( * ~ "Am I good enough...?" ~ * )

You and Avery were best friends. And he'd drag you into another adventure yet again. Except it wasn't just a normal cave experience...it was a whole thing that made your heads spiral into confusion and pain.

This 'adventure' was all to find this stranger named D3rlord3. Who even was this guy? Is this what Avery was stressing about this entire time? Apparently, this guy was a person who witnessed The King in Yellow (not known yet to Avery or you) and never returned after. The only clue was that he was going through these yellow gates and exploring the maps, solving puzzles to get out of each. The both of you didn't even get to celebrate New Years Eve yet because of this.

A specific puzzle in a map appeared. It was really difficult, you both standing there for about 30 minutes now. And it finally broke Avery. He called out to no one in particular to the distance in anger.

"COME OUT ALREADY! WHERE COULD YOU EVEN BE?! I'm not smart enough to solve all these puzzles like you, D3rlord3...! Please, just...give me a clue...anything..."

Avery's voice cracked slightly when he spoke. You could see his eyes gloss over, tears welling up in them. He hugged himself tightly, staring down at the ground and breathing heavily.