Chapter Text
Narrator groaned. He wanted to continue to sleep but he had already started to wake up against his will. He moved as his dream took a weirder turn. After he had exited an off putting area, he was greeted by the bucket. The bucket was sitting in a calming meadow with trees in the far distance. Everything about the said meadow was normal aside from the sky being purple with stars scattered across it. Narrator approached the bucket. He gingerly picked it up and turned it so the stickers on it were facing him. That’s when he saw it. He saw something in the reflection of the bucket, standing behind him. Narrator quickly turned but his dream ended being he could get a proper view of it.
Narrator turned to his side and clasped onto his blanket. At this point he was awake but exhausted. He held his eyes shut until he started to hear knocking on his door. He tried to ignore it and fall back asleep. As soon as he thought the person knocking had left, Narrator heard a voice come from the other side of the door. “Narrator? Are you in there? Are you still asleep?”
The narrator groaned, pulled his blanket off himself and sat up. Remembering about last night, Narrator quickly started searching through his bed to see if the name tag was still there. Allas, it was gone. He frowned at the now confirmed knowledge that it was fake and stood up. He stumbled his way over to the door and unlocked it. Last night he forgot to lock most of the locks on it so it was relatively easy to open the door.
Once he had opened the door, Narrator was greeted by Timekeeper. “Oh uh hey! I thought you might have already left or something. But it's nice to see you alive and well! Oh and uh good morning.” Timekeeper was wearing an outfit nearly identical to yesterday; the main difference being he was wearing a blue band tee for a band called “Tally Hall.” For some reason the design had another, miniature t-shirt on it with the band name inside of the mini t-shirt. Timekeeper also had his hair up in a half-up-half-down hairstyle. The hairstyle revealed that they had the sides of their head shaved.
“Morning- erm… Timekeeper” Narrator yawned while rubbing his face.
“Are you… wearing the same thing from yesterday?”
“Hm? Oh uh.. yeah I guess so.”
“You didn’t at least change your socks..?”
Narrator sighed. “One moment.”
Narrator closed the door on Timekeeper and started rummaging through his room to see if he had a clean(ish) pair of socks. After a minute of searching, he managed to find a pair of black crew socks. He rushed to take off his dirty socks and put on the new socks. Narrator walked back over to the door and opened it. “Apologies for making you wait.”
“Yeah it’s no problem. Are you ready to go now?”
“Go where..?” He was still sluggish from waking up.
“Right uhm. Today I was thinking that we could keep walking around different parts of the parable if you want! There’s some things that I need to do so I might as well kill two birds with one stone! Haha…” He immediately cringed after hearing themself say that. “Anyways, are you ready to go?”
“Sure..” Narrator mumbled between yawns. He shielded his eyes as he stepped out of his room. After his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, he saw that Timekeeper had a small red suitcase with him. “I need to pick up some stuff that we left around the place because I lost the bet yesterday…”
“Didn’t you already do all the things that Mariella wanted you to do?”
“That’s what I said but she was persistent…”
“Ah.. So where do we need to go first?”
“The closest stuff that I need to grab is on my old desk so let’s go there first.”
The Narrator nodded and so the two began their long walk together. But this time the walk was shorter… Suspiciously shorter. Within 3 minutes of them walking, Timekeeper mentioned that they were only 17 minutes away when yesterday it took them 40 minutes to get to the main part of the office in total.
Suddenly, Timekeeper turned to Narrator, seemingly concerned about him. “Hey so uhh… I thought that today we could take a different, quicker route to get there faster.”
Narrator raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t we take it yesterday?”
“Well..That’s the thing… You see uhh.. I didn’t really want you to get mad or anything on your first day out of your room.”
“Why would I be mad?” His voice was gradually getting more stern.
“Just promise me not to get made ok?”
“Why do I need to pro-”
“Please just promise me ok?” They appeared to be extremely anxious.
Narrator sighed. “Okay fine..I won’t get mad.”
As they turned a corner, Narrator finally figured out why Timekeeper asked not to get mad at him. The hallway before them was almost completely missing. The only thing left over from was a few chunks of floor floating in the black, empty void. Narrator turned over to Timekeeper, who was now behind him. “ What the fuck did you do!? ”
“You said you wouldn’t get mad!”
“Well is it very difficult to stay calm when this is what you asked not to get mad over!” He yelled.
“Narrator-”
“Shut it! Why the fuck did you destroy my game!?”
“I needed some parts for my personal projects ok?!”
“Were your projects worth destroying my project?!”
“I-...I’m sorry…I didn’t think it would really matter that much to you.”
Narrator sighed and rethought things over. He sighed after calmed down. “Yeah… It's fine I guess.. Sorry.” Timekeeper approached Narrator. They stood next to him as they stared into the void. Then, he picked up the suitcase and jumped to one of the floating chunks of floor. They motioned for Narrator to follow. “There should be another hallway down there.”
After some time of traveling through missing or messed up hallways, they finally made it to the main part of the office. Timekeeper rushed over to his desk and started shoving their pencil sharpener into the suitcase. Narrator held a mug and stared at it to try and distract himself from his old protagonist’s door. Even just looking at the door reminded him of that eventful day.
Once Timekeeper was done with his desk, they started going through his coworker’s desks. While doing so, he noticed that Narrator was blatantly avoiding looking at door 427. They walk up to him and rest their hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to stay in this part of the office if you don't want to.”
The narrator nodded in response but there was something about that door that made him stay. Something about him that forced him to remember yet called for him in a weird way. Without noticing, Narrator had approached the door. He rested his hand on the doorhand, mentally preparing for whatever waited for him inside. As Narrator turned the doorknob, he half expected to see a body or a hallucination to torment him, but to his surprise, the room was empty of horrors. Aside from some minor blood stains on the ground, the room was the exact same as it was before the accident.
Narrator stepped into the room. He looked up at the ceiling to see a hole left over in it. Narrator approached the desk and ran his hand along it, picking up dust in the process. Once he was done soaking in the room, he turned his attention back to the door. When he went to go open the door, he briefly saw something. There was something in the crack of the door. Narrator yelped and kicked the door shut before the figure could do anything else. He backed up into the desk as he tried to understand what just happened.
Narrator crouched down as he tried to compose himself. He grabbed at his chest and calmed his breath. Narrator exhaled, and peered down at the bloodstain on the floor again. He started to wonder what was left over in the drawers, it has been a while since someone has gone through them so it wouldn’t hurt just to see a few of them.
As he looked through the drawers, Narrator found to be oddly disappointed that there wasn’t much in the drawers at all. So far they either had blank papers or were empty. But after he opened a drawer close to Stanley’s old computer, Narrator finally found something worth of interest. Inside the drawer was a polaroid camera and a few pictures.
Narrator pulled out all the contents and rested them on the desk. He sat down on the office chair and started looking through the polaroids. One of them was a picture of the Narrator shoving his hand into the camera to try and block out his face. Another was a selfie of Stanley and Narrator happily kissing each other. Narrator somberly rubbed Stanley’s face and held the picture tight to his chest, as if to hug him one last time. He picked up a third, which was a picture of him and Stanley snuggling in the employee lounge.
Narrator started to feel gloomy going through all these memories. He shuffled through the small pile and spotted one of Timekeeper and Mariella. They were both smiling joyfully at the camera. He felt the polaroid in his hand when he realized that the back was a different texture than it should be. He flipped it over to see that there was a sticky note on the back. It read, “I finally introduced Mariella to Timekeeper! Hope they don’t end up befriending each other just to forget about me lol.” He read it over and over again, knowing that this was Stanley’s handwriting. Narrator ended up kissing the sticky note because Stanley wrote it.
After he was done looking through all the pictures, Narrator crammed the pictures into his pocket and held the camera close to his chest. He cautiously approached the door again and gently turned the door knob. He peered through the crack in the door to see if there was something on the other side. Luckily, the only thing there was the office. Narrator fully opened the door and started walking around, looking for Timekeeper. He started walking around to find them.
Eventually, Narrator found them trying to decide between two different mugs. He glanced up and noticed him staring at them. “Oh hey Narrator! Where did you go?”
“Just erm.. Looking around the office.”
“Ah. Alright. Oh hey what’s that with you?” He strolled over to him and started inspecting the camera.
“It’s Stanley’s old camera…”
“Oh hey I remember that thing now! Is there still some film left in it?”
“Don’t know… Wanna check?”
Timekeeper gleefully nodded and started posing for Narrator. Narrator turned the camera on and took a picture of them. After the polaroid came out, Narrator shook it around and waited for it to develop. He handed the still-developing picture to Timekeeper.
“Nice!”
“I think I can take two or three more pictures before I need to get a new film.”
“Well in that case, we should take one with all of us together!”
“Yeah.. That’d be a nice way to use it up.”
Timekeeper finally picked a mug and shoved it into the suitcase. “I got everything that I needed from here so ready to go?” Narrator nodded.
As the two walked together, they rambled on about insignificant things that occurred over the years. They were generally trying to catch up with each other. Their conversation was interrupted by a buzz. Timekeeper pulled out his phone and checked their messages. They quickly type something before putting his phone away. “Curator was asking if we’ve seen the bucket.” Timekeeper mentions before questions were formed.
Finally, after a few stops, Narrator and Timekeeper made it back to the house-like series of rooms where Timekeeper was staying. They show Narrator to the living room and leave him there so he can go take care of the suitcase.
Narrator sat uncomfortably in the middle of a dark gray couch. In front of it was a small tv. He stared into his reflection on the black screen. Was this the same tv from the end of the memory zone when he wanted to remember the Stanlurines? Well if it was then surely it should show the present, right? But when it was in use it would normally show Stanley’s perspective… What would happen if he were to turn it on now?
The Narrator decided he should turn it on, just to see what happened. He approached the tv and crouched in front of it. Then, he turned it on. After it powered on, it was set to a strange channel. The tv show the living room Narrator was in when he first walked in. The couch was in front of the door facing away. But in the middle of the screen was Narrator crouching in front of the tv.
Narrator froze up. Was that actually him? Was this real? As forced himself to stand, the image of him on the tv moved with him. Shocked, frozen, all Narrator could do was stare at the screen. He shivered nervously. His breathing became shallow as Narrator slowly turned around.
But when he did, there was nothing. Nothing was waiting for him. Nothing to be afraid of. Narrator glanced back over to the tv. The loud static pierced into his ears. Did it have a static screen the whole time? Was this all his imagination? It was getting progressively harder to tell if Narrator’s mind was playing tricks on him or not. Narrator thought it would be a good idea to rest his head. He swiftly shut off the tv and laid down on the couch.
Letting his mind drift, Narrator dozed off peacefully. He rested for a while till he eventually felt a hand pat him on the shoulder. Narrator sat up. Timekeeper was standing behind the couch leaning over him. He seemed panicked. “Hey uh Narrator.. we need to go.”
Before Narrator could question them, he grabbed his hand and started dragging him outside. Eventually, they opened the door leading outside. Timekeeper sprinted ahead of Narrator but would stop time to time for him to catch up. Narrator wondered why they were in such a rush but he tried to pick up the pace for Timekeeper’s sake. Timekeeper’s panic started to rub onto Narrator as he realized they were taking a different path from yesterday. Eventually, they arrived at a lake.
There was someone standing in front of the lake, seemingly yelling at what looked like a bucket. Timekeeper ran ahead and shouted for the person there. Narrator kept his distance from the two, but he could tell that they were beginning to argue. He quietly approached the two, realizing that Timekeeper was arguing with Mariella. He was trying to console her
“Mari, can you just please stop yelling for a moment?!”
“No, will you just listen to me?! That fucking bucket is just a complete jack ass-”
“The bucket isn’t sentient! What the fuck are you talking about?!”
“Of course it is! Why wouldn’t it be! And it’s being a dickhead!”
“Mariella please just-”
She turned around towards the bucket. “Holy shit, can you just shut the fuck up!? ”
Irritated, Mariella ended up kicking the bucket into the lake behind it. Timekeeper froze as they watched the bucket fill up with water and sink. Narrator finally got within arms length of the other two. Timekeeper broke the silence. “Mariella! Why did you do that!?”
“Me!? It had it coming! It deserved it!”
“Yeah but that’s a shit reason to kick it into a lake!”
“Oh come on! The bucket is a bitch! It's a perfectly good reason!”
He sighed. Then they turned towards Narrator. “Can you go get the bucket before it sinks further?”
Not knowing what else to do, Narrator agreed. He stood at the edge of the lake, the two friends continued arguing behind him. He took a moment to breathe before plunging into the cool water. He bobbed on the surface of the water as he swam to where the bucket sank. Once he was floating above the spot, Narrator took one final breath and submerged himself. He started swimming downwards. The light around him quickly disappeared the farther he swam down. He got to a point where he could barely tell what the shapes around him were.
Holding his breath was getting harder by the second, but he needed to keep going. Finally, just as he thought he couldn’t keep his breath any longer, he reached out. Narrator felt silky long seaweed around his wrists as he grabbed a handle. He pulled the handle in and embraced the bucket into a short hug. Narrator kept the bucket’s handle at his elbow as he turned. He stared at the surface of the water from the floor of the lake. The surface was so clear and bright, yet so far away. Narrator reached towards the light.
As he tried to swim, Narrator felt his leg get tugged back by something. He lost some air as the sudden tug. He looked down to see seaweed caught around his ankle. He hastily pulled the seaweed off his leg as he lost more air. Narrator struggled in the water as he lost all of the air he had. He gagged on the water but there was nothing he could do. He felt the water rush into his mouth and throat as he tried to swim. Narrator grabbed at his neck as the water started to fill his lungs. The instinct to cough only made it worse. The water was filling his body and he could only reach out towards the top. As the world faded to black, all Narrator could do was stare at the mesmerizing light from the surface of the water.
The world went quiet. Narrator drifted between life and death. Unknowing of what will become of him. The world around him passed as he helplessly laid unconscious.
The faint sound around indicated commotion. Everything sounded fuzzy and far away as he slowly regained consciousness. Narrator started to feel his body again. He moved his fingers and tried to open his eyes. Squinting, he gazed up at the person above him. Curator looked down at him. Her head blocked the sun as her braids dangled down. “Narrator.. Oh thank god! You're alive!” She leaned down to hug him.
Narrator weakly gripped Curator’s arm as she squeezed her brother. Narrator started coughing mid hug. Curator pulled away as he started to gag up water. Once he rid his lungs of most of the water, Curator grabbed his hand. “Do you think you can stand up?”
Narrator groaned in response. He tried to sit up on his own before his sister assisted him. She wiped the hair off his face as he tried to breathe normally. Narrator turned to look at Curator, who was now crouching. He tried to speak. “Curator…” She took his hand again, making Narrator realize that her hands were shaking.
Curator wrapped Narrator’s arm around her neck as he tried to stand. However, he quickly fell to his knees halfway up and threw up. Curator held back his hair and patted his back as he vomited. When he finished, Narrator wiped his mouth and tried again. Curator reassured him while he tried again. Finally, he managed to get up, leaning on Curator for support the whole time. Narrator felt dizzy just from standing.
Curator held onto Narrator as her attention was pulled away from him. “Timekeeper, can you carry the bucket inside?” Narrator tiredly glanced up. Timekeeper was already picking up the bucket. He looked like he had some water on their sleeves as he motioned for Mariella to follow. “Are you two gonna be ok with us going ahead?”
“We’ll be fine. Just wait for us at the door.” Timekeeper nodded and started walking away. Meanwhile, Mariella stared back at the two. She had a guilty expression before she followed. Curator drew her attention back to Narrator. He was clearly struggling to stand. Curator sighed. “Do you want me to carry you?”
Narrator shyly nodded. Curator helped him sit down again and picked him up bridal style. Narrator pressed his face into Curator’s shoulder. The movement of her sprinting made him dizzy. Curator practically read his mind. “Stay awake. We’re almost inside. Just don’t pass out...” The sound of her voice was the last thing Narrator heard before his vision went blank.
Narrator shifted around as he regained consciousness. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to look around. He was lying in a large bed in a room lit by the two lamps on either side of the bed. The room was mostly empty aside from a few paintings, a dresser, and a chair in the left corner of the room from where he sat. Upon closer inspection, the chair had the bucket placed on it. There was also a door in the right corner. This room was oddly familiar to Narrator.
Suddenly, the door to the room opened. Curator poked her head in. “Oh good. You're awake.” She stepped in and sat on the edge of the bed. Narrator tried to sit up. He saw that she had on a dark magenta bath robe with her purple braids down. “Curator…I missed you.”
“I missed you too. How do you feel?”
“Tired..” He mumbled.
“Mmm.. I’m glad you didn’t drown.”
“Right. Did you.. save me?”
“Yes... I was looking for Mariella when I heard shouting. Then after I got to the lake, Timekeeper told me what happened, so I dove in.”
“Oh wow. Thank you..”
“Of course. I wasn’t going to watch my little brother drown.” She chuckled softly.
“You’re only older by two years.”
“Well you still look little.” She was right in a way. Curator had a full 11 inches over Narrator. One of the downsides of being 5’3.
“Oh shut it..” Narrator groaned. Curator giggled at the light teasing. She missed poking fun at her brother. Then, Curator stood up. “You should be resting. I’ll check on you in 20 minutes. Don’t try to get me.” With that, she left, closing the door behind her.
For a while, Narrator laid in bed. Trying to sit up was difficult enough so standing would be a lost cause. He tried his best to ignore the bucket but there was something about it. Something about it that beckoned at him. Eventually, ignoring it wasn’t an option any more. He had to speak to it.
Narrator tried to crawl from the right side of the bed to the left. Once he did, he tried to lower himself onto the ground, only to fail. He fell onto the floor with a thud. He had to crawl over to the chair. Eventually, he got to the chair and sat up in front of it.
Narrator stared at the bucket. It looked different from the last time he saw it. The bucket looked beaten up. It had scuff marks all over it and a few dents. It had a larger dent in the front which looked new, probably from earlier. The stickers on it were different too. The stickers were dirtier and the Stanley part of the “Property of Stanley” sticker was ripped off. It felt odd seeing a once loved item be treated so poorly.
“Bucket…”
‘Hello Narrator. It's been a while.’
“Yes…It has.”
‘What’s on your mind?’
“Why did-” He fumbled over his words. “Why did Mariella kick you into the lake?”
‘We had an augment.. Something about how I reminded her of the worse.. Something stupid like that.’
“Oh..So that’s what that was about. How are you doing now?” He tried to sound nice.
‘I’m Fine..’ It sighed. ‘I know why you want to talk to me.’
“I- erm..elaborate?”
The bucket started to sound aggressive. ‘You want to know if I told anyone about Stanley’s death.’
“Oh right..I thought we agreed not to talk about what actually happened to him.”
‘We didn’t agree, you assumed .. But yes, I haven’t told anyone if that helps your nerves-’
Suddenly, the doorhand across the room started to jiggle. Curator walked in. “Nar-... Why are you on the floor?” Narrator turned towards Curator, awkwardly grinning. She strolled over to him. As he stared up at her, Narrator noticed that she had on a purple cardigan, collared shirt and some black pants.
“Hello Curator..”
“Were you talking to the bucket?”
“Yes…”
She murmured to herself. “Why did they even put it in here with him?”
“Can you help?”
“Alright.”
Curator helped Narrator off the floor and supported him as he fumbled over to the bed. As he crawled under the blanket, Curator picked up the bucket and placed it by the door. She walked back over to Narrator.”You shouldn’t try to get up again on your own.” Narrator apologized. After making sure that Narrator would be fine by himself, Curator left with the bucket. Narrator sat still on the bed for a while; he had nothing better to do. After a while he decided to get some rest, so he shut his eyes and fell asleep.
As he started to drift awake, Narrator felt a warm hand pat his shoulder. Narrator woke up to Mariella standing over his bed. She still seemed a little off after earlier. She waited for Narrator to sit up before she spoke. “Curator wanted me to ask you if you wanted dinner.”
“She did? How nice of her. What was made for dinner?”
“I made soup. Do you want me to bring a bowl here or do you wanna eat it with us?”
“I’ll come eat with you.”
Mariella helped Narrator stand up so with that, the two started walking together. As they started walking, Narrator realized that the bedroom he was in was the one from the bucket apartment ending. The whole apartment was still intact, the main differences being some redecorating.
Eventually, the two made it to the dining room. Timekeeper got up and greeted the two, giving Mariella a fight bump and Narrator a pat on the shoulder. They all sat down at the table and started giving themselves a portion of food. Once it was Narrator’s turn to grab something, he gave himself a small portion.
Narrator stared blankly at his food. It looked similar to chicken noodle soup. He poked at a piece of potato with his spoon. He looked up to find everyone talking happily. He watched as they ate, slowly realizing his jealousy for how easily they were able to do it. He drew his attention back to his own food. Narrator brought a spoon full of soup to his mouth. He slowly started eating.
After dinner, the others brought their plates to the kitchen while Narrator was left alone at the table. He glanced down at his bowl. He felt proud of himself for finishing most of it. He stood. Surely if he were to slip away now no one would notice, right? Quietly, Narrator started to lurk away. While eating, he started to think about how Curator saved him. He should repay her with a gift, it was the least he could do. Narrator managed to grab a pair of scissors on his way out.
Somehow, Narrator managed to get outside without making much noise. This was a surprise considering how his walk was still wobbly. He stumbled onto the grass and immediately got to work. He picked out purple flowers; Curator’s favorite color. He’d mustered up a small bouquet before he heard someone calling for him.
Narrator ducked down into a bush to observe who was searching for him. Timekeeper called out his name again. What were they doing out here? Narrator slowly emerged from the bush, approaching Timekeeper.
“Ah! There you are! Why did you come outside?”
“Picking flowers..”
“...Why?”
“They’re for Curator. She saved my life. It’s the least I could do.”
“Aww. That’s pretty nice of you! Do you need some help?”
“No. I think this is everything I’m going to get.” He gestures to the bouquet in his hand.
“Alright then. We should head back inside.”
With that, the two started to head inside. Just before going inside, Narrator briefly admired the sunset before him. Was it really this late already? Eventually, they managed to get inside. Narrator started looking around for Curator before stumbling into her.
Narrator shoved the bouquet into her. Curator purred at the sweet gift and wrapped him in her arms. She ruffled up Narrator’s hair after the hug and left to go get a vase. After she left, Narrator went to grab Timekeeper.He found him chatting with Mariella. With a quick exchange, they both decided that they should head back to Narrator’s room. Narrator quickly waved Curator bye so the two were off.
Halfway there, Timekeeper stopped in front of a room. “Listen, I don’t know how to say this nicely but.. You smell like shit. You need to shower. I’ll go grab some clothes for so just take one quickly. Ok?”
Narrator seemed slightly offended by their rudeness but he agreed. He stepped into the room he was pointing to: realizing it was a bathroom. He took a moment to familiarize himself before staring into the mirror. It’s been a while since he got a proper look at himself.
After he finished cleaning himself properly, Narrator heard knocking on the door while drying his hair. He wrapped a towel around his waist and peeked out the door. A hand shoved a clean set of clothes in. He took the clothes and quickly started to dress himself. Once he finished changing, Narrator and Timekeeper started at their journey again.
Eventually after walking for a while, the two finally made it back to Narrator’s room. Timekeeper lead Narrator inside while staying at the door frame. Just before he was about to leave, Narrator stopped them. Admittedly, Narrator didn’t want him to go because he didn’t want to spend another night alone. But he would never tell them that, oh no. He surprisingly still had little pride that needed to be maintained.
After some improvising, Narrator managed to convince Timekeeper not to leave because of how long the walk back was. Even after bargaining, they agreed so he went inside and locked the door behind him. Narrator quickly got to work, trying to swipe as much dirt and crumbs from out of his bed as he could. It was already a lot for him to ask them to stay so it was the last he could do.
Once he finished, Timekeeper tossed a small plush at his head, saying he didn’t mind much. Narrator threw a bigger one at them and sent him stumbling back. The two started chuckling together after he ran into a shelf. Timekeeper picked up the plush and crammed it into Narrator’s face, shoving him down onto the bed. Narrator ended up shoving them away as they both broke out into laughter. Once they calmed down, Timekeeper sat down with Narrator. They tried to make small talk; trying to kill time before they both went to bed.
They talked about miscellaneous topics for a while before they decided to sleep. Narrator didn’t have anywhere for Timekeeper sleep so they were forced to sleep in the same bed. Even after Narrator protested to sleeping on the floor, Timekeeper didn’t mind sharing a bed so he agreed. Narrator laid down closest to the wall while Timekeeper laid at the edge. So when Timekeeper got up to shut off the lights, Narrator made a wall of plushies.
When questioned, Narrator claimed that he didn’t want the two to touch in their sleep. Timekeeper managed to convince him that he only needed 2-3. So with that, they finally settled down and got comfortable. They wished each other good night. When things got quiet, Narrator stared at the ceiling. He felt..off about sharing a bed with someone. One that he only saw as a friend at that too. Narrator suddenly realized that Timekeeper was already asleep when his thoughts were abruptly interrupted. Were they snoring? It was subtle but yes.
Narrator tried to ignore this. He thought he should try to sleep. Before sharing a bed with Timekeeper, it was Stanley. He always cuddled with him before drifting asleep. Holding him in his arms. Feeling his warm breath on his neck as he gently kissed his forehead. Feeling his hands pressed against his back- Ah!
Narrator got angry at himself for having these thoughts. It’s always Stanley! Stanley this! Stanley that! Why can’t he just forget about Stanley! Narrator sighed. His eyes felt heavy. Why can’t he forget about him? Was it the guilt he carries? Was it because he missed his protagonist? Whatever it was, the energy he put into thinking helped tire himself out.
Finally, after staying up thinking, Narrator started to fall asleep.