Note:

This chapter contains vulgar language and slight gore. Be prepared!

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A chain small enough to be a necklace.

You followed the chain, tugging at it and maneuvering your hands underneath the dead body. It was then you felt the familiar shape of the object, the shape you so desperately wanted to have in your hands.

It was the key.

~~

Your heart skipped a beat and you had to keep yourself from crying out loud in pure excitement and relief. Your hand clenched itself tightly around the small object, not letting go of it before you knew you were completely safe.

Tugging at the key itself did nothing but add resistance and the sane part of your mind kept you from tugging at Lola's spine. Realizing that you weren't going to get the necklace off by brute force you quickly followed the chain.

The key followed around it with you until it was stopped. You knew you had found the opening of the necklace. However, your fingers were as cold as ice and your broken hand was devoid of any feeling or detailed movement.

You clenched the little circle in between your cold digits of the 'broken' hand as your other hand began to fumble with the small lock. You had no nails left so each time you had managed to hook your finger behind the silver bulge it wouldn't move an inch.

The leftover parts of the organs and maggots made your fingers slippery and your patience had been running thin the moment you had stepped out of your room. Biting your lip you held your breath in utter concentration, prying the lock loose.

With a soft grunt you had opened the necklace, quickly grabbing the key and pulling it away from Lola's body.

The little light that came from the hallway only showed the contours of the object, but it was enough to know that it indeed was the key. A feeling of ecstasy overwhelmed you, knowing that a powerful weapon was now safely into your hands.

You held it to your heart tightly, thanking whomever above that you had remembered. Suddenly a pang of shame slithered through your veins, shaking your entire body through and through.

Without any regard for Lola's withering body you had desperately searched for the key. You had poked her, touched her... Of course, she was dead. She wouldn't... No... Couldn't feel anything... Still... The more human part inside yourself told you it was wrong.

It was wrong to dig inside her body like she is merely a barrel filled with food. Your eyes slid over the mess of bones and your heart ached by the thought it was once your friend. In one mere moment, thinking of the ultimate 'power', you had completely forgotten about that fact.

Shame on you for turning into one of them. For turning into monsters purely because you want something. This key... Should not be seen as a weapon. It should be seen as a promise. And you had promised long ago to free your friends.

Huh... A key to free...

That's a nice thought.

Deciding to give Lola a silent prayer, asking her for her forgiveness you closed your eyes for a mere second. You couldn't afford to lose more time than you already had, so after 5 seconds you sprung up from the cold ground.

Your head turned towards the door, the adrenaline and frenzy were slowly being replaced with more caution and awareness. This wasn't like taking a stroll through the park. You knew that the way up would be even riskier...

Or you had been in such a trance before that you never even noticed the existing danger.

You walked over to the door, peeking in the hallway on both sides. As if you could see something... The light bulb didn't give off that much luminesce... Not that it mattered anyway. Those creatures were extremely fast. They would charge at you before you even had time to look at them.

You bit your lip, clenching the key tighter to your chest as you began to run. Your feet were tapping against the cold floor, that sound, mixed with your breathing were the only things heard in this dark hallway.

You had to get back to the room.

If you had even the slightest bit of luck.... Jeff wouldn't be there yet.

The stairs came into sight as you pushed your body to run even faster than before. You needed to get out of here, you needed to get back as soon as possible.

A loud sound right in front of you made you stop dead in your tracks. You had to dig your heels into the ground in order to stop, faltering over your own feet before you stood completely frozen to the ground. Your ears peaked in interest and anticipation as you heard another loud 'thud'.

It seemed to come from right in front of you.

The door.

Your eyes widened as you shot to your right, into another hallway. You recognized it immediately as the hallway with the big, metal door. The hallway that would lead to the place where Masky had tortured you. The hallway that led to the place where you had been chased by the Eyeless monster.

Near the metal door you stopped running, hoping that you had just misheard the sound... But soon enough the door opened, and you could hear loud footsteps. Licking your lips, you prayed that this person would walk straight ahead and not your way.

You tried to keep your breathing under control, be as quiet as possible as you evaluated each step. Was it louder? Was it softer? Was it going faster? Slowing down, maybe?

Bad luck seemed drawn to you like flies to light since the footsteps were definitely getting louder.

Your head was filled with curses as you turned on your heels towards the big, metal door. Your eyesight became black as your mind recalled another memory:

~~

You walked further, indeed going to the big, metal door.

You both stopped in front of it, Hoodie grabbing his keys and examining them, probably picking the right one. You noticed how he had several keys. Correction, how he had a lot of keys. Were these all the keys for every door in the mansion? Why would he have them?

When he had found the right key he unlocked the door, pushing it open before retreating his keys back into his pockets again. He signed to you to follow him, leaving the door to slowly close out of itself.

~~

You clenched your head in pure agony, feeling the dizziness fading away. Shit, that's right. This door had been locked every time you had to get there. You wobbled over to the door, your fingers sliding over the handle as you desperately tried to push it open.

The footsteps were coming closer and closer.

Miraculously the door didn't seem unlocked, as the handle turned down. You immediately pushed it open, sliding yourself inside and sprinting away. You didn't bother to close the door or be a little more discreet, that person had been close.

They might or might not know you were there already.

Without even thinking of it, you sprinted into a few corridors. You didn't want to take the risk. You had gotten this fucking far with retrieving the key, which seemed almost impossible. If you were caught now you would disappoint not only your friends but yourself as well.

You made a promise, god damnit!

Your heart was racing, and your mind tried to follow which way you were going... But after a few turns and angles, you couldn't keep track of it anymore. Not that it mattered. As long as you wouldn't encounter anyone in this maze you would eventually find the way out.

Deciding that this was far enough you stopped, breathing heavily as the saliva dripped from your mouth. You were completely out of oxygen, supporting your upper body on your knees as you tried to listen closely and be quieter.

The footsteps had completely disappeared, so he/she was either going a different way or...

You shuddered from the thought, you knew how quiet these killers could be.

That eyeless freak had been following the sound of your footsteps for who knows how long. Silence was your enemy just as much as other alerting sounds were.

When the acute stress finally had died down a little you straightened your back. It was dark, utterly completely dark. The cold bolted like a lightening strike through your toes to your whole body. You wondered if you even had any toes left or if they had been frozen off already.

Glancing around you found nothing that could help you get back to where you needed to be.

Not that it was anything new. You just hoped that you could avoid that person who had been behind you, while continuing to avoid any other monster that could be lurking in this pit filled with darkness and pain.

The only thing you knew was the way you got into THIS corridor... The rest had all been a big blur to you. Knowing that thinking had no effect here you began to walk slowly. You didn't want to run or hurry now.

You had little time, yet being aware of your surrounding and drawing as little attention to yourself as possible was way more important right now. Those were the first two rules while entering the lion's den and during that time with E.J. you had completely forgotten about them.

Watching every shadow, insect and play of the mind you continued walking. You had nothing to guide you, nothing that could help you find the way back but your gut feeling. It hadn't always been right, but it couldn't make things that much worse now.

With each turn your heart skipped a beat, hoping to god it would get you a few steps closer to where you need to be. You continued to squeeze the key every so often, reminding you that it was still there and safely in your hands.

A single noise made you stop dead in your tracks, but upon realizing it was a mouse you continued on with a heavy heart. It felt as if you were walking with iron boots and each step was heavy and forced. You passed several bloodied doors, but you didn't dare to open any of them.

Aside from the fact that some of them were already open. Sometimes you peaked inside, having this unrealistic hope that you would recognize something. But they were always empty... and completely foreign to you. Well... Not really empty considering the many bodies or even test tubes you saw.

You didn't stare at the last ones for long. You had seen it many times before in your nightmares and those old science fiction movies. You didn't need to be reminded of this horror constantly, you had Jeff and your life for that.

Every so often, you would suddenly stop walking. Ears peaking in concentration to hear if someone would be following you. The scars E.J. had left on your mind were still fresh and the fear grew the longer you were walking through this maze.

Your eyes were sliding over the walls, trying to see through the darkness. Even if you would see something you had seen before, would you remember it? All these halls looked alike, so did all the rooms. Would you really re-

And then you stopped, eyes focused on a table at the back of the room you were looking into. A memory seeped into your mind, clouding your eyes once again:

~~

Your mouth formed onto one line as soon as you had heard that familiar voice. Your gaze shifted towards a person standing in front of a table at the end of the room. His back was facing you, but you didn't even need to think of who it could be.

Masky.

Your felt your stomach turning because of the nerves, the sweat slowly forming on your forehead and while you were cold moments ago, you felt the heat rushing through your veins. This was it; this was your chance now. The only thing you need to do was to look confident and bribe them.

Your throat felt as if you had swallowed glass and your breathing became heavier with each second. You glared at the masked man, whose back was still facing you. It seemed as if he was studying something, something even more important than you and the code you had brought with you.

"Would you look at this, Brian, the idiots thought they could outsmart us." Your eyes shifted from the masked man towards the hooded man, before you slowly took one step to the side. You were wondering what he was talking about and above all if he noticed you.

Hoodie brushed past you, walking over to the table quickly and stopping right in front of it. You saw him crossing his arms, his hood pointing down as if he too was studying whatever was lying on the table. With a heavy heart you took another step, the little bulb hanging from the ceiling not giving you enough light to make out what they were looking at.

You saw that it was big however.

You heard a horrible sound as Hoodie raised his hand and then dug it down onto the table again. It was a squeezing, disgusting noise and when you took one last step you saw what was on the table. You immediately turned your head as you had caught a glimpse of a white lab coat, stained with blood.

~~

You grunted softly, grabbing your head as the picture dissolved right before your own two eyes. In the middle of the room was a table. Another table at the end of the room was stained with blood and a skeleton was lying on the table. Surrounding him was a white lab coat.

Your heart began to pump harder as warmth filled your veins. This couldn't be true, could it? Was it the same room? Swallowing the remaining mucus in your throat, you began to walk inside the room cautiously. Aside from the skeleton at the back, the table in the middle looked familiar too...

But this could be the setup in any room. They have killed thousands and thousands of people. Maybe it was pure coincidence that this guy had a lab coat...

Your eyes shifted from the table over to an old, nearly disintegrated, bloody chair standing against the wall. In a mere flash, another memory filled your mind.

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"Is the blueprint gone?" Before you even could comprehend it, the words nearly flew out of your mouth. You immediately covered your mouth with your hands as your wide eyes stared at Masky. He surely wouldn't like this outburst.

Suddenly the knife was slammed into the wall with such force that the worn our paint and pieces of concrete flew all around you. Not to mention the fact that the knife was dug into the wall merely a few inches away from your head.

~~

Immediately you stared at the small, gaping hole in the wall next to the chair. Holy shit, you had been right. This was the correct room! That means...

~~

You just kept following Jeff through all these corridors; it was like a maze to you. He constantly came to more corridors, and then he took a turn. How he even knew this all from his head was a mystery, but you were certain that this would be the end of a person if they get lost in here. You tried your best to keep track, just in case something would happen.

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And...

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You needed to remember the way this time, so that you could get out of here easily, quietly and above all without being chased. Alright he's going:

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You bolted outside of the room with such force that you tripped over your own feet. You managed to partially catch yourself, your bare knees scraping over the cold, dirty concrete floor, but you didn't feel anything. As soon as you had fallen you stood back up again, head going from left to right in a complete frenzy.

You had tried to remember the way over and over again. 2 times you had been in this exact same room, 2 times you had been in this exact same corridor. You had to know the way, or at least subconsciously remember something.

It was your way out, your only key to freedom:

Think, (Y/N), think.

What was the way?

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Alright another decision chapter, and the very last one before the ending mind you.

Like I said before this one is based on the information from the story itself. Maybe you still remember it?

Choose wisely~