Olbert saved me himself. Before I got out of the room, he was already gone. Just to be safe, and also considerate, I decided not to go and look for him. It was obvious that he was going to be in his room, so I left it at that and returned to mine.

On my way up, I happened to see Sylvia going down the stairs. I couldn’t be bothered to go to her right now. She had been smiling when she came out of the basement, but I had no right to ask her why. Smiling could have been a way to mask her sadness, but my reaction had no justification to it.

When I got to my room, some of the patients were whispering something about a dead doctor. Looks like his body had been found. I wondered if the people who had seen his body had immediately understood what happened. Even then, their directions might not have allowed them to worry about it, or even react to it too much at all. I had expected some kind of investigation being launched. Instead, they had decided to do nothing.

For some reason, I thought of going to the three people talking there, and joining in.

“A doctor died?” I meekly asked.

The one with his back to me hastily turned back and whispered, “Well, that’s what I’ve been hearing all over.”

“That’s sad.” I replied.

Not really. He probably found his peace when he died.

“Yeah. I think I know who it might be. I not seen one of them all day long.” The second one spoke up. The third nodded and looked at the first, who seemed confused as to who they were referring to.

“Who do you mean?” He asked, before the third one turned his face around and made some cryptic sounds. It sounded like animal noises, but I didn’t know what kind of animals were there in this world.

“Ahh. That one?” The first one was shocked, “Wow! It’s a real shame. He was probably one of the best ones here. He operated on my son just a few days back!”

“How did he die?” I asked.

Maybe I wanted them to exaggerate in some sad way.

“Ehh, I don’t know, kid.” The first one shook his head, “Maybe he got poisoned or something. Whatever it was, a good doctor is dead, I guess.”

He looked up at the ceiling, probably sending his prayers to the one who had killed him.

It seemed a bit funny to me for a second. But I stopped myself from going down that path and went to my bed.

He wasn’t that bad of a doctor, apparently. I guessed that they were also talking from their experiences, the ones which they had had before the theatre began. Maybe he was actually one of the best doctors of the entire hospital. That did not change anything, though. In the end, he had died without anyone even caring about what happened.

When I was about to go to sleep, a thought came to my mind. I could go and talk to the doctors at two o’clock. They would be more willing to tell me their real feelings if they weren’t under control. Plus, if that one really was someone all of these people liked, I might see a real mourning of his death.

That might do something.

And so, I waited for the time to come.

I couldn’t sleep, since random things kept coming to mind. After some time, I tuned myself out and tried not to pay attention to my own mind. Around thirty minutes later, I did not even know what exactly I was thinking about.

The others slowly went to sleep. They probably had an internal clock to wake them up on time at this point. I, on the other hand, would definitely just sleep through all of that if I did not stay awake right now.

I spent my time trying to remember people from my world. My mother, father, whichever other family member I knew, whoever used to be my friend. I wondered what they were doing right now. I couldn’t even see the outline of a face, much less get some sort of revelation. I wasn’t even sure what kind of person I used to be. What if they weren’t even looking for me? What if they had just let me go, thinking that I wasn’t worth it? The image of that doctor came to mind. I would feel bad if that happened.

Eventually, the person on the bed in front of me began to move around a bit. Then, he sat up and smiled. A few moments later, the other people started to get up too. Looked like it was time already. I kept lying, but my eyes were open. Once they started talking, I would leave to talk to the doctors.

It took them some time after they had woken up, to properly start chatting. They must have been a bit early, but since they were waiting right now, they also must have some method of telling the exact time it began. I needed to ask Olbert sometime.

Anyways, once they began, I quietly left the room and started looking for any doctor I could find. There were none, however. Maybe they had actually arranged a place to meet as a memorial for him. I decided to go down the stairs, since it felt like something like that would only happen in the underground floors.

But as I was going down this time, he came up, and stopped once he saw me.

Then, Olbert turned and spoke in a serious tone, “Follow me, please.”

He started walking.

I did not need any reason to trust him anymore. I went behind him blindly, with complete faith. He must have something important to do or say, if he was being so serious. Seeing the basement must have messed with his head.

While walking, he suddenly started speaking, “Do you know that the stage directions can be updated or changed at any time?”

“I’ve heard something like that.”

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“Well, it is said that whenever that happens, God is keeping a special eye on you. Otherwise, he sees everything at once, in his head. Only when he focuses on something he finds eventful, he sometimes changes directions to make it more fun. Till now, nobody in this place has experienced something like that.”

“Oh.” I did not know what he meant by that. Wasn’t it a good thing that he wasn’t interfering with us too much?

“Do you know what that means?”

I shook my head.

Olbert gave out a short, sad laugh, “None of this is exciting to him. None of it is enough. All of us here, are just in some corner of his eye, being given as little attention as possible. All their suffering is not even entertaining.”

We kept walking in silence after that. Slowly, we made our way into the underground, and started going towards room number 14. But right when we were able to reach it, Olbert took a right turn and continued to walk down a different path.

“Where are we going?” I eventually asked.

“Sylvia said she wanted to meet us, in room number twenty. That’s where she is being kept. Even her rooms changed; for what reason, she wouldn’t tell.”

Oh. That’s all that it was. I was wondering if he was in the mood to do something radical. But it wouldn’t be like him, I guess. After all, he had admitted that he was a very dedicated pacifist, like his father.

It hadn’t been that long since the time started, so we probably had enough to share a lot of information with Sylvia.

We reached room number twenty and entered. Nobody was in it.

“She should have been here.” Olbert said.

“I guess she is late.”

“I just told you. This is her room. She should have been here in the first place.”

Now, I regretted not having talked to her when I saw her at those stairs. Maybe she could have given me some update on the situation.

Oh. The situation.

“She told you this when she met you during this time yesterday?” I asked him.

He nodded.

I turned and went for the exit while explaining, “That was before she knew about the basement, right? Seeing it could have changed her plans by quite a bit. Let’s go and check there once.”

“That’s a good idea.” He said and followed me out.

Once we got back down to the basement, however, both of us stopped at the second door. Neither wanted to open it.

We stood like that for a long time. We were wasting it, obviously, but Olbert probably did not want to see that scene once more. Neither did I, because it would probably bring back the same confusing feelings as before. There was also the case of Sylvia being a trained soldier. She could handle herself without us.

I turned and looked at Olbert, who had his eyes closed.

“Are you sure you wa-”

“Yes.” Came his reply as he opened them.

He stepped forward and kept his hand on the handle. Then, he took a long breath and held it. He stood like that for a while, and then released it.

“It’ll be fine.” He said before twisting the handle and opening the door.

The smell filled the air again. But it did not even matter anymore. There were worse things to see in there.

Olbert walked looking at the floor, until he reached the place where we had been standing earlier today. I went and stood beside him, also keeping my attention on the symbol on the floor. The snake and the man. That was what they were going to use to summon the demon, as long as I could guess. What did it mean?

“What are you doing here?” A voice came from above us.

Without a care of what we were going to feel, both of our eyes shot up to look at her.

She was right there among the other bodies. It was difficult to spot her, since she was squeezed between three other people, but she was most definitely there once you noticed her. What was weirder was that her head hadn’t been shaved. She was completely fine. In fact, she seemed a bit annoyed, like usual.

“You got caught?” Olbert asked.

“No, I’m infiltrating this place.” She explained, “I would have told you, but there was no time to do it. The plans changed once I found this place.”

“What are you going to do from up there?” I asked.

“None of your business.” She said, before sighing, and continuing, “Actually, we aren’t being seen, are we? That’s why you two are here.”

“Yeah.” I replied.

She changed her tone ever so slightly, “Well, I’m still not going to tell you what I’m doing. It’s a part of the story. If you get to know, it might change and all of us will be stuck here for even longer. This will end tomorrow if everything goes right, so you can probably go back and rest for now.”

“Tomorrow? Are you sure about that? I mean, me and Olbert haven’t really made much progress in the case, and I’m pretty sure both of us are marked as major roles.” I remarked.

She sighed, “Ryworn, was it? Sorry to break your self-important illusion, but everyone in this place is marked as a major role. Every single person is adding quite substantially to the story, by just being there. The sickness they are continuously breeding attracts the right demon these people want, which then facilitates the summoning.”

“What?” I asked, “But if all hundred people are doing the same thing, then aren’t they basically minor roles? Technically, you should be major, since you’re furthering the story much more?”

She laughed, “I don’t know where you got that idea from, but ever since we’ve lived like this, this is how it has worked. The only time someone is given a minor role is when they’re quite literally a spectator who can’t even affect the story by speaking to other people. Since he wants to make sure that all of us suffer equally, he gives all of us major roles.”

“How can you be laughing?” Olbert asked, “Look around you and stop treating this like a joke!”

Sylvia’s expression changed. She gave a small smile and answered in a soft tone, “I’ve been a mercenary ever since the theatre began, Olbert. I’ve been forced to see worse things than this. But…I’m sorry, really.”

“I…” He sighed and went out of the room in a hurry.

“You’re fine with this?” She asked.

“With what?”

“No, it’ s just that you didn’t mind the same thing. I’m guessing you’ve just entered this place from another world?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Must’ve been a bad world, for you to be this unfazed.” She said with the same expression, “Anyways, it isn’t my place to judge. But, about before, I’m serious. You should leave before we run out of time.”

I nodded and stepped back, turning to the door.

But then again, I needed to know.

“Is this going to end up with you dying?”

She laughed a little, “No. I believe that he will want me to face a much more bitter end. Dying to save people is an honor, after all.”

I smiled and started to walk away.

“You might, though.” Her voice came from the back, “Try to stay away from the range of the building the cafeteria covers, on all floors.”

I thanked her and got out of the room.

Olbert was waiting there. He asked me what she had said, and except for the part about my reaction to the basement, I told him everything. He nodded and started walking away with me.

Once we got out of the basement, we found ourselves face to face with around five doctors.

“What were you doing down there?” One of them asked.

Another one put his hand on his shoulder, and then looked at us, “We don’t need to know. Please leave before the time ends.”

We thanked them and got out of the room. Olbert wished me good night and went back to his room. I went back to mine.

Everyone had already gone to sleep. Looks like the time ended while I was climbing up. Tomorrow, apparently, all of it would end. It made me a bit excited. I wanted to see what was going to happen. And if possible, I wanted to talk to Sylvia once more. Maybe she would understand my problem if I told her. After all, she didn’t know me like Olbert. That disconnect could help.

Thinking that, I went to sleep.

The next day, as I opened my eyes –

Current Story – The Hospital

Character – Ryworn

Role – Major

Stage Directions (Day 5) –

Survive