Garten of Banban: Hell Awaiting

Chapter Three: "Arachnophobia"

I slowly open my eyes, blinking my vision to focus. Where am I? Is this the afterlife? My breathing comes to a quick halt, and I slowly push myself up to sitting position as I remember everything that happened just earlier. The elevator! That monster! The crash! What the heck did I get myself into here?!

I manage to stagger to my feet, my eyes wide in disbelief as I glance around the area in front of me. I have absolutely no clue where I am at all. The only thing up ahead seems to be an orange door. Damn, if only I had my keycard with me... But that's when I look behind me, and I let out a sharp gasp at what I see.

The elevator, or what used to be the elevator, is completely destroyed. Josh lay unconscious under all the rubble, or at least... I hope he's unconscious. I spot my broken remote and keycard on the ground nearby, so I quickly run over to retrieve them before returning my attention back to Josh. He appears to be knocked out cold, but there's still a chance that he could wake up and cause mayhem again. If that's the case, then I'm outta here.

I walk over to the orange door, unlocking it with shaky hands. I guess I'm not as confident as I was before, huh...? Well, there's nothing I can do about that right now. I slip through the door, heading down the hall I'd just entered to unlock another set of doors. After locking that door too, I finally make it into the next room.

I step inside cautiously, nervously glancing around the area and waiting for something to attack me. Thankfully, I don't encounter anything, but that doesn't mean I'm feeling much better about all this. Who knows what kind of other crazy shit lives down here? It's honestly a miracle that I haven't lost myself yet to insanity.

I walk into a much larger room, and oh my god, this room is huge! I gulp down the fear that threatens to rise into my throat, my heart pounding wildly against my chest as I continue to scan around. There are three separate platforms on each side of the room, all leading into different areas of the facility.

If someone had warned me in advance that this was the kindergarten I'd be sending my kids to, I wouldn't have believed them. I guess I never would've expected to actually send them off to a school like this. I'm such a terrible mother...

I take a few steps forward, looking around the entire room, my heart thumping harder and faster with each step I took. In the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a pink keycard... and a note beside it. Quickly rushing towards the keycard, I pick it up and read the note. The message only succeeds in bringing more dread to fill my body than it already does...

'This is it.

The things we've done have finally come back to bite us.

Everyone's gone, and the whispers from the abyss just keep getting louder. I think I even saw a face or two looking up at me.

We were told everything that gets thrown into the abyss dies, but it appears we were tricked.

If you're reading this, take my advice and leave. Everything here should be forgotten and erased from history.'

I slowly put the note back on the ground, clutching onto the keycard tightly. As much as I'd love to take heed of this cryptic warning and immediately abandon this place, I don't exactly have a way back up to the main building. Besides, I can't give up yet. Jaiden and Jack are still trapped down here. I need to save them.

I approach the machine that requires the pink keycard, pulling out said keycard and activating it. As soon as I do that, a pathway begins to slide out from beneath the platform, granting me access to each of those other platforms. Alright, here we go. Just gotta figure out which one will be the most suitable place for me to go...