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Stand in place. Wait for someone to find him. Get on the elevator if someone did, continue the cycle of standing if someone didn’t. Leave when he gets bored. Go into his fort at night.
Lampert had repeated the same process of actions for longer than he could remember. He didn’t mind that, of course. Ever since Kasper had gotten sick, he didn’t have anything better to do. He fidgeted with the bracelet on his arm, one that Kasper made him while they were still friends. Dwelling in his thoughts, Lampert barely heard the bell noise the elevator made.
“Just wait for someone to find you,” he thought to himself, ceasing his action with his bracelet. He blankly stared off into the distance, counting the seconds in his head. Even though only a minute had passed, it felt like an eternity to Lampert. Usually it wouldn’t take this long for someone to find him unless they were alone. Even then, he never waited that far from the elevator. He made sure to be close, but not too close, just to give the people inside some entertainment. Tapping his foot impatiently, he heard the noise of the elevator departing. Seems like no one was able to find him. It didn’t bother him though. He had gotten used to it, and at this point it was just a minor inconvenience to him. Just as Lampert was about to start fiddling with his bracelet again, he heard someone’s footsteps.
Odd.
No one usually stayed in ROKEA after the elevator left. Were they supposed to be here?
He clenched his fists, only shaking a little bit. This was weird. Out of the ordinary. And the same time, it was so interesting. This was something new to him. As he resisted the urge to sneak out of his position to get a glimpse of the person, he heard faint sobbing.
”Oh fiddle faddle,” the voice said. It sounded congested. Lampert shivered, hoping the person wasn’t carrying any sort of illness. “Now where am I?” The voice sniffled a little bit before breaking into soft sobs.
Now Lampert was getting nervous. Clearly the person was lost. This wasn’t something unusual. But hearing the weeping coming from the faceless voice filled him with a feeling new to him. Suddenly, he heard the footsteps get closer. Crap.
He barely had time to think before he saw a short blue-green caterpillar trembling below him.
”G’ohh… I’ll never get out of here…” They were wiping their eyes with soft, pale white hands while sniffling. Lampert analyzed the creature before him. Feeling pity, he began to hesitantly speak in an effort to comfort them.
”Hey,” his voice was almost inaudible, but it still caused the bug to jump back and trip over themselves. They fell to the ground with a soft honk, and their weak crying quickly shifted into bawling. Lampert jolted at the sudden movement and crouched down to the creature’s level. “Oh, I didn’t mean to—“
“Eeuugghh!” The caterpillar curled up into a fetal position while covering their face with one pair of arms and clinging onto their tail with another. “I just wanna go hooome!” They let out weak honks as they choked on their sobs.
Lampert stared at them with a frightened expression. What was he supposed to do. “Errr- it’s okay, bug… thing… I’m not going to hurt you.” He tried to keep his voice as low and as gentle as possible, making sure to not scare the poor thing even more.
They peeked through their fingers, looking at the slender, metallic figure with a blank, yet worried smile on his face. “Well golly,” they wept, still gasping for air as they wiped tears from their eyes, “I suppose it’s my fault for jumping like that…”
Lampert let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s alright. People get lost in here more than you’d think.” He shifted his body to a more comfortable sitting position and looked at the bug, still curled up in a fetal position. “You might want to get comfortable. The elevator usually takes a while to get here.”
They uncurled their body and looked at Lampert with big watery eyes. “Guhh… How long does it take to arrive exactly?”
”A few hours,” Lampert thought to himself. Obviously he wasn’t going to tell them that though. They’d just start sobbing again. “It… changes from time to time,” he spoke hesitantly, trying to mask his white lie.
”Oh fiddlesticks…” The caterpillar uncurled and sat with their legs crossed and their excessive amount of arms on the floor. Their head was down, but Lampert could tell their crying had slowed. “I guess I should probably know you more if I’m going to be here for a while…” They let out a sad sounding honk before looking up at Lampert. “Well… I supposed I should start… I’m Pilby. What’s your name?” Pilby’s sad expression changed to a softer, yet nervous expression.
”Pilby…” Lampert muttered the name to himself before clearing his throat. “I’m Lampert. Nice you meet you Pilby.” He weakly smiled, but quickly frowned when Pilby stuck one of their hands out for a handshake. He shuddered a bit. “No thank you. I don’t do handshakes. Or any contact.”
”G’ohh… I see. Sorry about that…” Pilby retracted their hand and looked back down at the floor.
Lampert felt a small pain in his chest, something that he could only assume was a feeling of guilt. “It’s alright. You didn’t know.”
Pilby smiled at Lampert’s soft and calm voice and played with their fingers for a bit before speaking again. “So, what do you usually do he—“
The lights shut off with a booming noise, leaving the two in complete darkness, with the exception of lamps scattered around the store. Lampert sat as still as a statue, expression unchanging. He was already used to this cycle. Keeping track of the days and nights in his head, he concluded that it was his 16,323rd night here. Granted, the days were short, but it still felt like a while to him. In contrast, Pilby stumbled forward, letting out a pathetic honk and yelp. They clung to Lampert, hiccuping and sniffling into his chest. The cold metal caused them to shiver a bit, but they were too distracted by their fear to notice the frigid sensation.
Lampert froze, looking down at the pitiful sight. At first, he felt disgust. The feeling of Pilby’s slimy hands on his back was horrendous, something he’d have to clean off later. However, at the same time, Lampert felt some sort of compassion toward the bug. Gazing at Pilby weeping into his chest, he felt like he needed to comfort them in the moment. They were muttering inaudible things like, “please,” “I want my momma,” “I wanna go home,” and an assortment of other noises Lampert couldn’t decipher. He hesitantly moved his hand up and softly placed it on Pilby’s head. They were still crying, but they seemed to be a bit calmer. Lampert was grateful that the blue thing on Pilby’s head wasn’t more slimy skin, but instead a hood made of a soft fabric. He began gently rubbing their head.
”Hey, uh,” he lulled his movement for a bit before continuing and speaking in a soothing voice. “It’s alright. Nothing bad is going to happen here.” Pilby mumbled something into Lampert’s chest, but it came out as muffled gibberish. He moved his hand off their hood. Pilby let out a soft wince from the lack of contact, much to Lampert’s confusion. He tugged on his pull chain, making it so that the area around the two was well-lit.
Pilby looked up at Lampert, squinting a little bit. Half because of the tears in their eyes, half because of the bright light Lampert was emitting. “Thank you,” they softly croaked out before pulling themself away from Lampert.
”Finally,” was what Lampert should have been thinking. And yet, the lack of Pilby’s warmth around him bothered him a little, as much as he hated to admit it. At least he was able to clean the slime off of him now. He got up and looked down at Pilby, now sitting in their original position. They looked back up, with a soft expression that made Lampert shudder. He wasn’t prepared to dwell on exactly why he shuddered at the sight of them. He stared at Pilby for a bit before he snapped out of his daze finally spoke up.
”You know, we don’t have to stay here until the elevator comes. I have a fort we can stay in for the time being.” Pilby perked up at this. They seemed happy to be able to stay in a place that resembles a home. Lampert smiled a bit. “You can uh… follow me. If you like,” he mumbled, with his voice trailing off near the end. Pilby nodded, getting to their feet as Lampert walked in the direction of his fort.
The fort was a bit small, but it would have to do for the time being. Besides, Pilby was short. If it could fit Lampert, it could probably fit the both of them. It was made out of wooden pallets, each one being thoughtfully placed on top of the other to form a cube-like structure. Lampert shifted one of the pallets to the side, making an opening for the two to go inside. As Lampert closed the hole behind him, Pilby looked around the fort in awe. Even though it was a bit cramped, it was full of little things and decorations. On the left, there was a corner full of some blankets and plush toys. The large brown bear plush caught Pilby’s attention. On the right side, there was a lamp resembling a head that cycled through the colors of the rainbow while glowing. Next to the lamp was a in a small picture frame. From what Pilby could see, it featured Lampert next to a person they didn’t recognize. The two items were placed on top of an office desk, which had a strange purple cube underneath it. As the room was lit up with various different colors, Pilby let out a small gasp in amazement.
Lampert gazed at them, looking at how they reacted to the place. He always felt proud of himself for keeping the place well kept, but other than Kasper, no one saw the well-decorated fort before. Seeing the way Pilby reacted to the place filled him with a slight amount of joy.
Lampert walked over to the office desk, shuffling through one of the drawers before pulling out a handkerchief. As he wiped the slime off of his body, Pilby stood in place, not really knowing what to do. It seemed like Lampert was aware of this. “You can make yourself comfortable,” he said, glancing at Pilby while he cleaned himself.
Pilby hesitantly walked over to the side with plushies and blankets, nestling themself against the brown bear and pulling one of the blankets over their body. “Waow… it’s so soft…” They nuzzled their face against the red blanket on top of them. “Momma would love this kind of blanket,” they muttered to themself, trying to make sure Lampert didn’t hear.
Lampert wiped the last of the slime off of his body and ambled over to Pilby, watching them rub themself all over his items. Even though they were getting their slime all over everything, Lampert’s disgust was clashing with some weird emotion in his head. It made him feel strange, weak, and perhaps a little bit dizzy. He gently plopped onto the floor next to Pilby, making sure to keep his distance so he doesn’t get slime on him again.
”Golly… I really gotta thank you for this,” Pilby murmured, with their speech already slowing from exhaustion. They hadn’t been here for a while, but perhaps they were tuckered out from all of the crying earlier. Lampert just gave them a small nod along with a gentle smile. Pilby yawned a bit before snuggling against the plush toys once more.
”You can sleep,” Lampert whispered. “I’ll wake you up when the elevator is here.”
All Pilby had the energy to do was make a small “mm-hm” noise before shutting their eyes and drifting off into sleep. Lampert looked at them for a while, gazing all of the details on their face. A small part of him wished the elevator wouldn’t come for a while. He reached his hand out and softly rubbed the side of Pilby’s hood, gentle enough to not wake them up. He felt the warmth of their body and listened to the soft snores they made as they slept.
He wanted to stay like this for a while.