TW: mentions of abuse, drugs and all that crap (yeah i really did give guiding a fuck ton of trauma)

     lmao i thought the second part would only be 1000 words or so but then the 3400 came out of nowhere and i was like-

     "oh"

     so now you have a very uncalled for part three, enjoy (and ignore my lack of grammar on this author's note i just woke up give me some grace)

~

     "Ow- ow, no, you're holding onto my bad arm- ow," Guiding was a hair away from just yelling a stream of swear words as Brynn dragged him over to find Void and figure out just exactly what the hell was going on. "Is she always this rough?"

     "After you died, yeah," Bryce was jogging along, trying to keep up with Brynn's brisk walking speed.

     "I'll be honest- I can see that happening," Guiding said, wincing as the bandages almost slipped off. "Ow!"

     "Sorry," Brynn muttered. The three of them slowed down and came to a stop as the lights started to darken, signaling Void's appearance.

     "The twins said they needed me," Void muttered. Guiding could see their wispy humanoid figure, like it was made of frail smoke floating out of a candle. Void flicked their wrist, lightening the room enough for them to see each other. "And with Guiding here... I think I can guess why."

     "Yeah- sorry about this, but uh- mind telling me about these weird flashback things every time I come near these two?" Guiding shivered a little, uncomfortable with everything he had witnessed secondhand. "It's creeping me out."

     "Flashbacks?" Void suddenly took on a concerned aura, floating a little closer to Guiding and somehow meeting eye contact without having eyes. "Guiding, what did you see?"

     "Oh, that's what happened when you started randomly blanking out?" Bryce seemed a little timid asking the question.

     "Yeah," Guiding replied simply.

     Void ignored what Bryce had said. "What did you see?"

     "It was... mostly just flashes of scenes. Most of them was just this house, beige walls, a surprisingly memorable dark blue couch... like- just a place to live," Guiding summarized, earning a few alarmingly questionable stares form the two players. "Oh- there was this one dude who... I don't know what he was doing, there was a lot of screaming? And pill bottles. Lots of pill bottles. I don't know what was happening there but it didn't seem very good- oh, right, the dad."

     "This... isn't good," Void seemed uncomfortable with the subject, forming small wisps of a black shadow and waving it around with a hand. They cast the thin line of darkness at a corner of the ceiling, encasing it in a pitch black for a second before the light sources canceled it out. "Guiding- I'll ask you straight. Do you want to know what happened before?"

     "I-" Guiding was caught unaware by the question, seeing as he never questioned his amnesia before. "I don't know, I never really thought about it- I mean, it's pretty nice here, so I never saw a point..."

     "But now that the twins are here and has already started unraveling the knot, you're bound to remember it sooner or later," Void stated. "I can speed up or slow down the process, but there isn't really a choice for you."

     Guiding didn't know how to respond to that. "...oh," he finally managed to mutter.

     "It's your decision, Guiding," Void continued. "I don't know how long it's going to take, but you're probably going to be hit with a lot more than you can hold."

     Guiding let out a weak smile. "Well, there's no point worrying about it if it's going to happen sooner or later. Thanks, Void."

     "I take it you're going to leave now?" Void was slowly dissipating back to the thin line of smoke they usually liked to be. "I'll see you around, then."

     "Bye," Guiding waved as the wall lamps around the hallway slowly came back up to a pleasant glow. 

     He was about to walk away until he remembered the players were there with him- and they were in the part of the hotel that usually only the entities and the lights had access to. "Oh- hey, should I lead you back to the living room?"

     "I know the way," Brynn said as Bryce yelled out a "can we just get out of the hotel overall?"

     "What-" Brynn seemed to be ready to argue, but she was cut off by her twin.

     "Okay- listen, I know you want to get all three of us out of here- but he looks like he'll be better of staying here, okay?" Guiding was caught by surprise, seeing the usually timid boy stand up for once. "And I'm getting the creeps, too- we should seriously just find a way back home. Grandma's gonna be worried sick."

     "I-" Brynn paused midsentence, looking like she'd given up. There was a moment of silence between the two as they exchanged looks- Guiding assumed it was some sort of twin telepathy. After a while, Brynn crossed her arms and sighed. "Okay, fine."

     "I'll let the others know," Guiding said, flicking out a few lights that slipped through cracks in the wall and made their way to the entities. "Those things will just deliver my message. Come on, now, let's get you guys out of here..."

     Guiding led the twins over to Door 100- the last one, but instead of completing a full run they took a series of shortcuts and even climbed over a table or two. Reaching the electrical room, Figure waved a hi as the elevator powered on.

     "Oh, did you already get that running?" Guiding opened the gate for the twins, who seemed wary with Figure inside the room.

     "Yeah, I thought you'd need that," Figure replied. "I got your message."

     "Thanks!" Guiding trotted over to the twins, spinning in a circle and hitting a button for the elevator to go down. "Oh yeah- there'll be a door down a hallway, I've lit it up for you- bye!"

     He waited- soon enough, there was a ding, some shuffling footsteps, a small creak and a slam. Guiding couldn't help but finally feel like everything was over- he opened the secret door into the hallway that held everyone's rooms, finding his own and practically melting into a chair.

     "I don't ever want to suffer from anything like that again," Guiding mumbled to himself as he drifted into a nap.

~

     There was a crash. A scream. A yell. Genesis dropped the book he was holding and rushed downstairs.

     Dammit, he thought. What time is it?

     He looked at the clock on the wall- it was about 8:10. Ten minutes past the twins' bedtime, and that certainly meant trouble.

     Genesis had been too lost in the storyline he was reading about- usually, he'd get the twins by 7:30- what had he been thinking?

     Another scream, and he bolted into the kitchen where his supposed father was holding a small child by her neck, while the other one was pulling at his shirt.

     "GET OFF ME!" the large man roared, throwing the girl onto a counter as he kicked the boy away. The two of them were stunned, frightened, paralyzed with fear as the man approached- but Genesis gripped them both, holding the two kids and running back up the stairs. He could hear a scream behind him as the man chased after him- but he was too drunk, too loopy to go fast enough. Getting the twins into his room and hurriedly shoving them in a closet, he wiped the boy's tears as he hurriedly looked behind him.

     "Stay in here, alright?" he cooed, trying to comfort them. "I'll be back soon- and don't make any noise, please..."

     He slammed the closet door shut as the drunken man barged into his room, half broken glass bottle in his hand.

     Genesis tried not to fear him too much- he managed to get out of his room, leading the man somewhere else so the twins wouldn't have to watch the bloodbath that followed. He ran back out and tried to get to the first floor- hopefully escape- but as he got to the top of the stairs he was kicked with a brute force and now he was falling down, down, down-

     Landing sprawled at the foot of the stairway, he winced as the sharp glass bottle struck him on the side of the head- suddenly gripped by the shoulder, he was brought up into the air and kicked in the stomach. Genesis was thrown aside, side of his head bleeding and turning the vision from his left eye red. His shoulder hit a table corner, leaving a nasty bruise. The man gave him a stern look, dropping the glass bottle on his leg as he walked away.

     Genesis got up, managing to make his way up the stairs, get the twins and tuck them in properly and somehow stumble his way back to his room before he passed out on the floor- the last thing he could remember was an agonizing pain.

~

     Guiding woke up with a sudden gasp, breaking out in a cold sweat. He gripped the edge of his chair, sitting up and frantically glancing around- only to realize that he was back at the Hotel.

     He could feel a migraine starting to develop. Rubbing his temples, he tried to push everything out of his memory- but it seemed to stay, living rent free in his head.

     What the hell was that?

     Guiding got up, opening the door to his room and stepping out. The lights in the hallway were dim, turning brighter as they sensed motion. There were flickers of his past flashing in head as he tried to ignore them, walking around in a desperate attempt to find something to do.

     He bumped into a wall, vision too clouded with everything he'd forgotten to notice the turn.

     "Ow," Guiding muttered, rubbing his head as he stood there, trying to make sense of where to go. There was a dim yellow light tracing a path on the floor- hang on, what?

     "You looked like you needed help," Curious tapped him on the shoulder, turning around to meet Guiding. "What were you thinking about, wandering around like you just lost your vision?"

     Guiding's vision was still flickering, flashing between the beige walled house and the hallway he was standing in. Curious' concerned look was barely visible-

     "You look like you're losing sense of reality and that's not something I'd expect you to do," Curious seemed oblivious to how truthful that one sentence was. "I mean- me, probably, but- hey, Guiding? Earth to Guiding, what are you thinking about?"

     Guiding shook his head and his memories away for a second. "Nothing," he replied, lying under his breath. "I'm just going to go back to my room- I'll see you later."

     Curious had a strangely dejected yet worried expression on his face as Guiding brushed past him and almost slammed the door to his room. He had a sickening feeling in his gut that life was going to get a lot more complicated from then on- but what was the point of worrying if it was already going to happen?

     Somehow, Guiding couldn't seem to follow his own advice.

~

     yeah this is getting to long i'ma end it here 🫠