The figure in front of me stands up from the sofa, allowing me to see her likeness. The person I see is a tall woman with long, straight black hair and bangs that go down to her brows. Her eyes glimmer with a hint of maroon, and her slender, curvy figure is clad in clothes so revealing that I have to force myself to look into her hypnotizing eyes.

"Who are you?" I ask. "Do I know you?" I have plenty more questions than just these two, but this will suffice for now.

"We've never met, but we've talked before. And I have to admit that the two of us haven't been on the best terms, but we can always change that."

"Oh, come on." I start. "You've got to realize you're being cryptic as hell, right?"

The woman chuckles. "Well, I'm doing it to piss you off, of course."

"I see…" I follow suit and laugh myself. "I feel like you're someone I'd remember if I met."

"I'm sure you do."

"Well then, don't be shy. What do you think I'll do, slap you across the face?"

"Yeah, you're right, I guess."

"So? Who are you?"

"Oh yeah, I'm the one who sucked you into the game and made those phone calls-"

I promptly slap the woman across the face. She crumples to the floor.

"I see the insanity hasn't completely gone away yet…" She says while clutching her swelling cheek.

"Heh… I guess not." I chuckle before stopping at a sudden realization. "Wait, how do you know about that?"

"What, the insanity thing?" The woman says. "Oh yeah, I know about everything that happened."

I sit down onto the sofa, "How? All of that stuff's been erased from history, right?"

"Yeah, it is. Nobody other than you, Elizabeth, Tyler, and Natsuki remember what happened."

"Wait…" I start, now perplexed. "How do you know what happened, then?"

"Easy," The woman says as her mouth contorts into a conceited grin. "I guessed."

As she makes this statement I can't help but burst out laughing, "Pfffft, so I'm that easy to predict, huh?"

My casual take to the situation is gone as soon as what she'd recently said processes in my mind, "Wait, Elizabeth and Tyler? Does that mean they're still alive?"

The woman returned to her own collected yet casual state of mind. "Yeah, they're both fine."

"Where are they, then?" I lean towards her in my seat, anticipating the answer.

"Heh…" The woman starts chuckling. "I can tell you, but I don't know if you'll accept the answer."

"Wow, look at you. So little faith you have in me." I lean back, though I'm no longer smiling. "They're back in the game, aren't they? That's the only way you'd know, right? Because you did it yourself?"

"Wow, you figured that out," the woman laughs again, "Wasn't that a hard one?"

"Stop beating around the bush and answer the other half of my question. What involvement do you have here?" I return to leaning forward, fully engaged in the conversation. I make direct eye contact with her, in hope of getting the answer from her eyes alone. I find myself lost in the deep reds and purples and blacks of her eyes as I observe the many contortions they make on her face. Finally I can see out of the corner of her eye that her mouth opens, ready to give me an answer.

"I wasn't involved, I actually quit the project."

My brain takes a second to process the information, "What? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Does that mean… You're on my side?"

The woman smiles, "Who knows?"

"What are you doing here then?"

"I'm here to give you answers, and I'll act upon how you process them."

"You sure love being vague as fuck… I should have known it was you from the start by that notion alone."

The woman chuckles for a second, before opening her mouth again. "I see the schizophrenia didn't last, huh…?"

"I still feel a little bit of it, gnawing at the back of my head every so-often… But I'm fine now, for the most part." I give myself a second to reflect before continuing. "So, uh…"

"Yes?"

"How do I save them?"

The woman was about to open her mouth before the apartment door slams open. "Hey, Xavier? What's the holdup? Weren't you gonna come over?"

"Natsuki." The woman's smile perks up into an evil grin as she looks at her.

"Xavier, who's this bitch?" Natsuki's eyes move to look at her.

"More importantly, how did you even get into my apartment?" I ask with a hint of annoyance in my voice.

"I heard the racket you were making and asked the front desk for a spare key. Crazy how easy it is to get one of those." Natsuki explains stubbornly before going back to the previous topic. "Anyways, who is this? She looks like a fucking slut."

"Rude." The woman mocks.

"Uh… She was one of the people behind…"

"Behind what?" Natsuki interrupts.

"She was behind everything that happened in the game… Me getting sucked in, Me coming out, all of the strange things that happened in between…"

"Do you know why I ended up here, then?" Natsuki leans forward slightly towards her, still standing near the door.

"No, actually." The woman neglects making eye contact with Natsuki. "About that…"

"Yeah, she quit." I interject. "While I'm not entirely sure we can fully trust her, she's the best we've got."

Natsuki doesn't say anything and simply looks away.

"Anyways…" I continue. "What's Amazon's motive here? Why would they care about doing something like this?"

"Oh, Amazon has nothing to do with this, actually." The woman says while shrugging. "It was just an alias to mislead the public."

"So it's more of a secret society kind of thing?" I ask. "Like, with The Da Vinci Code or something?"

The woman rolls her eyes. "Sure, like The Da Vinci Code."

"Cool, I loved that movie." I smile snarkily. "Anyways, do you mind telling me your name? It's the least you could do."

"I do mind." The woman looks down for a split second before making eye contact with me again. "It's important I keep my identity secret."

"Ohhhhh. Spy stuff. I get it." I say.

"Yes, spy stuff, sure." She rolls her eyes again, causing me to grin again.

"Anyways, if you're not gonna tell me your name, I guess I'll just have to give you a nickname."

"Goddamn, what the hell did Monika see in you?" Her eyes avert slightly before once again coming back to their focal point.

"Hey, ouch." I chuckle a bit. "I'll go easy on you and call you 'Phone Girl'."

"More like 'phone slut'." Natsuki mumbles under her breath, causing me to laugh a little bit. I glance at Phone Girl for a second, and it luckily doesn't seem like she heard what Natsuki said.

"So, anyways, Phone Girl it is. PG for short. How's that?"

"I'll take it, sure." PG laughs a bit herself. "Even if I didn't like it you would probably call me that anyways, right?"

"Yup." I nod obnoxiously.

"Anyways." The tone of my voice turns serious. "Where are Tyler and Elizabeth? And how do we save them?"

"Where else?" Phone Girl stares into my eyes with a piercing glare. "They're back in the game."

I sigh. "That wasn't what I wanted to hear, but it was definitely expected."

"So, as to how we save them, that should also be obvious." Phone Girl smiles grimly.

I exhale sharply. Again, I was fully expecting this outcome, but it still came as shocking to me.

"Xavier? What's wrong?" Natsuki shows mild concern while looking in my direction.

"Natsuki." I sigh, attempting to regain my composure as I attempt to form a string of words I genuinely didn't want to have to say again.

"We're going back into the game."