The two made it safely back to Dennis's cave. They were now sitting opposite each other, leaning against the walls of the small cave while watching the sunset. The two sat in complete silence, the sound of the wind flowing and trees rustling being the only sound coming from their area.
They hadn't talked since their initial encounter back at the tree, only taking occasional glances at each other before quickly looking away. Tired of this seemingly endless cycle, Dennis decided to initiate conversation again with the girl.
"So... when did you arrive in this place?"
The girl looked at him, then looked down again, her arms still wrapped around her knees. After a few seconds she replied,
"Last night."
"So, it looks like we arrived here at the same time" Dennis continued. "How was your first night, cause mine was terrible"
The girl did not answer, a melancholy expression still on her face.
Now slightly frustrated by her lack of input to the conversation, Dennis paused for a while before saying, "You don't talk much, huh?" The girl once again looked up in his direction, then looked to the side and said, "Sorry, I've just, never really had anyone to talk to."
"Well, don't you have any friends?" Dennis enquired, slightly puzzled by what the girl had just said. She just shook her head to the side. The two went quiet once again before Dennis took another glance at her and asked,
"You seem a bit down, are you okay?"
"....I'm fine" She replied, still staring at the ground.
Dennis had given up on trying to talk to her. He spent the rest of the night looking out into the sky, enjoying the sunset,then, once everything went dark, he enjoyed sight of the bright red moon. The girl fell quickly asleep once everything was dark, still huddled up in a ball on the ground. And that would end their second night in the forest.
***
When Dennis woke up the next morning, he found the girl already awake sitting at the entrance of the cave, watching the sunrise. After doing some stretching, Dennis decided to go and sit with her. Luckily for him, the leg injury he had been struggling with for the past day and a half was finally fully healed as he got up and was met with no pain at all.
'Finally!' He celebrated in his head as he sighed.
He made his way over to the girl and sat down next to her, then greeted her. "Morning"
"....Morning" She replied in a blank tone. From what Dennis could see, she looked to be in better spirits than she did the previous day, her melancholy expression replaced with a regular blank expression. He didn't know why she was so upset yesterday, maybe she also had an encounter with one of the monsters, or maybe she was just afraid of the new environment she found herself in, which were valid reasons.
Dennis was glad that she looked to have cheered up, and was hoping that maybe today he could try and talk to her again, and get some good results. They once again sat in silence for a while, before Dennis asked,
"So... which one do you think looks better, the sun or the moon?"
The girl paused again, then looked at him and replied, "I think the sun looks better"
"Really? But I mean, the moon is red though, you don't see that every day." Dennis continued, trying to keep the conversation going.
The girl paused again, then replied blankly, "I think the sun looks better."
Hearing this, Dennis smiled and said, "The moon is pretty creepy, but I think it looks beautiful".
"The only reason you think that is because it's the first time you've seen one right". The girl asked, finally participating.
"I mean, in real life, yes, but I've seen it in video games and stuff." Dennis answered.
"Is this even real life?" The girl asked this time.
"It feels real, I would know". Dennis answered.
"How?"
"About two nights ago, when I first spawned in here, I got attacked by this huge monster. It looked like a centipede but it was like eight feet tall, I barely made it out with my life. Luckily, I'm a genius who managed to come up with a way to escape that abomination." Dennis said as he tried to show off the results of his encounter with the giant centipede, leaving out the fact that he was left essentially paralyzed for a few minutes after.
Hearing this, she smiled for the first time since since they first met each other, then the smile escalated into a chuckle.
"What are you laughing at?" Dennis asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"So you're telling me, that you went face to face with a giant monster, and lived?"
"Yes, that's what I'm telling you. I'm pretty strong you know" Dennis said in a cocky tone.
"Okay then. Well, luckily for me, I haven't run into anything like that."
"How did we even get here though?" Dennis asked, still confused by how exactly they ended up where they are.
"I have no idea."
"What was the last thing you did before you got here?" Dennis inquired.
"I was watching a livestream on my phone" the girl answered, still gazing at the sunrise.
"Same thing happened to me" Dennis replied, then paused for a moment and asked, "What live stream were you watching?"
The girl went quiet again for a while before answering, "HD's livestream."
'She watched my stream?'
Now filled with surprise, Dennis asked, "Are you a fan of HD?"
"Yes" She answered, the smile returning to her face.
Dennis now had a big grin on his face. He had met many of his fans in the past, but just the thought of other people being his fans gave him a big ego boost everytime he thought about it.
"What are you smiling for?" The girl asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Oh, nothing. So, how big of a fan are you and why?"
"Why does that matter now?" She asked.
"No reason, I'm just curious". Dennis answered with a shrug.
"Well, it's complicated." She answered before asking him now, "What about you?"
"Me?" Dennis replied puzzled.
'I am HD, but if I tell her, she either won't believe me, or she'll go nuts.'
Because Dennis always wore a mask that hid his face while he was online, nobody besides himself and a few others knew what he looked like or who he was.
"I'm a super fan! In fact, I can confidently say that I'm his biggest fan!" Dennis said.
"No you're not", the girl retorted with a chuckle.
"Yes, I am" Dennis stated firmly.
"Really, don't you hate him or something?" The girl asked.
"No, why would I hate him?" Dennis asked, now confused and slightly worried.
"Because he's technically the reason we got sent here"
Dennis was greatly taken aback by what she had just said.
"I... don't think that's true." Dennis replied, trying to defend himself.
"Think about it, we both got sent here exactly after he tried that ritual or spell or whatever. That obviously means that he's the cause of all this." She continued, placing all the blame on Dennis.
"But don't you think that there's another possibility we're not considering? I mean, the ritual was probably fake." Dennis said, trying to deny what he was hearing.
"I don't think that's the case" the girl continued. "It all happened too quickly for there to be any other reason, besides, what other possibility could there be given how things played out?"
"But wait, if the ritual was what got us sent here, then shouldn't he have been the only one to get sent here? I mean, we just watched him do it and it's not like we were in the room with him."
"But we did watch the stream when he did it right? Maybe that's why we were sent here."
'But wait, if what she's saying is true, then doesn't that mean-' Dennis thought, now in a panic, if this theory was true, then that would mean...
"How many people watched the stream?" Dennis asked, his heart pounding, afraid of the answer he knew all too well.
"Last time I checked, it was like, 10 million, maybe more" She answered, completely unaware of the effects of her answer.
Dennis however, was now in a bigger panic, his heart was beating rapidly and he was hyperventilating. If what she just said was true, then that would mean that he just sent 10 million people to this crazy place, and if their experiences were anything like Dennis', well... let's just say it wouldn't be wrong to call Dennis a serial killer.
'No. Please no. Please tell me that's not true. Please... tell me that's not true'.