Soft cheek meat sticks to the cold metallic floor. There’s a dim magenta coloured stain in the room, given light by the hole in the ceiling right above. The trapdoor on top closes and leaves Hansen completely in the dark.

Hansen moans lightly in pain from the fall. He’s ok though, as he fell on a nice and clean metal floor. No scratches, just pain. Hansen got up slowly, kneeling on the cold dark grey and blue steel and recovering from what just happened. His throat feels weird; he feels awfully cold; it’s not only the room that’s cold, which it is, but he himself was freezing, like he had a layer of ice on his skin.

Getting up from the floor, Hansen shuffled around looking for his backpack. Once he did that, he tried to move around the room carefully, looking for any light switches and moving slowly enough so he wouldn’t just trip into something or tip something over. He managed to grasp some other cold metal things around him while very carefully walking around, and eventually noticed a little fragment of light coming from a low part of a wall. Hansen approached this side of the walls and checked if there were any switches there. Soon enough he found a switch.

When the light turned on, the dim bulb revealed various metal statues around Hansen right where he’d fallen off. All of them pointing directly at the middle with claws and blades. They were barely comprehensible. The metal from the statues melted into itself and with the walls in inhuman forms. Only the metallic stakes and blades were somewhat recognizable.

Hansen stood in place looking at the statues. The style was very reminiscent of the art pieces on the floors above him, but even more distorted and odd. Of course, the basement in this building was already not common as it had more than one basement floor, but this is just getting ridiculous.

The door opened and Hansen, not wanting to stay and contemplate that place more than he needs to, left the room, and went into another corridor. When he left the room, Hansen heard a click coming from inside. He peeked in the room again, and the lights were turned off. After turning on the lights and closing the door behind him, he heard the click again. This time, he didn’t even turn to look at the door, instead dashed away in hurried steps out of sight.

The corridors looked similar to the ones above, but the wallpaper had a homier feel with warmer colours and a patterned red rug. Still, with these warmer colours on the surfaces, it also seemed like the colours were being sucked out of them, the result being grainy corridors that look like they melt into concrete and metal walls, but not enough to become metal and concrete walls.

Lighting was awful, and the lights were dimmer than they needed to be. The art pieces are still present, being as odd as ever, but also being oddly saturated, contrasting heavily with the blurry background walls and floors. Some of them almost seemed like they glowed themselves, or maybe even had a backlight on some of them. Hansen was heavily attracted to these paintings and sculptures even more. He could’ve stopped at any moment to stay and look, but weird noises in the background and droning sounds stopped him from staying still in one place at any time.

Crossing through another corner, a pair of a lab coated guy and a black suit person almost find Hansen while sneaking through a door. They were about to catch him on a dead end.

The door was large and had a very complex gothic architecture. On the door there was a plate with the inscription “321”. The room itself was a Victorian styled bedroom. The bed itself was larger than a king bed size. It was covered by a salmon-coloured curtain with a long semi-circle shape. The rest of the room was also salmon coloured, with accents of red and brown. Very warm colours lulled Hansen’s eyes like a mother trying to make her baby sleep. Of course, the lighting was dim too. The colours felt like they melted into each other in a warm blur of eccentric homeliness. Hansen was almost lost in the atmosphere if it wasn’t for the sounds of boots coming from outside.

A couple guards came in the room. Hansen couldn’t see them very well through the closet doors he went through. They were accompanied by another scientist, taking notes on a notepad. The two guards engaged in casual conversation; sometimes the scientist asked a few questions to the guard and noted something on the notepad. Hansen couldn’t register anything of what they were saying though, it was all muffled under the clothes Hansen was hiding in. The amount of clothes on him made him heat up, so the time he spent in the closet was very uncomfortable.

They eventually left and so Hansen could breathe again. After catching his breath, he went on his way to keep going and find his friends, or a way out. However, once he reached the doorknob, he couldn’t help but look back. The room gave him an intense sense of nostalgia and melancholy. He never lived in a room like this, but it felt like he’d been living here his entire life. Like this room was waiting for him.

He looked in the closet. Lots of old but well-preserved dresses looked back at him. The clothes fit him too, it’s almost like it could have been his own room. The pink and magenta clothing doesn’t contrast heavily against the background, but it mixes well enough with the room. It might be because the colours all around are melting into each other.

Hansen picked out a magenta party dress. Very old looking but Hansen thought it was pretty. The skirt reached to his knees. It had those silly shoulder pads that looked kind of dumb, but he liked them. There were a lot of options for high heel shoes, but he couldn’t figure out how to walk on them, so he just wore a pair of ballet flat dress shoes. His star shaped pin was changed by a heart shaped one. He ruffled and combed his hair on the mirror. It almost felt like he was stuck in there for hours. Jumped on the bed; read a book. He started blending into the room too.

Eventually, after what felt like even more hours, the sound of a door opening and hard-hitting footsteps startled Hansen to his heart, waking him up. He jumped and quickly got in cover (got under the bed). “Hansen, what the fuck are you doing?” James’ voice called to him. Hansen peaked out from under the bed slowly. “Oh hey.” James was standing in front of the now open closet. He was wearing a very stylish black and cyan suit with black oxford type dress shoes. These shoes were the ones making noise. You’d see Dracula in this thing, or maybe a very wealthy capitalist if he was at least 200 pounds lighter. “Thank god I finally found you. Jesus that thing was scary…” James reached out to help Hansen up from under the bed. “Oh, nice… Dress…” James said a bit confused looking at Hansen. Hansen remembered something and quickly put his hands all over James like he was looking for something. “Hey what the fuck dude, back off!” “Sorry! I’m just checking you’re not a monster!” Hansen backed off.

His brain reacted slowly, but once it was readjusted, he maintained a safe distance between himself and James. Hansen’s tone was anxious and a bit startled. James was just tired, annoyed, but mostly freaked the fuck out. The dream like ambiance drifts away as they try to report the situation to each other.

“How do I know you’re the real James…?”

“Come the fuck on, man! This place is already freaking me out of my mind. You’re telling me there’s some sort of monster imposter in the building?”

“I mean, I guess! It’s either that or Karim was possessed by a demon and tried to eat my soul or something!”

“Hold on, eat your soul? Demon? Man, I don’t even know where we are! You’re telling me this place is haunted too?”

“I mean it was pretty obvious from the start that this place had some sort of enchantment in it! I told you we shouldn’t have gone to the basement!”

“I just can’t with this situation right now. Where’s the exit? Where did you come from?”

Hansen took a moment to recall the previous events, but once he did, he said: “I fell from a secret door behind the toilet into a random ass room. Unless you want to try jumping into artistic weaponry and open a trap door, that option is out. You?”

James also took some time remembering his path. “Well, I saw my dad and some other workers bringing a big wooden box through a pathway and into an elevator. You know he shouldn’t be doing physical work like that. I got very worried. I wanted to go help him, but I couldn’t reach him. He did catch a glimpse of me though, and he looked surprised and worried. He called me out. ‘James, what are you doing here?!' He was struggling with the box and so he let it go when I caught him off guard. Something came out of the box and the elevator doors closed at that moment. I took the second spinning elevator and went to catch him. I don’t know what I was thinking when I did that. I don’t know where I ended up, but I couldn’t catch a glimpse of what was on the other side of the elevator as the moment the doors opened, I was attacked by the… weird creature thing… the thing that jumped out of the box. I felt like my voice was leaving my throat along with all my breath. I couldn’t get it off me. Once it was done with me, I saw myself. I was on the floor and my vision was very blurry, but I could make myself out standing in front of me. A perfect replica, just with no face. It walked off; I tried to chase it, but I could barely move my legs. I crawled through the floor and followed it into another room, room number 784? There was an entire apartment in there. It was like the vacation house of a rich man or something. I crawled onto bed and rested. The room felt… nostalgic… even though I had never been there in my life. Once I woke up after… I don’t know how long, I kept looking around. There was a closet full of clothes like this, and I just took them. I worked on my computer, wrote some stuff down… I don’t know how long I spent in there, but I eventually saw something passing by. It waved at me and left. That disturbed me and I woke up from the trance thing that room had me in. The closet doors were open, but I noticed there was another pair of doors behind the clothes. I went through and kept walking through the facility. Eventually I started piecing together what was going on down here, but I couldn’t make up where I was. I saw my father again, along with john and other co-workers registering the deceased body of a creature thing. It looked like it was in the process of mutating into… You…? It also didn’t have a face. It was weird. I couldn’t catch what they were talking about. I just dipped instantly, and I eventually got to you. Was that the monster imposter you were talking about earlier?”

“…Yeah, it was something like that. It came to me looking like Karim.” Hansen replied, getting a bit chilled by remembering said creature thing.

“Talking about that, we need to find Karim.” Said James, determining both himself and his voice tone. “Apparently, I came in through the… closet back door? Let’s go I saw some diverging paths; we might find Karim this way!” James grabbed Hansen by the arm and started pulling on it in desperation. Hansen wasn’t very eager to stay in this place for any longer either, so he just followed through with James’ demands.

Footsteps on the carpet were hitting dry. There was no echo in this place. The silence voided and drowned their ears, but at the same time made them more aware of the heavy guard boots. James and Hansen passed through all sorts of places: The backrooms of a sports stadium; school bathroom; more gigantic rooms with nothing in them. At one point it seemed like they were on a floating island with a floating metro system, which felt both very fake and very real. Sometimes they reached rooms that didn’t look like the mentally insane or dream people designed them. Sometimes they saw storage rooms full of items and other silly gadgets they didn’t have time to register mentally. Sometimes they found rest rooms, dining rooms, and bathrooms. Very very expansive break rooms were the least weird stuff they saw apart from probably functioning bathrooms. It seems like it wasn’t break time yet. It was even harder to move around since sometimes doors were blended with the wall for no good reason. Most of the time they found these hidden doors through pure coincidence or because somebody left them open. Eventually, after going through a door with the number 15 on it inside a secret panic room behind a secret closet door inside a secret hotel room behind another secret door, they saw him.

Karim was exercising inside another bedroom. Of course, the floor was carpeted. There were frames hanged on the wall with unrecognisable photos of what are supposed to be family pictures but couldn’t be too specific. The room smelt weird. Not weird like bad, but weird as in odd and old. The furniture was simple but very detailed. The bed was for two. Karim looked energized and happy even though there were no windows in the room. Karim himself was wearing some dark orange jumper pants overalls with a work dress yellow shirt, an old man flat cap coloured orange, and some square brown boots. He was making a lot of noise with his exercise, so he didn’t realise someone else was in the room. James came along and put Karim out of his trance with a hand on the shoulder. Karim screamed from the scare James gave him. James shut him up with a hand to the mouth. “Dude shut up! It’s us!” Said James. Karim noticed what was going on and calmed down instantly. “Oh crap, it’s you guys! And the real you too!” Exclaimed Karim, hugging James and reaching for Hansen too. James was flustered and Hansen was too tired to react or try to push him away (he was glad they were all fine too).

“Ok, status report!” Declared Karim. Hansen checked that there were no guard in the corridor before closing all the doors behind doors. They reunited in the room.

“Well, we’re all fine as far as I can see” Commented James “And none of us is a shapeshifting monster or anything… probably”

“Yeah, only you would wear something so silly…” Added Hansen.

“Hey, I think James looks just fine on that suit!” Said Karim

“To be fair yeah, it does highlight his figure. Somehow.”

“O-Ok so yeah, we aren’t shapeshifters…” stuttered James, shutting them up “How are we supposed to get out of here? I mean we’ve been walking around for what feels like an eternity but there’s no exit in sight…”

“I don’t know. I came in through a trapdoor in the wall I activated by accident!” Commented Karim “But I couldn’t open the wall again after that… Actually, how the heck did we find these secret doors so easily? Did someone leave the doors open?”

“I think I may have startled the program a bit myself. I distracted my dad while he was carrying a big box with some other workers.” Said James

“What was your dad doing even? Shouldn’t he be avoiding that kind of physical stress to begin with?” Inquired Hansen.

“I don’t know. I just know I broke his concentration for a second and he dropped the box. Then of course, I forgot to tell you Karim, they were bringing in a god damn monster in a wooden box, and that drop startled the creature or something, and it escaped!” Responded James, trying to figure stuff out while he talks.

“On my way here, I did see a laboratory. I couldn’t see anything past the wires and other weird stuff, but I heard some weird noises coming from inside, like they were doing something. I don’t know what though.” Commented Karim. There was a moment of silence before he started to talk again. “Also, about these rooms. I feel like I’ve been living here forever, and I need to fight the temptation to not stay here also forever. Do you guys feel that?”

“Not on this room, no, but we felt the same way for other rooms. I had to wake Hansen up from a daydream a bit ago.” Commented James. Hansen looked a bit embarrassed but also nostalgic.

“I could have stayed there forever.” Said Hansen.

Another moment of silence passed. The three of them were hard at thinking. The room’s colours were still melting into each other and with them, especially Karim, but he’s getting over it. At some points someone thought they thought of something, but they quickly shut up afterwards. They looked at each other and realised there was no easy way to put it. “Let’s go, then.” Finally said Karim, getting up off the floor. James and Hansen followed suit. They went through the normal room door and kept going through endless corridors.

There were no maps. It’s as if the people working here had to memorise the layout or try and record directions with words. Sometimes they’d come across papers on the floor dictating said directions on very specific details of the building. “Go through the 5-meter corridor with the two singular scratch marks on the ceiling” “The door with the dog-cat in Vietnam painting” “pass the door to the bushes of flesh and past lab 58205 to reach break room 37”.

Once or twice, they reached labs and offices full of workers. It seems like most stuff going on was done in these concentrated zones. The place was so big that the guards in shift weren’t enough to catch them in the maze. Still, they always got a feeling that they always knew where they were at any given moment, it was just a matter of time. Also, groups of guards seemed to be more pressed by more pressing matters. While sneaking through they heard people talking about a breach and disposal. Someone let a wild specimen of ‘voice stealer’ free, and it caused a tiny explosion of chaos in the underground. Something about a lockdown and possible intruders. Something about people being sent to calm the main specimens down in the lower level (“Lower level?! The earth isn’t even that deep!” muttered Karim to the others). After sending in the ‘anti-catalysers’, they locked down the lower levels too. “It seems like we’re gonna have to wait until they open up the elevators again…” whispered James to the others. “It’s not like we’ve seen any elevators in a long while though…” Commented Hansen. “Maybe that’s why.” Proposed Karim.

James’ mind was running all over the place while they sneaked. His mind hopped from his dad’s wellbeing, to what was he doing down here, to where he is now, to where they are now, to what’s going on, to what even was that thing, to thinking it was his fault since he distracted his dad, to thinking that thought is stupid, but not really getting rid of the feeling, to his work in his laptop, to a weird sound they heard coming from a nearby wall, to a reaction from the sounds of boots and following his friends to another secret room where they hid from another group of guards marching through, to thinking about how will his boss react to this, to what hour it is, to realising he had his phone on him, to seeing the dark screen not turn on and getting even more desperate, to thinking back to that time dad was out for days in his work, which wasn’t as unusual given that he spends a lot of time on his work, but was still very worrying, to Karim, to Hansen, and then the sound of a door unlocking and opening.

A door opened on its own in front of the three. The door had a plate dictating “Dream Portal Room”. They stood in front of the half-opened door, reading the plate. Hansen was curious and went through the door.

“Hansen, what are you doing?” Inquired Karim. Few other Doors had naming plates (apart from the break rooms, toilets, and labs) that had something else written on them that wasn’t a number. Not only that, but the name itself was also threatening, specially to Karim. He was clearly worried, but also a tinge of curiosity.

“I don’t know, but there might be something here. Come on.” Insisted Hansen. James followed through, trusting Hansen, but still worrying. “Regardless, it’s not like we have anywhere else to go.”

“We could have talked to the guards you know!” Protested Karim. “…Yeah, I guess we could have. But I don’t trust those guys will treat us nicely. Also, it’s already too late for that. We’ve been running from them, that’s gotta be penalty worthy. Come on man.” Insisted Hansen one more time. Karim trusted him too but was more reluctant than anyone there. “If something happens, it’s on you.” Said James referring to Hansen.

They closed the door behind them and took a look around. It was another hallway, smaller than the other ones, but it didn’t lead anywhere. There was a single lightbulb half turned on giving out the same dim lighting present in the rest of the facility. There was a line of 6 free beds in front of them and nothing else. The wallpaper was a line pattern of musty olive green and blackened beige. There was nothing there, not in the walls, not on the ceiling, not under the beds. “No dream portal? Well, that’s disappointing. I was hoping I could see what that was all about…” Hansen interrupted himself as he turned around. There was no door. Panic quickly ensued.

“Oh god. Oh god. Not this please…” James started panicking.

“God fucking damnit.” Hansen was frustrated.

“Wait, it was right there! Where did it go?!” Karim was extremely confused.

“Why did you lead us here you motherfucker?! Oh god let me out!” James interrogated Hansen in a desperate tone. “How the hell was I supposed to know the door was just gonna disappear?! What the fuck!” Angrily responded Hansen. James was getting more anxious by the minute. He started to sweat. Karim looked for a secret entrance “Guys, maybe the door became invisible or something! Like all those secret doors we’ve encountered you know! James, PLEASE calm down you’re stressing me out too!” Coped Karim, trying to calm James down. Hansen only got more stressed under the situation, trying to find a secret button or level or something. James reached his limit and went over where the door used to be, banging on the wall crying out for help “HELP! SOMEONE HELP US, WE’RE HERE!!” Karim quickly reacted to this, pulling James away and covering his mouth. “Stop! Hey-hey, stop, god damnit!” Hansen Went over to James to try and calm him down, but really, he was too stressed to properly do anything useful. “Dude! SHUT UP! They’re already on our tail, and you’re not helping! I don’t want them finding us! CHILL!” Shouted in a whisper at James. James only got more anxious and tried to shout, even if it was drowned by Karim’s hand.

A click sounded and there was silence. They shut up for a second. They all suddenly felt incredibly sleepy. “What in the…” Karim let James go. James almost fell to the floor. Hansen started to crawl. Hansen crawled into one of the beds. “Hansen what are you…?” Questioned James in a tiresome tone before he cut himself up and fell on the bed. Karim did the same. They all fell asleep as the room melted into itself and the three boys. The colours mixed into a white light.