Jason Brooks

He was assigned to room 3SK62WE.

Hoping he was at least on the correct floor, he passed rooms with strange symbols and jumbles of letters on the door.

Some of them were entirely blank, but every one of them had peepholes, and Jason couldn't help but feel like they were currently being used to spy on him.

He quickened his pace and kept his eyes on the carpet.

It was deep red with specks of purple and brown, just like the church carpet he stared at during sermons as a youth.

It even had an ink stain, like the one he'd created when he purposely broke his pen to watch it bleed just for something to do.

Wait.

Jason paused and bent over the stain.

It wasn't just similar to the one he'd made.

It was the same.

The same wonky four-point star with an extra wide gap between the two left points.

But how was that possible?

It wasn't.

Jason shook his head and carried on.

He was tired, that was all.

He was making a bigger deal out of everything than he should have.

The lights flickered, as if in disagreement.

He walked on and on until his legs hurt, and he felt like he would collapse from exhaustion.

But as he passed door after door, he knew none of them were his.

When he reached an intersection, he picked a direction at random and followed it, not bothering to consider the strange layout of the place.