After a while of walking down the stairs, she reached another door, like the previous ones that she had met before.
Reaching over to the doorknob with her right hand, she unlocked the door, cautiously opening it slowly.
After she slowly opened it only halfway to pop her head out, she poked her head out and glanced down the dark passageway.
There were no monsters down in the hallway.
She sighed in relief after a moment of silence.
Stephanie turned on the flashlight that she had in her right hand, to check to see if there is something in the dark corridor.
To double-check, if her thoughts were right or wrong.
She went cautiously into the passageway, as she gently shut the door behind her back, ready to start another game now with two beasts that she had met before on the previous levels.
After carefully shutting the door behind her back, she cautiously stepped along the dim corridor, looking over at each passageway to see if that bird-like creature was still waiting for her down within the halls.
While she steadily walked along the passageway, she overheard a growling noise from behind her back, so, she turned around, flashing the light down the hallway of where the door is.
From behind her back, she noticed the growling is coming from the same goat-like creature from the first level she crashed through.
It glanced away as it hisses, trying to block out of the brightness of the flashlight with its ears.
"Getting awfully close to me, hmm?" she politely asked, not at all bothered by it stalking her.
It did not even look back at her when she said that, but, it did not affect her.
She gently smiled, with a kind smile which confused it as it peeked slightly but still blocking the light out of its eyes.
It was instead of a wicked smile like other people would when they wanted to injure other people.
She glanced back in front of the hallway, gently chuckling to herself, as she still slowly continues walking carefully.
The goat-like monster gently rubbed its eyes, getting the apparent brightness out of its eyes, as the bird-like monster popped out of one of the passageways, scaring Stephanie, as she still had the flashlight on in her hand.
She did not even jolt or jumped when the creature screeched at her.
It hissed and moved away from her, as she gently sighed.
"It was nice to meet you, though," she called after the bird-like creature, not even noticing the goat-like creature was coming up from behind her, hissing softly.
She overheard the hissing from behind her, getting closer with each quiet footstep.
She whipped around just in time when it was close to her, gleaming the flashlight in the beast's eyes.
It gave out a mighty roar after the light flashed into its eyes, concealing its eyes with its ears, blocking the brightness from its eyes.
She giggled when it glanced away from her.
"You have to be careful around me," she gently warned. "Or I might accidentally injure you instead of blindin' ya."
From behind the ears, you could tell it is glaring fiercely at her in anger.
Angry at her for the late warning.
She turned back around towards the front of the hallway and continued to walk carefully, as the goat-like creature gently rubbed the brightness out of its eyes, as she was being cautious with the bird-like monster.
When she reached the other side of the passageway, she stopped from where she is, standing there straight as the goat-like creature mentally felt confused.
She is oddly waiting for something to happen.
For some strange reason.
The goat-like creature got closer to her at each quiet step, hissing softly underneath its breath.
When it was close to her back, as raising up a right hand to slash her back.
Before it could have the chance, she clicked her flashlight off in an instant and whipped around after turning on her heel.
It quietly did a startled grunt, stopping himself before he slashed her.
It also did not have the time to stop to block her attack either.
So, it waited until something happens to him.
Oddly enough, none of them occurred to him, nor his friends.
Usually, the people who entered the firehouse is either scared back out or killed instantly.
Right now, it is going to feel the pain now.
But, as things were slowing down, he noticed something off.
There were no weapons in her hands.
Only her flashlight in her right sweater pocket.
Then what is she doing?
Expecting a punch to the face, it braced itself for the move, when something instead wrapped around his chest.
Alarmed, it took a single step back, looking confused and startled about the sudden move.
The creature glanced down to the human, seeing she had wrapped her arms around his chest.
The human was actually hugging him.
No suplexes, no tossing, nothing.
Just hugging it.
Blinking in much puzzlement, as a confused grunt escaped from it, its eye color turning steel-blue from a red pinprick and black eyes.
It looked confused as she gently hugged its chest.
"Oh, my gosh," she muffledly replied from inside the fur coat. "Your fur is so soft like the other one!"
Glancing down at her in confusion, it looked confused about why she is not scared of it, either bother by it when it followed her from behind.
As she continued to hug the creature, it glanced up at the bird-like creature, peeking from the other side of the hallway near the exit, mouthing the words, "I told you so."
The goat-like creature shrugged its shoulders, as it mouthed the words, "I didn't know about this!"
The bird-like creature rolled its eyes, sighing as it moved away into the hallway.
Before it could call out to the other creature, it felt the grip around its chest slightly released.
The human released her hug around the creature's chest, glancing up at it in the eyes, smiling gently.
"I would love huggin' ya for a while, but I better be goin'," she softly spoke.
She fully released her grip around the creature's middle and walked backward, without the flashlight on to blind it or turning around instantly to blind the bird-like creature that would or would not pop out of its hiding spot.
"Although I hate to be rude," she began, as she glanced around, looking at the hallways. "This place is crappier than the tile bathrooms that I have seen before."
It gently tilted its head to the side in confusion, as she continued backing up, reaching over to the door with her right hand, instead of bumping into it.
"But just to let you know; I am sometimes around the place, so, keep an eye out for me." she gently warned.
She unlocked the door from behind and turned around, leaving the hallway after closing the door behind her back.
After she had left, she left Fowler and Gretel in silence, as Fowler was shocked.
Shocked that Gretel was right the whole time!
Gretel slowly came out from her hiding spot, and quietly walked up to a shocked Fowler and instantly declared, near his left ear, "I told you!"
Fowler jolted from Gretel's instant declare and glanced at her, sighing.
"All right, you were right." he sighed while shrugging his shoulders.
"Did you touch the wires?" she asked while pointing at her own head to mention the human's hair.
"'The wires?'" he confusedly repeated, cocking his head to the side.
"Yeah, the wires!" she exclaimed, as she walked over to him. "They are seriously connected to her head!"
'Here we go again…' He mentally thought to himself.
Rolling his eyes, he sighed, "I didn't have the time to pull her hair."
"That's because you were so shocked about her hugging you," she spoke as she folded her arms over her chest.
"True." he agreed.
"But why is she not scared of us? That's the question I need to answer." Gretel sighed, moving some of her feathers from her face.
Fowler thought to himself for a moment, thinking to himself about the moment when she first saw him, at the first level.
Instead of screaming hysterically and running straight to the exit, frantically trying to push the door open, she instead kept slightly calm and opened the door the right way.
Carrying the Criminal bridal style.
"What if she knows about what is going on?" Gretel asked after Fowler remembered in the past.
"It depends on after encountering with that Criminal," he replied, growling slightly in fierce anger.
"She found him?" she asked, sounding worried.
"Yes, she did," he answered, sighing under his breath.
She hisses underneath her breath as she glanced away from Fowler, as her eyes narrowed.
"Oh, that Criminal!" she snapped in anger, clenching her hand into a fist, avoiding the claws. "If I ever find that guy, I'll-"
She blinked her eyes, until her expression changed, into a confused look.
"Wait." Gretel softly spoke to herself, as Fowler's expression changed.
The tone of her voice changed from anger to confusion when she noticed that something was off before she met both of them.
"I didn't see her carrying him when they were at my level," Gretel remembered, remembering the moment when Stephanie entered her level, not carrying him.
"You didn't?" he asked, glancing at her.
"No, I didn't," she answered, glancing up at his eyes.
"You said you saw him didn't you?" Gretel turned to him, asking him the question.
He shook his head yes.
"Then, how come I didn't see him?" Gretel asked, sounding confused.
"Maybe he already died?" he shrugged.
"Then we could've already found the corpse," she spoke, glancing away from him again. "Unless she could be hiding him from us so that he wouldn't get hurt!"
"Where?" Fowler asked.
She paused for a moment, thinking to herself before grinning wickedly.
"Maybe we could get some answers from her when we capture her." she grins.
"That is a good idea!" Fowler agreed.
"Yeah!" she chirped.
A moment of silence fell between both of them as they both giggled.
"Let's see if Walter captures her or if the same thing happens to him too," she replied gently, after giggling.
Fowler glanced over at her with a curious look on his face, before smiling gently, understanding her ambitious plan.
"Yes, let's see what she does to Walter." he agreed with her.
They both giggled again, then to the right-hand side of where they were standing, walking down the dark hallway, heading towards the next level to see their other friend.
An old friend of theirs that lived with them for so long as they all can remember.
As for Stephanie, she stopped at the end of the flights, sighing as she leaned against the wall.
Her metal legs sore from walking the whole time, and she felt sleepy from being up all night.
But, it did not bother her at all.
She is used to it.
Stephanie placed her right hand on her stomach as she thought to herself.
After placing her right hand on her stomach, she absent-mindedly felt the form of a small person in her stomach.
When she felt the form, it made her remember she placed him inside in there in the first place.
Stephanie is quite surprised he is still asleep from all the commotions from outside.
Getting up slightly, she gently pokes her stomach, touching the person's side as he woke up.
"Stephanie?" a voice groggily spoke from inside, moving around. "What's going on? Are we out yet?"
"Not yet, James." she softly answered, glancing down at the stairs to the left, descending into the darkness. "We have about 4 or 5 flights of levels to do."
A sigh came from the person as he laid back down at where he is.
"Well, you are right about one thing;" he spoke, as she glanced around. "I wasn't digested."
"And that's a good thing," she spoke, glancing back down. "I don't want to harm you at all."
She paused for a moment, before asking, "How's your ankle."
"Healed, but needs a bit more of time for me to walk," he responded.
She sighed and leaned her back against the concrete wall, relaxing a bit as her legs soreness slowly faded away.
"Are you okay?" he asked. "Did those things hurt you by any chance?"
"Nope, not really," she answered. "They actually didn't do anythin' to me."
"How?" he squirmed a bit from where he is. "They killed about 9 or 10 people back before I was born and yet, you were not killed?"
She thought to herself for a moment, her right arm over her stomach as her left hand was against her cheek.
"Maybe lucky?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
"Could be." James shrugged.
She gently chuckled as she stood up straight, sighing to herself.
"Did you have enough sleep in there?" she asked.
"Yeah, I feel a bit better," he answered, stretching out his legs. "Not good, just better."
She smiled and rubbed his back.
"Actually, I kinda white lied back there; they just didn't have the chance to attack." she softly spoke, glancing away from her stomach, feeling sheepish as she talked. "I intervened by huggin' them or making comments on them. I wasn't makin' them more envious on each other to attack, I just see them as lost people. That was lost from somethin' that happened many years ago and wanted to know the truth…"
Silence fell between the two of them, as Stephanie felt guilt rose in her heart.
She knew she would make an enemy within her.
So, she expected a scream, thrusting, yelling, cussing, anything to make her feel wrong about her decision that she chooses to make.
She glanced away from her stomach, closing her eyes as she mentally winced for the impact of hurtful words.
"If you insist." he instead spoke.
Stephanie glanced back at her stomach, looking confused.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, feeling confused.
"If you see them as lost people or children, you go ahead and call them that," he answered, gently rubbing an area on her stomach wall.
"But, I don't trust them since what happened in my past." he softly spoke, as Stephanie listened to every word he said. "If you are so damn determined to change their minds about killing people, I'm not stopping you in your way."
Stephanie gently smiled and hugged herself, as well as hugging James inside her stomach.
"Thanks, James." She softly thanked. "You are very good at listenin'."
"No problem," he responded, scooting down slightly.
She slowly released her hug around her stomach from hugging James inside and gently sighed.
"Just sleep a little longer," she softly spoke. "When I stop again, I'll wake ya up to eat somethin', okay?"
"Okay." he agreed, sounding a bit confused, but trusting her along the way.
"Good." Stephanie sighed, feeling some weight lifting off her shoulders.
He squirmed a bit more to get into a comfortable position in her stomach, as she was trying not to laugh from the ticklish feeling.
Stephanie snorted through her nose as her cheeks slightly puffed a couple of times, her arms wrapped around her stomach.
To her, the feeling felt like she swallowed a bird as it is frantically flapping around with its wings inside her stomach, trying to get out from being digested.
After a while of squirming, he flipped over to his side, getting comfortable as he fell back to sleep, curling into a small ball in the middle of her stomach.
When he fell back asleep, she sighed in relief after she calmed down from her giggling and removed her hand from her stomach.
He is safe inside and not scared anymore.
She turned to the next flight of stairs from where she is and walked to the next door to continue with her adventure.