Needle and Thread

Always

cerebrumRock (CR) began pestering referenceRhapsody (RR).

CR: hey.

CR: It's a little bit to the left of the holes.

cerebrumRock (CR) ceased pestering referenceRhapsody (RR).

Lyra looked at her phone, shrugged, and held it up for Andesine to see. "Hey, dude," she said. "Guess who just solved all our problems," she said.

Andesine took a look at it. He walked over to the strips of holes on the right side of the room, tracing them with his fingers. Lyra came to stand next to him. "Feel anything?"

Andeine's fingers skated over the smooth walls. "Nuh uh," he said. "I don't know what Benny was talking about."

"Here, lemme try," Lyra replied. She nudged Andesine out of the way and put her whole head up against the wall as if it were some safe she was trying to crack.

"Lyra. Lyra. Lyra, stop. That's not going to work." Andesine tapped her shoulder. "Maybe it can only be activated by the Player. But I seriously doubt it'll react to your hair."

Lyra turned around to look at him. "You think it will open for me if I like, touch it or something?"

"Sure. Why not. Maybe there's some sort of pattern to the holes that'll tell you. We've seen weirder schist."

Lyra looked at him quizzically. "I don't think there's a pattern in the holes, Andesine."

"I'm not saying there is! I'm just saying we've seen weirder stuff, so why not!"

"Sure, Andesine." Lyra said. "Am I supposed to start placing random parts of my body on the wall? Where would you like me to start?"

It took Andesine a few seconds to realize that she was being sarcastic. Blush spread across his face. "I didn't mean it like that!" He said.

Lyra tried not to grin. She wasn't very good at it. "It's cool," she said at last, giving up. A full-fledged smile spread across her face.

"Don't do that," Andesine warned.

"What? I'm just smiling."

"Yeah, sure."

**************************

You know how in movies, they find out the secret exit almost immediately and then proceed to kick arse?

That didn't happen here. It took them hours to find what Benny was trying to point out to them, and even then there weren't many interesting sights to see.

I'll try to sum up what happened next as painlessly as possible:

Lyra and Andesine discovered that there was a slight, incredibly slight, indentation in the shape of a foot on the wall. They only saw this as the sun was going down. It reflected off the footprint so that Lyra honestly would have only missed it if she was blind. She took her shoes and socks off, an pressed her feet up against the wall. The floor gave way, letting them fall until they hit a pool of what seemed like liquid air. Andesine nearly had a heart attack (below them, the ground below was clearly visible). They swam to a platform, which led them down a really long hallway. They walked for a long time. And then...

****************************

"Finally," Andesine said. "I feel like my legs are about to fall off."

"You were the one who didn't want to stop and rest," Lyra replied, yawning. "Speaking of which, you wanna try it now?" A door slammed down behind them. From the ceiling, a spiked weight hurtled towards them. "I guess not," Lyra murmured as Andesine jerked her out of the hallway and into the room beyond.