You make it all the way up to the boss's office when a familiar figurine catches your eye and you walk up to it.
"You found one of them! One of the miniature Stanley figurines. Remember, no reward for collecting all of these. Only the intrinsic pleasure of a job well done. You can't buy that sort of happiness, (Y/N). God knows I've tried. So, I implore you to savor each and every moment you come across one of these beautiful figurines."
It's in that moment you know you will be finding all of these figurines. You continue on your way with your bucket all the way up to the mind control facility. You walk up to the buttons.
"When at last they found the source of the room's power (Y/N) and the bucket knew it was their obligation, to put an end to this horrible place and to everything it stood for." The Narrator says.
You go to press the off button when you hear a faint whisper, a voice that isn't The Narrator's "Turn it on." A chill goes up your spine and you frantically look around the room, clutching The Bucket close. You look down to check on The Bucket, you felt something click in your head. The Bucket had told you turn the machine on.
Flashes of explosions, pain, and desperation filled your mind. For a moment you feel betrayed by the bucket, but the longer you looked at it the more you felt compelled to listen. You look back at the controls and turn them on.
"But at the last second, The Bucket jumped in and pressed the button to turn on the controls! (Y/N) gasped in horror. Had this been The Bucket's plan all along, to take over the machine and claim the power for itself? How could the bucket have betrayed them like this?"
As The Narrator spoke you felt a million miles away. You stared at the screen waiting for that familiar timer to appear. For a second you consider tossing The Bucket away.
"(Y/N) was prepared to throw the bucket away in disgust when suddenly an image appeared upon the enormous screen."
The Narrator's words shocked back to reality, you stepped back, feeling your arms tremble. You shut your eyes and opened them slowly. There was no menacing timer, or angry narrator just a video of bird up on the monitor.
"Birds. Silly... silly birds. The control buttons became active again." The Narrator says and on cue the buttons turned on, showing arrows. You flip through videos and smile.
"(Y/N) flipped through one video of silly birds after another. And then it dawned on them. This wasn't a mind control facility at all. It was a facility for monitoring and surveilling silly birds all over the world! The mind controls were only a facade to disguise its true intentions. Had the bucket known this all along? (Y/N) marveled at the metal genius in their hands. The one who had pointed them toward this incredible discovery. (Y/N) and the bucket never found freedom, because they spent the rest of their lives here in this place flipping through livestreams of the silliest birds imaginable. Of all the possible paths their life could have taken, this one was surely the best. And (Y/N) was happy."
And you were, as you flipped through the screens looking at all the silly birds. You felt content. The Bucket didn't seem to feel this way though, an angry energy seemed to radiate off of it if that was possible. You chose to ignore this feeling, the bucket isn't alive after all. You just let yourself feel happy until the game restarts again. You blink, you're back at you desk.
"You know that ending was actually meant to end much earlier but I thought I'd let you enjoy that. In my opinion that's much nicer than the ending that was there before. Don't you agree (Y/N)?"
"100 percent Narrator. Though I think anything beats that ending in how horrible it was." You tell him.
"Yes, I suppose. Onward (Y/N)! We have more endings to see!"
You go on and on and on and on. Taking The Bucket to all kinds of different places and feeling your bond grow as your bond with The Narrator grows more tense. You're not sure how much time is passing but you really don't care.
You send The Bucket out the escape pod, you try to take The Bucket outside but the facility won't let you leave, you hold a press conference over the number 3, and you have to learn what a bucket is only to find everything but you and The Narrator are buckets among. You did a couple other endings as well as they popped into your head.
You also gather a lot of the collectables and feel the need for completion fill you the closer you get to finding them all. It's one of the few times you feel like like you're not as tense with The Narrator. You've found one under the stairs, one in the boss' bathroom, and one by the red and blue doors, plus the one you found earlier in the boss'office.
One day while you and The Bucket are walking across platforms to get to the mind control facility to see your silly birds again you pause. You look over the edge and for a second you wonder what will happen if you jump over. You pull yourself over the edge and let your legs dangle for a minute and jump.
"But just as (Y/N) was about to proceed further into the mind control facility they tripped and fell over the railing and into the dark void below. Thankfully they fell directly onto the bucket, which safely cushioned their fall. Now what to do next, (Y/N) wondered. (Y/N) and the bucket could find no way out of this enormous pit and so eventually they decided that the best thing to do would be to simply get comfortable down here."
You look around and up at The Narrator, waiting.
"Well don't look at me like that (Y/N)! You and the Bucket will have to figure out how to make yourselves comfortable down there because I'm not helping!"
"Oh would you get over yourself! You're so jealous of The Bucket!" You shout.
The Narrator gasps. "How dare you insinuate such a thing. I'm leaving! Figure this mess out yourself!" And the sound of footsteps fill the air.
"We don't need him do we Bucket?" You ask. "We can make ourselves at home down here easy!"So over time you set up a little couch and relax. "It really isn't so bad down here. A bit cold, perhaps." You tell The Bucket.
After some more time had gone by, you install a few shelves as well and a kitchenette that's useful for when The Bucket is craving paninis. It wasn't until the rugs and the standing lamps came in that it really started to feel like a home.
After some time you realized that it had been ages since you had even thought of the mind control facility or The Narrator at all! You'd never gotten to fully explore everything with him yet, all the new features. This lack of closure began to eat at you. Soon you were dwelling on your regrets. And the state of your new home slowly decayed as you withdrew and neglected the cleaning.
You missed The Narrator. You missed your friendly banter and the way you picked on each other. You missed when life wasn't so tense. When you had just become friends and were actually feeling like being stuck in the never ending parable wasn't so bad. You had The Bucket sure, but you still felt alone without his voice there. It was like locking yourself in the broom closet for too long but worse.
You missed The Broom Closet, you had gotten so angry at The Broom Closet, and for what. You look up, was it all gone? Were you stuck down here forever without your best friend. The man that for the longest time was the only friend you had. The person who had been there for as far back as you could remember. How could he just leave you? Did he miss you too?
It unsettled The Bucket deeply. You weren't usually like this. The Bucket tried to reach out to you again and again, but to no avail. At first you noticed because it was weird to feel the pull and call of The Bucket with such desperate feeling attached but all you could think about, all you could talk about, was going back and doing it over again, staying on the path and with The Narrator.
"It was a mistake to leave the path, it was a mistake, it was a mistake, I need to do what The Narrator says, I need him back!" You call out into the air, hoping he'll hear you.
This made no sense at all to The Bucket, which was simply trying to live its life down here as comfortably as possible. Yet you were unconsolable.
"This isn't an ending. this is just a hole in the ground!" You shout.
There's a sigh. "True it isn't an ending, but it's where we happened to be and maybe, possibly, if we accept the reality of things, maybe this will become an ending eventually." The air whispers and you know it's the bucket
This is what The Bucket is counting on. The two of you waited for a very long time.
"Narrator!" You scream at the top of your lungs, as you collapse to your knees and sob.
(1628 Words)