The frame held my gaze longer than anyone has ever done, briefly forgetting the kind of situation I was in, completely absorbed in double checking the identity. Wait no, double checking wasn't enough.

  Without my gaze faltering in the slightest, I asked it as it paused for a brief second before replying.

  [Put it down.] The raw code, toned with aggression.

  [What?] Confused at its request, I throw another question.

  [Put the damn thing down and get out of here. We’ll figure it out later.]

  Seemingly annoyed at my prolonged stay, it advised me to get out of here as quickly as possible. And I didn’t hesitate to listen. The place was dangerous, and any pieces of weird information could be sorted out outside of danger.

  Despite this being the best possible option, my face gloomed with dissatisfaction. Mysteries were always the number one interest, even I didn’t know how far I would go to find it.

  I rubbed out the childish thoughts inside of me, my head turned rapidly searching for any kind of escape route. The hallway was quite longer than what I had expected, fancy lighting shining down on me as footsteps shook the floor.

  I tried my best to get away from the large amount of signals from above which I previously thought were from the same floor.

  The faint piano above rang its note across the hallway, faintly echoing through every room. The calm sound relaxed my nerves, but still I had to be on guard. I couldn’t help but feel pity, if it were any other situation I would’ve just let myself loose and sleep.

  Upon immediately realizing that I hadn’t gotten a proper break due to the amount of things that troubled me, the will to escape only grew stronger. Well, it was still strong at the beginning.

  Tick

  The end of the hallways revealed itself, walking around for a few minutes with guards heavily up strained would strained anyone’s mind even if a little bit. And unfortunately, I was no exception as even a faint tick of a grandfather clock caught my attention.

  Briefly looking at the ancient captivating clock of the distant past, each detail treated my eyes like candy. The weight-driven pendulum clock, swinging endlessly was unlike anything I had seen before, and the prices of these things were ridiculous.

  Thinking about the prices of these ancient things, I averted my attention towards searching for the exit, and before long moon lights filtered through the shutter of a window-pane met my eyes.

  The glittering light of the exit, bloomed my mind with delight. My legs rushed towards it, ready to break the glass instantly without a second thought. The window filled with a stupendous amount of decoration that even a king would be jealous of.

  Not that I knew anything about kings.

  I stared down through the window, covering myself with the bright blue curtain so as to not give away my identity if there was someone below. My current appearance was important even if it was not my actual one. After all, I couldn’t get another disguise done as great as this one.

  The green fields, carefully trimmed, bathed in the rays of moonlight. The faint blue emitting from the ground reflects onto multiple daunting people walking around with great care of their weapons in their arms.

  Clear as a blue sky to anyone smart enough to drink a water bottle that getting caught would result in an immediate loss of life. An Uncoiled might last a little more but that was it, and I wasn’t even the normal Uncoiled.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Certain that I would get showered with the metallic bulks of firepower, my mind raced. Jumping through the windows? Quite the stupid idea after seeing the guards. Manually leaving? That’ll just get me captured. Calling for help? To whom?

  My head instantly lit up at the last thought. To whom? There was definitely someone that would help me, if they didn’t then i’ll just jump to the ground and get atomized.

  I took my breath, hoping sincerely that this would work. After all, there was a chance of her connection to me getting cut off. And without delay, my imaginations centered around her, every thought in my mind centered about her, each sentence I made in my brain was all towards her.

  Slightly doubting that I needed to go this far to call for her, my concentration not wavering in the slightest.

  The pounding beat of my heart slowly became one of composure as she confusedly asked me the problem which I didn’t even think twice to reply. I tried to explain the beginning to the middle to the end. Although there wasn't much to explain, time was extremely valuable in these places, and I wasn’t going to stay around to test that out.

  I took a breath, my lungs expanding like never before with exhaustion slowly creeping into my bones.

  Before the air in my lung had a chance to make a single sound, she abruptly cut me off. Speaking as if she was there herself, completely annoyed.

  Well, if it's her then maybe she was here and testing me. That probably would be the best case scenario. However, the chances were really unlikely considering the tone before.

  My eyelids twitched, realizing that I wouldn’t get help immediately made my heart beat return to one a few minutes ago.

  Wishing that she would arrive as soon as possible, my eyes darted around the room, the piano harmonious with each tick of the grandfather clock relaxed my bones. Having nothing else to do, I naturally tried to relax. Of course, not too much as I was still in enemy territory.

  Exploring more would only bring more risks than benefits, and I wasn’t too keen on angering it anyways.

  Relieving the stress off, I properly sat down. Camera above me, still frozen in one frame as before.

  Tired by the entire situation, I rested my back against the cold and gentle wall. Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as I expected, although the coldness was still unbearable to me.

  Looking up at the camera, I dived into my pool of thoughts to keep the boredom away. From what I’ll do tomorrow to what happened last year, my mind did not rest for a bit. With alerted senses, the sudden halt of notes from above became noticeable in an instant.

  My gaze shifted to the luminous ceiling, patterns dressing the ceiling shined on everyone that attempted to stare at it.

  Instincts ordering me to be on my highest alert, and I didn't doubt that. My head snapped to every entrance possible, observing carefully as not to get caught off guard.

  My body instantly numbed, my eyes locked into the clock as I traced the path of the camera’s view.

  Its line of sight was straight on the clock.

  Each tick of the clock was supposed to be transmitted to the system controlling the cameras, and because the A.I froze it, it was paused. Almost anyone can tell something was off seeing that the frozen pendulum mid air, and check on it.

  My teeth pressed onto the bottom of my dry lips, the pain of the lips ignored like it didn't exist as I shifted to a standing pose in an instant.

  The situation was too dangerous to stay in the same place, and the chances of being seen were guaranteed now. Perhaps, I had already been seen.

  Thinking about how the piano suddenly stopped, I looked beside the window to the staircases. A clear plan to hide downstairs formed inside my head in an instant. As much as I would love to get away from the strong signals, the piano from before made it impossible to get to the next floor.

  The floor creaked as I rushed to the staircase, the tiles pressing down slightly as I held onto the railing.

  As quickly as I moved, my vision instantly turned to the worst with a brute pain slamming into my skull. 4 rough points of contact on the skull pushed to the wall as my ears rang.

  The outer layer of the wall, flying in all directions as blood covered the spot.

  My body’s senses became zero to none, every sense was numb, cognitive ability as fuzzy as a bottle of Soda. With everything numbed, my sensory pain wasn't an exception.

  My body faced the direction of the attack, a fist raising in the arm with veins popping revealed itself to me. Without any capability to think properly, instinct took over my body as the first barely overshot.

  The building shook at the impact as I was left scrambling for safety. He pressed his hand over his fist buried in the wall, and without giving a chance to recover I bolted through the stairs.

  Wishing that she would come soon, and hoping that I would survive until then.