Dusk bolted west when we left the building. We kept running when there was a strange atmosphere change. I felt somewhat safer there. By now White completely passed out. We kept running until we reached a house, there was a record player playing a familiar but not recognizable tune. Dusk knocked on the door, "Oh! Hello-" The stared at White's limp body. Their hair covered their eyes, pale ram horns became vines near their face. "Come in, come in!"

When we went inside, they immediately looked at White, "I think I know why you're here." They said, "Hey wait, are you Vines?" I asked. They nodded at me and continued to ask Dusk to follow them into another room. Dusk nodded and walked with them. I watched then looked around the room, Dusk then walked out without White and sat down. "Vines said that you can grab a drink and get comfortable." Dusk said, sounding kinda worried.

We waited for about two hours. The sounds of the crackling fire were growing repetitive. We heard something from the other room. I went to close the door to listen "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY A COUPLE OF HOURS!?" I heard White screech. "Please calm down, your friends are waiting for you." I heard Vines say calmly. I heard White almost protest but then didn't. I raced back to my chair and waited. White stepped out of the room. Something was off though, there was some kind of blankness in White's eye. He barely kept his eyes open, he didn't make any eye contact and only stared at the floor. "Dusk and, erm, please come with me." Vines called us into the room. He began explaining something about how here everyone lives a little longer and it takes a little bit longer for anyone to die here. But sometimes when something is bad enough that someone would usually die but not someone here they might get knocked out, it's completely different though, when that happens it's a personal hell. I thought that it is weird that it happens, do they deserve it? Almost hearing my thoughts, Vines explained that nobody usually deserves it.

Before we left the room Vines told us we are welcome to stay for a while longer. When we left the room White wasn't in the room, "Could you get White?" Dusk asked me. I nodded and headed to another room, he wasn't there either so I walked over to another room. A cracked the door and looked around the room and saw White staring at himself in the mirror. He was pulling the hair that covered the right side of his face. Small tears flowed down the left of his face as his mouth slightly bled. I stuttered his name with the door slightly open. They wiped off the blood on their face and looked at me. He scowled "What is it?" "Dusk asked me to get you," I stuttered. He walked out and I came after him.

Strangely I noticed White walked swifter underneath this certain light. I dared to ask why, White stared at me with pale yellow eyes, "It fell once, and guess who was under it at the moment." He responded with bitterness in his voice. "Vines can fix anything, but he can't get it to be exactly what it used to be." White muttered scornfully. I assumed from the bitter tone in his voice it was what 'ruined' the right of his face. Dusk greeted us happily, when he saw White's upset face he sighed. "Vines invited us to stay for a while." Dusk sighed. "Let's just stay for one hour," White shrugged.

I mostly didn't do anything during that time but then something happened that caught my attention. I noticed Vines going into this room a lot. I started wondering why, "Hey guys, I'll be right back!" I called as I walked off, secretly following Vines. Trying to not make noise, I followed Vines, curious about what he was doing. Following him, I silently stepped downstairs.

Downstairs was cold and humid. I wondered why Vines would make such frequent trips down here. "Stop," Vines sighed. He glared back at me, his eyes visible. "I just wanted to know why you're here..." I muttered under my breath. "4 times," Vines whispered. "Huh?" "Imagine going to a personal hell just for you, FOURtimes." Vines rasped. "For many hours each time!" Vines spat, "So many people went through that, White, Ice, Axel, Charlie, Pine, Shard, Blood, Gasoline, Parasite, so many more people have been traumatized here. Children even! I hate it. But sometimes I have these thoughts, when we die, we see reality instead of this." Looking away from me, Vines stared at a knife on a table. He took a shaky breath. "Are you okay?" I dared to ask. Vines looked at me, no pupil in his left eye, just a red star, "I haven't heard that in a long time," Vines chuckled. "Do you have a name?" Vines asked, "Um," I stuttered, "I'll call you Astro, we don't exactly have traditional names." Vine playfully sneered. "I'd leave if I were you," Vines whispered. I nodded and started tracing my steps.

I looked around, I wasn't familiar with the surroundings. I haven't been here, there were medical tools gathering dust, and rust. "Vines! Vines? Vines?" I called out, lost. Footsteps, I looked behind me. Vines looked way more annoyed than earlier. He grabbed my wrist, it hurt. He rushed me out. When we got to the door he shoved me out and closed the door.

I walked out to see Dusk and White. White was irritated, Dusk sighed. "C'mon, I'm not waiting for you." White scowled at me. He walked out, "Sorry about White, he is like this sometimes, especially when a lot of drama happens," Dusk sighed. "We should get going, he isn't waiting for us."

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We officially have a thousand words now with this here XD

I think- yeah we do XD

THOUSANDTH WORD