She continued exploring the facility, using her tendrils as support as she walked down the corridors. The facility was still the same smooth, blank marble. She would have gotten bored seeing the same sight a few hours ago, however she proceeded more cautiously. Feelers ranged ahead to map out a course, while she meekly peeked around corners.

There was no sign of life. Even after shearing through multiple reinforced steel doors and rummaging in the kitchen, she hadn't caught a single glimpse. Snacking on a pilfered loaf of bread, she climbed a deserted stairwell.

Charlie regretted killing all the armored humans. Sure, most of them died from the wall ambush, but some managed to survive. Unfortunately, she panicked over her grievous injuries and killed them anyways. Oops. Panicking really was the enemy of rational decisions.

Prying open another door, she saw a curious room. Several chairs were arranged in front of multiple screens depicting different images. Most of them were boring hallways or staircases. There was one showing the library entrance. And another of a room with a pentagram over the floor.

With a start, she realized these screens must be showing locations throughout the facility. That did not make any sense. These screens were not static images, and were showing what was happening in each location in real time.

Putting aside how the screens were connected to each place, she decided this was perfect for finding humans. Or at least interesting places to visit.

Happily sidling closer, she scanned the screens for any sign of life, and immediately zeroed in on a screen depicting a huddled human.

It was that of a miserable young woman wearing tattered clothing. She poked the screen, but the girl in the image didn't react.

"Where are you?" Charlie pouted.

The room in the screen was sectioned off by metal bars into many individual cells. All of which were empty aside from the sole occupant. The room of holding cells had no discernable characteristics, just like the rest of the bland facility.

However, there was a number and a letter imprinted into a corner of the screen: B5E. All the screens had a different number and letter combination.

Mulling it over, Charlie remembered all the numbers and letters that hung above each of the facility's rooms. B5E must be the holding cell imprisoning the young lady. And the ritual room with the pentagram was categorized with a B5A, which was the same as all the other rooms on that floor!

Not bothering to walk out of the control room, she quickly cut a hole directly under herself and dropped into floor B5.

She giddily skipped down the hallways, paying attention to the numbers and letters hanging in front of each door.

Some of the doors, such as "B5 Room H: Eldritch Containment," were even blocked off by shimmering barriers. She was a little curious about the protected rooms, but she wanted to say hi to the human. Maybe she would pay a visit later.

After a few moments, she arrived in front of a door labeled "B5 Room E: Human Holding."

Since it was just a normal 3 inch thick steel door—she nonchalantly punctured a few holes, and sheared it in half with a screech of tearing metal.

A large room was revealed, with metal bars sectioning off a walkway in-between two rows of cells. The holding cells were also separated from each other by the same metal bars, giving a mostly unobstructed view to the far end of the room.

Charlie immediately focused on the young woman staring at her in shock, quivering in one of the furthest cells. Long, matted brown hair. Brown eyes wide with fright, set in an average-looking face. Her skin was smudged with dirt, but underneath the grime she was pale from lack of sunlight. Her tattered cream colored shirt and pants were also non-descript. Overall, she had the shrinking demeanor of a cute mouse, nevermind she appeared to be a little older than Charlie.

"Hello! How're you doing?"

Charlie cheerfully skipped towards the poor girl, stopping in front of her cell door.

She reached out a comforting hand, but the girl shrank to the far corner of her cell, mouth agape in horror. The young woman looked like she had seen a ghost. Pausing for a moment, Charlie smiled.

"Oh, you must be giving me space to remove these bars. Don't worry. These will be gone in a moment."

Beaming at the shaking young woman, unearthly black tendrils twinned around the metal bars, which slowly started to deform. With a screech the bars were ripped out of their foundations.

Wincing, Charlie felt at her ears, before gently lowering the metal bars to the ground to avoid clanking.

The girl was now mumbling to herself with her hands clapped to her ears and eyes squeezed shut. Seeing someone else curled up into a ball in the exact same position she was in a few hours ago gave Charlie pause. Was the young woman also going to throw up?

After waiting a moment in concern, Charlie decided there was no need to worry.

"Uh, if you're no longer feeling nauseous, would you like to come out and talk?"

Idly tracing the ground with her bare foot, Charlie peered shyly at the hunched young woman. The long moments dragged on, and the terrified murmuring continued.

Charlie sighed. She probably needed a hug.

Walking up to the young woman, Charlie knelt and enveloped the girl in a comforting hug. Even the black tendrils wrapped around the human.

Freezing up, the terrified rocking and shaking stopped. The murmuring was cut off mid-sentence—however Charlie still caught a snippet.

"Please don't kill me... please don't kill me... please don't—"

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It didn't take a genius to figure out the girl was terrified.

Charlie pulled back in shock.

"Wait. Why would I kill you? I want to get to know you!"

Holding the young woman out at arm's length, Charlie was at a loss of what to do. She had no idea why anyone would be scared of her. After all, she was being cheerful and even gave the girl a warm hug.

"I'm sorry! What did I do wrong? Tell me so I can change!"

Teary eyed, Charlie was back to hugging the motionless young woman. Wrapping her tendrils tightly, she formed a snug cocoon. She felt something wet on her shoulder, and a whisper in her ear.

"Ar-Are you really not going to kill me?"

Pulling back, Charlie saw the young woman gazing at her with a spark of hope in her tearful eyes.

Charlie took a deep breath and nodded emphatically.

"Of course I won't hurt you. Please stop crying, and we will be able to leave this place."

Giving her a comforting smile, Charlie unwrapped her tendrils and slowly stood up. She took the girl's hand and tried coaxing her to stand up as well.

The young woman hesitated. She glanced at Charlie's black tendrils and chose to stare at her cell wall instead.

Cocking her head, Charlie mulled over the girl's reaction.

"Oh, you don't like my arms?" Charlie exclaimed while waving said tendrils.

The young woman gave a hesitant nod.

Pouting, Charlie retracted her tendrils into her body. Now, she just looked like a normal girl with long black hair and dark brown eyes. Albeit, she was also wearing a grey cultist robe.

"Is this okay?"

Charlie gave a quick twirl and almost fell over.

With a sheepish smile she extended a tendril behind each of her legs to augment her balance—taking care not to show the girl.

The young woman nodded and slowly stood up. She tried to put some distance between herself and Charlie, however Charlie missed the cue entirely.

She walked up to the young woman and took her hand.

"Great! Okay, now we can get going."

So saying, Charlie walked out of the holding cell and through the shredded steel door, all the while dragging the nervous young woman along. Walking down the corridors, Charlie kept a constant conversation going even though she never got a response.

"I think we'll get along great. There are so many things I want to ask you. For example, do you have any favorite foods? I would love to tr- Oh, I forgot. We should introduce ourselves!"

Turning around, Charlie gave the girl a big smile.

"Hi! My name is Charlie!"

Sticking her hand out, Charlie waited for a reply. After a few moments the young woman hesitantly grasped Charlie's hand.

"My name is Evelynn."

"Good to know you Evelynn. Do you happen to know how we got our names?"

Evelynn blinked.

Charlie cocked her head inquisitively and waited with bated breath.

"...we got our names because our parents chose it."

Scratching her head of black hair, now it was Charlie's turn to be confused.

"Our parents? What are parents?"

"That... is a secret. I'll tell you later."

Charlie shrugged—and turned around when she saw that no answer was forthcoming.

They continued down the halls hand-in-hand. They passed by numerous rooms, including the ritual chamber Charlie woke up in. However, Evelynn chose that moment to stop.

Charlie looked at her companion curiously. Evelynn's hand was trembling. She was staring mutely at the shredded metal door, the robes scattered on the ground, and at the spotless floor. The spotless floor was just like any of the other perfectly plain patches of ground they had walked over, however this one had somehow captivated her attention.

After waiting patiently for a while, Charlie tried squeezing her hand, but Evelynn had no reaction.

"Evy, are you alright?"

No response.

Charlie grabbed Evelynn's shoulders and started shaking her. There was still no response.

Peering at the floor, Charlie saw that it was absolutely normal.

A circular patch of ground without blemish.

Sure, there were pieces of torn clothing and gouges in the marble floor throughout the hallway, but that patch of ground bore no trace of the massacre. It was a body's length in diameter of perfectly spotless marble.

Evelynn was just being weird, since there was nothing wrong with...

There was nothing wro-

Her vision of the patch of ground was slowly blurring. Bare white marble was slowly growing fuzzy and being covered with something dark. A misshapen configuration of...

There was something wrong here. Do. Not. Look.

Charlie jerked back and blinked.

Massaging her temples she tried to suppress an ominous feeling that was sending shivers down her spine. Her hand had grown cold and clammy, and her heart was suddenly thundering. However, in a few moments her heartrate slowed and went back to normal.

The feeling was gone.

Shaking her head to clear her sudden dizziness, Charlie glanced at her companion. What was she doing? Oh, right. She was helping Evelynn. She was worried about why Evelynn was mesmerized by a bare patch of ground.

Smiling slightly, Charlie passed a hand in front of Evelynn's face to block her sight of the floor. After waving her hand a little, Evelynn blinked and looked away.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes."

Charlie looked her over. That was not normal behavior.

However, since Evelynn was no longer mysteriously shivering and staring at the normal floor, they continued walking. They walked just a little faster than before. After climbing a bunch of stairs, they chanced across the place where Charlie laid her wall ambush and killed all the armored humans.

The same phenomenon happened again. Evelynn stopped and stared at another perfectly spotless patch of ground, and refused to respond. Only when Charlie broke Evelynn's eye-contact with the floor did she start acting normally.

"Yup, Evy—you're definitely acting weird."

Evelynn glanced at her inquiringly.

"Yeah, you were just staring at the floor for no reason. You weren't responding even when I was shaking you."

Suddenly stopping, Evelynn pulled Charlie to a halt.

Seeing Evelynn's fearful expression, Charlie deflated. Evelynn licked her suddenly dry lips.

"Charlie. Can you please repeat what you just said? What do you mean that I was not responding?"

"Weeeell, you were just standing and staring at a normal patch of ground. You didn't even seem to feel that I was shaking you or asking you questions. Only when I waved a hand in front of your face did you snap out of it."

Evelynn listened with a slowly dawning expression of horror.

"I-I don't remember any of this," Evelynn murmured with her face in her hands.

As Charlie was about to reach out and comfort her, Evelynn suddenly grabbed Charlie's hand and tugged her along.

"We're leaving this wretched place. Don't trust you, but your company is better than none."

Slightly hurt, Charlie was tugged along as Evelynn set off at a fast jog down the corridors. They laboriously climbed up a flight of stairs, passing many empty rooms and climbed up floor after floor.

They continued onwards with only the sight of clinically white marble to greet them whenever they turned a corner. They kept jogging as they passed by far too many empty rooms and floors. The facility was massive, and yet there didn't appear to be anyone left. They were the only ones in this gigantic underground structure.

The eerie silence followed them. Only their footsteps marked the time. And their ragged panting filled the silence.

Throughout it all, they felt an oppressive sensation on their shoulders.

After jogging for what seemed like an eternity, they left floor B4, then B3, B2, B1, and finally reached the ground floor.

They were no longer underground.

Both Charlie and Evelynn were relieved as they finally saw the entrance of the facility.

The heavy steel door was standing ajar, letting in a welcoming breeze. Even in her panicked state, the sight of trees, green grass, and a blue sky was enough to make Evelynn cry.

Charlie could only gaze in wonder at her first sight of nature. She was both shocked and overjoyed at the scene of grassy serenity and golden sunlight.

Mesmerized, they had to take a moment for the sight to register.

Evelynn because her long days and months of torment had ended. That her fears of being trapped within a mind-altering facility were just that—fears that evaporate in the sunlight. As for Charlie, she was mesmerized because she was starting to comprehend that there was an entire world for her to explore. That the confines of the facility were no more than a temporary prison.

Without having to encourage each other, they both eagerly rushed forward and out of the door.

Together, they took their first steps into the open world.