Post Hollow Syndrome- Chapter 12: Three

,.~*~.,

Adam stood with his arms folded. He tapped his foot as he and Mira waited for Kai to answer the door. They'd knocked twice already- quietly, as Kai had asked them- but their friend had not yet answered. Mira checked her watch. "I hope he's up," she remarked.

Adam shrugged. "Well, he did say 8:00," he said. "By his standards, we're here a bit early."

Mira knocked louder. "Hellooooo, you awake in there, Kai?"

At once, the door shifted with a clunk and opened. A wide-awake and fully clothed Kai stood at the door, an annoyed bend in his brow. "Shhh! Not so loud. Ma's asleep!" He glanced over his shoulder for any sign of his mother having heard the commotion. Satisfied she was still asleep, Kai invited them inside with a wave of his hand. "All clear!"

Adam and Mira shared an amused look as they stepped indoors. Kai closed the door softly behind his friends. "Sorry I had to ask you guys over at this hour," he apologized, "but since I've been suspended I don't think Ma would've let me have you over... while she's awake, anyway." A self-impressed smirk appeared on his face.

He led them down past the kitchen, down to a short hall where three doors intersected. He set a finger on his lips to warn Adam and Mira to be silent, as the door at the end of the hall was his mother's room- or so that's what Adam deduced by Kai's gesture toward it. He opened the door on the left side of the hallway. The door revealed a steep wooden staircase which led down into the basement. He turned back to his friends, the smirk back on his face. "Prepare to be amazed," he teased. With that, the trio made their way downstairs.

Adam had been expecting a typical basement, but his eyebrows leaped into the air upon turning the corner and seeing what awaited them. The entire basement was filled with gaming stuff and fascinating mechanical contraptions. It was truly a sight to see.

"Well, I'm definitely impressed," said Mira. "You built all this stuff?" She examined a device that looked like a miniature crane.

Kai shoved his hands into his pockets. "Most of it. Not the furniture or the TV or the games, of course, but..."

"That's amazing! You never told us you were such a prolific inventor!"

Kai shrugged. "Uh, cause you never asked." He turned and trotted toward the end of the basement, which rounded a corner to a white door. "C'mon! I'll tell you what's up once we're in my room."

Adam and Mira followed Kai to the door. The redhead opened the door with a quiet squeak. It wouldn't open all the way due to a pile of stuff Adam could see despite the room's darkness. "Don't come in yet. You might trip and fall or something. Trust me, I know." He slipped past the parted doorway and vanished into the dark. Five seconds later, the light popped on. Kai stood in the center of the room, surrounded by piles of scattered, half-finished machinery and dirty clothes. He beamed. "OK. Now you can come in."

"Wow, Kai." Mira sounded far less impressed this time. "Your room looks like a... steampunk pigsty."

Kai harumphed in mock offense. "Mad geniuses don't have time to clean!" He sat down on his bed.

"All right, Kai," said Adam as he stepped inside. Mira closed the door behind them. "You said you thought you knew what was going on?"

"Yeah. Catch!"

Adam's reflexes sprang into action as a metallic helmet-shaped monstrosity careened through the air toward his face. He caught it just before it could smash in his nose. The front of the helmet contained a standard VR visor, while a padded helmet with a plated metal exterior formed the rest of the custom headpiece.

"And Mira!" Kai tossed her a nearly identical helmet. He grinned at her as he picked up his own and set it on his lap. "You get the newest one."

"Great!" she said with a confused half-smile. "What are they for?"

"I was getting to that," said Kai. "I've got this basic diagnostic program I'm going to run for all of us." He yanked a manual from under his blankets and flipped through it. "You enter different passwords for different problems and stuff. The program's supposed to find a solution for the problem. Really useful for when a game is bugging out for no reason." He hesitated. "I was thinking I could... run the diagnostic on us." He nervously awaited a response.

And here Adam thought Kai had an actual solution. "Kai, we're not a computer program," said Adam. "What good will that do?"

Kai seemed to lose hope at the comment, but Mira swung in to his rescue. "Well, what harm could it do?" she asked. "We could give it a try." She plunked down onto the bed beside Kai. He smiled with appreciation.

"Why the sudden change of mind, Mira?" he asked her. "I thought you didn't believe us."

Mira shrugged. "I never thought you were lying," she said. She turned to look at Adam as he approached the bed. "And if it gives you guys some peace of mind, I'm all for it." She turned back toward Kai. "I want things to be normal again as much as you guys."

Adam sank down beside Kai, turning over the helmet in his hands. He nodded softly at his reflection. "We can only hope."

,.~*~.,

Fifteen minutes later, Kai had everything set up- his computer to his gear and game chairs, the cursor hovering over the diagnostic program, a mere few clicks away from activation. Now all that was left to do was pass the manual around to find everyone's unique issue. Sadly, though understandably, there was no "weird dreams" or "out-of-character" options for Adam or Mira to select, so the options seemed to boil down to Kai's issue- unexplained glitching.

"738, 144, 492," he read aloud. Kai flopped down onto his gaming chair, the primary unit. "That's the password we're going with, unless-" He thumbed rapidly through the manual over and over- "Anyone has any objec...tions..." Something near the back of the booklet caught his eye. He flipped around to find the something in question.

"None that I can think of," said Adam.

Kai found what he's seen. He squinted at the passage he'd never noticed before- yet stood out so clearly now that he'd seen it, despite the small print.

IF HARM HAS COME TO YOU THROUGH AN INTERFACE, FIND A TECHNICIAN AFTER KEYING THE ESCAPE PASSWORD:

333 333 333

"Woah... Adam, Mira, look at this!" He held out the manual and poked the passage. Both friends leaned in to take a look at what Kai was so excited about.

He could feel Adam grow tense. "333? Three times?" He pinched his temple as he sank back into the chair. "Man. All these threes are giving me a headache."

"Of course they would," Kai snarked back.

Mira rubbed her chin. "What do you think it means by 'escape password'?" she asked.

"I dunno," said Kai with a shrug. "I don't need a password to just take my helmet off." But the tinkerer's curiosity was piqued at this point. This password was a technological unknown- and Kai was willing to explore it. "Well, we'll never know until we try," he spoke with a smile.

"Yeah," agreed Adam. "Couldn't hurt. Plus, all those threes... maybe it's significant somehow!"

Kai rolled his eyes, though he now had his own doubts about Adam's craziness. Maybe he had a point about the number after all.

,.~*~.,

The environment was a basic classroom. No windows, no doors- just grey walls, three desks, and a large screen at the front of the room. Adam looked down at his desktop, where a keyboard sat- just like on the chairs. He wiggled his fingers to make sure they were in sync. The scanatar's features were simple, but they got the likeness of himself and his two friends well enough.

"Well, we're all set," said Kai. He looked both Adam and Mira in the eye. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah," said Adam.

"As I'll ever be," answered Mira.

Kai nodded. "We all agreed on the repeating threes, right?"

Mira sent him a thumbs up.

Adam smiled. "Let's do this, Kai."

The redhead got set to typing. The digits spelled out onto the screen's query: 333 333 333. Enter.

At once, the world around them began to grow dark. The environment faded before their eyes, along with the sensation of the chair- the room- even of each other. A faint beeping noise echoed in the distance- somewhere beyond Adam's current understanding of time and space, which seemed to be slipping away with the rest of the world around him. Now all that was left was this blackness.

Maybe that dream had been correct. Maybe there was only one way out- one solution to their problems. Only one escape. And maybe this was it.

Wherever it may lead.

,.~*~.,

This story took me three months to write and release. A bit ironic considering how the motif of the number 3 comes up a lot in this.

There is a sequel. I'm still working on it and it only has two chapters at the time I write this. Visit the Hollow's archive on Ao3 for it. I'm under the same name there, and the sequel is called "What Lies Beyond". It's on a mini-hiatus right now so I can develop and work on my third Hollow story, "Infection", which I do plan on posting here eventually.

I hope this story was enjoyable! Thanks for reading.

-Cy