Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a crevice in the wall behind the closet. It was not something Seek typically would have noticed, but now it was there, clinging to the walls behind the wardrobe that had been so carefully arranged to block the view of anyone who happened to pass by. There was a hallway there, something carved into the wall that formed a passageway to somewhere Seek had no knowledge of. 

Seek stepped forwards, slime coalescing into makeshift bone as it formed the shape of a human. The moment it entered the hallway, it recoiled in pain. The hallway felt wrong, like it wasn’t part of the Hotel. 

But that was impossible. 

Seek pressed forwards through the hallway, feeling the initial burning discomfort fade as it entered a new room. Its eye felt drawn to the painting on the wall- a golden star against a purple background. Something about the star felt familiar- strangely reminiscent of something it almost remembered. 

Tearing its gaze away, it turned to observe the rest of the room. There was nothing else of interest, save for a wire gate that blocked it from going any further until it molded itself through the bars. It spread itself through the insulation in the walls, its eyes appearing to observe its surroundings as it passed through the gate. 

Now it could see a door, covered in locks and chains. Yellow stars danced around it, resembling the shape from the painting, almost a twin of the Light but different- more unsure, somehow. Seek tore through the chains with little difficulty, unafraid of causing injury to the Hotel here. Golden sparks scattered away from the door as broken chains fell away, hissing and melting where Seek had touched them, to reveal a skull-shaped lock. 

Seek recognized the skull on the lock, it realized. It had seen several keys with the same shape before- one at Jeff’s shop, and a few others lying around. An intruder it had killed had one too. 

The curiosity Seek felt now was nearly intoxicating. It had to know what was behind that door- what had been hidden so deliberately from view. Corrosive slime- though less potent than what it had used on the chains- melted through the mechanism keeping the door locked. 

It shoved the door open unceremoniously, disappointed by the lack of response for only half a second until suddenly it was dragged forwards, all of its mass sucked into the portal it had so carelessly opened. For a second, that strange, yellow star was burned into its vision.

Then every entity in the Hotel felt something shift. 

Chapter Text

Void-black slime and watchful eyes were spilled haphazardly into an empty room, Seek’s twisted facsimile of a body at the center of it. It felt itself liquefying, trying to slip through the cracks in the floor or the gaps between the walls, only to be met with a strange kind of resistance. When first instinct to bleed into the floorboards and disappear failed, it was left trapped inside the room. Becoming solid again, Seek climbed to its feet, dizzily taking in its surroundings as it stood up. 

It was in a white room with blank walls, uninterrupted except by a single door, marked with a sign that read A-001. The carpet (where Seek’s slime hadn’t covered it) was a dark red color. What interested Seek most was the lights- mounted on the ceiling instead of the wall and from a time period clearly beyond that of the Hotel.

This was not part of the Hotel.  

Seek scanned the room for an exit- for any sign of the door it had just passed through. There was nothing except the one wooden door it had seen earlier, door A-001. 

Seek tried to ignore its panic as it stepped towards the door.

The door swung open with a loud creak to reveal another empty room- a space filled with metal closets and a wooden table. Seek opened one of the closets (lockers? it vaguely remembered that word from somewhere) to find only an empty space. Seek could probably fit inside it if it wanted to. 

The door closed with a metallic clang as Seek let go of the locker and turned to the next door.

100 doors, it thought to itself, that’s how many the Hotel has. There is probably an exit to this place if I get to the hundredth door. Should be easy enough. 

It kept walking. 

The Rooms. That would be a good name for this place. 

-X-

It was unsettlingly quiet. The Hotel was always filled with noises that varied from knocking to an old, warped piano. Here there was no sound, save for Seek’s footsteps and the creaking of the doors it opened. The absence of sound made Seek uneasy. The Hotel always seemed full of life, maybe even alive, even when it was alone.

This place seemed like everything that gave it character had been stripped away- torn from the fabric of space itself, leaving an empty, soulless husk of a building behind. 

Seek opened another door. By now it had gone a bit further than three fourths of the way through- door 76 or 77, it hadn’t been paying attention. 

Seek took another step forwards, then stopped. An abrupt crescendo of warped static interrupted the dead silence as something red and distorted screamed, racing through the quiet rooms and tearing through Seek’s body like it was nothing. The pain only lasted a second before red faded to yellow and everything stopped.

-X-

The Figure paced the length of its library anxiously, waiting for the feeling of sudden, irreversible change to fade. Something was off, it knew, but it wasn’t sure what it could be. 

It sighed. It wasn’t going to find answers here. Maybe… 

It stopped. Seek had probably seen whatever had happened. 

The exit to the library swung open as it approached- it still needed to fix the lock again, it reminded itself- and it stepped out of the library into the rest of the hotel. 

It passed Jeff’s shop without acknowledging the two (three? was Bob even alive?) entities that were busy arguing about shop prices, feeling the temperature drop as it entered a dark room. 

“Figure!” Screech yelled joyfully, then paused, “are you looking for Seek?” 

“Hello, Screech. I am, actually. Have you seen it?” There was a shuffling noise, the quiet rustling of inky tentacles before Screech spoke again, its voice trembling. 

“Figure, I think it’s missing. It’s not in its hallways or anywhere else in the Hotel, I looked- and Rush and Ambush haven’t seen it and I’m really worried and I thought maybe it was in the Library and now you said you can’t find it and I-” 

“Calm down, Screech. Take a deep breath, okay?” Figure said, reaching out towards the smaller entity., “wherever it is, it will probably be back soon, ok? Don’t panic just yet,” Figure comforted despite its own unease. It hoped Screech didn’t notice its trembling hands as it gently patted it on the head. 

“...okay.” 

“Let’s go find Rush and Ambush, alright?” 

-X-

Oh… hello. You aren’t supposed to be here, are you?

Seek blinked in surprise. All it could see was yellow static. 

Hm, I thought not. You must be lost… how did you even get here? I remember it being really tedious… Anyway, What’d you die to?

Oh... the red one. I'm not too sure on what I would call it... Well, it usually attacks around room A-60, so... you could just call it A-60. I don't know. Anyways, I hope you don't mind trying again. It would be helpful.

Yellow faded back to red and then to black as the world melted away from around Seek.

Then void-black slime and wary eyes were spilled haphazardly into an empty room.

Chapter Text

Seek lay stunned on the floor for a long time, trying (and failing) to make sense of what had just happened. Hadn’t it…? 

Maybe the Rooms weren’t as empty as it had first thought. 

Hadn’t it died? It clawed at its chest with half-formed hands, remembering the awful feeling of being torn apart.

At least it remembered. It would be worse if it forgot- had to find out again and again and again through trial and error until every death was burned into its head. 

It stood up again, compressing itself into a single humanoid form as it opened the first door. 

It paused, surveying the empty room with suspicion. 

I have to get home. It started forwards with sudden determination. And if this is the way home, so be it.

Seek was much more alert this time through, paying closer attention to its surroundings as it walked. It was ready to hide the second it heard anything out of the ordinary. It kept thinking it heard it, startling itself with illusions of the awful screams of something even more removed from humanity than Seek itself. 

Maybe it’s like Rush, it thought briefly, maybe it’s just doing what it has to to survive. 

Somehow, Seek didn’t truly believe that.

-X-

“Seek wasn’t in the Library?” Rush asked Screech, its distorted voice difficult to make out against the thunder. 

“No, it wasn’t,” Screech whimpered. 

“That’s really weird.”

“I agree,” Ambush screamed above the heavy rain, its red glow illuminating the dark greenhouse, “it’s like it just vanished.” 

“We need to find it,” Figure commanded. 

“I’ll go check the first 50 rooms again,” Rush volunteered. 

“I can check the second 50. Screech, you can check the rest of the Greenhouse.” 

“Ok…” 

“I will go back to the Library and try to find the Eyes.” Figure’s mouth glowed orange as it spoke. “Not all of them are helpful, but they always know things we don’t.”

“We should meet back here in an hour,” Ambush declared. “We’ll find Seek.” 

-X-

Seek barely made it into a locker before a shrieking, warped mess of crimson flesh and blood-red eyes tore its way through the room. It pressed itself against the back of the locker, hearing a sizzle against its corrosive imitation of flesh ate its way through the metal. It clawed at the sides of the container, terrified of the confinement but even more terrified of the twisted resemblance of a friend that was so close, kept at bay only by a flimsy sheet of metal. Seek stayed there until the suffocating weight of silence threatened to tear it apart from the inside out. It brought itself under control, turning back to look at the damage it had done through its fear.

The back of the locker was stained and corroded, black goo dripping from the walls and the sides. Deep gashes had been carved into the sides of the walls by Seek’s clawed hands.

The wall behind the broken locker somehow remained untouched.

Seek turned away from the damaged locker and kept going. 

-X-

The Eyes whispered its name, murmuring amongst themselves as the guardian of the Library approached them. 

Figure, they hissed, several of them speaking at once while the others conversed quietly in a strange language. 

“Yes,” the entity replied,” I came to ask you for help.”

Help? Though it could not see, Figure could feel the weight of the Eyes’ gaze. Librarian, we cannot help you. 

“Please, I need to know where Seek went. You have to know that, at least.”

Seek, they murmured, almost surprised, it is not here. Why are you looking for something that cannot be found? 

“What do you mean?”

It is beyond our gaze. It has messed with things beyond its comprehension and now it is gone. 

“But you know what happened to it.”

Yes.

“Then tell me.” The silence that followed created a void that magnified every sound. Figure could hear the buzzing of the lights and the ethereal whispers of the Eyes as it waited. 

We don’t think we will. 

-X-

Door 90 creaked open as Seek approached. It was almost to the hundredth door, almost to the end of this empty hell. It walked faster now, almost running in anticipation of its escape. 

Ten more doors. 

Nine more. 

Eight- stop and hide and wait until it passes. It can’t hurt you in here. 

Seven left.

Six. 

It missed its friends.

Five. 

Four. 

It would see them soon.

Three. 

Two. 

One. 

…A-101? 

And then there was another room. 

And another.

And Seek realized it had been wrong. 

-X-

“Figure,” Rush sighed as Screech wrapped a bandage around its arm, “you really shouldn’t have tried to fight the Eyes.”

“They all deserved it,” Figure said.

“Fair enough.”

Chapter Text

Seek almost gave up right then. How could it have been so foolish? 

“Of course,” it hissed, speaking aloud for the first time since it had arrived here, “of course this wouldn’t be over. Of course it wouldn’t- of course there would be more rooms. Why the hell would it be that easy?” Its body contorted in rage, twisted spines growing out of its back and arms as a thousand eyes opened across its pitiful excuse for skin. Its claws lengthened as it lashed out at the doorway in anger, carving a gash in the wooden door. 

It only had itself to blame for its anger, though. It had misunderstood a place it barely knew just because it was similar to its home. It had set itself up for disappointment. 

It wouldn’t make that mistake again. 

It continued walking, staring through what had become absolute darkness as its eyes adjusted to the lack of light. It could see itself in the dark now- the whites of its eyes glowing brightly against the pitch-black background. 

It opened another door. Red static flashed before its eyes, the image of a hand held out to stop it burned into its vision as it flinched backwards. 

It realized a second too late that it should not have moved as agony shot through its body. 

-X-

Figure paced the walls of the Greenhouse, its footsteps loud even against the backdrop of the constant rain and thunder this place always seemed to have. Its arms were bandaged tightly, fabric wrapped around burns it could not see but could definitely felt. 

“What now?” Ambush asked. 

“I don’t know,” it answered, stepping dangerously close to a Snare. 

“What if it really is gone?” Screech asked, on the verge of tears. 

“It isn’t. We’ll find it.” We have to hung in the air, unspoken. 

“I checked everywhere,” Rush said, “I even asked Jack to ask Hide where Seek was and he said it didn’t know.” 

“We can’t just give up,” Ambush screamed, “did you ask Jeff and El Goblino, or Dupe?” 

“Of course I did, idiot. The only thing useful I got was from El Goblino, and even that was super vague. Something about Door 64 and I looked there, believe me. It was just another room-”

“Door 64? Was that the one right before the Infirmary?” Screech interrupted softly. 

“Yeah, I think so… Why?” Screech’s eyes widened, casting a soft white glow onto the floorboards. 

“Did you look behind the wardrobes?” 

“No… is there something back there?” 

“There was something… like a crack in the wall. I didn’t go into it, but maybe Seek is…?”

-X-

Seek was alive- shaken and injured and scared, but alive. It couldn’t tell how badly hurt it was- it didn’t seem to be a physical injury, and it was hard enough to tell when it was- but it kept going. 

It really hated this place. 

It opened another door, A-127, then stopped again. Faintly, it could hear something- soft metallic clanging from several rooms ahead.

 It moved to investigate-

The next door wouldn’t open.

It decided to hide instead. 

That turned out to be a good decision. 

Something white and glowing swept through the room, turning to face Seek’s locker briefly as it passed, giving Seek barely enough time to observe the entity from what it desperately hoped was a safe distance. 

The entity resembled a crudely drawn smiley face- something Screech would have drawn on the Hotel walls in white crayon, but so much more sinister. Seek’s newly-formed spikes gouged the metal inside of the locker as it flung itself against the back of the locker, keeping as much space as possible between it and this new entity. The corrosion of its hiding place spread more slowly this time, but there was still a substantial amount of locker that had been melted by its slime. Its spikes didn’t seem to help much either.

When Seek was absolutely certain it was gone, it stepped out of the locker, letting the metal door close with a loud clang behind it. The sound startled it, making it turn around and check to make sure it was only the sound of the locker door. 

You can never be too careful, really.

-X-

“It’s back here!” Screech shouted from behind a wardrobe. The other entities, all investigating other parts of the room, gathered around the closet that the sound came from. 

“Behind the closet?” Figure asked, feeling a gap between the wall and the wardrobe. 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay. One at a time, then.” 

Figure squeezed behind the wardrobe, its exposed ribcage scratching against the wood and peeling paint off of the walls as it struggled to get through the narrow corridor. The second it stepped inside the crack in the wall, it felt wrong- like it was not supposed to be here. The burns on its arms burned with the intensity of the Light, concentrated and forced against its skin.

But it had to find Seek.

“You okay Figure?” Rush called from behind it. 

“Yes, I… I am fine. Just one second,” it breathed as it turned its head toward the sound of its friend’s voice.

The pain faded eventually.

Figure continued down the small hallway. With Screech’s guidance it made its way to a small room- bigger that the little corridor it went through to get here, but smaller than the average Hotel room. It felt the walls as it waited for the others- for the most part, they felt the same as the rest of the Hotel, but there was a metal gate blocking the way. Figure thought it felt something like Seek’s slime on some of the criss-crossing bars, but that could have been wishful thinking. 

It almost thought it heard whispers as well. 

The others arrived soon after that.

Chapter Text

Seek was frozen in place as the blood-red thing that it was trying to avoid sped towards it. It wanted desperately to hide, but the staticky threat of the other entity still hung in the air and it couldn’t move- couldn’t hide - until it was gone. 

It faded from view a second too late, leaving Seek with barely any time to find a hiding spot. It glanced at the rows of lockers lining the room- some that were functional, some that weren’t. 

The one Seek tried to open was one of the latter. 

And then again, it saw red that faded into golden light.

-X-

“Are we all here?” Screech asked anxiously, squinting in the light.

“I believe so,” Figure answered, running its hands along the metal fence.

“Okay… how do we open the gate?” Ambush narrowed its eyes slightly. 

“There’s usually a lever,” Rush said, “but I don’t see one in here.”

“Maybe it’s in a different room.” Screech glanced around the small room just in case. 

“I’ll check,” Ambush volunteered. It sped off into the series of rooms around it. The others waited for it to return.

Then the gate opened with a loud clank. 

-X-

Welcome back. I’m guessing you didn’t mean to come back here? Or- wait. You never left, did you? 

Seek felt itself nod- how it did that, it didn’t know, as it was certain it wasn’t in any normal plane of reality, but it did.

Alright, fine. I don’t usually give hints, but you’re, um, really not supposed to be here, so. Sometimes, when there are humans here, I can open exits after… A-200, I think. Those should take you back to wherever you came from. If you can’t find any of those, well. A-1000 is always open. 

A thousand of these stupid rooms. If this place’s version of the Light couldn’t get an exit open, Seek would have to go through a thousand rooms. 

I’ll… try to get one to work. You should try again, in the meantime. 

Void-black slime and weary eyes were spilled haphazardly into an empty room.

-X-

Ambush returned a few seconds later. 

“I found a lever,” it declared. 

“It worked,” Screech said excitedly, “the gate is open.”

“So, let’s see what’s in there.” Rush was already halfway through the gate before anyone else realized it had moved. They followed it through the corridor.

The door at the end of the hallway was framed by broken chains, the image of a skull in the center.

Ambush approached slowly, being careful not to touch the chains. The ends looked like they had been melted by something- Seek, probably. 

Whoever put this door here clearly didn’t want it to be found. 

“So, what is it?” Figure asked from behind Ambush. 

“Broken chains- melted, by the looks of it.”

“Do you think it was Seek…?” Screech whimpered. 

“Maybe,” Figure said, searching for a chain. It picked one up, feeling the end of it- comparing the texture to the damage it remembered Seek could do. “Feels like Seek’s handiwork.” 

“So did it go through the door?”

“Probably.” Figure tightened its grip around the broken chains. 

If the door was unlocked from this side, why hadn’t Seek come back?

Was it truly missing? 

Figure shook its head to clear away the malevolent whispers of dread and anxiety. 

It didn’t completely work.

“Should we go through the door?” Ambush asked, now watching from behind and above the others. 

“No! What if we go missing too?” Screech cried, accidentally hitting Figure in the arm with a flailing tentacle. Figure flinched and dropped the chain. “Sorry, Figure.”

“That is alright, Screech,” the librarian replied, pulling its bandaged arm away, “it was an accident.”

“I think we should open it,” Rush declared. The cloud of constant black fog that surrounded it floated up towards the ceiling, dimming the lights. “One of us could hold the door open so we can all get back.”

“That might not work,” Ambush argued. 

“Well, what else could we do?”

“Wait to see if Seek comes back, at least.” 

“That’s a stupid plan. What if it’s-” Rush stopped, glancing at Screech. “What if it needs our help?” 

“What if we just get trapped with it as well?”

“That’s a risk we might have to take.”

“But I-”

“Quiet,” Figure commanded. “Rush, you will stay back with Screech and Ambush at the end of the hallway. I’ll open the door and then tell you whether or not you think we should all go through it. If I… if I get trapped wherever Seek is, at least we’ll know. And then I’ll be able to help it escape.”

“Do you really want to risk that, Figure?” Screech asked, its glowing eyes full of sadness and confusion.

“Yes. For Seek, yes. If it means we might get it back….” Figure watched as its friends retreated behind the metal gate. It turned back towards the door and reached out a hand towards the doorknob. 

As soon as it touched the doorknob, Figure screamed in agony as the purple wounds on its arms ignited with unholy fire. 

-X-

Seek opened door A-26 with unnecessary force, splintering the wood and corroding the doorknob. It had decided to keep its spikes from its last run- it thought they could end up being useful, somehow- and as they carved into the doorframe as it passed, it couldn’t help feeling a sort of vindictive joy at having caused damage to this place in some way. 

Then, at A-27, it heard the now-familiar sound of distant static. It threw itself into a locker, clawing the door shut as the terrifying crimson atrocity passed through the room, far earlier and faster than it was supposed to. 

Wasn’t it only supposed to attack after A-60? 

If Seek ever got out of this place it was going to burn the door. 

When Seek got out of this place it was going to burn the door.

And quite possibly the entire secret hallway.

Chapter Text

Figure stumbled backwards, the bandages on its arms consumed by fire as it tried desperately to extinguish the flames. The violet fire ate at its bandages, undoing Screech’s work as it collapsed against the wall, its flesh charred and blackened from the flames. 

You cannot open that door, the Eyes hissed in anger. Figure turned blindly towards the sound, its arms that had just been covered carefully in bandages now exposed and vulnerable. 

“Figure!” Screech’s distressed whimpering caught Figure’s attention. 

“Eyes,” it said, “what are you doing?”

I am protecting you. 

“You’re hurting it-” Ambush was cut off by the Eyes’ whispers increasing in volume.

I am protecting you from something you do not understand. 

Figure stood slowly, its burned arms exposed to the cold air. It still felt like it was burning. 

“There… there are better ways to protect than by causing pain, Eyes.” 

The Eyes laughed.

Like how you protect this Hotel? 

-X-

Seek made it to A-142 before it heard the still-unfamiliar sound of metal clanging against metal. It slammed the door to its locker shut, clinging to the metal for protection. The glowing atrocity passed by with a horrifying glance towards Seek’s locker. 

Its grin widened as it vanished.

It knew. 

Seek had to get out of here.

As soon as the entity vanished into the endless halls of the Rooms, Seek scrambled out of the locker and ran for the door. It had a feeling something wasn’t right- even more so than it usually did. 

It almost ran through the next few rooms, throwing the doors wide open and leaving them there. It only paused for a second, and only when something flickered into its peripheral vision, forcing it to stop. It froze in place, waiting motionlessly for the entity to disappear. When it did, Seek only continued. 

It glanced up at the door numbers as it ran, watching them increase far beyond 100. 

It reached A-200. 

When it stepped through that door, something in the air shifted. It felt as if it had passed a threshold of some kind- like there was some boundary it had reached. Golden light shined from the doorframe behind it, illuminating the pitch-black room. 

But what did it mean if the Light was here…?

Static filled the empty silence.

-X-

“What are you?” Figure lifted its head. 

You know what we are. 

“No, I don’t. What are you?” 

We are the ones that gave up. 

The Figure froze. Oh. 

Suddenly everything made more sense.

We are the ones who failed, the Eyes hissed. We died here, Librarian. 

“I didn’t know.”

It should not have mattered. 

Figure stepped forwards, away from the door and towards the Eyes. It could feel them- their power, pulsing through the cold air of the Hotel. It could feel their gaze on it. 

“I’m sorry,” it managed to whisper. 

Your apology means nothing to us. We only wanted to go home. 

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

You wouldn’t have listened. You do not understand what it feels like to lose something, until now. The Eyes’ incessant whispering grew louder. You could not have cared.

“That isn’t true,” Figure snapped. “None of us meant to cause harm. We were only defending our home.”

… but you did cause harm. No matter your intentions, you hurt people. 

“None of us knew that- none of us knew any of this. We just wanted to be safe.”

So did we. We suppose both of us failed. 

Figure turned back towards the door.

“I have not failed yet.”

-X-

Seek ran. 

The quiet warning of an imminent attack grew louder as it sprinted for the next door, and the next, searching desperately for a hiding place. The static grew louder, and yet there was nothing. 

The air behind Seek crackled with raw, unfiltered power for only a second before golden chains snapped into existence around the red atrocity. 

The Light was… protecting Seek.

Run, it whispered. Get out of here. 

And so Seek ran. 

And door A-203 swung open. 

And A-204.

And A-205.

There was an exit door in the middle of the left wall, glowing with golden sparks. 

Seek heard the sound of shattering glass as the static grew louder again. 

It ran.

-X-

What are you doing? 

“I am getting Seek back,” Figure said. 

Why?

“Because it is my friend.”

You really do care about it. 

“Yes, I do.”

… then we will not stop you. 

“You won’t?”

We won’t. Perhaps you can find a better ending than the one we have seen. 

Figure turned back to face the Eyes. 

“What do you mean?” 

But they were gone.