54 hours.
It had been 54 hours ever since we arrived to Russo's apartment, according to the time that passed on our watches. But in those 54 hours, we'd never left.
We were stuck in a loop.
We were stuck on floor 4, in between rooms 415 and 430. It didn't matter if we walked up to room 430, because as soon as we walked past it, we'd arrive back to room 415. If we walked down past room 415, we'd end up back at room 430. We were stuck in between these 15 rooms.
"So thirsty…" Cynthia sat with her back against the wall. Kyra on the other hand was starving. Every few minutes, she checked her watch to see how much time had passed. By now, we were upon the 55th hour.
"Why is this happening…? I want to go home." Cynthia wiped a tear from her eye.
Kyra had no replies. I could tell she was clearly stressed at the situation we'd found ourselves in. For the first few hours, she was the most optimistic out of all of us. She came up with the majority of ideas to escape, but as each one failed after the other, she seemed to slowly lose hope. As our leader and beacon of energy dwindled down, Garren slowly became more panicked. The panic grew into slight agitation, as he paced back and forth along the hall repeatedly saying the same thing:
"Not this again. I can't do this again."
He kept referring to something he'd experienced that was similar to this, but even as we pressed, he wouldn't explain what it was. As his panic grew, his eczema began to flare-up and he began scratching himself everywhere. By now I could tell that forms of stress attributed to his flare-ups, so being in a hopeless scenario like this did not help at all. By the 24th hour, he'd locked himself in Russo's room, room 417, in fear that he would hurt us if he lost control of his itch again. So it was just me left with a dehydrated Cynthia and a starved Kyra, both of whom had lost all energy to continue thinking about ways to escape.
"Come on guys. If we sit here and do nothing, we'll never get out!" Is what I wanted to say. But even I found myself falling into hopelessness. I sat alongside Kyra and Cynthia.
"Whatever this Fractal is, it's brutal."
"Truly the devil's work" Kyra replied.
"I just wanted strawberry lemonade…" Cynthia croaked.
I began to wonder. "If Sav were here, he could probably wormhole each of us out of the loop."
"Maybe."
"Times like these I wish I had a strong Fractal like that."
We all looked at one another, sensing how tired we were through each other's eyes. We'd all gotten a few naps in by now, but we couldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time. The floor, although carpeted, was hard underneath. It wasn't too comfortable.
"I wish we had access to the other rooms. Maybe they had beds in it, unlike Russo's." Cynthia wished so hard for comfort. In our time stuck, we tried gaining access to every room other than Russo's. But without a keycard, it wouldn't work. Even Garren's Fractal couldn't slash through the doors. So now we were stuck outside in the hall, while Garren suffered endlessly to his itch inside Russo's room. We wanted to help him so badly, but we knew he wouldn't want us to. We knew we'd only be getting ourselves hurt in the process. I remembered what he did to those Angels.
Still, I couldn't help but feel sorry.
"We can't keep Garren in a place like this much longer. It's been hours and he hasn't stopped scratching himself," I said. Every now and then we'd here him scream from inside the room, followed by loud scratching noises.
"I know. I want to help him. But he specifically told us to stay away." Kyra sighed with regret. "I wish he'd run out of energy already and fall asleep like he usually does, but he hasn't yet."
I worried about that myself. "I don't get why that hasn't happened yet. He must be so tired."
"Have you guys ever tried falling asleep with a crazy itch? Like a bug bite, or maybe hives? It's impossible. And to think how much worse his itch is, I can't imagine how badly he must want to rest but can't…" Cynthia said.
We all sat on the ground, our backs against the wall, staring at the other wall directly in front of us.
We were absolutely hopeless.
For the next hour, I kept walking down the hall, along the loop. Always starting at room 415, and ending back up at room 415. I had no clear goal in mind, other than to somehow break the loop. Kyra and Cynthia had fallen asleep again, but I continued to walk. I noticed that by now there was silence in room 417.
"Garren must have finally stopped," I thought to myself, glad. To reassure my thoughts, I slowly opened the door to the room to check on him. I was not prepared for the sight I was about to see.
He was collapsed on the floor, with smears of blood staining the floor and walls around him. It looked as if his itch had been so immense, he'd rubbed himself against the walls to ease it anyhow. I crouched by his side with only sympathy to share. I could see that from the skin that was exposed outside of the jumpsuit, he'd scratched it to a point of injury. There were blisters and juices like blood leaking from wounds beneath his clothing. I made sure not to touch him, as to not trigger any possible flare-ups in doing so. But I did notice something by his side I hadn't seen before. It was a small notebook, tiny enough to fit in a pocket. Atop was a matching small pen. Both were stained with smears of blood. The notebook itself was opened to a page, and curious, I grabbed it and read what was written inside.
"It keeps coming back. The bad memories.
Mom and dad.
I hate it. It makes me so itchy. I hate it.
I can't stop scratching. The memories make me so itchy.
It's so itchy. It's so itchy. I want it to end. When will it end?
Why do I have to suffer like this? Why me? Why do I have to be so itchy?
Stop itching. Stop scratching. I CAN'T."
My heart dropped reading his notes.
"This is what you go through, Garren?" I felt disturbed and saddened. I flipped back a few pages and read another set of notes.
"Itchy. It's so itchy.
I just want to keep scratching until the itchiness goes away.
I don't care how much blood is lost, as long as I don't itch anymore by the end of it all.
I scratch and I scratch and I scratch and I scratch but the scratching won't stop unless the itching does.
It won't matter how much skin is stripped off, or how much flesh is exposed by the time I'm done scratching, because the itching compels me.
I am at the itching's mercy."
I put the notebook back by his side, making sure to leave it open on the page he'd left it. I didn't want him knowing I'd read into his thoughts, but at the same time, I wanted him to know I would support him through his burdens. Reading the sentiments he wrote while in pain, made me feel the pain itself.
"We'll get you out of here, Garren." I was suddenly ignited with hope to escape the loop we were in, not for myself, but for Garren specifically. He was suffering the most.
I stood back up, making sure not to wake him with my movements. I observed the room again. I thought that maybe something in Russo's flat had caused the loop itself. But then again, all that there was to the room was the big red circle on the wall. I looked at it for a moment. Then that moment became a few minutes. Eventually, I was standing there watching it for nearly an hour. Maybe it was the lack of sensation in my body that allowed me to do this, but I was unaware. As I stared into the circle itself, I felt my vision oscillate ever so slightly.
"What the…?" I stumbled a little bit. I couldn't tell if it was the lack of sustenance and energy getting to me, but I was sure that there was something wrong with the circle. The more I looked at it, the more I felt drawn into it, almost like I could climb right inside. I began to feel a sensation that mimicked sinking into a vat of warm, comforting water, that wrapped around my body with its viscous touch.
"Drowning…" I mumbled. It's how I felt. The longer I stared, the larger the circle looked. Soon, it looked so large that it touched the floor and the ceiling, like a wide gaping mouth that was about to eat me.
"No…" I was leaning forward. But I didn't fall. Like invisible arms, I felt my body being carried towards the open circle. I felt like I was being eaten. I was being swallowed into the hole.
"Kly!!!"
My eyes snapped open. I found Cynthia standing in front of me, with Kyra just off to the side.
"Klyson! Are you okay? What are you doing?"
I looked around. I was still in Russo's room, and Garren was still laying on the ground. I immediately noticed how strained my vision had become. My eyes stung keeping it open even for just a few seconds.
"I-I don't know… I was staring at that circle for a while and then I just blanked out I guess…"
Kyra got close to me and checked my eyes. "They're bloodshot. You must have been staring without blinking forever."
"I don't even know how long it's been…"
"Me neither. Me and Cynthia woke up and saw that you were missing. We immediately came into the room and found you staring at the circle. What were you doing?"
I repeated myself. "I dont know. I came in here at first to check on Garren but that circle suddenly put me in a trance. It made me feel like I was losing myself. Like I was hypnotized or something…"
Kyra turned to face the circle on the wall, eyeing it with suspicion. "Something's not sitting right with me about this thing anymore…"
"I agree." Cynthia looked it up and down. "Is it just me or does it look like its gotten bigger?"
Me and Kyra noticed this too. That meant I wasn't the only one seeing things, but then I worried that maybe the circle itself was causing us to see those things.
"Wait, don't stare at it for too long!" I told them. "The circle might captivate you the way it did to me."
Unphased, Kyra continued to watch the circle. She furrowed her eyebrows at it, as if trying to read into it.
"There's something with this circle that we don't see."
I tried to understand what she meant. "Like what?"
"I'm not sure. But I'm going to use Panorama."
Kyra stood before the circle and activated her Fractal. With this, her point of view was widened from 135 degrees to 180. She watched it intently, and me and Cynthia watched with suspense unknowing of what to expect.
Hmm…" Kyra turned away and began walking towards the door.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Away from this circle."
"Did you pick up on anything with Panorama?"
"No. But I think it has to do with the circle. That's why I'm leaving this room."
Me and Cynthia followed her out into the hall where Kyra stood in front of room 417, staring off down the hallway in the direction of the elevators. She activated Panorama again, but this time, she produced a reaction. Her eyes widened as if she'd just seen the light at the end of a dark tunnel.
"I can see… I can see the loop!"