tw, death, no context, enjoy (or not)

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     Screech was rolling through the hallways, crayon box in one tentacle and a stack of paper in the other. He was on his way over to the Lobby to draw the room there- Seek had said he also needed background practice, so why not?

     Going through all the doors was easy- no one was going to attack him, and he was too short for Rush or Ambush to even leave a scrape on his goopy, spherical body. Screech skidded to a stop at a corner- he almost hadn't seen it, and was inches away from colliding with the wall.

     Well, maybe it was because half his head was occupied with how everyone seemed tense today- even the two lights, but for now it seemed to be ok. Screech spun a full circle on his tentacle (something Seek had taught him to do) and rolled off to the lobby, somehow still holding his crayons and paper.

     The small entity was happily humming the elevator jam that Guiding and Curious had somehow come up with together, finally reaching the back of Door 001 and turning the doorknob. He spread out a piece of paper on the floor, pulling out a brown crayon to start with outlining the basic sketch.

     He didn't notice the elevator jam actually playing in the background until a sudden ding caught his attention. Shrieking in surprise, he jumped up into the air and landed with a small bounce back onto the floor. The brown crayon he was holding had broken in half, and he sat up with an "aww".

     "Wh- what is that?" one of the players was wary, on their heels as the other two stepped behind them. "Is it dangerous?"

     A fourth player stepped out of the elevator, bottle of vitamins in one hand and a phone in the other. They seemed to be scrolling through something- everyone else, including Screech, seemed to be frozen in place.

     "That's strange... that- that thing should only be able to spawn at Door 009 and after," the fourth person said with an eerily monotone voice. "We shouldn't even see it here."

     "Hey!" Screech bounded up to the fourth player, poking him with a tentacle as a pout came over. "I'm not a thing! I'm a entity!"

     The player didn't seem to really care- he just kicked Screech out of the way as the other three players stepped back. "Oh, fuck off. And it's an entity, not a entity."

     "Language!" Screech continued to whine, trotting after the players as one of them found the key. "Plus, the Hotel is in its closing hours. How did you get in here?"

     "Busting through the door," the fourth player shrugged. "I figured this way most of the entities would be caught unawares."

     Screech's jaw dropped open. "Y-you can did that?"

     "How else do you think we would've gotten in here?" the fourth player seemed to be abnormally cross at Screech.

     "You could have waited until morning..." Screech grumbled. "Guiding and Curious get really tired after directing people around for an entire 10 hours nonstop- but I dunno, they might not come around this run. Well, not a run but still a run."

     One of the other players shook themselves out a little before starting to walk forward. "Let's just go and hope for the best- this was your idea, finding that scientist or whatever..."

     "Oh," Screech mumbled. He started rolling around the area, bumping left and right- the player was right, they were at Door 025 and still hadn't run into anyone. Not even Rush, and that was a weird thing.

     Wait. Rush would have heard the elevator ding and gotten EVERYONE to jumpscare the players all at once- where were they? At least Ambush would have remembered- and if not, Dupe- and if not, even Hide would ask about it- Screech was getting a little creeped out, but he shook it off as the doorknob on Door 030 clicked. How did he know this? They'd talked about it, and Rush had sworn on his life to do it. Plus, it had happened before- and for some reason, everyone obliged- except for the lights, but all the entities agreed. Those illegal players were dead within a heartbeat.

     Where was everyone? Screech shook it off, hoping that everyone had just gotten bored of treating the players like they were annoying scam calls. He looked around one more time- they were already at Door 039, why hadn't Seek come in yet?

     Door 040's hinges creaked, and a long hallway finally appeared. Screech held his breath, hoping that the crescendo would finally go into the run- and as the players were walking down the hallway, a black goop materialized on the floor and Seek rose from the puddle.

     But there was something different about him- he seemed like he wasn't even trying to scare the players- instead, a barrage of black arms and hands rose through the walls. waving around the air. Screech barely had time to roll away before the condensed black goop swirled itself around the players, whirling into a hurricane like structure and rising into the air-

     The oil like substance came down with a crash, and the players were nowhere to be seen. Screech watched as both the tall entity and the goop started to slowly dissipate, and before he knew it the hallway was back to its normal state.

     "Wait- Seek! What happened?" Screech bounced across the hall, finding a small crack in the wall and slipping through it to the entity only area. "What's going on?"

     But Seek was nowhere to be seen. Right there and then Screech could feel his heart drop through the floor- what was happening?

     The lights flickered, and Screech ran to the middle of the hallway and started jumping up and down, trying to catch Rush as he came through. Soon enough, the blank yet dark face was speeding down the hallway- only to skid to a stop right in front of Screech, who was standing on his tentacles in a desperate attempt. to block Rush.

     "What's going on?" he questioned as Rush whizzed past him. A few band-aids dropped behind the cloud of black smoke- where did that come from? The first aid kit? The emergency medical kit everyone had sworn on their lives they would try to avoid? Just a box of bandages? Maybe that was it, he must have been stealing things again.

     Hide was closet jumping again- a slim streak of ribbon like shadow, almost outlined in red, whizzed past him- until it came back. Screech could see a temporary red light glowing as Hide morphed into his humanoid form, opening a closet door wide and poking his head out to meet Screech.

     "Oh- hi, I didn't see you around..." Screech could see a roll of bandages in his hand. "Come on- d'you want me to carry you over? I'm kind of in a rush but I feel like you need to come too, something happened-"

     "What happened?" Screech questioned, still bouncing his way over to the closet nonetheless. "Why is everyone holding band-aid things?"

     "I- I'll explain later, just hold on..." Screech held onto Hide's slim ribbonlike texture as they whizzed through the halls. Screech was a little too scared to know what had happened- but he held his breath, hoping nothing was too bad. Eventually, the two came to a stop- as Hide stepped out, Screech jumped out of his arms- they were in front of Guiding's room, why were they there?

     "Did Guiding have something to show us?" Screech tried to get a look at everything through the windows, but Hide caught him and set him down. "Oh, is it a surprise? Or did something else happen? Did him and Curious finally-"

     "I... think it's best if you stay out here for now," Hide seemed a little downcast, gripping the roll of bandages so tightly they were starting to rip apart. "Stay here and I'll get you a chocolate later, okay?"

     Chocolate! Screech's face instantly lit up, and he rolled over to the edge of a wall to settle down. "Okay!"

     Hide gave him a smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes before rushing into Guiding's room. Screech figured that it wouldn't hurt to peek into the room as the door slammed closed-

     He caught sight of a teal blue hand, paler than he remembered, stained with splatters of something red before the door closed again, leaving Screech confused to what was happening. It looked like almost all the entities were in there. The small entity felt a little left out, but being promised chocolate he was stuck rolling outside of Guiding's room.

     That is, until Rush came back out and accidentally left the door open. Screech took the chance to peek inside, but as he leaned over a little he stared at the scene for a second before letting out an ear splitting scream and shutting his eyes. Trembling a little, he wrapped his tentacles around himself as someone yelled his name- but by now, he couldn't care much.

     The first thing he saw was that Curious was leaning against a wall, hands gripping his head so tightly it was like his life depended on it. Figure was next to him, trying to calm him down but to no avail. There were a few entities gathered around a bloodstained rug, and in the center-

     Guiding's body was lying on the floor, a bleeding wound through his chest.. His head was lolling to the side, his lips were pale- almost a light teal against his dark azure blue skin, and there was a rusting knife next to his blood splattered hand. Hide was trying to bandage everything up, shaking in a desperate attempt to fix everything, but his efforts seemed to be a wasted effort. Worst of all, there seemed to be a sad smile etched on the aquamarine light's face- it wasn't openly acknowledged, but on that day everyone had been there to see Guiding Light's suicide attempt.

     And he had succeeded.

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     for those of you who are sad? it's ok, this is only an au 👍