The 9 Rooms

Prologue

Lux quickly looked around.

They were on to him.

There wasn't really anything he could do to escape.

Unless...

He looked at the items he was carrying.

9 colours of paint.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Black and Gold.

Each colour had a very unique effect.

He used to have a can of white paint, but that was in his room now. It changed the colour of his room daily, which was good in someways. The door to his room was somewhere ahead, although it was almost midnight. If he didn't get there in time, it would change colour and he'd be stuck in this apocalypse forever.

He looked at the paint cans again. One of them could probably save him, although if he did use it without a room he would never be able to use that colour again. Shape-shifting, inspiration, summoning, teleportation,  imagination, mind reading, time travel, randomness, or whatever gold did.

He didn't know what gold did.

Time travel would be ideal, since that was what technically got him into this mess in the first place, although he would like to keep the room. Teleportation also would move him away from the room, permanently. Shape-shifting wouldn't really be that useful when fighting them, and they probably don't have minds capable of reading. Summoning would only make matters worse, and an imaginary world really wouldn't be that helpful now. Inspiration requires an actual way to make the ideas into real, and randomness was the cause of this whole problem.

Gold it is then.

He looked at his watch. About 3 minutes to midnight.

Whatever gold does, it had better do it quickly.

He placed the other cans on the ground, then emptied the gold paint onto himself. The effect was immediately apparent: Everything had frozen.

Gold stops time. Perfect.

He picked up the other cans and continued on, until he eventually arrived at the door. He opened it, and walked inside. The paint would wear off soon. It always did.

And, sure enough, the paint began to wash off his skin. And his clothes. And his hat. Probably. He didn't have much time until time started again. If that even made any sense.

"September the 15th 2016." he shouted at no one in particular. There was a sudden rush of air, as the room was sent back in time. He waited for the paint to wear off, before picking up the cans of paint, opening the door, and walking into the sunlight