Chapter Four
How long has it been now? Minutes? Hours? Days, even? The concept of time has become foreign to me. There is no time. There are only the events that take place here, outside the boundaries of the sanity that we know in the outside world. Of course, this is the new normal for me. The outside world has become just a figment of my imagination. It no longer exists to me; there is only the mansion. I have been here for so long…and they have no idea. They have no idea what I have gone through, how much I have changed. They have never known, and I hope it will stay that way. If they learn, if they discover the truth too soon…
…They would never be able to handle it.
-x-
Food.
That was the only thing on Andorra's mind at the time. Not the Thing, not the bottle of alcohol that she was still holding in one hand, but food. She couldn't deny that she wasn't hungry too – just the thought of actually finding something made her own stomach start to claw at itself as if it can break free and find something itself. Maybe I can check the kitchen for – Wait a minute. The last time she was in the kitchen, which was probably only an hour or two ago, there was absolutely nothing that could possibly sustain life except for maybe those discarded "super toasts." Then again, who knows what THOSE are…
"Eh, whatever," she murmured dismissively. "I'll look in a second." She didn't bother saying her next thought out loud, because even though she was pretty much alone aside from the psychotic alien Thing that constantly seemed to be stalking her, it would have still sounded a little awkward.
Nevertheless, she still headed for the bathroom on the first floor. Hey, she had to go sometime, right?
-x-
Standing in front of the toilet and staring down at its white surface, she realized something. This toilet has changed, she told herself. Although the comment would have sounded ridiculous to anyone who was not standing beside her at the moment, it was completely true. Said toilet, which looked ordinary when she saw it before, now sported some kind of strange vending machine-type system in its tank, complete with slots for money and several small buttons lining the tank's lid. A sign attached to the wall above it showed the two items that were available: rice balls and beer.
Rice balls and beer? Andorra stared at the toilet with a look that could only be described as a "what the heck" face. She thought back to the rice ball still in her jacket pocket, and the beer still clutched tightly in one fist. "Well, I might need it later…" Digging in her pockets, she found that she had only enough money for two more rice balls, so she decided on her order and stuffed the money in. A moment later, a small plastic bag dropped onto the floor beside the toilet, filled with exactly two rice balls and a single note. She glanced at the scrap of paper slipped between the sushi.
Thanks for using our service! (Don't worry, it's clean!)
"Well, there's obviously nothing here that isn't made of rice," she muttered, sauntering away from the machine with her purchases in hand. "Malta will just have to live with it then. I bet she'll…"
The door was open.
No, not the door to the bathroom that she had just left. She made sure to close it firmly both when she entered and when she exited it only moments ago. That wasn't the problem. The door she was speaking of was the one at the end of the hall, the one that she had seen the Thing disappear into when she first saw it. That couldn't be a good sign. Unless it's Yugo… But if it was, why would the light be out? Darkness was pouring out of the room beyond, thick and ominous, tinged with the faint scents of rotting wood and fear. She slowly approached the room in question and knocked once on the open door. "…Yugo, you in here?" A few steps later she found herself enveloped by the darkness. There was so much of it that she could barely see inches in front of her face, winning the battle against the weak light from the corridor at her back. Wow, it's pitch black in here. Where's the switch, I wonder…? Pressing her hand to the wall, she felt around for the familiar bump that denoted a light switch, and when she found it, she had only had a millisecond to flick the tiny lever up before her mind screamed a sudden command at her.
Dodge!
Andorra obediently threw herself to the side, landing against the dingy tiled floor as a gray blur flashed past in the corner of her eye. Her rice balls and beer flew out of her hand and rolled somewhere outside of her field of vision, but she didn't care at the moment. If it's that Thing again, I swear I'll… She reached behind her and grabbed the first thing she felt: a wooden cylinder with a considerable amount of weight on one side. Scrambling to her feet, she hefted the thing into both hands, distributing its weight evenly as she glanced down at it. It was a pickaxe, classic construction of a wooden shaft and an iron head with one end pointed and the other end blunt. "Ha, I knew I left this somewhere! If Russia knew I lost it, he'd flip out…"
She didn't have time to consider this for very long before gray filled her vision again, turning her attention away from the loaned pickaxe to glare at the Thing standing in her path. "Oh no," she hissed, readjusting her weapon in her hands, "you're not going to kill me tonight."
The Thing only glared back, reaching into her soul with its lifeless black eyes glinting with bloodlust. All it wanted at the moment was her dead. It wasn't given time to act on its desire, however, before a rather heavy metal hand slapped it across the face, throwing it back against the wall. The blow did a great amount of damage, leaving the Thing bleeding from one cheek, but it refused to back down as it snarled at its opponent.
"YoU… WOn't… Esc…aPe…"
The voice was guttural and gravelly, the kind of voice that sounded completely inhuman in its certainty. In fact, it was even creepier than the Thing itself, which was just a little unnerving to Andorra. Despite her fears, she stood tall and neatly dodged its next lunge, aside from claw leaving a long scratch across her face. She raised her pick once again and swung it with all her might, aiming directly for its forehead. "Sabormeu ferro, monstre!" [1] The pick itself followed its destined path exactly, embedding itself into the Thing's head directly between its eyes. However, it did next to nothing in stopping it as it threw itself at her again, the blunt end of the pick narrowly missing hitting her in the throat. It ripped the weapon from itself and threw it across the room, where it slammed into the switch with a shower of sparks trailing after it. The room went dark again.
The lights! Andorra pressed her back against the wall, her chest heaving as she tried to regain her lost breaths. Crap! Is it going to kill me now? I bet it's just waiting for me to start running before it goes for the kill. It's going to keep me locked up in this room to slowly die without –
The lights turned back on.
"Eh?" Andorra winced at the sudden wave of whiteness that blanketed the room, only looking up when her eyes finally adjusted themselves to the new brightness of her environment. "I-It's gone…" Not only the Thing, but the blood it had left behind was gone too, as if the entire battle was all just a figment of her imagination. Weird… I'm pretty worried about Yugo, though. I hope she's okay… Seizing the moment to take a quick look around, she scanned the room's contents for anything of value. It was another bathroom, different from the first, with a bathtub in the far corner and a pair of mirrors hanging over a vanity with two sinks. Tan tiles lined the floors. A typical bathroom, one might say. Beside the bathtub lay a small plastic bag with the top of a glass bottle sticking out of the top. "Oh, there they are," she muttered, bending over to retrieve her lost treasures and spying something glint under the tub. Of course, it was another key, this one tinted a silvery-gray, with an inscription that read BDRM. She sighed inwardly. Here we go again.
-x-
After that, she purchased more Onigiris and Beer from the toilet and fully restored her HP and MP.
[2]
-x-
Remember how I said Andorra recently started hating stairs? Well, she ended up hating stairs even more after having to walk up them with half of her body now bruised and carrying a heavy pickaxe that just wouldn't go back to the oblivion that she had snatched it from.
After that dreaded trip up the stairs, Andorra had put down her pick in the nearest doorway (No wonder no one ever uses these anymore!) before checking the doors on the second floor. She knew that at least two were already locked – Malta's room and the room beside it – and the one other room in that area didn't match the key, so that ruled out that relative area. That leaves about…three other rooms on this floor, I think. With that in mind, she headed for the next nearest door, one to the right of the central corridor, and jammed the key into the lock. It actually seemed to work this time, surprisingly, so she stepped inside and locked the door behind her. Just in case.
It was a bedroom. No surprise there, considering that was what it said on the key. Two beds were pushed into the corner with a little space between them, and a set of bookshelves sat on the wall parallel to them. A large table dominated half of the room, equaling the size of a conference table, with only two chairs pushed up to it, side by side. It could have been the sleeping quarters of two friends or twin siblings, although as to which one, she wasn't sure.
"Hello? Anyone home?" She didn't think that there would be anyone still within the room, but it didn't hurt to check. "If you are, speak up now…" She glared at the beds, the floor beneath them hidden by their sheets and comforters. There could be someone there… Or something… Stalking closer to the beds, she got down on her hands and knees before ripping away the fabric obscuring her vision.
Nothing.
She tried the same trick on the other bed and on the table too, but her searches proved to be fruitless – aside from finding a few (possibly edible) mushrooms growing up from a rotted piece of wood. "Well, that's just great. And we still have a missing nation on our hands…" Sitting on the edge of the table, she started nibbling on a rice ball to force her hunger aside. "I mean, sure, Yugo can't be very far, but she's not a fighter. I'm not sure if she could take on that Thing all by –" She paused mid-sentence as a chill flew down her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck rising as if detecting potential danger all on their own.
Is that the sound of something…getting closer?
Silencing herself and putting down her sushi, she focused on the faint whispers of sounds from outside the door. They seemed like nothing at first, then gained the recognition of light footsteps, bare feet against wooden floors. That uncomfortable ringing in her ears was back and annoying as ever, veiling any other subtle hints of a person or Thing standing just outside the –
Clack… Clack clack…
The door handle was being grabbed from the outside, and shook wildly in the person's/Thing's attempts to open it. Luckily for Andorra, she had locked the door before, so there was no way for them to get inside. She abandoned her sushi and reached back for her pickaxe…only to remember that she left it in the hall outside. Seriously?! The option of self-defense now crossed off the list, there was only one thing to do, and that was wait.
The clacking went on for quite some time, probably several minutes, before silencing. With the ringing in her ears, she couldn't tell whether or not there were footsteps leading away from her hiding place. This new dead air that swept through the room was tense, streaked with uncertainty and a dash of fear.
…Is it gone?
A/N: WHY DO I FEEL LIKE SUCH A FAIL. This definitely isn't my best work…or is it? I don't even know anymore. I feel so confused… *headdesk*
[1] (Catalan) Taste my iron, freak!
[2] Because I had to. :p