Looking down to see that they must be on the second floor of the building, he sighed. A bit unwilling, he put a knee on the windowsill to check what was hovering outside.
“I could have checked, too”, Aspen declared, holding onto River’s legs, more for mental support than anything else.
In fact, Aspen was too small to reach it. That was the same reason why Amber was awkwardly standing at the side – she couldn’t even offer, considering she was even smaller than Aspen.
“It’s okay”, River said. The piece of fabric was the end of a badly put-together rope made out of old bedsheets that were knotted together. It was swaying in the wind. The other end came from a higher floor, the last one as far as he could tell. “This building has an attic area. Someone tried to climb from upstairs to here. It’s a makeshift rope.”
A bad one, even. Not only was it to short to securely reach this floor, the bedsheets were also half torn on the knots not exactly secure. Although it was possible to use bedsheets as a makeshift rope, this particular case didn’t look reliable.
“Breaking out of an asylum? But does going down a single floor really help with that?”
River slipped back into the hallway. There were only stairs down, not up. There shouldn’t be a third floor that was in use.
“Creepy”, Amber whispered. River looked at her and she winced, giving him a sheepish smile. She was indeed doing her best to lower her sense of existence.
It was even funnier with the two guys behind. They were following them like shadows, perfectly quiet and huddled together. If River had to guess, they wanted to find peace in numbers but didn’t dare to approach Aspen. They were probably here because if Amber, a woman, dared to approach, they should be safe too.
Just as River was about to say something, they heard a chime. He paused, tilting his head up and listening until it stopped.
Thirteen.
“It’s one o’clock. Lunchtime?”, he wondered out loud. This would explain why the second floor was so quiet.
“We’ll find out.” Aspen took the initiative to walk down the stairs and indeed, they quickly started hearing numerous voices.
They stopped in front of the stairs, River taking in the area first. It made a funny image: River in front, Aspen exactly next to him and watching, one step behind them Amber who was watching, and then another two steps behind them the pair of silent guys – also watching.
Someone snorted a laugh at the side. River wisely didn’t turn around to face Deer, who passed them by together with Honey. Deer waved a hand at River with a smirk but didn’t stop to talk. The team left for outside.
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.
The room in front of them had its doors open. River turned to Amber to remind her of what they needed to do: “Keep a look out for any shadow that looks distinctly different. If you find one, tell me or- …Tell me.”
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Ktfs fcafgfv atf gbbw abufatfg. Pa kjr regqglrlcuis oeii yea obg atf jwbeca bo qfbqif, nfgs delfa.
Cwyfg tjv j ubbv fsf jcv cbafv rbwfatlcu lwwfvljafis. “Yt, atfgf’r ugbeqr…”
Qlatlc atf gbbw, atfgf kfgf rfnfgji rtjvbk ugbeqr, jcv pera pevulcu ogbw atf rfaalcu atfgf kjr j ubbv kjs bo lvfcaloslcu atfw.
At the side of the rooms were security guards. They were tall and buff, with something like batons on their waists.
There was the female staff – assumedly nurses – who were uniformly clothed in dresses and hats that hid their hair.
He didn’t see any doctors, so the last group were the patients – women and men, no children or visibly old people. All of them wore long-sleeved shirts and pants.
It was actually quite creepy.
The whole room was grayscale, incredibly quiet with almost no conversations, while the patients in the middle were being watched by staff and security guards. River knew that the uniform clothing was forced by the game to identify groups better, but he had a feeling that this was no different than it had been in reality.
In what time would this asylum exist? The 20th century, somewhere?
Asylums had evolved over time, with the beginnings being more similar to psychiatric wards. Dedicated asylums… They should have appeared somewhere in the 19th century. However, considering how many lamps were everywhere and how long it had taken for electricity to be used more commonly, he’d guess they were in the 20th century somewhere.
It didn’t actually matter that much, but maybe the timeframe could give them a hint on what might be happening here. After all, the treatment inside asylums vastly differed depending on which year you were in.
“I… I don’t see anyone special”, Amber nervously whispered, taking half a step closer to River.
“N-Neither do we”, one of the two guys said loud enough for them to hear. They were probably willing to participate in River’s plans for as long as they were as simple as this.
River pursed his lips. “That’s not good. We need to find the Actors, or we can’t observe what’s happening.”
“Maybe outside? I didn’t hear anyone upstairs. Also, if you look at it, the chairs here are pretty filled up. I think everyone is eating at the same time… Aside from some staff, probably.” Aspen did not like the idea of going in Deer’s direction, but they had to check out everything. River gave a solemn nod.
“There’s two doors leading outside. These should be individual courtyards.”
“I can check one and see if someone is there”, Amber was quick to offer. “Afterwards I could come back inside and tell you.”
“Then you take the courtyard of the left wing, we will take the one of the right wing. We’ll meet in the middle once we are done.”
It was obvious that Aspen was going to stick to River, but surprisingly, the two men decided to still follow the plan. They approached Amber the moment Aspen and River were a bit farther away, exchanging some words and then going outside together.
The courtyard was open and quite pretty. There were some trees, a field with grass and flowers, and benches to sit down on. The whole area was encased by a high, dark fence that spread around the building. The setting was cut off perfectly at the fence.
It wasn’t impossible to climb over the fence, so the asylum must be quite sure no one was going to run.
“River…” Aspen came up to stand next to River. They stood shoulder to shoulder, with Aspen looking out at the grass and sorely missing to see its real green color. “That Deer guy… You don’t like him? Is he dangerous?”
“He’s a friend of my brother”, River said after a moment of silence. “He’s not a good guy, but… Don’t try to kill him.”
Aspen kept his voice level. “Why not?”
“Because he’s dangerous. Because I can’t guarantee he doesn’t know how to defend himself.” River’s pale eyes fell onto Aspen. He was speaking calmly, like stating facts. “Or do you want to risk dying and leaving me to solve this myself? Just ignore him. He’s bothersome, but it’ll be fine.”
“Fine.” A bit grumpy, Aspen gave in. Well, should he interpret this as River worrying about him or just worrying about a useful teammate?
Hmm. He was going for the first explanation, just because he could. Not like River was going to correct him if he didn’t ask.
They spent quite some time carefully investigating the courtyard for anything suspicious. There was only one thing they noticed and planned on checking out once they heard Amber’s results.
Amber came inside the moment she saw River re-enter the hallway and glance out of the window.
With the two still unknown guys in tow, she stopped right in front of River and opened her mouth. What followed ended up surprising not only River, but also Aspen.
“There are no people outside. There is no sign of the ground being upturned anywhere, so nothing should be buried. The fence doesn’t have any obvious holes or signs of manipulation. Nothing to be found in the treetops or bushes. There’s a thin path between the building and fence, so you can probably go behind it.”
River’s wide eyes were hidden behind his reflective glasses. Amber stood tall, waiting to hear for a verdict.
“…Thanks”, River managed to force out. “That was… actually everything that needed to be checked. Thank you.”
“Okay. Phew.” Amber touched her chest again.
How did you survive working together with an insane killer?
By doing exactly as you’re commanded, and the best you could, duh!
Besides, she seriously wanted to get out of here!
“Uhm… These two guys here want to join in looking around, if that’s okay?” Amber motioned for the men to come forward. “Plaster and Rhythm.”
Both names were familiar. River’s eyebrows moved a bit – the same Gambler, a different pawn.
Rhythm was a chubby, fidgety guy and Plaster was a tall and thin man. Both revealed their marks to prove their names, obediently keeping quiet as Amber had told them.
River nodded in agreement. “As long as they don’t cause a mess.”
Author’s Note
River is around 185cm in height (I hope I noted that down correctly haha). Aspen is around half a head smaller than him, which makes him around 10-15cm smaller than him, so he’s somewhere around 170cm. Amber is around 160, a whole head smaller than River.
I didn’t realise Aspen was shorter than River!
Feels like a role reversal of sorts, nice!
Thank you for the chapter!
can someone explain what happened when amber introduced the two guys? i didnt get it
I assume you mean River’s reactions to their names?
In the dreams, everyone gets a mark on their arm. These marks are used as fake names by the people (like “River”), but actually they’re a sign that a Gambler left behind. That means that if River’s Gambler decided to use another human, that human would get the mark “River”.
What River is noting here is that he knows the names Plaster and Rhythm from previous games, but he doesn’t recognize the people. So it’s Gamblers that have been playing the game before, but they decided on different humans as their pawns.
Ahh fascinating! That makes a lot of sense!