My Safe Haven [Aiden x Reader] (REWRITE)

Part 4 - I Actually Can't Swim

You walk up the stairs for a long while, until you eventually reach a wooden door.
Aiden opens it, and on the other side is a massive room that resembles the Main Hall of a fancy hotel..
You look around in awe.
"Woah..." You mutter under your breath.
"Extravagant, isn't it? Be careful, though. This level is very dangerous." Aiden clasps his hands together in front of him as he speaks, "We need to find the boiler room. That's our way out."
You nod, and a question makes its way into your mind.
"What is this place? Is it some kind of hotel or something?" You ask as you run your hand along the antique chair.
"Spot-on, [Y/N]. This is the Terror Hotel."
Your head shoots up to look at him, "Terror? Hotel?"
"I'd say our best bet is to find the Beverly Room, and go through the doors there..."
He ignored your question.
You glance up to the ceiling with slight frustration, and walk back over next to him.
"Any monsters?" You ask, hoping he'll actually respond to your inquiries.
He looks at you, "'Monsters?'" he chuckles, "Well, just Deathmoths. Though, there have been reports of Hounds, Woodlins, Skin-Stealers, Watchers-"
"Okay, okay, calm down. I just... wanted to know which ones are the most common?"
"...Deathmoths. Only the male ones, though! The females usually stay in their nests."
You nod, and sigh.
"Okay, let's go..."
Aiden nods, and starts walking.
"Now, I do have to warn you of one more entity, [Y/N]."
You look up curiously at him, "Yeah?"
"The Beast of Level Five. While I don't doubt your resilience, I must warn you that he only goes for wanderers that have a weak mind."
...
"You sayin' I've got a weak mind?"
Aiden flinches, and looks at you as he holds in hands up defensively, "N-No! Not at all! I-I was just-"
You scoff, and he goes quiet.
He turns around with a sigh; you notice that instead of clasping his hands together, he starts to wring them again. Just like earlier.
You start to hear talking, as if there were a party going on.
"Do you hear that?" You ask Aiden, looking around you.
"If you are talking about the distant chatter, then yes, I do. It isn't real."
You blink, rolling your eyes with frustration again.
This guy... is kind of getting annoying.
A while of walking, and you hear a whisper in your ear.
"Such a weak mind..."
You blink, and look at Aiden.
"What did you say?"
"...I didn't say anything..." He replies with concern.
You look away silently.
"Leave him, dear. Come with me."
Your head shoots back to Aiden, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Is that you? It's not funny!"
"I'm not doing anything!" He holds his hands up.
"Ugh!" You groan, crossing your arms and looking away.
You're a mixture of uncomfortable and angry; you're not sure which one to feel right now.
"Oh, my. You're going to die if you leave this place. I can just tell. Why not stay here with me?"
You glare at Aiden, noticing him tense up as you do.
Looking forward again, you feel anger flow through you.
"You're weak. Submit to me."
You ignore him, instead gritting your teeth to bite back any obscenities you might yell.
"How pathetic. No wonder you need a bodyguard..."
That did it.
You push Aiden down onto the floor, pulling him up by his collar as you sit on his stomach.
"The fuck did you say!?" You shout in anger.
He holds his hands up again, "[Y-Y/N]! What- What are you doing? I-I didn't say anything!"
You reel your fist back, getting ready to punch the shit out of him, "Pathetic, huh? I'll show you pathetic, you fucking freak!"
Just before you were going to let him have it, you hear a loud creak that sounded like metal under heavy pressure.
You look down at his shaking form, and then at your hand gripping his collar.
You bite your bottom lip, then sigh.
What the hell were you doing?
You drop him, and stand up.
He stands up slowly after you, looking at you for a moment before clearing his throat and speaking quietly.
"We.. We must be close to the boiler room."
You nod, refusing to make eye contact with him.
He starts walking, and you follow.
You feel really bad after that... Now that you think about it, it probably wasn't even him whispering.
It didn't sound like his voice... Why did you even think it was?
The two of you finally reach a huge room with hundreds of doors surrounding it.
You curse under your breath, and look at Aiden for guidance.
"Search each door. When you find one that leads to the boiler room, yell for me."
He walks away to the left side of the room, and shouts, "Oh! And, stay away from that table!" He points towards a table in the center of the room.
Yeah... You had no intentions of going there.
You walk to the right side of the room, and start to open every door.
Almost every single one led back to the Main Hall... except for one.
You open a door, and a wave of heat hits you in the face.
The inside is a concrete room with pipes and different types of machinery.
"Uh... Aiden?" You raise your voice so he can hear, "I think I found it..!"
He quickly makes his way over to you.
"Good job! Let's go in, shall we?" You can almost hear the smile in his voice.
It's almost scary how quick he seemed to be back to normal after you attacked him...
You nod slowly, following him in.
The door shuts behind you with an echoing thud, and only then do you notice how dark it is in the room.
Some form of water leaks from the pipes, and steam billows out of some of the machines.
Aiden pulls a flashlight from his belt, shining it in front of the two of you.
You follow alongside him, and the longer you walk, the darker it gets.
It started to get extremely hot, and you almost didn't make it, but all of a sudden, you noticed you were surrounded in pitch black, and the temperature had dropped a bit.
"A-Aiden?" You call out for your companion, and he responds by locking your arms.
"I'm here, [Y/N]. Stay close to me, we don't want to get separated."
You hear him click off his flashlight.
"What'd you do that for?" You ask in shock.
"This is level six. There's no use for it. Just stay close to me, I have the layout of this place practically memorized!"
...
"Sort of."
After a bit of walking, you start to feel an overwhelming sense of dread, and you get the feeling you're being watched...
Who knows what's out there...?
You clutch Aiden's arm tightly, and he notices.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah.. Just... paranoid." You clear your throat.
He doesn't reply, instead he keeps walking.
...
You sigh as you decide to break the awkward silence, "Hey, I... I'm sorry. For what I did back there. I shouldn't have jumped you like that.."
"It's quite alright. I understand that level can make you hear things. It was only natural. Besides, I could've tased you and you would've been off in a second."
You knit your brows together, "Tased me...?"
You feel his coat shuffle, then you hear the taser. You were expecting to see the light to it, but you couldn't.
"Oh." You say.
You hear him laugh a bit, and put the taser away.
Soon, you hear the sound of waves, and the room gets cooler.
"...What's that?" You ask.
"We're nearing the next level."
You blink a few times in confusion, but decide to trust him.
He could push you off of him and leave you to die; you'd probably go insane first.
As you continue walking, you can't help but keep looking over your shoulder.
It does no good, you wouldn't be able to see anything.
You didn't even hear Aiden when he warned you of the stairs coming up.
...Wait, the what?
You take a step forward, but instead of your foot hitting solid ground, it hits air, and you trip.
You feel Aiden try to grab onto you, but it's too late.
You continue to fall, it feels like you're falling down a flight of stairs.
..Probably because you are.
You shout out swears and curses each and every... step of the way.
Soon enough, you land flat on your back in what feels like a puddle.
You groan, your eyes tightly shut.
When you open them, you're met with a concrete ceiling.
"[Y/N]! Oh... [Y/N]!?" You heat Aiden shout your name, and the sound of his dress shoes hitting the stairs as he hurries his way down.
You just lie there flat on your back in the puddle, staring up at the ceiling.
"[Y/N]! Are you okay?" You hear Aiden's voice gets closer, and splashes of water as he hurries towards you; soon enough, he's standing above you, looking down at you worriedly.
You keep a blank face, and sigh, "Yeah... About as okay as anyone who just fell down a flight of stairs would be..."
He holds his hand out for you to take, and you accept it.
Your whole body refuses as pain shoots through your body, and you grunt as you stand.
"Ugh... Shit..."
You take this time to look around you.
You were in a room that resembled an old living room of some kind, and the carpeted floor was flooded with a little bit of water.
"Are you sure you're okay? Did you break anything? Here, have some Almond Water." He shoves a bottle of Almond Water in your face, and you take it.
"Thanks..." You mutter as you sip the Almond Water, "Where are we...?"
"Level Seven. Thalassophobia. If you'll... look outside?" Aiden motions at the open doorway.
You raise an eyebrow, and walk over to it to look out.
It looks like you're floating in the sky, and you look back at Aiden with a confused expression.
"What? That we're in the sky?"
"Uh.. No..." He shakes his camera head, "Look up."
You look back out, and stick your head up.
Your jaw drops at the sight.
A vast ocean lies still above you.
"What... the fuck...?" You mutter under your breath.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" He walks up behind you, "Can you swim?"
You nod, your mouth still hanging open, "Yeah... Yeah... Yeah I can swim..."
"Good! Do you think you'd be able to now?"
You look back at him, "What? You want me to swim through that? How am I supposed to even get up there!?"
He clasps his hands together, "Allow me to demonstrate!"
He nudges past you, and stands facing you in the doorway.
He puts his hands behind his back, before letting himself fall backwards.
You let out a surprised yelp as he starts to fall, but his form quickly switches directions and falls... up?
You run over to the door, and look up as he is submerged in the sea.
He peeks his head out of the water, and waves.
You let out a huff of disbelief, shaking your head.
You hold your breath, take a running start, and jump out of the door.
You fall for a moment, before you feel yourself changing directions and falling(?) upwards.
You're quickly submerged in the water.
Coming up for breath, you look at Aiden.
"Good. Now, I must warn you... There are entities on this level, albeit only two."
You tilt your head, "Okay...? And what are they?"
He clears his throat(?), and speaks quietly, "Well, they reside in different zones of the level. There is the Thing on Level Seven, but it mainly resides in the lower zones, where we will only be traversing a little. The one that I'm mainly concerned about is Tiny."
A moment of silence passes over before you start laughing, "Tiny? What kind of name is Tiny? Am I supposed to be scared of something with that name?"
"Shh! Y-yes! You are!" Aiden waves his hands frantically, "Despite his name, he is very large... and violent! I'd rather not bump into him. I'm not sure if you would survive the altercation."
You roll your eyes, your smile not leaving, "Okay, whatever. How do we get out of here?"
He senses your carefreeness, and sighs, "Okay... We have to travel down toward the bottom of the Midnight Zone. That's where the Thing resides, we must be careful. However, we must be more careful of Tiny. He has exceptional hearing-"
"Will you cut it out about Tiny? I'm not scared of something named 'Tiny.'"
"...You should be. We have to move. Come on, hold your breath."
You shrug, and take a deep breath, diving under the water.
This will surely be an adventure...

HI!!!
I am so excited to write Tiny's character oh my God.
See the website I was using didn't mention him at ALL, and I just found out about him.
JAHSJSB IM SO EXCITED TO WRITE HIM but idk how to make the situation play out....
Oh well, I'll wing it.
I hope this was enough to feed u tonight
GOODNIGHT!

P.S oh yeah and remember that bot I made? Well I had to test him out