Little Dreams and Hollow Nightmares

Ph2 Ch17: The Storage Rooms

Seven's eyes fluttered open. His surroundings were blurry, and hard to make out. He couldn't move, almost as if he was being held down by something. He heard distant screeching, followed by the sound of tumbling, boxes? Containers? Suitcases? Seven's vision restored, and he remembered what happened. He struggled to move under the pile of suitcases now on top of him. He heard the screeching again, which he instantly recognized as the Grimmchild. He clawed at the suitcases, trying to pull himself out, and he felt a mouth grip his hand. The mouth pulled his hand so much that it started to pull his entire body against the multiple layers of suitcases he was trapped under.

Suddenly, his head was pulled out, and he saw light again. He looked at his hand, and was relieved to see the Grimmchild pulling his hand in their mouth. Upon seeing its bearer, the Grimmchild opened its jaw, letting Seven's hand free. Instead, it gripped its jaws around his shirt and pulled from there. Seven pushed up with his free hand, and surprisingly, he got free, and a small pile of suitcases fell with him. His friend helped him to his feet, as he adjusted to the room.

"Thanks friend," Seven said, smiling at his companions joy.

The child chirped, and then they assessed their surroundings. Seven remembered the lever to the door he was trying to open, and he started to move a suitcase to the foot of the wall. He got on top, and jumped up. He was able to reach the lever, and he pulled it down. The door opened, leading to another room, full of luggage. Seven walked into the room, looking around at the strange assortment of packages and luggage around the room. There was an elevator at the end of the room, bit there was no way to activate it. It must've only been accessible from the inside.

As Seven looked for another possible exit, the Grimmchild flew up to a loose vent near the roof of the room. Seven smiled and started to look for a way up there. He pushed one of the luggage carriers to the wall, and climbed up the pile of suitcases up to the vent. He reached for his nail to pry the vent open, but it wasn't in his possession. Seven realized that it must've still been under the suitcases he got stuck under. He knew it would be nearly impossible to move all those suitcases, so instead he looked for another weapon or tool to use.

He scanned the floor, looking for something, and then spotted a small pipe. He hopped down the suitcases, and made his way to the pipe. He reached his hand around it, and picked it up. It was very light, and it felt like it fit perfectly in his hand. He swung it around, and he decided that this would be a good substitute weapon for the time being. He climbed back up to the vent, and jammed the pipe into an open part. He and his partner pulled, and the vent cover burst open. He pulled the pipe out, and saw that its tip had broken off, making it pointed with a sharp tip.

Feeling confident with his new weapon, Seven started to crawl through the vent. The vent smelled like old dust, and reeked of an old candle scent. As he crawled, he felt his hands touch something sticky. He looked down, and saw a splatter of old, moldy wax under his hands. Disgusted, Seven tried not to breathe in through his nose, not wanting to smell the wax covering the vent. He continued crawling, and reached another vent cover. He used his pipe to pry open the vent, and crawled out.

Seven stood up, and noticed that the room he was in had wax drippings all across the floor. Was someone carrying candles through here or something? He wondered. His attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of skiddering Nomes. He followed the sound, intrested in where they were going. He walked through a long hallway, with luggage stacked up on shelves, and wax lining the center of the floor. He walked into another room, with very creaky floorboards. He carefully stepped across each one, but suddenly the boards underneath him broke, and he fell into another room.

He landed in a large sea of old shoes, somewhat cushioning his fall. He looked for a stable surface to stand on, and noticed a package nearby. He made his way to the package, moving through the shoes, when suddenly, he heard something else. He looked, and saw the Grimmchild was shooting at something. Something crawling through the shoes towards him. Seven frantically moved to the package, and pulled himself on top of it. Whatever was crawling towards him earlier, it must've noticed he was no longer there, because it stopped moving. But it didn't move from its spot. Seven knew this because the Grimmchild was still shooting at the shoes, not hitting anything.

Seven looked at the sea of shoes, and noticed a rope at the end of the room, leading back to the room above. He looked back at where the Grimmchild was shooting, and took a deep breath. He jumped back into the shoes, and hastily crawled to the next surface he could stand on. The creature followed him, the shoes moving and tapping against each other as it moved. Seven climbed onto the next surface, then jumped to the next few, getting him ahead of the shoe monster. All that was in front of him and he rope, was a long sea of shoes.

Seven hoped he had enough of a headstart, and jumped into the shoes once more. He crawled as fast as he could, hearing the monster chasing after him as he moved. He pulled himself through the shoes, trying to get to the rope. The Grimmchild realized that there wouldn't be enough time to get to the rope. Thinking  fast, it flew ahead, grabbed the rope in its jaws, and pulled it toward his bearer, reaching out for it. Seven grabbed the rope, and pulled himself out of the shoes, just before the creature was about to reach him. He climbed up to the room above, and fell to his knees.

"Thanks little guy," he told the Grimmchild.

All it did was happily smile, and then helped Seven to his feet. The two of them progressed further, and the smell of wax seemed to be getting worse and worse. Seven kept walking, not wanting to smell the wax, breathing through his mouth. Suddenly, he heard a weird sound. It sounded like a rope was moving something. He continued walking, and saw a few Nomes, scurrying away from something. Seven looked down the hall the Nomes came from, and saw what they were running from.

A man made of wax, was being pulled by a rope from his neck, and was carrying luggage onto the shelves. Seven tiptoed past, but suddenly, his foot stepped into a pile of old wax, making a loud *Sploosh*. Seven turned, and saw the wax man looking straight at him, and within a few seconds, the rope was pulling the man towards him. Seven frantically looked for a way to escape, and he spotted something, or someone familiar. It was the glitched girl he saw from his encounter with the Barber. She was moving her hand, beckoning Seven to follow her. He did so without a second thought. He ran towards the girl, and suddenly fell through a vent that he didn't see, and hit the floor, blacked out.

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Okay, allow me to explain why this chapter took a while. Like I mentioned earlier, I have been interested in writing other things, including a few original stories of mine. School has also been a thing, but it has mainly been me focusing on other things.

I haven't forgotten about this story, I've just been tampering with other ideas and stories. How would you like to see something original?

Ah whatever, I'll keep writing this for now. See you in the next chapter!