Novels2Search
The Endless Isekai
???. Another Presence Can Be Felt (Interlude)

???. Another Presence Can Be Felt (Interlude)

A woman brings a dog into an abandoned Hotel; old traces of life can be seen in the building, the lights are somehow still on despite its terribly outdated surroundings, the red carpet keeps its bright red color that contrast the decrepit and worn out walls, and each wall is adorned with an abstract painting that was surely mass-produced for cheap by some washed out artist to give some sort of life to this hallway.

The woman brings the dog to a hallway, and ties its leash to a doorknob, instructing the dog to stop moving, that she'll come back later.

The dog waited patiently for her, but with nothing else to do, it started observing its surroundings.

But the surroundings never changed, the same lights, the same paintings, the same walls, the same doors. Hours of waiting for its owner turned into days, then weeks.

Sometimes a mouse would pass by, or a bug, that was the highlight of the dog's day, water would drip from crevices in the roof, just enough for the dog to survive, but its hunger could not be sated with water alone.

It thought of leaving, but what if its owner came back when it was away? No, she would come back, it was certain of it. It wandered the wasteland with her for so long, why would it stop now? The dog just needed to be patient, it needed to wait for her, even if its hunger told it otherwise.

It started biting at the random vermins that found its way near it--bugs, rats and sometimes even bats could find their way in this hallway. What a diverse ecosystem this abandoned building was, how thankful the dog was for its owner thinking of leaving it in a place with enough food to sustain itself.

After a month had passed, the dog bit the least off of the doorknob, surely its owner would forgive it for such a transgression. Most preys were starting to avoid it, and it still needed to eat; bones were poking out of the dog's dirty fur, and it was only going to get worse if it didn't take actions now.

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Still, it couldn't leave the hallway, that is where its master told it to wait.

Another month had passed, the vermin is now avoiding the hallway altogether, or they hide in places the dog cannot reach.

A strange thought comes to the dog, what if its owner was searching for it--in that very hallway--but she got lost? What if it had been wandering for months hoping to find it?

With newly found vigor, the dog starts patrolling the hallway, but no signs of its master. No, it knows it to be true--it simply hasn't searched far enough.

It patrols the hallway one more time, then two times, then a hundred times; it does not feel hunger anymore, or thirst, it is as if it is fed by conviction alone that it will find her somewhere in this very hallway.

She's here--she must be; it's the only logical explanation as to why she would take so long. The dog peeks past the last door of its assigned waiting spot, but there are stairs leading downwards here; it's not where she told it to wait--so she can't be searching for the dog here.

The dog goes back to its endless patrol. It feels something bite at its skin, but it ignores it; more of the same, but same is good, same means it's searching in the right place, that it'll find...

The dog forgot what it was searching for.

It remembers a vaguely humanoid shape, but it can't remember what it meant to it. It patrols the hallway still, hoping it'll find what it was searching for all this time.

The last door is still open, but the hallway on the other side has changed, it's another hallway, but it looks the exact same as the one the dog has patrolled a million times.

The dog starts to run, how could it have missed this part of the Hotel? What it's searching for must be here--but it reaches the end, and it's not; it opens the door to find another hallway.

It feels reinvigorated by this new find, it must be here, it's making progress; another hallway at the end of this one, again and again, if it just goes through all of them, it will finally be fulfilled.

The dog can no longer feel its body, it is no longer a dog, but it does not care. It keeps exploring the same place, again and again, lost within habit and madness, the only thing left is endless repetition in hopes of a change that should never come.

But despite this fact, a change has come.

Another presence can be felt in the endless corridor.