Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Death

Day 33

Time: 7:47 AM

Location: Hideout, Nightlight City

"You said you had words for me?"

Darius' mind froze, and he stuttered out something before shaking his head rapidly, giving her a wobbly, awkward smile. "I-No, nothing! I mean, you're doing great, keep it up!"

Brooklyn blinked, and laughed at that, but there was something odd in her face when she did. Clearly, she didn't believe him. Still, though, Darius heard Five give a sigh of relief behind him.

He had completely forgotten about Five.

"Maybe we should catch up," he suggested, not looking behind him to Five. "Somewhere else. Just the two of us."

Brooklyn raised an eyebrow at him, clearly amused. She looked around him, and addressed Five directly.

"Sure," she agreed. "See you later, Five!"

He must have given her some sort of acknowledgment, because suddenly, Brooklyn was turning around, grabbing a hold of his hand and pulling him away, past the curtain and through the room beyond. They were going too fast for Darius to get a detailed lay of the room, but what he saw was that it was much like the previous room, whatever that was supposed to be. It had the same broken concrete walls, the same, small, dim lights. The only differences was that this room was bigger, housing a few different people Darius didn't get a good look at and two broken down and decaying couches (one was basically on the floor). Darius also got a quick glance at some planks of wood nailed to the walls, perhaps covering up windows, or something else.

Soon, they had passed through the room, people barely glancing up at them as they reached a doorway covered by yet another curtain, similar to the other one, and if there were any differences, Darius didn't get to see as Brooklyn shoved aside the curtain, pulling him up a dark stairway, only lit by the light behind the curtain behind them, which meant that the stairway was basically pitch black.

Still, they got up the stairs with no problems, and Brooklyn dropped Darius' hand to push open the door in front of them. Darius followed her into the sunlight beyond.

Or the sunlight heavily filtered out through clouds that hung heavy and dark above them.

Darius looked forward, wondering if the view in front of him was any better. He found his way blocked by a skyscraper, and felt a disturbing sense of déjà vu.

"So, catching up?" Brooklyn asked him, drawing Darius' attention. She tilted her head at him, smiling softly. "You want to go first? I figure yours will be shorter."

That drew a startled laugh out of Darius. "I don't know. I've been through a lot. But, yeah, sure. There's... something I need to tell you, anyway."

As it turned out, Darius' story WAS a lot shorter than it normally would be, but only because Brooklyn had done her due research. In Darius' quest to find her and help the people along the worlds, he'd gotten a bit of a reputation, and Brooklyn was able to keep track of him throughout his journey, even from the very beginning. Darius only had to clear up a few details and lies, but other than that, sometimes Brooklyn knew more about his journey than even he did.

But not everything.

"And then we found ourselves in a thing called The Basement," Darius told her, almost enjoying himself, even though retelling his story, even for the second time, hurt as he remembered all he lost. "How much do you know about that?"

Brooklyn's smile slowly fell, and Darius stared at her, wondering what he said wrong.

Brooklyn looked away. "Not much," she admitted. "My cameras, the thing I've been watching you on, they don't go down into The Basement. But you aren't here with Ben, so... he didn't make it, did he?"