Vaile’s eyes snapped open, and he jolted awake where he sat. He fully expected that the barriers that he had put in place would have been broken down by now, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. Instead, the people that had been banging on the door for what, to him, felt like an eternity had either gotten tired of it or had found something more productive to do. There were no further impacts on the door, and the mysterious fog had ascended back into the place it had been during the day.

The defenses had worked better than he had anticipated, and, for the first time since he got here, he didn’t feel the unnerving and omnipresent gaze of someone or something watching him. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, as the moment he had finished setting up the numerous defenses just before the previous night started, he felt a weight lift off of him. He wasn’t fully aware of it then, but now he could tell that what that ‘weight’ had been was the eerie sensation of some enigmatic force observing him.

Now it was brighter outside, or at least it appeared to be so through the minor gaps in the mix of metal bars and wooden boards that he had used to help keep the windows secure. A quick peek through the gaps let Vaile know that he had likely slept for far longer than he anticipated, as there was a decent amount of light outside and there were people milling about doing their mundane activities. Vaile came to the conclusion that he was safe here, but he wouldn’t be able to stay here forever if he ever wanted to leave this spooky place.

Despite the safety the barriers provided and the fact that his item box was filled with enough time-frozen food to last him several normal human lifetimes, Vaile didn’t exactly wish to be a Hikikomori. Aside from the light outside as well as the people doing their thing, the lack of people attempting to enter his room gave Vaile an idea. If he could just get back to this room before darkness fell and the people of this city went crazy, he would gradually be able to explore this city and see just how much he could access before the loop kicked in.

Maybe, like that very, very old SNES Edutainment Game about a man in green whose brother went missing, there were secret and not so secret ways to avoid the endlessly looping streets. Mind you, he would prefer not to use that game’s mode of transit, as he found the idea of traveling through massive sewer pipes to be disgusting, but if it was either that or remain stuck in this creepy place forever, he would gladly take a trip through the sewers. Of course, if he found any angry turtle or mushroom people down there, then he would know for certain that things were weirder than he ever could have imagined.

Mustering up the courage that he needed, Vaile opened the door to his room and peeked outside. There was nobody there and all seemed to be back to the status quo from before that madness last night. Vaile took his first steps outside and shut the door behind him, trusting that the barriers would prevent anyone and anything from entering without his express permission. He nearly had walked down the hall towards the stairs down to the main floor when he had the urge to check the state of the hall-side of the door to his room. The fine wood was perfectly undamaged, almost as if it had only been made and varnished just a few moments prior.

However, as soon as he finished checking the state of the door and went to continue his exploration, the sensation of some unseen observer monitoring him came back and caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Now he was absolutely certain beyond any reasonable doubt that he wasn’t merely being paranoid when he felt this way yesterday. Unconsciously, he took a cursory glance over his shoulder and, once again, swore that he saw some kind of weird, alien dog thing behind him for only the briefest of moments. He took this chance to spin around to get a full look, but the dog thing was gone before he could see it entirely.

This was the final nail in the coffin in regard to Vaile’s original belief that he was going crazy. He knew what he saw, and he knew what he felt. He had played enough VR Horror games to know this feeling and now e was dead certain that he had likely found himself in someplace where the rules of Horror Movies applied. He would make damn fucking sure that anyone who tried to hold him up until after dark would be unable to keep him out late. He wasn’t a master of Horror, but he understood all too well that in such situations that common sense and caution were, more often than not, your best friend, if not your savior.

Despite knowing he was safer in that room, he needed to find a way out of this place if he ever hoped to last for very long. After all, in most Horror scenarios, the hauntings, and other such stuff couldn’t follow you outside of a certain area. The Lake Killer had the campgrounds, the Nightmare Killer had a single street, and the Killer Cosmic Clown was, for the most part, confined to a single Podunk town.

Despite the risks, he needed to get to exploring. No character ever survived intact unless they fully escaped the things in a Horror situation, so it was do or die, and Vaile did not want to die. He made his way downstairs and out into the city. He would get out of here, even if he had to do stuff that clashed with his own sense of morality.

…

As Vaile walked out of the inn, the barmaid and the rest of the people in the bar froze up. The din of noise and dialogue ceased entirely, and the normal sounds of communication were replaced by the people there merely sharing looks with each other as though they were in a conversation that didn’t involve using their mouths. This kind of thing was happening all over the trapped city, but always just out of range of Vaile’s eyes and ears.

Vaile was mostly right about being in a horror scenario, but he wasn’t aware of just how much danger he actually was in while trapped in that city. But then again, neither do you, and I intend to keep it that way for a while longer. It would be a shame to spoil the fun, right?