Lost in Transmission - Little Nightmares AU

Flickers | 6

My arms shake as I turn the lever.

A grating, screeching sound spreads through the air. I grit my teeth. Everything everywhere creaks, or screeches, or scrapes, or grinds, and I hate it.

I hate the Janitor more, though, and getting away from it is more important.

As the lever turns, a trapdoor in the floor slowly opens up. It's too dark to see where it leads. I'll go anywhere as long as the Janitor won't catch me there. I wonder if the trapdoor will drop straight down. If it's really far, I might break my legs and die down there. Maybe I'd just lay there, and nothing or no one would ever find me, so I would never, ever escape here.

That's probably better than the Janitor catching me and wrapping me up.

The opening is big enough now for me to slip through. I let go of the lever, take a step toward the trapdoor, and hesitate. I almost want to wait for the Janitor to get here and try to catch me, so that I can jump away and escape, and it would know that I got away. It would know that it came so close to catching me but failed. It would know I won.

I shouldn't be stupid. Waiting is stupid. I have to go. Even if I did wait, I might accidentally do something stupid and not escape at all.

In the time it took me to think, the trapdoor started closing. I open it again, step to the edge of the floor - don't wait for it, just jump, just jump, you have to jump! - and let myself fall into the darkness.

It's not as far as I was expecting, but it's still enough to hurt my feet. I fall to the ground, wincing. Everything feels like it's vibrating as the throbbing slowly fades.

The ground isn't metal, I notice. It isn't soft or hard. It's just...there. I wrinkle my nose. It doesn't smell good. Not as bad as the dead things in the Hospital, though.

I feel around in the darkness. I have to keep moving and stop thinking, or I might start thinking about Mono again, and I can't keep doing that.

He should have saved me.

Cold metal is on all sides of me. Not a dead end, this can't be a dead end! I light my lighter. The vent leads up, and I have to jump to get there. It's fine. I'll get out of here. I keep going, trying to force away the memories that keep sneaking up on me like tiny fangs.

I saved him every time I could.

The tunnel opens up into a bigger room. Pipes stick out of the walls. Against the wall is a brown box with clothes and shoes strewn around it. A weird-looking metal something sits on the ground. There's a tiny white shape inside. Wait...that's a candle! I reach forward with the lighter. A warm glow fills the room.

I made a fire after all.

The gray walls reflect the glow of the flames. The light bobs and flickers, and the reflection shifts and dims and gets brighter again. I sit down and tuck my knees to my chest, watching the fire. If it were safe here, and there weren't monsters after me, I would stay here. Maybe forever. Just watching and thinking.

It's okay here, and I'm just watching and thinking.

Watching and thinking....

Watching....

....

~<0>~

I don't realize I fell asleep until I wake up screaming.

I'm shaking and sweating, gasping for breath. I scramble back against a wall, waiting for hands to reach for me out of the openings in the walls. The Teacher could be here! She chased me down a vent! SHE COULD BE HERE TO KILL ME!.........