Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

IN THE GRACE REALM

John Grace ran down the alleyway's hallways that twisted and turned in their own ways. Sometimes he had to slide down the stairs, while other times he had to make sharp turns down them in order to prevent himself from bumping into walls by accident. However, none of these hallways were new to him, as he's memorized them quite well. He's even found himself smiling whenever he successfully wall kicked to avoid Elkman or Slight.

Even if he was on the ground, they were no match for his speed. The three traits John used- Cog, Teddy Bear, and Spiked Boots -benefitted him greatly by making the breaker rooms less time consuming (though if possible, he would wall kick over the room entirely if he didn't feel like dealing with them), since the Cog allowed him to turn on the breakers without having to physically touch them. The only con about it was dealing with KooKoo every now and then. Thankfully, the dumb blue ball only stuck with the number five. The Spiked Boots made him wall jump whenever he unequipped his items and ran into a wall at the same time. Even though it took his eyes a couple seconds to adjust to the darkness, he was still able to make out which way he was going. The Teddy Bear was his personal favorite because it made him go faster than normal over time when sliding down stairs. He stuck with these traits in every run of his, knowing that without them, Elkman would be annoying again, just like it was back in the day.

Regardless of how many times John died from a horrible combo, he kept going despite him feeling frustrated after locking in for each run. But that's exactly why he's trying again-- he's using his anger as fuel to keep him going. That's what the mysterious Eye told him to do, after all.

As soon as John entered the fourth Saferoom, he took a deep breath. He now had to deal with that yellow bitch, but he was prepared. In the last several runs, that thing kept appearing at the worst times possible. The last time he reached this far he was combed by Elkman, Sorrow, and that yellow smiling ball. Regardless of how experienced he was at dodging the entities, sometimes it was impossible to avoid combos.

The moment the timer loaded in, he dashed out of the Saferoom and made his way through the dark Alleyway. He wall kicked to avoid Elkman, which appeared ten doors in. Though that's when John Grace noticed something strange-- Carnation wasn't spawning in like it normally would every 12 doors. But that actually worked in his favor, since he didn't have to deal with that yellow ball. So he continued until he was caught off guard by Sorrow, and instinctively hid under a doorframe. Once the red rain passed John continued on, though he was wondering why the Rusher entity wasn't spawning in. Almost a minute has passed and he's encountered all of the main entities excluding Dozer and Carnation.

"Oh well," he shrugged. "The combos shouldn't be so bad this time, then."

John felt that he was almost there-- to the fifth Saferoom. He just had a gut feeling about it, but he felt that his rapidly beating heart proved it more. Quick, the red light from the red eye. Look at it. Elkman at a breaker room? No problem since Carnation still wasn't spawning. Sorrow didn't serve that much of a purpose since Dozer wasn't spawning either, but he still did what he could. After opening another breaker room, there were what looked to be a singular set of stairs. Of course he slid down them. The next four rooms had one singular set of stairs with Heed appearing in the last room with the stairs. He didn't look at it fast enough since it was right by the door, so he got hit by it. He brushed off the feeling of something clawing its way into his right eye and made a right.

That's when he saw it-- the vault he had to go in. The fifth Saferoom. He ran over to the final door, but KooKoo spawned, along with that yellow thing. The encounters were simple; he crouched for Dozer, then made his way to the fifth Saferoom-- or so he thought, anyway. He just fell down like he normally would, but the fall was longer than usual and everything around him was pitch black. The two entities disappeared, so why wasn't he entering the Saferoom? He felt the strong push of gravity propelling him downwards with the immense speed of him falling producing a painful whooshing sound of air around him. It felt like it was trying to tear off his eyelids, so he closed his eyes.

"What is going on?" He said to himself, though he could barley hear himself speak from the loud wind around him. John spoke to himself in order to prevent going insane, since he was the only one in this strange place the Eye put him in. He also talked to the entities as well sometimes, but only in order to insult them. The third being he talked to was Him; John Grace felt a sense of peace whenever he talked to the most mysterious being of them all. He even heard Him in his mind whenever he failed a run, and occasionally dreamt about Him and speaking to Him in his sleep (he napped at Saferooms if he absolutely needed a break). Simply thinking about this being he believed in wiped the confusion and slight concern clean from his mind.

"John..."

John opened his eyes and was immediately met with rain beginning to shower him. Where was he now? He was in a pitch black void, similar to the place he always was in, but why was there rain? Last he checked, there wasn't any rain in the starting point before he went down into the Alleyway. When he looked down, there were...water ripples in the distance? He blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. To his misfortune, everything was pretty much very real: the rain, the beautiful smell of sea salt from the sea below-

Wait...

He wiped the water from the rain that was trying to seep into his eyes, then fixed his gaze on the sea he was rapidly approaching below. He panicked, already imagining the stinging pain from practically cannonballing into the water from this speed.

"John...it's okay."

John Grace thought for a moment. He heard His voice, assuring him everything isn't as serious as he's making it out to be. So he took in as much air as possible once the smell of sea salt got stronger, squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose with his left hand, then helplessly curled himself into a ball before falling into the sea.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

IN THE PRESSURE REALM

"Sebastian...what a strange name." an almost pale blue creature from the shadows murmured. Its glowing blue eyes stared at the small prisoner in front of it, studying the interested expression on their face. "Y'know...I happen to share the same name as you."

An angler fish light flickered as it turned on, revealing someone who appeared to be human at first, but was then mutated into an enigmatic sea creature who acted like a human. The prisoner who stood several feet away was disturbed once they found out about who the creature really was. The horrors of thinking about the various surgeries the strange creature in front of them had to go under...

They put a hand to their mouth and staggered over to the three large crates by the exit. Calm down, they thought. It's not appropriate to behave like this in front of a shopkeeper.

"You need some water?" The creature asked them, its voice sounded concerned, but there was tint of disgust.

"No, I'm..." the prisoner gulped, trying to swallow down whatever nauseous feeling they were experiencing. "... I'm fine."

The fish creature narrowed its eyes slightly, then gently pushed a strand of its black human-like hair out of its face. The prisoner stood there by the crates for another few minutes before finally turning to the shopkeeper, then walked over to its tail to look at and test out the items that were there. A medkit might be helpful, since they've dealt with Abomination many, many rooms ago. Falling on the ground after escaping that barracuda-like entity really took a chunk out of their health. Expendable then looked at another item that stood out to them- a flashlight. That would benefit them in the Ridge. They then took a glance at the batteries sitting on the desk where the card to the next door was. After thinking for a bit, the prisoner bought the flashlight, medkit, and as many batteries as they could take before looking back up at the mutated creature.

"You said your name was also Sebastian, right?" Expendable said.

Yeah, why?" The fish sounded bored.

"I was thinking...maybe you can nickname me Seb since I don't want P A.I. nter to confuse us."

Sebastian smirked. "Don't worry about that. By the time he talks to me, he'd already know the difference between you and I."

"Hmm...can't say you'll promise that, can you?" The prisoner Sebastian chuckled.

"Whatever you say, kid." The fish sighed.

Expendable has been playing on this time loop for many months now, so their relationship with the shopkeeper was on good terms. But because it was a time loop every time they successfully retrieved the crystal, they had to have the same conversation with him, then had to deal with the rude guardsmen each time as well. Out of curiosity, however, they did kill P A.I. nter in a separate time loop. They shuddered at the memory as they left Sebastian's shop, the strange morse code from radio fading out of earshot.

Never again, They reminded themself.

They never let the guardsmen get to their head, though. Having that type of mindset helped move them forwards whenever they decided to start a new round. Even though they've already retrieved the crystal multiple times, they still head back down here so they can uncover more secrets about the rare rooms they were told about back at the main dock. Somebody even mentioned how there was a chance of the "Guardian Angel of the Banlands" room to appear in a run. That exact room- along with several others -is the reason why they haven't stopped...grinding, as they would put it.

As they made their way through the other half of the underwater facility, the lights began to flicker. It was safe to assume that whatever's coming will most likely either be Blitz, Angler, Chainsmoker, Froger, or-

Expendable's heart sank to their stomach once they recognized that dreadful low-pitched sound of metal echoing through the hallway from behind them slowly getting louder. Fear crawled up their spine, making them feel tense as they desperately made their way over to the nearest locker, but it was unfortunately occupied by one of those Void Mass squids. There was another locker far away, but it was almost too late. The recognizable screaming sound was heard as the Rusher entity rushed over to them. They were a second away from death once they hid in the Void Mass-free locker. The usual thing that happened with this strange Rusher entity was about to begin, so they took a couple deep breaths in and out to calm their suddenly fast beating heart.

Keep the circle in the middle, the text read. The prisoner put as much focus into the minigame as they could, and this minigame lasted for a while.

Once the Rusher entity finally left, Expendable walked out of the locker and continued on. They looked at the door number and noticed the number was 23. They nodded to themself and continued on to the next couple of rooms until there was an underwater room. They put their underwater gear on before entering the slightly warm water, then swam through the underwater room. The scuba diving-like helmet and the oxygen tanks from their diving gear helped them say underwater for prolonged periods of time, so anytime they had to go underwater, it wouldn't bother them. Once they were four rooms in, they noticed a huge hole on the left side of the vertical room they were in. Curious, they entered the hole, only to find themself in a tunnel.

Sebastian brought out their flashlight and turned it on, then made their way through the tunnel. It was a pretty long one since a couple minutes passed, and they still haven't seemed to have made their way out. Only a few seconds passed when they noticed the temperature of the water getting drastically colder compared to the slightly warm water that were in the underwater rooms. They glanced behind them, but only darkness was there, even with their flashlight on. They were expecting some metal from the submarine to be on the wall, but that was only visible right as soon as they entered this tunnel. Now there weren't any signs of the walls anymore. They felt that they were in an actual ocean- specifically in the deep end.

Is this an alternate route? Expendable thought as the tunnel ended. They looked around, but the only source of light was their flashlight, which was starting to run out of battery. They had to quickly get to the surface since the flashlight's insides weren't waterproof. As the prisoner adjusted themself so they could swim upwards, they noticed something a bit off once they reached back to instinctively feel the diving gear that would normally be there- the diving gear that was usually on their back was no longer there. They contained two oxygen tanks, and now they've seemed to have disappeared once the water turned cold. They only assumed that because they couldn't feel anything for some reason while in the tunnel.

Once their flashlight began to flicker from the low amount of battery life, they attempted to swim upwards faster. It seemed like they were deep underwater, but that raised the question: how come they didn't die from the overwhelming amount of pressure deep underwater? Thankfully they were underwater for five minutes now, so they weren't running low on oxygen- yet.

Where the hell am I? The prisoner thought. They then stopped trying to escape, realizing that there most likely wasn't a chance they'd be able to. If the Hadal Blacksite took place deep underwater, then it would only make sense for it to be basically impossible to get to the surface without passing out due to exhaustion. However, they didn't feel themself sink back down, nor did they feel any sort of pain from the pressure of the water. They just floated there, in the middle of an ocean with cold water. That's when they started to feel it- the oxygen slowly running out. Sebastian made sure to calm down, though there was nothing they could do about it. It was fine- they could just respawn, anyway. They've always been doing that.

Sebastian sucked in as much air as they could before they held their breath, testing to see how long they'd be able to survive. But what about Mr. Lopee? They were certain he was supposed to retrieve them, since they're technically out of bounds. Or were they? They were still near the facility, but they couldn't find it in this darkness.

Their flashlight officially died almost a minute later. Expendable felt defeat at that moment. What a strange side room they found themself in, and they weren't able to get back because it was pitch black down here. But their lungs were beginning to give in, as not breathing for this long was starting to make their lungs hurt. But there was almost no more oxygen. They were either gonna suffocate or drown, but they didn't care. All that mattered was that they were going to try again and again and again.

They closed their eyes, trying to block out the pain from not breathing for so long. Their lungs were screaming at Sebastian to breathe, so they vehemently did so. All of a sudden, they felt themself get lifted upwards at an immense speed, and a full load of oxygen entered their lungs. They gasped for air and shot their eyes open, shocked from whatever was happening.

I'm not a main character of a story, so what-

They flinched once they saw the water ripples above, indicating that they were at the surface. And just like that, their swimming gear disappeared within a blink. They then began treading the water and looked down only to spot...blue sparkles? Surrounding their black shoes?

"What the actual fuck just happened?!" Sebastian said aloud, genuine confusion shaping their facial expression.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Sebastian looked around and widened their eyes once they heard a strange thing rise to the surface several feet away from them. They heard someone as they hissed in pain, then cursed. When the prisoner looked at the person who was cursing in pain, they noticed a strange light blue outline around them. They decided to swim over them and grabbed their right forearm, then spotted a set of dark blueish-grayish stone stairs a few feet away. The prisoner struggled to bring them to the set of stairs, but once they did, they looked back at the person and watched as they struggled to blink. Their pure white eyes and small black pupils caught them off guard, but they didn't say a word.

The person looked at the other human being in front of him, then noticed they were holding his right forearm. "Do you...want to go up the stairs?"

The person with what seemed to be a navy blue jumpsuit seemed surprised that he could speak, but they nodded and guided his right hand over to the set of stairs. They then helped him get out of the water with their left hand while they held onto the side of the stairs with their right. Once the person was out of the water, Sebastian noticed that he was wearing all black. Even his skin was pitch black. The person in all black reached out his arms and helped the prisoner get out of the water as well. They took one last glance at the blue sparkles in the distance before turning to face the human in front of them, though they were awfully close to them.

The person with wide white eyes blinked, studying the confusion on their face before turning to the set of stairs and walking up them. Once Expendable followed him shortly after, they realized the water wasn't as cold as they thought it was once their swimming gear mysteriously disappeared. For the person in front of them, however, they seemed to be shivering.

"Uhm..." Sebastian immediately shut themself up. Despite the calm look on his face when he offered to help them up, the person in black still seemed to look tense.

But he still turned his head to look at them. "So you came from the sky as well?" His deep voice sounded a tad bit irritated, but he tried to hide it as he began hugging himself. The rain was not helping.

"No...I actually came from deep underwater." The prisoner said.

"Hm." The person in black looked ahead as a hotel that sat in the middle of the void sat there. He looked around and noticed that the hotel and the concrete ground appeared as if it was ripped out from reality and placed here. The large floating rocks and the tears from the ground and the hotel seemed to support his guess. 

The two went over to the two huge dark brown doors, then the person in black opened them. The smell of old wood filled their noses, and the fresh smell of clean carpet and moist soil from the recently watered potted plants made John Grace feel calm. He noticed the main lobby of the hotel was quite big from the amount of elevators there were, and there were even two red couches at the end of the hallway. Once the two humans noticed them, they walked over to them and immediately plopped down on the couches. The person with the strange white eyes looked bored as he rested his left hand on his head and stared into the fireplace. To his satisfaction, he was starting to shiver less because of the heat from the fire.

Sebastian looked at the person in front of them and folded their hands in their lap. "So, uhm...do you want to talk about yourself and how you got here, or...?"

The person in black looked at them. "Sure, you go first."

Expendable looked to the side. "My name's Sebastian, and I've been labeled as a prisoner because I stole...something in my previous life." they closed their eyes. "However, only a couple days after my life sentence, a man who covered himself in all black came over to my cell and asked if I wanted a second chance in life. I nodded, and then he bailed me out and had me sign a form. A week later I- along with other inmates I didn't recognize -were brought to a facility through a boat. It was the facility's main dock, and there us inmates had to retrieve some sort of crystal for a company. The guardsmen there labeled us as Expendable- we were not expected to return.  But instead of us going missing whenever one of us died, we were stuck in some sort of time loop whenever we failed to retrieve the crystal they wanted. If we succeeded, they would erase our documents and records and give us money so we could start a new life."

When Sebastian glanced at the man wearing all black, they noticed genuine interest in his eyes. "I see. Did you manage to retrieve the crystal?"

Expendable nodded. "I just chose to come back because I'm trying to discover rare rooms that I've been told about by other prisoners."

"So you're just exploring now?"

"Yeah, basically."

John moved his left arm, then rested his elbows on his knees as he leaned in. "Well then, I'll tell you about me. I'm John Grace, but you can call me John. I...uh..."

How do I say this without sounding weird... He thought.

"I go on walks in my hometown. Unfortunately, I wasn't the best person in my hometown. I was a prideful asshole who only thought of himself and did a lot of horrible things to people. I eventually realized that what I was doing was bad, so I ended up loathing myself for it. I've always been a believer, but I was blinded by hatred which is why I acted the way I did. While walking down my hometown one day, I saw an alley. I went down the alley and saw a pure white door. When I opened it, it was actually a portal, so I went in. Before I knew it, I was in this void with strange vault doors in front of me. It was like a small island, but there was ground instead of sand, and there were brown bricks that looked like porches." the man shrugged. "I think the being I believe in saw what I did and noticed I felt like shit about it, so He must've made that strange void for me so I can face my sins and fight them. And that's basically what I've been doing for the past several months. I've definitely changed as a person, especially since I can now see Him more while in that void."

"That sounds...interesting." Sebastian said. "How are you able to fight your sins, though?"

"In this void, there are these creatures that embody my sins." John said. "I can also parry them, but that's a conversation for another day."

"That's cool," Expendable smiled softly. "I'm an atheist though, so I can't relate to anything you mentioned. I wasn't a bad person either; in fact, I was completely fine until I found out the science department where I used to live made a time-travelling device."

"You tried to steal a time-traveling device?" John chuckled. "Why?"

Sadness flashed on Sebastian's face, but their weak smile still gave away some sort of guilt John couldn't identify.

"As we warm up, I'll eventually tell you. But I hope you understand that I'm not comfortable sharing that right now." Tears threatened to form in their eyes at the memory, but it's not like they've still recovered.

"Are you okay, though?" John sounded concerned.

They looked at him and noticed the slightly worried expression on his face. "Yeah, it's just been a while since I've last talked to a genuinely nice person who's also cared." They sighed.

"I can relate to that. To prevent myself from going insane, I either talked to myself, the entities, or Him since it was only me in that void." John Grace got up from his seat. "Anyway, what do you say we- ow!"

Something hard and cold dropped on his head from above, then it fell down in front of Sebastian's feet. John Grace looked at the object and noticed that it was a silver necklace with a black cross. It had a nice white outline to it. He crouched down to pick it up, then studied it a bit before putting it around his neck.

"As I was saying, what do you say we nap here for a few hours before checking out one of the elevators?" The man in all black sat back down in his seat.

"Yeah, good idea." Expendable watched as John leaned back and put his hands in his lap before closing his eyes.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Sebastian looked up at the ceiling to see why the strange necklace just came out of nowhere. They remembered the same thing happening with their diving gear, then their swimming gear. The strangest thing was when they felt like they were about to die from suffocation. Oxygen just out of nowhere filled their lungs and they were shot up to the surface from blue damn sparkles.

What the actual hell... They thought. There's clearly something or someone here. How else did all of this stuff happen? And why was there a faint blue outline around John? Where did the necklace come from? Maybe it was all caused by Mr. Lopee. They knew that he didn't like to get directly involved unless he absolutely needed to, like that one time when they killed P A.I. nter in that timeline. After the little incident with the fish Sebastian, Mr. Lopee told them to "stick to the script", whatever that meant.

If all of this recent stuff was in fact caused by you, Mr. Lopee... Sebastian thought. ...thank you for saving my life.

As soon as they closed their eyes, something fell on their face. When they opened their eyes, they were met with a wrapped organic fruit snack on their head. They took it off of their head and snacked on it, then crumbled it up and threw it as far as they could towards the exit. The prisoner then laid their head back and leaned back. It wasn't long until they drifted off to sleep, slowly closing their eyes in the meantime.

IN SEBASTIAN'S DREAM

Sebastian found themself treading water in the middle of a sea, and it was raining. They assumed they were in the exact same place they're currently in because of how cold the water was. But it was actually nice out here, even though they only had their Urbanshade jumpsuit on. They suddenly heard something move through the water- it sounded similar to Eyefestation.

Expendable began to swim the other way the noise was coming from, but it sounded as if the noise was following them. If they swam faster, it would only tire them out and-

They were grabbed by a four-fingered hand, then the speed drastically increased as the same set of stone stairs they've seen before appeared in the distance. Once the creature that grabbed them approached the stairs, the prisoner heard something groan as it struggled to get on the base of stairs. Once they looked behind them, the recognizable, fancy white shirt with a bulletproof jacket calmed them down. As the creature went up the stairs and light began shining on the thing that was holding them...

"Sebastian Solace?" The prisoner was surprised he's somehow found this place.

"Just call me Solace." the fish man rolled his eyes. "Anyway, how did you get here?"

Expendable never saw him before with enough light. Even though he looked intimidating, he actually had a good side to him if an Expendable left P A.I. nter alone. They weren't as terrified of him anymore.

"I was four rooms in for the underwater rooms I found, and then there was this side room that connected to a tunnel. I went through that tunnel and ended up deep underwater in the sea here. I almost began to suffocate from the lack of oxygen I had since my diving gear straight up vanished. All of a sudden, there was this load of oxygen that entered my lungs, and I was brought to the surface at an unbelievable speed. I ended up at this weird place with another person who came from the sky, apparently. And get this- there were blue fucking sparkles surrounding my feet after I was brought to the surface."

"And you're sure he didn't teleport you back into the Blacksite since you're technically out of bounds?" Sebastian Solace said.

"I'm pretty sure he brought me to the surface, but something else made all of my gear disappear." the prisoner Sebastian sighed. "There was also something that dropped a necklace on the person I was with and a snack was dropped on my head."

"You should record all of this, then. Just find something you can keep from this place and store it somewhere so you have evidence that this place exists." Solace dropped Expendable on the slippery concrete ground wet from the rain.

"I'll have to think hard on that, then." Sebastian looked to the side.

"Good. Cya," The fish man made his way back down the stairs and into the water.

How would I be able to keep something from here, though? They thought. I have zero clue what this place has in store, but I'm sure it's nothing.

The prisoner faced the hotel and opened the two brown doors. Once they looked to the left-

They were suddenly woken up by the sound of light snoring. They opened their eyes and looked at John, thinking that it was him. But then they saw brown curly hair in the corner of their eye. When they looked down to the left, they noticed another human being. They were snoring, curled up on the carpet a couple feet away from the two couches.

Sebastian was starting to get concerned. Where did they come from? At least John and I won't be alone. They thought.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Expendable got up from their seat and walked over to John Grace, then shook his shoulders until he woke up, shooting his eyes wide open.

"What?" he asked in a sleepy voice despite only being asleep for about an hour. "What happened?"

Sebastian pointed to the person sleeping face down on the ground, and when John looked at them, he audibly gasped so loudly it woke the sleeping person up. The person's brown curly hair was a bit messy, most likely hinting that they've been moving in their sleep. The brown-haired person slowly got up and opened their dark brown eyes to look at John first, then Sebastian.

He adjusted his clothes and fixed his cream collared shirt. While he was straightening his loose-fitting brown khaki pants, the person in all black noticed a lightly-haired mustache below the human's nose. He must be just a tad bit older than the other two, since he also appeared a bit taller than him.

"Uh, may I help you?" His deep voice had slight confusion in it.

"Where did you...come from?" John asked, getting up from his seat. "The sky or deep underwater?"

The man huffed out a weak chuckle. "What?"

"I came from the sky," the person in black said, pointing to himself. "And...this person here came from deep underwater. For context, they were exploring an underwater facility."

"Oh, I see..." the brown-haired human looked to the side. "Anyway, I think I should introduce myself to make things less awkward. My name's Jeremy, and I've grown to have an obsession with a certain something in the Hotel."

"What would that be?" Expendable sounded curious.

"Well...ever since I discovered this place back in February of 2023, there was this object I discovered that contained power I've never seen before." Jeremy said. "When I used it, there was a blue crescent symbol that appeared. Since then, I've carried my notebook around with me, noting down every time I've seen that blue crescent moon."

"How many times have you seen it in total?" John asked, walking over to one of the hotel's elevators as the other two followed.

"In order, four." the brown-haired man replied. "I'd be more than happy to show you the first two locations."

"Why not the other two?" Sebastian and the others entered the elevator, then it closed two seconds later. Elevator music began playing, and it sounded a bit catchy to both John and Sebastian.

"One of them's more of a sketch rather than a painting, and it's in an entirely separate area compared to where we are right now." Jeremy starting digging in one of the pockets for his pants until he pulled out a notebook that was small enough to fit in a pocket. "And the other...well...let's just say it's a good thing I have this notebook to describe what the fourth location looks like."

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you have, then." Expendable smiled.

Jeremy nodded, then walked out of the elevator once it stopped as John Grace and Expendable followed. The three of them made their way over to a fireplace that was on the right side of the small old-looking reservation desk, then they all sat down in a weird triangle shape.

As soon as the brown curly haired man set his notebook down on the red carpet, he suddenly put it back in his pocket and got up, then turned towards a key that was on a wall behind the reservation desk. Confused, John Grace got up from his seat and crouched through the empty luggage cart to grab the key, looted the drawer next to the wall, and stood by the locked door. It seemed to be the exit to the reservation room.

Expendable soon got up as well and walked over to the door, followed by Jeremy. The man with the mustache fixed his gaze on the corner across the place where the key normally sat. His eyes and shoulders relaxed as he stared deeply at the corner. He felt calm at the sight and ambience of something the other two weren't able to see or hear. Once Jeremy felt someone tap him on his right shoulder, he looked to the right.

"You still didn't tell us where you came from." John Grace reminded the brown-haired man as he opened the door with the key.

"Oh, right." The man peeled his gaze away from the strange corner and looked ahead, noticing that the guy next to him in all black was matching Jeremy's walk speed. Expendable was taking the lead as all three of them left the Reception room and continued forwards.

"For some reason..." the Tourist paused for a few seconds. "I cannot seem to remember where I came from. Or how I came to this specific place, even. There's like this...empty space in my memory that's supposed to help me remember where I was previously before coming here."

"Hm." John studied Jeremy as the trio continued their way through the hotel.

It wasn't until door 12 when Jeremy told the other two to stop.

"Are there threats here, or something?" Sebastian asked, pushing themself against a wall where another door with the same number was.

"Yes." the man with the mustache observed Sebastian with a slight interest. "Do you also have Dupe back where you were?"

"Yeah, I was walking through an underwater facility." Expendable explained. "There were Rusher entities, sometimes a chase, a mini boss mid-way through, a shopkeeper, and then a final area at the last few doors where I had to test my skills."

"Same here." the Tourist smiled as he noticed a door with the number 13 to the right. "At least you and I have something in common. That means we'll be able to survive an upcoming chase. How about for you, John?"

"Uhm." John Grace just stood there. Unfortunately, he knew that they wouldn't get it. He didn't like how he was getting exposed to unfamiliar stuff. He also wasn't a fan of how slow the three were going so far. It felt like a walking simulator despite them only going through 12 doors so far.

"Is...that a no?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes, that's a no." John said.

He then made his way over to the door with the number 13 on it and opened it. Immediately the lights began to flicker. Sebastian and Jeremy both panicked, then the prisoner grabbed John's arm as the three of them went to a sideroom in the main room of door 13. Once Expendable squeezed them all behind the door of the sideroom, a strange screaming sound began to fade into earshot.

I wonder what that could be. Maybe a Rusher entity similar to Carnation? John thought as the strange screaming sound zoomed past them at the same speed Carnation would be when he wasn't in a hiding spot.

As the three of them left the sideroom and resumed their walk, Jeremy explained the hostile entities in this floor: two Rusher entities, a strange black slime that chases people, an animalistic entity, and a little girl that steals items.

John and Expendable laughed for a bit at that last part, and rightfully so. Labeling a little girl who steals items as a hostile entity is ridiculous. They didn't believe the goop part either. It was hard to picture a small blob chasing someone. Either way, Jeremy snickered and rolled his eyes. He noticed that the two weren't intimidated or scared- so far. He had a feeling that by the time they went to the greenhouse, their attitudes would change drastically. 

The Tourist, John, and Expendable encountered Rush again, but there were three closets this time. Jeremy instructed the man wearing all black to hide in the closet. Once the Rusher entity passed, the trio hopped out and made their way to door 23.

When they opened the door, it was the room with the falling bookshelf. The Tourist instinctively turned around and looked above the doorframe, then frowned to see nothing there. John looked at him with a confused expression on his face, then heard a door open to his left. He turned his head to the noise and watched Sebastian as they entered a sideroom. There were two chests in that room.

Once Expendable looted the two chests, they grabbed what looked to be a wooden t-shaped object. The prisoner walked out of the sideroom and towards the other two.

"Do you know what this is?" They asked.

Jeremy looked at the t-shaped object. "Oh, you found a crucifix."

"That's nice." they inspected the item. "Must be a good-luck item. I'll keep it."

John Grace's eye twitched in slight impatience as the three of them progressed to the next door. He wanted to run. He wanted to slide. He wanted to parry. As they entered door 27, the lights began to flicker again. There were only two closets in the L-shaped room. John looked at the two windows in the room and flinched as he saw a white glowing smiling face appear. It was laughing. All of a sudden, a little girl in a black dress jumped out of the window and landed on the brown carpet. After a solid second of standing there, she giggled as she ran towards Sebastian.

Sebastian and John screamed with pure terror, then ran back to the previous rooms. Jeremy ran after them, groaning.

"Wait! Come back!" He called out to the two.

John Grace grabbed Expendable's left arm with his left hand, then ran faster. As they went all the way back to door 21, John turned around, watching as the little girl was slowly catching up to him. He took a deep breath, then darted past the thing. Once he spotted Jeremy, he grabbed his right arm with his right hand and made his way out of door 24. He continued running at the same speed he normally would go back at that Alleyway until strange black cyclops eyes began to appear on the walls at door 30. Confused, he stopped abruptly, dropping Expendable and the Tourist on the ground.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Jeremy and Sebastian were speechless at what John Grace just did. He was faster than Seek. Expendable looked back, feeling as they were holding onto the crucifix for dear life and noticed that the little girl was a mere little dot from how far she was. Though they did find it strange how she was phasing through walls, they assumed she was a ghost of some kind-

The kid teleported right in front of them. The prisoner screamed in response, but was too late as the girl floated towards them. They hugged the crucifix to their chest, hoping that she wouldn't steal it.

Instead, the crucifix flew out of their death grip and light blue chains began to appear below the floating little girl. A sigil began appearing below as a blue crescent moon symbol showed. Weird symbols that looked like zodiac signs formed in a circle as the crucifix itself began cracking, revealing a blue glowing interior. There was a roaring sound as the ghost began screaming in pain, which caught the attention of Jeremy and John, causing them to turn to the sound.

The entire room seemed to glow light blue as the crucifix began spinning quickly. A few seconds later, the entity was dragged into the floor by the chains, then the crucifix's wooden pieces fell on the ground. Everything else including the roaring sound- yet except for the blue crescent on the ground -disappeared. The three of them watched as the moon symbol slowly faded away.

"Well, that's one of the ways you can see the blue crescent I was talking about earlier." Jeremy said to the astonished Sebastian and John.

"That's incredible," Expendable murmured as they got up to walk over to the wooden pieces on the ground.

I'm definitely going to need more than just wooden pieces to prove that this place exists. They thought.

"Is that blue moon important, though?" John asked the brown-haired man. "You said you wrote down every location of the symbol."

"I don't know, honestly." the Tourist scratched his faint mustache. "It talks to you when you die, so I can only assume so."

"Wait, there's someone that talks to you?" John's voice had genuine curiosity in it.

"Well, it's more like text in front of me. There's no actual voice." Jeremy got up and waited for the other two before opening the door and progressing.

"Neither do I..." John said, matching his walk speed again. These two might have a lot more in common than he thought.

"Really? Who talks to you?" Jeremy asked.

"The one I believe in." John looked like he was smiling as he pointed at the cross dangling from the necklace.

The brown-haired man glanced at the cross. "That's actually pretty cool. How about you, prisoner?"

"A fish with a deep voice degrades me." They sighed.

"Huh?" The other two asked in unison.

"There's this fish man who degrades me every time I die." Sebastian said.

"Uhm, so he ragebaits you?"

"In a way, yes." Expendable decided to walk at the same pace as John and Jeremy.

The Tourist smiled, then stopped walking as they entered a long hallway. Those eyes on the walls disappeared. "I have someone similar to the moon symbol. They're a star symbol, and they ragebait me."

"How so?" Sebastian and John both stopped walking.

"Well...the thing that really got me was when they said, "Try dying to an actual threat next time." I was pissed when I first read that sentence. When I died to certain entities at that place for a certain amount of times, they ragebaited me as well. I immediately got used to it, though."

"Wow, you're lucky. Also, my name's Sebastian." Expendable said.

"My name's John Grace, but you can call me John." The man wearing all black said.

"Right, I forgot to ask you two for your names." he then looked at both of their clothes, noticing that they were completely dry. "How did your soaking wet clothes dry so quickly?"

"Okay, so there's definitely a deity here." Expendable frowned. "For fuck's sake, I was brought to the surface from deep underwater by blue sparkles."

"B-blue...sparkles?" Jeremy's mouth shot open in shock.

"Yes!" They said.

"O-oh, uhm..." For some reason, Jeremy sounded jealous.

"Not only that, but a snack appeared and smacked me in my face."

"Why..." The Tourist looked jealous, but didn't say anything else.

"Uhh, you good?" John asked him. That'd when he saw it- a blue flash. He blinked twice to assure himself he's not going insane. What was that blue ball even doing?

"Yeah." the brown-haired man murmured. "Anyway, this part is the chase. A black blob is going to emerge out of this carpet and chase us."

"Okay," Sebastian snickered. "It's a good thing I know what to do in a chase."

"Do we run?" John asked.

"Yes." Jeremy replied. "Get ready-"

"Yes!" John Grace said with excitement, running towards the next door.

A humanoid thing made of black slime climbed out of the carpet from where Expendable was standing, then it's white cyclopian eye opened as it stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. Once the door opened, the three began running. 

John was excited, crouching to go through the debris, following the strange blue light on the doors with numbers on them, and noticing blue sparkles accompanying the blue light's highlights. It caught Sebastian off-guard,  but the three continued through the chase until it ended. The Endless Torment Trio all looked at the door they just went through.

The same blue moon symbol from earlier appeared on the door as it was slammed shut in the thing's face, blue sparkles flying out towards the three. A few seconds later, they disappeared.

"What is going on." Sebastian said.

"Oh, that was Seek!" Jeremy said gingerly. "The Rusher entity was Rush, and the Dupe entity was Dupe."

"You're great at names." John sounded sarcastic, but still elbowed Jeremy's shoulder.

He chuckled.

Sebastian squinted their eyes at Jeremy, studying him as he was awfully close to John for some reason. They turned away before he spotted them looking, then opened the next door. It was a dark room.

"Okay, now there's this entity named Screech who'll go "psst", so watch out. If you sense that it is near, stare it down." Jeremy explained.

"Noted." John Grace said.

As the three explored the room, they noticed it was quite big, and a section was blocked by closets and drawers. There were two Dupe doors, but it was a room that required a key to continue.

"Oh God, not this room." Jeremy said to himself. The other two split up to find the key while the Tourist sat down on a couch he found and sighed deeply.

"I can see that you have a favorite." He mumbled to nobody in particular. The room began to slightly luminate a blue color. "How come I didn't get any snacks but Sebastian did?"

He sighed as he brought out his notebook and flipped through it until he saw his sketch of the blue crescent moon. He smiled softly as he stared at the two words below the symbol.

"Psst!"

He looked around, but didn't see Screech. He shook his head in disbelief and continued staring at the two words he wrote. He then looked at a sentence he wrote,

"You've done great. Don't give up!"

"You're the sweetest thing I've ever met here," The Tourist spoke softly. He knew that he had to help the others find the key, but...he wanted to sit here for a little longer. He wanted to take in the images of the things he drew and wrote.

"Psst!"

He looked around again, then jumped when he saw John Grace's big round eyes. Sebastian entered the room shortly after, holding the key. Once the two spotted his notebook, John snatched it out of his grip to look at it.

"H-hey! Give it back!" Jeremy shot up from his seat.

John ran out of the room as the other two followed, then stopped at a door highlighted blue. The same blue sparkles were twinkling in and out of view. Thanks to the light from the door, John was able to read what was on the notebook, dodging arm reaches from the brown-haired man.

He noticed the sketch of the crescent symbol, then read the two words below it.

"Guiding Light..." the man in all black said. "Who's that?"

"Gimme!" The Tourist hissed, grabbing the notebook.

"She, maybe. Blue sparkles and blue light belong to her." John sounded confused, reading off the notebook. He then gasped. "Is that your girlfriend who helped us?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Sebastian's voice had disappointment in it.

"Shut-" Jeremy was cut off from the lights beginning to break. As soon as the air began to get cold, his heart dropped to his stomach.

The prisoner noticed the difference and unlocked the door, then the three went to the next door. When they looked back at Jeremy, they noticed his face was red with embarrassment. Everything on the page was fully visible.

John took note of the embarrassment and let go of the notebook. Jeremy then closed the notebook and sighed heavily. He stared at the ground, not uttering a word for the rest of the time.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Expendable and the man wearing all black exchanged glances.

"Uhm, by the way, was that little girl who got crucified your sister?" Expendable asked.

"How dare you say that!" John burst out laughing for a bit. It sounded like a hearty laugh. A laugh straight from his soul. There wasn't a single thing about it that felt forced.

He understood why they said that, though- both of them had skin as black as the void. It was aesthetically pleasing, both Sebastian and Jeremy realized, strangly enough.

It was unreal to believe that these two barely knew each other almost two hours ago. They were now getting along- almost as if a platonic bond was forming between the two. As for Jeremy, both of them felt that they were starting to warm up to him. The prisoner continued to look ahead as John glanced at the Tourist.

He was still staring at the floor, flustered. His notebook was slightly visible despite it being securely stored in the pocket of his brown pants. The man wasn't as tall as John thought he was- he was actually a tad bit shorter than him.

Jeremy ran his fingers through his curly brown hair, then looked up. Door 48. When he turned to look at John, he was caught off-guard from him staring at him.

"My apologies, my curiosity got the best of me." He said.

The Tourist could faintly see a soft smile on the man wearing all black's face. He didn't mean to embarrass him, clearly. Jeremy's face began to go back to its normal pure white color, but now there was a slight tint of red. The man smiled back, assuring John that everything was fine. But his heart was beating quite quickly for some reason. He didn't know why.

"Are you two going to just stand there or what?" Sebastian asked.

John Grace looked away. "I had to apologize to Jeremy, is all."

"That's fair." they said as the three of them entered the room with the door number 49. "But you still didn't tell us if that Guiding Light person is your girlfriend."

"She's not." the Tourist said simply as he stopped staring at John. "I really admire her."

"Why?"

"She's the sweetest deity I've encountered in this void." He smiled.

"Right, since she's helping us." Sebastian made their way to the two large doors, but Jeremy prompted for all of them to crouch and stay as quiet as possible.

So that wasn't Mr. Lopee who helped me rise to the surface. Expendable thought.

"By the way...we have to collect 7 books that have blue crescent moons on them. Once you've collected all of them, head to the door with the padlock. Even though it asks for 8 books, get 7. It'll make it faster and easier for all of us." The Tourist instructed calmly.

John and Sebastian nodded, then the brown-haired man opened the doors. The three of them crouched once a cutscene of a blind creature made of a weird fleshy substance ran past them. John looked to the right and noticed a knocked-over lamp with blue sparkles fading away.

Guiding Light must've knocked it over, John thought.

The Endless Torment Trio split up and collected the necessary books, though John almost got killed due to him looting at the desk where the solution paper was. The good news was that he found a flashlight and a battery on the second floor after looting.

Where are the lanterns at? John Grace thought. If there were even any here, anyway.

A couple minutes passed when the trio found seven of the books. When John studied the solution paper for a bit, he whispered the code to Jeremy, who stood by the padlock. The other two fled to the safe place under stairs of the second floor once they heard the strange figure's footsteps getting louder. The Tourist seemed unbothered as he put in the code, but guessed the last part.

He was used to this. He's been doing this for a couple years now. He knew the strategy for the maze at door 61. He knew which door was the right one at the greenhouse. He knew about them.

Once he successfully put the correct number in the padlock, the other two followed him as he left the library once the door opened. All three of them stopped crouching and took in a deep breath.

"This place feels awfully calm for a hotel with supernatural elements." Sebastian commented.

"Wait until you guys see Green Rush." Jeremy smirked.

"Who's that?" The prisoner asked.

"You'll find out," He replied.

The Endless Torment Trio went down a fancy-looking hallway with decorations on it. There were even signs saying, "HUMANS THIS WAY!"

It felt inviting.

As they went further down the hall, there were a bunch of painted black arrows pointing to door 59. Once the three went through, they were greeted with a red goblin with yellow eyes and grayish-brownish skeleton with a dark brown cap on chairs to the right, and an octopus-like entity behind a table with items to the left. Only the entity's dark blue tentacles were visible, along with its bluish glowing eyes. It appeared to be  in some sort of shadow, which was why a lot wasn't shown.

The brown-haired man walked over to a yellow cloth and frowned once he realized he's been doing more talking than looting. Sebastian took the crucifix lying on the cloth and smiled, then John put some coins on a plate next to the Skeleton Key.

The Tourist looked at him in disbelief. There was a small pile of coins, shining from the ceiling light. Jeremy took the coins, surprised that John had almost a thousand of them. It seemed that looting in the library wasn't so bad after all.

The man took the Skeleton Key, flashlight, and vitamins, then tipped the friendly shopkeeper-like entity a hundred of his coins before putting the rest on the plate. Expendable greedily squeezed through Jeremy and John and took the coins, then grabbed a pair of lockpicks. The man wearing all black frowned at them.

Sebastian eyed the Tourist as they went over to the exit, watching as he thanked John Grace for the coins. In response, he simply stated,

"I have no interest in keeping things to myself if there are people like you who need them more than me."

"Stop, you're making me blush." Jeremy fought a smirk.

The man wearing all black was caught off-guard by the compliment, but he shrugged. When he closed his eyes, he pictured the yellow little shit appearing. It opened its eyes after a few seconds, then blinked twice before disappearing. The man opened his eyes, then turned around and opened the door numbered 60.

"W-wait!" Jeremy stuttered as he spedwalked over to the two until he was in front of them. "Follow me."

Sebastian kept the crucifix in their grasp as them and John both followed the Tourist as he went through a mini maze. Once they got out, there were three chairs facing each others' backs. It was a coincidence, considering how there were three people here.

The brown-haired man said some unintelligible words before pointing at a painting with three celestial symbols in a 60⁰ angle- a weird red spiral, a yellow star, and a blue crescent moon. Only the star was easily visible, whereas the other two symbols were only visible once Sebastian and Jeremy went closer to the painting. The blue moon looked exactly like the one on the sigil when that strange entity was getting crucified.

"Pretty cool," Sebastian said.

"Now what about the other two locations?" John sat down on one of the chairs while Jeremy and Expendable sat down on the other two.

"I'll show you," The Tourist said, bringing out his notebook and flipping through it. He then passed it to the prisoner so they could look at it.

There was a heading that read, "DEATH MESSANGER". Expendable then read through the only sentence in the section:

"You've done great. Don't give up!"

They smiled at the motivating words, then looked at another heading that read, "PAINTING?" In the section was a sketch of a painting. Though the only thing in the painting frame was the crescent moon. Below the drawing was text that said,

"This painting is titled Moonlight."

Once they realized that was all on both of the pages, they handed the notebook to John Grace so he could read it. After several minutes of reading the two pages, the man wearing all black held out the notebook back to the Tourist, who was staring at the star symbol. He blinked and looked at John, then grabbed the notebook from him. His heart strangely skipped a bit when he lightly brushed his fingers against his. Once he felt his face get hot, he looked to the opposite direction of where John was sitting.

He then heard the sound of wood creaking as Sebastian leaned over to look at Jeremy. They nodded to themself before going back into their seat.

"I see." They said.

"What?" Jeremy glanced at them.

"Oh, nothing." They said simply.

"I'm curious, tell me-" A pack of oreos fell on his head from above. When he looked up, there was nothing there.

"Who keeps dropping shit on our heads?" Sebastian sounded irritated, then fidgeted with the crucifix. 

"Try crucifying the item next time. Maybe it'll get the culprit." John suggested. "Then again, whoever keeps dropping stuff on us gave me this nice gift, so I thank it."

"So it's an entity?" Expendable got up from their seat, staring at the pack of oreos as it slid to the wall where the painting was. "Very well then. I wonder what'll happen if I..."

Jeremy's face went pale as he watched the crucifix get flung up into the air. It tilted slightly before falling down towards his face. He lunged himself out of his chair, then caught himself with his hands as his knees made contact with the cold, hard wooden floor. He flinched once he heard a clank as the object fell onto his chair. He turned around and walked towards it, picked it up, then sat back down in his chair.

"Let's just...take a small nap before we deal with a challenging room..." Jeremy sighed, placing the crucifix in his lap and closing his eyes.

"Sweet dreams, Jeremy." Sebastian teased.

He pursed his lips, knowing why they said that. "For goodness sake, shut up."

"What's the tea?" John Grace sounded curious.

"There's no tea...they're just teasing me because I like Guiding Light."

"You do?"

"Not in that way. I've already stated that I admire her."

"Whatever you say." John smiled, then closed his eyes.

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Sebastian sat there for what they guessed was ten minutes before getting up and taking the oreos that laid there in front of the painting. They upsettingly looked at the gate that was blocking the strange pathway to an area where a yellow light was coming from. They were wondering where that led to, but ended up leaving the area with the three chairs through the maze, which was how they got here in the first place. Though it took a while, they finally made their way out and walked over to the entrance of the room. The area was dimly lit, almost as if it was to purposefully hide the secret area they just discovered.

They carefully opened the pack of oreos, then took a couple out and ate them. They felt the remaining cookies in the pack and noticed there were four. Their greediness seemed to prompt them to take a couple more. It was only a couple more. Jeremy could always share his with John. 

Do it, just take two more. It's not like he's going to die. Their hunger seemed to control their left hand as the hand dug into the pack. They weren't even hungry, strangely enough. They shook their head from side to side, then took their hand out of the pack and wiped the crumbs on their jumpsuit.

"You're a greedy one, aren't you?"

They blinked twice, then looked around in confusion. The voice sounded a bit on the feminine side, but it was deep. They must be going insane from going through 60 doors so far with only Jeremy and John Grace. Sebastian sighed to themself and entered the mini maze again, but couldn't remember how they entered the secret place. They struggled through finding the correct pathway until they eventually made it back to the secret area with the painting, then placed the pack of oreos on their lap. As they slowly closed their eyes, they felt their chest getting light. They went literal months without talking to actual human beings. Human beings with a heart.

All of a sudden, the voice from earlier rehearsed its question. It sounded sickeningly familiar to her. They teared up, but fought to forget about it. There was then a picture of a woman their age, smiling at them. Her eyes were as blue as the sky, and she seemed to be holding bag full of their favorite candy.

They pictured themself reaching for the bag, but the woman backed up, giggling.

"You're a greedy one, aren't you?" 

"Fuck..." Sebastian whispered, feeling a hot tear leak out of their right eye.

"Look, you gave those to me. You should know by now that either I or your cat is gonna take them." They heard themself chuckle in their mind.

"Whatever you say, Sebastian."

That was the last time they saw her face before they went to their college courses for the next day. Once their last class ended, they made their way to their car when they suddenly felt their phone vibrate for a second in their pocket. When they turned their phone on, there was a text message from her.

"Thank you for everything" The text message read, a heart emoji ending the sentence. They remembered themself smiling. She always said that whenever they did something significant for her. They texted her back, thanking her.

Once a minute passed and she didn't respond, Sebastian was confused. 

The scene replayed itself in their head. They remembered confusingly entering their car. It was the end of the day, so they were on their way to visit her like they normally do on a weekly basis. They drove down the road they've memorized for years now. They recognized her house, knowing that she's always lived with her parents. The door was strangely unlocked, so they went in her house.

When they looked at the counter, they noticed her laying her head on her right arm as she was sitting in a chair. There was an empty cat bed next to her. Her left arm was extended outwards, her hand laying splayed out on her phone. Once they approached her-

They shot their eyes open, then placed the opened pack of oreos on John's lap. Their tears were streaming down their face now. They couldn't control it. They couldn't control anything- even they knew it. Guilt ate them up and caused them to lean forwards. They place their elbows on their knees and covered their face in hopes of covering up the noise that was starting to come out of their mouth. 

IN JOHN GRACE'S DREAM

John found himself in a field with goosegrass stretching for miles. The sun was setting at such a perfect angle it made the field look heavenly, not to mention the nice breeze being cold enough for comfort. There were soft cirrus clouds across the orange sky. He closed eyes and took in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. After repeating this for a few more times, he suddenly felt the presence of Him. He embraced His presence, feeling at peace.

"One of your friends...I suggest checking up on them." The text that appeared in his mind read.

"Is one of them in danger?" He asked Him.

"No, but it appears they're grieving."

"Grieving?" He opened his eyes.

"Yes. You should check on them once their crying has subsided."

"I...agree." John spoke vehemently. He wanted to give whichever friend of his the space they needed. Maybe it was Sebastian, since they teared up when the two first talked about their previous lives. Nonetheless, he was going to sit here in this field and continue to chat with Him for a while until he gets an update.

But the crying...

It was starting to become faintly heard, despite him dreaming. So he slowly opened his eyes in his dream.

"Go, if you must. I'll be watching." The text read.

"I'll see you soon," The man wearing all black said.

He woke up, then looked at Sebastian as they continued crying. He felt bad for some reason. He slowly reached out his right hand towards their shoulder, but didn't tap them. He felt something move on his lap. Once he looked down, he spotted an opened pack of oreos. He took two of them and ate them, then put the remaining two in the pack on Jeremy's lap. 

"Psst," John whispered.

The crying abruptly stopped, then they opened their eyes to look at him. They were red, indicating how dry they were from the tears leaving them. John stood up, then motioned with his hand. As soon as Expendable wearily got up from their seat, he opened his arms and squeezed them with a tight hug. The warmth from him helped them calm down. It was literally 10 months since they last got a hug. That's how long they've decided to revisit the underwater facility. That's how long it's been since she hugged them.

They sniffled, speechless. The fact that these two were mere strangers three hours ago and were now friends says a lot about how much they missed being accompanied with someone. They shakily inhaled, then exhaled and hugged him. The prisoner felt lighter in not only their chest, but their mind. They continued sniffling, staying in the hug John gave them.

The two eventually stopped hugging one another once five minutes have passed.

"Thank you," Sebastian's voice sounded a little hoarse.

"Of course, my friend." John Grace smiled.

"I...had a best friend of mine." they spoke quietly. "I was really close with her pet cat, but...I..."

John stood there, being patient.

Sebastian swallowed. "I was overthinking his behavior since he wasn't eating as often, nor was he as energetic as he normally was. And so my best friend's parents were on their way to take him to the vet, but..." their mouth quivered. "A car."

"I'm..." John stood there for a moment to process what they meant by "a car". He then shook his head slowly from side to side for a bit once he realized. "I'm so sorry."

"My friend moved in with her aunt, then attended therapy sessions so she could still be intact." Expendable said. "I haven't heard from her since."

"Even though I don't know you fully, I can assure you that there's a small part inside of you that knows she's still alive." John said softly. "I hope she stays safe, though."

"Thank you, John." Sebastian went over to their chair and sat back down, sniffling.

When John looked at his chair, it flashed blue. What do you want, KooKoo? Are you just trying to drive me insane?

He sat back down in his seat, sighing. "I have this stupid blue ball that's been messing with my head ever since we encountered that crucifix."

"What blue ball?" Expendable asked.

"He's a blue ball with an X for eyes and has a mouth with a white tongue that looks like the arm of a clock." John said. "I call him KooKoo."

"How has he been messing with your head?"

"He keeps flashing the color blue in my vision, and sometimes even shows his face." 

"Why?"

"I don't know. I can only assume so he can be annoying somehow." 

"Is it an embodiment of one of your sins?"

"Yes, but I'm not committing any, especially the one that KooKoo represents."

"What would that be?" Sebastian turned their head towards John.

"Treachery, I believe." John Grace didn't sound confident, but it's been a while since he last looked at its document.

"Hmm." Sebastian looked at the painting, then sniffled again. Talking to him made them feel better, but...

They smirked as they got up from their seat, then told John to follow them as they left the secret area.

To Be Continued...