The end of reality

Chapter1: The elevator game

"Boys, you're going to be late for school!" Phil yells through the whole apartment, making sure they hear him. He walks into Tommy's room first, like every morning. Since he knows that his youngest always oversleeps on Mondays. He sits down on the side of the bed and brushes through his hair, trying to wake his son without giving him a jump scare, he's a deep sleeper.

Tommy starts squirming and pulls his blanket over his head, mumbling something along the lines of "Only five more minutes."

"Oh come on mate, you know it wouldn't be just five minutes." Phil rolls his eyes and chuckles. "Can't you go annoy Will or something?" Tommy grumpily asks.

Phil sighs, but gets up anyway. On his way out of the room he stops, standing in the doorframe, he turns around "I'll be down in 15 minutes to drive you lot to school and this time I won't wait, alright?" Tommy grumbles something into his pillow, but that's enough of an answer for Phil and he goes to his oldest.

But unlike Tommy, Wilbur's already up and blocking the bathroom. Phil figures he's doing his hair, he always gets up a bit earlier in order to be styled perfectly. That reminds him, he'll need to go buy more hairspray, like Will requested. Even though they don't need as much since Techno's-...

It's been almost 2 years since then, but he still hasn't told his sons under which conditions their brother really went missing and he might never will. It's probably better this way anyway. If he told them the truth, he would most definitely either crush all of their hope or they would search for him themselves. And go on a journey they wouldn't return from. It's just too dangerous for them. He wouldn't be able to take it, if another son of his got lost like that. He tried bringing him back himself, but never was able to get very far. He can only hope that his son can make it back home by himself. He misses him, and without Techno, their family is simply incomplete. He sees it too, in Wilbur's eyes, the grief for his twin, he used to be happier. Now his son won't even look at him anymore. Phil knows that he blames him, after all, he told them that Techno got lost on one of his "business trips". He's been distancing himself, not only from Phil. He barely leaves his room anymore. Phil knows that he could have done more, should have done more. And Tommy, oh god Tommy, he hasn't been the same. He always claims to be alright. But late at night, when Phil comes to his room to check on him, he can still hear the faintest sob and calls for his big brother, when Tommy acts like he's asleep. At first Tommy sought comfort from his other brother, but Wilbur was also grieving and refused him what he so desperately needed. And Phil couldn't help it, but drown himself in work, trying to ignore the dull ache in his heart. He knows he failed his sons when they needed him most. But he just doesn't know how to make it up to them. Tubbo also has visited more often, for Tommy's sake and Phil couldn't be more thankful. But now, Tommy even refuses to talk to his best friend. A tear rolls down his cheek and he quickly wipes his hand over his face.

Shaking his head, he tries to shake away the thoughts. And so instead of bargaining, he prepares the lunches for his boys, but it's still a cruel reminder that there were once three instead of two lunches he had to prepare.

The doorbell rings and Phil already knows that it's their favorite neighbor. He knows what's about to happen. Loud stomping resounds from Tommy's room. He starts smiling and just like he predicted Tommy darts out of his room, while putting on one of his socks and muttering an almost inaudible "Fuck" under his breath. Not a second later Wilbur also dashes out of the bathroom, only taking one last look in the mirror.

Tommy hectically unlocks the door, shoes already on. The door opens and Tubbo is already waiting there, he shouts a quick "Good morning, Phil!" while grinning. He grabs Tommy by the wrist and next they make a run for the elevator while laughing manically. Wilbur's screaming after them, also pushing out of the apartment.

The little routine they now have makes Phil's chest warm, he would never tell them, but he secretly adores their chaotic energy. It feels strangely domestic and makes him almost forget that one of his sons is missing. The apartment doesn't feel as empty anymore.

—

They run down the hallway of the apartment, Wilbur right behind them. They jump into the elevator and quickly push every button to every floor of the building. Even after his hilarious sprint to the elevator, Wilbur doesn't seem to make it in time and the doors close right in front of his face. They can still hear the loud cursing from outside of the doors.

"Did you see his face!", Tommy bursts out laughing as soon as the doors close, while Tubbo is still recovering from the race they just had. They did this little "elevator game" now for probably the 20th time since the last few weeks and Will still falls for it every single time. Truly hilarious.

Breathing heavily and crackling lightly, Tommy leans against the doors of the elevator and slowly Tubbo too starts laughing.

Then the elevator abruptly stops along with their laughter, they almost lose their balance. With wide eyes they look at each other, it shouldn't have stopped for a few more floors.

The air shifts, the elevator doors open and Tommy falls backwards. With a yelp he lands on his back. He catches himself with his hands, but immediately screeches loudly "Ew, what the fuck is that?!"
The carpet is moist, almost wet "disgusting", he says pouting and wipes off his hands on his jeans. He looks around curiously.

He gets up and a better look at his surroundings. The wallpaper of the walls looks way too old and the bright color of the cheerful yellow makes his eyes hurt. He hears a buzzing noise from above and notices that the lights are flickering. The fluorescent lighting seems brighter than normal and the humming sound gets louder by the second. There is also dripping water from the ceiling, just over the puddle he landed in. The corridor is empty and looks like it's going on for forever. There are a lot of rooms connected to the one corridor and they all seem to have the same features. It all looks so unreal. "Weird..."
"Tubbo are you seeing this?" He keeps looking around.

All the while Tubbo is inspecting the buttons of the elevator and wondering just how they ended up on a floor, that shouldn't even exist. He looks over the buttons concentrated, a crease is forming between his eyebrows, Tommy is right, this is weird. Tommy is saying exactly what he's thinking "Where the fuck are we?" He's still looking around. Tubbo briefly looks over his shoulder "I don't know man, maybe we're just stuck here for now."

"No, I don't think so, this doesn't even look like any of the other floors, I've never seen this and I life here.", He waits for a reaction from his friend, but hears nothing but the continuing buzzing of the lights.
"You know, maybe if you would talk to me, we could find some kind of solution." Still no answer. "Tubbo, are you even listening to me?" Thinking he's being ignored, he turns around. "Tubbo- "

But Tubbo is gone and with him is the elevator, the only thing left is another yellow wall, where once his best friend was.

"Tubbo?"