Seeking a Better Ending - Seek x Reader

Shattered Hope, Broken Pillar

The hotel rang with strange and unfamiliar noises that echoed through the repetitive series of rooms. Your footsteps echoed off the walls, steady and monotonous. The dim lighting only served to worsen your anxiety.

You shoved open another wooden door, hearing the now-familiar beep as it opened. The lights flickered and you immediately tensed, throwing yourself into a closet and waiting for that dreadful screaming to fill the air once more. You waited in that closet until you could hear your heart pounding in your chest and the dissonant, quiet whispers that cried get out and the air grew thick and heavy, but nobody came. Stepping tentatively out of the wardrobe, you glanced around the small room. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary- well, whatever that was here anyways.

You twisted the doorknob to the next room, briefly noting that the door was labeled 32. Seconds later however, more flickering lights caught your attention. You frantically looked around for a closet, but there were none. Throwing yourself against the corner of the room, you waited again, and again nothing happened.

"Huh," you said to yourself, your voice penetrating the eerie silence that you had learned was supposed to be filled with that horrible screaming upon seeing the lights blink in and out of darkness.

As you moved to open the next door, something caught your attention and you jumped back. An eye, peeking out from behind the bookcase. It blinked at you, and you blinked back. Slowly, you stepped towards it.

"Uh, hello," you began, "you aren't gonna try to kill me, are you?"

Blink. Was that an answer?

Gosh, you must be going crazy, talking to an eye on the wall. This place definitely wasn't helpful in that regard- you'd almost been killed twice already by some shadowy presence that rushed through the hallways, shattering the glass light bulbs that lit these empty rooms and throwing open the next closed door.

"Alright, I'll take that as a no, I suppose," you shrugged, turning away from the eye. You opened the next door.

More eyes adorned the walls, glowing scleras standing out against pitch black pupils. You almost shuddered. It was creepy, knowing that your feeling of being watched might not have been entirely irrational. Still, you pressed onwards.

Another room, more eyes. The door to the next room was locked.

"Of course," you grumbled as you stormed away in search of a key. You opened the drawers with care, not wanting to disturb the hotel. It seemed to you that this place was alive, and if that was the case, there was no use in making it angry. Perhaps it already was if it was sending shadowy wraith-like figures to chase you through the hallways, but oh well. Can't say you didn't try.

Nearly every drawer you opened held strange pieces of paper or shining, golden coins, but no key. You sighed in frustration, closing another drawer. Gold wasn't useful to you now. Maybe if you hadn't been trapped here, you would've taken it. Now though, you felt there was no point in carrying around extra weight. What if you had to run from something? It would only slow you down.

You did, as you were searching, find a flashlight, which you ended up taking. Unlike the gold, it might be useful to you at some point.

"Finally!" You snatched the key from an open drawer and started towards the door. It unlocked easily, and you continued. The flickering lights still made you flinch, but still nothing appeared except the eyes on the wall (which you did notice had been steadily increasing in number as you continued walking) so you kept going. A few more rooms- one so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, thank goodness you grabbed that flashlight- and then the eyes vanished.

Rain pounded on the windows outside of the grand corridor, and you felt a sudden chill. It reminded you vaguely of that golden hallway from some video game you used to play- a place you would be judged for your every action. That, combined with the rhythmic drumming of the rain on the windows and the sudden absence of eyes scared you.

"Hello?" Your voice echoed through the long corridor. No response. Shrugging your feelings off as paranoia, you slowly traversed the length of the grand hallway. You had your hand on the door when suddenly, you heard something from behind. You whirled around to see a dreadful, dark creature pull itself up from the floor, staring at you with a singular hateful eye. The eye looked familiar, and you saw its twin in the eyes that had adorned the rooms before this.

It had been watching you, you realized as it started running towards you. You hesitated for only half a second.

Turning around, you sprinted down away from the creature before your path was blocked by falling bookshelves. You threw yourself under them, trying not to pay attention to the loud, heavy footsteps behind you. Right now, your only goal was to run like hell.

Throwing open the door in front of you, you glanced with panic around the small room. Two doors on either side, and a pillar in the middle- which way? Blue sparks danced around the door on the left like fireflies.

Run!

You took the door on the left. Bookshelves blocked your path again- crouch under the side with the glowing lights, that pathway is correct- and you ran. You glanced over your shoulder to see how close the creature was. That was a mistake- possibly a deadly one- and you slammed hard into a pillar of furniture. The wardrobe that had been haphazardly shoved on top of a small desk began to teeter, and you rolled out of the way and kept going. As you were about to pass through the next door, you heard another scream. A loud thud rang out, and the footsteps stopped. This scream was different somehow- it sounded pained in a way the others hadn't.

Turning around, you saw that the creature that had been chasing you just seconds earlier was now trapped- pinned under the wardrobe you had destabilized. It clawed desperately at the floor, trying to free itself. One of its legs was twisted at an angle that definitely didn't look healthy. You winced. It looked painful, and from what you could see, was most likely broken. The creature lifted its head suddenly, locking eyes- eye?- with you. You froze. The creature stopped struggling.

You stood like that for what felt like an eternity, standing in a silent stalemate. You barely blinked, not wanting to take your eyes off of it.

It couldn't reach you, you realized. You could leave, walk through the door behind you and leave it here. It would free itself eventually. You didn't need to give it a chance to attack. You didn't need to help.

But you did. You didn't understand why. Something in its gaze, maybe. The way it looked at you, full of desperation and despair. Gosh, it looked so vulnerable, so much more so than it had only what, a minute earlier?

You slowly, carefully made your way over to the creature, standing as far away as you could at all times. It stared at you as you did so- not with anger or desire to kill, but with confusion.

You were confused as well. It could reach you now. You were standing well inside the range of its claws, and... nothing. It didn't attack. It just watched as you lifted the wardrobe (with lots of effort, that thing was heavy as heck). The creature crawled out from under it as you held the piece of furniture up with shaking arms. As soon as it was out of the way, you dropped the closet. Man, that thing was heavy. You weren't sure how you could lift it- adrenaline, maybe.

Turning around, you saw the creature struggle to its feel, being careful not to put weight on its injured leg. It leaned against the pillar.

"Why?" A voice you weren't expecting- low and distorted, but also quiet and disbelieving. It echoed inside your skull for an instant, before becoming nothing more than a memory you weren't entirely sure even happened. This place was messing with your head.

"I don't know," you answered truthfully. There was silence for a moment, a silence that hung in the air like a thick veil of dust. Then it turned and slowly limped away, casting one last curious glance at you before it closed the door behind it.

You turned and walked onwards, through a room where fire served as the only obstacle. There was something about it that seemed off- maybe deja vu? It was pretty similar to the first room. It felt like something was missing. You shrugged. A lot of things about this place seemed like they were missing something- decent lighting for one.

As you opened the door at the end of the corridor, you couldn't help looking back at the room with the broken pillar.