( Aaron pov )
We kept walking.
It felt like we'd been moving for hours, though time didn't mean much in this place. There was no sun, no clock, no window — only the hum of white light above us and the echo of our shoes against tile .
We have already passed that hall of stalls and now we are in a path way with wall on one side and line of sinks on other side
Dominic was the first to crack.
"—I can't," he muttered between breaths. His steps slowed. "I've been moving for hours, man. My legs are dead."
I turned to look at him. Sweat rolled down the side of his face. His once-steady pace had turned into a stagger. I could hear the exhaustion in his breathing — sharp, uneven gasps like he'd been sprinting through a marathon.
"Alright," I said quietly. "We stop."
He dropped almost immediately, sitting down against the wall, his head tilted back. His chest rose and fell like it was fighting to keep up.
For a while, neither of us spoke. I leaned against one of the sinks, staring down at my reflection in the spotless metal basin. My hair was messy, my face pale.
I then looked towards my arm which was still full of goosebumps, i should have adapted to this unreal experience by now but somehow my body didn't
I then began thinking about the worry of parents about me going missing suddenly , truly sad .
They should not deserve to be worried , i promise I will be a good child and come back soon
That's when the lights began to flicker.
A soft pulse at first — like a glitch. Then another. Then a rhythmic, stuttering flash that made the shadows dance across the walls.
Dominic looked up. "The hell's that?"
The sound of electricity buzzing filled the silence. My stomach twisted. Something about it didn't feel right.
"Get under the sink," I said without thinking.
"What?"
"Just do it."
I crouched down and opened the cabinet beneath the nearest sink. It was surprisingly spacious — empty, spotless, not a speck of dust or dirt anywhere.
Dominic grumbled but followed, crawling in beside me. We pulled the doors closed, sealing ourselves in. The small space smelled faintly sterile, like antiseptic and metal.
For a moment, the only sound was our breathing.
I looked around the interior, trying to distract myself. There was no plumbing — no pipes, no drainage holes. no speck of dust . Just smooth white walls , a small dustbin and that faint chemical scent.
Dominic whispered, "Where are the pipes?"
"Good question," I murmured. "Maybe built inside the wall?"
But even as I said it, I knew something was off. The structure didn't look like a cabinet meant to hide pipes. It looked like a hollow box, like something built just to be there.
My thoughts stopped when the lights outside died completely.
Darkness swallowed the hallway. Absolute. Silent.
I could hear Dominic shift beside me, his breath catching. For a moment, it was just us — two people pressed into a cramped box, trying to be smaller than the dark itself.
We didn't say anything. We didn't need to. Both of us felt it — that instinct to not move, not breathe too loud, to just exist quietly until the world outside decided what it wanted to do next.
Then came the sound.
Footsteps.
Slow, distant, measured. The kind of sound that shouldn't exist in a place with only two people.
I froze. Every muscle in my body tensed as the echo crawled along the tiles — steady, deliberate. Dominic's breathing picked up, shaky and uneven.
"I'm going out," he whispered.
I turned to him, eyes wide even in the dark. "No. Stay still."
He shifted, annoyed. "What if it's someone else? Someone human like us?"
"It's not," I whispered back.
"You don't know that."
I grabbed his wrist before he could move. " man there is a thing called survival instinct which I have ."
Dominic paused. I could tell his brain was trying to fight his instinct — the need to do something, anything, instead of hiding like a trapped animal.
I leaned close to his ear, whispering so quietly I barely heard myself.
" Do you have a phone ?"
" Yes "
" Good , give it to me i am going to test something "
He looked at me, confused, but didn't speak.
I didn't know what I was going to do yet. But I knew one thing — i have to survive this and get back home anyway .
Afterall could not let my parents suffer .