176: Reach for the Stars, Part Two

Reach for the Stars, Part Two

To Neve's own ears, her words carried a lot of venom. 

Charlotte didn't say anything for a while. Neve imagined that perhaps she was considering whether to say anything about that at all. After a while, the silence got so awkward that Neve considered just dropping the call then and there, but finally, the journalist said: 

"I'll let her know, hehe," Charlotte chuckled quietly. "Sounds like things didn't go too well between you two, though." 

Up until this moment, Neve had been caught in an emotionless drift, her legs and arms pushing her forward on autopilot. 

It was odd, to be able to feel something again. But, the anger simmering beneath her skin at the thought of what had happened also felt pleasingly familiar. 

The memories took hold of her. Neve couldn't push them away. 

"So, you mentioned the 9th Floor, right? What is it-" 

"Some years ago, when I was still in school," Neve began to say, unable to keep the words from pouring out of her mouth, "I met this one girl... I kinda had a crush on her." 

Charlotte went silent on the other end. Neve kept her eyes open, staring down at the desk in front of her, because now, every time she closed them she was right back in that moment. 

"No, that's not true. It's more accurate to say I thought I was in love with her," Neve kept going. "She was just some popular chick, not Tiffany, someone else. Tiffany was a friend of hers. Anyway, one day, she just kind of... sat down and started talking to me." 

Neve's tone, originally guarded and firm, slowly softened as she sunk deeper and deeper into her memories.

"I was shocked. I was just a random nerd and she was, uh... yeah. We started talking, though, and about a week later, she told me she liked me. But, that wasn't all, she told me... she told me that she wanted to fuck me." 

Neve expected some sort of a surprised remark from Charlotte, but the woman stayed silent. Inhaling sharply, Neve's lips continued spilling out words. 

"I... I agreed. I mean, she was hot, so...  Anyway, we decided that we'd do it after school, in the gym. That place was usually empty after 3, so there wasn't much of a chance we'd get caught. Looking back, it was pretty stupid, but I thought I was in love, so I... I went there," Neve breathed in, "I met up with her, and... I got naked." 

Her head almost dropped on the desk as she thought of what came next. 

"We started doing stuff, but she still had her clothes on. And, just when I thought she'd start getting naked too... I heard a snap." 

Neve shook her head. 

"Apparently, her friends were hiding in the bathroom. They came out and every single one of them had their phones out, pointing them right at my naked ass." Neve's voice was barely above a whisper. "If it had just ended there, then this would have been just a pretty embarrassing moment and a lesson not to trust people too much. But... It didn't," Neve added. "They spread my nudes all over school. Hell, even people from other schools would look at me and say 'oh, that's the girl with the nudes'. Uh..." 

At this point, honestly, Neve forgot she was even talking to someone. 

"Yeah, some people kinda ended up thinking of me as some sort of a slut after that too. Apparently, the fact that those pics were taken without my permission ended up being lost along the way. Some people genuinely ended up thinking I was doing some improvised nude modeling or some shit. A few guys walked right up to me and said, 'hey, can I have sex with you?' As if it was a fact that I was just that easy." 

Remembering who was on the other end of the call, Neve said: 

"You know how I told you about wanting to be a streamer?" 

"Yes?" Charlotte asked. It was just one word, but all of her usual mirth was missing from it. 

"This is part of why I never really tried... I imagine it wouldn't take long before some people went, 'oh, I have this streamer's nudes. Let's share them with the world', you know?" 

She chuckled, a humorless laugh, and then said: 

"So... Yeah, that was a thing that happened to me," Neve said, scratching her head. "It is what it is. It's in the past, so..." 

"I'm so sorry," Charlotte finally said. "I can't imagine how awful that must have been." 

"No, no, it's..." Neve tried to calm herself down. "It's fine. But, uh, needless to say, I don't think I have any interest in forgiving anyone who was involved with that." 

At that moment, Erin suddenly slithered into the tent. 

"Oh, uh, sorry," Neve said as the lamia approached her on the desk. "I think I have to go." 

"It's no problem," Charlotte told her. "May I call you at the same time tomorrow?" 

"Uh... Sure," Neve replied. "Later." 

"Goodbye." 

She hung up, letting out a long sigh. 

[... You know, maybe telling all of this to a literal reporter wasn't the best idea. But, at the same time, I feel five times lighter. Maybe I needed to get that off my chest.] 

"So," Neve turned toward Erin, who was carrying the items Neve had given to her. "How much did you see?" 

"Not too much," Erin replied. "This place is massive," she told Neve as she put the notepad down, showcasing a crudely drawn map. "There were quite a few doors I could not open. Spaces I could not reach." 

[Hm... Maybe the Forces That Be put those there intentionally, predicting that I was going to try to have Erin scout it all? They messed with the drop rates when I convinced them to increase the rate of healer-specific stuff, so I don't think that's out of the question...] 

Taking the piece of paper, Neve found that this map Erin just gave her was almost the size of the entirety of the 8th Floor. She turned toward Erin with a raised brow and asked: 

"Really? There was way more you didn't see?" 

"Indeed," Erin nodded. "As far as I can tell, I only got to see the introductory portion of this 'Floor'. Anything that isn't here requires you to be there to access it." 

[Damn.] 

Neve nodded slowly. 

"And, what about enemies? How many of those did you see?" 

"None," Erin replied. "The halls were empty." 

That part was also quite interesting to consider. 

[... Maybe the Forces That Be don't want me sending Erin out to get EXP? But, why would I do that? I don't even want to level up more, because any further leveling means I have to spend time getting Erin's level higher too. And, yeah, I'm used to pain at this point, but I'm not particularly thrilled with having to maim myself. Or Erin, for that matter.]

It felt like she was dancing in the palm of the hands of those who made this Floor, but Neve set that aside and tried to stick to her initial ideas. 

"Okay, and these dots?" 

"Chests I could not open. One was gold, the others were purple." 

[One legendary, the others were rare? Or unique, maybe. I definitely want to go grab these.]

If she did, and it turned out that the enhancement from {Reconstruction} is based on the tiers of the items that are sacrificed, then she could potentially have some free fodder for that. 

"Well, alright," Neve said. "We can go out and take a look around. We'll have to be quick about everything we do, though, since the amount of time that we can actually be outside is limited. We'll try to move past enemies if possible, and if we do get into any fights, we have to end them fast. As far as a plan goes, that's all I've got for now until I see all of this place for myself." 

A hand fell on her shoulder. 

"Neve." 

"Yeah?" The healer asked, looking up at her. 

"Did anything happen while I was gone?" 

"Uh, no. Not really. Why?" 

Erin then pointed at the desk. 

[Ah... Shit.] 

There was one, singular wet spot on the desk, where a tear had clearly fallen from her chin.  1

[I guess one of those got out while I was talking to Charlotte. I didn't even notice.] 

In a hurry, Neve got up and put all of the items on the desk away. 

"It's nothing." 

"If you want to wait a second or two before we exit the camp, that might be ideal," Erin told her. "It's not good to get into fights when your mind is wandering." 

"Nah," Neve replied, wiping her eyes before bringing out her staff and her sword. "I'm fine. Really, I just... Some bad memories crept in. That's all." 

Erin didn't look too convinced, but she nodded, allowing the matter to pass. 

"Let's be on our way, then." 

Neve herself, though, thought about that a little while longer. 

[... Honestly, I thought I got over that stuff. Oh well.] 

pqdm.com