Heartbeat - Seek x Figure

New Friends...?

I'm back! With the new Doors update, of course I needed to write another chapter! I will likely write several chapters about the update, but I cannot promise that they will all be released soon. Thank you all so much for 40k reads!

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Seek POV

I was wandering the long halls of the hotel, my single eye barely hanging open. It was an exhausting day of searching for food to feed the human, Molly. Unfortunately, I didn't find much, but all I could do was hope the others had more luck. The only thing I wanted to do was sleep in the cozy room behind the closet in the library.

I entered the next room, my eye lazily scanning the surroundings. It was a seemingly normal room with two paths. However, something about the doors that resided at the ends of each path was not right. Confused, I squinted at one door. The gold plate on the door read "0027". I turned to the other door. "0028".

"What in the world?" I quietly mumbled to myself. I blinked and shook my head, trying to reason that I was hallucinating. But every time I looked at the doors again, they were labeled with the same numbers. "That's odd," I muttered under my breath.

What room am I even in? I wondered, turning around to check the number on the door I had just walked through. My eye widened as I moved the door enough to see the label. Instead of a number, it was coated in black swirls and scribbles. I had no choice but to guess which door to walk through.

I'll use door twenty-seven, I decided, striding across the room with confidence. I reached for the door handle, but before I could move it, a screech erupted from in front of me. The door swung open, and a blur hurled itself at me. I fell back onto the ground before swiftly standing to confront whatever had just tried to attack me.

"What are you?" I angrily asked the entity in front of me. All of the exhaustion had drained out of me, and my wide eye could see him clearly. His entire form was a face similar to Rush or Jack, but he had an elongated smile and reddish, wispy lines that could be interpreted as eyes.

The entity tilted to the side as if trying to shrug. "You're not a human," he remarked. I expected his voice to be more threatening, but he instead had a high voice strangely similar to Timothy's.

"Do I look like a human?" I shot back, glaring at the entity. I asked again, "Who are you and what are you doing in my hotel?"

Giggling, the entity answered, "I'm Dupe, and I came here with my friends."

My head was spinning with questions. Dupe just "came here?" From where? Who were his friends? However, I knew that if I wanted answers, I would have to save some of my curiosities for later. Narrowing down the most important one, I decided to ask, "Where are your friends now?"

"I don't know," Dupe realized, glancing away as if trying to remember. Rushing past me, he declared, "I'm going to go find them."

"You aren't going anywhere without me!" I scolded, chasing after him and shoving him towards one of the walls. It would be irresponsible of me to allow a potential threat to roam the hotel freely. So, I stepped in front of Dupe and reached for the next door. As my hand gripped onto the handle, the door suddenly threw itself open, sending me stumbling back towards where Dupe was waiting.

Halt, Jack, and Rush all poured into the room, followed by a few creatures that must have been Dupe's friends. Dashing up to me, Rush exclaimed, "Seek! We found new entities!"

"I can see that," I replied, taking a step back. Then, I commanded to my friends, "Back up and let me talk to the new entities!"

Halt immediately heeded my command with a respectful nod. Jack and Rush whispered to each other as they followed the glowing blue entity. Finally, I had enough space to speak without being bothered.

I signaled to the first new entity, beckoning them to take a step forward. He was a little red goblin-like creature with a golden earring through his right ear. Brown bracelets with spikes were wrapped around his wrists. I began, "Who are you?"

"Me llamo El Goblino. And who are you?"

"What in all of this hotel did you just say?" I asked, a mixture of confused and annoyed.

Jack stepped forward. Before I could tell him to back up, he cut in, "I can be your translator. His name is El Goblino."

"That's a weird name," I remarked bluntly, turning back to the red entity. Nudging him aside, I spun to see the next entity. I was thoroughly disappointed when I was met with an unmoving humanoid skeleton wearing a brown cap.

El Goblino rushed in front of me, explaining, "This is Bob. He doesn't like moving. Or talking."

I shrugged. With a sigh, I watched El Goblino grab Bob and hurry off with him. He brought his friend to the corner of the room, where he placed the skeleton in a sitting position on the floor.

Rolling my eye, I resumed, "Who's next?" Ahead of me was a dark purple blob that slightly resembled a living being. Several outstretched tentacles reached around the narrow hallway of the room, poking at each of the walls. His eyes were two round blue discs at the center of what could resemble his face.

"I'm Jeff," the dark entity began, "and it's a pleasure to meet you!"

Jeff seemed more talkative than the others at first. However, before I could ask another question, he simply shied away and joined El Goblino near the corner of the room.

"Last one," Rush said from behind me as I turned to speak to the last entity. I blinked in confusion for a moment, as I was met with only blank space in front of me. However, a glance down revealed a seemingly harmless pile of dirt.

I stared dumbfounded at the dirt for several seconds. After a long moment of silence, I quietly asked, "Are you alive?"

"Yes!" A muffled voice grunted from beneath the dirt. "I'm Snare, and I got stuck in the ground on the way here."

I continued to stare at Snare for another few seconds. Then, I facepalmed, exclaiming, "Who are these people? We have a dead human, a Slenderman clone, a Rush wannabe, and an actual sentient pile of dirt!"

"Don't forget about me," El Goblino chimed in. He hissed, "And Bob isn't just a dead human, right düd?" He turned and nudged the skeleton. As I expected, it gave no response. Its previously closed jaw only lowered slightly.

Meanwhile, Jack was still focused on me. "Did you hear about Slenderman in a book?" He asked, his face lighting up with excitement. "I read that book, too!"

I was certainly too tired for this. Gesturing to all the other entities, I suggested, "We should go back to the library and regroup with everyone else. We can discuss this there."

And so, I led the way, with the new entities following behind me. It was a strange and eventful day, but speaking to them would hopefully reveal more information about their mysterious appearances. Wherever these new entities came from, it was something to learn about once I was fully rested. After all, there was no way the day could get any weirder.

Word Count: 1190