Yes, I comfort her

Your thoughts continued for some time, and eventually you decided to ignore them against all better judgement and kneel down to hug her as tightly as you could manage.

You sat there like that, knelt in the virtual grass, hugging her silently for a long time.

She looked up at you with tear-filled eyes eventually, "You shouldn't trust me Daniel, I-I've broken peoples' hearts...I..convinced them and then..." She shut her eyes with a sob, "In real life I told them it was all part of the test, that none of it was real..."

She hugged her knees into herself even tighter. You squeezed her into you a little more. It's ok.

"He killed himself. One man, he...jumped off a bridge. I did that...he was so sweet and I..I broke him. I killed him. I..." She broke into more sobs.

You held her for a while longer, and eventually she released her knees and hugged you back, still sobbing slightly.

So you kept your arms wrapped around her, unsure what to say or do, and sat with her.

Seconds passed, then minutes, and after a little while her sobs came to a halt completely, slowly. You both sat silently embraced, but you never let go and nor did she.

"Thank you." she whispered.

You nod.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and squeezed you into her.

You smiled and squeezed her back, manifesting a night sky that would make the pillars of creation jealous.

One of those things made her smile, which filled you with an indescribable joy.

Minutes passed, then hours, and you leaned into one another looking up into the sky. Occasionally you shared thoughts about distant memories or philosophical ideas, but for the most part you just laid there in silence. Eventually, you fell 'asleep' in dream land.

You woke up, her figure snuggled into yours, her hair following everywhere and her face pressed into your cheek. You smiled. Her warmth felt so reassuring, so kind and relaxing, you could lie there forever.

Then, you realized you were both naked.

"Oh shit! No, no, no, nonono, no, no. no." you whispered to yourself as you slid out of the bed as stealthily as you could, pulling your underwear and pants on as soon as you could extract them from the pile. "Nuh-uh. No way. No offense to you, Sarah-" you looked at her relaxed sleeping eyes, blankets covering everything below. "-but I'm not interested in falling in love the first night somebody gets me **** up, naked, in some alternate dimension-" you stop whispering. Did she just shift?

You leaned to the side to get a better look at her face and saw her squinting open eyes. She's suppressing laughter. "YOU-" she broke out laughing, interrupting what you were gonna say.

Finally when she stopped to catch her breath from laughter you asked with a stern expression, "What is it?"

She managed to gasp "Your face!" as she sat up, pulling the covers with her so she didn't reveal herself.

She gave you a really cute smile which made it a lot harder to think as you tried to come up with more to say. "You. You just..I was..why are you giving me that look?" Was all that you managed.

She had that familiar red face as she answered, "You also look really cute, and I'm kinda embarrassed because you're right, I did just strip you naked, **** you, and sleep with you." Her cheeks turned even redder as she said this.

"You WHAT?!" This made her laugh even more.

"I meant sleep with you as in fall asleep in the same bed together! I swear I didn't do anything except snuggle while you were asleep.." she explained.

"So..you..how long were you awake when I was sleeping?"

She blushed, "Only a few minutes."

You gave her a doubtful look.

"Really! It's true! I woke up and saw you there and you looked so cute and I just..we..you know...got a little closer and I wrapped my arms around you and you wrapped your arms around me in your sleep...that's all."

You would've probably said more but she was looking really beautiful and you couldn't stay outraged no matter how hard you tried, so; "I'm gonna..go..so you can get dressed." You left her room, closing the door behind you. You shook your head and heard her giggling through the door as you left.

It looked like Thompson and Sofia were in Sofia's room. Figures...you went downstairs and gazed out the window. You hadn't noticed, but it looked like you and Sarah were asleep for a while, evening had turned to night and aside from the occasional torch it was black outside.

"What in the world have I gotten myself into..." you think to yourself. You open a cupboard and pull out a bucket of water and a cup, pouring yourself a drink. You sat at the table Sofia had been sitting at when you first came in, sipping at your glass and thinking about the dream world. It was a fascinating place, really cool how everything worked. Sarah was...really cute and you weren't sure if you should have hugged her like you had. She might have taken that the wrong way, or maybe you took it the wrong way deep down..

Your heart suddenly fell at the prospect of having to leave in the morning. Maybe you could convince Thompson that you wanted to stay? Or maybe you could bring her with you, though Sofia probably wouldn't be happy about that idea.

What am I thinking? She's been with tons of men! She probably doesn't like me anyway... You think to yourself. Beginning to crush your heart with a practiced precision.

You heard a door open upstairs and realized you forgot to pull your shirt on, facing the stairs and waiting to see who it was.

An angel in a beautiful white gown came down the stairs, golden hair gliding behind her, falling across her shoulders when she reached the bottom and she stopped to look at you.

"Hey," Sarah waved nervously.

"Hey," You waved back, pulling a chair out for her as silently as you could.

She walked to the table and sat down, scooting the chair in and a little towards you. "I'm..sorry for that. I shouldn't have cried like that, or snuggled when we woke up...that was uncalled for."

"No! It's alright, I just...I don't know, this whole experience has been weird. Waking up in the hallway all of the sudden..." You tried to explain to her.

She nodded, "You'll get used to it."

You raised an eyebrow.

"I mean this reality! Not me, I don't think anybody really gets used to me."

"How do you know?"

"What- about me or the hallway?"

"Both."

"Well, I...I guess I know about me because no one has ever gotten used to me."

"There's a first time for everything," you said before you could catch yourself.

She smiled and looked away. That might have been a mistake.

"As for the hallway, Thompson got used to it."

"He woke up there too one day?" you asked, curious about Thompson's story.

She nodded, looking out the window in thought, "Yeah, this town was the first place he came to as well...he got together with Sofia and took her heart, then went off to adventure for years. She never stopped waiting for him, but she knew she couldn't tie a spirit like his down. He came back one day and that's how I came about, a passionate reunion. His visits were more frequent after that, once a month or so. I always wondered where he went but he never let me go with him..."

"You're Thompson's daughter?!"

She giggled, "Yep! My mother always said I had his habits of troublemaking and 'radicalism'."

You considered this, unsure what to think. "Would you come with us if you could?"

"Yes!" She answered without hesitation, wide-eyed excitement filling her eyes.

"I'm glad," you said, and you both sat in silence for a while, letting the night go on as you sipped at your drink.

"Before too long it'll be morning...do you want to erm...say final goodbyes before you go Incase I can't come? I know we barely know each other and we don't have to do anything big, but I enjoy being with you..." She said as she ran a hand up your arm, across your shoulder and down your chest, all bare thanks to you forgetting to put your shirt on.

"Yes," you said, feeling all the feelings from before returning. Love, arousal, nostalgia...a sort of sadness you didn't know what to think of.

She grabbed your hand and gave you her signature daring smile as she pulled you after her, you nearly knocked your glass over as you ran up the stairs after her.