A Platform a few dozen Platforms away from Ashley

Not long ago

James feels himself hyperventilating as he stares at the corpse of a large hound mere inches away from his feet, the boy lying back on the ground after having fallen over. Meanwhile his friend, Julie, stands over the corpse holding a bloodied hair clip. One that her boyfriend a few meters away from her gave her for her birthday. A hair clip that James at the time thought was ridiculous and a little dangerous due to how sharp it was on one end, the thing being in the shape of a rose with the stem of it being as sharp as a needle.

He sees Julie collapsing onto the ground as well in the corner of his eye, blood still dripping from the needle hair clip onto her legs. Both of which are sprawled out on either side of her.

James continues staring at the corpse though, unable to tear his eyes away even as Sean rushes over to his girlfriend and takes his jacket off to cover her while rubbing her shoulders and whispering to her in an attempt to comfort her.

Why… why are we here?! What did our world do to deserve this?!

The high school boy feels tears beginning to well up in his eyes. Tears that begin to drip down onto his blue school uniform’s blazer. But no one is here to comfort him. Not when his best friend is busy with the man’s girlfriend, and the girlfriend just keeps staring at the blood on her hands while weeping.

They were just minding their own business spending time together during their school’s lunch break before this all came down. Being brought to that chamber where the Primordial’s clone simply turned over a dozen people into glowing mush after they tried attacking him. Then being brought to this place and attacked by large dogs.

None of them have any experience in real danger, even if they understand that they won’t be permanently dead.

Dying is scary, and it’s hard to believe that they’d come back afterwards even if they’re being told they will.

It takes him several minutes to realize just how stupid he’s being though. He can’t just sit here and weep. Another hound could arrive at any moment.

So he slowly climbs to his feet, his legs shaking underneath him as he looks around at the platforms near them. And when he doesn’t find any more hounds, he lets out a shaky sigh and begins to walk over to the other two.

“So, um, I think we should get moving,” he says, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

Both of his friends raise their heads to look at him, and he can tell right away that Julie understands what he’s saying. Even if she still continues to sob a little while seemingly unconsciously rubbing the blood off of her hands. Which just spreads the blood around without doing much else.

Of the three, she’s the only one enrolled in a martial art elective at their school. So he’s glad to see her pulling herself together again.

He notices she doesn’t let go of the hair clip though. Nor does she put it back into her long brown hair. And Sean doesn’t let go of her shoulders either as the big football player and gamer stands up too.

The three slowly look around at the bridges connected to their platform before choosing the one that the hound had crossed. But James can’t help but notice the slightly excited look bubbling up within Sean’s eyes.

As if the man’s happy about what’s happening.

James feels his fists clenching at that realization.

When they were first attacked, Sean panicked just as much as James did. So James thought he was more similar to him than he had previously believed. Since Sean is both a massive gamer and a football player. But James doesn’t participate in any activity and spends most of his time just lazing around watching TV.

Now though, he’s understanding just how different they are.

James doesn’t say anything as they shakily cross the bridge. Only pausing a little when they reach the next platform, and a message plays out in their heads.

{You have been granted 1 Skill Point for reaching a new platform within the tutorial.}

They just continue on to the center of the platform before Sean begins to take the lead, pointing out a bridge and crossing it while still holding his girlfriend’s hand. And it’s at this point that James is starting to feel a little grateful for how he is acting.

Better Sean take the lead than James after all.

The group of three continue crossing one platform after another, occasionally almost losing their footing on a bridge, or falling for a trap. But each time they manage to make it through, whether due to another one of the three catching them, or due to James using his Air Leap ability, or as the System calls it, skill, to barely get himself back up to the bridge again.

Over their time crossing bridges, the three slowly grow more and more confident. They were terrified when they first arrived since it was just the three of them. But now, after so long has passed without anything truly scary happening, their confidence slowly begins to return. Even after a strange notification appears in their vision stating that the broadcast was paused, they just continued moving, deciding that it doesn’t likely affect them.

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Until they run into another hound that makes a beeline towards them the moment it spots them across several platforms.

Then James feels himself freezing up a little again.

Sean isn’t the same though. Instead, Sean raises his hand and actually uses his skill, sending a very small bolt of fire at the hound. Only for him to miss.

But that doesn’t stop him as he does it once more. Then twice. Then he keeps on doing it while the hound gets closer and closer until he accidentally hits the wooden bridge the hound ends up crossing, burning the bridge and sending the hound down into the abyss below.

“YESSS!” Sean shouts, a wide grin stretching across his face after a few seconds pass. “I got Skill Points!”

Oh. Right.

James once again feels that disconnect with Sean, but he doesn’t say anything.

Instead the group slowly begins to move again. Except this time James notices that Julie creates a little distance between her and Sean. No longer clinging to the man as she walks.

Looks like she’s finally calmed down.

He was rather impressed by how she jumped in and stabbed the first hound with her hair ornament. So he knows she’ll be a huge help to them so long as she isn’t panicking.

Seeing her like this as they walk calms him down a little bit.

After walking for a few more minutes, James mutters, “Wait…”

The other two stop walking and turn to him as Sean asks, “Something up?” Meanwhile Julie just turns to look at where James is looking after seeing his eyes narrowing slightly to look into the distance.

“I think I see someone,” James says, making Sean turn around to look. And just like James, the other two spot her as well. A girl walking a little awkwardly across the platforms.

“Is she hurt or something?” Sean asks with a frown, seemingly going back to how he was before all of this.

“I see some dried blood on her face and on a wood pole near her, but I don’t see any injuries on her,” Julie responds, her voice sounding a little quiet as her eyes glow a little. The girl no doubt using her Hawk Eyes skill to enhance her eyesight. Then James sees her eyes widening slightly as she exclaims, “Hold on, I think that’s the girl who arrived later in the tutorial.”

James looks at her in confusion before turning to look at the girl in question and muttering, “But I thought she was in a hospital gown or something? This girl clearly has normal clothes on.”

“That’s what’s confusing me too,” Julie says while frowning a little. “But she has those same wings on her back. And her eyes… they look empty.”

Empty?

James narrows his eyes to try to get a better look, but Sean begins to walk in the girl’s direction as he says, “Let’s just talk to her. It could help teaming up with more people.” But when he reaches the bridge, he pauses and glances over at Julie as he asks, “She looks about our age, right?”

Julie nods her head and answers, “Yeah, she can’t be older than seventeen.” Then, after a brief pause, she adds, “She’s also rather cute.”

Both James and Sean pause to give her an odd look.

The girl just shrugs and walks up to Sean while taking his hand and beginning to make her way across the bridge while saying, “Let’s go speak with her.”

“Sure,” Sean says as he begins to walk with Julie again across the bridge. Leaving James behind to catch up.

The group continues approaching the girl for a couple more minutes until they arrive at a platform directly next to the one she’s on. And during their walk here, James can’t help but take in the differences in the girl since the last time he saw her.

Before, she was so skinny and lacking in any form of muscle that he wondered if she was dying or something. Of course, he got his answer for why she was like that from the System Notification telling them that she had just woken up from a coma. But now the girl looks perfectly healthy. And rather beautiful at that. Like she could be a model.

It’s just odd.

And that’s not all that’s odd.

Her clothes.

She’s wearing a pair of mostly red shoes with black pants, a red and black belt, red top, and a black jacket with striped, red cuffs on them. The girl is walking a lot less awkwardly than she was when they first saw her from a ways away. Meanwhile her red and black raven wings are idly sticking out to her sides while occasionally twitching.

James feels a little odd when he looks into her eyes though. Because he doesn’t really see much in them. Almost like he’s looking at an empty person. And they look like pools of crimson within the white rather than eyes.

Yet for some reason, other than the slight goosebumps the sight of her eyes sends across his skin, it also makes her look a little cute. Especially when she tilts her head slightly at them from the other platform.

James blinks after a moment, feeling like he vaguely recognizes her for some reason. But he can’t quite figure out where from.

Some sort of teenage celebrity or something maybe? Her looks would work as one. Julie wasn’t lying about her being cute.

“Hey! What’s your name?” Sean shouts across the expanse to the girl. But she just keeps staring at them. Which leaves the three awkwardly waiting for a few seconds before Sean gets a slightly worried look and asks, “Are you okay?”

The girl nods her head, making the three blink in surprise.

Does she not talk?

Another couple seconds pass before the girl opens her mouth and answers in a soft and slightly monotone voice, “Ashley.”

Never mind. Just doesn’t talk much then.

James and Sean share a glance before looking at Julie. And when Julie shrugs, they both focus on the girl again as Sean says, “Well hey, Ashley, you wanna join us? Safety in numbers and all.” Then he pauses, as if realizing something. “Oh, right. My name’s Sean Peterson!”

“I’m James Smith,” James calls out afterwards. Followed by Julie who says, “Julianna Anderson! But you can just call me Julie!”

The girl nods her head and begins to make her way across the bridge towards them.

“So you were in a coma before this all happened? What’s that like? And why were you-” Sean begins to ask, only for him to shout, “OUCH!” when his girlfriend pinches him in the arm. After which he frowns at her with a hurt expression on his face and exclaims, “What was that for?!”

“Please, Sean,” Julie says, sounding slightly exasperated. “Learn some tact.”

Sean just rubs his arm while frowning. But he doesn’t say anything else even if James knows he’s dying to ask more questions.

Even James feels rather curious about the girl.

He, on the other hand, has tact. So he won’t go around asking unless they spend enough time to get closer.

It’s obvious right now that the girl won’t tell them anything, so-

“Amnesia,” the girl says in that same soft yet slightly monotone voice, making the three stop in their tracks. That one word telling them all they need to know about her.

“You poor girl!” Julie exclaims while moving up to Ashley and pulling the smaller girl into a hug, with the girl not returning the hug and just keeping her arms idly to her sides.

And now James can’t help but feel a little sad for the girl. Having woken up after who knows how long without any memories and stuck in this hellhole.

Like that, some of his wariness towards her slips away and, after Julie lets go of Ashley, the group continues on through the platforms. And he forgets to ask about her clothes or the lack of holes for her wings in them after not being able to find the bravery to ask her through the awkward atmosphere.