Fifteen minutes passed. A pantry was found. Food, eaten. Friends, made. Plans, drafted.

The new plans weren’t really different from the ones the original four kids had already plotted. They had just been slightly adjusted to include two more possible people in need of rescue.

Even “plans”, as a plural, is misleading. Their intents were to simply comb through every door the House until one leads to House B, then do essentially the same thing there until four Children have been found.

Food was finished and the kids set off. The first while of their searching was fruitless, an echo of the past week for the original four.

The Originals had covered a lot of ground in House A in their search for House B. Vera had already escaped from B along with the now-missing Ben, but since escaping they had forgotten the location of the door that led to House A. It was even possible that these doors—gates, if you will—changed location from time to time. If so, the hunt may be much more difficult than they had planned for.

Criss and Malcom brought up a tidbit of info that the Originals had forgotten about—the fact that crossing a gate to another House creates a sensation live being shoved through a pinhole. This confirmed that when they had met Jax and Leo, they had still been in House A.

The search continued. It seemed that all manner of rooms could be found in this House. An auditorium here, too large to fit into the space between the surrounding rooms. A dark, dripping cellar was explored in vain. A walk-in freezer, walls lined with shelves of ice cream. A phantom figure was fought elsewhere.

One door appeared to lead to a lush city park. When Luke opened this door, a mysterious force tried to suck him through the doorway, catching him by surprise. It took four people to hold him back and slam the door shut.

After passing by an elevator and a lavish bathroom, the group opened a door and space inverted.

In earlier chapters, [lowercase] neglected to give House B an apt description. In fact, all three Houses were somewhat neglected. Given [their] penchant for over-illustrating the [journey] of the [Characters], this surprises me.

ok man. i see how it is. i figured that roasting other narrators would be too '''[poetic]''' for you.

It is, in fact, very [Direct]. When used as [Allegory], especially so.

no one gets your weird symbolism. just cut the shit, man.

The B House has a strange aesthetic. It is simultaneously pitch black and perfectly visible.

Imagine waking up in a strange room in the middle of the night. It’s dark and scary, and your eyesight is null. And yet, somehow, you can still see clearly. The darkness is there, but the details remain, only slightly fuzzy.

Pair this with a vague, unsettling ambiance and you’ll understand what our 8 [Characters] experienced when they crossed over to House B.

Criss scanned the blank, cold room. “This is givin’ me some sketchy vibes.”

“I’m kind of scared of this,” agreed Jen. “I think we should mark our door.”

Luke nodded and spray-painted the door with a bright yellow star. “Isn’t it a bad idea to use that indoors?” Malcom asked, coughing from the cloud of fumes.

“Yeah, it’s somewhat dangerous.” Luke replied, “Almost as dangerous as living in a House that wants to murder you.”

“Point taken.”

The small space only had one other door, to the party’s left. Criss walked up to it, noticing that it had a peephole in it,

Peering through the door, he saw a long, worn hallway with flickering lights. The flickering was particularly disorienting due to the fact that he could still see in parts where the lights were off.

The very end, however, was shrouded in a darkness that blocked all sight.

“What’s back there?” asked Leo.

“A real frickin’ creepy hallway.” Criss responded. “Shit ton of doors.”

“Let’s get searchin’ I guess,” said Ellis.

The crowd filed through the door.

The moment the last Child crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut. It then vanished.

On both sides of the hallway, dozens of doors flung open.

From each one, dark shadowy figures entered.