The Hotel

𝖘𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖙.

¢håþ†êr lðåÐïñg...

lðåÐïñg ¢ðmþlê†ê.

~✩~✩~

"DOOR 50 IS GODDAMN FANCY," MUSES YUI AS SHE PUSHES OPEN DOOR 49 AND TAKES IN THE LARGE-ASS ROOM.

"Ooh, loot!" she squeals, running up the stairs and hurriedly opening drawers. "Gorgeous," she murmurs, looking at the shiny Gold.

Just like you, huh? Seek slides into her DM– dangerous(ly calm) mind– and Yui can almost see their smug grin.

Seek, don't flatter me. Yui rolls her eyes. I need the money. Nothing will ever be more pretty than this.

The pouch at her hip jangles merrily– as if to say, 'dude you're already rich asf you can buy a couple dozen mansions with this and it wouldn't do anything to your stock'– and Yui hums in satisfaction. She got some more mystery drugs and a refill for her lighter. Her mood was now lifted drastically after the whole marriage fiasco with Eyes at Door 048– they took her child too!! her child!! as if shit wasn't bad enough– and she chuckles before settling into a calculative mood.

Seek notices the change, and Yui can feel a shadowy pat on her shoulder. Good luck, they murmur, and the connection closes.

I like Seek best out of their siblings, muses Yui, as she traces the large door's ornate golden lining with her fingers.

She didn't expect it to open so suddenly, though. And she definitely wasn't expecting herself to be shoved inside by some shadowy entity in a cloak with absolutely no warning, the doors swinging shut behind her just as fast.

Yui holds back what might have been the most high-pitched scream of her life as she crouches on the carpeted floor of the library– because wow, what else could a place with shelves filled to the brim with books of different colored covers even be? But the tomes were not the cause of her distress, no, Yui liked to read. It was the stifling silence, broken suddenly by the rattling breaths of something distinctly inhuman and heavy footsteps.

She stays deathly still even as the shadow of the tall figure falls on her. Their eyes are bound by loose white bandages, and they raise their head to let out the most earsplitting scream she'd ever heard. She winces, attempting to get up– but she could practically feel her legs giving up on her so she opted to hold her breath instead as the entity– they couldn't be anything else, could they?– rushes straight for her.

And suddenly takes a sharp turn to their left.

Thank you, thank you, thank you–

She dashes to a nearby closet and shuts herself in it, praying that this entity isn't smart enough to open doors– or that they didn't see her running here. They probably couldn't because of the bandages on their eyes. Why were they doing that, anyway? It wouldn't really help them, unless they were really sensitive to the light. Are they blind?

Yui was not going to test that theory any time soon. She was content to stand in the closet, breathing slightly heavily.

She slides down, exhaling deeply, and presses her hands to her eyes. Her hair is all messy, the golden strands hiding her face like curtains of honeyed yellow, so she takes this chance moment to adjust the side-ponytail, pulling all the locks back and securing them with the silver scrunchie. Where's Hide...? He should've appeared by now, she muses. Not like she was complaining, though.

When she calms down and catches her breath, she listens for any sounds of movement.

The entity's heavy footsteps could be heard on the other side of the large hall-like library, and as they turn the corner to walk down the middle of the torchlit hall, Yui peeks through the closet's doors to watch them.

They're... really tall. As tall as the pillars holding up the library, their body lean and slender. Their hair is a shade of pale ivory, stark against their tan, scarred skin. They're barefoot, but their steps echo as if they are a machine. Their clothing is a rusty shade of bronze– long, poufy sleeves and a loose, low-neck top. Bandages trail behind them like fluttering ribbons, wrapped tightly around their long limbs. They're walking with a pretty great sense of direction for someone who can't see.

She slips out of the closet and crouches, trying not make any noise as the entity walks up the stairs to the second level of the library. She spots a blue glimmer on the desk– most likely Spirit, telling her what she needs to do. She sneaks to the desk on the left side of the library.

The drawers yield a couple Gold, but nothing much other than– oh.

There's an old, yellowed page there, on the desk, and it depicts a 5-digit combination lock. Scanning the room, she spots the exit– Door 051, fit with a large rectangular lock with knobs– on the second level of the library, though. Although she can't see it too well from down there, she's sure it's the same lock. Two flights of stairs lead up to the second level, with the right-side being the one the entity had just climbed, and the left-side being blocked by some toppled furniture.

There are some strangely drawn shapes on the page, although on closer inspection they're mostly standard polygons, with Roman numbers from one to five corresponding with each one.

But all that can wait. First, she's going to try to pick that damn lock.

When the entity lumbers down the stairs and heads to the right-side bookshelves, she takes her chance and slowly makes her way up the same stairs. She opts to go slowly, straining her ears to hear the softening footsteps as the entity walks further away, making their way around the whole library.

She makes her way to Door 051. There is indeed a 5-digit combination lock on it– five different knobs with numbers from zero to nine. There's a button on the right side– she supposes that if one inputs the correct code, pressing the button will unlock this door. She doesn't really want to know what might happen if she puts in the wrong code, though...

She sits down near the lock. She can see the whole library from her vantage point, the entity still searching for her downstairs. It's really impressive how they haven't gotten stuck on anything yet, and neither have they tripped. She pulls out the page, scanning the shapes– the first one was your standard square, the second was a pentagon, the third a star, the fourth shape a simple circle, and the fifth being a cross.

She could not understand what they meant. Maybe the shapes corresponded to one of the knobs on the lock? It wasn't a shape-lock, though, she needed digits. Perhaps it was the number of sides each shape had? But then the cross... it ruined all her theories. Or maybe she could just take the cross as two, because it needed two lines to draw. Simple enough, right?

*twinkle*

"Ha," she exhales, her lips pressing into a thin line as she tries to hide her relieved smile. She wasn't too sure of her theory, but Spirit surely knows the actual code and can guide her to it. The sparkly noises– that's the only way to describe them– come from one of the nearby bookshelves. "Took you long enough."

The pale blue glow seems to beckon her invitingly, nestled around a specific book with a thin cover of sage green. She pulls out the book, flipping it open. All blank pages, except for in the centre of the book– the left page having a neatly drawn star shape and the right page with the number '3'.

"Oh."

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