In a mirror hallway like the one they slept in the three boys wake up. This time there was no door or wall, just more corridor. Also, the green and beige wallpaper was gone, and they were left with grey concrete like an unfinished room. The corridor got bigger and bigger with the length until it was larger than normal but still usable. They get up from their beds at different times but with a similar headache. “Dear god, what happened?” Mumbled James as he got up from one of the beds. He looked at the blank wall and almost panicked again, but then looked the other way and saw the opening corridor, sighing in relief. Regardless, he was still bothered about the larger corridor that, not only extended lots, but also was hidden in grey fog. The rest of them woke up not shortly after. Karim looked worried too, but Hansen looked mostly regretful. They looked at each other.

“Look, man, I’m sorry for shouting at you. I know that you got the thing for closed spaces and stuff like…” Tried to explain Hansen to James. “it’s ok dude, don’t think about it too much. I’m more concerned about where we ended up.” Silenced James softly. “Where we what…?” Hansen asked inconclusively, looking around and noticing the room change. Karim got up from the bed, followed by James. Hansen had trouble keeping up.

The echo hushing was still in effect the same way, but they could feel more of it in their ears. A pressure building up. Hansen, even after his daring entrance to the original room, looked hesitant and even slightly scared here. He didn’t think stuff through, though to be fair there were no warnings about something like this happening, apart obviously from the plate with the name of the room. He thinks he could have considered it better given the strange situation they were in, but he doesn’t want to punch himself down too much. They must keep going.

James and Karim were just bemused by what felt like an infinite corridor. Sometimes there were indentations with complex tubing systems and other intertwined wires. Even with how uniform the concrete work was, you could see cracks forming up. As they progressed, the cracks became bigger.

Hansen stopped at one point, and both James and Karim stopped too as they heard one less pair of footsteps behind them. They looked at Hansen leaning on the wall. He looked scared and a bit sick. They approached him. “Bro, you’re ok?” Asked Karim. “Not very much, no… Huff… Shit, I don’t like this corridor at all.” Said a tired Hansen “I mean I got us in the room to begin with, but I don’t know why this place is doing something.” “Can you continue? I mean, we can’t go back…” Pointed out James, pointing to the fog in the direction where there used to be the door. “Yeah, we’ll continue. I just needed a moment to breath… Come on guys, let’s go” Hansen slowly took the lead. James followed through, not sure what to think. Karim was getting more worried, but he couldn’t deny the curiosity and doom.

After another long walk in a short time, they arrived at another door. To the right were some U-shaped stairs going down eternally, forward then back then forward then back. It looked like the backrooms of a mall where employees went up and down between storage rooms and other utility rooms.

No one did anything for a time. They just looked at the door. There was nothing to this door. It was a dark brown, juxtaposing itself against the grey. Still, it stopped the three boys in their tracks. There was nothing to this door, but something in their guts told them to stop. “Are we… gonna go?” Asked James. “Yeah, just a minute… I gotta…” Karim was left without words. If someone tried to walk any closer, they would instantly back up, though only James and Karim tried. Hansen was just still.

Their minds were running, but even that felt stuck in place. James looked backwards into the fog, just to check. Karim’s sight was lost. He didn’t know what to do or where to even look. He looked over at the others, just to check. Hansen’s mind was stuck in the door. Of course, he felt the same fear as the others, but he also felt a weird separation between himself and the situation. His vision got blurrier.

Eventually, Hansen tried. Very sluggishly, he put one foot forward, and then another one. James and Karim just looked, trying to tell him off doing that, but not being able to stop him. Hansen didn’t hear anything. He puts a hand on the knob and turns it. He opens the door and goes midway through, looking back. James and Karim follow through as the irrational fear dissipates and they can pass through. “How did you do that?” Asked James in confusion. “I don’t know. I let my body work for me…” said Hansen, also very confused. They closed the door behind them carefully as to not wake it up.

Looking into the room, they found another bedroom. It was dark. Darker than the rest of the facility. They barely recognised the outline of an old child’s bedroom. The patterns on the walls were mind bending and complex. The bed had high curtains. There was a wooden dresser and other tables around. It was an expansive room but still small and cosy. Well, it would be cosy if it were not of how dark it was. There was light coming out of the window…, but outside the window there was a void. There was an intense light coming from outside, but it was a black light. Like a black hole sun right outside the room that was both engulfing it and giving barely any light. They couldn’t see much, and regardless, their attentions were focused on the entity in front of them.

Sitting on the bed, looking at the void, there was a child. It was melting in and out of the background, like if it had problem even maintaining itself in this same realm. The body was human, but it was also distorted by its reality. It gazed over the boys and disappeared from their sight. The boys started to look around for it in shock. There was a moment of silence where they couldn’t register what even happened because of how dark it was, but they eventually realised.

“Uhm… where did he go?” Said Karim, freaking out a little. The door behind them was locked as James quickly figured out when he tried to open it. The child suddenly appeared in front of him, making him jump back towards Karim and Hansen. James screamed, but Hansen put his hand over his mouth before he alerted anyone else.

It did this a couple times more. It popped up in front and behind them every so often. It felt like they were being toyed like children’s toys. They didn’t know if it was a threat or not; they kept a defensive posture. It just kept looking at them, not being able to say anything.

It melted out of the background once again to confront Hansen. “What the hell are you?!” Hansen exclaimed out in a whisper, looking creeped out but mostly confused. The gazes being thrown around were “freaking him the fuck out” as he said. He was about to do act impulsively from the anxiety, but it did something before that. At once, Hansen stopped. It was like he was hearing out for something no one else could. James and Karim were stuck in one position, debating whether they should intervene and get Hansen out or back off in fear.

Hansen, lifting himself up from the daydream, rushed over to the other two. They tried to back off, but Hansen reached their hands and they connected. James and Karim felt something running up from their hands to their heads and putting them in a state of daydreaming. They heard the child talk.

“Took you guys long enough.”

They found themselves in the same room. It was equally as dark, but they could see everything. They felt a pressure on their heads and chest building up. “I know you guys must feel overwhelmed at everything right now, but please hear me out…”

“Where did you drag us?” Interrupted James.

“This is my room. Please, we need help!” Pleaded the child. Despite everything clearing up, they still couldn’t make up its features. “The balance of nature and mind is being disturbed! We need people with stable bodies!”

After that first initial reaction question James barked out at the child, nobody said anything. James wanted to ask more questions, but he lost his words. Everything was compounding for them. This sudden dump of information and weird happenings are too much for them. This sudden transportation felt like everything fell onto them at once and they had clarity of mind for a bit. “Hansen, did you put something in our breakfast?” Questioned Karim. “I kinda wish I did now.” Replied Hansen. The room was burning into their retinas despite looking as dimly lit as before. They tried to close their eyes, but it was like the room penetrated through their eyelids. Still, like this it stopped burning. While they struggled, the child kept pleading.

“They’ve trapped us in these human bodies! I wasn’t meant to inhabit any physical bodies, much less one of a human! They do weird things with needles and metal instruments! We were not meant to feel pain! And not only that, but we’re being also used to cause more pain! Please, help us…” The child’s words hit deeply in everyone, especially Hansen. It’s like they reached to a certain part behind their brains and communicated directly to their souls. “Our presence here and this place is destroying the world just so they can gain power and presence! You guys are an anomaly in the system… You guys’ psychic valves are loose! People used to be more connected with their spirits and god, but now they’re being oppressed by an authority, and even themselves. They’re trying to focus the psychic material into themselves, but they’ve slipped! Three soon to be heroes from the dark were born with a perfectly balanced valve! Not enough to go mad… not too little to be able and ignore me! We are one in the same, you’ll see! Us and the people need your help. Please…”

The call to action from the child moved them. No one said anything for a while. The child kept staring at them with what was unmistakeably one of implore and desperation. Hansen wanted to help the best he could, and so did James. Their emotions were winning over. However, Karim is not very sure. He was worried about the future, and James, and Hansen, and himself.

“I’m sorry, we can’t.” Said Karim, trying to be rational in an irrational situation. “We’re just children… I mean… We aren’t supposed to be, but it is what we are. We can’t fight an entire government. There needs to be something like a revolution. Hell, sometimes I have to protect these two because they aren’t that fit! And even if we wanted to start a revolution or something, no one hears us. We are a meme!” babbled Karim, getting more anxious with each word. “We’re already pretty much fucked! We snuck into a top-secret government base and are now talking to… whatever you are! Sorry! Sorry… I just…” Stopped Karim for a second. He lost his words; he couldn’t process the situation. It looked like neither could Hansen or James, but their minds raced so much that they couldn’t even begin to utter any words to begin with, unlike Karim.

“I will help you guys. I still have power over this realm. I can give you protection. You, the boy in yellow, are going to be very useful.” The child said, pointing at Karim. Karim looked confused. “I can sense your psychic valves… You, the boy in the pink dress…, your valve is very loose. Please keep an eye on him you two. Boy in yellow, your valve is just like the valves of thousands of years ago. Not as powerful as the other two, but that gives me a very good idea! You, the boy in cyan, please keep an open eye and never let your guard down.”

Everyone was uplifted by the spirit of childhood, but also confused. They opened their eyes, and they were burning, but it was tolerable. They felt something growing inside their head, but not expanding at all.

“To leave you must go down the stairs outside this room to the left. Keep living your lives. I’ll catch up to you later! Bye bye!”

“Wait hold on a minute…” Tried to intervene Hansen. The child had already disappeared. The room went back to its original state and the child went back to bed. It kept looking into the sun of void right outside the window whilst the three boys just stood there wordless. They all stood in silence for a couple more seconds. The silence was engulfing. It was also driving them mad. They walked out the room, quietly. Outside they were greeted by the endless concrete corridor, the grey fog, and the maintenance stairs to their left. As the emotion effect wore off them, they went left and then down.

After only two sets of stairs James stopped. “Wait a fucking second, guys. Where exactly are we going? Like, we just talked to this… demon child thing. And now we’re going even deeper?!” Stopping the other two with him, he took a moment to sit down to the side and breathe. “What did we get ourselves into?! What did he do to us?!” James said, tired, afraid, and anxious. Everyone was already feeling sleepy again. It felt like the lucidity they experienced in the room was weeks ago. James still held on to some ideas. Hansen stopped and sat down right besides James, catching his breath too. Karim just stood there, thinking, and scratching the back part of his head and neck.

“I think it’s better if we don’t ask any questions…” said Karim with a headache. “I just want to go to the festival, eat all the food, play with Hansen, and then just go to sleep.”

“Oh, fuck. Right. The concert…” lazily said Hansen remembering about the concert he was going to play on the festival. “What hour is it even? Is it still the twenty-first?”

“I haven’t even checked my phone…,” said James. They all remembered at once they had phones. And a backpack. They all checked their phones, but none turned on. “Well, that explains it.” Said Hansen. They stood there in silence for a bit more. They forgot they were supposed to be going. James scratched the back part of his head and neck

“… Do you guys feel it too?” Hansen suddenly asked. He pointed at his head, somewhere in the back. They both nodded. “Yup” said Karim. James was scratching that specific part of the head. “He said it was some sort of protection…” Commented James. “He told me to keep my guard up or something. What does that mean?” No one answered. Another minute of silence.

“Are we sure we aren’t experiencing a collective dream? The three of us?” Asked Hansen. “I mean, I can’t even be sure if I’m awake or not right now. Do you guys?” Karim and James just looked at him in silence. They weren’t sure either, but it seemed like an explanation. A bit of a cop out, but still something. “I mean, the monsters… this… child demon thing… Like, what are we even doing right now? Ow, ok that didn’t work” He pinched his arm. He did not wake up. Karim and James looked preoccupied. The child did tell them to keep an eye on him.

The silence was still deafening and drowning them. “Well, there’s no way but down. There’s not a door here apart from the bedroom’s. God knows what’s going on down there, but he did tell us to go lower…” Recollected James. “Do we trust him?” Asked Karim. “I mean, who else do we have right now?” Answered Hansen.

Once again, the silence took over. No one knew what to say, or what to ask. Hansen thought for a moment he’d lost the ability to conceptualise and manifest words. Eventually, Karim extended his arms towards James and Hansen. “Come on, let’s go. We still need to attend that festival!” He was trying to up the spirits and keep them going. “But we are going down, Karim!” said Hansen. James was already getting up with Karim’s arm. “Well, maybe we’re up in the sky and we’ll fall into the earth instead!” Imagined Karim, trying to bring Hansen up. James cracked a tiny sound like a laugh. Hansen wasn’t instantly won over, but the idea amused him. He stopped for a moment to think, smiled, and got up with Karim’s arm. “Well… maybe there’s a government funded super trampoline at the bottom!” added Hansen. “I can believe that!” responded Karim. James snickered a bit under his breath. “That’s stupid, but I’ll take it!” They were tired and afraid, but they dragged each other on their way.

They kept going down the stairs. Back and forth. Back and forth. The fog extended downwards too, and the lighting seemed to get ever so dimmer the lower they went. Regardless, no one fell down the stairs. It felt like an eternal walk down the stairs. The feeling of sleepiness just got heavier on them, but their legs weren’t giving up on them either. It just got darker, and their visions blurrier. Nobody said a thing for the entire way down the eternal stairs. Every so often they’d look down, just to see more and more stairs. They couldn’t see all the way down because of the fog, but if there was no fog, they’d probably just see more stairs.

The world melted into them and itself again. It was like a smear on the eyes. Their legs kept working, but their brains were falling asleep. Eventually, they closed their eyes, and everything went dark for a second.