JELLYFISH

DOOR 008

[name] was empty. Their body lay sprawled on the floor, eyes staring half-lidded at the darkness above them. They couldn't feel the pain of sharp teeth piercing and ripping apart their skin, but [name] could remember it just vaguely. Each time they did so, part of them trembled and broke apart. Their eyes grew hot and their face began to hurt as they bit back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Aww, boohoo." Sebastian's familiar voice reached their ears, mocking them from the shadows behind the desk, "you gonna cry more? Or are you going to suck it up and do something about it?"

"Shut up." [name] snapped back, sitting up. Their back popped, joints aching. They didn't know how long they spent lying there, or if time even passed normally here as [name] considered it some sort of limbo.

The fish-man cooed one more time, sarcastically, "your feelings got hurt? Good. 'Cause each time you die, for some reason, it affects me too!"

This was new information to [name], but they had put it together that Sebastian was the one who kept meeting them here like this, and he remembered their previous deaths too while in the shopkeeper's room. The only thing that remained unknown to them was why exactly he was tethered to the same time as them.

"I said," [name] got up, pulling at their jumpsuit and checking their pantleg for holes, "shut up."

A toothy grin was reflected by the light that swung from Sebastian's head, swaying over the desk he stood in front of. [name] scowled as they approached, still feeling terrible.

"What was it this time?" He asked, suddenly so interested in their cause of death. Their eyes flicked up to see his watchful gaze, then back down to glare at the desk.

"It was like...a glowing, orange, sea creature. There were these lights, we had to stay away from them, and then..." Anger. Pure anger bubbled and built up from their stomach to their chest, to the back of their throat. [name] turned away for a moment, hunching over, as if they were about to puke. It was so hot, and it hurt in their chest. Something squeezed and burned [name]'s eyes again.

"Spare me the details," Sebastian sighed as the sound of a file being pushed onto the desk met their ears. [name] swallowed, the sour taste disappearing as they turned slowly and straightened.

Before them was a file, like always. The majority of it was redacted with black boxes. Of course. The pictures shown were dark, but the glowing yellow and orange parts of the monster were seen with the glow illuminating the center of the creature, showing off a larger maw than the one [name] was pulled into. Below the images was the term, Searchlights. [name] now knew what they were called, and how to evade them, now what they needed to figure out was how to keep themselves alive long enough to see everything through to the end.

"Are there any other monsters around besides the ones I've seen?" [name] asked just as he reached out and grabbed the file, dragging it back into the darkness, "please, I don't...I don't want to keep dying over and over again."

[name] could hear Sebastian sigh again, blue eyes disappearing for a moment, then reappearing just before they were about to panic, "I can't tell you things you don't know," the light that hung from his head swung as he no doubt moved in some way, "besides, why do you care so much about dying when you come back anyway?"

"Because it still hurts! I don't like pain!" They couldn't believe they were saying something so blatant. Never in [name]'s life did they think something like this would have to be explained, "I want to escape that place, leave Urbanshade, and finally live normally again. You wouldn't understand."

Sebastian blinked slowly, his eyes no doubt watching [name] as they shifted about, growing wary after each second.

"I know that feeling more than anyone else in the world." His voice was...uncharacteristically bitter at that point, and [name] lifted their head in attempt to meet his eyes, but those blue eyes of his were gone, and the lure that produced light was replaced with a lightbulb, buzzing softly. They felt another squeeze in their heart before they lifted their hands to cover their eyes, breathing in and out slowly.