Archive of Our Own

The bell had already rang, indicating that classes had come to an end. 

Technoblade stood up from his desk, grabbing his backpack and pulling it up his shoulders. 

“Ugh, I can’t believe Mr. Sam left all this homework for us, on a weekend. ” his best friend, Wilbur, whined from the desk beside him. 

He snorted.

“It’s not even that much.” 

“That’s just because you’re a nerd who likes physics.” he huffed.

“And you’re a dork who only plays the guitar all day.” 

“Touche.”  

"Come on you cry baby, I'll help you later with it."

"Great!"

The brunette stood up, taking his own back. 

“Let’s get out of here, I promised Niki I’d meet with her and Shubble to go hang out, you coming?” he asked as they both made their way out of the classroom. 

“Nah, I pass, have to take Tommy home.” 

“Oh yeah, your dad is working late today, isn’t he?” 

"Yeah…"

"Guess you're stuck on babysitting duty." 

He chuckled.

"Don't let Tommy hear you say that or he's going to bite you." 

"His baby teeth can't do much against me!" 

"I'll let him know you said that." 

"What?!" 

He walked past his friend, stopping in front of the cafeteria's door.

"My stop." 

"Aw … Welp, I'll see you on Monday, we'll make sure to plan something when you have time for us." 

"Good luck with that, nerd." 

"You're the nerd." He flipped him off, chuckling and then running to the exit of the building.

Techno waved at him until he disappeared from his vision.

He waited for Tommy in front of the door, their usual meeting point. He needed to get him home so he could do his homework, otherwise he'd whine about it the next day, since their dad wouldn't let Tommy hang out with his friends until his chores were done. 

Five minutes passed, and still no Tommy.Maybe the teacher he had last was holding them for a little bit longer with the explanation.. He had teachers like that.

Ten, fifteen and then twenty minutes passed. Oh no, had he gotten in trouble and was sent to detention? It’d be a pain to convince the teachers to let his brother go. Couldn't they give him a free pass? It was Friday after all, surely they wanted to get home too. 

Half an hour had passed and there was no Tommy in sight.

Techno sighed, he'd have to look for him.

He walked through the hallways, peeking on the first floor classrooms to see if he saw his brother there. He didn't. 

He checked the second floor classrooms, he liked to hang out with some older friends sometimes guys from Techno's class. Maybe he was upstairs with them.

He wasn't there either.

The halls were empty of students, which wasn't weird at the start of the weekend. But there was no sign of Tommy.

"Toms? Where are you? We have to get home."

He tried calling his phone, but knowing his brother he either ran out of battery or had it on silent. As predicted he didn't answer, no matter that Techno tried to call him multiple times. 

He walked around the school a bit more, trying to find his brother. He asked Ms. Puffy and Mr. Bad if they had seen him, but they both said they hadn't seen him since the last recess.

He went to the second building, passing through the gym. He couldn't hear the bickering of the club rooms, but he decided to ignore that. 

"Tommy? I want to go home! Come on, dad's not going to let you go tomorrow with Toby and Ranboo if you don't get back and finish your homework!" 

His voice echoed in the empty halls, he wondered how Tommy hadn't heard him. If this was one of his pranks, it wasn't funny. 

"I'm going to leave you here if you don't come out" he tried, expecting his younger brother to come out of his hiding place saying something like "No you can't, dad'll kill you" or "You wouldn't, you're too much of a pussy to leave big man Tommy behind". 

Instead he was only met with silence. 

Maybe Tommy didn't feel well? Maybe Phil had Kristin picked him up early... but no, Wilbur would've said something if so. 

"Tommy?!"

Had he joined a club and didn't tell him? Would he have to wait for him until he was done? He sighed, walking along the halls.

He saw a flash of blond hair appear in his peripheral vision.

"Tommy?" 

He turned around just to see him going around the corner.

"Tommy! I've been looking for you!" He shouted "Where have you been? You were supposed to meet me at the cafeteria an hour ago!" 

Tommy just kept walking, without looking back at his brother.

"Are you even listening to me?" 

He decided to move, following him from behind. The boy began to walk faster, but Techno didn't bother to keep up the pace.

"Where are you going? The exit is the other way" 

Maybe his brother couldn't hear him from far away, maybe he had his earphones on.

He saw him enter a classroom.

"Tommy?" 

'Social economics' it read. He's pretty sure his brother was not into economics … or anything that required numbers. Why would he go in there?.

“Tommy we have to g-” he opened the door, but where he expected another of the many classrooms, he found none. 

There was no classroom, in fact, there was not even a room behind the door. It was surreal. Instead of desks and chairs he found only green grass and weeds and pretty blue, pink and purple flowers, they looked so beautiful and so real too. A beautiful meadow. There was no ceiling, only a bright blue sky, with puffy white clouds hanging from it. Was this some kind of trick with a projector? Maybe a prop for a play?.

“Toms?” he called out again. 

Was this even the classroom he saw him go in?. He looked around, the next classroom was pretty far away, this had to be the classroom he went in. 

“This is weird… Tommy, come on! We have to go home!” he shouted again.

No one responded. 

Should he go in and search for Tommy? What if he ruined the prop walking over it?  If it even was a prop … it looked far too real.

“Huh…” 

He kneeled on the floor reaching a hand out from the doorframe to the grass. He could feel it, it was real. It was as fresh and alive, as the one in his garden.

“What the-?”  He stood up again. What was this place? Why was it so weird? And most importantly, was Tommy here? “Tommy?!”

He huffed, he was going to have to search for him. 

Techno stepped inside, planning to apologize if this was indeed a prop that would be used later. He had to find his brother before his father got home, otherwise he’d have his head.

His name echoed in the hallway as the door closed behind him. 

He walked around the place, trying not to step over the flowers.

“Tommy?!” His voice didn’t echo like in an empty room, instead he heard it fade into the open air. “Toms?” 

This place gave him the chills.

“Come on out! Let’s go home! You can prank Wilbur next time!” 

He sighed, maybe he did see wrong and Tommy didn’t enter this place. Whatever it was. 

He turned around, going to the door. He put his hand over the knob, it twisted until- it got stuck. Techno tried again, slower this time, turning the handle and then- same result.

“What?” he breathed out.

He tried again, multiple times more, twisting and pulling the knob. It didn’t budge. He banged at it.

“Tommy?! Tommy, are you there?! Did you lock the door?!” He tried the knob again, but it was stuck.“This isn’t funny, let me out!” 

He tried to pull the door, he couldn’t remember which direction it opened. 

“If you don’t let me out now I’ll make sure dad won’t let you go out tomorrow!” 

No response from the other side. 

“Thomas Craft! Let me out! … This isn’t funny anymore! It never was funny to begin with!” 

His breath started to become shaky, coming out faster as his heartbeat raised against his chest.

“Are you even there?! Let me out!” 

He gave up on opening the door completely after he tried to push it with all of his body. Whatever, he’ll call Wilbur to come let him out, he’ll sure make fun of him for falling for one of Tommy’s pranks and then he’ll whine about how he was doing his own thing, but whatever. 

The phone rang once, twice.

“The number you’re trying to reach seems to be offline.”

He looked at his phone, that couldn’t be, Wilbur always had his charged phone on him, he was a social butterfly, Techno way pretty sure he would wither away if he didn’t have his phone active with him at all times. 

He tried calling him again. Still nothing.

He looked at his phone again. There was no signal. 

“What?” He wheezed. 

There was no way. The school had one of the best signals since it was in the middle of the city and had a large number of students. There was just no way the school suddenly cut off the signal … unless it was something that they did on Fridays and Techno hadn’t noticed.

“Dammit” He went and banged the door again “Tommy! This isn’t funny! Let me out!” 

No response.

“Hello?! Can someone let me out please?! Tubbo, if you're there I’ll let you borrow the book on mechanical elements if you let me out!” 

He sighed, there must be another way to unlock the door.

Techno took a step aside. Freezing almost immediately when he realized the door wasn’t actually attached to any walls. 

“What the-?!” 

He tried reaching a hand out to where the wall was supposed to be, it fell straight into the air, making him stumble forward. 

“What the heck is happening?! What is this?!” 

He turned around. 

“Tommy?!”

He tried not to freak out. This was fine. Well, it was not fine, but his situation wouldn’t get any better if he panicked. He took deep breaths.

Okay, Technoblade would admit, this was… far from strange, something he would’ve most likely see in a movie. But he was not in one, he was not the main character, and frankly, he didn’t want to be one. So could the universe just please let him go back into being a sleep deprived student? Please and Thank you. 

Just for good measure he tried opening the door once more. Still locked. 

Alright, it was obvious that he couldn’t go out the same way he had come in from, so it looks like he’ll have to look for another exit. 

Easier said than done. 

It would also be a problem if Tommy was here as well. He’d have to find him first and then the exit. Because there was no way in hell he was leaving his baby brother in whatever this place was.

He started to walk again, going in a general direction, away from the door. 

The more time he spent in this place the more he realized how weird all of this situation was. It didn’t make sense, maybe by mere chance he had found an entrance to a magical world, but that didn’t make sense either, there was nothing magical about this place. Unless you counted the tinnitus in Techno’s ears, or how the breeze seemed to be silent, or how the blue sky seemed to turn more and more neon by the second. 

He walked and walked, finding not a single building around, nor a magical exit.   

Eventually the sky changed hues, going from bright light blue to a yellow-ish or orange color. The sun was setting, because apparently time was still functioning here. He looked up, and despite having been walking around all day, he didn’t feel tired. If anything, he had a restless feeling. He turned his gaze back down.

He wasn’t in the infinite meadow anymore, instead all around him were pine trees that he was sure weren’t there before. There was no way he could’ve missed them all this time he was walking around. The beautiful flowers he had sworn he saw also weren’t there anymore. He looked up once more, the sky was almost the same, it had the same sunset color but the clouds looked so out of place, with their bright white and wool like texture, he couldn’t reach them. He couldn’t be sure. 

“Heh?!” 

Was this the same place he had entered?.

The air for some reason felt lighter, and his body felt like it could go away floating any minute. If gravity was still a thing, he wasn't sure if that would be the same thing keeping him on the ground. He felt lightheaded. 

Would it be too bad if he just… laid down and rested?.

“No!” He clapped his hands on his cheeks, trying to ground himself. What was he thinking?! He couldn’t rest, not here, not in this situation, not without finding Tommy first. 

He sighed. 

He better get going. 

He walked and walked again. Giving step after step. He tried to count them at some point, but he gave up quickly.  For some reason he couldn’t go past the number twenty two. His brain just froze and he had to start all over again. 

He walked and jumped over the tree roots, avoiding pebbles and unsteady paths. Trying to follow a general direction but still looking around, just to see if he spotted Tommy behind the trees. 

“Tommy!” He tried calling again, his voice already raspy from shouting over and over. He ignored the coughing fit that wanted to make its way out, simply clearing his throat instead. “Tommy! Where are you?” 

Techno hadn’t found any sign of his brother. And he was getting a little fed up, desperate. His situation wasn't any good and the fact that Tommy may or may not be here, trapped with him, didn't make it any better. He would at least want to know for certain if he needed to find his brother, or if he was safe back home while he was here.

The uneasy feeling of not knowing where his brother was would drive him crazy. If Tommy was here, what would happen if he never found him? If he found the exit before him? What if Tommy didn't know either if he was here? What if Tommy found the exit and made it safely back home while was still looking for him?. But what if Tommy was never here in the first place? And Techno looking around was a futile attempt of searching for a brother that was back home?.

He groaned, stress and worry making a headache grow present. 

Worst case scenario. He had to stick with the worst case scenario. Tommy was here and he had to find him. 

He tried not to think about what would happen if he didn't.

He looked up again. He had been walking for a pretty long time. The sky didn't grow dark at any moment. He was pretty sure he didn't miss night time at all, and yet the sun was coming out again, even if it never fully disappeared, and the moon never came out. 

Weird. Just when he thought this place could surprise him anymore. There was no night in here apparently. He sighed, not thinking twice about the strange atmosphere here. He just had to keep walking, keep searching, keep listening to his surroundings for Tommy and after that they'll both find an exit.

He kept walking. And by the time the sun was fully out he saw the end of the forest. He stepped beyond where the trees ended. And on the other side was a completely empty plain landscape, not a single weed or plant beyond the bright green grass that seemed to cover the ground like a cozy blanket, or a fuzzy carpet. In another situation he would've called it beautiful and laid on the soft grass to watch the clouds, that right now seemed to be a blinding white. But now he couldn't get past the uneasy feeling. He still forced himself to keep walking. 

At moments it was tempting, to reach down and touch the grass, the mere thought caused his hands to ache in anticipation. He shook the feeling away every time. 

"Tommy!" 

He called again.

The voice painfully making its way past his throat. Well this is what he gets for shouting apparently a full day and not drinking water. But in his defense, he didn't feel thirsty. Just as he didn't feel tired or how his feet didn't ache from having walked all the way here without a single break.

It didn't matter, he just had to keep going. 

He went through the plains. Walking until he couldn't see the forest behind him anymore. And he kept going after that. After a while the atmosphere the empty plains gave resembled each time more and more to a desolate desert. The grass wasn't replaced with sand, and the air didn't grow any hotter. But there the helpless feeling he felt as he walked and walked without finding anything else than more grass, it reminded him of the desert, and how on the TV people seemed to walk for days before either dying or finding something different than more empty lands.

Eventually he saw something in the distance. It was on the ground and it was a clear contrast between the vivid weeds and something white or gray. 

He walked towards it. Almost beginning to sprint when he noticed it was a staircase, he stopped just at the first step. Panting heavily to recover his breath. He looked at it once more.

It went downwards.

His stomach dropped just a bit. He felt bad enough being out in the open. He didn't want to know what would happen if he went underground. He shook the anxious feeling away, reminding himself that he had to find his brother, and that wouldn't happen if he stayed in one place. He had to keep going.

With unsteady steps, he went down the stairs.

The light started to fade the deeper he went, but thankfully, it wasn't that long before he saw the bottom. He only felt slightly disappointed at seeing the dark green grass at the feet of it. 

He went all the way down regardless. Finding what appeared to be a small room full of vines in the walls and strange pink flowers that latched onto them. 

It didn't appear to be a very large room. But maybe there was some kind of exit hidden away, or something that could be useful. 

He searched up and down, reaching between the vines and flowers to feel the wall for some sort of secret compartment or door that could’ve been behind them. 

He found neither of those things.

He sighed, stepping back into the middle of the room. Techno spared a glance to the stairs, guess he had to go back and keep searching for something else.

This was ridiculous. Why was it him who had to be in this situation?. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm his growing nerves.

"It's going to be fine." he murmured between teeth.

But when he opened his eyes, light flashed on them, he blinked a couple times and then he looked around him.

He wasn't in the flower basement anymore.

Instead he appeared in a strange building place, it appeared to be some kind of office, with open windows, showing a full bright sky with puffy clouds.

"How did I-?"

He decided not to question it. Looking through the windows. There wasn't a ground below, and if there was, it was hidden away in mist and clouds. 

He sighed. 

The offices appeared to be large with empty desks in the middle of it. There must be something useful in the room. Perhaps in one of the drawers. 

He went through the room, searching desk after desk, not finding more than a bunch of empty papers with a handwriting that was either illegible or stained with ink. 

Nothing that could really be helpful.

He kept going. 

There was a door, almost blending in the middle of the walls. He opened it. It was a dark hall, with a high ceiling and gray walls. No windows in sight, and a fluffy carpet of grass and yellow, blue and purple flowers. 

He stepped in it. Getting stuck on the other side of the now closed door. Like the first one, it didn't open again.

"Tommy?" He tried, his voice echoing in the empty hall. 

Still no response. 

He walked and walked, blindly going through the weed, using the walls as some sort of guide. They were cracked and he could feel pores, he could also feel little pebbles underneath his shoes. They were getting a bit worn out. 

It only made him miss his brother. After all it was his idea to interchange one of their sneakers, so they could match. He would never admit it out loud, but it was heartwarming. He loved his brother very much. After all he had been there since he was a baby, he knew him best that anyone, how could he not love Tommy?.

He stopped for a moment, trying to collect himself. Taking another deep breath. He sighed and then he kept walking.

After what felt like hours, a door made itself visible on the other side of the hall. He ran to it, afraid that this place might make it disappear, opening it harshly, almost throwing himself back. 

There was a small set of stairs. He could actually see the end of them, and the beginning of a turquoise room.

Didn't look like the way back. 

Just another space he had to go through to get out. Maybe a step closer to finding Tommy. 

He decided to go down, gulping down the fear on his throat the moment the door closed behind him. Knowing it was locked like the others the second he heard a small click.

One, two, three, four… four steps he counted down.

And then he was in another hall, with curvy walls and a concrete floor, there were a few stains here and there. It smelled like powder, something close to baby formula along with a bunch of dust.

There were no windows, not even a small skylight. And yet the hall had a faint light that allowed him to see. He walked through it, looking around, sometimes brushing the walls with his fingertips, if only to feel a small dip or a different surface  that could indicate a door was hidden there. 

How long has it been? 

He still had his phone, he could just … check. He pulled out his phone, only to find out that the time and date were… erased? Glitched out. There are no specific numbers, they're always incomplete and rapidly changing. Not even the letters that signaled the day were showing, they kept switching as well.

He’s just not surprised anymore. Of course his phone doesn’t work in whatever this place is.

Techno just keeps going. It’s the only thing he can do.

He can only guess it’s been a few hours, maybe a day or two if the sunsets outside were to be trusted. Does the time pass the same here as in the real world? Can he even call it the real world? This seems pretty real … feels real too … Is this only a variation of reality? Some sort of alternative world? He can’t be sure. 

He hopes it doesn’t matter that much, and that if it does, time passes like in the movies, where the protagonist goes back to their world almost at the same time they left. 

This feels like a movie … but it is not, right? There’s no way, he- he’s not just a character, he’s his own person. His life is not being recorded on some sort of screen … He knows that’s not how movies work … a whole set is needed and the actors know that it’s not real … this is, different. This is actually happening… isn’t it?.

He decides not to ponder so much. 

He lifts his gaze from the ground (he hadn’t even noticed he was looking down), and he’s met by the sight of the door, in front of him, the wood almost touching his nose. 

He flinches back, startled. 

He looks back, it’s the same hallway he came in through, so guess he has no option but to open the door. 

Techno turns the knob, watching as it twists until the door clicks open. He pushes it, peeking a bit to see what appears to be an empty hotel hall, with beige walls and a red-ish looking rug, the ceiling is a bright wall that blends in with the lights. He blinks a couple times, to adjust his eyes to the new room. 

The doors have bronze plates that have missing numbers

He steps inside, if only he hadn’t left his backpack outside the teacher’s lounge, he could’ve used a book or something to keep the door from closing. But how would that even help? If the other doors are closed shut tight. Technoblade has no option as he watches this door close behind him too. 

He tries to open the first door he sees, but it doesn’t open. Every step he gives is filled with a door, so he tries the rest. Locked, like the first one.

There’s a rancid smell that comes from the carpet, like humidity, or something close to that, it mixes with a faint detergent scent. It’s a poor combination. 

He walks through the hall opening doors, he gives up after door 258 since none of them seem to even budge, but he still tries to open a random door once in a while. 

The air, for some reason, starts to feel heavy, and it actually takes Technoblade effort to breathe. He pushes through it, trying to hold his breath for a couple of seconds to then exhale and do it again. He begins to feel tired, like all the exhaustion of having been walking around for god knows how long is finally getting into him. He doesn’t yawn, but his eyes do begin to drop the moment his lungs feel like they’re being held. 

He tries to walk despite it, but each step seems to be heavier and heavier. 

After a couple more steps, his knees give out on him, making him stumble to the ground, crashing on the carpet. It's actually dry, but the dust it’s present, along with the humid smell and the detergent. 

His lungs feel like someone’s put all their weight on them, making it almost impossible for him to keep his breath, his throat stings with each gasp he gives. His chest feels like burning, and then the world becomes blurry. He rests his head on its side, staring at a door.

He heaves, trashing weakly on the ground, before his eyes close he hears a door opening, and  a shadowy figure stares back at him from the door, no specific form other than its bright red and blue eyes.

He passes out after that. 

He wakes up with a gasp, lifting himself from the ground. He can’t remember what happened that made him pass out. 

But it doesn’t matter, he has bigger problems, like the fact that he didn’t wake up at the hotel hall. He’s instead in an office building, it’s really dark, and he can hardly see, but he still looks around, there’s more empty desks, this time with no papers, or at least, he can’t feel any papers over the desks, only a layer of dust that must’ve been sitting there for a while. 

He travels using the walls once more, the room doesn’t have any doors. He sighs. He gives a step more and he stumbles forward, his foot hitting against something that almost makes him trip. 

“Woa-!? What the-?!” He barely manages to catch himself, then kneeling to the ground to pat it, trying to find whatever he tripped on.

It’s a handle.

A handle that belongs to a trapdoor on the ground. He grabs at it with both hands, and it takes a lot of effort to open, but once it does light comes up. And he can see what looks like a concrete room, it is lit, but poorly. 

He takes a deep breath.

“Guess there’s no way but down.”  Techno doesn’t count, too scared that it’ll take his courage away, he just launches himself down into the room. Thankfully he lands on his feet, and he takes in the room he landed on. 

It’s not quite a room, more like an underground parking lot. An empty parking lot. There’s not a single car to be seen. He begins to walk around. It’s … disturbing, to say the least, something about the empty place screams WRONG to Techno, but he ignores the feeling.

His steps echo in the concrete, launching the sound to the whole room. But he thinks little of that, he’s more concerned with the smell of oil and burnt rubber. There’s no puddles or wheel prints that indicate either of those things. There’s a drop sound every once in a while, like a broken pipe that's leaking somewhere. He can’t figure out where. 

An elevator door could be seen in one of the furthest walls.

There’s only one button to call on the elevator, it’s white with red markings on it. He presses it. And the elevator opens. It seems to be a bit rusty, by the way it creaks when Techno enters it. But that’s alright, not like he has any other option other than use it. He checked.

There’s two buttons inside, one that indicates up and the other down. He really doesn’t want to go deeper into this mess. He pushes the one up. 

It takes a couple of seconds for it to register and start, he watches as the doors closes, leaving behind the empty parking lot. Then for a second, the elevator bounces and starts going up. It stops abruptly and Techno can feel it start going down.  

“What? I didn’t- I’m pretty sure I pressed up.” he panics trying to somehow stop the elevator.

He presses the buttons rapidly, even though that doesn’t do much. 

“No! I-!” He groans. This is just another thing that’s out of his control. 

He wonders if he had pressed down, if it would’ve actually taken him up.

He’s left in the elevator, pondering on his own thoughts. There’s no music to accompany the ride, it’s just plain silence. The sound of his own breathing seems to be a bit too much for him. He tries to focus on other things, but when he does, the walls on the elevator seem to come closer, closing in on him, it’s slow, but he knows he would eventually run out of space, he would be crushed to death or suffocate here, he tries to keep his breathing steady. 

He tries to put his arms on the walls, as if that would stop them from coming closer. 

He closes his eyes. 

There’s a small ding. The elevator door is opening, and now that he opened his eyes he can see the walls were back in their original place. It makes him feel like an idiot, thinking he just imagined things and panicked over nothing. 

On the other side of the elevator there was a bright building, a large mall, with a bunch of skylights that let the sun light the whole space. It shouldn’t be possible, he knew he went down, deeper into whatever this place was, there was not an explanation as to why he was now on the surface instead of underground. Unless he did go up, and his sense of direction was just messed up from being in this place. 

The mall was abandoned, or at least it seemed to be, since most of the stores were closed and the open ones didn’t have anyone in, and they appeared to be ransacked, vines grew on the ceiling, the railing and the stairs, the only dead plants being the ones on pots that must’ve went unwatered for a very long time.

The mall had many small halls, all covered by the dark. Techno thought of staying away from those. 

He knows the place is empty, but for some reason, the deeper he goes into the building, the stronger the feeling of emptiness grows. And even then, he can’t help but feel like he’s being watched. 

“Tommy?!”  He tries.

He gets no response.

He keeps going, deeper and deeper, failing to notice how the light faded slowly. It’s not until, against his better judgment, he decides to enter one of the halls that he notices how dark it is. 

He thinks about going back, but it’s too late. He doesn’t even get to turn around before he hears breathing just behind him, too similar to his own.

He can’t feel it against his neck, which he should, but still the sound sends a million alarms to his brain. Sending him into panic. Making his breath come faster, and the other matches him. 

Techno tries not to move.

It isn’t until a small cold breeze brushes in his skin that his body decides it’s had enough. He runs.

And once his legs are moving he can’t stop them. Panic making them lock in the same motion.

He doesn’t hear footsteps behind him, but to be honest, he can’t hear much past the booming sound of his own heartbeat banging on his ears.

He decides to peek behind him. But when he does he misses the hole in the ground, making fall on it.

He screams. Loud and with all the power his lungs can muster. It isn’t enough, seeming as he can’t hear the sound of his own voice, only a loud tinnitus that threatens to explode his eardrums. 

The world around him grows dark the deeper he falls in. The faint light from the surface is no longer visible, and the only thing he sees when he has his eyes open (Or at least when he thinks he does) is nothing more than a never ending black void. He can’t even see his own body. There’s no breeze, he can’t feel the pressure changing, nothing that indicates that he’s falling. 

He doesn’t see the end of it. But he’s pretty sure that when he stops falling, he’s going to crash into the unforgiving ground. The fall will surely kill him. He can’t believe this is the end of it. There must be something he can do. Somewhere to where he can hold onto. 

Doesn’t matter where he reaches, there’s nothing there. 

He doesn’t feel the landing. In fact, he doesn’t feel anything at all. But he knows something has changed by the way he can’t hear the tinnitus in his ears anymore. 

He opens his eyes, blinking to get them adjusted to the bright light. 

He’s once again in a hallway. 

This time with purple wallpaper with lilac stripes. The floor is made by white concrete, but it feels smoother for some reason. And the air carries some sort of baby oil scent.

There’s no doors, or windows, only a small ventilation system in the ceiling that lets out a vibrating buzz, indicating that it’s working. 

Techno stands up on shaky legs, his arms almost give up under him. But he manages to lean on the wall and get up. 

He looks in front of him and behind him. The hall goes both ways. But he decides to try to go forward. Walking without hearing his footsteps. 

This hall isn’t straight, instead it has a turn every couple of meters. 

He walks and walks until his legs begin to throb, feeling like they’re burning. His body is not happy with him, making him ache. But he keeps walking, it feels right to do so. It feels safe to keep moving. 

He makes a turn to the right, but there’s a dead end. He sighs, this was all a waste of time. He should’ve gone backwards instead of forward. 

Techno turns around, but where the hallway he just came through isn’t there anymore. In its place there’s a wall instead. 

He looks back to the deadend, noticing now the open air vent. He’s pretty sure that wasn’t there before. Or maybe it was, and he just hadn’t seen it since his vision prioritized the wall, but no … he couldn’t have missed it. 

He doesn’t dare to approach it. Even knowing that it’s too small for anything to come out of it. 

But he doesn’t have to. 

Soon a small red plastic ball is falling down from it. He flinches back.

“Where did that-?” 

Another ball falls, this time a different color. And then another and another, and soon the whole room is being filled with plastic balls. 

It doesn’t take long for Techno to start suffocating on them, they fill every corner of the room, making him drown on them. The air in his lungs isn’t enough against the air the balls try to take away.

He claws desperately at the air, trying to get away, to break free. His efforts are futile. 

There’s no escape. 

He still tries, and as his lungs recoil in need of air, he kicks and throws his arms in the air. Somehow he manages to lift himself up. Poking his head out and gasping loudly. He coughs, there’s no water on his lungs, but they burn all the same.

Once he recovers the air in his chest, and his vision is adjusted a bit, he looks around. He’s in a playground. An indoor playground. It’s dark, the only light being a fallen lamp that he notices when he looks behind him. Even then he can see the worn out paint in the walls, it makes the drawings made for children look terrifying. The place is dirty, he can see mud stains in the slides that lead to seemingly nowhere. 

The place reeked of plastiline, plastic and dust. He remembers places like this, he never liked them.

He turns his gaze again to the ground, and just outside the ball pit where he’s at, he can see a shadow. His heart skips a bit and his limb freezes. The shadow doesn’t have any defined features. But it definitely has the silhouette of a small child, which makes this whole place even more disturbing. Could it be the shadow of a cardboard cutout? Just a light illusion?.

“Hello...?” the words escape his lips before he can even think of stopping them.

He blinks and the shadow is gone, leaving a chill running down his spine. 

He has to get out of here. 

He gets himself out of the ball pit.

And with the dim light he guides himself through the room, avoiding the playgrounds. Until eventually he finds a door. It’s absurdly detailed for a place like this, made of old wood and with worn golden decorations. 

He opens it. 

The other side shows an empty house, almost like a mansion. It’s been long abandoned by the layer of dust and cobwebs he can see from the entrance. But he prefers that over the dark children’s place. 

He enters it, already knowing that the door is going to lock behind him. This time, he’s relieved about that, hopefully the thing he saw stays locked behind the door too. 

Techno takes a deep breath, and then he keeps going. The place is a two storage building,  with a set of stairs in the middle. The place smells like dust, it makes him sneeze a couple of times. He decides to try the first floor first. 

The place is mostly empty, if not for the couple of dishes in the kitchen and the lonely piano in the living room. It’s silent, except for the eventual creaking of the old wood and his own breath.

He sits down on it. It’s a lot bigger than the electric keyboard Tommy and he own. He blows the dust away. The piano has a lot more keys and pedals. He doesn’t know how to use them. He’s better with a violin. This would be more of his brother’s thing. 

He plays a couple of keys, a small song that he first learned to teach Tommy. It sounds a bit off. But the piano is old, surely the keys are too. 

He stops as soon as he feels eyes on him. It gives him goosebumps. 

Techno leaves the room, deciding now to go check out the second floor. 

Almost every door is locked, and the ones that aren’t are empty rooms with just a bed without sheets in the middle. 

It gets to the point where there’s only one room left, at the end of a dark corridor. 

His hands ache. He’s tired of opening doors. But he has to push through, so he does. Walking to the door, he takes a shaky breath before turning the knob. 

It’s not a room like the others, in fact, is not even a room, it’s another hall, this one with tall white walls and concrete floor. 

This time there’s a window, and he rushes to it. 

It’s dark, he can barely see, but he can make out what appears to be a complex apartment building, with some sort of space in the middle of the building. He looks down, but he can’t see the bottom, only more and more floor. He tries looking up, but it's the same, never ending floors and windows. 

His legs give up under him, making him crumble on the ground. He holds onto the edge of the window, trying to keep himself up, instead of cowering in the floor. 

A sob breaks out of him. He can’t help the way his chest shook with a wrenching hiccup. 

He shouldn’t be crying, he knows this. He’s the big brother, what would Tommy say if he saw him like this?. But he can’t stop, he can’t help it. Tears just keep coming out of his eyes. 

He feels so helpless.

This situation doesn’t seem like it’s going to end any time soon, and he’s so done with this.

“Please,” he hiccups “I want- I want to go home,”  

His whole body shakes as more sobs escape him. 

“I want to go home, p-please, please,” he whispers “I don’t- I don’t want to be here anymore.”  

Everything feels so unpredictable, so surreal. 

He wants to pretend this is just a nightmare, but how can he be sure of it? This isn’t real, he swears it isn’t, but it feels like so. He’s scared, he can’t deny it any longer. He wants this all to end. He wants to wake up. 

But what if it’s not a dream? What if it’s not some sort of coma? What if he’s really trapped in here?! He wants to go back to normal, to his life, to his house, with his family and his friends. 

This is not- it’s not real. It can’t be real. 

His chest starts to ache. 

He doesn’t like this. There’s nothing he can control about this. He doesn’t know what it’s happening, or why it’s happening. 

He can’t even control himself anymore. He knows that crying won’t solve anything. But that doesn’t stop his body from spilling tears and making him shake with hiccups and gasps. 

After what feels like hours his body has run out of tears, he only stares blankly at the ground.

Then a cooing sound can be heard from above him. He quickly turns around, making his head hurt.

There’s no one there. 

“Great,” he sniffs “I’m going crazy now.”

He cleans his face with the sleeve of his sweater, and slowly lifts himself up from the ground. 

He has to keep going. Doesn’t matter that he can’t anymore. He has to. Otherwise he’ll never find a way out of here, and then he’ll truly be trapped in here. 

Techno thinks maybe that’s what this place wants. For him to give up. But he can’t, he won’t. He’s always been stubborn like that. 

He keeps going, walking through the hall, until eventually he finds a fire escape door. 

Behind the door there’s a set of concrete stairs, painted with a white and beige color. There’s only one way. Up. 

So he begins to climb up the stairs. They stop every floor, to let a room show. It has an empty desk and a small table with a missing drawer, with a bunch of papers in the ground. It takes a couple of floors for him to realize that it’s the same room. Over and over. 

He keeps walking until eventually there’s not a room anymore, but a door. It’s weird, the knob is higher than it usually should be. He has to stand on his tiptoes to reach it. 

It opens up. Behind it there’s an empty room. Nothing more than beige walls and pillars, the floor being the same color, apparently made from the same material. 

He steps inside. Immediately regretting it as he’s thrown to the ceiling. Landing on his shoulder painfully. 

“AGH! What the-?!”  

He looks around and realizes that he didn’t land on the ceiling. But on the floor. Or at least, what appears to be the floor there’s a white rug, and he knows you don’t put rugs on the ceiling. But this place doesn’t follow any rules, so he wouldn’t know. He feels his weight being pulled towards ‘the floor’ but his hair and clothes fall up. Fighting whatever force made gravity this weird. 

He feels a small headache starting to form. Maybe his blood also runs with normal gravity instead of this new one. 

He stands up. Looking around. There’s a doorway that leads out of the room. He decides to go there. It’s dark and he has long given up searching every corner of every room.

Techno walks through rooms that appear to be the same. Until the doorway changes for an actual door.

He goes through it. Once more the door locks behind him. The color of the walls changes, from orange to a blue-ish hue. The floor is filled with cotton. And gravity goes back to normal after a couple of seconds, making his hair and clothes fall.

The room is divided into three halls. They don’t seem different in any way, they have the same color, and they reek of pure alcohol all the same. He goes through the second one.

After getting to the end of the hall there’s another room. With the same three halls.

He decides to go through the middle one again. Maybe sticking to the same path will get him somewhere. And sure, it gets him to another room with the same set of hallways. 

He tries one last time to go through the second one. 

It leads him into another set of three… but this time, they are stairs that go down. He goes down the middle one. Only flinching when mid stairway the room becomes dark, and when he looks behind him, the entrance has been sealed off. It takes a couple of minutes for his eyes to adjust, but he uses his time going down the stairs. Being careful and having a hand on the wall, only stepping down if he can feel the step. 

He bumps into a metal wall, and upon further inspection, he finds it’s a door. Like the one he has seen in the ships in movies, it opens up with a valve instead of a knob, and it’s a refreshing change. 

It opens up, and he feels something on the wall when he tries to open the door. It’s a small compartment. There’s a flashlight inside. 

He takes it. Shaking it to see if it’s still got batteries. 

It does. And thank god because after the door is open there’s nothing but a dark room. 

He turns it on. The room is gray, and flooded. The walls grow moss and the scent of humidity is everywhere.

He steps inside of the room, immediately soaking his sneakers and pants. But it’s not like he has any other option. He just has to work while having damp clothes. The water is cold, but not freezing, which is good because it doesn’t make it too difficult to move. But it still takes effort for him to even give simple steps.

There’re small hallways that lead seemingly nowhere. He keeps on the main one. 

Even with a sweater his body starts to feel cold. Which is weird because he had started to forget how sensations felt like. 

He walks, flashing the lights to the sides. There’s nothing in the building apparently. He can’t even figure out where all this water came from, there was no tubery or ventilation system and there doesn't seem to be any leaks anywhere.

He keeps walking, making a small set of stairs that lead to a pull or push door.  The battery of the flashlight runs out at that exact moment. So he has to blindly climb up the stairs and find the door handle. 

Technoblade pushes the door open. The moment he’s in, the lights turn on, one by one, letting show some sort of abandoned arcade. With a black carpet with colorful stripes on the floor, and neon lights that flash every once in a while. The whole place smells like an old bag of chips and some soda that someone must’ve spilled on the ground. 

None of the games seem to work, the ones that are on are all glitched out. So he ignores them. The price counter is empty, there’s not a single toy on sight, there’s nothing in the snack zone. It’s all empty. He’s not surprised, seeming as if he hadn't found anything anywhere. 

There’s just a bunch of exposed wires that belong to the machines. 

He keeps walking. 

He makes it to a large building with a low ceiling. He walks for a while until he sees a silhouette. A short person is standing a couple of meters across from him.

He carefully approaches.

They have blonde hair, he notices. And they are wearing a red shirt, with a white sleeve one underneath and-

“Tommy?” he asks. 

Those are the same clothes he saw him in last time. So he was here?!. A relieved sigh escapes his lips.

“Tommy thank god! I’ve been looking for you!,” He gives a step closer “Now we can look for an ex- … Tommy?” 

The boy hadn’t moved an inch since he first called his name. 

“Tommy? … Are you okay?”  The boy begins to shake slightly “I-it’s alright Tommy! It’s me! Techno! I’m here!” 

The boy begins to turn slowly. 

“T-techno?” He calls with a raspy and unused voice.

“Yes! It’s me, Toms!”

“T-toms?” 

Techno freezes as the boy completely turns to look at him.

It’s Tommy… but not. 

His eyes are unnaturally big and they aren’t just blue, but a bright neon, he has no mouth, nose or brows. He looks so … terrifying.

It makes Techno’s blood run cold. 

“T-techno?" It says again. Though he has no idea where the sound is coming from, since its mouth never opens.

“I- … you’re not- you’re not Tommy” he wheezes.

The creature frowns, or at least he thinks it does. It’s hard to figure out expressions when the thing doesn’t even have brows. 

Its eyes then crinkle, like if it was smiling. It’s disturbing.

“T̶̰̟̹̬͔̞̉̉̽͛̃̕ë̷̢̱͕͙̹̘͓́̎̈́͛́̓͑̂̈́̾c̷̨̧̻̭̟̮̯͔͉͒͆ḩ̸̛̺̠̖̥̩̭̻̥̎͆̿͆́̚n̸͚͇̰̬̖̱̽ó̴̢͕̞̤̫̅̾” the creature calls.

His limbs freeze, he wants to run the way he came from. Even if he knows that the only thing that will meet him will be the locked door at the end of the building. That and maybe death. 

The creature’s skin rips open where the mouth it’s supposed to be, it doesn’t have flesh or blood or anything. It’s just void. 

It rips until it forms some sort of twisted smile that almost consumes its eyes. 

Then. It screeches. Loud and high pitched, making Techno’s eardrums recoil in pain. He wants to cover them. But then the creature launches itself to him.

He chokes on a scream, trying to protect himself with his arms even though it’s futile.

ʷᵃᵏᵉ ᵘᵖ

w͓̽a͓̽k͓̽e͓̽ u͓̽p͓̽

                             ຟคkē นp

ⲱⲁⲕⲉ 𐌵ⲣ

             աąҟҽ մք

                                                                                               ʍɐʞǝ nd

                                                     w̷a̷k̷e̷ ̷u̷p̷

     wa̷ꝁɇ ᵾᵽ

                                                   Ŵ̴̮̼͊̓̑ả̶̢͙͖̜̺̜̥́k̷̠̦̹̹͕͓̞̙͊̌͗̿̕ë̸̱̂ ̴̨̺̫̹̹̣̒̉̾̈́͠͠ü̴͓p̷̼̫̟̤̤̱͉̳̭̿͐̍̒̓̅͌͝

Ẅ̷̻́̄̉̄A̵̘͔̥̙͑̍͐̐̆̇͗̕̕K̵̥̬̰̲̗̭̒͋̏͝Ē̷͈̳̂ͅ ̵̢̛̲̰̟̖̹̟͈̅̽̄̈́̂ͅÛ̷̧̧̗̝̰̝̜̖̻̪̐̈́P̶̬̫̫͕̻͓̟̋̚

Technoblade wakes up with a gasp.

Clutching a hand tightly to his chest. 

He pants heavily as he takes the room in front of him. It’s his own room. 

He’s pretty sure. There’s his desk, still filled with books and papers that he forgot to put out. His night table is still there, his phone left charging. He kicks the blankets away.

He’s still in his pajamas.

Was his hair always this pink? He’s pretty sure he only got some lights on it … but the original idea was to dye it all. Maybe he did?.

He hears quick footsteps approaching and his gaze snaps to the door.

“Technooo!!! Come on!!! Wake up!!!” Tommy’s voice calls “Dad’s not taking us to school today remember?!”

He … he does remember. Phil was going to work until late, and he had to make sure Tommy was ready for school … but … didn’t that already happen?.

Tommy bangs on the door.

“If we miss the bus I’m telling dad it was your fault fucker! I’ve been ready since forever ago!!” 

He checks his phone. 

It’s the same day he … left? Was it all just a dream? A nightmare?.

The door slams open.

“You lazy fuck! Wake up! You can sleep later!!!” 

Tommy, his little brother, enters the room. He’s wearing a white shirt with a long sleeve one underneath. His hair shines neon gold with the light behind him.

“Tommy?” 

“What?” 

“Tommy?”

“I’m asking what?!” 

“I- …” 

“You okay? Are you like, sick? We could stay here if you want, I’m totally okay with missing a day of school.”  

“You can’t miss school, remember?” 

Tommy groans. 

“Yeah yeah, my grades are bad and whatever. Hurry up then!”  

He slams the door closed. 

Huh. Maybe he did dream all of that. He sighs. Happy that this is all over. 

He grabs his phone and gets changed. He still has to go to school. He’ll tell Wilbur about this.

…

Techno doesn’t get to see the shadow lurking on the corner of the room as he makes his way out of his room.