A tall man with long shoulder-length blonde hair suddenly appeared in front of the desk, his red eyes looking right at us. However, couldn't keep my eyes off the two purple horns on top of his head.
"Oh – not you!" exclaimed Charles.
"Hello, Master." he said, "Would you care for a room?"
"N-no. We don't need a room." answered Charles.
"Um, who is this guy?" I asked.
"My name is Sebastian." he said, "You look like you're doing well, Ron."
"Uh… how do you know my name?" I responded, sounding a little worried.
"I know lots of things," he said, "and I know if you keep poking your nose where it doesn't belong, things aren't going to end well for you."
"Just leave us alone, Sebastian." suggested Charles.
"Anything you want me to do before I go?" asked Sebastian.
"Go fuck yourself!" responded Charles.
"It shall be done, sir." answered Sebastian, as he slowly walked away.
"Ugh. What a creep." I said.
"C'mon, Ron. Let's go search the first floor." suggested Charles.
"I'm coming." I said as we reached the stairs.
Once we head reached the first floor, we found a note that was written in blood.
"You won't be able to save them, Ron." was what it said.
"Crap. I hope we're not too late." I said.
Charles and I went further into the hall. Suddenly, the door to room 112 opened up, and I saw Jean walk out.
"Jean!" I said.
"Ron?" she responded.
"What are you up to?" I asked.
"I've been searching all over this place for everyone but so far you're the only one I've found." she answered, "Who's that guy with you?"
"I'm Charles." he said, "Don't mind me, though. I'm just a meaningless existence wandering the dimension."
"What's his problem?" asked Jean.
"Never mind that." I said, "I've got more to ask you."
"About?" she said.
"Do you know anything about this bloody note I found?" I asked.
"I hate to say it," said Jean, "but it sounds like Jeff has already killed someone."
"Oh." I said, seeming disappointed.
"Anything else?"
"What can you tell me about this place?"
"This entire building is Dimension F. Jeff created a hotel-themed dimension because he wanted everyone involved to be together in one place."
"But why a hotel?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
"What were you doing before everyone got here, by the way?"
"I was investigating this place on the fifth floor. I was unable to get any results, unfortunately."
"Is that all?"
"That's all."
"The magic gem isn't going off." I thought, "She must be telling the truth. Wait, there's no need to think something like this. Why would she lie to me?"
I put my hand in my pocket and squeezed the magic gem. I had to find my friends.
"Where should we go first?" I asked.
"Let's try the room across the hall: Room 113." suggested Jean.
"Don't you need a key?" asked Charles.
"I 'borrowed' the master key from the front desk." replied Jean, walking over to room 113 and unlocking it for us.
The three of us walked into a dark room. There were chairs around a table and I inspected every single inch of them only to find nothing. There was another door as well. Charles went in first. It was a bedroom. There was one bed and a chair – with something on it.
"Why aren't there any lights in here?" I asked.
"Sadly, only most of the halls are lit it seems." answered Jean.
"What's in the chair?" I said, walking closer.
Tied to the chair was a girl with black shoulder-length hair who appeared to be about my age. She was unconscious.
"Ah!" exclaimed Charles.
"Do you know this girl?" I asked.
"Yes." he said, "She was my daughter's best friend."
"Was?" asked Jean.
"She's no longer around," answered Charles, "all because I had to get involved with the plans of those monsters..."
"Well," I said, "we should untie her."
I started untying the rope that was wrapped around her and after several minutes, she was free. I lightly shook her and she opened her green eyes.
"Iris, are you alright?" asked Charles.
"I'm fine, Charles." the girl answered, "Who are those two?"
"I'm Ron." I answered.
"I'm Jean." replied Jean.
"Do you know how you ended up here?" asked Charles.
"I-I don't know." answered Iris, "After you ran after that guy earlier, somebody came up behind me and I fell to the floor. The next thing I knew, I was in this chair looking at you three."
"This is certainly the strangest quest I've been on," I said, "if I could even call it that."
Iris got herself up off of the chair.
"Have seen anyone else?" asked Jean.
"There was one." answered Iris, "He ran off faster than a blue hedgehog."
"Could you describe him?" I asked, "Or tell us what direction he went?"
"He looked really young and he ran into the elevator." answered Iris.
"That sounds like it might be Lucas," I said, "but I thought the elevator was out of order?"
"Why?" asked Jean.
"It wouldn't work on the ninth floor." I answered.
"Well, it works just fine on the fifth floor and in the lobby." said Jean.
"Hmmm… let's check the fifth floor." I suggested, "It's possible you missed something when you were up there or something has changed since you were last up there..."
All of us headed for the fifth floor in complete silence. Our climb up the stairs was quite slow, but we managed to make it. As soon as we got there, I scanned the hallway.
"Room 508 is open!" I pointed out and led everyone to the room.
I heard a voice as soon as I stepped inside.
"How could this have happened?" it said.
"Lucas?" I responded.
"Conor?" returned the voice as a familiar figure appeared before me.
"Lucas," I said, "what happened?"
"I-I just found some dead bodies." answered Lucas.
"Oh crap, who were they!?" I reacted as I rushed into the room.
I saw the dead bodies of Elijah, Daniel, Cameron, David, and Dexter.
"Oh no." I muttered, "They didn't get much screen time – erm, they didn't get to use their powers!"
I looked at the other side of the room and saw somebody else. I ran over nearly had a heart attack when I saw Lilith. I calmed myself down as soon as I realized that she was still breathing. Lucas ran over.
"She'll wake up." he said, "She'll be fine."
"Hopefully," I said, "Um, Lucas… did you lose your magic gem?"
"No," he answered, "I still have mine. So, I assumed you've found one…?"
"Yeah." I responded.
"Alright." I said, handing it it to him.
"This is Erica's." he said.
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"Her initials are on it." answered Lucas.
"Oh. How could I not notice?"
"Yeah, the font is really small and-"
"I don't think we need to worry about that right now. Just what have you been up to, Lucas?"
"Just been exploring."
"What happened when you got here?"
"First of all, I tripped and ended up falling into the crowd."
"What happened next?"
"I was getting to that… I ran past two people with blunt objects."
"Where did you go?"
"To the elevator. They likely would have noticed me if I had used the stairs."
"Did you recognize these people?"
"I couldn't tell who they were."
"Anything you noticed about them?"
"Well, one was a man and the other was a woman."
"Any suspicions?"
"My guess is that the man is Jeff. Don't know about the woman though."
"What did you do after you made it to the elevator?"
"Most of the buttons didn't work; I could only get it to take me to the fifth floor."
"What was the hallway like?"
"It was dark and empty."
"How long were you there?"
"It only took me a few seconds to notice that this room was open."
"And that's when you found the bodies?"
"Yes, and I've been here since then."
"It's unfortunate that we've lost some of our crew and I don't know if they'll be able to respawn in their home dimension or not. Knowing Jeff, he's probably already found a way to mess with the rules."
"We have to keep going!" insisted Lucas, "We can't keep ourselves stuck in the past!"
"Y-you're right." I said.
"What just happened?" asked Iris.
"We have to stop Jeff." said Lucas, "All worlds depend on it!"
"Hi." came out of nowhere.
"Ack!" I heard come from Lucas as he jumped, startled.
Then, I saw Lilith and she was laughing.
"Don't do that, Lilith!" exclaimed Lucas.
"Alright." I said, "We still have more people to find: dead or alive."
"So, what did I miss?" asked Lilith.
"Some deaths and those guys." I answered.
"Charles?" she said.
"You know him?" I asked.
"Yes," she answered, "he worked with my father several years ago."
"Anyways," I said, "why don't we head out?"