+ • DOORS • + The Series

+ 👁 C H A P T E R : S E V E N 👁 +

The Return

"Finder...?" said Halt, almost as if she were in awe of the entity standing in front of her. "You're back?"

"Glitch," Glitch corrected. "And yeah, I guess I am back." she looked down at herself and waved her hand in front of her face. It seemed to phase in and out of existence, and there were sections of it that appeared to be breaking apart. Screech poked at Glitch's face with a tentacle and it went right through. "You're not real!"

Glitch grabbed the tentacle and pulled it out. "I am real, and I don't want any tentacles in my face, thanks."

Screech gaped at his tentacle, then at Glitch. "Cool."

Seek, on the other hand, was staring wide-eyed at the floor. Glitch looked at him, face melting into one of slight regret. "You okay there, Seek?" Everyone else looked at him, but he stayed still all the same.

"Why did you leave?" Seek asked quietly. "You were the one who looked after us." Glitch sighed. "Seek, it's complicated. I'm here because I knew you'd all be in danger."

"Why weren't you here before if that was the case? Were you the one who's been telling Rush to do all this?" Seek asked, raising his voice. 

"I had to do what I had to do, Seek. It wasn't safe."

"So you did do it." Seek said flatly.

"No, I--"

"Answer  the question."

"Seek," Glitch said in a serious tone, grabbing him by the shoulders, "I didn't do anything like that. I knew you were all in trouble, and--"

"THEN WHERE WERE YOU?!" Seek yelled, "WHERE WERE YOU?!"

"Seek!" Glitch cried as he ran out of the room. Halt teleported in front of him and he deviated, making a beeline toward the nearest door. Glitch appeared next to her and blocked her with her arm. "Don't go after him. He's not up for it."

     | R O O M     O N E    H U N D R E D |

Figure could hear a mouse. Food was right there. It couldn't feel it, but it was sitting right in front of its head, squeaking.

As it brushed the shelf trying to grab the mouse, its hand was just a few inches from its face when the mouse started making panicked squeaks. The creature snagged it by the tail and dropped it into its mouth, crushing the mouse with its razor-sharp teeth.

Suddenly, something came into contact with Figure's shoulder and it let out a roar, dragging its arms on the floor to find the culprit. Another object was thrown at Figure and it turned to its left, where a flight of stairs led to the exit elevator. 

"Psst!"

Figure came stomping up the stairs, looking for Screech, when someone grabbed Figure's hand and shushed it. "Hey, Figure! No no, don't make any noise, just squeeze our hand to let us know you're listening and that the voice hasn't got you too."

Figure, listening to the instructions, squeezed the hand and it let go, patting Figure's shoulder. "See? We're not here to hurt you."

It sounded like... no, it couldn't be. Figure pat the stranger on the shoulder, trying to tell whether or not it was who it thought they were.

The Eyes nodded slowly as Figure made a low sound, curiously picking up the entities and then putting them back down. "It's us, remember? Is everyone still okay?" Figure stopped and then shrugged, unsure, and The Eyes groaned. "We're still really sore..."

Figure tilted its head to one side and The Eyes explained what had happened. "We were told by Rush to head to the Reception. Some weird voice came to us, and we had to hide because we couldn't face the rest of you. Then, well, we met Glitch." The name made Figure step back, a more or less a bit startled. 

"We were told to hide down here, but we felt like something's up. We knew we had to tell you."

     | R O O M     S E V E N T Y    O N E |

Seek sat alone in the room, head on knees, thinking about everything. About Glitch and when she'd left everyone behind. About The Eyes and the dead humans. About the Hotel and how they couldn't leave because if they did, they'd die.

"Seek?" Glitch said quietly as she teleported into the room. "I knew you'd be here. Every time you were upset, boom, straight into room seventy one."

Seek sniffed, glaring at the entity. "Leave me alone."

"Look at me. You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay, as long as we get out of here."

Seek sat up. "Get out of here? We're going to die out there. Ever since we woke up for the first time, there's been this message planted into our heads saying we're going to die!"

Glitch sat down next to him and sighed. "That's the point, Seek. We won't die. We'll be free this way, trust me."

"But..." Seek looked down, "Where have you been? What is even going on now?"

"I was here first, Seek. And then after a while, this voice spoke to me. I did as I was told, killing countless amount of those people, and then you all arrived. I knew this wasn't what I wanted for the rest of you and I didn't listen to it. It kicked me out and made you all think that I was converted by humans, and... and then, well, you know the rest." She barked a tired laugh and went silent, letting Seek process the information before continuing. "The voice is afraid. Its influence can't go any further than the Hotel. If we get out of here, we'd be free. Okay, maybe not because the humans could find us and try to kill us, but that's what hiding's for, right?"

Glitch managed a small smile as Seek nodded, standing up. "How do we get out of here?"

____________+___________

And now, a short message from the Guiding Light.

Hmm. This is getting... out of hand. Please bear with me as I solve this issue.