Chapter 30
Check the Map
Levi sat on the floor drinking water, his breathing finally steady after the breakdown. The tears stopped, but a hollow feeling in his chest remained. Beside him, Jasper was going through his baggy pockets that seemed to produce endless empty food wrappers and three different lighters.
“Here,” Jasper said, pulling out what looked like a pot gummy. “This might help you calm down, man. I always carry a few for emergencies.”
Levi took the gummy but slipped it into his pocket instead of eating it. Maybe later. If things get really bad. Which, knowing their situation, was pretty much guaranteed.
“Thanks,” he said quietly.
“No problem. I also have beef jerky, a backup phone charger, and like six different kinds of granola bars. My mom always said I pack like I’m going to get stranded on a deserted island.
” Jasper’s easy smile was infectious. “Turns out she was kind of right, just replace ‘deserted island’ with ‘nightmare hospital.’”
Despite everything, Levi found himself almost smiling. “Your mom sounds smart.”
“She is. She also thinks I’m a professional disappointment, but she’s usually right about the practical stuff.
” Jasper settled more comfortably against the wall.
“You know, I was thinking about life and stuff while we were running from those... things. Sometimes I get sad that I don’t get to hang out with my friends as much as I want to. Work, you know? Life gets in the way.”
He gestured vaguely at their surroundings. “But I was really excited when you called me to come work on this paranormal investigation project. Even if it’s turned into a literal horror movie.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got you into this.”
“Are you kidding?” Jasper laughed, but it was gentle rather than mocking. “This is the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in months. Sure, we might die horribly, but at least it’s not boring.”
He paused, studying Levi’s face with that perceptive gentleness that made him so easy to like.
“Besides, it’s nice to know that if my last moments on Earth are going to be at the hands of some horrifying monster or getting smashed between walls, I’d rather have it be with friends and people I like being around. Even if sometimes they’re dicks.”
He pointed toward where Asher, Tyler, and Elliot hunched over scraps of paper on the ground.
“Tyler’s been complaining about the lighting for ten minutes straight,” Jasper continued. “And Elliot keeps checking his watch like we’re late for a dinner reservation. Your boyfriend over there is the only one actually focused on problem-solving, which I respect.”
Boyfriend. The word made Levi’s stomach lurch, but Jasper was already moving on.
“You feeling any better? Because you looked pretty rough there for a minute. Not judging—this whole situation is fucked up beyond belief—but you seemed like you needed to get that out.”
“Yeah,” Levi said. “A little better. Thanks for... you know. Being cool about it.”
“Man, we’re trapped in a death maze with fucked up monsters. If you can’t have a breakdown now, when can you?” Jasper grinned. “Besides, I had a full-on panic attack in the bathroom at work last Tuesday because the coffee machine was broken. This is way more justified.”
“Speaking of which,” Jasper added, “looks like they figured something out.”
Asher looked up from the papers, his eyes bright with excitement. “We think we have something.”
“We’ve been tracing out the building configuration on different pieces of paper,” Tyler explained, gesturing to the scattered sketches. “Trying to see where things line up.”
“Having machinery that can move entire sections of walls or hallways is difficult,” Elliot added. “But we know it’s possible because we can hear the systems. And any good engineer knows that the more moving parts you have, the more likely it is to fail.”
“So the building drops certain permutations of the walls as it goes along,” Tyler continued. “As it moves and shifts.”
Levi moved closer to examine their work. They drew the same basic floor plan on multiple pieces of paper, but with slight variations—passages that branched in different directions, rooms that appeared or disappeared.
“Can I see those?” he asked.
As he studied the papers, something clicked. “What if we layered them on top of each other? Like one image, but we can shift individual pieces as the walls move?”
He began stacking the papers, aligning the common elements. “It would act like an evolving map. If we can figure out which walls move and in what direction, we can turn the piece that moved so we can see where the hallway points afterward.”
Like those sliding block puzzles, but three-dimensional and trying to kill us.
“That’s brilliant,” Jasper breathed, leaning in to see how the papers fit together.
Asher’s expression shifted into something that looked like pride.
“This might be the way to get us to safety,” he said, and there was something in his voice that made Levi’s skin prickle with awareness.
Working together, they spent the next twenty minutes creating multiple versions of the same floor plan, each one showing different wall configurations.
Using wire from Jasper’s seemingly endless supply of useful items, they punctured small holes and connected the paper sheets so individual pieces could rotate in place.
“Once we figure out a way back to the atrium where we left our equipment,” Levi said, testing the makeshift mechanism, “we might have a chance.”
A chance at what, though? Escape felt like an impossible dream, but having a plan was better than wandering blindly through the automated maze.
They gathered at the hidden door, listening intently for any sounds from the passage beyond. The building’s humming was constant, but no immediate threats seemed to be lurking outside.
“I think it’s time to go,” Asher said.
One by one, they slipped out of the safe room and into the dimly lit hallway. Flickering lights overhead cast their shadows long and distorted against the walls.
They’d made it maybe thirty feet when they heard it.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The sound echoed from somewhere down the hall behind them, relentless and precise.
“That’s not one of our friends,” Levi said quickly, remembering the horror they encountered before. “It’s a monster. Keep moving.”
But the clapping was getting closer. Louder. Faster.
Clap-clap-clap. Clap-clap-clap.
“Move,” Asher commanded. “Now.”
So much for safety, Levi thought grimly as they fled deeper into Dr. Faine’s maze.
But at least now they had a plan. Even if it might not be enough to save them.
The applause grew deafeningly loud as they sprinted through the passageways, their makeshift map clutched in Levi’s hands. Behind them, the horror was gaining ground, its wooden blocks striking together with relentless precision.
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.
“This way!” Asher shouted, pulling them down a side passage as the building’s walls began their familiar grinding motion.
Levi consulted their paper map, rotating one of the sections as he heard the telltale sound of shifting architecture. “If that wall moved... the passage should connect to—”
He stopped mid-sentence, his foot catching on something metallic in the dim lighting.
A video camera. Old, battered, and definitely not one of theirs.
“Wait,” he gasped, bending to pick it up despite Asher’s urgent pulling. The camera was a single handheld, a bit older in style than the ones they brought with them.
“Levi, we need to move,” Tyler hissed, glancing back at the approaching sound of the applauding horror.
“This isn’t ours,” Levi said, showing them the camera. “Someone else was here. Another investigation team.”
The implications hit them all at once. They weren’t the first paranormal investigators to be lured here. Which meant...
“How many others have there been?” Elliot whispered.
“We need to get to the atrium,” Levi said with sudden urgency. “All our backup batteries are there. We need to see what’s on this camera.”
As they turned to continue their escape, the grinding of machinery intensified around them. Walls were sliding, sealing off passages they’d just come through. And ahead of them, another wall moved—slowly, deliberately, cutting off their planned route.
The applause was getting closer, echoing from multiple directions.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
How is it following us? They saw it strapped to that chair with barbed wire, forced into eternal applause. Unless there were more of them, unrestrained and allowed to roam.
“There,” Asher pointed to a doorway that was still open. “Move!”
They rushed through just as the walls began closing behind them, sealing them into what looked like a maintenance room. The space was larger than their previous safe room, with high ceilings and littered with what looked like HVAC supplies, but it had only one entrance.
The entrance that just sealed itself shut.
“No, no, no,” Tyler muttered, pushing against the wall where the door had been. It was solid, as if the opening had never existed.
The applause outside stopped.
In the sudden silence, they could hear something else—a low, automated breathing that seemed to come from the walls themselves.
They were trapped. All five of them, with no way out and something hunting them just beyond the sealed walls.