Hauntingly Beautiful Girls

"Final Collapse"

Sounds. That is what I sense first. Sounds both near and far.

A place. I am in a simple room with a whole wall of single pane windows lifted up to irregular levels.

Open so sounds from outside drift in. Outside sounds that draw me to look.

There are many small stadiums. All of them are nearly filled.

A running track with bleachers and a cheering supported for girls running a relay.

A basketball court with bleachers and crowds for the active game.

A baseball diamond with players and cheering throng for clack of metal bat.

A fut-ball pitch with rousing fans to the exchange of the ball.

Turning back to the room, it has student desks. Nearly silent. Seven people sit and mark notes in paper, or simple read. Slowly flipping pages.

I ask aloud "Where am I?"

The voice startles me. Young and meekly feminine. I look over my clothes. I know these clothes, somehow. Simple school uniform clothes.

No one looked up, no one answers. They do what they were doing. Sometimes their eyes lift up. They do not react.

I get some shivers and decide to get out of this place.

There is murmur afar in the hallway, so I follow down stairs to a big room filled with bench tables. Most talk in groups. People eat, but most are engaged in feeding someone else.

"I made this lunch for you."

"Here have the meat, you need the protein."

Same as upstairs, no one reacts or takes notice of me at all.

Shaky, I find an empty table to sit.

I close my eyes. Where am I? Who am I?

With a sigh, I open my eyes. Three of the people from upstairs are at the table. I did not notice them sitting down at all.

"Sorry, that room blocked out of role discussions. You seem lost. What role experience were you hoping to join? We might know of a group for you to start with."

I make only fragmented phrases in confusion.

"Oh, a lost role? An identity mystery? You seem to have no scenario selected. That is odd. What are your character stats?

Oh Come On!

You know the red scores at the upper right of your vision field. Hm? Which scenario are you playing? "

I close my eyes again. At the upper right, I see only a blue bit of numbers "Level 0".

When I tell them they pause still and silent again (which gives me slight trembles).

"OK. Listen. Go back up to the floor you were just on. Find room 218 and go in. We can talk more once you're there."

I leave the big room and walk up the stairs. There are sounds like people are all around, but soft sounds where there is nobody.

When I go into room 218, the three girls from downstairs are there. The halls were empty when I walked. How could they be here before me?

"OK. Good. This is a space assigned to heartbeat-heartbeat club quests. There is a much greater freedom to talk in this space.

Please check and tell me. What are your character stats? "

It is just the same, so I tell them.

The one doing the talking moves me to a upholstered chair with low arms. A fifth girl enters the room and holds a book in my direction. Then flips the book to look at it and says 'Yes. Level 0'.

There are some fast words among them and two girls walk out of the room.

The girl that spoke most came over and kneeled by the chair I was in.

"How are you feeling? What do you remember? It is OK. We will get you some help.

And not just that. You have made friends today. We will stay by your side until this is all fixed. OK?"

She rises slightly to lean closer and tilts her head to kiss.

It brings back a bad memory and my chest hurts.

As I struggle to understand it, the girl pulls back her face with a fearful expression.

She holds my arm tenderly "Please. Think of something happy. Please. Stay with us."

The perspective shifts. No longer from the view of the girl in the chair.

The girl in the chair vanishes away in rectangular patches.

When she is gone, the kneeling girl sobs. Striking the nearby low table with her forearms in despair.

One of the other girls that had been silent speaks up.

"What is wrong? There is nothing unusual in a player exit."

The sobbing girl keeps her head low "You do not understand. We did not see a player exit. We just saw a person collapse, disperse. They simply ended. Here with us so close by.

Someone outside must have tried a quantum energy tunnel to recover somebody.

The person's energy was too weak to stay in a recovery well.

It slipped around in Pinnacle and only found a compatible host form in this vintage space.

There are so few places where a level zero soul could anchor. This is that kind of place.

There is only ever one chance.

Here today, I saw it for myself.

We just watched someone have the end of their existence."