Doors: Hotel Hell

Chapter 10 (All Figured Out)

As Aaron pushed open Door 100, the group was greeted not with the dark, oppressive wood and dim lamps of the hotel but with a gleaming metal hallway stretching far ahead. It was sterile, cold, and filled with the hum of buzzing fluorescent lights gleaming green. The walls and floors were lined with heavy, industrial metal panels, giving the space a harsh, unfeeling atmosphere, so unlike the cursed hotel they'd just escaped. It was similar to the Infirmiry. So out of place it seemed like it was artificial. Yet somehow, it felt safe. Billy looked down at the map through burning eyes and frowned, he spoke slowly, unable to believe they were even there... At Door 100.

"Door 100... Another point of interest... The Electrical Room..."

For a long, still moment, none of them moved, each of them caught between disbelief and the overwhelming realization that they'd finally crossed the last threshold. After everything—after the endless rooms, the blood, the terror, the creatures hunting them—they had somehow made it. Aaron was the first to break. He took a few shaky steps forward, then dropped to his knees, his head bowed as silent tears slid down his face. They had done it. After all the horrors, the chases, the creatures lurking in every corner, they had finally made it. He pressed his hands against the cold metal floor as if to steady himself, to ground himself in this new reality. Aaron's whisper barely broke the silence.

"We... We made it... Door One-Hundred..."

Matt, standing just behind him, placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, his expression filled with a sorrow that wouldn't leave, even now.

"Not all of us."

He murmured, casting a look back at the doorway they had come through, the horrors still haunting him. He gave Vince a nod, and Vince stepped forward, pushing the door shut, sealing the darkness behind them for good.

They each found their way to the floor, taking in this moment of respite... of hard-won silence. Lando sank down on the cold floor beside them, clutching his injured foot. His sock was soaked in blood, the skin beneath raw and torn from when he'd been caught in one of the Greenhouse's Snares. Lando grimaced.

"If I ever see another Snare... I'll fuckin' rip it from the floor."

Charlotte joined him, wrapping her arms around her knees, her expression dazed as she tried to absorb that they'd finally reached the end. She leaned into Lando slightly, the pain in her side making her wince, though she hid it well. George gripped his head, releasing a long, rattling sigh.

"I think... I think we all need a moment. Just... a moment of peace."

Aaron took in a deep, unsteady breath, nodding.

"I second that."

Ryan sat down on a metal crate, his brown hair damp and bedraggled with the water from the Greenhouse, his once-pristine flannel now nothing more than a ragged, blood-streaked ruin. He looked down at the trembling hand that wasn't attached to his broken arm, struggling to find any words for what they'd all just endured. The hand on the broken one stood as still as the air around them. Ryan's silence betrayed his normal nature... Unable to be himself in that very moment. Billy slid his lighter into his pocket and rubbed his scarred eyes, though the pain was a mere shadow of the torment he'd faced. He looked at his reflection in the metal wall. His eyes, once blue and full of life, were dulling to a cloudy gray from his encounter with Eyes. As he pulled his hands down from his face, he looked down at the blood staining his palms... Only... He couldn't see the red of the liquid. Or the tan of his arms. Or even the green fluorescent light around them. Only grey. Like a TV from the good old days. Billy's vision was colorless. 

"No... My eyes... I can't see... Anything but grey..."

Norman, sitting nearby, touched his throat unconsciously. Dupe had nearly strangled him, the grip leaving him with a rasp that scratched painfully every time he tried to speak.