.

"Duh," she answered with her usual sass. "Like I'm not even letting you outta my sight after you almost died."

"Well, you went to the bathroom, so you kinda did."

Natsuki puffed her cheeks. "I- uh, that's not what I meant!"

She stomped her foot down on the floor, and Sayori laughed at her.

"Whatever. Let's just go already." I smiled and took the key.

To say that the pool was impressive was putting it lightly. It stretched out over a balcony with a clear view over Lake Michigan. I took a deep breath now that I could finally relax for a while. The best part was that we had the entire pool to ourselves. No children, no distractions, just us.

I noticed that the deepest point was eight feet. As if without thinking, Sayori and Natsuki slipped off their shirt and pants. I willed myself to look away.

Natsuki caught me looking and stuck her tongue out. "You perv."

Sayori, of course, never thought anything of it. It was fortunate that none of them wore exposing attire.

"Well? Are you getting in or not?" Natsuki asked.

I shrugged, seeing no other option. "I guess I have no choice."

I was still surprised to see that we were the only ones here. In a big city like this, I figured it would be packed. Sayori jumped in without hesitation and came up, looking expectantly at us.

Natsuki suddenly had second thoughts about going in. "Is it cold?"

I couldn't miss the golden opportunity. I causally walked beside her and dipped my foot in. I slowly walked behind her as she was still testing the water.

"How about you find out?" I said as I shoved her into the deep end of the pool, and Sayori had a field day at it, breaking out in laughter as she held on to the side.

"Hey!" She swam up to me and pulled me in as well.

The temperature of the pool was unexpectedly warmer than I anticipated. Yet, it was still cool enough to where it was relaxing. I stepped out of the pool to take my shirt off, which was soaking wet. It finally slipped off after a solid minute of struggling.

"Sheesh..." I overheard Sayori quietly say in the pool. I smiled and I turned around. Natsuki was blushing pretty heavily.

"What? Scared to see me without a shirt on?" Natsuki's head shot up and it was clear that she was embarrassed.

"N-No! What makes you think that?"

I chucked as I stepped back in the pool. "You're so cute when you're embarrassed."

"I'M NOT CUTE!"

Sayori laughed at that, which was good to hear.

As we were all having fun, Natsuki and Sayori thought it'd be a good idea to play "Chicken," which is where you sit on someone's shoulders and try to knock the other over. I found this quite unfair due to that fact that I didn't have a partner, but all I had to do was dive down and bring Sayori to the bottom of the pool. Natsuki fell off every time. However, out of courtesy I would let the two girls win every now and then.

After about ten minutes, we heard the door creak. I looked over to see Jacob, Yuri, and Monika walk in.

"Hey, look who decided to get out of bed!" Natsuki said.

"Yeah, we got bored," Jacob said with a shrug. "Mind if we hang out?"

"No, only the yanderes." I said as a joke.

"Hey!" Both Yuri and Monika said. "Haha, just kidding."

Chicken got a little more interesting at that point. We decided to have a small tournament to make things more competitive. The first round began with Monika and Sayori versus Jacob and Yuri. The winner would face me and Natuski. We decided this by playing rock-paper-scissors, and I had won the first round.

On the top side, it was Yuri versus Sayori. Sayori clearly weighs less than Yuri, but she has more of a wingspan than Yuri does. It would come down to who would have more speed than strength. On the bottom was quite interesting: Jacob versus Monika. Both have pretty slender bodies with long arms, but Jacob is taller. Monika is more athletic. It would come down to leg muscles and how long they can keep balanced.

"Who do you think is going to win?" Natuski asked me out of curiosity.

I tilted my head as Sayori struggled to climb on Monika's shoulders. "I think Jacob and Yuri, but only because they're more balanced as a team. Yuri can push Sayori off, but it's really going to come down to if Jacob can hold her up long enough for her to do it."

Who knows. though? I could very well be wrong.

Once they were ready, I raised my hand. "Ready..."

"Set..."

"Start!"

Jacob took Yuri and went at it without even thinking about it. Sayori and Yuri began fighting, trying their best to push each other over as quickly as they could. Sayori managed to grab her tank top and sling her over to the side, but Jacob managed to keep her afloat.

This time, Monika advanced. Yuri grabbed Sayori by gripping her shoulder and using pure arm to push her to the side, but Monika miraculously kept her alive. They came back in and went at it a third time and this time, Sayori pushed Yuri backwards, and Jacob looked to have been worn down by Yuri's weight. She fell over into the pool.

Sayori began to cheer, but Monika released her as well. She fell backwards into the water.

"Great job, Sayori!" Natsuki cheered. "Enjoy your victory while it lasts!"

"Don't get cocky!" she teased back. "If I can knock Yuri down, I can knock you down too!"

That may be true, but I have a lot more strength than Monika does. It sort of evened out in my opinion. It would come down to if Natsuki was quicker than Sayori.

Natsuki slid onto my shoulders easily and I was amazed on how light she actually was. I held her up by gripping her lower thighs and began to advance forward. Jacob put his hand in the air.

"Ready..."

"Set..."

"Start!"

I didn't charge right into it like Jacob did. I slowly advanced forward to save as much energy as possible, even though with Natsuki's weight, it would be hard to lose a lot of it. Sayori and Natsuki began going at it, and Natsuki's self defense training kept her from getting knocked over a few times, and Natsuki slowly began to wear Sayori down. I also tried kicking Monika over, and I managed to push her to where she almost fell. I quickly advanced forward, and Natsuki managed to grab her by her arm and pulling her forward. Monika lost balance and Sayori fell forward into the pool.

"Yes!" Natsuki threw both of her hands up in the hair in victory.

"Good job, guys!" Sayori said after she emerged from the water.

"Thank you," I said. "You did great as well."

"Does it count as cheating that Noah tried to push me over with his leg?" Monika asked, but with a smile on her face. I gave her a smile.

We called it a night at around nine, and we were all clearly exhauseted. We found some towels to wrap ourselves up.

"Okay, I'm tired now," Sayori said with a huff.

"Yuri agreed," Yuri said. We dried off and headed back to our rooms.

I unlocked the door, and we let the girls change into their clothes first. Jacob and I changed and decided to use the hotel's laundry room to wash whatever was needed to be washed. I chose to go there alone so Jacob could watch and make sure that nothing bad would happen. We all still felt pretty on edge about everything.

After I had opened the door, I had just finished putting the clothes into the washing machine when I got the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around, but nobody seemed to be there. The walls were glass, so if someone was there, I could know. There wasn't a lot of hiding places. I turned back around to pick up the basket that was there for us and walked back out. I figured that by the time I would brush my teeth and get ready for bed, the clothes would be finished and I'd put them in the dryer. I began to make my way back to the room when I got the feeling again.

I whipped back around, but again, nobody was there. I took a shaky breath.

I turned back around and something caught my eye. I looked up to see a security camera pointing in my direction.

That's right. If something were to happen, I could hopefully be seen. That helped calm my nerves down just a bit.

I arrived back in the room, and Natsuki was the first to greet me. She was standing in the bathroom having trouble taking the pin out of her hair.

"Took you long enough," she said while staring in the mirror. "What held you up?"

I turned her to face me while I carefully unclipped the pin out of her hair. After I was successful, I fixed her hair to my liking and kissed the top of her head. She lightly blushed and pouted, but didn't say anything.

I decided to be open about what was going on. I spoke in a quieter tone so that none of the others "I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me."

Her blush and pout quickly faded. "What do you mean?"

I walked over and took the brush and toothpaste out of my bag. I shook my head. "I'm not sure. Every time I would look, no one would be there. Maybe I'm just on edge still."

Natsuki turned me around and slowly ran her fingers up my arm and cupped my cheek. Her eyes met mine, and I could feel my body instantly begin to relax. "Maybe you are, and you have every right to be. I don't fault you for that. You've done so much more than I could ever ask of you to do, and I've never gotten the chance to thank you, Noah."

I shook my head and grabbed her hand. "You don't need to thank me."

"Too bad," she said, her attitude returning. "You're getting it anyway."

She got even closer to me to where our bodied were almost touching. Natsuki stood up on her tippy toes and kissed my lips.

"I'm serious, Noah," she said, her tone soft and calming once again. "Thank you."

I felt my face turn red. "Of course, Nat. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

After I brushed my teeth and fixed my fluffy brown hair to where it was at least decent, I prepared to walk out of the door before Natsuki caught me just before I walked out. She held out her hand and gave me something that felt metallic. It was my pocketknife that I used against the Third Eye.

"Just in case," she said. "Be careful."

I kissed her one last time and I nodded. I walked all the way to the other side of the hall, and I found that another person was in the room as well. It was a woman, but she was facing away from me, so I couldn't see her facial features. I stopped for a brief moment before shaking my nerves off and continuing in the room.

The woman glanced at me, and I gave her a simple nod in greeting. The black woman returned the nod before continuing to fold up her clothes.

"How are you doing tonight?" she asked as I opened the washing machine. It caused me to jump some.

"I'm doing alright," I answered, trying not to stammer on my words. "What about yourself?"

"I'm doing good."

I nodded, not wanting to continue the conversation. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I didn't have the energy to carry a conversation with a stranger. However, having her company gave me reassurance that nobody would jump me with her in here.

However, the feeling of being watched returned. I turned to look over my shoulder, and again, no one was there. The woman must've seen me looking.

"Is everything alright?"

I turned back around. "Um, yes. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked with concern in her voice. "You're shaking."

I looked down, and I was holding Yuri's sweater. She was right, I was shaking and not even realizing it.

I sighed and looked at her. "It's been a really long day."

"I understand," she said. "I'll be praying for you. Get your clothes and go on up and get some rest, alright?"

I forced a smile. "I will."

I quickly grabbed the rest of the clothes and left the room. I managed to make my way to the room without any trouble.

"Hey Noah," Jacob greeted. "How'd it go?"

I nodded without saying anything for a second. "It's fine. I'm going to put the clothes on hangars so they can finish drying."

Natsuki climbed out of the bed and gently grabbed my arm. "I can do it. You go lay down in the bed."

"But I-"

"Go."

I did as I was told. I climbed in the bed that Natsuki and I would later share. I plugged in my phone and rolled over.

I fell asleep in what felt like under a minute.

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I had my worst nightmare yet.

For some reason, I was walking down a dark Chicago street. I also carried a gun in my hand that I didn't recognize. A faint noise rung out in my ears.

"Hello?" I called out.

"Noah! Help me!" It sounded like one of the girls, but I didn't know who it was. I walked over toward the noise.

"Up here!" I looked up at a warehouse to see a girl wearing a ski mask, banging on a window. I ran into the building, having no clue what I was about to get myself in to.

I bolted up the stairs to the top floor, and I found the room to where the girl was.

"Hey, I'm-"

Nobody was in the room. I stood there, confused for a second.

"Oh, Noah," a female's voice rang out.

I tried to turn around, but I suddenly couldn't move.

"You have no idea of the hell that I'm about to unleash on you."

I tired to speak, but I couldn't. Visions began to invade my brain, and I was forced to see things that didn't want to see. Sayori hanging herself, Yuri stabbing herself, Monika jumping off of a building.

"Good luck, Noah," the feminine voice called out again. "You'll need it."

I was jolted back into reality, but the visions wouldn't stop flooding my mind. I screamed without warning.

Everybody suddenly jumped about fifteen feet in the air. Monika turned the lamp on.

"Noah?" Natsuki called out. I was sitting up with my hands gripping my hair. She grabbed one of my hands to try to calm me down.

"Noah? What happened?" Jacob asked with a confused expression. I looked at Sayori and remembered the flashbacks.

And for the first time in my life, I had a true emotional breakdown.

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