The elevator didn't stutter or stall. Time did. It simply forgot to keep flowing. As if it hesitated, caught in a glitch that shouldn't exist. And for once, and finally, you felt like the glitch itself.
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Null has left. Thank stars.
The last thing you remember is staring at his back with that ridiculous chicken hood as he walked out of the elevator and into the subway before he gets blocked out of view by a particularly cheery party animal that enters the elevator with a skip in their legs while holding a gift box, rambling excitedly about parties while blowing a party horn.
Honestly, you'd call this a good trade. And you thought that green alien cat thing was weird; xe now lingers somewhere in the second-place spot now. There's no need to guess who's now the new king of the rankings.
You can't help but let out a subtle sigh of relief as the door closes. The players all scatter about inside the elevator, once again. Null's absence makes the elevator feel less heavy and slow, somehow. It instantly puts you in a good, smiley mood.
"hey hey!! u look like ur in a good mood!" Poob immediately strikes up a cheerful conversation with you while beaming widely in excitement and simple frivolousness, blowing their party horn while rambling at a rapid pace. "does dis mean ur down 2 party?! im goin to a parti later!! wanna come with?"
That wide smile almost instantly melts your heart. They're just so cheerful it makes you feel like the devil for even turning them down, so you decide to play along.
You're about to open your mouth and reply. You blink, but when you open your eyes, the elevator has stopped moving. There's no longer the humming of machinery, and the entire elevator is empty. No one. No cheerful party animals or any agitated people. Just... you. You, and only you.
Panicked, your gaze immediately whips over to the countdown timer above the buttons, trying to get an idea of whatever's happening at the moment. It's blank. There's no ticking numbers on the blank, black surface. It feels like there's soft white noise in your ears.
You're trapped.
Shifting in discomfort, you feel yourself beginning to get worked up and anxious, your feet unconsciously shuffling about. This has never happened. You've always sought after some kind of thrill beyond the Happy Home, but this just isn't it. Static always means something's off, doesn't it?
And it always means something's attempting to rectify itself. Something that it doesn't know how to process or handle.
You're not exactly the smartest or the most advanced technician in the world, but you've gone through loops enough to know what they feel like. This isn't a loop. It's much, much farther than just one.
It's a pause...
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You lean against the railing, trying to calm yourself down with other thoughts, but the static that's supposed to be faint and soft is so deafeningly loud it's literally unbearable. Your breaths sound like rolling thunder while you close your eyes, trying to let time pass faster.
As you think, you begin to wonder if this is because of what Null said.
"We must say, the system does not handle your presence adequately." If only he'd elaborated more, but he didn't. That could mean anything. It could be because of something you did. It could be because of the very bane of your existence. It could be anything, but you hope it's not the latter.
Your interaction still lingers in your memory like the taste of cold air. Like stone under your feet. Like a gaze that shouldn't have shifted towards you, but it did anyway. You didn't even know of his existence or his floor until half an hour ago. And you get the feeling that from his words, you weren't supposed to interact with either.
And yet, look where you've gotten yourself, just because you wanted to be the hero of your own story and venture out beyond the safe clutches of the Happy Home.
This feels uncanny, considering that Poob was just right next to you a couple minutes ago. You decide to try something to see if you'll get a response, like in those weird movies you've seen on the Happy Home's television at some point.
"Hello? Anyone?"
Your voice bounces off the cold, wooden walls and right back towards you. There's no answer. The static remains, and your echo rings in your ears.
You decide to try something else. You pull out the panel. You type in: "///destination-reroute" and execute the command, staring at the interface in front of your face. Anything to get you out of this stagnant elevator which feels like purgatory.
For a moment, the elevator jerks, causing your eyes to widen and eliciting a soft gasp. You blink, thinking that something's about to happen, but then nothing does.
A sound, akin to a breath, filters into the space behind you.
You turn.
Nothing.
You feel like you're being watched. Not in a monitored sense, but more of like a remembered sense. As if someone else had already been here before and had thought of you for some reason. The thought's so random it makes you feel insane.
...I need to get out of here.
Your shaky hands hover over the interface again and once again write, "///destination-reroute".
Suddenly, you're jolted back into consciousness as soon as you close your eyes to blink. You awake in a strange position; in the middle of a never-ending IKEA. You shake your head, your breaths heavy. It's as if your body didn't belong to you for the duration you were seemingly in a limbo.
You step around like nothing's wrong, subtly approaching the nearest player to reassure yourself that you haven't completely lost your mind yet.
The player, the one that had given you some ice cream, suddenly glances at you and pauses as they spot you approaching them, eyes widening as they ask themselves, "Who on earth is this?"
It hurts to walk, as if you'd just gotten up right after being forcefully shoved forward.
Your bones feel strangely like static, but you ignore it for now. There'll be plenty of time to look into it later. Focusing on dashing around the IKEA to find a very specific lamp, you begin to think over everything that's led up to this point.
A player finds Lampert before you have. You don't know how you know, you just do; it's like a sudden urge or sense that says, 'time to go'. Instinctively you rush back towards the elevator and get back into position.
The elevator doors hiss shut, and all the players scatter again, as if nothing bizarre had just happened. Something that you can't say without lying.
The air feels like it's buzzing for a moment before it fades.
You know — you don't know how, you just do — that this won't be the last time you'll be back to wherever that was, or between different consciousnesses of yourself.
