Chapter Text
You decide to clean up the house a bit. It’s been about a month, maybe longer, since you were shoved into this world. You don’t mind much, since your life before wasn’t the greatest, and Kinito is nice. He truly is your best friend. You quite like it here, honestly. Fortunately, Kinito is okay with leaving you to be alone and to go out of the house by yourself. You mean, there isn’t really anyone else to go to anyway, though it would be nice sometimes. You don’t like Kinito less, you just wanted to speak to someone else just once.
You make your way to the upstairs hallway. You’ve always wondered about the boxes in the room in front of your bedroom, but never bothered to inspect them. I’ll do it another time, you always told yourself. You decide now would be that time. Anything to get out of chores, you guess.
You walk to the door and open it to see the usual: boxes everywhere. Curiosity takes a stronger hold of you and you grab a random box and search for something to open it with. Maybe my nails—nope. Your nail biting habit still stayed with you even in the digital world. Why didn’t he remove that at least? It doesn’t particularly harm you now, but it is pretty annoying to never have nails. You walk across the hall to your room and look for something sharp. Over on your dresser you find scissors, perfect for the task. You smile and nod your head then dart on over to the box you want to examine. What if there’s something interesting in there? You sit on the ground and hold the box between your legs as you eagerly cut the tape off. You open the flaps of the box and… there’s nothing. Dude, you think with disappointment. Maybe another? You have enough hope to grab another box and open it. Same result, nothing.
You spend the next 10 minutes gambling on each box and all of them open with the same outcome. Why are all of them empty, with tape too? What a waste. You shove all of the boxes to the side of the room and notice a door that was previously hidden behind them all.
“This all just goes deeper, apparently,” you scoff. “There’s probably nothing behind it too.”
In spite of your comment, you don’t leave the door alone. You slowly step over to the door. Your shoulders drop and you stand there for a few seconds and stare at it with narrowed eyes. You place your hand on the handle and turn it to open the door. To your surprise, there is something behind this door. You look in there to see a dark, messy office. A desk sits right in front of you with a computer and papers scattered everywhere. A calendar and a few ripped posters are hung up on the wall. Confusion floods your mind. Whose office is this, and why is it hidden? Why is it even here in the first place? You shuffle over to the computer and feel the keyboard; it feels a bit worn. To the left of it is an article that looks very familiar. You pick it up gently and try to read it in the dim light coming from the room behind you.
Around the middle of the article, the door slams shut and you jump and drop the article. Your heart pounds and you try to calm yourself while turning around to look behind you.
“...Kinito?” You let out a frightened squeak. Maybe it’s a prank, you reassure yourself.
You softly laugh and let out a forced smile, though deep down you’re on the verge of tears. You rush to open the door again and see a dark hallway. It isn’t the darkness that scares you, but you are in a completely different place, so why wouldn’t you be scared? You try to call out for Kinito again and actually use your voice.
“Kinito?” No answer.
Usually when you even whisper his name, he appears right next to you, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Yeah, no, this isn’t funny. You close the door and open it again. Why did I think that would work? You accept your fate rather quickly and sit on the ground in front of the desk after closing the door. Your knees are pulled to your chest and you rest your head on your crossed arms. You hope this will be over soon, and you can go back to hanging out with Kinito, maybe you could play games with him on your computer. Maybe you could go on a walk with him and talk. Anything but this unfamiliar place. Anything but chores, you giggle.
You sit there in awfully loud silence for who knows how long with only your thoughts to keep your fear at bay and realize you’re chewing your nails and the skin around them too. You sigh, hang your head, and rest it against the desk while staring at the barely visible ceiling. In the distance, you think you hear footsteps somewhere around you. Your heart rate accelerates and you feel a mix of fear and excitement, fear for something harmful, and excitement that maybe this was all a prank and Kinito will walk in to give you a huge relief. As the footsteps grow closer, your conglomerate of feelings battles with itself. It is all settled quickly when the door opens. That isn’t Kinito.