You wake up as you once more leave your solitary confinement,
releasing a breath you're sure you weren't holding.
The long, dimly lit corridor isn't really great,
but it's still way better than revisiting that metallic white room.

"Okay, not this way. This is where I came from."
Bloody stops at an intersection. The lamentful song cleanly to your left.
Bloody looks there, asking "Should we fetch her? I don't mind either way
but since we're the only ones here, if we leave her she'll go mad."

1. >"Let's take her with us."<
2. "Let's leave, right now."

You can empathize with going crazy.
It's not a fate you'd will on anyone.
Besides, the more the merrier,
no reason to refuse potential friends.

Bloody leads you towards the left passage
and with a "YAH!", smashes the door open.
Inside, the humming quivers, but doesn't stop,
soon turning into an inquisitive "hum?"

"We're leaving!", Bloody says,
leading to more questioning hums.
Remebering this goes nowhere,
you approach the little songstress.

"Hi, I'm Nona. Would you come with us?"
you smile and ask. "hmmm...", she considers,
then trails to a curious "hmm...?"
that seems to contain a bit of distrust.

"If we leave, who will hear you sing?"
Bloody's statement has quite an effect,
as she immediately goes "hum?!",
jumping to her feet.

"Well, I guess you're coming with us.
Welcome to the team, Lyra!"
"hm?" she makes a troubled face,
unsure about whether to correct you.

Fortunately, Bloody comes to the rescue.
"Oh, you know her already? That's nice."
Then, Bloody seems to have a bit of an internal battle
"Wait, but that means I don't get to name her!"

"We're not calling her something stupid anyway."
You retort, amused. "She deserves better.
Don't you like this name, Lyra?"
"hmm... uhum!", she seems to agree.

"But that's still an obvious name!" "hmm..."
"As if you had anything better." "huum!"
"I do! I'd name her Hummer!" "uhmmm..."
Good thing you put a stop to that again.

After arguing for a while, you decide to go on.
Lyra seems somewhat happier,
with something of a skip to her step
and once again at the interception, you take another left.

"And finally, we arrive at our destination!
I've never crossed this door, this is truly uncharted territory!"
You gulp, remembering that slow, entrancing, but merciless death,
then ask Bloody to open the door for you.

The first thing you remember is that the door doesn't hit the wall.
There is no wall, after all.
Then, as your eyes adjust to the darkness,
you marvel once more at the room's true appearance:

It's like you're surrounded by a starry sky.
There is no floor, no ceiling, no walls.
Just the door ahead, the path you came from,
and a multitude of celestial bodies.

For a while, you're filled with childlike wonder.
Everything just seems right, why where you ever worried?
You could be floating for all you care,
and maybe you could even touch the stars?

1. Jump, and fly away
2. >Focus and go ahead<

No, this is clearly a trap.
You strengthen your mind and forge ahead,
but the room still takes its toll on you.
As you cross the door, you start to wonder...

Anemone

And this is it for the first chapter!
I hope you enjoyed what happened so far.
This chapter was focused on establishing the premise and setting the mood.
The next one will be more focused on character development.

But worry not, my dear readers, for the second chapter is well underway, being written as you read this!
(in fact, I had already started writing it before writing these very words!)

So yeah, if you get here and I still haven't released it,
you can check what's been written on it (and vote on where the story goes) on our Discord,
the invite to which is at the top of this story.