item acquired

03. BASEMENT

Silently, Ego stalked by Adan's bed slowly. The other hybrid was breathing steadily, calm and quiet, proving to Ego that he was thankfully asleep. Glancing at a clock, Ego took note of the time before slipping to the doorway.

He swiped his card key from the countertop, sliding it into his pocket before cautiously opening the smooth door. Stepping into the dimly lit hallway, Ego looked around. His green eyes glowed subtly as he leaned forward, the door softly coming back to the doorframe, shutting behind him. Ego's head kept glancing in every direction, completely alert of anything to surprise him. He walked past the elevator, discarding it from his vision entirely, and walked towards the stairwell.

Pushing the metal door, a breeze slipped through. Shivering very slightly, Ego snuck by the door and into the stairs.

The stairs were lit by red lights on the walls, eerie and villainous. The tall male crept down the steps, his shoes crushing pebbles and very fine pieces of concrete beneath him. Cringing at the noise, his hand gripped the railing as he descended down the stairs.

He felt as if he was spiraling into the depths of the unknown ground, the end of this stairwell taunting him loudly.

Finally, he reached the floor one.
Ego stood in front of the door, a breeze whispering behind him as he slowly turned around.

One more set of stairs.

He froze in his steps, teeth sinking into his lip harshly as he balled his fists.
His hair pushed against his face as his hand went to reach the door to the first floor.
But as he raised his hand, his heart lurched.

Quickly pulling away from the door, he stared at it absentmindedly. Static flooding his eyes and white noise-absorbing his brain.

Everything was blurry.

He didn't notice it, but he soon found himself drifting down the last ever flight of stairs. His body started to feel light as if he were nothing but a speck of dust resting in the wind gently.

He listened to his heartbeat loudly in his chest, soon getting pulled back to reality.

"BASEMENT"

The door had glowing red-gold words engraved into a sign above it. Ego let everything go, his card key slipping from his fingers, colliding into the ground gracefully. Tilting his head ever so slightly, Ego walked to the door and twisted the handle. A loud croaking noise erupted through the stairwell, echoing faintly as he stepped inside.

Lights flickered on and off once he was inside, guessing it was motion sensors with a timer, he didn't bother to look for a light switch.

His mind was beginning to tangle together, weave into one giant collision of thoughts. Blinking slowly, Ego's green eyes seemingly started to glow again as he stumbled further into the concrete room.

The brunette took note of the room; there were tons of shelves with cardboard boxes on them, they looked old and dusted for the most part. There were old paintings scattered around, very old paintings. Every step of the way, Ego was getting drawn closer to the back of the concrete structure beneath the building.

There was a crimson book on a small circular desk beneath a yellow light, perfectly centered in the room. He inched closer to the desk before halting in front of it.

It was the exact same book from the hotel desk.

But— wasn't this book in his hotel room? Right next to his bed, he surely remembers he left it there.

So then how was it here?

His fingers ghosted over the carvings on the book cover before he pressed them into the leather words. Dipping his fingers beneath the cover, Ego opened the book.

His eyes scanned over words he didn't understand, the static of a haze returning to his mind. There were pictures and drawings of cryptic creatures, images of the hotel setting aflame, crashing down even.

He flipped through the pages aggressively, green eyes glowing even brighter than before. Ego wasn't sure what he was looking for, or what even the purpose of scanning the book was.

His hand slammed down on a page.
The noise of the book cover echoing in the bare room.
It was smooth and thin.

His fingers opened the book wider as his hand slowly uncovered the image on the page.

A shovel.

Seemingly the same one besides the desk.
His narrowed eyes drifted to the shovel beside the circular table. Pushing the book away, Ego reached to pick the shovel up.

It was metal, all of it. His fingers grazed over subtle works engraved into the handle before taking it in both of his hands. He extended his arms out, examining the shovel closely.

He couldn't tell what it was, but he was drawn towards the object. The shovel acted as a token of gratitude. This shovel was important, it was like winning an award and this was the prize.

Placing the shovel down, Ego glanced at the book before shutting it.
He whipped around, walking straight to the door as he shut it softly behind him. He trudged up the stairs, noticing the very slim sliver of sunlight pour from the stairway.
The green-eyed male shrugged and walked back up the stairs, he stopped at floor one and pushed through the doors.

—

"Dude, it's so cold in here," A voice echoed from the elevators as they slid open. Lemon, Irsh, Mime, and Neo all walked through the ballroom in a group. From the way they were dressed, all of them probably just had woken up and went downstairs immediately. Ego greeted them by walking from the dining hall and shouting out to them, following up with waving towards them.

"Are we just gonna eat pizza for a month or what?" Lemon chuckled, leaning back in their chair, "Oh, no-" Ego laughed before continuing, "We managed to get some other stuff. Sem suggested we should."

The five of them soon started to bolt a conversation, talking about how excited they were to be staying at the hotel.

Despite Ego carrying the conversation, the back of his mind stayed fuzzy and loud.

And he knew what he had to do.