Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The hotel was quieter than usual, as the heavy rain outside was pouring down hard as lightning struck, every few moments. The air was cold but not too extreme, as the sounds of the raindrops colliding with the roof of the abandoned hotel was eerie to hear. As for the entities however, they were all use to the pounding of the raindrops coming down onto the roof. Some of them were roaming the rooms and corridors, as they were just bored out of their minds since not a single player / human hasn’t arrived at the hotel for days.

Well…

Not everyone was bored…

“UNO!!!” Screech screamed in excitement, as he placed a red card down, with the number 5 on it, onto the big unorganised pile in front of him. Screech was playing in his humanised form, as well as Ambush, Rush, Seek and Figure all sitting together in a circle, surrounding the neat and messy pile of UNO cards. When some of the entities are bored, they decided to do their own bonding by playing either card or board games that were brought in by past players / explorers that came into the hotel. This time, it was a nice chaotic game of UNO.

“One card left, and Timothy said UNO!” Screech said with a cheeky grin, as Timothy the spider was sitting on Screech’s left shoulder, overlooking the small entity’s last card. The card was blue with the number 9 on it.

“Screech has one card left!?”

“How are you so good at this game?!”

Rush got nervous as he pushed a few strands of his charcoal short black hair away from his eyes, but only to have it covering his eyes again, now looking worried about his small pile of cards in his dark grey hands. Ambush made a surprise look at his small pile of cards and back at Screech a few times, his dark grey eyes expressing the sharp focus. Figure and Seek didn’t react to Screech’s UNO! Response, as Figure was only holding up five cards but didn’t do anything with them but was just placing one card down at random, while Seek looked like he wanted to skip the UNO game and chase a player at this point.

At the same time, Halt was watching them close by, along with Eyes too. Halt was cleaning their bright blue cloak from any speck of dust that landed on either the empty bookshelves or drawers, when they were running back and forth in the two dark corridors. They then stopped to glance up at the UNO game again, but only this time they whispered to Eyes, who looked like they were about to fall asleep, “Did you want to join in on their game…”

Eyes whispered back something, but it wasn’t in English at all, but was speaking its own language through non-human mumbling.

“Aaah, I see…!” Halt responded, looking surprised while Eyes just nodded.

“HeY hAlT!.!..”

Halt flinched slightly as they turned to their right to see Glitch appearing, sitting down beside them. Unlike the other entities, Glitch isn’t wearing a formal suit or anything formal, but the entity's clothing style remains similar to a motorcyclist suit - but without the helmet, with a good range between dark and light purple.

“Hey Glitch. No humans yet?”

“HmmMm...” Glitch sighed, not officially responding. Halt just nodded, accepting that there were no signs of any humans. That was, until Glitch continued a few seconds later, “aCtUaLlY…!" Halt glanced over, "GuIldINg LIghT iS AcTuaLLy wITh a HuMan riGhT nOW-...”

“A HUMAN IS IN THE HOTEL?!”

Ambush’s voice was heard suddenly, he had overheard their conversation, “AND I’M STUCK WITH FOUR CARDS! I WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE IT!!” as he smacked the cards, that he was holding, onto his face. Rush looked over at his brother on this right, and started laughing, before Ambush elbowed him suddenly, but that didn't stop Rush from laughing.

"We're in this together, Am!!" Rush said to Ambush with his big signature grin. At the same time, Halt was trying so hard to not laugh from the entity’s reaction, before they got up and said to Glitch, “I’ll do my round now. It’s been so long since I did my attack early.” Glitch just shrugged its shoulders like they too agreed with the entity’s response. And it was true! Halt was just bored of watching the other entities go after the players so early in the first few rooms and corridors, now they just concluded straight away that they were going to get the human first.

“I call dibs on getting the player!” Halt called out, throwing their right hand up quick, while their blue cloak was pushed out of the way from their raising hand. Screech called out immediately to Halt, “Go get them H!!”

“Yes Halt!!” Rush cheered along too with Screech, “Go get em!!” Eyes called out something in the same non-human mumbling, which Halt looked over at Eyes and did a thumbs up. Halt then looked over at Glitch and said to it, “Hey Glitch, can you teleport me to the area that the human is close to?”

“YuP¡ ThEY’rE cLosE tO RoOM 23. I’lL tAKe yOu To 26.”

“Hm…Room 23? Not too bad.” Halt thought for a second.

“Thanks!” Halt thanked as Glitch got up and pressed their hand onto Halt’s upper back, before Glitch immediately teleported away with a loud piercing static sound, along with Halt. The static was loud enough to make everyone cover their ears since the sound was piercing.

“Ow…!” Seek sighed as he rubbed the side of his head. Screech squealed, “Why…?!” while Timothy was curled up on his shoulder with all of its eyes slightly closed, reacting a lot to the static sound. Ambush simply said, “That’s Glitch. They can’t turn off the static sound.” just in time before placing a +4 card down onto the messy pile and then looked over at Rush, “You’re now picking up 4 cards! Haha!!” Rush did figure that was his brother’s revenge since he did laugh at Ambush earlier.

Rush sighed, accepting his fate as he started to pick up 4 cards, just after saying, “Touché.” since it was now Ambush’s turn to start laughing with an evil grin, like he was plotting a plan against his brother.

Chapter Text

Teleportation is like blinking once and boom, one is at another location.

That's what happened with Halt and Glitch.

Halt only had to do was blink once and boom, they were already at Room 26. Both Halt and Glitch appeared at a big rectangle room that had nothing to it except for a few empty bookshelves and drawers. As Halt’s feet touched the floorboards, they looked over at Glitch and thanked them for the teleportation. Glitch responded, “No probs!” before teleporting away into thin air, along with the quick second static sound at the same time.

“Hmm…Nothing much here, but this will do…” Halt said to themselves before they activated their shiny blue aura, acting like a spiral pillar almost towards the ceiling. Halt threw both of their hands up suddenly, creating a sudden force that switched off all of the lights in Room 26 - not breaking the lights entirely, unlike Rush and Ambush.

“The corridors need to be narrow!”

Halt paused as they brought both of their hands closer to each other, but the motion was in a way that they were trying to squeeze an object between their palms. That motion was enough to create a mysterious force that was forcing the wooden walls to move closer to each other until the walls stopped, making a good 2 metre gap as a walkway. Halt turned around to see that the doorway to Room 27 is still intact, making the same results as well with the 2 metre gap in the second part of the corridor.

“Perfect!” Halt said in relief as Halt got into place, heading towards the midway point of the big corridor, facing the entrance to where the player is going to appear, while making themselves partially transparent.

“Now…We wait-...”

“AHH!!”

“Heh…Nevermind the wait…” Halt sighed before they started to watch where the player was. It didn’t take long for the entity to figure out where they were, but they did notice a bright blue glow lighting up the start of the corridor. Halt looked confused, supposedly started to wonder if they caught another entity rather than a player themselves.

“Wait? That’s not a-...” Halt paused quick as they saw two figures walking into the corridor. One of them looked smaller than the other, who the other was glowing in a fainted light blue aura. A soft tone of a familiar voice was heard suddenly, stopping Halt from thinking.

“~This is Halt’s corridor. My friend is here somewhere. For now, keep walking until you hear the phrase Turn Around, then turn around. This will take a few tries to get to the other side~”

“Okie!” A young girl’s voice responded to the light tone voice. Halt didn’t quite expect such a young kid’s voice to be heard. They even thought with wide eyes, “Was that a...child’s voice I heard?” Halt then decided to appear in the dark corridor, saying the phrase Turn Around as the whole room flickered in a bright light blue for a quick second, as the entity appeared with a bright glowing blue spiral aura.

“What can a child be doing in a place like thi-...”

“~Halt!~”

The same fainted voice was heard, stopping Halt immediately as they came across the bright glowing figure standing close by. They didn’t look scared of Halt’s appearance as Halt skid to a sudden stop but also collapsed backwards onto the floorboards at the same time. Halt’s bright spiral blue aura vanish almost immediately as they got back up again, also no longer becoming transparent.

“Light!” Halt sighed as they got up, “I could have bumped into you! What are you doing in the corridor?” Halt sounded very worried to why Guiding Light appeared suddenly, and they were so worried about it since Light doesn’t usually appear like this. Guiding Light replied like nothing bothered them, “~A human wanted guidance~”

Silence surrounded the two glowing entities.

“A human?” Halt said in shock with wide eyes still. Guiding Light nodded once and added, “~Yup! A small human was found in the lobby and is looking for someone to look after them for the time until their parents arrive-...~”

“I teleported by accident!” The same young child’s voice was heard, only this time was heard behind Guiding Light. Halt said curiously, "Was that the human?"

"YEEP!!" A squeaky voice was heard, along with Guiding Light nodding once.

Halt saw something move behind the other entity, as they leaned to their left to look behind Guiding Light, only to see a young girl standing with a fearful expression. The child looked like their height reached up to just past at their hips. She was wearing a bright yellow damp jacket, dark purple pants that went down to her ankles, with pastel purple boots on. They were also wearing a big purple beanie too, which hid half of her beautiful chocolate brown eyes.

“Hi young child…!” Halt greeted as they kneeled down on both knees, bringing up the edge of the big skirt slightly as their cloak folded as it touched the floorboards. They can definitely see the fear expressed on the young girl’s face.

“~Halt is a friend of mine in the hotel~” Guiding Light said to the young girl as she managed to walk over and stop close to Halt, still looking frightened. Halt activated their bright spiral blue aura, lighting up the whole corridor, like a bright night light fighting back the pitch black darkness. Halt curiously said, “What’s your name, young one?”

“I-I’m K-Kaya…!” The young girl, now Kaya, responded still in her shaky voice. The behaviour of the young girl was a bit unusual, but the entity could tell that she was different just from her reaction after the introductions, as Halt thought, “She’s not like any human I've ever seen…She’s not screaming nor running away from me…” Halt responded, hopefully not to scare her, “I love that name. I’m Halt. I’m a friend of Light-…”

“~Its Spirit, Halt~” Guiding Light called out quickly, before Halt giggled with a big smile and replied, “Light sounds cooler! Hahaha!” Halt was pretty sure that their giggle was enough to make Kaya giggle too, before she spoke up, “Do you say halt to people?” Halt blinked a few times, wondering if it was a pun or not, but did respond like it was a normal question created from full curiosity.

“Well, I do tell people to turn around a lot. So…uh, yeah!” Halt responded, trying not to make it sound scary, but was relieved as Kaya started to smile, like she was no longer scared of the entity. Kaya’s cute cheeky smile was enough to make Halt smile too. They then heard Guiding Light say to Kaya, “Do you want to be friends with Halt?” At first, the young child looked like they were thinking carefully - even her expression was giving off a thinking look, as her eyes slightly narrowed and also tilted her small head slightly down. While Kaya was thinking, Halt looked at Guiding Light and said to them, “How did you find her…?”

“~I found her walking around in the lobby with no one around. She kept saying she accidentally teleported here~”

“What can a young human like her be doing all alone?” Halt spoke like they were really worried. Their expression in their glowing blue & dark grey eyes were enough to express the fear they were feeling.

“~She keeps saying that she teleported to the hotel~” Guiding Light responded. Their response had made the entity start thinking too. Halt said to the other in confusion, "But...humans don't possess the power of teleportation." Their conversation paused as they both looked at Kaya, just as the young girl said with a big smile, “Yes! We can be friends!” Halt smiled from her response and added immediately after, “Awesome! Also, I have a question for you.” Halt paused after Kaya hopped once, landing closer to the glowing blue entity, as Halt spoke with a smile, “Do you have teleportation powers? You mentioned before that you teleported here. ”

“Yes.” Kaya said simply without hesitation, “But I don’t know how to control it.”

“You can’t control your powers?”

“Yes…! I just found out about my powers recently, and I don’t know anyone who has this power.” Kaya briefly explained, but just in time for the young girl to suddenly vanish from sight. Guiding Light and Halt both flinched from when the girl just disappeared, and immediately started to panic. Guiding Light looked like they were panicking more than Halt. The two entities looked around both corridors quickly to see if the young girl was anywhere, even Halt getting back up onto their feet.

“Kaya?!” Halt screamed out. Guiding Light called out next, “~Young child? Where are you?!~”

Halt was about to call out again, just before the young child’s voice was heard, “Over here!!” The girl had teleported all the way to the opposite side of the corridor, after hearing a groan before her response. Both entities ran to where the girl’s voice was coming from, that meant running out of the corridor into Room 27, a lit up room with functioning lights. They were both surprised to find Kaya holding tight on one of the wooden poles, both arms and legs crossed around the thick wooden pole, probably about 2.5 metres off the ground. It looked like she could touch the ceiling.

“Help…! P-P-Please…!”

Kaya begged in fear as her hands looked like they were gripping onto the wood so tight that she was about to lose her grip at some point. Halt quickly ran to her and grabbed Kaya just underneath her arms, allowing Kaya to let go and be brought down to the ground safely.

“Are you ok…?” Halt said to the young girl, who hugged the entity straight away. The young child didn’t say anything as she looked like she was trembling in fear from what she had just experienced. Halt felt sorry for the young girl as they spoke, “Hey Kaya…”

Kaya looked up at the glowing blue entity.

“Do you have family members that have this power? Like your mum? Dad? Any siblings?” Halt feared immediately as they saw Kaya shaking her head from side to side, then explaining straight after, “My mum can summon and control fire, my older brother has Geokinesis and my older sister has Electrokinesis. All of them have different powers of their own, but nothing to what I have.”

“Teleportation?”

“Yes. I need someone to help me…” Kaya spoke like she was still begging to find help. Halt kneeled down and brought the young girl close for a hug, since Kaya looked like she was about to cry. At the same time, Guiding Light, who was still standing close by, spoke to Kaya, “~Kaya. If you’re looking for someone to help you learn how to teleport on command, Halt uses teleportation all of the time~” Their response made Kaya look up at Halt’s dark grey eyes, looking surprised while her toned cheeks were covered in her own tears, as she responded, “You can teleport too…?!”

“I do.” Halt responded, shortly after looking at Guiding Light and then back at the young girl again, “I can teach you what I know.”

“Y-You will?!” Kaya gasped with complete wide eyes.

“Yea!” Halt’s response was all it took for the young girl to start bouncing up and down in excitement while squealing in excitement. She kept squealing, “Thank you!” repeatedly over and over. Halt smiled from her excitement before Kaya stopped just in-front of the entity, as Halt said in excitement, “Awesome! In the end, you’ll become a teleportation master!” Halt then turned to look at Guiding Light, who was also smiling from the child’s reaction, before saying, “I’ll take over from here.”

“~Nice to hear. Make sure the others don’t find out about her, since she is a human~”

Guiding Light said like they were warning the entity of the consequences of hanging out with a human, doesn’t matter who. Although it was true what Guiding Light said, Kaya isn’t like them, except for teleportation powers. Despite being warned about the consequences, Halt still couldn’t figure out how exactly a human could contain a psychic ability that they have never seen before.

“How can a human have teleportation powers…?”

Halt just glanced at Kaya, who was still smiling cheerfully, and then glanced back at Guiding Light, just in time for them to vanish into thin air with only their bright blue aura to fade off a few seconds later. It was all happening so fast for the entity, and now they weren’t too sure how this was going to turn out.

Chapter Text

“Ok Halt…! It’s alright, she’s just a young human. She can’t hurt me.” Halt thought, feeling a bit shaken from what they were told, just before they heard Kaya’s voice break out of their thoughts, “Hey Halt!” Halt looked at the child, who was staring right back at them.

“Yes?”

“Do you have any other friends here other than Spirit?” Kaya said curiously, referring to Guiding Light to Spirit. Her question made the entity freeze quickly, since they had no idea how to answer her question. They didn’t want to say anything that might scare the kid, so they responded carefully, “Well…I do have friends around her-...”

“Do they have the same powers as you?” Kaya quickly said, this time keeping a big smile, as she lifted up Halt’s cloak (on one side) and hid underneath the fabric while giggling. Halt responded like they were saying, “All of my friends have different powers, not just teleportation.” but in reality, not really. Halt recalls very well that some of the entities don’t have teleportation powers, like Seek and Figure.

Figure wasn’t born with that ability, except developed the extraordinary ability of echolocation and seismic touch to sense vibrations. Seek can merge through the floors and walls, and even use telekinesis, in an attempt to stop anyone from proceeding any further in their chase. Eyes can teleport, but their language barrier would be a challenge since Eyes can’t speak any Earth languages except for mumbling sounds. Even if Eyes wanted to help Kaya, the human would still have to look away from the entity to prevent taking damage.
The only entities that Halt can at least rely on are; Rush, Ambush, Screech, Guiding Light and Glitch. Hopefully Halt can find a way to try and introduce Kaya to them without them knowing that she is human.

But how…?

“Wow! Your friends must be really cool!” Kaya said with a big smile as Halt raised the cloak up to see Kaya giggling and smiling, before running back in-front of Halt again, “What are they like? Are they nice friends?”

“They are nice-...Wait!” Halt quickly paused, immediately attempting to revert the whole purpose to why Halt is with her, “Did you need some help with teleportation?” Halt reverted the topic quickly before Kaya could get into depth by throwing a lot of questions to the poor entity. Halt was glad that Kaya agreed to their question, as she responded, “Yes please!” Before she paused quickly and asked Halt in curiosity, “Hey Halt. What type of teleportation can you do?”

“I have tracking teleportation. That means I can teleport to anyone or anywhere throughout the hotel.” Halt simply said, trying not to make it sound too complicated for the kid, “But from the looks of your power’s behaviour, you might have this same variant as me.”.

With Kaya however, she looked very interested rather than confused, and replied, “Tracking teleportation sounds cool!” While bouncing up and down, but not even after her second hop, her powers got the best of her as she just suddenly vanished from sight.

Instead of panicking, Halt just sighed and mumbled to themselves, “Not again…” as they glanced around the room and only managed to spot Kaya just appearing from the door to the dark room, Room 28.

“I’m ok!” Kaya screamed out as she appeared at the doorway, leading into Room 28.

“This is going to be a challenge…” Halt sighed.

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“I win!”

Rush called out, while throwing his dark grey hand up in the air straight after placing down his final card on top of the messy pile of UNO cards. He smiled proudly as Screech clapped cheerfully for the entity’s win. Rush was going face to face with his brother, Ambush, to test each other’s skills to see who is better at the game. In this case, Rush won and Ambush lost. By this point, both Seek and Figure had gone off to get ready to encounter the player when they arrive. Meanwhile, Eyes was hanging out with Jack, who decided to come in for a visit.

“Yay Rush!!” Screech screamed with a big smile. The young entity knows that Rush has been struggling to win a game for a while. Ambush gasped with wide eyes, “What?! No way!!” as he was only holding up two cards in his right white glowing hand.

“Want to go again?” Rush said to Ambush, who made a grin and responded, “Bring it on!”

Rush made his signature grin back at Ambush as the cards were being shuffled again by Ambush. While Ambush was doing that, Rush’s signature grin turned into a sudden confused frown, as he started to gain a feeling that was making him uncomfortable. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, Screech looking over at him with both of his legs crossed and his small hands in his lap.

“Hey Rush? You ok?” Screech said to the entity just before Rush opened his eyes again and said to the two entities, “I’m ok, but…has anyone seen Halt?”

“Nope.” Ambush said while keeping a sharp stare at the cards as they were being shuffled around in both of his glowing hands. Screech responded straight after, “Nah! Although, I did see Halt teleporting off with Glitch to wherever the player is.”

“Hmm…Something seems off if Halt isn’t back.” Rush said, sounding a bit concerned for their own teammate out in the battlefield with a human wandering around the hotel. Jack called out to the concerned entity, “Rush, you know Halt? They won’t come back immediately.” Rush has always had this habit of worrying if any of the entities don’t come back - since he’ll never forgive himself if anything happened, despite not being his fault. He just wants to make sure that everyone is ok and not hurt. He was about to go investigate, until a faint voice was heard close by…

“~Looking for Halt?~”

Rush turned around to see Guiding Light appearing, as their soft bright blue aura appeared and the entity appearing straight after. The entity appeared in the air and levitated back down onto the floorboards.

“~Halt is doing alright, if you were wondering about their current state~”

“LIGHT!” Screech gasped as he got up, ran and hugged Guiding Light like he hadn't seen the entity for a very long time. Guiding Light can be considered as the oldest entity in the hotel since they can read every entity’s behaviour and attacks like a book. Guiding Light hugged him back, as their bright light blue sleeves wrapped around him gently, and responded, “~Hey Screech~” As the small entity giggled happily.

“Great to see you Light!” Ambush called out, still shuffling the cards around while looking over at them. Guiding Light responded with a nod while Screech let them go from his grip and said to the glowing entity, “It’s been so long since we’ve all seen you!”

“~It does feel like forever~” Guiding Light paused as they took a moment to look around the room, before saying curiously, “~Are Figure and Seek waiting for the player to arrive?~” Ambush responded first, without breaking his glance from the cards, “Yup. Seek looked like he was ready to chase someone at some point, Figure had just left to go to the library to wait.” Ambush finished this response, just in time to stop shuffling the cards, but some of the cards fell onto the floor - probably about half of the pile. Screech giggled as Ambush made an embarrassed look and said, “Y’all saw nothing…” as he started to pick up the fallen cards.

Guiding Light just smiled from the entity’s funny moment, before they looked over at Rush.

“~Rush, I heard your worries, Halt does like to hang around in the hotel to spy on the human, so they won’t be back for a bit~” Guiding Light said to Rush, who still had a worried expression for Halt. They even heard Screech mumble, “Doesn’t Eyes and Seek do that…?” He knows for sure that Halt can be strong but a bit stubborn, like Ambush, “~I won’t worry about them, for the time~”

“Glitch said that there’s a human in the hotel? Is that right?” Screech said to the entity, as they saw Screech looking up at them with big child-like eyes. Guiding Light nodded and added, “~A human there is, yes~” they then looked over at Jack, who was just coming over to the others, looking a bit tired.

“What’s the status of this human today?”

“~Not much information is found, but they appear to be a young human full with curiosity~” Guiding Light paused, seeing everyone’s current reactions as mostly everyone was showing a usual relief-like expression, except for Screech who looked like his curiosity was taking over his mind. Guiding Light continued on, “~But, for this human, they have encountered Halt, but weren’t entirely freaked out from their appearance~”

“They weren’t?”

“~Nope. Right now, Halt is currently on a mission to help this human, since they looked so young~”

"Halt?!...Helping a human...?!" Screech gasped, as Guiding Light nodded. Mostly everyone looked surprised since Halt is an entity who can do 60% damage, whenever a human encounters them.

“Hmm…I’m gonna go find them, just to see how they’re doing.” Rush said before he got up, backing away from everyone to an empty corner of the room. He heard Guiding Light call out to him, “~Halt’s around Room 27 and 30~” but Rush was too fast to make an exit, as he made himself jump through the floorboards without taking any damage - like if there was a portal right below him. As Rush disappeared, two other entities came to view. Jack and Eyes both sat down with Ambush, who just started to hand out seven cards to anyone who was wanting to play a game of UNO.

“Hey Am, your brother worries a lot.” Jack said to Ambush.

“Yea, That’s him…” Ambush responded simply, sounding like he was agreeing with Jack, “He’s always been like this, even when I was a very young entity.” As he gave Screech 7 cards, then Eyes, Jack and paused as he asked Guiding Light if they wanted to play. Guiding Light kindly refused and rather watched them play, since Light didn’t know how to play UNO. Ambush nodded as he too gave himself 7 cards before placing the neat pile on the floor, starting with a card placed down beside the neat pile. Guiding Light sat down with the two entities, along with Screech who decided to stay standing. The glowing entity said curiously to them, “~Aren’t you two going to find the human?~”

“Nah, I’m going to do another round of UNO.”

“Wow! We are witnessing history over here!!!” Jack gasped loudly with wide eyes. It was quite rare for Ambush to do something when there is a player in the hotel. Usually, he has the urge to go find the player. Screech smiled with a giggle, from the entity's surprised moment, and said to Light, “I’ll go after Rush. I may get the player if Rush doesn’t get to them first.” Guiding Light smiled and responded, “~Good luck! Don’t forget your other form~”

“Yup!” Screech said with a big smile just as he suddenly vanished into thin air without any effort. All that Guiding Light could do now was faintly sigh and think, “~Let’s hope Kaya doesn’t get too scared…~”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

Rush was quick enough to make it to Halt’s corridor within seconds. He rose from the floorboards like he was getting out of a portal from the ground - currently gripping onto the floorboards and pushing himself up to get his whole body out.

“Man, I don’t know how Seek can do this every time. He must have gotten used to it a long time ago…” Rush sighed, dusting his dark navy blue formal jacket and pants from any dust from the floorboards.

“Next time I’m using teleportation…”

He paused his thoughts as he noticed that the whole corridor was empty! With no human or Halt around in sight. He gasped and thought, "Wow...! Halt's not even here...!!" As he walked through the corridor in with a complete shocked expression, he kept calling out for Halt, as his voice echoed throughout the whole corridor.

“HALT?!”

No one responded.

“HALT! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?! SAY SOMETHING!!”

Silence only responded back with nothing.

“Oh no, there must be one thing that has happened…” Rush gasped before the ends of his charcoal black hair started to hover upwards, “Halt must have gotten attacked by the human!” As his thick smoke black aura surrounded him intensely, only exposing his dark grey toned face as his whole body was covered by the thick smoke aura. He watched as the lights, in Room 27 and beyond, started to flicker for a second.

“Alright, my turn to get the player.” Rush thought just as his bright white oval pupils disappeared within seconds after a single blink, while activating his signature unearthly mumble that echoed throughout the corridors and the next few rooms.

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

At the same time as Rush was about to attack, Halt was with Kaya in Room 29 - since the room had more functioning lights than Room 28. Halt was just silently watching Kaya teleporting around uncontrollably, also analysing what type of variant she has developed or born with. Halt was glad that the young girl hadn’t teleported out of the room at all, which caught the entity’s surprise.

“She must have learnt how to stay in the room while using her power, rather than teleporting away.” Halt thought as they saw Kaya teleport right in-front of them, her smile so big that it looked like it was reaching near the edges of her jaw.

“Not bad! Looks like you’re getting the hang of it!” Halt complimented, “Continue practicing with this variant, and you can possibly become a master at your age.”

“Yay! My birthday is soon!” Kaya’s cute response in a cheeky adorable voice made the entity smile, knowingly that the human was on the right track. Halt was surprised about Kaya’s age, now knowing Kaya’s age. This rose curiosity for the young girl, as she said curiously, “Hey Halt, how old are you?” Halt blinked a few times with wide eyes, before they chuckled with a big smile and responded, “Well…uh…It’s hard to explain.” The entity, along with the others, could confirm that they are all older than the hotel itself.

“Well then, let’s continue on with another step. Shall we?”

Kaya said in excitement, “Yes!”

Unfortunately, the training had to be paused immediately...

Both Halt and Kaya noticed that the lights started to flicker for a quick second. For Kaya, she didn’t think of it as a problem. For Halt however, the flickering lights were enough to make them freak out and know what was about to happen next.

“Uh oh!” Halt gasped as a strange unearthly static mumble was heard. Halt didn’t waste any time as they brought Kaya close to them while constantly looking around for a closet to get into. While they were searching, Kaya was confused as to why Halt was holding onto them tightly.

“What’s happening-…”

“Uh…” Halt paused quickly, letting go of Kaya at the same time. They didn’t want to make the girl panic about what was about to happen. Halt quickly confirmed, “Let’s take a break! Want to play hide and seek? I’ll count, you hide!” Kaya squealed, “Yes!!” as Halt turned to face a wall and quickly mentioned, “Stay in this room for the game! Ok?” Kaya responded, “Ok!” as Halt started counting.

“1, 2, 3…” As Halt kept counting, they were looking around at what Kaya was doing, through the gaps between their fingers and were immediately relieved when Kaya got into a nearby wooden wardrobe. The entity thought, "Phew...Close call..." before Halt physically sighed in relief as they called out, “Ready or not, here I come-...”

“LOOK OUT!!!”

“What the?!” Halt gasped quickly as they turned around to see Rush running in, quickly trying to slow down but it was too late as Rush skidded and crashed into Halt, making the two entities fall on the ground with a loud thud. Rush groaned slightly, but quickly got off Halt and got back up within seconds. Rush quickly gasped after seeing the other entity, “Halt!”

“Ow…” Halt groaned as they glanced up to see Rush looking back at them with a surprised shocked expression, with completely wide eyes as his white pupils came back into view again. Halt gasped, “Rush!?” As he immediately helped Halt back onto their feet and apologised, “Sorry Halt! I didn't see you there…! Are you alright!?”

“Yea, I’m ok! I’m not injured!” Halt responded, forgiving the other at the same time, as they dusted themselves off. The movement of both of their arms was constantly moving their cloak too, “Nothing can stop an entity here.”

“But an entity can stop another?”

“Yea, true.” Halt sighed, “Also, I wasn’t able to get the player. They’re getting better and better these days.” Halt knew so soon that they had to lie, in order to protect the young girl hiding close by. It seemed that Rush didn’t realise that it was a lie since he responded like Halt spoke the truth.

“That’s a shame. Don’t feel bad about it, no one can get a pro player.” Rush responded. Halt just smiled along with a faint chuckle, but quickly noticed the wardrobe doors slowly opening up to see the young human peaking out from the door, seeing two of their big circle-like eyes as they glanced over to see Rush standing there. The wardrobe was behind Rush, and the entity had no idea that a human was looking at him, but Halt could see her. At this point, Kaya looked like she was about to get out of the wardrobe.

Instead of a physical panic, Halt began to mentally panic for a moment before Kaya noticed Rush standing with Halt, and quickly got back into the wardrobe quick in a panic, but ended up making a slight thud from the door after getting back in. The faint noise was enough to catch Rush’s attention as he looked over his left shoulder to see behind him, carefully analysing the room as he turned around. At the same time, Halt was able to silently exhale from mentally panicking - placing their hand against their chest while exhaling at the same time.

“What was that…?” Rush said curiously as he looked around the room from where he was standing. Halt shrugged, acting like they were surprised too, and responded, “Not sure, it might be Screech lurking around in the dark room again.”

“But…Doesn’t he have great vision?”

While the two entities were speaking to each other, Kaya kept watching them both from peaking in between the two rectangle wooden doors. Kaya kept watching Rush mainly, since she had never seen him before - other than Halt. She started to feel more scared about the other’s presence, not to even how Rush charged into the room and knocked both him and Halt down within seconds. Every time she thought about Rush, the more scared she got. She tried so hard to keep silent, also not to make the sounds of her breathing noticeable, until she froze when she heard a quiet creepy voice.

“...Get out…”

Kaya quickly glanced around the wardrobe to see if there was anyone in there with her, but she was the only one.

“Get out..!”

“W-Who’s t-t-there-...” Kaya spoke quietly, while looking around the wardrobe quickly.

“GET OUT!”

Kaya, without any hesitation, screamed before she threw herself out of the wardrobe and onto the floor, making a loud thud. She groaned slightly as she glanced back up at the lit up room, then looked over to her right to see Halt turning around and seeing the young girl. Halt gasped when they saw Kaya and ran over to her.

“Kaya!!” Halt gasped as Kaya hugged the entity quick, but Kaya looked over Halt’s shoulder to see Rush running back into the room and both of his dark grey eyes widening when his glance made contact with the young human.

Chapter Text

“N-No way?!”

Rush gasped loudly as his thick smoke black aura suddenly activated. Halt turned around and saw Rush, while they immediately felt Kaya hugging onto their cloak and leg while screaming and staring at Rush, as he came close. Rush called out to Halt, “Halt! The human is right there! They might hurt you!” Halt got in-front of Rush and quickly called out to him as Halt's cyan-like eyes shone a bright light blue glow, “Rush!! It’s ok! She’s a friend!!” Halt even activated their bright spiral blue aura to make Rush snap out of his current state.

“A friend?!” Rush said as his aura suddenly vanished.

“AHH!!” Kaya screamed but vanished into thin air without a second to spare. Rush’s sudden fearful expression turned into a confused look as he came closer to Halt to see if Kaya was still there. Halt even turned around to see that Kaya wasn’t there either.

She wasn’t behind the entity at all…

“Wow! Where did the human go?!” Rush gasped before they both turned around to see Kaya near the doorway into the dark room. Rush quickly got a glimpse of her hiding behind the doorway before he looked over at Halt, as his expression looked like he was begging for an answer.

“Halt…?” Even Rush’s voice sounded like he was begging for an answer too. Halt sighed, now accepting that their and Guiding Light’s promise is going to be exposed, as they started to explain.

“Ok! So Guiding Light found her wandering around in the lobby and I volunteered to take care of her. She’s not like any human that we have ever seen! She has a psychic power that no human can ever achieve!” Despite Halt's explanation being so quick that Rush didn’t pick up all of it, but he did manage to pick up the last sentence since Halt slowed down their talking speed.

“She has...a psychic power?” Rush said, sounding very focused on his question, as Halt nodded. He spoke like he was making a guess - earning a nod from the other.

“What is it?”

“She has teleportation, but I’m helping her how to control it. I promised to Guiding Light.” Halt explained quickly as the atmosphere of the whole room settled down again, now that Rush understood why Halt has spared a human's life. Halt walked over to Kaya and brought her over, as Kaya held onto the entity’s hand as they both stopped in-front of Rush. He still couldn’t believe that Kaya was spared, most importantly, by an entity who can do 60% of damage to any mortal that walks into the hotel. After seeing Kaya’s current freaked out expression, Rush kneeled on one knee while Halt spoke to Kaya.

“Kaya, this is Rush, one of my friends in the hotel. He’s also a friend of Spirit, or Guiding Light.” Halt introduced without any delay, as Kaya still had a scared expression while holding onto Halt like she was hugging them - this time hugging their left arm. Rush felt really bad after seeing the young girl’s feared expression, since he knew from the beginning that he had frighten her by his sudden entry.

“Hey…uh…kid…” Rush paused, not really sure what to say as he rubbed the back of his head and short black charcoal hair with his left hand, “I’m sorry for scaring you before. I’m not used to seeing different people in the hotel-...”

“He gets shy around new people.” Halt whispered to Kaya with a grin, but just enough for Rush to hear, before as he squealed quickly, “HALT!!”

Halt started laughing loudly, tilting their head back a bit too before collapsing onto their back, on the floorboards with a thud.

“N-N-Not cool Halt…!” Rush said in an embarrassed tone in his voice, and also looked like he was blushing.

The embarrassed trembling in his voice was enough to make Kaya start giggling from both Halt and Rush’s responses. Halt started to laugh while Rush, despite getting embarrassed in front of a human, smiled at her reaction. Kaya managed to say in her squeaky adorable voice, “It’s okie..!” to Rush’s apology from before. This time, her scared expression completely faded off and was replaced with a cheeky smile. Rush smiled, now knowing that the girl isn’t scared anymore, as he spoke to her, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Kaya!”

“Kaya? That’s a sweet name you have.”

“Thank you!” Kaya said as she hopped over and hugged Rush, making the entity froze in place with complete wide eyes. The sudden motion that Kaya did made Halt, who was sitting up at this point, gasped almost instantly while covering their mouth at the same time. Rush glanced over at Halt with his white pupils, still looking almost terrified, as Halt smirked and they said to the frightened entity, “Looks like Kaya trusts you.”

“I think so.” Rush responded, trying to keep his voice stable, before a sudden thought clicked in his mind, as Kaya let go of him as he spoke to her, “Kaya, did you teleport from Halt to the doorway?” Kaya nodded once, “Wow! That’s incredibly rare for a human to have such power. Do you have teleportation?”

Kaya nodded.

“Aaah, no wonder why you randomly teleported before.”

“Teleporting is hard, that’s why Halt is helping me.” Kaya said, pointing to Halt who spoke up, “I also told her that you can teleport too, along with the others.” Rush looked like he was taking in the information well, since he was just nodding his head every time either Kaya or Halt spoke.

“I see.” Rush responded, also nodding at the same time, “But wow! That’s going to take a while to learn, not all of us are perfect with this power-…” He paused quick, just in time for Kaya to suddenly disappear again. Rush looked surprised and gasped loudly as Halt just shook their head and blurted out, “Not surprised…” as Rush got back up quickly and called out, “Kaya! Where are you?!”

“AHH!!”

“Found her...” Halt sighed, not sounding surprised.

Kaya’s screams were immediately heard from the previous room behind them, a dark room. Although, another scream was heard at the same time as Kaya screamed - but in a more high pitch tone and louder than Kaya. Rush and Halt both looked at each other, as they both know for sure that they know one entity that can scream in a high pitch tone without any problems at all to their voice box.

“Oh boy…I recognise that high pitch scream!”

Halt gasped before Rush did, as they both ran back into the dark room as they were immediately surrounded by the darkness consuming them. Rush called out to Halt, “We need light!”

“Gotcha!” Halt called out as they activated their spiral blue aura. The intense energy radiating from the aura was enough to create a bright blue glow, fighting back the darkness surrounding both entities. Rush quickly glanced over at Halt, kind of now wishing that he too had that ability to summon light, before he started looking around the room carefully. Rush called out again, “Kaya?! Where are you?!”

“Over here!” Her voice was heard immediately.

“Who are you…?”

A familiar voice was heard, recognisable to both Rush and Halt. The blue glow from Halt’s spiral blue aura lit up the scene of Kaya and another small entity looking at her. A familiar entity with six ink black tentacles, bright curious glowing white eyes and was hovering just at Kaya’s head height. The only difference was that the entity wasn’t expressing their signature grin, but just a confused expression while looking at Kaya. Both Rush and Halt came over to them, Halt being more cautious of protecting the human.

“Screech, she’s friendly, don’t harm her.” Rush simply said to Screech, this time sounding serious. Halt glanced over at Rush for a second and was glad that Rush is helping to protect the young girl.

“But, isn’t she a human?”

“Yes, but she is a…” Rush paused, sounded like he was having trouble what to say. He was thankful that Halt finished the response for him, “A special type of human.” as Rush clicked his fingers and added, “Yes, that.” Screech, still looking confused, glanced back at the human just before he started to fly around Kaya, like he was analysing her - while still hovering around her at head height. Screech paused in-front of Kaya, by a meter gap, and said to Kaya, “A special human…?” Kaya nodded, but didn’t say anything as Screech continued, “But…You’re not scared of me?”

Kaya shook her head and added, “No? You look like a nice…uh…”

“Don’t worry, one second!” Screech called out quick as he flew backwards away from the human, before he allowed himself to fall onto the floorboards, just in time for a black smokey aura to appear that made Screech out of sight. The appearance of the smokey aura frightened her a bit, but not too crazy, as the aura grew taller and then faded off, revealing a young child-like entity in its place.

"Now that's a neat transformation." Rush's voice was heard as the aura completely vanished.

Screech was now in his humanised formation; with a dark brown sleeveless formal jacket, bright brown sleeves and collar with a bright coloured tie. Their skin tone was light grey, and their eyes were dark grey with white pupils. Their pants colour is also dark brown, but a bit more dark, and their shoes were black. The ‘tentacles’ became his hair style, with the same six points sticking upwards like he had applied a lot of hair gel.

“Ta da!! My other form! I don’t like revealing this form to humans, but this is an exception.” Screech started off, but already started to feel a bit uncomfortable showing off his other form to a human, “I hope I don’t look too scary...”

“You’re not scary.” Kaya responded. Her response was enough to make Screech smile, but in a more soft appearance rather than his signature grin. Screech actually looked more excited to meet a human - even though Halt expected Screech to freak out. Screech nervously said to her, “Thanks, this means a lot…” as his mind started to recall some of the moments with other humans that he didn’t want to remember at all, but after listening to her kind response, made him feel more relieved than any other time. Screech spoke after he giggled a little bit, “What's your name?”

“I’m Kaya, what’s yours?”

“I’m Screech.”

“Do you want to be friends?” Kaya said with a big smile. Immediately, Screech's face lit up with a big smile and excitedly responded, “Yes!” as they both hugged each other while Kaya squealed, “Another bestie!! Yay!!” At the same time, Halt sighed in relief as they were so glad that Screech didn’t do anything silly that may have scared Kaya, while Rush just watched the two, like a hawk watching its prey from afar. Rush leaned over to Halt and whispered to them, “I think Screech has been wanting to have a human friend for a long time.” Halt couldn’t agree anymore to his response, since they both know that every human/player that has seen Screech, would have turned out negative. Halt just nodded and whispered back, “Screech’s wish has come true.”

"Your aura is fading a bit." Rush mentioned quick to the other entity, who was quickly checking their aura to see how much light it was emitting left. Halt sighed, "It was only temporary...!" As Kaya and Screech's giggles were happily heard, echoing throughout the whole dark room, Halt called out to everyone, “Say, let’s go into the next room where there is more light. I’ll explain more.” Everyone agreed as Halt’s bright spiral aura faded.

The only source of light was now coming out from Room 29’s doorway.

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“I won!!”

“Wow! You must have picked up a lot of tricks from Screech!” Jack gasped in shock as Ambush placed the last card down, just before clapping his hands once while smiling from winning first. Jack and Eyes only had three cards left, and it was now up to them to see who will gain victory. Meanwhile, Guiding Light was now watching them from afar, but this time they were levitating about a meter in the air, with both of their legs crossed and was leaning on their right hand side, with their elbow on their knee.

“~This is a confusing, but interesting, game. I got to try this out some time~”

Guiding Light paused suddenly as they saw a bit of movement coming from their left side, beside the wall. They looked over to see Timothy coming over to the entity, who looked like they were interested and curious about the entity’s appearance.

“~Hey little fella. You’re Screech’s buddy, are you?~”

The spider nodded once, as Guiding Light brought out their left arm towards the arachnid, giving Timothy a chance to hop onto their arm and crawl up to their left shoulder.

“~Aren't you adorable?~ Light said as Timothy stood idle on the entity's shoulder, "~Screech has gone off to find the human, he will return soon~” Light spoke again to Timothy, who somehow managed to make an excited mumble while throwing both of its little front legs up in the air. Guiding Light just smiled, but soon one of the other entities called out for them. Light looked up to see Ambush looking at them and called out, “Hey Light. Mind if we ask you a few questions?” Guiding Light levitated over to the three entities, all still sitting down on the floor boards in a circle, as Light responded with a slight hum.

"We're just confused on something that you mentioned a few moments ago." Ambush spoke, as Light replied, "~What are you confused about?~"

“It's about the human you mentioned earlier, are they dangerous?” Ambush said curiously, also sounding concerned. Jack followed up, also sounding a bit confused, “And what did you mean that Halt was helping a human…?”

Eyes didn’t make a single sound at all, but looked like they were just listening into their conversation. Guiding Light knew that they were gonna have to explain this in depth, as they hovered onto the floorboards, sitting beside Eyes, as they started to answer to both Ambush and Jack’s questions, “~First off, this human is young and they can’t cause any damage to us, even if it did try~” Light paused as Ambush nodded, looking like he was satisfied with the answer, before they looked over at Jack, “~This human is not like any human we faced in the past. She is looking for help to control an ability that they recently achieved~”

“A power…?!”

Guiding Light nodded.

“T-T-That’s impossible…!” Jack gasped, his voice suddenly trembled, as both of his ink black eyes widen fully, “N-No Human can obtain such psychic power…” Eyes mumbled something in their unearthly mumbles, but sounded like they were surprised as well from Light’s response. Guiding Light responded, like they were giving guidance to an explorer, “~Well…This young one did. Halt is with her to teach the human how to control their power~” Light’s voice then turned into a serious tone, “~For the time being, the goal is to not freak her out while she is trying to learn~”

“Why?” Ambush said next, this time sounding curious but also confused.

“~Her ability will activate when she expresses sudden emotions~” Light paused as they moved their right hand close to the neat uno pile, as the top card flew into Light’s hand, catching it at the same time, “~I remember when she saw me and teleported out of sight. She teleported right into one of the elevators, but started teleporting around the lobby so fast that I couldn’t find her for about five or so minutes~” As they spoke in that moment, they were making the lone card hover in-front of them, moving side to side a few times before the card fell onto the floorboard.

Their response made both Jack and Ambush fall silent, as the two entities were taking in what Guiding Light was saying. They had never thought that a human could show mercy, and not show negative emotions, to the entities in this very hotel. The entities have all experienced a human that were either dangerous, or a pro that that can just dodge and get away from the entities without any effort. Eyes looked over at Guiding Light with all 38 eyes as they said something to Light through their unearthly tones, and Light responded like they understood the other, “~Yes, the best way to approach her is to not frighten her, so her powers won’t randomly activate~”

“Well, I can’t imagine what both Rush and Screech would do.” Ambush sighed, as he crossed both of his snow white arms and also closing both of his dark grey eyes for a moment, just before Jack started laughing suddenly. Ambush looked over at Jack, wondering why he was suddenly on a laughing spree, as Jack managed to speak again, “I bet Halt is going to scold Rush so bad!”

“Hehehe…I can see that happening!” Ambush paused his response, as he couldn’t get himself to stop forming a smirk after imagining a mental image in his mind of Halt scolding his brother, “But, what about Screech?”

“You know him, he is very curious and will always ask questions for reassurance.” Jack responded to the other’s question before Light did, just before placing another card down onto the messy uno pile, and then Eyes placing another card down next - revealing the card as +2. Light smirked from seeing the card, trying not to laugh, but managed to control themselves before continuing on, “~He is curious, yes, but Screech once told me that he wanted to be friends with a human one day. If he can become friends with this human, then his wish will come true~”

“Man…I have got to see who this human is!” Ambush spoke up, sounding very excited and curious about what the commotion is about this human, “I’m sure my brother won’t mind if I go find him.”

“Hehehe! I’ll come too. Now I’m curious! Hahaha!!” Jack agreed with the other, making his signature grin, as Jack looked back at Guiding Light and quickly said, “We’re outta here!” As he and Ambush both teleported away in their own teleporting methods. Ambush vanished, leaving his green and pink aura to fade off a few seconds later. While Jack vanished without a trace within a second, leaving Guiding Light, Eyes and Timothy alone. Guiding Light sighed, shaking their head at the same time, as they looked over at Eyes, who looked back at Light with all 38 eyes.

"~I feel like I'm the only adult in this hotel~"

Eyes responded back in their unearthly mumbles, not sounding surprised as they placed their final card down onto the messy UNO pile.

“~Actually...I'm gonna go after them, I don’t trust them with a young human in the hotel~”

Eyes nodded once, along with their signature unearthly mumble straight after - sounding like they were agreeing to come along to see what was going on. Guiding Light got up and said, “Hand on my shoulder, we’ll go the easy way.” Eyes nodded again as they placed their dark indigo hand onto Guiding Light’s left shoulder, right beside Timothy, who placed two of their small thin black legs onto Eyes’ hand.

“~And we’re off~”

Light spoke one last time before their bright blue and white aura activated around the three entities, as they suddenly teleported away, along with Eyes and Timothy, at the same time. As they vanished, the cards from the messy UNO pile scattered peacefully all across the floorboards - as all that was left in the room was silence.

Chapter Text

As Rush, Halt, Screech and Kaya made it back to Room 29, the room as silent as it was, was brought back to life as soon as both Kaya and Screech’s giggles were still heard echoing off the wooden walls and floorboards. Rush couldn’t get himself to stop smiling, exposing his signature grin, while Halt just shook their head until they all paused in a big circle. Halt started to explain like what they said to Rush, but only to Screech.

“To keep it simple, Screech.” Halt started off, immediately Screech’s attention after calling his name, “About 30 minutes ago, Guiding Light found her roaming in the lobby alone and I promised Light that I’ll take care of Kaya and to help teach her how to teleport.”

“WAIT!? SHE CAN TELEPORT?!” Screech screeched in shock, hence his name, with wide eyes as he immediately glanced over at Kaya, who just simply expressed a cheeky smile.

“Yup, but for a human, she’s surprisingly good at it too.” Rush spoke up next, since he has never known a human that have a psychic power, before glancing over at Halt, “From what I saw earlier, it looks like she can teleport away from any danger without any problems.” Halt did partially agree with the other’s compliment, also happy that Rush was showing his support, as Halt continued, “She is good, yes, but her power can randomly activate at times when it’s not necessary." The entity brought their cyan-tone hand hovering just below their chin, almost looked like Halt was thinking, "Just need to find a way to prevent that trigger from happening.”

“I’m still not great at it…” Kaya sighed, as Screech looked over at her with widened eyes and said, “You did teleport into the other room before, but you landed perfectly without falling. That’s better than when I first learnt to teleport.” His response made the young girl look at him with wide eyes too. She looked like she couldn’t believe what the entity had just said, as she spoke, “It is?”

“Yea! I too was having trouble how to teleport to another location, but I was going all over the hotel." Screech smiled as Kaya giggled, now imagining Screech teleporting all over the hotel in seconds, "Sometimes I would loose my balance after teleporting and fall onto the ground.” Screech said as Rush’s laughter was heard. Halt looked over at Rush, staring at him like he was a psychopath.

“Hehehe!! I remember that you once scared Figure by accident.” Rush said with his signature grin, as he could feel sudden shivers all over his humanised body, “Man…The lungs on that guy…” as both of his arms fell limp beside him.

“I agree…I felt like my ears would never recover.” Halt sighed, who had placed both of their light cyan toned hands onto their ears at the same time, like they were rubbing their ears. Figure has powerful lungs and a voice box that could never break, according to the beliefs that the other entities have been making. Figure’s screams can be so loud that they can be heard throughout the whole hotel and could even be heard from outside a soundproof room, if Figure was placed in one of those rooms. Now after hearing a little bit about Figure, Kaya’s curiosity began to grow more as she had a positively amazed expression.

“Who’s Figure?” Kaya said curiously.

“They’re another friend in the hotel.” Rush quickly said, as Screech spoke next, “Is Figure really loud?” Rush and Halt both looked at each other, looking surprised about the entity unexpectedly questioning Figure’s audio abilities, but they were not surprised that Screech may not have heard Figure’s loud screams and growls. Although they bet that Screech would get terrified if he did hear Figure make a loud scream one day.

“Yes, so let’s try and not scare him. He can get scared quite easy.” Halt said as Kaya quickly said, sounding more curious than before, “There are so many questions I want to ask...!”

“Walk and talk, kid.” Rush said as he walked over to the closed door, with the number 0030 on it, “That’s how we do it around here.” As he opened the doors swiftly and walked into the next room. Kaya glanced over at Screech, making a big smile as Screech made his signature smile, but not in a scary way to make Kaya get scared.

“Let’s go!” Screech said as he and Kaya both ran through the open doorway, “The hotel is easy to navigate around! It’s almost impossible to get lost in.” While the young entity was talking, Halt was following along at the back of the group. Halt did start to feel safer now that Rush and Screech have accepted the young girl as their friend, but they had a feeling that it was mostly due to her teleportation powers. Although, Halt did partially disagree to themselves after hearing Screech’s response to the young human.

“...I wouldn’t say impossible, but it is a big hotel…” Halt thought as they caught up with Screech and Kaya, who were both following Rush at the same time. It didn’t take long for the group to go past Door 32, since Room 31 was a small rectangle room.

While on their walk, Kaya caught up with Rush, now walking beside the tall entity, as Rush started to talk to her, now wanting to know more about the small human, “So what brings you here to the hotel, Kaya? Did you get lost?” As he opened the door to Room 33, she immediately replied, “I teleported here by accident. My powers are hard to control.” she hopped past Rush, followed up by Screech and Halt.

“Loss of control?” Rush said, this time speaking in a similar way to Kaya’s last sentence in her response. Kaya nodded, while Screech kept looking at her for a moment, until he looked back down again, as Kaya simply added, “Yea.”

“Hmm…I gotta say, that is bound to happen. We have all experienced a loss of control of our psychic powers at one point or more.” Rush responded, like he was talking like a teacher and was giving guidance like Guiding Light, “It’ll take time to master finding that control, but…” he stopped and turned to look at the young girl, who was standing near the entity. Kaya’s height looked like she goes up to Rush’s hip, just like Screech’s height, “You can learn as you go, just like learning a language. Use what you’ve learnt and build from there onwards-...”

“Hey Rush!” Screech called out instantly.

“Hm?”

“Is it like locking onto someone’s energy?” Screech called out. Halt also looked confused and curious, just like Screech and Kaya. Rush nodded, along with a confident nod, and added, “Yup. That’s another way of teleporting. For instance, I use a tracking variant.”

“I have a Tracking variant too. It's very useful to have!” Halt spoke quick. Kaya did remember that Halt mentioned the tracking variant a while ago, before Rush and Screech came into the picture. Kaya looked over at Screech, wondering what his teleport variant is, but all he did was shrug both of his shoulders and said to her, “Mine is a mystery.”

“We’re not the only ones who can teleport. My brother has the same teleporting variant as well.”

“Wow!!-...Wait!” Kaya gasped loudly, “YOU HAVE A BROTHER?!” She squealed so loud that Screech covered his ears, hiding behind his short ink black ‘hair’, and thought as he looked at Kaya, “Wow! She has a higher pitch than me…!!”

“Yes, I do…” Rush mildly sighed, “I’ll explain about my brother later.” The tone in his voice gave away the expression of ‘We’ll talk about that later’ type of tone, as he continued after a short pause to think, “Maybe what you could learn is teleporting to someone by locking onto their energy.” he paused again as he looked up to Halt, who was also looking curious about what he was planning to do, but also looking worried for Kaya’s safety. He said to the other, “Mind if I?”

“Go ahead.” Halt responded instantly, giving the ‘All Good’ tone in their voice, as Kaya and Screech both looked at each other at the same time for a moment, and then looked back at Rush, as Kaya spoke up, “How are we going to do this?”

“Simple.” Rush said as he looked over at Screech, “Bud, teleport somewhere close to this room, but not too far away.” Screech nodded without wasting a second, since he did figure out exactly what Rush meant without him saying anything else. He took a step away from Kaya before he suddenly vanished into thin air without any effort, without any fading auras or anything, he just simply vanished within a blink of an eye. At the same time this was happening, Halt knew what was going to happen so they lowered their energy levels so Kaya could concentrate on where Screech was, but then a thought came to their mind...

"...Is this a good idea to help her learn...W-What if she goes missing and we can't find her...?!" Halt thought before they silently gulped, they were slowly starting to overthink the other’s lesson plan. Halt quietly speed-walk over, stopping beside Rush, and whispered to him, “Hey Rush?”

“Hm?” Rush glanced over at the other.

“Kaya looks very young, should we not try to strain herself from concentrating too much…?” Halt said to the other, sounding concerned for the human’s health, mainly their mental health. Teleportation can be mentally tiring when it comes to concentrating enough to find someone close by or far away, and it can really zap a lot of stamina, depending on where their target is.

“Actually, yea...that’s true." Rush said quietly to the other, now wondering if this was a good idea, "She is still young-..."

“SCREECH! Where are you?!” Kaya screamed out just before she suddenly vanished without a trace. Both Halt and Rush didn’t get to see Kaya teleporting away straight after her call for the small entity. Rush just blinked a few times while Halt just glanced back at Rush, after looking at the last spot where Kaya was, and then said to the other entity, “Uh...” he had no idea how to react, but only expressed wide eyes as his mind was trying to catch up with the present. Halt, however, didn't look phased at all.

“Eh, sounds about right…” Halt sighed, not sounding surprised anymore, “Kaya didn't show any signs of concentration."

"She must be a fast learner.” Rush gasped, now just caught up with the present as he relaxed his eyes again. Halt made a smirk at the other and said, "Fast learner? That was insanely fast!!"

"But the big question is, will she find Screech?"

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“AH-...Oof!”

The young girl groaned as she had landed onto the floorboards quite fast, also loosing her balance at the same time as she fell onto her back. She somehow managed to teleport into another room that had four wooden closets (two on each side), and a closed door with the number 0036 on it behind her. Instead of panicking, she ended up not looking surprised anymore about her powers randomly activating without her command. After seeing the wooden closets, she did promise herself to not hide in another closet after the small incident that happened a few moments ago, before she encountered Rush. As she got back onto her feet, she called out the entities’ names, that she knows, at the top of her lungs.

“HALT!!” She paused as she took another deep breath.

“RUSH!!”

Another deep breath was taken straight after, as her fear of being alone started to rise. Both of her hands slowly starting to tremble from her fear slowly rising.

“SCREECH-...”

“Psst!”

Kaya flinched from the sudden scare, before a slight giggle was heard.

“Over here, Kaya!”

A familiar voice was heard in one of the corners of the room. Kaya, as soon as she heard the voice calling out her name, she immediately turn around to look behind her, as her long dark brown hair moved like a whip, hitting the left side of her face from the sudden force. As soon as her glance locked onto another being in the room, who was also looking back at the young girl, her fear of being alone faded away within seconds.

“Screech!!” Kaya screamed as she hugged Screech tightly without hesitation. The entity, now Screech, hugged her back and said to her, “You did really good! You teleported quicker this time. I've been hiding in this room.”

“Room 36?” Kaya said curiously. As Screech shook his head and replied, “Nope, Room 36 is the next room. This is room 35.” as he moved his head, his hair moved around slightly from his move.

“Aaah! That explains the eyes on the wall.” Kaya said with a smile, while Screech’s smile became a sudden frown.

“What eyes?”

Kaya let go of the entity as she randomly pointed to a few eyes that had appeared and scattered on the wooden walls throughout the whole room. The eyes were all positioned with a few eyes on every wall, staring down at them with their blank, but creepy, stares. Screech didn’t look fazed by the sight of the eyes, but Kaya had the complete opposite reaction as she held onto Screech’s arm tightly.

“W-Why a-are they looking at u-us…?!” Kaya whimpered, looking freaked out.

“Uh…I know why…” Screech looked kind of worried too, but he already knew who has summoned the eye, “It’s another friend I know…They can be curious about who roams the hotel.” he could still feel Kaya’s grip tightening up a bit after his response.

“Seek…I hope Guiding Light told you about this human…” Screech thought as he looked over at Kaya and said, “Maybe the next room might be better.” as they both made it to the wooden door, Screech opened it fully but only to see a few more eyes appearing from the walls in the same blank glossy ink substance all around it - like the slime substance morphed into the shape of an eye. As more of the eyes appeared, the lights kept flickering. Now there are a few more in different sizes and were all looking at Kaya and Screech.

“Hmm…” Screech sighed as he looked at Kaya, who was still holding onto his arm tightly, “If we do keep moving through the rooms, we’ll eventually find a big hallway, until Halt and Rush find us.”

“W-Will they be able to find us…?”

“Of course!” Screech said with confidence, “All of us have been in this hotel for a long time, so we know the place by the back of our hands!”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

At the same time this was all happening, now located at the abandoned Halt’s hallway, three more entities had appeared in the middle of the shaded blue corridor. Guiding Light, Eyes and Timothy all appeared in the same position as they left the abandoned room, with Eyes’ dark indigo hand resting on Light’s left shoulder, with Timothy too. As soon as they arrived, Light’s bright blue and Eyes’ bright purple auras lit up the whole abandoned narrow corridor, fading off the pale blue shading from around them.

“~Halt’s Hallway…~” Light sighed, as Eyes removed their hand away from Light’s shoulder, “~Feels like Deja vu all over again~” for Light, it was true that it felt like a deja vu moment, but the only difference is that Halt and the young human weren’t present in the narrow hallway. Light could remember the moment that Halt accepted to help the human to teach them how to teleport properly. Eyes communicated to Light, while Timothy stayed on Light’s shoulder while surveying the corridor.

“~Yes, this is where I found Halt~”

Eyes communicated again through the same mumbling sounds, this time sounding more concern.

“~I know Halt can defeat a human within two shots, but they did promise to not hurt her~” Light sighed, “~I do hope that the human is safe. Halt did look thrilled to help her-...”

“OUT OF THE WAY!!!”

A loud scream was heard as Eyes and Light both jumped off to the sides of the narrow corridor, Timothy firmly holding onto Light’s shoulder, as they all saw a bright glowing entity with a bright aura of green and pink, sprinting past - so fast that the wind was trying to catch up after them. The entity stopped and ran back to the trio. Light wasn’t even surprised that it was Ambush.

“They’re not in the earlier rooms before this hallway.” Ambush informed. Light didn’t look surprised by his sudden inform, as both of Light’s bright white eyes just expressed the ‘seriously?!’ look. Eyes didn’t fully react, but they did look like they just had their life flash before their eyes.

“~Thanks for the info, Am~” Light simply responded, “~Do try NOT to scare the human. They’re quite fragile~”

“Roger that!” Ambush said quick before he ran off again. The sudden force from when he started running, was enough to create a good amount of force to make Eyes and Light almost loose balance. Light just held onto the draw in-front of them, but Eyes was more unlucky as they lost their balance and fell forwards onto the carpet with a thud.

“~He really needs to watch his speed. He was given speed for a reaso-…”

“OW! AMBUSH!?” Rush’s shocked voice echoed from afar.

“RUSH?!” Ambush’s shocked voice followed up straight after. Their two voices echoed from the rooms beyond Halt’s corridor. Their voices could be heard echoing amongst the walls, no matter how narrow or big the rooms were, their voices were simply just loud enough to be heard.

“~And I think Ambush has found Rush. At least they're close by~” Light sighed as they looked over at Eyes, who was just getting back up again while rubbing their right shoulder. Light helped Eyes back up and said to them, “~Ambush has found Rush, that might mean that Halt and the human are close by~” Eyes did mumble something, and Light responded back immediately, “~Yea. Let’s hope nothing goes bad~” Eyes then paused quick before they caught Eyes again, but this time placing their humanised hand onto Eye’s right shoulder.

“~Also, I do need to let you know something, for safety reasons~”

Chapter Text

"We should be safe in the next room."

Screech said as him and Kaya continued to walk towards the long narrow hallway, they walked through the Door that had the number 0037 on it, welcoming them both into a massive corridor with a very high ceiling with three simple-designed chandeliers dangling from the wooden ceiling. The windows scattered amongst the walls were big rectangle shaped, showing the rainfall outside in the massive storm. The best part for Kaya, was that there were no eyes to be seen anywhere on the walls. Kaya ran into the massive corridor with excitement, while Screech followed up with her while expressing a soft smile.

“Yay!! A room with no scary eyes!” Kaya squealed in excitement as she ran around in a big circle with both of her arms spread out in the air.

“Let’s wait here until Halt and Rush find us. I’ll say to them that I teleported here and you found me.” Screech called out as Kaya came back to him, like a boomerang, but instead she ran around in a big circle around the small entity. She skidded to a stop in-front of Screech, before falling onto the ground while giggling. Screech smiled and sat down beside her, and said to her, "You have so much energy!! I don't think I've known any human that has this much energy before. How do you do it?!" Kaya sat up quick and shrugged her small shoulders and responded, "I'm not sure, but I'm happy!"
Screech watched as Kaya took off her yellow jacket, wrapping it around her small waist. She had a long-sleeve snow white shirt that had a cute picture of bananas, each of them had smiley faces. Screech smiled as he brought both of his knees towards his chest, then resting his small chin onto his knees and blurted out, "I hope Rush and Halt are ok. That was a bad move to go further away from them." She looked over at the entity and responded to him, "We can say that I was teleporting all over the rooms, and you found me here."

"Hehehe! Good idea!" Screech responded as he lifted his head up to look over at the human, "You're just as mischievous as me!" Kaya giggled from his response, and Screech couldn't contain his laughter anymore as he too started to laugh. Screech was glad that Kaya was feeling more comfortable in the hotel, and also happy that she is safe and nothing bad happened to her. Screech looked to his right to look at the massive window, seeing the heavy rain-pour outside in the dark of night. A lot of things ran through his mind, one of them being how Kaya managed to teleport into this very hotel. He continued to be lost in his thoughts, until he heard Kaya say, “Hey Screech? Can I please ask you something?”

“Sure! Fire away!” Screech said as he looked around to look back at Kaya, who was now kneeling on both knees as she made a very focused stare at the entity - mainly she widened both of her eyes. Her stare alone made him flinch, as she started to talk to him, “A while ago, you said to me if I was scared of you."

Screech froze quick from her words, remembering what he said.

"Why did you ask if I was scared...?” Kaya said without hesitation, looking curious at the same time. The whole question alone made the entity freeze in his place from the start, as his dark grey eyes widening fully to express his surprise, along with his lower jaw dropping too. It was a topic that he didn’t like to talk about…

“Well…uh…I-It’s a long story to hear…” Screech started off, as he looked down at the floorboards as he started to remember all of the memories from past humans that have said bad things to the entity, “In short, some humans called me bad things that…uh…I-I don’t want to repeat…”

“That is awful…! Why would they say bad things about you?! You’re the kindest friend I know here!” Kaya responded, sounding shocked by his reply. All she saw was Screech making a small smirk and responded, “Remember how we first met in the dark room? I was in another form?”

"The levitating form?" Kaya said, trying to remember what his form looked like. Screech noticed that she stumbled in her words a bit, as he quickly said, "This one." before a thick black aura consumed him completely for a few seconds, until the aura faded off, revealing him in his monster form as his six tentacles unconsciously moved around in random directions. He didn't show his signature smile, since he didn't want to scare her. Kaya gasped and responded, "Oh yeah! That one!!" As she hopped up onto her feet and came over to the small entity, now hovering at her head height. He was looking down at the ground, looking scared if she was going to freak out.

“Well...uh...humans see me in that formation.” Screech concluded, as his tentacles fell limp, “They have never seen this side of me. I’ve always been scared of humans to even show them this form.” He then looked over at Kaya again, “But you’re different…You’re not scared of me, even when I’m in my other form-…” Just after he finished talking, he felt something wrap around him like an octopus. Kaya was hugging him, in a warm embrace hug, in her own attempt to help support the small entity.

“Those humans are mean!” Kaya started off, as Screech just nodded once, looking like he was about to tear up from remembering the phrases that were said to or about him. Kaya let go of him as he transformed back to his humanised self, with his neat brown coloured formal suit and ink black hair. Kaya then continued, as she placed both of her hands on his small shoulders, “Don’t let those things get to you! They have no idea that you have a nice side.”

Screech looked like he was about to tear up, since he looked like he was about to tear up in-front of Kaya.

“When I met you for the first time, I didn’t see you as scary, but as a friend.” Kaya said, this time she sounded like she was acting like a teacher, “You do what you do best! Be the greatest friend that has ever existed!” Her inspirational message got to the entity immediately, as he managed to express a soft smile, just as a tear started to roll down his light grey-toned cheek.

Then another…

Another…

Screech cried like he hadn’t cried in a long time, as he pressed both of his small light-grey hands onto his face. Kaya smiled as she hugged Screech without hesitation, the entity hugging her back straight away. He felt less scared about speaking up about what he had experienced and was surprised that he got motivation from a young human.

“…No wonder why Halt befriended Kaya. This human has a natural gift, and not just teleportation…” Screech thought as he could feel Kaya's hug tighten a bit. He had never thought that a human was going to be his friend, which made him have tears appear through his closed eyes.

“Thanks Kaya…” Screech spoke like he was thanking her deeply.

“No probl-…” Kaya paused quick as her positive tone in her voice suddenly started to tremble all over again. Screech noticed that Kaya’s eyes widened fully, exposing her entire brown irises and pupils, while her mouth dropped fully as she was looking over Screech’s small shoulder.

“Are you ok…?!”

“W-What’s t-that…?!” Kaya said as she pointed over Screech’s left shoulder. Screech turned around, following her hand, to see something slowly rising out from the ground. A thick ink-like substance growing from the floorboards, surrounding the unknown entity that has fully emerged. Kaya squealed, “AHH!! What is that!?!?”

“That’s my friend, Seek!” Screech said, just before Kaya screamed, “Seek!?”

“Yea! He does this a lot-...” Screech said, but was quickly interrupted when a voice was heard in a very scary way.

“Ready or not, here I come…!!”

“Uh…” Screech gasped with wide eyes just before Kaya screamed, “RUN!!!” As she started running towards the opposite side of the corridor. Screech gasped before he started to follow after her, sprinting as fast as he could, while Seek just started running after them. As Kaya ran through the first door, Seek symmetrically moved both of his hands, the move activating another power of his - Telekinesis. The simple hand move was enough to make the objects, in the next room, fall in-front of the human in order to stop her from going far into the chase.

“AH!!!” Kaya screamed as she bumped into a drawer that was covered in fallen books. She attempted to climb over, but soon felt a hand land on her left shoulder and a voice say, “Kaya!! There’s an opening on your left!” Kaya looked beside her to see Screech, who was pointing to a small opening just underneath the fallen bookshelf.

“I’ve seen humans do this before, I’ll help direct you as much as I can!”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

Moments before Ambush appeared, Rush and Halt were trying to figure out which way Screech and Kaya teleported off to. Halt looked like they were about to go into a panic attack, and Rush could tell that the other was going to panic at any moment.

“No Rush!! We’re going the wrong way!!”

“Isn’t room 32 this way!?”

“WE WERE JUST IN THAT ROOM BEFORE!!!” Halt screamed in a panic.

Both Rush and Halt started to go from Room to room to try and find Kaya and Screech. From room 25 to the current room, room 32, there was no sight of either Screech or Kaya at all. Halt started to panic more since there are the other entities that haven’t met Kaya yet, and was really worried for her safety if she came across them. As Halt panicked, Rush noticed the entity’s current state and tried to help them calm down by talking to them. He too was worried about Kaya’s safety, but Halt looked like they were emotionally hit harder.

“Halt…it’s going to be ok. She might be with Screech right now...” Rush sighed, sounded a bit painful, after he kept looking at Halt’s panicked expression and could sense the fear and concern instantly just from looking at Halt’s eyes. He placed both of his dark grey hands onto Halt’s shoulders and spoke in a comforting tone, also with a worried expression, “Halt look…” he sighed again, feeling more bad than before, “I’m sorry that small lesson went the wrong way. I know that was a stupid thing I did-…”

“Rush…”

Rush paused, as Halt looked up at the other as their fear was expressed in their dark grey eyes.

“It’s not that.”

“It isn’t…?” Rush said, now sounding confused. Halt shook their head and replied, “No. I’m worried if she encounters Seek or Figure…!” Halt paused as Rush moved both of his hands off their shoulders, “Both of them don’t know about her, and she might be in danger when they encounter her.” Halt didn’t even have to say anything else to Rush since the other figured out quite fast that Seek and Figure can be hostile towards humans, no matter who it is.

What also got him thinking was, what if Kaya encountered Figure. He had heard moments about what Figure can do when they find a human roaming in the library. The thought made him gasp, now feeling intensely shaken throughout his whole humanised body.

“Let’s go find Seek’s corridor before it’s too late.” Rush said, but as soon as Halt ran off towards Room 33, the lights started to flicker for a second. Rush called out to Halt, “GO FIND THEM!! I’LL CATCH UP!!” He was worried if Halt didn’t hear him, but he did hear Halt’s faint voice screaming, “Ok!” in return of an echo. Rush accurately guessed that Halt was about two or three rooms ahead. Rush, now all alone, turned around and looked back at Room 31, and thought, "Now I just need to find out what that was-..." but his mind paused just in time to see a flash of white, green and pink coming in fast, colliding into Rush in an instant.

“What the-...AHH!!” Rush gasped as he felt something collide into him, making him thrown backwards onto the floorboards with a loud thud.

“OW!”

Rush groaned painfully as he had landed on his back on the red rug, as he got up he saw a bright glowing entity as their green and pink aura just faded off. They landed face down onto the ground with one of their arms reaching out in-front of them. Rush hopped back, looking shocked by the other’s appearance, until he recognised the entity’s bright green sleeveless formal jacket, light grey ripped sleeves and dark space grey pants.

“AMBUSH!?” Rush gasped. The other, now Ambush, looked up quick with a shocked expression as he got back onto his feet.

“RUSH?!” Ambush gasped loudly as he came over to Rush, “I have found you!!” as he placed both of his snow white hands onto Rush’s shoulders. Rush smiled, happy to see his brother, and said sarcastically, “Yes, you have found me. What are you doing out here?” He knows Ambush well that Ambush would make his appearance when Rush comes back to tell that he had done his round to find a human, out of sight from the human’s path.

“I want to see the human!!” Ambush said in excitement and with a big smile.

“The human…?” Rush gasped, sounding surprised since he knows that Ambush doesn’t show any mercy to a human. He didn’t want to give away a hint that’ll express that he has shown mercy to Kaya and to keep Halt’s promise, “The human roaming this hotel right now?" Ambush nodded, almost having enough excitement like a young energetic puppy, "But...I thought you hated humans?”

“Yea! I do, but this one is a special human!” Ambush expressed with a big smile, “Light explained more about how they have their own psychic power, and how Halt is teaching them how to control their power! I really want to see them in action!!!” he then let go of Rush, lowering both of his hands down beside his own hips, and continued, “Did you meet the human?” From Ambush’s excitement from before, Rush could feel relief since he feels like he didn’t have to hide his first interaction with the young human.

“Yea, I have.” Rush responded, showing a soft smile.

“Tell me everything!!” Ambush said with a big grin, his smile grew bigger than before. Rush responded immediately, “Woah! Easy there! I’ll explain later. Right now, the human might be in danger right now with Seek!”

“~Let’s hope they’re not in Seek’s hallway~” Guiding Light’s worried voice was heard, as the two brothers both turned to the other side of the room, to see the bright glowing entity walking into the room from room 31, along with Eyes and Timothy following up, “~Seek and Figure don’t know anything about the human, and Rush is right…She’s still in danger-...~”

“WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR!!! LET’S GO!!” Ambush screamed as he took off first towards the next room, alongside with Rush running after him. Light sighed as they glanced over at Eyes, who just shrugged their humanised shoulders, while Timothy just waved both of its front legs in the air.

"~Do they do this a lot?~"

Eyes and Timothy both nodded at the same time.

"~Aaah! That explains it~"

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“GO LEFT!!!”

“Where now?!”

“STRAIGHT AHEAD!!!”

Screech and Kaya were both caught up in Seek’s chase. Both of them were dodging bookshelves, chairs, tables, anything that was in Seek’s line of sight. Seek uses his telekinesis to move the objects to try and prevent anyone from proceeding any further. When they ran into the second room, Kaya freaked out after seeing more objects and furniture moving around on their own. This made her pause her run quickly again, making Screech catch up with her to help direct her where to go. Without Halt to help save them from Seek, he was now going to do everything he can to get her out alive.

“Keep running Kaya!! I’m with you!!” Screech called out to Kaya, just as they ran past the pile of objects in the middle of the room. The door opened wide, appearing a long corridor ahead of them.

“We’re going to make it-...” Kaya paused as she saw massive non-human ink-black hands breaking through the windows, and the three main chandeliers falling onto the ground caught in flames. She screamed, “AHH!!”

“KEEP RUNNING!! GO LEFT!!!” Screech screamed, this time in a panic. Kaya and Screech both ran past the first burning chandelier, then running past the next one while dodging the massive hands as they were swaying around to catch anyone that got close to the hands.

“We’re going to make it-…”

“Screech!!” Kaya screamed as Screech skidded to a stop. He looked back to see Kaya on her tummy, like she had tripped forwards onto the ground - looked like she tripped. Screech gasped and ran over to her and helped her up again. He quickly said to her, “Are you ok? Are you hurt?!” He did notice that she was holding onto her right ankle before.

“I-I’m ok…!” Kaya gasped before an eerie scream was heard on the opposite side of the massive hall. They both turned around to see Seek running towards them. He was getting quite close to them, eying both of them down as they got close. Kaya gasped with wide eyes as she tried to get back up, but collapsed forwards again as her hand just reached the closed door. Screech kept his eye on Seek as he came close, even running through the flames of the burning fallen chandeliers. Screech stared at Seek and thought, "I gotta have to use this move..." He got Kaya over to the closed door and helped her onto the floor, as he said to her, “Kaya!”

Kaya looked at the young entity.

“Cover your ears!” Screech said. He didn’t hear Kaya say anything back, but just did a quick head turn to see if Kaya was covering her ears. He was relieved that she was covering both of her small ears with both her hands and the thick edges of the purple beanie. Screech didn’t want to do this, but he felt like he had no choice.

“Ok Screech…Don’t panic, and you’ll be fine…” he thought as he took a deep breath, “…You’re just going to push him back…”

Screech thought to himself as he got himself to stare back at Seek, who looked like they were not going to stop running. After a quick second, Screech immediately transformed into his monster form, with the six ink-black tentacles constantly moving, as he took a deep breath.

“SEEK!! NOO!!!”

Screech screamed as loud as he could in his monster formation. All six of his ink black tentacles moved faster than before, until they eventually stopped. Both of his snow glowing white eyes were closed shut as he let out his very powerful scream. He hated to use his move, but his screams can be so powerful that it can cause someone to get pushed back by force - it didn't matter if his victim was a human or not.

For Seek, the entity paused and jumped back - now eying Screech from afar. The only thing standing between them was a Chandelier burning away slowly while engulfed in flames. Seek screamed back at the small entity, just as Screech transformed back into his humanised self - landing back onto his feet as he called out to the entity, “Seek!! It’s just me!!”

At the same time, Kaya now had her back against the wooden wall, close to the closed door. She still had both of her ears covered since she didn’t know for sure if it was safe to uncover her ears. Seek looked like they recognised the small entity, as they came over to him, but this time they were walking instead of running.

“Seek!! It’s your buddy, Screech!”

Screech called out again, waving both of his humanised arms up and down, like a bird about to fly. Seek just stared at him for a moment before their glance caught onto Kaya behind him. As soon as Seek looked at her, Kaya was already standing and had her right hand gripped tightly on the door handle.

“Screech! That force was strong...!”

"I know, but I had to do it." Screech sighed, throwing both of his arms forwards, falling limp at the same time. Seek just shook his head for a second, but paused as they saw at Kaya, “Screech! The human is right there…!” Seek paused, only to see Kaya getting out of his sight. Kaya was hiding behind Screech, but in a way where she was out of sight.

“Why are…you helping the human…?!” Seek spoke in a broken tone in his voice. Screech responded, “This human is-…”

“Humans are…dangerous!” Seek interrupted, still having a complete evil look in their eye. Screech called out to Seek again, “I know they’re dangerous, but I was told this human is different! Halt told me!!” He was hoping to get his message towards the other entity, but feeling like they were failing to get his message to him. At the same time, Kaya was scared if she’ll be able to get out alive, but also forgetting about her teleportation ability.

“What makes this…human different…than the others?” While Seek spoke in a stern voice, as he got close to the young levitating entity. Screech hopped into the air, and stayed levitated around Seek’s eye height, as the young one responded, “She has a psychic power!!”

“A power?” Seek sounded shocked by the young entity’s response, also Screech slightly floated back a bit as Seek continued, “Screech, humans can’t achieve psychic powers-…”

“KAYA!!!”

Chapter Text

“KAYA!!!”

Another voice was heard, this time it came from behind Seek. Kaya recognised the sudden voice since she started to smile.

“HALT!!” She screamed loudly in excitement, breaking up both Seek and Screech’s talk. At the same time, both entities paused and looked back at the middle of the massive corridor - Seek turning around like they were a contortionist, to see Halt running in from the other side of the hall. Screech gasped, “Halt’s here!!!” as he levitated off to his left to see Halt clearly. Their cyan-coloured cloak flew behind them in the air as Halt ran, along with their short purple hair flying in the air too behind them. Screech smiled after seeing Halt appearing, but Seek had an opposite reaction.

“Halt?!” Seek gasped as Halt came over, stopping right beside Seek. Their cloak and hair rested again after being flown around. Halt called out, “Seek! Stop what you’re doing!” Just as Seek said to them in a panic, “What is going on!? Why is Screech helping a human!?” Seek’s panicking voice was enough to tell Halt that he doesn’t know anything about Kaya at all, nor been told by Guiding Light.

“Seek, I can explain!”

While Halt was explaining the whole story about promising Guiding Light to take care and help the young girl, to Seek - Screech turned around and came over to the young girl, who looked surprised and shocked about the whole situation, mainly because she has never seen Seek before and was pretty scared. Screech made a small thumbs up, expressing if she was ok. He smiled as he saw Kaya doing a thumbs up back, but didn’t say anything.

“Halt…” Seek gasped, still couldn’t believe what they heard, “D-Did you forget about what the humans did to you?! A human threatened and knocked you out when you were a human!! A human took your life!” Seek spoke like he was in full panic and shock. Halt responded back, also with reassurance, “I know! But, that was an adult human! This one isn’t even an adult at all-…”

“Don’t hurt Halt!”

A familiar young squeaky voice was heard close by. Both Halt and Seek looked over to see the young human standing just behind Screech. The small entity looked like they were trying to get Kaya back from the whole situation, especially since they have no idea how Seek is going to interact with a human. Kaya called out, “D-Don’t hurt Halt…!!”

“Kaya, it’s ok-…” Halt quickly reassured to the young human before Seek interrupted, “Kaya?”

“Yes, that’s her name.” Halt sighed, feeling like they were completely out of breath from before, “We both had introductions beforehand. Guiding Light found her alone in the hotel lobby and took her to me.”

“Yea!” Screech was heard next, nodding at the same time, “Halt promised to Light that they’ll help and protect the human!”

“Guiding Light!?” Seek stumbled a bit in their response, as they witnessed Halt nod once, “Is it because the human is young?” Seek said as he made his way over to Kaya, who just stood in her spot looking scared. Seek kneeled onto his left humanoid knee and randomly said, “She does look young, I can understand that, but-…” he paused quite fast as he suddenly witnessed Kaya vanishing into thin air.

“WHOA!! WHAT?!?!”

This made the entity gasp loudly and jump backwards, his eye widening completely as he was trying to contemplate what just happened. He wasn’t the only one, as Screech made a shocked expression, but wasn’t as expressive as Seek.

“That’s why…” Halt called out, not sounding surprised in their tone, as Seek got himself back onto both of his feet - still surprised about what just happened right in-front of them. His eye widened completely as he looked around at his surroundings, looking like he was experiencing a glitch in reality.

“YOU SCARED THE HUMAN!!” The small entity screamed in a high-pitched voice, sounding in a panic.

“I DIDN’T KNOW HUMANS CAN TELEPORT!!!” Seek was heard screaming back, sounding quite bewildered.

“SHE’S A SPECIAL HUMAN!!”

“I know!! But where did the human go?!” Seek gasped loudly as the entity was about to start their search. Screech looked surprised since this is the first time he has seen Kaya disappear suddenly.

Meanwhile with Halt, the entity could feel something holding onto them, like they were embraced in a hug. Halt did feel like they were getting pulled downwards onto the ground from the extra weight on their right side. The entity removed their cloak on their right, to reveal Kaya tightly holding onto them like a hug.

“Aah! There you are.” Halt smiled as Kaya looked up at the entity’s bright cyan blue eyes while giggling. Halt then looked at Screech and Seek, and called out, “It’s ok! She’s right here!” Screech giggled as he came over to them, but he was flying in the air. He soon appeared beside Kaya while levitating upside down, his eyes levelled with her eyes.

“Wow Kaya!! You’re improving a lot! You teleported to Halt by yourself!” Screech said with a big smile, as Kaya smiled back and responded, “Thank you!!” As she glanced over at Seek, who was still surprised about the whole situation. Just from glancing over at Seek, made her become scared again after the sudden chase from the previous couple corridors and rooms. She looked back up at Halt, who was looking at her too, as the entity reached her right cyan hand to gently land on Kaya’s small back.

“Your friend won’t hurt me…right…?” Kaya said quietly to Halt, who responded to her in a soft voice, “It’s ok, he isn’t gonna hurt you. He overreacts when he sees a human.” Halt then came over to Seek without hesitation, along with Kaya still gripping onto Halt tightly. Kaya could tell quite fast that Halt was a lot taller than Seek, comparing them side by side. Seek looked like he was about 5’3 ft, while Halt looked 5'9 ft.

“Let’s start with introductions.” Halt paused for a second to let Kaya let go of them, “Kaya, this is another friend of mine, Seek.”

“Seek?” Kaya echoed the entity’s name, Seek nodded straight after without saying anything.

“Like hide and seek?”

“HAHAHA!!!” Screech’s laughter was heard immediately. Halt smiled too from her response, but Seek looked like he suddenly became embarrassed by the response as he was shaking both of his humanoid hands and saying, “N-Not like that…! N-No!”

“It’s okie! I like hide n seek too!” Kaya said, this time she hopped over to Seek, who stumbled back a bit while looking at Kaya stopping right in-front of him. Halt kept smiling and said to the other entity, “She won’t hurt you. She’s already met Rush and Screech.”

“Rush!?” Seek gasped, since he knows Rush never shows mercy to any human, “Wow! I wonder how that went…!”

“Surprisingly, pretty well.” Halt responded. At the same time, Seek looked back at Kaya who was smiling back at them with a big cheeky grin. Seek didn’t quite know what to do nor how to react to meeting a human for the first time.

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“Ambush, listen! Don’t scare the kid! She’s very small and fragile, who knows what would happen if we’re not careful.”

Rush kept trying to explain to his brother, Ambush, that he’ll need to start being more careful with being around a human, particularly a small young human. Rush had already told him about her psychic ability to teleport, and how she was taken to Halt to be taught. He figured that Ambush got very excited to see the kid after he mentioned Kaya. The last thing that Rush will regret deeply is Ambush accidentally hurting Kaya, despite telling him many times to be careful.

“Come on, Rush! This is the first time that we have shown mercy to a human.”

“I know that!” Rush gasped straight after, to catch his breath, “But just hold back your powers and strength on this one, ok?” Rush noticed that Ambush was quickly slowing down, so he did the same thing to match his declining speed.

“Wow…!” Ambush gasped as he skid to a sudden stop, along with Rush stopping beside him, “For the first time ever, I’ve never heard you say that about our strength and powers. Did this human change you?”

“Sort of, but that’s not the point of what I’m trying to say…!”

“~Your brother has a point, Rush~”

A light-toned voice was heard close by the two brothers. Ambush turned to his right, while Rush turned to his left, to see Guiding Light just appearing after a faint aura of light blue light appeared, as Light fully emerged. Eyes also appeared too beside the glowing entity as their dark humanoid indigo hand was placed on Light’s humanoid left shoulder, “~Interacting with a human is going to change one’s view, but…~” Light then glanced over at Ambush, “~This is a small human kid that we’re talking about. You too will need to hold back on your strength when you interact with her~”

“How old is this human?!” Ambush gasped, now sounding very shocked. Eyes didn’t react at all, but about half of the 38 eyes just expressed the same look that expressed ‘really?’.

“~From the looks of her appearance and her behaviour, she’s not even 10~”

“And…She is being cared for by an entity who can knock a human out in two hits...” Rush unexpectedly spoke straight after. The whole room went into full silence, except for the sound of the storm roaring outside of the whole building. Ambush just glanced over at Rush, expressing a very shocked look as both of his dark grey eyes were widened fully to expose both of his white oval glowing pupils. All 38 of Eyes’ eyes widened as some of them glanced over at Light. The glowing entity just stayed silent for a few seconds, in-case anyone else wanted to say something, until they started to speak.

“~Yea…I can understand where your concern is…~” Light started of, looking over at Rush, “~Halt was chosen to be with Kaya for different reasons, but not for the reasons you think…~”

“R-Really…?” Ambush said, this time more quiet than before. Rush became more surprised than before as he and Ambush’s eyes widen at the same time.

“~Yes~” Light agreed, along with a nod while closing their white parallelogram eyes for a second, “~Halt is strong, especially when it comes to strength, which can make them a good protector, but that’s not the real reason I chose them to look after the human~” Eyes communicated to Light through their signature mumbling sounds, the tone in the sounds went low and then high pitched for a quick second and then going deep again. Ambush and Rush didn’t know exactly what Eyes was trying to say, but they did see Light nodding once to the cluster of eyes.

“~The real reason won’t be revealed to anyone, except Halt themselves…They’ll need to be ready in their own pace, to know the true reason~”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“So…uh…K-Kaya…?” Seek spoke in a nervous tone.

The young girl looked at Seek curiously.

“W-What brings you here to the hotel…?” Halt could tell immediately that Seek had already become nervous of Kaya. The young human explained, “Spirit found me at the hotel lobby and took me to be with Halt…!” as she hopped over to Halt, hugging them tightly, “Me and Halt are best friends!”

“Spirit?” Seek said, sounding confused after hearing Spirit.

“Guiding Light also goes by Spirit.” Halt mentioned to Seek. The small entity just nodded but didn’t say anything, but just kept looking at Halt and said to them, “So…Light finding this human, is that true…?”

“From before, yes.” Halt nodded back until the small group started to hear footsteps from close by. The footsteps sounded like someone was running, but it didn’t sound like one person running…

“SEEK! NO!!”

“THE HUMAN IS INNOCENT!!”

Two familiar voices were heard. A deep soothing voice and a high pitched male’s voice, both calling out almost immediately. Kaya gasped and hid herself underneath Halt’s cyan cloak, scared about the sudden visitors. At the same time, Halt, Screech and Seek all looked over to the opposite side of the massive hallway, and saw two entities racing over.

“Rush?! Ambush?!” Seek and Screech gasped at the same time. While Halt uncovered Kaya’s head from underneath the cyan cloak and said to her, “Rush is here, and his brother too.” Kaya looked like they didn’t wanna budge from their tight grip on the entity. Halt then saw Rush coming over, almost making a collision towards Seek, who jumped off to the side as Rush ran past, skidding to a stop close to the wall and then hopped over to the others. Rush quickly dusted his dark navy blue suit and spoke up to Halt, “Hey Halt. How’s the kid?”

“She’s doing great. Her and Seek have just made their introductions-…”

“WHERE’S THE KID?!”

Ambush’s high pitched voice was heard immediately, interrupting Halt’s reply. Rush sighed, after seeing Halt and Seek’s frightened expressions, and explained in a nervous tone, “Um…I may have told Am about Kaya…and I think he wants to see her…”

“Let’s get Am to burn off some energy first.” Seek mentioned to Halt and Rush. Halt was surprised that this was the first time he came to support a human, a young one, “We don’t want Kaya to get hurt by accident.” From that, Rush glanced over at Am and called out to him, “AMBUSH! Calm down!! You’ll scare the human!!”

“Sorry!!” Ambush squealed from afar.

While that was happening, Seek suddenly heard Kaya whimper a bit. Halt looked back at Kaya, about to tell her that it was going to be ok, but noticed that she looked like she was in pain. Halt noticed Kaya’s right foot lifted up from the floorboards, “Rush…” Rush looked over, “I don’t think humans have the same healing speed as us.”

“Why?”

“I saw her limping before…” Seek spoke up before Halt did, “She might have hurt her ankle or something…I did see her trip.” Rush didn’t know what to say, but did notice Screech looking more down than before. Rush was about to say something, but then felt something grab onto his left dark grey toned hand. He silently gasped, breaking his glance at Screech, as he looked down and saw Kaya’s small hand holding onto his. Her hand looked so tiny compared to his. She was expressing a nervous look, saying very well to the entity that she was scared about what was going on around them.

“Hey kid…” Rush spoke softly as he kneeled onto one knee to level up to Kaya’s eye height, “Are you ok…?”

Kaya nodded once, still looking frightened. Seek, being close by to Rush and Kaya, could also see the fear in Kaya’s beautiful chocolate brown irises.

“Don’t worry about my brother, Ambush - he is crazy most of the time.” His response managed to make Kaya giggle a little, before he turned to look over at Ambush behind Halt, who was not even close by, and called out to him, “Am! You’re scaring the child!”

“TELL THEM I SAID SORRY!!”

His high pitched voice was heard straight after, also making Kaya giggle even more to the point where she exposed a cute smile. Seek noticed Kaya’s expression and said to Rush and Halt, “Is the human ok…?”

“She’s ok. She’s laughing at Ambush’s response.” Rush paused quickly as he turned to look at Halt, who nodded once while smiling but didn’t say anything. After Halt’s nod, Rush looked back at Kaya and noticed too that she was lifting her small foot up slightly hovering over the floorboard. He didn’t know a-lot about humans, nor did anyone else except for Light, but he could tell fast that she may have injured herself - most likely when she was running away from Seek.

“Is your foot ok?”

“A bit sore, but I’m okie…” Kaya responded. Rush didn’t want to get her to walk, so he insisted to Halt to get her to the infirmary to get something to bandage and protect her foot. Of course, another problem came to light immediately as Halt mentioned where the infirmary is, in the hotel. Their response was enough to make everyone, even Ambush, stop what they were doing.

“Rush…” Halt began, sounding worried, “The infirmary is past the library. Figure is in there.”

“What about Figure…?”

“Figure won’t show any mercy on humans.” The fearful expression in Halt’s dark grey eyes explained it all for Kaya’s safety, “It’ll be too risky to take her through there without Figure hearing her heartbeat.”

“Can’t one of you teleport her there…?” Seek questioned, like they were trying to get the whole conversation to make sense. Halt nodded, but replied, “Yes, but Figure might start wondering up to door 100, if we’re not careful enough - they could still hear Kaya’s heartbeat.”

While Halt, Rush and Seek were all talking about making a plan to get past Door 50, and the pros and cons of that plan, Kaya felt like her leg was getting tired being carried in the air. She could feel the muscles around her foot hurting a bit, like she had pulled a muscle. She slightly groaned from the pain, but then noticed Screech running over to her. Without any hesitation, he swiftly picked up Kaya and brought her away from the trio without them even knowing what he was doing. Screech did make it into the next room, a small room that had a few drawers and a grandfather clock making quiet ticking sounds every second.

“While my friends are making that plan to get you past the library, I saw before that you’re getting better at controlling your psychic power.” Screech said as he carefully got Kaya onto the floor, letting her lean against the wall, away from the open doorway.

“I-I am…?” Kaya said, making a small smile. Screech smiled too as he nodded a few times really fast and replied, “Yea! You teleported to Halt without any problems! You’re getting better and better whenever you use your power.” Kaya smiled from his compliment until she started to feel her ankle hurt again.

“Ow…” Kaya groaned, sounding like she was whimpering. Screech quickly looked at her right foot, which was still struggling to keep up in the air. Without thinking, Screech held onto her foot so she wouldn’t strain her muscles more to keep her foot risen. As soon as he held onto her foot, her whimpering came to a stop and was replaced with a big smile as she looked at Screech.

“How’s your foot…?” Screech said, sounding concerned. Kaya nodded and replied, “A bit better than before.”

“That’s great to hear!” Screech said in excitement, “I don’t know much about humans, but you may need some bandages to help your foot, from the infirmary room!”

“Halt and the others were talking about that before…” Kaya said, pausing quickly like she was thinking, “Why are they so scared about Door 50? Is it scary there…?”

“~Because there’s an entity that no human should ever get close to~”

Screech flinched while he screamed at the same time, also making Kaya flinch and cover her ears from his screams before she looked over the entity’s right shoulder, only to see a bright light blue sphere appearing and then a glowing blue entity fully emerging from the faint glow in the air. Kaya recognised the entity’s waist-length silver shiny hair and pale light blue skin, and along with their unique clothing style.

“Spirit!!”

“Spirit?” Screech said curiously until he turned around, “LIGHT!!!”

“~Hey Screech. I see you found the human~” Light said as they levitated over to him and the human, landing gently on the floorboards without making a sound. The entity noticed Screech holding up Kaya’s right foot and said to him, “~Is the human ok…?~”

“She’s ok, but she tripped over before.” Screech explained quick as Guiding Light kneeled down beside the small entity to check her likely injury. Screech knew Light well that they know humans more than any other entity in the hotel, learning about their behaviours and structures most of the time while helping them get through as many doors as they can. Screech watched on as Light carefully placed their bright right blue-toned hand onto Kaya’s right ankle, just covered by her dark purple pants and shoe, before speaking, “~Her injury isn’t serious, she’ll recover but she needs to not put any pressure on her foot~”

“We were about to take her to the infirmary.”

“~That’s taking a big risk…~” Light responded, shaking their head slightly, “~Figure’s senses are stronger than you and the others, even human senses. She won’t be able to walk on the floorboards of the library or Figure can hear her…~”

“What about teleporting?”

“~Screech…buddy…~” Light sighed, “~Remember that one time when someone teleported into the library?~” Screech nodded while Kaya was looking curious at Guiding Light, and added, “Yea! Figure went into a panic because they thought that their books were going to get stolen! Figure really doesn’t mess around with keeping all of the books secured.” Light nodded again, feeling relieved that they didn’t have to explain what had happened that day, “~That’s why Figure confirmed to never teleport in or near the library, even if it is teleporting across~”

“How would Figure know…?”

“~Their echolocation is pretty strong~” Light simply said before they looked over at Kaya, who looked like they had fallen asleep. Her right hand was resting across their legs with her hand hanging over her left leg, while her left hand was lying flat on the floorboards. Light looked over at the small entity and said to him, “~She fell asleep~” Screech took a second to glance over at Kaya, then hopped over to her left to get a closer look at Kaya’s closed eyes. He had never seen a human sleep before, since he’s usually hiding and scaring humans whenever they are in dark rooms.

“She’ll need rest…!” Screech spoke, “Teleportation can take a lot out of a being, even for a human!”

“~Yes, but for her, she can burn out more energy to activate her power~” Light nodded before they got up and walked over to the doorway while speaking, “~I’ll get Halt to get her somewhere safe. I’ll need to talk with them too~” Screech nodded once in agreement as Light disappeared through the open doorway. As Light went out of sight, Screech got himself to sit down beside Kaya.

“...I still don’t get it…” Screech thought as he quietly transformed into his monster form. All six tentacles drooped onto the floorboards since he too felt exhausted, “...Kaya is the first human to not be scared of me…How isn’t she scared-...”

“Screech…?” A slight deep voice was heard close by.

Screech flinched slightly, levitating up into the air, as he glanced over randomly at the doorway to see Rush standing there with his right hand on the wooden plank. He looked curious but also concerned as well, explained in his dark grey eyes. At the same time, Halt had teleported into the room and picked up Kaya from the ground, before they said to both entities, “We’ll be in one of the hotel rooms close by to here.” Rush nodded before Halt teleported away with the small human. As soon as Halt and Kaya vanished out of sight, Screech levitated over to Rush as he started to speak to him, but in a quiet voice after seeing Kaya has fallen asleep.

“Are you alright…?” Rush said in a concerned voice, “I saw you before, you were looking more down than usual-…”

“RUSH!” Screech gasped bewilderedly, “I-IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!! I-I’M SORRY-...”

“Whoa! Slow down…! I’m not mad, bud!” Rush gasped quick as he came over to the small entity, who looked like he was about to tear up at any moment. Rush made a panic sigh before he started to speak, “Screech, I’m gonna say this now. That little lesson I planned was…a silly mistake, and I apologise for that.”

His response made Screech glance at him with his bright pure white eyes.

“I-I didn’t realise that Kaya doesn’t have full control of her powers. Halt and I got worried if the two of you encountered Seek since we were all close by, and they found out.” Rush paused, looked like he was trying to recollect his thoughts, and Screech could see it in his eyes.

“Mainly, the thing is…Did anything happen during the seek chase…? I heard Kaya hurt her foot while running.”

“S-She did…” Screech blurted out, scared what the other’s reaction might be, “I-I was trying to guide her out from the chase, but towards the end, she tripped and fell. I was lucky enough to get Seek’s attention before Halt arrived…!” Screech felt like he couldn’t hold back his tears anymore, as he felt a tear escaping, “I-I’m worried about her…”

“Screech...” Rush spoke quietly, “You’ve seen humans roam the hotel before in the past, nothing stops them from doing what they do best. Kaya is a human too, and like any human, she’ll bounce back real fast.” Both of them were greeted with silence. Screech felt like he couldn’t contain his tears anymore as he flew onto Rush, like he was giving him a hug.

“I-I’m s-s-sorry…!”

“It’s ok, bud. She’ll see you as a hero, you got her out of danger…” As soon as Rush finished his response to the small entity, Rush felt a presence behind him of another entity. The air suddenly felt icy, but then a familiar tone was heard.

“Hey Rush! Hey Screech!”

“Hi Am…!” Screech spoke suddenly as he let go of Rush and levitated over to Rush’s left to see Ambush standing behind Rush with a small smirk on his humanoid face. Ambush's bright green formal sleeveless jacket and neon pink tie stood out completely from his surroundings. The glowing entity waved back with his left humanoid hand while he attempted to annoy Rush. Screech giggled as Rush hopped forwards and spun around really fast to look over at his brother - his long ink black hair was making a somewhat spiral movement when the entity spun around.

“Whatcha doing?” Ambush said with a big grin, like he was being sneaky. Rush calmly responded, “Well, ya know…! Talking about the small human.”

“Halt has taken Kaya somewhere.” The small entity spoke straight after, “She fell asleep a moment ago.” Screech paused quick as Rush quickly mentioned, “That means no screaming bro!” Rush’s sudden response made Screech giggle, but his giggles turned into laughter as he saw Ambush’s funny, but cute, reaction - both of his very dark grey eyes widening fully and his jaw dropping instantly.

“Aw man…!” Ambush sighed, “Did she get exhausted because of her powers?” Screech nodded first, just after transforming back into his humanoid form, “Aaah! I relate…!”

“You’re lucky!” Rush gasped, “You can gain a lot of energy from…I don’t know…somewhere?!”

“What can I say?” Ambush shrugged both of his humanoid shoulders, “You gotta get to my level!!” Ambush said just before Rush started to chase after Ambush in a big circle around the room. Screech watched from the sidelines while making a big smile, just watching the two brothers chasing one another. While the two entities were doing their thing, Screech had a thought that came to his mind about what has happened after he met Kaya.

“...I wonder if someone is looking for Kaya as I think…?”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

While the madness continues in the hotel, there seemed to be a disturbance happening in the lobby.

As the thunderstorm rages outside, the lights slightly flickered as a lightning bolt strikes down every few moments in time. After two or three lightning strikes happened, the doors to the hotel opened up. Someone had entered the hotel, as their footsteps were light when they walked.

The person was wearing long black cargo pants that went down to their ankles, with a thick green lining exposed on both sides of the pants, as they were wearing dark grey boots with a thick bright green lining printed on the sole of the boots. Their jacket was an aesthetic forest green, with a hoodie that covered their whole head. The person was also wearing a green and black mask (One side was black, the other side is green). Their thick fringe was a dark chocolate brown and had bright almond irises behind their fringe.

“Hmph? That’s strange…”

The human closed the grass-framed door, just as another lightning bolt struck down.

“This hotel seems to be abandoned, but…” they paused while speaking to themselves, “Why is there a familiar aura like…someone is here…”

As the person continued to walk towards one of the elevators, they didn’t realise that they were being watched. Guiding Light was in their glowing light blue sphere form, as they kept their aqua blue aura dimmed down as they continued to watch the visitor, by hiding in the dark out-of-bounds area in the lobby, on the left of the hotel entrance. The entity’s eyes narrowed a bit as the person attempted to call out for anyone - shouting loudly, “Hello!” or “Anyone here!” but their responses continued to receive no responses.

“~I think the humans are starting their explorations again…~” Light sighed, “~It’s been a while since I’ve helped a human~” The glowing blue entity paused quick as the human took off their hood, making fall onto their upper back. The human’s hair revealed to be the same dark chocolate brown hair, until their hair-length went down between their shoulder blades, if the hoodie wasn’t present. The person walked into the elevator, and the doors closed after a few seconds.

“~Let the fun begin…~”

Light spoke before they teleported away into the depths of the hotel.

Chapter Text

“Kaya should be safe here.”

Halt thought to themselves as they had teleported into a big room with four mini hallways meeting the centre, like an intersection. On each side of the four hallways, was one wooden door on each wall, leading into a small mini hotel room of their own. Halt planned to get the small human somewhere safe for her to rest, and to also find out which room they’re in. Halt randomly teleported into one of the rooms, their bright blue aura lit up the room in a faint blue glow. The entity looked down at Kaya, still holding onto the exhausted human as the small kid continued to sleep peacefully. Their bright cyan blue cloak was almost covering the young girl, almost going out of sight.

“This is how humans sleep…?” Halt curiously thought as they walked over to the single bed at the opposite side of the room, “Hmm, interesting…” Halt smiled as they placed the human onto the bed, letting the human lie on her back with both of her arms and legs spread out almost towards the edges of the mattress. Halt felt like something didn’t seem right, but wasn’t sure what it was.

“I feel like something is missing…What is it-...”

“~Nothing is missing. She’ll be ok~”

Halt paused quick as they quickly turned around to see a bright light blue glow appearing from one of the closed wooden doors of the room, revealing Guiding Light to appear from mid-air. Halt smiled, looking happy to see Light again, as Light hovered over to Halt and the sleeping human. Halt spoke up first, “Hey Light. Kaya is resting now.”

“~Glad to hear~” Light nodded, sounding satisfied by Halt’s response, “~No one here, even you, has ever seen a human fall asleep in the hotel before. Yet, you’re learning many things about them by the minute~”

“Yea…” Halt agreed, bringing their right hand up behind their head, “We don’t know humans well, to know what they can do.” Light simply nodded, before glancing back at Kaya for a few seconds and then back at Halt and spoke, “~Come, Halt. I need to talk to you about something~” the entity nodded, but was immediately curious about why Light wanted to talk with them.

Halt didn’t show any worries as Light motioned them away from the sleeping human. There weren’t any chairs in the room that they were in, except for a light pink couch that was glowing light blue from Light’s aura. Halt and Light sat down on the couch without making a sound. Halt was feeling more worried from before, but also kept turning around to look over at Kaya once every few seconds to see if she was alright.

“~Halt…~”

Halt glanced over at Light.

“~Kaya isn’t going anywhere. She’ll be ok~”

Halt just nodded back without making a sound, while making a slight smile that soon turned into a scared frown. Light saw their expression change fast, before they started to speak, “~I can guarantee that you’re not in trouble, but I want to ask you…~” Light paused, as they saw Halt look like they were about to embrace for what Light is going to say.

“~How your process is after looking after a human…rather than hunting~” Light spoke, as their statement was enough to make Halt feel a bit relaxed somehow. They could see that Halt’s humanised shoulders lowered down a bit from beneath their cloak, along making a slight sigh. Light continued, “~Assuming from when I found you, I can see that you are doing alright. Everyone has gotten a liking to the human and won’t show any harm to her, even you expressed the same feelings~”

“Yea…” Halt agreed with a nod, “It’s been going ok. Looking after a small human isn’t so bad, but its harder when it comes to her…ability to teleport.” Halt explained, adjusting themselves to make their right leg crossed over their left, “Every Time I was with Kaya, she has improved a lot ever since we met.”

“~There are humans out there that are fast learners. Kaya may be one of those humans~” Light agreed, now figuring that Halt has learnt a bit about not only Kaya, but about humans in general, “~Remember that humans can’t possess any type of power~” they then tilted their head a bit to their left, their silver levitating hair almost hitting the wooden wall, “~But…There is something that you may need to know…~”

“There is…?”

Light nodded once, looking serious in their pure snow white eyes.

“~However...I can’t tell you this straight away, unless you feel like you’re ready to know…why I chose you…~” Light paused again, allowing Halt to have a moment to think.

Halt was never sure why they were chosen in the first place. It could have been anyone in the hotel, but they were the chosen one. Halt still remembered the moment when they saw Guiding Light appearing with Kaya in the narrow corridor, even the thoughts that were running through their mind suddenly lurked back to haunt the entity. Halt was seen fidgeting their cyan-like fingers a bit, but their expression explained the most as they were battling whether to know the truth or not. At the same time, Light didn’t say a single word since they didn’t want to overwhelm the entity in anyway.

“~You don’t have to be prepared now if you’re not ready to know-...~”

“I’m ready, Light.”

Halt confirmed quickly, catching Light’s attention.

At the same time, Light’s aura dimmed a bit while Halt’s aura brightened up in a cyan glow all over the enclosed room. As soon as Light looked at the other, Halt continued on, “I…I’m not sure why you’ve chosen me…” as they placed both of their hands onto their cloak near their chest, “Out of everyone in the whole hotel, from Rush all the way to Seek, you chose me. An entity who can take out a human in two hits...!” they started to feel like they wanted to tear up.

“I…I-I j-just…” Halt started to stumble at the end as their emotions started to lurk on them. Light just stayed silent in-case Halt wanted to continue speaking, but they could tell instantly that the entity was very confused and couldn't figure out what to say next.

“~You’re stumbling in your own words…Are you sure you’re ready to know…?~”

Halt didn’t say anything, like they were contemplating if they wanted to know or not. Whether they want to know or not, both sides could have equal results, depending on how the entity reacts. At this point, Light was starting to think that it wasn’t the right time to reveal the truth to Halt, but was surprised that Halt kept persisting to know.

“I really do wanna know…why I was chosen…” Halt finally confirmed, closing their dark cyan eyes for a moment and then reopening them again to look at Light, who didn’t say a word as they kept on watching the entity contemplating and confirming their choice. Light didn’t say anything immediately, but just nodded once before they started to talk…

“~I chose you…" Light took a deep breath, "...because of your past life~”

Light simply gave the truth without hesitation, the truth revealing straight into a part of Halt’s past life. Halt didn’t say anything, but looked stunned as they looked at Light, looking confused but stunned at the same time. Halt stumbled a bit, “My past life…?” While trying to sound strong. Light nodded without breaking eye contact and replied, “~Yes…You were once a security guard as your time as a human~” Light smiled a bit as they can remember in detail what Halt looked like as a human, “~You were one of the best security guards for this hotel…until that fateful day-...”

BANG!

A lightning bolt struck close by to the abandoned hotel, sounding like fireworks crackling, almost making Halt flinch. Light’s words hung in the air, in the eerie atmosphere of the whole room. Nothing but silence could be heard, with the exception of Kaya peacefully sleeping on the bed. Halt felt a sudden shiver after hearing the phrase ‘Fateful Day’, now feeling like they were physically trembling.

“W-What happened to me…? O-On that day?”

Halt spoke as they leaned forward a bit towards the glowing entity. Light could see the worried look in Halt’s dark cyan-like eyes and snow oval white pupils revealed to Light that they might not be able to take the answer given to them. Light didn’t physically react, but could only reply with, “~I'm sorry...but that’s something that can be revealed another time…~” Light paused as they watch Halt lean back, sitting normal again as they glanced down at the ground with a surprised expression.

“~I only want to reveal to you that it was your past experiences as a security guard that allowed me to choose you~” Light continued to speak, as Halt looked back at Light.

“~Yes. You were also strong in your human life, but you’ve also showed that type of strength to protect those who can’t protect themselves…~” Light paused as they raised their light bright blue hand towards Kaya’s direction, “~Kaya is still young and vulnerable. She needs someone to help protect her, that’s why I chose you~”

“W-What about helping her control her power in teleporting?”

“~Yes, that too is another reason~” Light responded, “~You can teleport within an instant, and I’m sure that can be useful for her to learn-...”

Light paused really fast as a strange feeling started to rise. Halt noticed something strange as Light instantly turned their head away from the other entity, now looking forwards towards the opposite side of the room - only a table and bookshelf to be seen. Halt wanted to speak up to get Light’s attention, but at the same time they couldn’t get themselves to do so since the look in Light’s eyes became quite serious as they narrowed a bit.

“~There’s another human in the hotel~” Light confirmed, this time in a stern voice.

“There is?!” Halt replied quick, not sure how to react.

“~Yes…~” Light nodded before blurting out, “~Kaya cannot be seen by the human!~” This statement stopped Halt quick as they spoke, “Wait? Why?”

“~The human could put Kaya into danger by the other entities’ attacks~” Light responded, sounding worried, “~One hit from either Rush, Ambush or even Figure…it’ll be over for her~” From that, both entities knew that a plan had to be made to keep Kaya safe. They both got up from the small couch instantly. Light glanced over at Kaya first before Halt did, as they both came over to Kaya near the bedside. Kaya was still sleeping peacefully like nothing bad has happened. Light looked over at Halt and said to them, “~Halt…I’m trusting you to keep Kaya safe from the other human. When she wakes up, don’t alarm her about what’s going on. Get somewhere hidden before they arrive~” Halt firmly nodded, now being given a new task to protect Kaya.

Despite caring and helping Kaya because of her out-of-control teleportation powers, the flame for their hatred of humans still burned inside the entity. However, Halt wanted to help the others hunt the other human down - but they knew that the flame to protect Kaya, is burning stronger than their hate for humans. It was like Halt was starting to loose that flame, and was slowly starting to forget that drive.

Halt watched as Light took a few steps back, just before a bright light blue aura consumed the glowing entity, with small shines of white flames sparked for a second each, until the aura slowly turned into a bright light blue sphere with pure white eyes. The orb looked like blue flames consumed it, with a few bright white embers flying around it.

“~Show her that you’re her protector~”

The orb spoke, before it vanished within seconds suddenly, leaving the room in almost pure darkness except for Halt activating and brightening up their blue spiral aura. Light’s sentence became stuck in the entity’s mind, never willing to make Halt forget that phrase. Halt could still feel the pride to protect the young human, but also felt like something else was holding them back.

“My flame of my hatred for humans…is big, but this new flame…” Halt mumbled to themselves as they looked down at both of their cyan-toned hands, “...It burns stronger than my hate…” Both of their hands slowly became fists, closing their eyes at the same time, “Light is trusting me to protect her. Don’t let that flame die, Halt-…”

“Halt…?”

Halt jumped suddenly, as their bright blue aura suddenly shined as bright as the sun before dimming straight down again. Halt turned around quick to see Kaya sitting up on the bed with both of her small legs straightened out in-front of her, while rubbing her right eye that was hiding behind the cozy beanie that she was wearing. Halt sat down on the edge of the bed, on the right of the small human, and spoke to her, “Hey Kaya… You ok?”

“Yes, I’m okie!”

“Cool!” Halt started off while expressing a small smile, now trying to figure out what to do to protect Kaya, “Say, I know this is pretty sudden, but we’re close to the library. Do you want to read some stories?”

“Yes please!” Kaya excitedly squealed, “Maybe there could be a book that could help me with my powers!” Halt didn’t really think about that. Their initial plan was to distract Kaya by letting her read any kids books that were floating around in the book shelves, but Halt figured that this may be a good way to help her with her teleportation ability. Halt replied, “Hey! Great idea!” their response earned a big smile from the small human as they hopped off the bed and ran around the enclosed room once, then skidding to a stop in-front of Halt. The entity started laughing from Kaya's sudden burst of energy, as they called out quick, “Wow Kaya! Slow down! We’ll get there-...”

“Psst!”

Halt froze quick as they quickly looked around at their surroundings. They only knew one entity who can make a ‘psst!’ sound without warning, Screech. Despite it was Screech’s warning phrase, Screech was nowhere to be found. This confused Halt, until the same ‘psst!’ was heard again, but then a whisper was heard.

“Hey…Halt…”

The voice sounded like it was coming from the closet in the room. Halt picked up Kaya and got her sitting onto the bed and said to her, “Stay here for a second.” as Kaya nodded once. Meanwhile, Halt walked over to the only closet that was in the small hotel room, and knocked on it a few times - wondering if the voice was coming from the closet. That didn’t need to wait long for a response…

“OW! STOP KNOCKING!!” The same voice was heard before the closet opened quick, revealing a black and white entity to come partially out to reveal themselves. The entity was wearing a black shoes, pants and jacket. The suit jacket’s style was a bit different, as both lapels both reached from the collar to both of their shoulders, then meeting down at the top white button. The edges of the jacket extended just above his humanoid knees. Their shirt was white, and their tie was dark gray. Their face was the most distinctive as their right side was covered in a deep shadow-like tone to the point where that side cannot be seen. Their short wolf-cut hair was ink black, reaching just at the suit collar. Like every other entity, their exposed eye was dark gray with a bright white pupil.

Halt smirked to see Jack appearing, now knowing that they’re not alone. While Jack was rubbing his head, Halt spoke up, “Hey Jack!”

“Hey-...”

“AHH!! WHO’S THAT?!”

Kaya screamed loudly at the top of her lungs, sounding absolutely terrified from the other’s sudden appearance. Jack jumped from hearing the human squealing and quickly whispered to Halt, “Is that the human? I heard about you helping them. Everyone is really adoring her.” Halt nodded once before they looked over at Kaya, who was hiding herself underneath the blanket. Halt started laughing as they hopped over and lifted up the blanket to reveal Kaya looking very scared. Halt spoke to her, “Kaya, it’s ok. Jack is another friend in the hotel.”

“Hey kid…” Jack started off, making a nervous laugh since he wasn’t intending to scare the human, “It’s ok…! I don’t bite.” Kaya still looked scared, until Halt spoke.

“Kaya, this is Jack. He can teleport too, like you.” Halt mentioned to Kaya, introducing Jack to the human, “That’s how he got in the closet.” Kaya gasped quickly, “Y-You can teleport too?” while leaning forwards a bit with complete wide eyes, just before her beanie fell forwards to cover up both of her eyes.

“Yup…! That’s how I get around the hotel. Running is overrated by the way.” Jack spoke in a funny humorous voice that made Kaya smile as she adjusted her beanie again, “Seek might get me if he heard me, but hey…worth it!” as he shrugged both of his shoulders along with a smirk. Halt smiled, but also giggled as well from the other’s response. Kaya, with curiosity, hopped off the bed and walked over to Jack. Her height was about at Jack’s hips. Kaya said to the entity, “I’m Kaya! I have teleport powers too!”

“Light says that she’s a special human.”

“I can tell.” Jack agreed before closing his eyes, “I don’t need to see if she can teleport. I can sense that power radiating from her.”

Jack nodded for a second, as Halt got concerned about what he was doing.

“In fact…it’s getting stronger by the second.”

He paused just as Kaya suddenly vanished into thin air without warning. Halt wasn’t sure what to point out first; the fact that Kaya suddenly teleported somewhere in the hotel, or that Jack could sense when Kaya’s teleportation powers are about to activate. Halt spoke to Jack, “How did you know she’s about to teleport?!” Jack shrugged his shoulders a bit as he replied, “I don’t know…I just developed that psychic ability to sense humans. I didn’t think that I could sense someone else’s powers activating…!”

“...Sensing someone’s powers activating?! That’s truly an amazing 6th sense-…” Halt thought before an idea came to mind. Halt spoke to Jack quick, “Mind if you stay around for a bit? Kaya may need your help.”

“Sure, what’s the mission?”

Jack responded, sounding ready to take on whatever throws at him. Halt explained, “Unlike us, Kaya cannot control her teleportation powers. Her learning progress so far, hasn’t improved a lot since her powers can activate suddenly at any moment.” Their speech was starting to become faster and more high-pitched by each word, “And since you have the psychic ability to sense someone’s powers activating, and was wondering if you can help by-...”

“Sure!”

Jack agreed instantly in a cheerful tone without needing to hear the rest of Halt’s request, “An out-of-control power can act like a curse. It’s best to get someone to sense one’s powers until that user can do it on their own, before its too late.” Jack nodded once, “From the sounds from what you’re saying, Kaya needs all the help she can get. I can’t imagine her powers getting to the point where they can’t be controlled…” Jack sighed like he too had been in this type of situation, before he started to sense something, “One moment…”

Jack paused quick as he closed his eyes again while becoming very silent while taking a deep breath. Halt didn’t speak, but just let the other do their thing as he looked like he was deep in concentration. Jack opened his eyes and quietly spoke after a few seconds, “I can sense Kaya’s energy in the next hotel room…” As they were about to move, one of the wooden doors suddenly opened up, revealing the young girl giggling happily as she ran and hugged Halt from behind.

“AHA! I FOUND YOU TWO!”

Kaya squealed while hugging Halt’s leg tightly. Halt giggled from the human’s cheerfulness before they looked over at Jack, now figuring that Jack may be the one to help fill the gap in Kaya’s learning curve. Halt said to Jack, "I don't know how you developed this ability, but this could help Kaya so much." Jack nodded, agreeing to Halt's statement, before he spoke to the other entity, “I may not be able to attack humans, but I'd be honoured to help in Kaya’s training.”

"Promise?" Kaya spoke up as she let go of Halt and came over to Jack, who kneeled down onto one knee, as he responded, "I promise, kid." as Kaya immediately squealed, "YAY!!" as she hugged him tightly while cheerfully saying, "Thank you!"

"No problem!" Jack replied, smiling to hear the young girl excited, "Let's get started, shall we?"

Chapter Text

“Wow, this is the cleanest abandoned hotel I’ve ever seen…”

The human thought to themself as they continued to walk through each door, one room being different from the other.

“What is keeping the place so clean, despite no one around…?”

As the human walked through each door into the different rooms, the hotel fell into silence, as usual. About two or three rooms behind the human, the lights flickered a bit as two entities suddenly appeared out of nowhere after the last flicker of the lights, without them breaking when they both arrived. Rush, appearing in his smoke black aura, and Ambush, appearing in his green and pink glowing aura, were fighting over to decide who was going to attack the invading human first. Right now, they were both at Door 4 while the human was about two or three rooms ahead of them, without knowing their presence.

“Ok bro, who wants to attack first?”

“Am…” Rush sighed, his head dropping forward a bit before glancing over at his brother, “I know you well that you want to get them as early as possible. I’m just trying to stop you from attacking them just after room 1.”

“What can I say, bro?” Ambush responded while shrugging his shoulders with a confident smile, “I can’t help with my energy. I need a good running start!”

“Lucky for you…!” Rush sighed as he stopped at the doorway to the next room, “I need a good caffeine rush to help me-…”

“HOLD ON! Am I going first or you?” Ambush stopped Rush by quickly placing his right hand onto Rush’s left shoulder, pulling him back from the doorway. Rush turned around and replied, “I’m going first!” As his smoky black aura activated in an instant, accidentally knocking out a light from the wall behind him. Ambush even glanced over Rush’s shoulder to see the aftermath of the broken light.

“Opps...!” Rush blurted out, as they both glanced at each other.

“Heh, ok then.” Ambush said without hesitation after expressing a quick laugh while patting Rush’s shoulder through his smoky black aura, “After you do your turn, it’s my go. Deal?” Rush made a smirk, looking interested in the small deal, and replied, “Deal.” as they both did a fist-bump. Rush turned to face the upcoming rooms and corridors where the human that walked down.

“Let’s do this…” Rush spoke as he slightly lifted his right palm up, aiming close to his chest, as it gripped into a fist. The small action only made his aura grow stronger and denser. Ambush hopped backwards, just in time for the lights to flicker and Rush immediately took off down the upcoming rooms. As soon as he started running-…

BANG!!

BOOM!!

BANG!

BUZZ!!

The lights on the walls and ceiling all got knocked out almost immediately. Ambush was the victim of getting stuck in the dark, as his bright green and pink aura activated a few seconds later. He had his arms crossed over his chest while shaking his head at the same time, while expressing the same unimpressed look - he wasn't scared of being alone in the dark since he was use to it.

“Rush, you didn’t have to do that-…”

“HEY AMBUSH!!”

“WHAT THE-…” Ambush gasped quickly as he spun around and saw a small entity looking back at him. Ambush’s feared look turned into an emotionless expression, “SCREECH!!” He gasped as he caught his breath seconds after, “You scared me, bud…!” Ambush doesn’t react well to getting jumpscared, but a certain entity was an exception since the small entity can’t help jumpscaring their friend from behind.

“Sorry, Am! It’s what I do best!” The entity, now Screech, replied as he transformed back into his human-hybrid formation. He was so small despite being beside Ambush. Ambush was like 6ft, while Screech was around 3ft 5in, “Anyways, what are you doing here alone in the dark…?”

“Rush started his run, and he blew out all of the lights just a moment ago.” Ambush replied, adding a sigh at the end. Screech giggled from the entity’s response, as all six of his tentacle-like ‘hair’ slowly started to move around motionless like in outer space. Ambush smiled from Screech’s laughter, as he sounded like a young kid.

“So, how’s the human?” Ambush asked curiously. He started to recall the moments that he was told to be quiet by Rush. He was now starting to feel bad that he might’ve scared her without even knowing.

“You mean Kaya?”

“Yea, Kaya.” Ambush nodded.

“I haven’t seen her for a while! Halt took Kaya somewhere so she can rest.” Screech briefly explained, shrugging at the same time. Ambush didn’t really think that Halt would have been looking after Kaya, since he was thinking more about Guiding Light since they guide and help humans around the hotel.

He was unsure about why Halt was involved…

“Did the human hurt you or anyone…?” Ambush asked, sounding worried for the other entities’ safety. They all don’t know humans enough to know if they can trust them. Screech replied back, “Nope!” while shaking their head too, as their tentacle-like ‘hair’ aimlessly moved around, “I only saw Halt teleporting away with Kaya, since the human got hurt.”

“R-Really…?!” Ambush gasped, since he was amazed by how Halt is caring for the human, “This isn’t the Halt we know. This human might be brainwashing them…!”

“Guiding Light took the human to Halt. I don't think this is a brainwash.” Screech replied back, “Also, I became friends with the human! They’re really kind!” The small entity spoke without hesitation while hopping up and down for a few seconds, “I notice that she does get scared when one of us meets her for the first time.”

“How can we communicate with the human?” Ambush questioned the small entity, who replied with a smile, “Talking.” The tall entity just expressed a straight look, but didn’t say anything as a response. Screech just shrugged his small shoulders, tilting his head off to his left during his action, and said, “They can speak like us.”

“Hmm…Interesting-...”

BANG!!!

“AHH!”

A horrid scream was heard from the upcoming rooms in-front of the two entities. Screech and Ambush both froze quick in their conversation, as they both expressed wide eyes as their pupils shrunk quick, as they both glanced over at the next room in-front of them. The upcoming rooms were dark and eerie, despite having no light source - the dark rooms always gave anyone the fear of the dark. Neither of them dared to speak, until the echoes of the faint scream faded off moments later.

“W-What was that…?!”

“I don’t know…It sounded like Rush may have found a human or-…”

BANG!!

A loud thud erupted the small room, cutting off Ambush’s theory, as he and Screech noticed someone lying on the ground in the upcoming room.

“Rush?! Is that you?!” Screech called out as they both ran over to the figure on the ground. Ambush made his aura brighter and stronger, so not a bit of darkness can be seen.

“Ow…!”

“Kaya?!”

“Screech?!”

The young voice instantly became familiar to the small entity. Thanks to Ambush’s bright green and pink aura, Kaya was seen just sitting up. Screech fell onto both of his knees as he spoke to her, “Are you ok?”

“Y-Yes…” Kaya replied, sounding shaken before she hugged Screech. The small entity hugged her back, to give her comfort from appearing into another random area of the hotel. At the same time, Ambush watched the two, contemplating what he was witnessing, as he started to talk to Screech in a more quiet tone, “This is the human…?”

Screech nodded.

“How did she get here so fast?!”

“She has teleportation, like all of us, but hers are…” Screech paused as he and Kaya let go of each other while Kaya wiped tears from her eyes, “…A bit out of control and needs someone to help her.” He turned back around and asked Kaya if she was ok, earning another yes again. Ambush came over and kneeled down beside the human. His excitement from meeting the human, has now turned to concern for her safety. This is absolutely rare for Ambush to express concern for a human.

“Are you the human that Halt is looking after…?” Ambush asked the human, who just nodded as she wiped her eyes again and added, “Y-Yea. W-Who are you…?” She spoke like she was more confused than ever since she had never met Ambush until now…

“I’m Ambush.” The entity introduced himself.

“A-Ambush…?” Kaya echoed, pronouncing his name wrong. He got worried if she would get freaked out, but was surprised when she said, “Someone called Rush told me about you.”

“He did?”

“Yea. He says that you are crazy.” Kaya spoke in broken english. Ambush’s concern soon turned into a surprised expression, while Screech covered his mouth as he started to laugh. Ambush didn’t expect that to happen - now creating a mental note to go find Rush after the human leaves the hotel.

“Ah man.” Ambush sighed, expressing a small smile, “Did he really say that I’m crazy?”

Kaya nodded, still expressing her big smile before she started to giggle.

“Kaya! Hahaha!” Screech blurted out before he too started laughing, but managed to calm down quickly and continued to speak, “Do you know where Halt is?” Kaya shook her head and added, “No.”

“Do you remember the room number?”

Kaya shook her head again.

“Oh no…” Ambush sighed, “I bet Halt would be worried sick.”

……… ……… ……… ……… ………

Meanwhile, with Halt and Jack. The two were still in the small hotel room. The moment that Kaya suddenly teleported away without warning, immediately made Halt fall into a panic. This time, Jack was with them. Jack was trying to sense Kaya’s energy level, exposed from her aura when she teleported.

“Oh no!! Where did she go?!” Halt gasped as they were calling out her name a few times, in hopes that she’ll respond.

Unfortunately…to no avail…

“Halt! It’s gonna be ok!” Jack spoke up to the other entity, pausing his concentration as he lowered his right hand down from the side of his head, as he glanced over at Halt, “She’ll be around here somewhere. Does she know how to raise her energy levels?”

“I’m not even sure if she can.”

“Maybe she’s in the other three rooms close by.” Jack spoke up. Halt, within an instant, ran out one of the open doors and into the massive space where there are other three hotel rooms in sight. While Halt was out of the room, Jack continued on with his concentration. As he closed his eyes and placed his right hand on the side of his head again, blending in with his short ink black hair, he wasn’t sure if he was picking up a form of energy since there were a few fading in. No matter where he turns his head, the energy levels that he can sense are all faint.

He opened his eyes again, sighing as he fell onto one of his knees. The amount of concentration to sense another’s aura is one thing, but with a human with a special gift that cannot be controlled - it’s a whole new level of mental exhaustion.

“I can’t find the kid from here…What room is this…?”

Jack thought to himself before he got back up and ran out of the room, and into the corridor where he saw one of the other doors opened wide. At the end of each corridor, one of the doors was boarded up, a door with no number plate and another with a random number on it. Jack’s glance caught on with the door with the number plate, at the opposite side of the corridor.

‘0063’ - The number plate displayed.

“Past the library…? Interesting…” Jack mumbled to himself, “How did Halt get the human past the library without Figure hearing her heartbeats?” Jack wasn’t wrong. Figure’s acute sense of hearing is like sensing a strong earthquake for them, but for everyone else it felt like weak tremors. Figure’s hearing is very sensitive so they can hear what’s going on from many rooms away from the library at a time.

“Hey Halt!” Jack called out, turning around at the same time to see if the other was anywhere.

No sight of the entity…

“We’re in room 62 at the moment-…”

“She could have teleported to the library where Figure is!!”

Halt’s voice was heard in one of the rooms on his right. He walked over to the small room and just noticed Halt walking out, almost bumping into each other without warning. The only thing that separated them both, was the thin wooden doorway. Jack noticed that Halt was starting to become stressed out, and he didn’t blame them once for feeling this way.

“Light is gonna kill me-…”

“No they won’t.” Jack reassured to the other, “Light will never go after anyone. This will be solved in no time…” he paused as he saw Halt looking like they were about to give up on the search. Jack knew Halt well that nothing gets them down like this, “Let’s head off to the library. Maybe Figure can help...”

“But Figure despises humans…”

“Remember that Figure has their acute senses. If we can explain what's going on, they could possibly help with the search.”

Halt did have to think about it. Kaya could be anywhere in the hotel, so the only entity that can detect movement from afar is Figure themself. Halt made a quiet sigh, before nodding once, agreeing to Jack’s idea. Jack didn’t say anything before they both started to walk out of room 62, towards 61 and so on.

While on their walk, Jack was in-front while Halt stayed behind him. Halt was looking down at the floorboards passing by while their cloak partially dragged behind. Jack noticed Halt’s gloomy aura and hopped beside them and asked quietly, “Want to talk about it…?” Halt shook their head a few times without making a sound. Jack didn’t want to push the other to saying anything else since the answer was obvious in their current expression. Jack nodded once and stayed quiet after that, but he didn’t expect Halt to speak a moment later.

“Well…There is something that has been bothering me…” Halt quietly spoke, still glancing down at the floorboards.

“Do tell.” Jack asked, not expressing dramatically, as he glanced over at Halt.

“Light told me that…I have a similar trait to my human life…”

“What’s the trait…?”

“I-I was once a security guard for this hotel before it shut down and became abandoned...” Halt replied, sounding a bit hesitant in their own voice. With the stress of losing Kaya in the hotel, the thought that Light mentioned to them being a security guard in their past life, was annoying them like a swarm of bees, “I’m sure Light wanted me to keep this hidden from everyone…Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“It’s ok, this’ll only be between us.” Jack promised, “So…Why did Light tell you this…?”

“I-I don’t know exactly…but I’m sure that it was my past human life that led to their decision to choosing me.” Halt explained, sounding confused in their voice, “They said that I was the toughest security guard in the hotel, until one fateful day…”

“A fateful day…?”

“Yea.” Halt nodded, “But Light never told me what happened.”

“Well, I gotta say…Light wasn’t wrong about the tough security guard part.” Jack spoke after a moment of silence. Halt looked over at the other, now looking curious rather than stressing out, “Not in a bad way!! You’re really great!! I-I m-mean…uh…” Jack’s panic response made Halt smile, along with a quick laugh before saying, “It’s ok…! I know what you saying…! Hehehe!” Jack managed to calm down after his panic since he didn’t wanna throw anything else onto the other.

“You’re saying that I have a strong behaviour type, like being assertive…is it?”

Jack nodded and added, “Yup! And I’m sure Light may have seen that in you. Besides, I bet that Light has been here since the grand opening of the hotel.”

“Really?”

“Yea!” Jack nodded again, “Otherwise, how would they know that you were a security guard?”

“That’s true…” Halt replied back, just before a loud thud was heard straight after. Halt glanced over to their left and noticed Jack was no longer beside them, except for groaning sounds. Halt stopped quick and looked down at the floorboards, only to see Jack face down on the ground, like he had tripped. Both of his arms were out in-front of him, along with one of his legs were up - like a cartoon character had fell.

“Whoa-…”

“Hey düd! You ok?”

Another voice was heard before Halt even asked if Jack was ok. Halt noticed a small wooden chair with a small red entity standing on top of it. The entity looked like a small red goblin with two long ears, nose, two big yellow eyes, and was wearing brown fabric ripped shorts and had one spiked wristbands on both of their wrists. Their two small hands were holding onto the back of the chair frame, as they were keeping their balance while standing.

“There’s a mat that’s rolled up over there. Surely that’s why you fell, amigo!” The goblin paused as they looked over at Halt, “Your friend is clumsy-…”

“Yo! El Goblino!”

Jack squealed as he quickly hopped back up again. Halt looked surprised since they had never met El Goblino before.

“How are you doing, bud?!”

“Very well, hombre!” El Goblino replied back as they both fist-bumped each other’s fists, “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Halt.” Jack introduced before looking over at the other entity, who looked nervous and confused, “Halt, this is El Goblino, Bob and Jeff.” Halt was ok at first, now being introduced to a new entity, but they didn’t expect two more names to be said. Halt said curiously, “Wait…Bob? Jeff?”

“Jeff is the shopkeeper behind you.” Jack mentioned as the entity turned around to see a small shop display behind them, along with a small sign saying above ‘Jeff’s Shop’. In the darkness behind the crates and items, revealed two white circular eyes and a few tentacles appearing straight after. Halt was ready just in-case if Jeff was dangerous, but all it did was wave at the entity while expressing a happy look.

“Hai fellow entity…! My name is Jeff!” Jeff called out, sounding happy like an innocent kid. Halt smiled and waved back and replied, “H-Hey…!”

“Yea düd! No need to be worried about him, he’s friendly with everyone.” El Goblino spoke up, along with Jeff nodding a few times. Jeff just looked so innocent, due to seeing a new visitor in the room. Halt spoke up, “Nice to meet you Jeff.” As they turn around to look at El Goblino, “You mentioned someone named Bob? Where is he?”

“Yea düd!” Goblino nodded, “Bob’s next to you!”

Halt froze immediately before they got themself to quickly spin around to their right, their hair following up, before they immediately spotted something on the other chair, sitting idle quite close to them. Instead of a living subject, Bob is a skeleton with a gray hat on. Their jaw hinged down a bit, but not too extreme, and its right arm was resting on the wooden planks on top of the makeshift ‘table’. Halt gasped and jumped away from Bob while yelping, almost tripping on their own cloak but managed to catch themself by holding onto the wooden pole behind them.

“Whoa! What happened to Bob?!” Halt gasped while expressing wide eyes.

“Halt! It's ok!” Jack spoke up as he ran over to Halt, who looked like they were about to run out of the room. No one in the hotel has ever seen a skeleton before, except for El Goblino and Jeff.

“Easy düd! Bob’s friendly too!” El Goblino quickly reassured, “Aren’t you, Bob?” Bob didn’t move or speak, even Jack and Halt looked over at Bob to see if it’ll respond back, just before El Goblino spoke up again, “Hehehe!! Yup, he sure is!” He then looked over at Jack and then Halt, “So, what brings you two here?”

“We need to get to the library. Is the library far from here?”

“The library entrance is just behind the closed door over there!” El Goblino replied while pointing towards the opposite side of the room, where a lonely door stood without a number plate on it. The door looked like it hasn't been opened for a while.

“Thanks bud!”

“Eh, no worries düd! Say…Why are you going to the library anyways? That macho-meat düd will get ya if you’re not careful.” Gobino curiously asked, even Jeff looked curious as well as one of their white circular eyes closed a bit, tilting off to the left. Jack replied, “There is a human that Halt is trying to find, and we need to make sure that she doesn’t get hurt.”

“A human? Don’t you two and your friends hate humans…?” Goblino did have a good point. Ever since he arrived at the hotel with Jeff and Bob, the only thing that he knew about the entities is that they would hunt down humans. He never understood why, but he rather not take any chances to find the answer.

“We do, but this human is…different from the others.” Halt paused mid-speech, not really sure how to explain, until Jack helped out, “This human is young and has a special ability that she can’t control.”

“Special ability?!” El Goblino gasped in shock, “That’s bad! Gotta make sure that macho-meat düd doesn’t get her!” Halt looked over at Jack, confused about what El Goblino meant by ‘macho-meat düd’, even Jack didn’t understand what it meant, until the goblin added, “Ya know? That very tall fellow that likes walking around the library?”

“Oh! You mean Figure!” Halt guessed, earning a nod from the small entity while hopping up and down on the chair, while exclaiming, “Yes düd!”

“Be careful…! You might fall…!”

El Goblino noted Jack’s comment, nodding as a response after hopping, before he quickly hopped down from his chair and walked over to Halt. El Goblino is so small compared to the tall entity alone. Halt kneeled onto one knee to get closer to the other.

“I like you, hombre! Let’s be friends!” El Goblino said as he held his small right hand out in-front, towards the other entity. Halt quickly glanced over at Jack, who was smiling and nodded randomly. Halt looked back at the small goblin and carefully gripped onto his small red hand, preforming a handshake. Halt wasn't sure how strong El Goblino is, so they just did a light handshake just in-case.

“Awesome düds!” Goblino excitedly cheered, after letting go of Halt's cyan-toned hand, “Say, you two won’t mind if we tag along too?”

“Well…I don’t see why not.” Halt agreed, now getting more comfortable with talking to the new entities, “It’s best to get more entities to help with the search.”

“Awesome again!” Goblino replied, also Jeff looking excited as they moved their tentacles around like they were happy. Bob…didn’t really react at all. Goblino looked over at Jack and spoke to him, “Hey düd, you still have that special sixth sense, do ya?” Goblino said curiously to the black n white entity, who nodded once, “Have you tried it out yet to find the human?”

“I have before, but I couldn’t sense her-” Jack paused quick as an idea came to mind, “Say…What room is this?”

“Room 52, why?” Goblino answered, now curious about why Jack was asking this. On the other hand, Halt was surprised by how they made it from room 63 to 52 in a short amount of time without using teleportation. They watched as Jack walked over to the wall, opposite side of Jeff’s shop, before placing his palm against the wood wall, firmly in place. The trio looked at each other before Jack continued to speak, “I’m gonna do what Figure does.”

“I don’t think that sixth sense can work on walls, düd.” Goblino sighed, shaking their head at the same time.

“Eh…Wouldn’t hurt to try.” Jack simply replied, not sounding too worried if it was going to fail or not, “While I’m doing this, try and get the library doors to open.” At this point, they needed a plan and one was just made up on the spot. Halt was mainly glad that they have entities that agreed to help find Kaya. Jack nodded before he closed his eyes and tilted his head forwards a bit. As soon as he did, the whole room's atmosphere soon turned eerie. The amount of concentration that Jack was doing, was so strong that the trio could feel his aura present. Jeff, Halt and El Goblino all looked at one another, before Halt slammed both of their palms together, as their cloak flew up a bit and then back down.

"We're racing against time at the moment." Halt sighed, "Let's get to the library...!"