i wanna feel lethal on the inside, i wanna read american psycho again

> Dave: Time skip.

It's been a few days. And by a few, you mean the exact meaning of the word, it's been three days.

You're the only one who's been keeping count. You check in every hour. The first few hours were easy, just walking around and occasionally checking into the conversation to let them know you were alive. You ended up letting your headphones dangle from your neck instead of keeping them hidden away in your sylladex, just so you could listen in on the conversation when you got bored (and an hour in, you swore if you heard only the buzz of lights and your own soggy footsteps for five minutes or more one more time, you might go insane). About five hours in without finding anything different, though, the background noise lessened. Your hourly check-ins turned into you saying hi and the others weakly replying, Jade still stubbornly walking. You guess you can't blame her, though, because you've still been walking.

It's hard to tell what time it is, wherever you are. There are no windows. You asked Jade(and John, as he later clarified that yes, schools have windows) about the whole time and daylight thing, since she said that her place had windows. When you mentioned to her casually that it had been a day, she responded with tired disbelief. Apparently, it's been light outside for her this whole time. It's still light outside for her.

When asked, John said that it's been night time for him the whole time, like Jade's situation but with the obvious differences. He told you that he tries not to look out the windows too often. You don't question him about it.

On the first night, when both Jade and John were asleep and it was just you and Rose, she told you what her place was like. She opted to call it a "level," and you supposed that it made sense. This is a game after all.

Her level was hard to explain, even for her, and once you got the gist of it, you agreed with her. It's vast and maze-like, just like yours, except she could see a horizon line in the distance. When she first brought this up, you felt a confusing pang of jealousy, because at least she has the reassurance of knowing there's no end, but you snuffed it out immediately. It was a stupid thing to be upset about, and you wouldn't want to be in her place anyways. The whole floor of her level is coated by clear, chlorinated water. There are thick, square, tiled pillars with foot-wide lips of tile just above the water that she uses to sleep. It's dark, aside from some sources of dim light that seemingly come from nowhere and span across the ceiling until the very edges of the next light begin. It's echoey, her clothes are wet all the time, and sometimes she swears she can hear something else splash in the water that isn't her, and she hates it. You silently wish that you could pull her out, maybe let her stay with you just to get her out of there, but you don't think she would like it in your level much better.

Your level. Fuck, man, it's so bizarre. On the first day, you kept encountering random objects. First it was a broom. Then a thermometer, one of the old ones with the mercury in the middle. On the second day, you stumbled upon a chair that was glitched halfway through the wall. And then a lot more afterwards, and when you brought it up, Jade and John said they were seeing the same thing. John a lot less, and Jade a lot more, since she's a stubborn and thorough adventurer, but they still agreed with your findings nonetheless.

Jade said that most of the rooms she went in had the same things: a desk, a chair, a carpet, a window, and an unlit stone fireplace. Nothing on the desk, or in the fireplace. That was, until she entered a room with a cinnamon-scented candle just. Sitting there on the carpet. She ended up captchaloging it and moving on. Next, she found a bar of soap, and so on.

John told you it was a little harder to spot differences in his level, because each room was pretty randomized by itself. It actually took him a while just to leave the room he spawned in, but once he did, he mostly took his time to walk around aimlessly and mentally checkpoint a few places that looked different from the rest of his level. He told you that he did see some stuff that was pretty weird and random, like a mutilated can of sparkling water or a small, handheld fan. He assumed it was normal, though, and just kept exploring. He's made a point to sleep and report back to the room he spawned in, and you're not really sure why, but he probably has his reasons.

The sleeping arrangements have been discussed by your group after the first night, and you all agreed on your idea. Your group is to take turns sleeping and keeping watch. Jade sleeps for 8 hours and you wake her up, then you sleep and usually wake yourself up, then Rose, then John. They all decided that since you have the best grasp of time out of everyone, you should be the one to wake people up, and you had no objections. You decided that there should be three people keeping watch just in case something happens and two of you aren't paying attention at all. Better to be safe than sorry.

One night, when you woke up two hours earlier than you were supposed to, you had the chance to talk with Rose before she had to sleep. John was off exploring, and he had put his headset in his sylladex in order to get better focus like you did at the start of the game. Jade had had an impromptu nap as well(another reason you decided there should be three people taking watch instead of one or two), so it was just you and Rose. You kept your headphones on your head for the whole two hour conversation because, you won't lie, you kind of miss talking to your friends normally. You think Rose is the closest thing you can get to normal at this point. You hung onto every word she said. Even when she suddenly questioned what would happen after you lose your third life, you answered as honestly as you could.

"Dave, I think I might go crazy in here. I'm... I'm not sure if there's any way out."

You had paused, honestly a little frightened with how transparent she was being. Her voice was tired and small.

"Maybe not. But, I have a feeling. That something is gonna happen, I guess. We just have to wait a little longer, I think." You tried to comfort her as best as you could, with mono-yellow boring into your eye sockets and settling there almost permanently. You still don't think you did a very good job, and the guilt eats at you for it.

You're walking now, listening to the dull sound of John and Jade chatting through the speakers. Three days. 76 hours. You sigh and run a hand through your hair. You can feel the eyebags under your eyes. It's been too long. Something needs to happen. Your mind is filled with aimless thoughts and anxieties of going insane as you pass another wall and note another different wallpaper. How many wallpaper designs can this place have, jesus christ.

You take a right and have to do a double take.

What's in front of you, what you just stumbled upon, is a room, but not quite. So strikingly similar to what you spawned in, that you feel a sense of despair crawl up your throat, but something isn't quite right. It nags at you for the minute you look at it, until your eyes go wide with realization.

The wallpaper. The fucking wallpaper, it's different. Instead of the vertical brick, "M" design, this one has vertical stripes. This is a different room. A different spawnpoint. You could almost cry, and you scramble to find any sign of life.

Nothing, but- There. Right there, in the corner, a series of symbols scrawled out messily with what seems like a gray pen.

KARKAT WAS HERE.