It’s been a couple months now that I’ve been trapped in this complex. The rules here are simple and few, but there’s a lot more lessons here than anything else. Countless unspoken knowledge of this place and its residents. One of the few lessons that I’ve learned is that a lot of things in here have almost a polar opposite or even an equal. Winthorp and the complex, Him and Her and the elevator and the stairs to list a few. I’ve noticed that my room moves from time to time. At first it was simple. Room #224, second floor, 12th door on the right when I first got here. Days later it was further down and a few days after that it was on the left side. Rooms near mine that matched the number sequence have changed from mixing and adding numbers to also adding letters and now sometimes display a text I can’t comprehend or something else altogether after the complex got comfortable with me.

I’ve also learned that the elevator seems to be friendly. It will always bring you to the floor where your room is despite it traveling around. The buttons in the elevator sometimes change from a standard elevator panel to displaying my unknown neighbors gibberish languages or even changing control panels entirely. The elevator’s interior is caged in a gold metal framework with a red and gold intertwining pattern carpet to match the hotel hallways that never change. However, no matter what button you press it will always bring you to the floor your room is on. I noticed this when I accidently pressed floor 20 instead of 22 when my room decided to ascend 20 floors up after a couple weeks in. Yet, when the doors opened to my mistaken early floor I saw my room number just a few doors down on the left. I thought I was mistaken until I entered and surely enough it was my room. Back when it housed a normal standard 1 queen mattress hotel room. Before I was punished for my destructive mental breakdown and given an empty trashed room.

The stairs however were not as kind as the elevator. I made the mistake of taking the stairs once to get in some form of cardio since my entrapment. I knew something was wrong when I noticed on what should have been floor 11 and 12, there weren't even doors. I went up a couple more floors and saw either random locked doors that didn’t match or more blank corners. I had enough and turned back to go back to floor 1 to leave. I was already somehow on the bottom floor just after running 2 flights back down. The ground floor’s door has also changed into a medieval time door with interlocking chains and a big padlock in the center holding them all together. I began cursing at myself. It was at this point that I remembered something Winthorp said when I first checked into this place.

I was given 2 keys and a garnet colored leather book when I first checked into this place. A dirty old gold key that was for my room and my room alone and a bright shiny new silver key that opens everything else, I was told. At first I thought this meant a closet, cabinets, side room or any other door/ lock in my room, but after a few days I noticed there weren’t any other locks for this other key in my room. I always kept both keys linked on a key reel and on me just in case, but left the book in my room since it was filled with blank pages anyways. I took out the silver key and went to try it on the padlock, but when I looked up it was gone. I heard what sounded like a jingle of some kind echoing down from floors above. I looked up through the center gap in between the flights of stairs and saw that they seemingly go up infinitely. I stared up and could barely see what looked like someone looking down at me from about 20 floors up.

I suddenly felt my right foot drop a foot or less and looked down to notice there’s more floors beneath me now that also descend what looked infinitely. I heard the jingle again and turned back up and saw that whatever was looking down at me is now already a few floors lower. I got a better look at it from this distance. It looked like someone wearing a jester's cap. It leaned back out of sight and peaked out again to look back down like it descended 4 floors down in what felt like moments. Its face was loose and saggy like it was wearing it to pretend to be human. Its makeup is thrown on randomly and dripped down from the excess application. That jingling noise were bells that tipped the hat’s extensions. I descended the stairs as fast as I could. Desperate to find the next door. That’s when I heard its laughter. It was deep and loud like a talking child's toy with dead batteries. I can hear it getting closer and closer as I ran as fast as possible. At one point the stairs shifted to spiral in the reverse pattern to throw me off.

A few floors after that it shifted again to be ascending instead of descending and I fell face first onto the square cut stone steps. With my face and nose now bleeding I continued running up the steps on all fours when I saw a big red wooden door and had no time to hesitate. I grasped the handle and turned to see if it was locked and in that second I felt it was I already had the silver key heading for the key hole with my opposite hand. The stairwell jester was just a floor or two below me now and I could hear that deep echoing laugh and jingling rounding the stairwell behind me when I got the door open. I turned to slam the door in its face. Its limbs were as long as a man on stilts. It had 6 long limbs. Each with giant hands that had too many long fingers. It’s draped in an old clown's costume that seemed to be made for it. I can see now that it is in fact wearing a decrepit human’s face like a mask and its real face is too far in to be seen in the dim lights.

When I caught my breath to continue on I noticed that I’m not in what I was expecting to be a hallway in the complex, but what looked like a classic kid’s entertainment center. A warehouse sized building with brightly colored decor, furniture and a massive playground for kids that takes up about half of the building and is even connected to the ceiling to maximize the space. Long tables and chairs that can seat several large sized kids parties are covered in old moldy pizzas and cakes from being abandoned. The playground had long plastic windowed tubes and ball pits with trails of what looked like old dried up blood being dragged into them. My suspicions of this were confirmed when I saw the colored carpets had finger nail drag marks following the blood stains. There were so many drag marks. The plastic air filled balls in the pit began to shift.

Like something breaching the surface of water the balls parted towards the edge in my direction. Hard plastic slaps from something deep inside the giant tubes can also be heard in unison. I began running in the opposite direction towards a revolving door I can see in the distance that looked like an exit. Several Carnival-like music played loudly over each other behind me as I tripped over a pulled up rug. I turned back while getting up to see emerging from the ball pit, exiting the tubes and some already in full sprint behind me were old furry childrens animatronics of different animal and themed variety. Like a zoo from hell itself they were all pushing and running over each other to get to me. Each either playing its own music or shouting their own individual catchphrases and slogans. They’re covered in dried blood and missing patches of fur from most likely their victims desperately fighting back. I began running again towards the revolving door in the distance. If it wasn’t for their personal greed, one of them would’ve easily caught me due to their colossal sizes.

The revolving door’s windows were replaced with mirrors and I could see they weren’t far behind me in the reflection. I looked around quickly to find the lock. The horde was gaining on me fast. A giant dark brown animatronic beaver reached me first and desperately tried chomping hard at me. Its big head and arm got wedged in the door’s frame. I saw the keyhole in the center of the revolving door and turned my key inside of it, but the beaver’s big mechanical head and arm were stopping me from turning my exit. I tried kicking its face away aiming for the big cold dead plastic eyes and in my panic I missed on my 3rd kick and threw my leg into its maw stupidly. Its metal buck teeth took the opportunity and bit down hard on my mid shin. Immediately shattering my bone in two and pulled. My calf muscles tried to desperately keep my leg together. I was holding onto the handles on the revolving door tightly when the beaver was violently pulled back by a goliath sized green gorilla animatronic and took everything below my right knee with it. They began fighting like starving beasts.

Luckily I was leaning back on the revolving door and when the beaver was pulled away I fell back and through my exit. There was no more sound of carnival music or cheesy catchphrases with a murderous spin on them anymore. With no time to waste I was bleeding out fast and my body was still in shock so I couldn’t feel the pain, yet. I took off my shirt and tore it into long bands and tied my thigh as tight as I could. After the first tight makeshift bandage I did that 3 more times to try and stop the bleeding as best as I could. I heard a loud snap through the silence nearby and turned to my right. That’s when I noticed my surroundings. I seemed to be deep inside a heavy forested area. Sunlight is blocked by the tall foliage filled trees making it dark, but not unseeable. Like a well moonlit night.

Another snap was heard behind me and I saw something lean back behind a tree to hide from my view. I was looking around in panic when I noticed that the revolving door was also gone. I was surrounded by nothing but thick heavy forest and its occupants. Of course, I finally escape the complex and I die by being handicapped in a predator filled forest. I gave up and yelled for whatever was out there to come get me. There’s no way I can win or get out of this. My screams were a mix of impatience, sadness and anger. I just wanted this to finally be over. In the distance in front of me I can see a figure with glowing white eyes. Like that of a cat's eyes reflecting light. I turned up my wrists and hung my head low to just get this over with when suddenly I got asked if I’m okay.

I confusingly asked, what, and looked up. There in front of me was a small man wearing a long fur and leather trench coat and a cornucopia on his head. The man had tired sunken circles around his eyes and was pale from the lack of sunlight. I was stunned at the sighting of another person. Even if it was some whacko hermit. I rambled on like a madman about what I just went through in sobs. The stairwell, the clown man, the bloody playroom, me losing my leg and the complex I just escaped from. The man then stopped and corrected me. I was still in The Pandemonium Complex. This was a tenant and I was in his room. A part of me died again almost as soon as I saw hope. I told the thing to just kill me. I was in his room after all. I give up.

He reached inside of his coat and started pulling out whatever he was going to use to end me. I closed my eyes and held my head down again in defeat. He held something in front of my face and told me to eat it. It looked like an old dried up orange and purple striped pepper. Whatever this was, I didn't care anymore. Anything to just end me and my misery. I ate the strange fruit and my right thigh burned with intense pain. My right thigh got twice as thick and popped the bandages right off from the force. I held my prized pumpkin sized thigh in pain and something shot out. I screamed and cursed the thing that was torturing me only for me to suddenly realize that I can wiggle my right toes again. I looked down and saw a mucus covered leg that matched my old leg perfectly. My face was no longer cut and bruised.

I looked back up at the tenant and thanked him. He told me it was a ghurotabia (gor-o-ta-bae) fruit. He’s had it for a few years and was saving it for emergencies since it is extremely rare. It can heal and luckily humans are extremely simple in biology compared to his kind. The man introduced himself as Gunter. He was a Fae, an Akras to be exact, but was rejected by his kind. Humans believe Akras to be a single god fae, but they are actually a type of fae that control fertility, turnips, beans, peas, cabbage, flax, and hemp. Gunter however controls wood and summons fruit. I asked if that’s why he was casted out and he corrected and explained it was because he summoned a chunfrue (ch-oon-fru) fruit by accident and left it in a field. A fire fruit that bursts into flames when rotten and accidently burnt down half of the forest. He can summon all fruits, but can’t control which one he summons. It’s random, but luckily he has knowledge of all the fruits and wood he sees and knows which ones are safe to eat.

After testing my new leg and standing up I thanked him for his kindness again and asked where the exit was. He stopped me and told me nothing is free to the fae and he needs my help in return for healing my leg and eating his extremely rare fruit. Of course I should've known. Gunter has actually been trapped in his own room for many years. At first his room was an open field with a few trees, but the complex gave him a packed forest over the years and accidentally turned his room’s door into one of these trees. Creating a new door isn’t the problem. Gunter controls wood and can just make a new door, no matter how many times he tries the door is always locked. When he first arrived in the complex Winthorp gave him 2 things. A travel box full of assorted toothpicks with different types of wood and a key made of an unknown dead vine. I asked to see his key and it was the size of a grown man’s hand. It was woven together in dead vines and didn’t resemble a key in the slightest, but was told it was. Even Gunter said he doesn’t know what this vine is or anyone he’s ever asked when he was free. It never even worked on his room’s door so he always left it unlocked and barely anything in the complex is stupid enough to enter another’s room willingly.

Gunter also said leaving your door unlocked can stop it from moving around the complex wildly which is a big plus. I told him about my silver key and how I got here. I then asked him to turn one of these trees into a door so we could leave. He refused and said he can control wood, but will never harm a living thing. How would you feel if someone who controls flesh and blood turned you into a door? He explained. I apologized for any offense and asked what we should do. He pulled out the box of toothpicks and before my eyes took one out and kept pulling on it. Pulling and shaping it over and over like it was clay until before us was a red oak colored door with frame and vine patterns. I was in awe and told him that was amazing. He blushed a little at my compliment and unconvincingly told me to stop. I put my key inside and turned. We opened the door and stepped forward confidently towards our freedom. What we stepped into though was nothing but complete darkness.

The room we stepped inside of was almost fully black. Skies darker than anything I’ve ever seen before, like vantablack. A night sky with two yellowish moons and stars spaced out varying in shapes and shines, but nothing illuminated below them. We looked around but all we could see was the light coming from Gunter’s room behind us illuminating our backs. Then suddenly complete darkness. Just like the revolving door in Gunter’s room our exit was gone. As we turned around a blue rippling wave flowed away from our steps. The little light from Gunter’s room must’ve hidden this when we stepped in. The floor had about just a half an inch of this liquid that held some kind of bioluminescence algae. Every step made a small wave and lit the floor around us with a bright blue. Gunter giggled at this beauty and danced in the lit up water. He lightly tapped and laughed for just a moment of happiness before I put my hand on his shoulder and quietly told him to stop. We were not alone.

The waves kept flowing away from us into an endless void and in the distance were figures also standing in the shallow waters. The blue light wave continues and with it more and more differently shaped figures become visible by the light. Some tall, some short, some humanoids and some creatures I’ve never seen before. They all stood motionless looking up into the night’s sky. More and more became visible. Features were still unknown due to the darkness, but outlines of the things were displayed by the bioluminescence. When the second round of waves hit their feet they twitched, then on the third they moved slightly, the fourth caught their full attention. One seemed familiar to me and I hope I was wrong. We need to leave, I told Gunter. Make another door, now! The waves of Gunter’s dance from earlier displayed a familiar figure in the distance. A tall white skin reflected the light more than the rest. An apex predator, with rotten features, few thinning long hairs and big clouded eyes with no eyelids. That’s when I looked up and noticed.

Those moons are cracked with red and the few stars begin moving in unison towards each other into place under the moons. Waves of the bioluminescent water flowed toward us. The creatures in the distance began their approach. The familiar figure is exactly what I thought it was, a wendigo and a familiar one at that. I screamed at Gunter to hurry and make another door. He was already pulling and forming one as we spoke. I looked up into the sky and the stars formed their place while the moons began to turn towards each other. Looking closer I noticed the stars in the sky were actually teeth. All from a different thing. The moons had big spots of black that were turning completely around. Blacker than anything I’ve seen before, but I have seen this before. The teeth formed into a familiar smile that almost went on forever and The sky looked down at us. We were inside her room. We were inside of Her.

Her victims were slow at first and started getting faster towards our direction till they were charging at us. The floor was bright with blue light as her army stampede towards her trespassers. Gunter yells, done! I turned towards our exit and put my key in and turned. We jumped through not knowing where we were going, but anywhere is better than here. Gunter barely slammed the door behind us in time.

We were completely submerged in deep fresh water. We held our breaths and the water was so clear that we were able to look around easily. Once again, no door in sight, but we were somehow in what looked like a deep ocean. I know better than to think that though. Gunter swims towards me and gets close. He pulls out another toothpick and starts his craft again. This time he makes a small boat and we both hold on as we begin to rise. We both look down and see something massive and long below in the depths. Deep enough to not be fully illuminated by the light, but massive enough to look like it was a giant sea creature just a few feet away. We breach the surface and both of us gasp for air. We turned the boat over and got on. Gotta love cedar, Gunter jests. Gunter rubs his bald head and then suddenly starts looking around the boat desperately for something. He reaches over and from the waterside yells, Ah ha!, holding up his cornucopia and plops it back on his bald pale head with a big satisfied smile. We look around at this seemingly endless ocean. How big are these damn rooms?! I yell. Turns out some of these rooms can be on a planetary scale for some of its tenants, Gunter explains.

I asked Gunter if he knows where we are and he says he thinks he knows this tenant. A Kraken named, he then made a series of clicks and screeches. Apparently a Kraken is a massive squid octopus hybrid that has the body of an octopus, but the head of a squid giving them 16-18 limbs in total. It can be the size of an island if it wanted to or as small as the wolfi octopus. They can fly as well as they can swim, but prefer the cold dark depths. They can communicate telepathically, but if it does while it’s too big it can scramble a basic brain. The one he knows is nice by nature and could maybe help us get home. The artificial ocean we were floating on was as calm as a glass of water and the only waves emanated were from our boat. Gunter looked over the boat and into the depths while I scanned the surface. I saw a human shaped figure that was far out, but close enough to make out some features if I squint. Is that…? I whisper. This caught Gunter’s attention. That’s Winthorp! Unmistakable, straw boat hat and all. I yell out to him again and again while waving. He must be here to take us back to the complex. Why else would he be here? I thought.

It was Gunter this time to put his hand on my shoulder and quietly tell me to stop. He was wrong. This wasn’t The Kraken’s room like Gunter originally thought. Not Winthorp started to get closer and fast, but something big was behind him. Something massive that was breaching the ocean sized water was right behind the fake bellhop. Gunter began frantically patting his pockets saying no, no, no over and over again. I watched as the titan got closer and became more visible as it surfaced. A long stem that matched the blue of the sky and ocean was connected to the doppelganger god that bent far and back into the water. I yelled at Gunter to make another door, but he yelled saying he lost his picks. I looked back and breaching the water looked like a colossus angler fish with an eel body that was impossibly long. Massive long sharp translucent teeth the size of steel beams filled its mouth. Its head emerged with many lures that each resemble someone I loved in the past. What the hell is that?! I screamed.

A Leviathan! Gunter answers. I looked down into the water below us and saw Gunter’s picks floating around and away from the boat. I moved as quickly as I could, fishing them out and holding one behind me while using my other hand to fish out as many others as I could. Gunter grabs the one I held behind me and works his magic while I desperately grab any within reach. Waves from the behemoth tenant reached the boat and started pulling the picks away from me. I leaned out to grab more fast while Gunter leaned back on his side to balance the boat. Gunter used his two feet to hold onto my new right foot’s ankle so I didn't fall in, all while forming our escape. I looked up and couldn’t see anything beyond the giant maw of the beast in the water. Its huge ribbed throat had more rows of teeth going in like a funnel of death, like a megamouth shark’s. The boat shifted hard and I looked back to see that Gunter finished. He threw the door into the water and already jumped onto it. I braced myself and jumped, but didn’t take the waves into account and fell deep into the tenant’s watery domain.

I looked back again like a fool only to see we’re pretty much already in the giant's mouth. I looked down into the depths below and saw the teeth rising fast. Suddenly I’m pulled up with ease out of the water and onto the door by Gunter. He slaps me hard and yells, hurry! I pull out my key and shove it into the door’s lock. I turn the lock and knob simultaneously and suddenly we fall through hard. As we fall in gravity shifts towards the new floor and I land hard on my face while Gunter luckily lands hard on his back. We both groan in pain on a grassy bed and begin to laugh at our great escape. Gunter asks how many picks did I save and I hand him the small handful. Not much, I regretfully say. We analyze our new surroundings.

We were just on the side of a stone cut pathway just next to a long staircase. Surrounding us were bright pink and white cherry blossom trees with red spider lilies on the floor. On one side the pathway extends to a blank stone wall. The other goes up the staircase to a red torii. Gunter was in awe when I jokingly asked if we fell into an anime. Of course he didn’t understand the joke. What a waste. I asked if he knew where we were this time. Gunter had no idea. Do you hear that? Gunter asked quietly. I listened and at first I heard nothing, but then it slowly became louder for me to be able to hear. It sounded like a fast drum roll, but with more than one drummer. It became louder and louder. It was coming from up the steps. We looked up towards the torii.

A gigantic semi truck sized noh mask emerged from the top and looked down at us. We were frozen in fear knowing that as fast as that thing emerged there was no way we could run or make another door in time before it caught us. Gunter broke the silence first after a minute with a light, hello and wave. The noh mask went around the torii in an instant and down the 3 story tall flight of stairs in a matter of seconds. We now see what was making that sound from earlier. This thing's body was long and with countless legs of an insect. Its body was a gigantic centipede and moved with the ease of a natural born predator. It eclipsed us in its shadow and stared us down in silence for a minute. It asked in a loud female whisper. Why are you here? I answered and explained it was by accident and we didn’t mean to intrude. Gunter apologized too and told her we were lost and asked if she’d show us the way out.

The tenant looked towards the blank stone wall on the path behind us and explained that she was sealed inside her room by another rival tenant during their petty squabble years ago. Turns out you can’t break rule 5 if you just made something disappear. Can’t damage what’s no there. She can’t leave even if she wanted to and neither shall we. She then asked if we brought tribute. I can see the mandibles inside the mask's mouth and are drooling with hunger. The bulging veins from the giant porcelain mask connect to the insect's exoskeleton pulsate with anticipation. She’s getting impatient for us to say we don’t have an offering.

She is an Omukade and demands something in return for allowing us to breathe in their presence or our souls will be forfeit. Gunter started patting down his person and pulled out a red pear shaped fruit with white swirls from the left inside of his coat. He said no and tossed it back. Reached into the other side and pulled out a black watermelon with orange spots and set it down gently. Definitely not, he states with a yeesh facial expression. The Omukade and I watched him patiently do this a couple times with so many different kinds of fruit that I’ve never seen before. One looked like it was even made of water and another exploded into small pits like a grenade when it hit the ground far behind us. He began pulling from the cornucopia and on the 19th try pulled out a bundle of banana looking fruit that were brown and shriveled like they were old and rotten. Each had 3 red spots that formed into different facial expressions. Perfect, said Gunter with satisfaction.

The Omukade’s eyes became wide and she lunged towards Gunter. Gunter barley pulled back in time and the noh mask’s mouth cracked and split wide open revealing her massive fanged mouth as she ate the bundle of fruit in one bite. A loud audible gulp was heard from her and her neck got wide. The mass inside her traveled downwards inside her deeper and her exoskeleton popped when the mass passed. It looked like a snake eating a big round meal. She let out a sigh and said that it was satisfactory. I asked Gunter what that was and he said I’m better off not knowing. The now full Omukade seemed a lot more patient and asked how we got here since entering or leaving is impossible. We introduced ourselves and asked for her name. She explained Omukade’s don’t have names and if we wish to give her one we may. The way she looked when she ate the fruit reminded me of one of my favorite fighters from a 2-D fighting game I used to play. I named her Mila. Hard to tell, but I think she liked the name.

I let Gunter do the talking and he explained everything from me finding him to now in detail. I tagged in after and explained everything before that. Mila explained that I’m lucky that the stairs only released 1 minor creature and that I even had means to escape. Mila then asked to see our keys since she has knowledge of most artifacts that don’t predate her and we showed them to her. She analyzed them and told Gunter first that she’s never seen his kind of key before and that it must be older than ancient, he then sadly put his key away. Mine however she recognized as a reforged unstable skeleton key that has been reshaped into a common silver house key to put it simply. She explained that my key opens all doors, but what’s on the other side is random. For example, if I use this key even on my room’s door my room will never be the one on the other side. Perfect for a quick escape, but you don’t know if wherever you go next may be worse and seems to be now bound to the complex. There’s a shrine at the top of her room that has a door we could use instead of using another toothpick, but we’d just be gambling again.

She also asked to look at the golden room key that was also on the key ring. She stared for a while and stated that it seemed like a normal house key, but there’s something else there that basic eyes can’t see. Gunter stared at it too for awhile and agreed that there’s like some kind of hum coming from it. They asked about its origins and when I told them that Winthorp gave them to me they asked what were his instructions word for word, do not abbreviate. “The gold key was for my room and my room alone and the silver key can open everything else.” That’s it. They both stared at me. Humans either read too far into things or not far enough. Barely ever do we get a complete understanding from verbal communication.They didn’t say a word; Mila turned and proceeded up the steps and Gunter slapped me across the head before following behind her.

I asked them constantly what happened while following them. We got to Mila’s run down wood shrine and they told me to use the gold key on the sliding door and instead of the silver. I told them it won’t work on any door but mine. I paused for a minute, I’m an idiot, I whispered out loud. I put the key in, unlocked the door and entered into my room. My mattress had cheap sheets and a bed frame now. My laptop sat next to my gifted book on a basic wooden desk and with a matching wooden chair rested beneath. I invited my 2 guests to enter with me. Mila shrunk her size to enter. Gunter wows in awe at my room when he entered next. Your room sucks, Gunter states loudly while Mila agrees. We finally were free and I was home, but this makes me wonder. My book and Gunter’s key are still a mystery and I doubt Winthorp will give us any answers. I’ve made 2 new friends and learned a few more lessons, but I know this is just the beginning. We still know almost nothing about our mysterious gifts, our god Winthorp and his playground, The Pandemonium Complex.