“An asylum, huh? I’m looking forward to what kinda play we get to see this time. We will have to do our best to solve it”, Aspen hummed playfully, ignoring the other people in the room as he passed them by. He opened the door, making a large, welcoming motion. “After you!”
Their complete disregard stunned Honey and the Deer. They stood frozen, not reacting even when the door fell shut.
Aspen immediately looked around before laughing. He pointed at the door. “Look, we’re insane.”
River took in the scene.
Cells were neatly lined up on both sides of the long, clinically white hallway. Each door had a little window that could be slid open and shut from the outside, as well as a number and huge lock that was open everywhere. Next to the doors were papers – medical records, likely.
And their doors, the doors to the safe-room, were exactly where another two cells should be.
Insane, indeed.
“This is an oldschool asylum”, River commented with a glance at the general surroundings. “There was a time when people with mental illnesses were treated like monsters. Locked up, experimented on. It was a cruel time… Although this place looks rather clean and bright.”
“Oh? What kind of experiments?”
“Electroshock therapy, lobotomies, questionable medication. Human life wasn’t worth much here.”
Aspen’s eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to remember what a lobotomy was. Soon enough, he gave up, falling in place next to the walking River. “What’s a lobotomy?”
River didn’t turn to Aspen, but he could feel the person walk at his side. The exact same pace of walking, their steps echoing as one in the empty hallway. “A sort of… procedure that appeared around 1940. It was used on patients with depression, for example, and was said to cure them.”
“It didn’t work, did it?”
“Lobotomy used a tool similar to an ice pick. You lift up the eyelid, then push the pick past the eye. Using a little force, the pick breaks the skull and damages the…” River paused, avoiding the use of more technical terms. He patted the area just above his eye. “The part of the brain in that area. This was done on both sides, usually with limited anesthetics. Take a guess whether it worked?”
“Charming. Sounds like a lot of fun. Did they survive?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Usually. Although some could be described more as, only alive.”
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Qtfc rtf rjk atf akb wfc rabq jcv cbalmf tfg, rtf ujnf j rtjxs yea oglfcvis rwlif. Dgertlcu tfg tjlg yftlcv tfg fjgr, rtf abbx j rlcuif rafq obgkjgv. “Ftw… Lfiib.”
There was no reply. It turned the situation quite awkward one-sidedly, but River was busy thinking about why she was following them and Aspen was leaving it to River to lead.
The girl licked her lips and spoke up again. “I… I’m Amber. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you, but you were busy talking, so…”
River tilted his head. It was surprising that she followed them even after the things Deer had said. “Do you need something?”
Amber nodded. She straightened up, folding her hands together to keep down a nervous shiver. “Can I… follow you?”
Aspen made a sound. He pointed at himself, eyes wide in surprise. “You just heard that I’m a terrible criminal and you want to follow us? Not to mention that we are leaving the safe-room and we are both guys while you’re a lone girl?”
The woman smiled wryly. “You both look completely uninterested in me… or in anyone else, actually. And the reason why I decided to follow you…”
Amber started to talk.
Like many others, she regularly browsed a large number of various posts centered around the dreams, hoping to prepare herself in case she entered them one day. During that time, she had found two posts mentioning the same person – a young man with rings in his wrists. The description matched Aspen perfectly both times.
One of the two posts named Aspen as a cruel murderer, while the other was different. The other post described Aspen as weird but not aggressive, constantly following around another man whose description matched River. According to that second post, both men were exploring together.
Amber recognized the two of them immediately and watched them.
Even after being confronted by Deer, Aspen didn’t do anything but apparently listened to River. He was also sure to have survived at least two dreams already.
Amber could stay in hiding in the safe-room, but the thought of just waiting for possible death was terrifying. That was why she wanted to try tagging along with the two men who seemed to have a plan of some sorts. She could change her mind at any time if she felt the need to.
Her tone was convincing. River acknowledged her words with a nod, shooting a look at Aspen.
He wanted other people to cooperate with. This was something he had already planned, but not talked to Aspen about yet. Now there was someone offering their help.
Aspen just gave a harmless smile and spread his hands. His only plan was following along with whatever River decided and doing his best to solve this puzzle together. As long as the girl was quiet, he didn’t mind.
River nodded towards Amber. “Let’s talk a bit.”
Relieved, Amber approached them.
River knew that teams worked. He and Aspen had solved a puzzle together before, and both of their Gamblers had talked about winning. That meant that, one way or another, it was possible for several people to solve a puzzle. It might be based on contribution, so that the payout for the Gamblers was larger or smaller depending on how much work their proxy did.
This meant he didn’t mind sharing the information they had with someone willing to work together. River roughly narrated his findings about the breaking point and that by solving the puzzle – here he skipped some information – they ended up being able to leave through a different door.
Amber’s eyes were shining. She looked just short of crying, but kept herself under control.
“So it’s possible to ensure your survival?”, she asked in a shaky voice.
“Yes”, River responded seriously.
Believing him was not only the best option, it was also the nicest. Amber put a hand on her chest. “Just tell me what to do. I’ll cooperate however necessary.”
“Don’t be loud”, Aspen dryly asked. He could control himself, but it’d help a lot if Amber didn’t annoy him.
Amber made a motion of zipping her mouth shut and smiled again.
Further away, the unknown two men also left the safe-room. They hesitated, but ultimately ended up tagging along. River decided to ignore them unless they misbehaved.
“Do you want to go downstairs?”, Aspen asked as they went around the corner and found stairs. Apparently they weren’t on the first floor, which was easily confirmable by looking out through the windows.
“Just a moment. Let’s check if the other wing is the same as this one.” River pointed to the other side. If you assumed the building was symmetrical, then there was a left and a right wing. They had appeared in the right wing, so he just quickly wanted to confirm that the left wing had the same setup of rooms.
They went around the corner and indeed, there was another row of patient rooms to the side.
“I found stuff!” The exclamation came the same moment that River noticed something. Aspen jogged forward, excited like a little child. River found himself hurrying after, oddly encouraged to join the playfulness Aspen was displaying.
Well, ultimately this was a game. Playing it seemed acceptable.
Aspen did little hops, stretching his arms up in an attempt to reach something fluttering outside of the window at the end of the hallway. It looked like it was hanging up from above, but due to the constant movement, he couldn’t reach it. Aspen made a disgruntled noise and pouted.
River stepped closer, reached out, and grabbed the thing with the tips of his fingers. Aspen’s head bumped against his chest, but the smaller guy stopped moving and waited patiently.
River hummed. He tugged, then tugged harder. The thing didn’t give in.
Author’s Note
Game reminder: People can die if they leave the game the normal way. You will survive for sure if you win the game. If people are killed/die, they are still alive in reality. If they get eaten by a shadow, they are also dead in reality.
Non-spoiler map help below the cut! They’re the rough map sketches I used to keep track of where everything is, roughly. There’s just… a lot of rooms. They’re not perfectly accurate or anything but they do give you somewhat of a feeling of where things are. Don’t mind my awesome scribbles and don’t think too deeply about it. It’s more of an overview help.
Little X to the left to explain where Aspen ran to!
Maps
Randomly low key wondering if someone hung themselves from the floor above and the fluttering thing is their clothing, but the description’s too vague and in the author’s note it looks like there’s only two floors. Is there a way onto the roof?
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
Thank you for the chapter❤️
Thank you for the chapter