Mark's POV

"Wait, we're doing what?" Cry asked, his eyes wide.

Ethan laughed nervously. "We're breaking into Katherine's office?"

"Isn't that, oh, I don't know, extremely dangerous?!" Felix shouted.

"Before we get too far into this discussion, I have a question," I commented.

"Ask away," Ethan sighed.

"You said we couldn't talk in the cafeteria because Katherine would be watching us."

"What's your point?"

"You mentioned that there was a different cafeteria we had to speak at and I'm interested to see what you were talking about." I paused. "I'm also really hungry."

"Wait," Tyler put in, "there are two cafeterias here? Why would someone go through the trouble of building two cafeterias?"

Ethan didn't seem to have a reply, so I responded, "Katherine might have known that people would need a private place to meet. She might have designed the other cafeteria for people to feel safe, but she'd be using surveillance to watch them or something."

Ethan gulped before mumbling, "I-I don't know. I never really thought about that."

"Did you ever talk to anyone there about important matters before this?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, but I've been there before and I'm sure that if Katherine knows about that room like you said, she knows that I know about it too."

Cry let out a sigh of frustration, getting all of our attention. "Oh brother, what now?" Felix asked.

"If it's Katherine's job to observe everyone here and make sure none of us know anything, don't you think she'd have cameras...well, everywhere?"

I groaned while Robert stepped forward. "Are you suggesting that Katherine could be watching us right now?"

Cry hesitantly nodded. "Don't you think she would be?"

I leaped off the bed. "Alright, whatever. Katherine could be stalking us inside Ethan's room. All that proves is that she's a fricken pervert! Who gives a shit if she sees us in here? The only thing this changes is that we need to leave and go through with the plan sooner than Ethan expected!"

Felix stood up next to me, smiling. "Yeah! If we hurry, we'll be perfectly fine and the plan won't change at all, other than being slightly rushed!"

Cry sprung off the ground and agreed. Tyler stared up at the rest of us for a moment before commenting, "My first impression of all of you was a kidnapping." He paused for a minute to look at Ethan's pleading face. He grimaced before continuing, "You all seem like nice people, though. A little desperate, but nice. Plus, I really want my memories back. I guess I'll come along for the ride, but the second you all get caught, I never knew any of you."

"Works for me!" Ethan shouted, grinning widely.

"I'm guessing Ethan and Robert are already in on this?" Cry inquired.

"Wasn't it their plan to begin with?" I chuckled softly.

Ethan nodded. "Okay, before Katherine comes storming in here, shall we continue to her office?"

"Actually, there's something I think we forgot to explain," Robert put in a bit awkwardly.

Ethan glanced at Robert, seeming confused, but a second later realization hit him. "You go ahead and explain this. I can never seem to put it into words."

Robert nodded. "Okay, so Katherine's office is on the top floor. I've only been up there once, but I can still remember exactly what happened in detail. I'm not explaining what happened to me, but briefly, your memories are completely gone where we are now. However, once we get to the top few floors, everything gets weird. You won't understand what's happening until you get your memories back, but people—or in some cases, items—from your past will be there. People will talk to you and try to tell you fake memories that you shared with them. Items are just there to confuse you in most cases."

"To add," Ethan continued, "the higher up we get, you'll see things or people that you really cared about or had a huge impact on your life. Those people will tell the biggest and worst lies."

"But we won't recognize them?" Felix asked.

"Exactly," Robert answered, "that's why they'll try to explain how you know them. The people will make up fake stories about things that happened between you and the other person."

Ethan nodded. "The only reason we're really bringing this up is because it's very much possible that you'll see each other. We'll probably get separated, so you need to know the difference between your friends here and the versions of them you'll see up there."

"Okay, so only trust the people who we see here and are just as confused as we are?" Tyler asked.

Ethan and Robert exchanged glances before Robert shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Alright, so what are we waiting for?!" I cheered.

"You sure sound excited," Cry replied.

"I want my damn memories back! I don't give a shit about 'people from my past' trying to trick me!" I shouted excitedly.

"You won't until it happens," Ethan muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Cry asked.

"Nothing!" Ethan exclaimed. "Is everyone ready to get going?" Cry, Felix, Tyler, and I nodded. Ethan grinned. "Alright, let's go!"

Ethan began walking to the door, but Robert stopped him. "We need to be careful. We can't let Katherine find us or it's over and she'll probably re-erase all of our memories."

Ethan sighed and turned around to face the rest of us. "Alright, we have to be quiet. Like Robert said, if Katherine finds us, it's over and we may never make it back to our worlds."

We all agreed again, then Robert opened the door to make sure no one was waiting outside. He turned around, smiling, and reported, "It's all clear, we can go."

Ethan grinned. "Everyone follow me. Robert, follow behind and make sure everyone stays together."

With that, Ethan took a sentimental look around his room before discreetly walking out into the hallway. We all followed after him, careful to not draw attention to ourselves.

Ethan led us to the stairwell. I hadn't been up any higher than the second floor, and wondered how many floors there were, and if we were going to have to walk all the way up there.

Ethan swung the stairwell door open and walked through. He began making his way up the next flight of stairs. I stopped to carefully glance upward, expecting to see flight upon flight of stairs until I couldn't see any farther. However, on the contrary, the stairs only led up one more flight.

"There aren't very many stairs here for a stairwell that leads to the top floor," I commented.

Robert chuckled, "That's because this stairwell doesn't lead to the top floor."

"Wait," Cry replied, "how are we supposed to get to Katherine's office if this doesn't lead to the top?"

"Let me ask you something," Ethan replied as he reached the door on the third floor. He turned around to face us. "If you wanted a secret office that held the one thing that has the ability to give people their memories back, would you put it somewhere that easy to access?"

"No," Felix answered, "of course not. I'd either hide it somewhere incredibly hard to get to, or I'd set traps."

"It just so happens that Katherine has done both," Ethan replied.

"I'm going to guess that by 'traps,' you mean the illusions we're going to see?" I inquired.

"Exactly," Ethan stated as he opened the door and began leading us down a hallway to the right.

We stayed quiet as we walked passed people's rooms and made our way to the end of the hallway. Ethan turned left, stopped, and smiled. "Just as I left it. Good."

"Um, what's just as you left it?" Felix asked.

"Can I ask a question first?" Tyler inquired.

"I have a feeling Tyler's question will end up answering both," Ethan murmured. "What?"

"Why did you lead us to a dead end? I mean, I get that there's probably a secret entrance to a secret stairwell over here somewhere, but that seems a little too obvious."

"This is the entrance. It's placed so obviously because no one cares to look around for anything suspicious except for a few of us, and I don't think it's occurred to Katherine to secure it better. To answer Felix's question, look closely at the wall."

I observed the wall, and upon looking it over in detail, I found that small, thin cracks covered most of it.

"How do those help us?" Felix asked, interested.

Ethan pulled a small knife out of his jacket pocket and carefully injected it into the wall. He sliced the cracks so that they connected to each other.

The newly cut slices let off a soft glow, and I noticed that they spelled out something.

"Here They Lie?" I read out loud.

"Here what lies?" Cry asked.

"The path to your memories," Ethan replied.

Through the quiet cheers, I barely heard Robert mutter, "Though it means something else."

A/N

I wrote this while listening to the Hamilton soundtrack aND I ALMOST STARTED CRYING I HATE THIS

I'M NOT EXAGGERATING, I STARTED TEARING UP BECAUSE I HAD THE SOUNDTRACK ON SHUFFLE AND WHO LIVES, WHO DIES, WHO TELLS YOUR STORY CAME ON FIRST, FOLLOWED BY THE WORLD WAS WIDE ENOUGH

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOS!