Chapter Text
It had been four weeks- or two-? three maybe-? It'd been hard to tell while she'd been affected by the wish Bear made, but all she knew is that every second of it was hell.And just when the nightmare had finally seemed be over, Nikki walked right into a new one.
One moment she was sitting on the couch with the bodies of her friends scattered around in a bloody mess and the next… when she'd gotten up to answer the pounding on the other end of the door, she'd fallen through the floor as if it didn't exist.
Her stomach jumped to her throat, blood rushed in her ears, panic washing over her as she free fell until the ground caught hold of her again. She took a breath, trying to steady herself, but breathed in a lung full of stuffy, stale air.
She choked out something between a cough and a sob. She'd had the worst couple weeks at a time and now she was- wherever here was. The stench of old carpet invading her senses, forcing to look up if she wanted to avoid throwing up what little was in her stomach which she did. Finding herself greeted by the sight of ugly yellow walls and yellow carpet.
It was a wide room, too wide, the end bending into a dark uneven end. The lights buzzed above her, quiet enough to not irritate her banged up head but loud enough to not be ignored.
"What the hell?" She asked quietly.
Nikki felt exposed in this open room, like someone was hiding around that dark corner waiting for her to look away to strike. Phantom tears kicked at the corner of her eyes but she didn't have anymore to cry.
"What the hell?" She cried as a tearless sob wracked through her body.
It echoed through the halls for what could be miles.
She swallowed the guilt, the pain, the panic, and the disgust as she stared out into the dark corner. Nikki stared at the corner through red eyes.
'You aren't supposed to be here.' Her mind whispered, shock settling over her once again. 'You need to run.'
She spared a glance above where she fell in. It was too far up, with nothing to hoist her up to escape. Not that she would want to go back there. Where the bodies of her friends were, were the police would arrest her for a crime she wasn't sure if she did.
"If there's a way in," She whispered to herself, not trusting the eerie quiet with her thoughts, "There's a way out."
Steeling her resolve, she forced herself to her feet despite the throbbing in her head and nose. She felt unsteady, maybe a little woozy, but adrenaline was one hell of a pain killer. So she walked towards the end of the room, her brain and gut screaming at her to turn back but she kept going anyway.
She came to a fork in the road, the room splitting off into a hallway on either side. She didn't have much survival skills, but she's heard of the right hand method. So she took the right passage, wishing she still had her tiger's eye crystal for extra courage.
A metaphoric tether tightened around her waist as she went down the darker eerily similar corridor, her shadow casting long and almost unnervingly in front of her. Maybe it was leading her somewhere? Probably to her doom after… everything.
She took a right turn that was a little tighter, the walls stretching to almost absurd levels. It was deeply unsettling in a way she couldn't fully point her finger on. Eventually this hall led into another room, furniture sticking randomly into the walls and floor.
"What the hell?" She said between labored breaths.
'This doesn't make any sense'
She pushed it down, hoping she'd find something that made sense soon.
Soon didn't come. Not in the next hallway. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next. Or the next-
This was Hell. Nikki was sure by the millionth hallway that looked exactly the same as the last. Adrenaline was fading now to the point she was using the wall as a crutch.
She entered another room with a reversed 'Stop' sign. It barely held her interest as she passed the empty room into the longer hallway. By now she was used to the tricks of this strange labyrinth and stench of the moist carpet squelching under her feet.
Tiredness borrowed itself under her bones, begging her to lay down. But she's made it this far.
Nikki forced herself down this new hallway, passing a strange remains of a caveman cutout. She barely acknowledged it as she shuffled down, quickening her step in case it didn't start out as a broken mess.
The corridor opened up into a bigger wider space, a mountain of furniture sitting in the middle.
"What's with all the fucking furniture everywhere?" She said, too exhausted to sound as frustrated as she really was. At least there could be stools she could sit down on now. Maybe rest was in her near future.
As she circled the furniture, trying to find a loose one off the top, a splash of blue interrupted the usual mono yellow. This perplexed Nikki in a way that probably shouldn't have considering everything she'd seen in this maze.
On the wall facing the mountain, there was three strips of blue tape made to look like a doorway. But unlike the other oddities, the blue tape didn't look randomly placed for shits and giggles for some eldritch motherfucker that made this place.
Hope cautiously crept into her heart as she approached. She put her hands in front of her, taking steps forward until she was stopped.
And she wasn't.
She stepped through the wall, fresh air greeting her like a long lost friend. Tears sprung to her eyes as she basked in it, the only indicator she'd escaped that wretched maze. The florescence still buzzed with a fury and old carpet stunk lingered in the air, but at least she could breathe fresh air.
Nikki didn't realize her eyes were pressed closed until she heard the uneven breathing of something other than her. A tired version of panic set in as her eyes flew open, finding two people staring at her. A woman wearing a suit jacket and a floral shirt and a man with in a rolled up dress shirt looking extremely sleep deprived.
"Clark." The woman began, clearly still processing Nikki's existence. "Why did a woman walk out of your wall?"
"I wish I could answer that, Dr. Kline." He answered in an awe that made Nikki take a step back, instinct still trying to protect her.
Dr. Kline's eyes lit up in alarm, finally registering Nikki's horrible state. She stuttered briefly before finding a collected tone. "What happened- are you ok? Who-"
"Did you see him?"
Nikki barely got any words out before she fell forward, the energy that had kept her afloat now completely depleted. The woman somehow caught her before she hit the ground, shouting at Clark to call the ambulance.
"'M sorry-" She slurred out, the throbbing becoming almost as unbearable as the constant buzz.
"Hey, hey, hey. Stay with us." Her calm tone tethered Nikki to some sort of reality, one that was quickly flooding with black. Moments became liquid, at some point Dr. Kline pressed a cool wash cloth to the gashes in her face. "You're safe. I promise. Stay with us."
That was the last thing Nikki could remember hearing before finally collapsing into darkness.