—Jeremy
"…" An unfamiliar ceiling, a chandelier, that was the first thing I noticed. A chandelier. Unfamiliar walls, unfamiliar room. instinctively, I took my phone out of my pants. and opened it. A whole damn day had passed.
…
…
…
MY WAR THUNDERRRRRRRRR, I WAS 1 MATCH AWAY FROM. Right. whatever. I shifted my focus on the door. It looked it was one made in the 1900's.
Creakkkkk
"Ah… Team Leader, you're here…" Amanda, said, still in her Silentium issued uniform. At a glance, there was only me, Amanda, Cael and Eve.
"So I was the last to wake up huh. do any of you know what happened?"
Cael gestured as he moved sideways revealing a door, without much thought I opened it and the first thing I saw? Endless doors. and hallways. walls, brownish red and peach.
SLAM
Nope. Just Nope.
—Cael Lucian
Trouble. I smell trouble, when I woke up, the unfamiliar walls, ceiling and room sent me on full alert, at a glance I looked a the floating holographic screen that showed [3]. A whole day had passed. exiting the door I could see both Amanda who was shivering and Eve trying to comfort her
The room itself was quite small a square room, quite small. Probably around 30 to 40 inches, with 4 doors on the 4 walls.
Creakkkkk
"Ah… Team leader, you're here…" Amanda said as she stared at Jeremy in the eye.
"So I was the last to wake up huh. do any of you know what happened?"
Shake Shake
Both Eve and Amanda only shook their head simultaneously, thus I asked the system. Where are we?
[An Echo from Escape the Mystery Hotel. Open the door behind you] it went before going to [2]
I moved away and gestured to Jeremy to open the door, without much thought he opened it before.
SLAM
He closed the door almost instantly, I caught a glance of the endless hallways with walls covered with peach and brownish red stripes.
Right, let's think. Escape the Mystery Hotel. While it's true my memories quite ass when it comes to remembering things, for some reason I can remember most fiction rather clearly. Right. Back on Track. Escape the Mystery Hotel
A Korean web novel, a popular horror/thriller story, that featured 12 main cast? I think. Well that doesn't matter. Now assuming this is a Remnant from it, there should be some sort of 'Patron' that should bind to us and give us specific blessings.
However, they usually appear instantly when we wake up, yet here… There was none, or at least no reaction from the others. I imagine Amanda would panic and wonder what the hell it is if it appeared in front of her vision.
"Does anyone have a holographic screen appearing in their vision?" I asked. yet I got the same answer.
Shake Shake
All 3 of them only shook their head, then Jeremy asked
"Did you get any?"
"No." it wasn't a lie. This 3 question holographic screen appeared in my eyes a long time ago after all.
"This place looks familiar. I remember seeing this from a web novel back in the day"
"Explain."
—
"Let me get this straight, at least from the 'Escape the Mystery' web novel, the main cast has to complete 'rooms' and if we don't do it in a set period of time we'll be killed?"
"Something like that"
HIIK.
Tears had gathered in Amanda's eyes, but now was not the time to comfort her, assuming this is an Echo from the Escape the Mystery Hotel, it's probably one of the 'Hotels'. In the story each hotels exist in the boundaries of reality. and they give us, "Players" rooms to complete.
"It's okay…." Eve said, as she tried her best trying to comfort Amanda, at the same time Jeremy looked at me, his eyes telling a story, 'What do we do?'. Right. I have 2 questions. I can't waste them willy nilly.
"We should stick together, assuming this is the same or at least similar to that novel, it needs teamwork." I continued,
"Well you heard the man, let's go." Jeremy continued as we braced ourselves. Assuming this is the same one, opening the door should be harmless right? I thought to myself as I
[Don't.] it went before turning into [1]
"Cael? What's wrong. Something wrong?" Eve asked, without realizing it. I had already froze in fear. I could feel the cold sweat. It was fine when Jeremy opened it, but why was the system giving me a warning right now?
"You've been staring at that door for 30 seconds now." Jeremy chimed in.
"You're pale…" Eve continued, indeed I was, how would I not be, if I had opened that door right that moment. I would've died. at least that's what the system and my instincts are telling me. And I only have 1 question left.
"Cael." Jeremy suddenly spoke.
"Calm yourself. And think, if this is really similar to that Escape the Mystery Hotel thingy you've read. Then your probably our only hope in keeping us alive. Since it's a novel it means there's definitely a way out of this. Otherwise the story would end early."
Right.
System, this Remnant or whatever, what is it similar to?
[A Mix of Escape the Mystery Hotel, DOORS, and Exit 8.] before turning to [0]
Well. There goes my last question, I can only rely on myself. and my friends—but DOORS. I don't think that's an actual novel. Exit 8? it sounds familiar… but uncertainty causes death.
I looked at my crew.
"Does anyone know about DOORS and Exit 8?"
Eve only drooped her head before shaking it,
Raise
"I-I-I-I know a bit about DOORS"
"…" Silence, I stared at Amanda, so did Jeremy, so did Eve, for a second, that was all we did
"It-t-t-t-t-t's a game in Roblox. I used to play it"
What?
"It was a popular horror game, where you open doors and run from creatures."
"You? Played a horror game?"
Amanda fidgeted before saying in a low voice. "I was forced too…. my friends would force me to play horror games because they think I sound cute when I scream…"
"…"
"…"
"I can see that." Eve suddenly broke the silence
"EVELYNNNN" Amanda went as she covered her face with her hands, unfortunately it didn't cover her entire face turning to a tomato.
"Well how about Exit 8?"
"It's a game and movie." Jeremy continued "I was bored while playing War Thunder so I opened a random Ttube video and saw someone playing that game"
How?
"3 monitors remember?" He said with a smirk.
"It's something about liminal spaces. you loop through a subway station and see if anythings different, if there is you go back if there isn't you go forward—Ah."
That's probably why the system warned me then. The door must've had some minor changes in detail that I didn't notice. If I had opened that door then—
Shiver
"Ah, also in doors. some of the monsters pretend to be doors."
`
AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING?!?!?
"But it seems you noticed, right Cael?"
No No I didn't. The system warned my ass.
Ah. Uh. I can't really explain about the system now can I?
"Well thank god he you noticed, right Cael~" Eve continuing to do her best on moral support I guess, at the same time Amanda's gaze on me had changed to something like, Oh this Senior. so reliableeee mustt trustttt
…
"Something felt off."
"That's some useful intuition right there" Jeremy continued
"But what triggered the door to transform, no maybe even the entire room changed and we didn't notice."
"…"
"A-a-a-ah. " Amanda hesitantly raised her hand again
"Hm???" Eve said confused
"I-I-I don't think the door changed"
"Huh? I don't get it" again Eve just saying whatever she wants.
"Explain." Jeremy continued.
"I-I-I-I mean… when Team Leader opened the door"
"We looked outside to the hallway right?"
Nod
"Then. We blinked."
"…"
"…"
"…Fuck." That was the only word I could mutter. If this was fully Escape the Mystery Hotel, I could probably find a solution by following the canon story but—It's a mix of Escape the Mystery Hotel, Roblox and Exit 8.
"Ah…" Jeremy suddenly spoke "If she's right, that means it changed when we weren't looking."
"That probably means we have to blink again right?"
Shit. That means the system didn't warn me about the fake door. It warned me about the things behind the door.
"Right, we blink in the count of 3"
"1"
"2"
"…"
"3"
Blink
I opened my eyes again, for me everything looked the exact same, I couldn't tell if anything had changed. I'm scared. I want to faint. I want to cry. I want to run. But I can't. After all. Fear kills faster then everything else.
"Jeremy. Anything different?"
"…" For a moment he was silent as he looked around the room, walked in circles.
"It should be this one. I think" He pointed at one of the doors
"Why the I think?" I asked, he then pointed his hand up on the Chandelier.
"The Chandelier?" Eve asked
"When I looked at it the first time, one of the candles was missing."
"There's six of them now."
We were waiting for certainty. The Perfect condition one would say. But in life, there is never a Perfect Condition.
"I-i-i-in DOORS. Opening the wrong door won't kill us instantly. usually."
"What do you mean usually?"
Every second. Every time we stay in this room. Our times gets shorter. when we blink. The room might change. What was once a safe exit. might be our doom.
My hands were trembling. They were sweaty. Cold Sweat.
"W-w-w-what if we just wait? Maybe the higher ups would notice?"
"That's a great Idea~"
"I don't think they'd spend too much resources on us."
"…"
"Well the longer we wait, the more uncertain we'll get." I said
"In the novel. If you do absolutely nothing, after a few hours or days creatures would start coming in frocing you to open one of the doors and enter one of the rooms containing a puzzle"
"Then there's probably a limit of how many times the room will change before we get killed huh." Jeremy said with a self-depreciating tone
"EEEeeeek…." Amanda went as she continued to hold Eve's hand.
"Well, it's now or never isn't it?"
"Do we open or do we not?"
"…"
"Well~ no use in overthinking it right? let's do it." Eve said as she gave a big smile, one of her hands tightly held by Amanda's, the other fidgeting the Oxygen-tank shaped like bottle attached to her belt for the third time.
Gulp
One of Amanda's hand held Eve's hand, the other held her clothes with strength I didn't want to imagine. Jeremy only rolled his shoulders. as If saying, either we live or die. As my fingertips wrapped around the door knob. It felt cold. cold like Metal.
Creakkkkkk
A long hallway. brownish red and peach stripes as the wallpaper. Chandeliers on every row. With countless other doors.
Step Step Step
We stepped out of our room.
SLAMMMM
The door behind us closed the second the last of us left the room
"Are we dead?"
"I-i-in doors. if we went through the wrong door we wouldn't know for a while"
"Jeremy?"
"The Chandeliers look the same. I think."
"…" Yet nobody spoke, nobody was certain.
Because none of us remembered what they actually looked like
—Randy.
Kshhhhhh [Welcome Ra-]
"Yeah yeah whatever." I said as I walked through the hallway, 1 minute before our works start.
Step Step Step Step
Wiiiinnggg
Yet. It was empty. even though it was working hours, equipments scattered. bedsheets unmade. these kids…
"Tsk. Kid's these days." I thought to myself as I sipped my black coffee. They won't cut my pay check. Probably.