Heyo my Edgelings!

Part 2 is finally out and this was a very fulfilling chapter to write!!

Things to note:

#1 - I'm starting off in Moldy's (Charlotte's) perspective and giving her a decent chunk of the chapter because I feel like everyone paints her as a very 2 dimensional, one-note character.

Angry girl boss.

While this isn't a bad thing, I would just like to see something a little more creative with her... so I wrote it myself goshdarnit.

#2 - I also made Scenty's (Amelia's) section a bit calmer, because she just gets absolutely beat up in every fiction I read about her. She either goes insane or dies and I just want her to have a happy ending goshdangit!! So again, I wrote it myself.

#3 - The Airy and Liam section was the most satisfying part of this whole thing... you'll see why.

Anyways, enjoy!

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Charlotte gasped at the jarring change of scenery. It was... dark for once, well not entirely, one light bulb in the ceiling gave off a dim glow, but it was so much darker than the eternal light of the Plane.

A strong waft of new smells punched her in the face. It had been so long since she had smelled anything but grass that it instantly made her dizzy. The very slight, but still very noticeable change in the temperature caused her to feel tingly and strange. The dull humming of the air conditioning unit gave her a headache.

Gosh, she had forgotten how... full everything here was compared to the emptiness of the Plane. It was frightening how it all was affecting here. She had underestimated how used to the Plane she had become.

She stood completely still for several minutes, trying to let her senses adjust to the sudden change. A single tear fell down her cheek, both from the headache and from the sorrow she felt. She couldn't hide how awful she felt about Liam being trapped with that... psychopath. She had tried to stay strong, but more and more tears poured down her cheeks.

Finally, after nearly an hour of confusing mental signals overloading her brain, she finally adapted to the new environment. With her thought clarity restored, she began to absorb her surroundings better.

Oh... she was back in her apartment kitchen.

She looked down at the counter. Of course, the carrots she had been chopping were gone. She was surprised she still remembered what she had been doing before. Wait...

...Parker.

She needed to apologize to him. After everything she had been through, she finally realized how wrong and selfish she had been. Not only with him, but with all her other friends who had tried to help her. She needed to make things right.

She walked around the counter, heading towards the door. She reached over to the coat hooks to grab her jacket, but her hand landed on foreign material. She looked over, squinting in the dim light, and found herself looking at a bright pink child's coat.

What the...

I mean... she knew her mold was spreading, and the Plane certainly hadn't helped her mental state... but she had never hallucinated before...

Unless...

She stepped back, glancing around the room in confusion, realizing that it was more than just the coat that was wrong. What were all these dolls doing everywhere? Where was her TV? Why was the furniture different?

Then it clicked.

7 months...

She gasped.

"This isn't my apartment anymore..." she murmured to herself, immediately covering her mouth. Oh no... OH NO! She couldn't let whoever lived here now know she was here! She'd be arrested!

She quickly spun around and unlocked the door as quietly as she possibly could, heart dropping as the hinges creaked loudly. She jumped, letting out a shocked yelp as the lights flashed on behind her. She sprinted out the door as fast as her legs could carry her.

"HEY!!!" A voice yelled from behind her, but she didn't stop. She kept running down the hall, nearly falling as she tripped on the first stair. She quickly regained her balance and continued her mad dash down the stairwell.

She ran out of the apartment complex, gasping for breath as her bare feet slapped on the cool, rough pavement. She leaned heavily on one of the streetlamp poles in the parking lot. Gosh... she was out of shape...

After she caught her breath, she looked back to make sure she wasn't followed, and sighed in relief when she didn't see anyone. Why was it so dark?

...Oh right...

...Nighttime...

...She forgot that happened here...

Absent-mindedly, she looked up and said, "Hey Airy! What..."

She caught herself, stopping mid question. Wow... had she really forgotten how to make her own decisions? Was she really so used to being told what to do, that she asked the sky before she thought for herself...

She stared up at the sky, frustrated with herself for becoming so dependent on an invisible being to dictate her life. Speaking of the sky... It looked... wrong...

At first, Charlotte couldn't quite place why. It was just... too dark... too... starry? She didn't know, but it made her uncomfortable for some reason. She gazed at the pavement instead.

But that too, looked wrong... too hard... too rough... like Stone...

She gasped as two eyes opened up on the ground beneath her feet, staring up at her with an unnerving glare. A voice began ringing in her head, "The contestant who got eliminated is..." it said, and it repeated itself over and over, the eyes on the ground blinking, staring at her.

The voice was coming from everywhere at once, getting louder and louder...

Charlotte shook herself, grabbing onto her head, trying to make the voice go away. She slid down, her back against the cold metal pole, sending shivers down her back. But that was the least of her concerns, she couldn't make the voice go away.

"Shut up! Shut up! You're not real!" She demanded, unable to take her eyes off of the eyes on the ground.

Finally the ringing went away, and she realized that the eyes were just shadows on the ground. Gosh her brain really was scattered. She took a deep breath to calm down her pounding heart. That scared her way too much.

"Well..." She sighed, talking to herself, collecting her shaking nerves, "No point sitting here. Guess I'll... walk to Parker's..."

She pulled herself up using the streetlamp pole, and began walking down the sidewalk in the dark. Each time a car went by, the loud revving of the car engine caused her to shudder and almost go into shock. She could hear almost every gear grinding individually. She had taken for granted how her brain used to ignore certain sounds. Now it picked up everything.

Finally, after nearly an hour of exhausting trekking, she arrived in front of Parker's apartment complex. She usually drove, but obviously she didn't have a car anymore. Anxiety gripped her stomach as she approached the gate blocking off intruders. She used to have a guest card, but...

Anyways, she climbed over the fence.

She really hoped Parker still lived here. Seven months was a long time. If he moved away then she was in trouble. The other friends she had lived at least 10 miles away, which meant more hours of walking. She wasn't sure she had the endurance for that.

Thankfully, Parker's apartment was on the first floor, so she didn't have to worry about getting into the main hall, which again, would require her to scan a card. She swung herself over the fence surrounding his tiny porch, and walked up to the sliding glass door.

She held her fist up to knock, but hesitated... If this wasn't Parker's apartment anymore... Then whoever was inside would most definitely call the police.

She took a deep breath, and set a look of determination on her face. It was a risk she would have to take.

She knocked on the glass, the sound echoing into the night.

A few seconds later, a light flashed on. Charlotte squinted at the sudden light, but continued to stare inside, hoping to see a familiar face pop around the corner.

The joy she felt was unimaginable as a yellow and green figure cautiously peered out of one of the doors. He rubbed his groggy eyes, staring out the door with a look of confusion.

... then shock.

... then disbelief.

... then joy.

He ran over and flung the sliding door open, tackling Charlotte in a hug. At first, she just stepped back, but quickly wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tight. It felt so surreal.

Was she?

She was...

She was finally home.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry," She sobbed into his shoulder, shaking with a random outburst of sobbing. She really was here!

"Don't be..." Parker whispered, tears of his own falling down his face. "I thought you were... dead... I'm just happy you're... not..."

"M-m-me t-t-too..." She smiled, finally feeling that something... was right.

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Amelia fell to her knees as the dizzying mixture of sight, sound, and smell hit her like a tidal wave, the darkness temporarily blinding her, triggering a panic attack. She wrapped her arms around herself, trembling and whimpering, hoping she wasn't dead.

Had Airy used the wrong code?

Her breaths came out in quick, shallow, shuddering gasps, and her heart fluttered irregularly. She needed to calm down immediately or this panic attack would turn into a heart attack.

She folded her legs and set her elbows on her knees, closing her eyes and attempting to take deep, long breaths. Eventually, her heart rate slowed and she felt calm enough to open her eyes again.

This time she recognized where she was.

She was in the empty yoga studio, and outside the front windows, the sun was slowly dipping beneath the horizon. They must have... closed for the day... What day was it? Had they even been open today?

Tears welled up in her eyes as she watched the sunset, the reds and oranges and pinks and yellows colliding and bursting in a beautiful bright display that made her so happy. Happy to be here. Happy to be back. Even if no one remembered her, the beauty of the real world was enough to satisfy her for now.

She sighed, her smile falling into a frown.

Liam would never see this again.

But she wouldn't let his sacrifice be in vain... she breathed deeply, silently promising to herself that she was going to move forward from here. She was going to pick up her life, start over if she had to, and do her best to honor Liam's sacrifice.

She sat there, deep in thought, contemplating what her next move should be. Bryce had told her they had been on the Plane for over seven months... which means that she probably didn't have a place to go for the night anymore...

She was already here though.

She might as well stay.

She laid down on one of the yoga mats, the softest surface she had laid on for a long time. As she stared up at the familiar ceiling, glowing in the light of the fading sun, memories began to resurface.

She remembered... the faces of people she had worked with... the receptionist... some of her fellow instructors...

She couldn't remember their names.

She rubbed a hand on the smooth foam mat beneath her. She remembered standing here... teaching people... objects who... who weren't on the Plane...

She couldn't remember their faces.

She thought for a moment that she heard a voice, she sat up and looked around, but no one was there. She laid back down... but then she heard it again...

It was in her head.

The voice sounded familiar... comforting...

She squinted her eyes, concentrating on that voice...

It was her mom... Amelia smiled, bathing in the comforting memory of her voice. Another voice joined in, deeper. That was her father. A smaller, squeaky voice piped in. That was her brother.

Her dad said something funny. They all laughed. Amelia could hear her own laughter along with the others. So long ago... How could she have forgotten?... a coping method to the craziness of the past few months?...but it was slowly coming back...

And so, Amelia laid there, smiling contentedly as memories slowly trickled through her mind, unlocked by her new resolve and acceptance. Voices, names, faces... her old life finally coming back to her... and she finally accepted it...

Perhaps not all had been lost.

Perhaps she could pick up the broken pieces of her life, and figure out how to puzzle them back together. She wasn't on the Plane anymore...

She was here.

And here, Amelia fell into a gentle sleep, soothing memories and voicing filling her dreams with hope.

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Bryce popped back onto earth, laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. Wait... was he back on his bed? How? He was just in San Francisco!

Oh well... he didn't know how the whole teleportation thing worked anyways. It saved him a plane ticket at least.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he thought of Liam, stuck with Airy, forever.

Bryce wanted to blame it on himself somehow, but couldn't. He had no control over what happened, and that's what bothered him most.

He rolled over and stared out the window. It was still raining outside, or perhaps it had stopped and was now raining again, the droplets pounding against the glass. He saw the outline of the smokestack in the distance, and even more tears poured down his face.

He considered going back. Back to the Waiting Room. Trying to find his way back to Liam and Airy.

But then he looked at his clock.

It was the middle of the night, but that's not what caught his attention. The date did.

Two days.

It had only been two days since he and Liam climbed that smokestack. There were still five more until he had to go back to work. Bryce had an opportunity that none of the other contestants had.

He could continue his life as though nothing had happened.

And he was tempted to.

But how could he just forget about Liam? Would Liam have just forgotten about him?

But... if Bryce killed himself... wouldn't he be defeating the purpose of Liam's sacrifice? Weren't his last words to the group "Good luck with your lives"? Didn't that imply that Liam wanted them to... y'know... live...

Bryce huffed and stared up at the ceiling, conflicted.

He needed to talk to someone.

But who? Everyone would think he was crazy...

Except...

Bryce sat up, opening up the nightstand drawer and pulling out his phone. He stared at the lock screen, considering his options. Eventually he swiped it open and tapped in the PIN. He opened the search bar and typed in, "yoga instructors in Washington". Enter.

The first results that popped up were for Washington D.C.

Bryce sighed and opened the search bar again. Stupid location sensing.

"Yoga instructors in Washington state"

Enter.

Results 5 of 509.

Oh boy... this was going to take a while.

Bryce woke up the next morning refreshed, ready to make phone calls for the rest of the day. Good thing he got the unlimited data phone plan, otherwise he would be paying big time.

Would be helpful if he knew which city Amelia lived in, but all he could remember was that her profile on Airy's website said Washington.

And so he dialed the first number on the list, and began a very, very long day.

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Three weeks later...

Liam was asleep.

In his dreams... he was back on the Plane, but in his dream Airy wasn't there. And it was not a bad thing. In his dream everyone, even Bryce was on the Plane, and they all had their own log houses. And they lived like the Plane was fine and normal. Like there never was a contest. The Plane was just where they lived, and no one thought it was bad or wrong.

It was a peaceful dream anyways.

Liam felt something nudge his shoulder.

He groaned and rolled over, facing the wall.

He felt the nudge again, this time, a little harder.

He shut his eyes even tighter, refusing to wake up.

"Hey..." someone whispered right beside his head, their breath so close that he could feel it on his fabric.

Liam bolted upright in a panic, jerking around, eyes wide and gasping for breath. What the?!?!

"Good... morning..." Airy droned beside his log and reed bed, a tiny, innocent grin on his face, "You... sleep a lot."

"Oh. My. Gosh Airy!" Liam exclaimed, rubbing his drooping eyelids. He fell back down and rolled over again, staring at the wall, angry with himself for getting so scared. To be fair though, that was hardly a normal way to wake someone up.

"Ummm..." Airy hummed behind him.

"Five more minutes," Liam sighed and grumbled, refusing to look at the lantern.

"Oh... ok..." Airy's footsteps could be heard as he went out the door.

Liam shut his eyes for a minute, then opened them again, huffing in frustration. Well, there was no going back to sleep after that.

Admitting defeat, Liam swung his normal leg over the side of the log he called a bed, and much more carefully maneuvered the broken one so that it dangled beside it. He slowly pushed himself onto his good leg, using the edge of the bed for support as he stood up.

He eyed his cast and crutch, leaning against the opposite wall of the log hut. It wasn't that far... surely he could do it himself for once.

He attempted to hop over on one foot, but as he bent his broken leg to prevent it from scraping the ground, pain flashed through it, causing Liam to yelp and lose his balance. With a graceless crash, Liam face-planted onto the dirt floor.

He pushed his face off the ground using his hands, only to see Airy standing in the doorway. Liam sighed, staring at the ground, deciding to give up his pride for once, "Could you... help me up?"

"Sure..." Airy said, walking over and pulling Liam up by his back-straps, then carefully sitting him down against the side of his bed. Airy proceeded to retrieve the cast and crutch. "You should have... waited for me..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Liam looked away as Airy tied the cast around his right leg, then handed him the crudely made crutch.

Liam held a hand up, and Airy grasped it, pulling Liam to his feet.

"Thanks." Liam said, dusting the remnants of dirt off his front.

"You're welcome." Airy said with a small, proud smile, voice as dull as ever. Yet Liam had grown used to it. He could even detect a hint of emotion in it if he listened close enough.

Liam hobbled his way out the door, followed by Airy. Liam looked up to see where the sun was. Huh, Airy was right. He had slept nearly half the day away. Not that it really mattered. Nothing interesting happened.

"Better get to it while the sun is still shining on this side." Liam mumbled to himself as he hobbled over to the side of the hut. With a grunt, he managed to sit down, and picked up a pointed rock that he always left there.

He turned the cool rock over in his palm for a minute, staring at his latest project. He pictured how he wanted it to look, focused on that, and then began scraping away at the wood. Airy plopped down beside him, watching silently.

Scritch... scritch... scritch...

Liam pulled the rock away, eyeing his work skeptically. Finally, he gave a satisfied nod and continued scratching.

For the next hour, he scratched lines into the side of the hut.

At last, Liam looked it over, giving it one final appraisal. With a contented sigh, he smiled at his carving. It was a drawing of Moldy, no wait... Charlotte... He should write that beneath it so he wouldn't forget.

Beside Charlotte's carving were two others: Amelia and Bryce, both with their names written below them. Liam got the idea a few days ago. Now he hopefully wouldn't forget them. He still planned to draw the rest of his fellow contestants as well.

Airy hummed beside him. "That one... looks nice..."

"Thanks." Liam said, staring down at his rock as he continued to turn it over in his hand. He hoped that this way, he would remember everything. He didn't want to become like Airy...

Wait...

That gave him an idea.

Liam held out the rock to Airy, "Here, why don't you draw someone?"

"I'm... not good at drawing..." Airy protested blandly.

"Just try." Liam encouraged, dropping the rock beside him.

"Oh... ok..." Airy said, picking up the rock and staring at the blank wall in front of him, not entirely sure what to do.

"Try to... remember someone." Liam explained, "Think about before ONE. Think about before you came here. Think about before the waiting room."

Airy blinked at Liam, taking a minute to process his request. Airy's brows furrowed in concentration, and he just sat there for a solid twenty minutes, staring into nothingness.

Liam sat beside him patiently, aware that this might take a while.

Finally, just as the sun was about to tilt the other direction, casting the wall into the shadows, Airy moved. He didn't say anything, he just moved the rock up to the log wall, and began scrapping at it.

In a matter of five minutes, he set the rock down. He was done.

Liam glanced at the carving curiously, and held back a sigh of disappointment. It was just a random scribble with no shape or any defining features, just a random jumble of squiggly lines.

"That's..." Airy began, staring at his drawing blankly, "That's what it looks like."

"Well..." Liam sighed, "I guess that kinda makes sense..."

"Want to... play checkers?" Airy asked, a tiny, miniscule trace of eagerness in his voice.

"Sure." Liam agreed, and held his hand out for Airy to help him up.

They made their way over to the desk inside the hut, where Liam had carved a checkerboard into the tabletop. The pair sat down on stumps across from each other, and Liam handed Airy his pieces. One side was leaves, and the other was wood chips.

It surprised Liam just how long it took him to explain this game to Airy. He had only managed to play a full game correctly for the first time yesterday. Every time before that, Airy kept trying to move the wrong piece, or move one too far, or just take it off the board entirely for no particular reason.

But now, a few minutes into their second full game, Liam thought he might actually lose. When did Airy decide to be good at this?!?!

Airy seemed braindead, but sometimes Liam wondered if there was some very bizarre method behind his madness.

After a few more games, two of which Liam did actually lose, the sun began to set and it became too dark for them to play any longer. Sure Airy could just turn his light on, but Liam had other evening plans.

"I'm... gonna start the campfire..." Airy said as he stepped over to help Liam up.

This time though, Liam waved him off, "No thanks, I got it this time." Liam used the table to push himself up with a grunt, grabbing his crutch from its spot leaning against the wall. "I'm going to go work on the laptop."

"Ok..." Airy said, walking into the dim evening light through the open doorway. They probably should add a door at some point...

Liam waved at him as he headed off toward the cave, shoving his way through the vines overhanging the entrance. He hobbled over to the stool and sat down, staring at his progress so far.

There, laying on the desktop in front of the monitor screen, was a slightly deformed plug to one of the planets. Every evening, Liam came and worked on this plug. None of the preexisting cords fit into the small, rectangular charging port on the laptop.

Liam picked up the flat rock he had been working with for over a week now, and carefully, gently placed it on top of the metal part of the plug. He ever so slowly began to push down on it. He couldn't risk pushing too hard, or it might break and he would have to start all over again.

His right hand began to feel tired after a few minutes, and eventually began to cramp. So he switched hands. After a few more minutes, his left hand began to feel tired, and eventually began to cramp. So he set his right elbow on it, and applied pressure that way. When his arm began to feel numb, he switched elbows. When his left arm began to feel numb, he switched back to his right hand.

He repeated this very boring process for the next two hours, but he felt that he was finally getting close. That was all the motivation he needed.

Only a few minutes later, Airy pushed his way through the curtain of vines at the entrance. The cave was dark, lit only by the ever-present light of the monitor screen, so Airy reached back and turned his knob, the fire inside his glass head illuminating the stone walls with a warm orange glow.

"It's... almost time to sleep..." Airy informed Liam, walking over to view his progress. Liam had considered letting Airy help out a little, but in the end decided that he wanted to do it himself. He didn't have anything better to do, really.

"Alright," Liam nodded, not feeling as tired as usual, probably because he slept half the day. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Can I...?" Airy began, hoping Liam would pick up so he didn't have to finish.

"Yeah, you can stay." Liam smirked a little. He understood well enough, now that he had been here a few weeks. Being alone... here... with nothing but this computer... Liam couldn't even imagine what that kind of isolation would do to him. The Plane had been enough to shake his mental state, and even then he still had people to talk to. Liam didn't exactly forgive Airy, but he at least understood the lonely lantern a little better. Besides, he had grown to appreciate his company if nothing else.

Airy sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall, smiling a little himself. He was... what was the word?... happy?... yes... happy... to not be alone... anymore.

Liam continued his mind-numbing task for the next hour, before he eventually began to feel tired. He looked over and opened his mouth to tell Airy he was done for the night, but he stopped himself before any words came out.

Airy was asleep, snoring lightly as he leaned against the cave wall. His fire had gone out, but Liam hadn't even noticed when that happened.

Liam couldn't help but chuckle.

He remembered that question Airy had asked him three weeks ago...

Were they friends?

...

In a strange way, Liam was beginning to think they were.

He turned his attention back to the flattened plug. It was beginning to look close to the right shape.

Maybe he should go ahead and try it.

He reached over and grabbed the laptop from where it had been sitting beside the big computer. Carefully, so he didn't damage it, Liam tried to push the cord into the charging port.

He nearly shouted for joy when it slid in with a click, but quickly covered his mouth so he didn't wake Airy up.

Hesitantly, Liam opened the laptop, terrified that it wouldn't work.

Tears of joy began to stream down his face when he saw the charging symbol pop up on the black screen. Frantically, he powered the laptop on.

As soon as the screen changed from blank to white, text began to type itself. Liam quickly turned down the volume as the text to voice synthesizer began to load.

[What did I miss? ;)] Texty asked.

"Oh my gosh I'm so happy to see you!" Liam whispered, "Everyone is back!"

[That's great! :D Did you kill Airy?]

"Ummm... no."

[Oh. Why are you still in the cave? And why are you whispering?]

"The computer... doesn't work on people in the same world it is in apparently." Liam explained sadly.

[Oh no. But why are you whispering]

"..." Liam hesitated uncomfortably. How was he going to explain this?

[I know you can hear me. Why are you whispering?]

Liam just sighed and turned the laptop screen so that Texty could see Airy sleeping against the cave wall. He turned it back to himself.

The text began moving down the screen towards the volume controls, and began cranking it up. Liam quickly hit the mute button, holding down on it so that Texty couldn't do anything.

[...wtf Liam? What are you doing? S:(]

"I don't want to wake him up."

[why?]

"...because..."

[because what >:(]

"Because he's... my friend."

[...I feel like I missed something. You have some explaining to do...]

"Alright, well I guess I'll start from the beginning..." Liam sighed.

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Finally, after spending two days of his break calling different yoga studios, he finally found the one he was looking for.

Amelia was back, and staying with her family in Yakima, Washington. Bryce bought a plane ticket and flew over as soon as he possibly could. They met in a coffee shop the next day, and discussed their plans moving forward, as well as mourning the loss of their friend.

A few weeks later, after Bryce had returned to his job in Connecticut, Amelia called him with a new discovery. She had managed to find Moldy, actually Charlotte, and gave him her phone number. From then on the trio called each other up once a week or sometimes more often.

ONE was behind them, the future was ahead of them, and all of them felt that Liam was watching over them in a sense. His sacrifice had saved them, and in a way, his life on Earth continued. In their hearts.

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Well there we go! That was wholesome was it not? A ONEderful [please stop] *no* switch from my usual angsty storylines! Yay! Finally a fic where everyone doesn't hate Airy! That in itself is good enough for me.

Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next time!

Edgy out!