"How much longer?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't live here," Dream snapped lightly at his companion, Killer. They've been walking down the left corridor on the third level, which was a bit of a walk to even get up there.

The floor looked the least modern— compared to the beginning room. The flooring was clean dark oak, a bit glossy at that; the place left minimal decor besides a few paintings and flowers.

"No clue, just thought you would've known the solution of everything by now," Killer grumbled, as he walked a bit ahead of the twin. "Since you can't seem to find anything, I'll take lead myself."

"Demanding much?" Dream hushed to himself- working with Killer was obviously not ideal.

It had only been a few minutes till Killer stopped midtrack. Dream, not looking, stumbled into the skeleton's back/spine. All in return with the positive skeleton moving back and a swift threat from Killer.

In front of the two was a huge window at the end of the hallway. To be clear, neither Dream nor Killer thought this hallway would ever stop- but load and behold, the end of it there is.

The thing about this window, it's pitch black- the most you could see is your reflection. Dream took a step forward towards the window and knocked on the glass. It was nothing unusual, so what was this see through glass making the guardian so nauseous?

—————-

The layout showed a strange intersection, a nightmare to navigate. There were three hallways, not including the entrance to the garden. The wallpaper was everything but dull; old fashioned at its peak, with diamond patterns and flowers repeated and posted everywhere. It started to hurt Reaper's skull the more he looked at the pattern.

The place screamed gardening shed, based on the worn floorboards and strange gardening tools everywhere. It'd be kinda dangerous to attempt to walk barefoot. There had been some holes where grass showed- though quite shriveled- and roots breaking up the old boards.

Reaper had found it odd that even though there were trees on the outside, there was no way they'd be able to grow their roots this far.

Another bizarre thing, the god felt the dusty and soot covered ground underneath him. Taking the confidence to look down, his boney feet had gotten dirty— as well as him not floating anymore.

Reaper raised an eye-bone at that, he didn't remember not floating.

Shaking it off as it might have been a magical barrier and went down the left hall. On his way, the hallway felt distant; despite being inside it. And most certainly darker, that was pretty obvious. Luckily for the god of death, a small candle with some matches stood on an unstable table in one of the clearings. The skeleton decided to be smart and play around with some fire.

————-

The walls were starting to annoy Lust, always seeing the same golden and red patterns. They seemed to go on for decades, and he could see its effects on Horror too.

The bloodied skeleton kept scratching at the paper on the wall or at least gliding his sharp finger bones on the over decorated walls. When Lust asked Horror what was up with such sharp bones/fingers, he only mustered "A fashion statement," before the topic was dropped.

They hadn't been spared with the floorboards either. The wood would constantly squeak underneath their weight, even though they were just bones. It wasn't even a pretty color to begin with, an extremely off-toned brown color from the bright red and gold.

The pair had taken a stop, Horror leaning against the wall as Lust was squatting down. It may be a dire situation a bit, but Lust ain't trusting those dirty floorboards anywhere near him. He has standards.

Lust had started some small conversations with the rather tough skeleton such as hobbies and all those classic topics. The flirty skeleton hadn't asked Horror's AU, as he didn't feel the need to ask and he didn't want to bring up his own AU. He doesn't want the other judge him based on his AU's actions— too many people had done that to him already.

As soon as the two had finally grown comfortable in their area once more, Lust perked up, as well as Horror. There was some creeks down the hallway they came from. Lust stood up, getting into a more fighting stance as Horror waited. The bloodied skeleton's eye-light squinted a bit, trying to see what was creaking down the hallway. But due to his large crack in his skull, it had only made it more difficult for Horror to see. The skeleton groaned in frustration as Lust huffed.

The sounds had stopped, and it had grown eerie. It was the only second either of the two missed the floorboards groaning.

That came to a dashing close as hands busted through the walls that surrounded the sound, soon increasing on down. Lust leaned back, looking over to his companion before moving on.

Horror was far off from the wall and was trying his best to eye the hands; their sharp nails and shadowy appearance. Lust, however, didn't want to take another look at those threatening hands as he hooked onto Horror's arm and took a mad dash down the hallway that was yet explored.

—————-

The lady in black's face was seen as some of her hair flew from the wind behind her. Her smile seemed more sinister than ever- cut marks littered her face like pimples- some seemed like they were fresh. By face mapping the lady's face as best as you could, it could be clear that some slashed came or went through the woman/s eyes.

In her lap held an unrealistically huge spider, fur and all. It was a mix between brown and black. It's eyes darting back and forth and blinking at different speeds. Fresh #19853 stood in the more cleaner corner of the room, his glasses reading nothing.

Faint giggling came from the disturbing character, her unnaturally thin and pale hands came up and down to pet her pet. "I got a riddle for you- but I highly doubt you'll understand—" She paused as more audible laughter came out of her twisted smile, "Well, at least not yet.."

Her voice spent chills, like the room dropped temperature. It was also a strange mix of it yelling while processing it but coming to more ASMR material.

"What's something that's up but must come down unless it's dangling for dear life?"

-------------

CHAPTER END

I'll let you know- the only part I didn't like about writing this chapter is talking about the spider--

other than that, I'm excited for No. 17 and No. 18-- 

18 especially

Hope I'm entertaining you~

-MAA

word count: 1107