Finding happiness in the Parable || The Narrator x Stanley

Chapter 3: curiousities.

"this is the story of a man named Stanley. Stan-"

The Narrator was cut off, and Stanley just like last time, stayed in his seat.

"Stanley, I'd really like you to play the game today. Come on! I gave you a days break. Let's get back to business!"

The Narrator sounded oddly enthusiastic, and with a small sigh, Stanley stood up and exited the room.

"All of his co-workers were gone, what could it mean?"

The Narrator didn't finish his usual dialogue, and that confused Stanley, but he rolled with it. He got to the two doors, and was just about to enter the left one, when the Narrator spoke.

"Coming to a set of two open doors, Stanley entered the one on his right."

Stanley, completely befuddled, stood in shock for a moment or two. Then, with a small smile, he entered the right door.

"Stanley decided to go looking for his co-workers. He figured they were probably all hanging around in the employee lounge, so he went there to look."

Stanley entered the employee lounge to be met with no one other than lady vending machine.

"[No one here either.] he thought to himself. He decided to go to the cargo lift, just to check."

Stanley had a smile on his face. Not a small grin, not a little smirk, a smile. He had missed this.. the exploration. The adventures! Oh, how he wanted to have that feeling of discovering new endings.. his smile faded a little knowing he knew how every path ends. But none the less, he went to the cargo lift.

He got there, and noticed that the fenced gate was open.

"Stanley was puzzled, where had everyone gone? He saw them when he clocked in this morning, had everyone gone home? Was he so emersed in his work that he hadn't heard a coworker mention that today was an early clock out day? Surely, he'd find someone in the cargo lift maintenance section!"

Stanley went through the gate, and entered the door behind it. It was a large room filled with wires, levers, buttons, screens and the like.

Stanleys eyes lit up at the new discovery. He looked around, pressing every button, flipping every lever.. such a simple thing, a new room. But Stanley was ecstatic.

The Narrator chuckled a little, seeing how happy Stanley was over such a simple update.

The Narrator was happy that Stanley had found interest in something again, rather than just being a mindless robot. The Narrator was glad he had made the choice to add a new ending.

"After interacting with every possible thing in the room, Stanley noticed there was a secret passageway under the desk covered in red wires."

Stanley checked under all of the desks just incase this was anything like the two doors, but the red wire desk was truly the only one with a secret passageway.

Stanley got on all fours and crawled through, ending up in another new room. Stanley was growing more and more curious about how this might end, what might he find?

"Stanley looked around the room. He had never been in here before, not in all his years of working at the company! He didn't even know this room existed! Stanley looked around, to see if he could find any clues pointing to where his co-workers might have gone."

Stanley was happier than he had been in years. He began to search the room, it was just like any other room in the office, though with no doors or windows. It had weird flooring, too. Tiles instead of carpet.

Stanley searched every desk, every drawer, turned off every computer.. nothing

"[There's nothing here?] He though to himself. Indeed, there was nothing here. No clues as to where his co-workers had gone, and nothing else anymore interesting than your average office utensils. Stanley was disappointed.. why did this room exist if not to hold secrets? Is it perhaps a safe room? No, it's just a regular office room. Why is it so hidden, though? Surely, there must be something here!"

The Narrator was pushing for Stanley to keep looking, which Stanley would've done anyway.

He continued searching the room, this time around looking in every single corner of everything. Stanley double checked and triple checked the inside of every mug, underneath every single keyboard, and in the creases of every single office chair.. until he found something.

One of the tiles on the floor was slightly out of place. Stanley didn't have great attention to detail, but he was so determined to find something, anything new that he managed to spot this.

"[What's this?] Stanley thought. [One of the tiles are out of place?] He got on the floor to get a closer look, when he accidentally pushed a button on the middle of the tile, making it open up to reveal another secret passage. The tile was a trapped door!"

Stanley giggled. He was so happy do finally be finding new things again.

He stepped down into the hole in the ground, going down the stairs one after another, when everything went black.

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