ready player one

chapter three: the journal archive ✔️

the journal archive
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madison's p.o.v:
i kept tossing and turning in my sleep, like something was calling me back to the oasis. i decided to jump out our kitchen window, walked to my van and made my way to halliday's journals through the oasis.

as i walked into the building, i noticed that curator was gone. he must've been helping someone else. i've been here so many times that i know the place forwards and backwards so i went ahead through the halls.

as i was looking through some of the journal entries, i heard some voice down the hall, so obviously i started to follow in that direction. "i'm a dreamer. i build worlds." i finally came in view of parzival mouthing the words to what halliday was saying.

he must be like me, spends all of our time in the journals. i came up behind him and tapped his shoulder but ran to the other side of him. as he looked around clueless, i finally jumped out in front of him and he slightly jumped.

"y-you scared me epiales." he said slightly laughing with a stutter. "whatcha doin here?" i asked while swing my arms by my sides. he eventually started going on about how he had this sort of calling to come to the journals. hmm, i kinda had the same thing.

after a little moment of silence, i saw parz fighting with himself in his mind. i questioned him about it and he finally gave in. "can i trust you?" he said in all seriousness. i've never seen this side of him before so i nodded.

"i-i... you can't tell anyone. okay?" he said shakily. i grabbed his hands and nodded again. "i think i found the first clue. check this out." he responded quietly. he squeezed my hands and let go to type some stuff into the key pad. not gonna lie, i miss the warmth of his hands. god i need to stop thinking like this.

parzival pulled up a video of morrow and halliday talking about karen also known as kira. "i believe another clue is hidden in here but i just don't know where." parz said to himself. "this is the only time kira is ever shown in any of his journals. why? there has to be a reason." parz said puzzled.

"impossible." the curator said. "i'll bet all my coin on it." parz said with all the confidence in the world. as curator typed into the computer, i asked parz, "what're you doing thursday at 7? you know the dance club, distracted globe? meet me there, i have something to show you." i more stated than asked. he kinda stood there stunned, "uh... see you at 7 then." he said with a laugh.

i walked out of the building thinking about how the next clue could be pared with that video. i slide my goggles off and make my way back to my stack.

i climbed back into the kitchen and tried to go back to sleep but couldn't because i got two things on my mind. the clue and... well, parzival. there's something about him that makes me feel like i've known him for a long time.

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a.n// sorry this chapter was a little short but the next one will be longer i promsie! i try to get around 800-1000 words per chapter but this time i got around 500 words. hope y'all are enjoying so far! have fun and happy gunting!