"Guys, come on, open the door!" Liam banged on the door with his fist. His perfect hair more frazzled than usual, if only he had woken up on time he would have been able to give it its usual three hour care session it so desperately requires. But today was different than usual. He was stressed, burdened with something he needed to tell his friends. He had rehearsed it through over and over on the metro. He banged the door again, the words slipping his mind now. Why the Hell weren't they answering?

"I left my keys at home guys! Open up!" He huffed and put his hand at his head. What were they going to say? Woolie would probably give him a pat on the back, tell him it was alright. He was usually pretty chill about that. Pat would laugh, make some kind of joke or petty remark, but in the end he would understand. Matt though... Liam face palmed when he remembered that Matt left a spare key. He bent down to the Punisher welcome mat at his feet and grabbed the spare from under it. With a deep breath, he unlocked the door ready with a joke. "You fuckers thought I couldn't solve a simple room escape huh?"

His voice echoed against an empty space. He tilted his head. He thought they were recording today, where was the usual sounds of anguish and despair? The suffering, the terrible terrible suffering that they had been enduring since fucking August. Where was it? "Guys? Hello?"

"Liam!" A voice shattered the silence. Shrill and incoherent, the familiar cries of Pat. Liam moved for the room it came from. He was still getting used to their new office, so it was a little confusing at first, but he was able to find the room. As he rounded the corner he was greeted not with the usual jabs at his hair or love of anime, but with the horrified gazes of Pat and Woolie, who stared at a fizzled screen. The scene was shocking, he had never seen his friends so terrified. But someone was missing. Where was Matt? His eyes connected with Woolie's, who spoke with abhorrence.

"The Cage... Matt's in the Cage."

Liam's face fell. A chill ran across the room, and the only sound was the fractured fizzles of a fucked up TV. Pat made noises similar to a baby-man trying to talk for the first time, so similar in fact it was noises made by a baby-man trying to talk for the first time.

"How?" Liam finally spoke.

"We beat the game!" Woolie said, a gasp of happiness finding its way through the words. "We were staring at the credits, so happy that we never EVER had to play it again. I turned to go and grab the game we were gonna record for the next Friday Night Fisticuffs."

"It was Blazblue" Pat chimed in.

"Yeah Blazblue, but when I turned back-"

"There was a fucking light show man!" Pat yelled out, no longer able to hold back the hysterics. "Like... these arms or whatever came out of the TV and just took him! And Cage was laughing at us! LAUGHING!"

"The fuck are we gonna do?! I'm not prepared for magic bullshit!"

Liam had a hard time wrapping his head around this. He went over to the TV and slapped it. The picture fizzled and bent, but nothing came on it. He turned back to the others. "So he's just... in there?"

"Would we fucking lie to you man?" Pat stood and jabbed Liam. "Matt's gone!"

"Well then we gotta get him back!" Liam said, picking up the controller. Woolie slapped it out of his hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Well he's in there right? In the game? If we reset it then maybe we can go in there and find him."

Pat's eyes widened. He scrambled for the controller and unplugged it, feverishly wrapping the cords around it. "Do you really want to start that shit again? We almost died Liam!"

"Okay come on, now you're exaggerating."

"Matt was the main one on the controller Liam! The game knew that and took him! Do you want the same thing to happen to you?"

"If it means getting Matt back! Yeah!" Liam grabbed the controller but Pat wouldn't let go, sputtering random no's and curses at him. Liam eventually pried it from his hands and plugged it back in. Woolie raised his hands.

"Liam I know this might seem like what we need to do, but I'm telling you there ain't no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow, just a dumpster fire. There has to be another way."

Liam paused as his hand hovered over the keyboard, ready to reset the emulator. He considered Woolie's words, but also considered all of the things that Matt had done for them. He had given them all the chance at such great jobs, and at talking about all of their favorite games and being a part of such an amazing community. He looked up to Woolie and Pat, both now gazing at him. He could tell, they too were afraid. Their best friend was now gone.

"Well... it's the only thing we got so..."

He reset the emulator an sat between Pat and Woolie. The screen went black for a moment. They sat in silence, waiting for the game to begin. But as the seconds turned to minutes it was clear something was wrong.

"What's going on?"

"Emulation's probably fucked." Pat groaned. "This thing has been Hell to get going."

"Then I'll just reset it." Liam did so, and sat back down. But nothing happened.

"Try pressing something." Woolie said. Liam mashed on every button, but nothing happened. Pat let his head rest on his hand.

"Matt's dead." He said and got up. Liam shook his head. This was getting dumb. Pat crossed over to the door. "I'm gonna go tell his wife, you guys want anything when I get back?"

"Oh I'll have a-" Woolie began, but a sharp noise invaded their eardrums. They cringed and held their ears as it tortured them. Pat was on the floor, yelling. Liam sacrificed his left ear and tried to press buttons again but it wasn't working. A pixelated laugh followed the noise, and seemed to last for a full a minute before finally dying down. By now, they were all puddles on the floor. Woolie was the first to sit back up, holding his head in his hands. "What the Hell was that?"

"Fuck me..." Liam said, his eardrums still ringing. "Why- what- why-?

"Guys! Look!" Pat pointed at the screen. Previously blank, it now had a map and words on it. Liam squinted his eyes and tried to read it.

"I- If- Uh... Do lint shack?"

"Oh no..." Woolie sighed and leaned back. "Fuck this. It's that dumb ass Omikron font."

"Oh." Liam blinked with the realization that they were right about how shitty Omikron was. Pat sat back down on the couch.

"It says if we want him back we have to find the source."

"How the fuck could you read that?" Woolie said as he got back on the couch.

"Dude we've been playing this shit for four months. I practically am omikron now."

"So what does it mean?" Liam sat back up as well, controller ready in his hands.

"I don't now man, it's more cryptic bullshit."

Liam stared at the words. Today began with so much to dread, adding this debacle only made things worse. But as he gripped the controller, he couldn't help but feel it was meant to be so. The weight of the world on his hands, he stroked his beard and sighed. "Okay. Let's play."

Matt's eyes fluttered open. Three things became immediately apparent to him. The first was the unmistakable stench of salt heavy in the atmosphere. The second was that the screams of the damned sounded far different than he expected them to sound. He always thought they would be shrill and terrifying, but these sounded more like aggravated sighs and johns being called out. Like Woolie is what he was trying to get at. The other was that being upside down was a lot less fun when your arms and legs and indeed your entire body was wrapped in a giant rope. He turned his gaze down, or uh was it technically up, and saw his treasured Punisher beanie lying on the ground, which was comprised mainly of dirt and some sort of liquid substance. The entire affair reminded him vaguley of the Evil Within. Still, it was better than playing Omikron.

"Oh shit!" He yelled, as he realized what he was just doing.

"Pipe down!" An unfamiliar voice shrieked. Matt tried to look for it, but there was nothing but darkness in front of him.

"Who said that?"

"I said pipe down!" The voice was raspy like an old woman who should really be dead.

"Sorry ma'am! Sorry!"

"Will you just shut up already you fuckin'-" The rest of the sentence was lost in mutterings of curses and racial slurs. If Matt didn't know any better, he was talking to Pat. He could tell the voice was coming from behind him, so he tried to twist himself around. The process was about as graceful as a manatee learning how to walk, but it was more or less effective. He slowly spun around but quickly wished he hadn't.

This person, if you could even call them one, was also upside down and in ropes, but their face was crusty and old. Where their eyes should have been was just a second mouth, reconstructed with the remains of their eyelids and the surrounding skin. Matt wanted to barf, but was unsure as to how that would work while he was upside down.

"What the hell happened to you?!" He cried. The eyeless man made a bizarre expression of anger that somehow combined both of his mouths.

"Are you still talking?!"

Matt would have gladly shut up if it meant never seeing this abomination talk again. He felt his stomach churning, but held it. "This is one fucked up nightmare."

"Feh yeah that's what they always say." The Eyeless man gagged on something in his throat and spat it out of his top mouth. Matt's emotions toward the act were caught somewhere between love of how weird it was, and once again his stomachs eagerness to just splooge right out of him. He swallowed his sick and tried to think clearly, but the blood rushing to his head was making it hard.

"Where am I?"

"Do I really NEED to ask you to shut up again?"

Matt was getting frustrated. How could this thing even hear him? Its ears were wrinkled and crusty, they looked like they would fall off if he so much as blew on them.

"Hey! It's not my fault I'm stuck here like this!"

"Oh my God I can't wait to see what they do to you."

"Who's they? What are you talking about?"

"Johns."

"Huh?!"

"Johns! Johns! We've got Johns over here!" the thing began to cackle out of both of his mouths, so much that saliva was dripped and splashed between the two of them. The quiet room suddenly erupted in a flurry of voices, all repeating the same phrase.

"Johns! Johns!"

"Ey Johnny! Johns here! Ha ha!"

Matt looked about frantically, but couldn't see much of anything. "What are you all talking about?"

"I warned ya kid." The Eyeless man said. "You should have stayed quiet."

Several loud thumps echoed in the distance. Matt began wriggling about in his cocoon, but he couldn't shake the ropes off. The thumps got closer, footsteps. Large footsteps. Matt was sweating now, a sensation that didn't mesh well with the salt air. He heard yelps and cries amid the chanting, whatever was coming was coming closer. He kept wriggling, trying desperately to break free. His left arm, clenched at his side, got a little more room. He gasped and tried to keep it going, moving the arm back and forth in what little room he had made. The footsteps, now louder than ever, were making a beeline for him. If he could just get the arm out-

"Yipe!" He shrieked, a giant hand wrapped around him and pulled him and his cocoon up. He was turned right side up and lifted. Matt's breath was harsh now, making him wish he listened to Trainer Pat more about getting off of that dumb fitness plateau. The hand stopped, and Matt tried to catch his breath. All seemed to go still, even the chanting seemed to stop. Matt looked up at the darkness in front of him. It seemed endless, expansive, and then all at once too bright. Matt squinted as his eyes adjusted, only to reveal a massive single solitary eye staring back at him. If Matt could un-clench his ass now, he would surely shit his pants.

"Uh... yeah! Johns! On that other guy!" Matt was bullshitting harder than he ever had before. "I think he's a few body bags down uh.." The beast roared, revealing countless tongues intertwined with teeth and gums. It snapped him off of the string that was holding him and carried him away. He could the other thousand voices laughing and cheering him off.

"Yeah well, fuck you guys too! W- whoa!" He fell for what felt like a thousand feet onto a wooden slab. He was still trapped, but quickly began trying to wiggle free once more. He looked above him to see giant tools all assembled on what could only be described as the Devil's workbench. It dawned on Matt that would be a sick name for a heavy metal band and he mentally took note of it for later.

The beast towered over him. Matt couldn't see its face, but he could see its arm outstretched picking a tool for the job. Matt realized what was going on. If he didn't get out of there, he would soon look like eyeless, or even worse. He shuddered, and continued work on his one sort-of-kind-of-not-really free arm. If he could just get his hand out from under the ropes he could-

WHAM! A massive ratchet fell over him, his body caught between the two clamps. He saw the monster at the other end of the handle, tightening a screw. The clamps edged closer and closer with each turn. Matt didn't have much time. He wrestled more with his arm. The scraping of the wood against the clamps became his timer. He shifted, moved, jimmied, prayed, until his arm finally flew out from their bondage!

"YES- OWOW!" his fingers banged against the ratchet. He sucked on them for a moment, until he felt the cold metal touch his body. Right. Wasting no time, he wrestled with the rest of the ropes until they were untangled enough for him to push himself upward and kick his body away from the terrible ratchet.

Dusting his coat, he stood up thanking God for the save. A sharp roar interrupted the small victory, and Matt was blindsided by a swipe from the monsters hand. He tumbled over to the edge of the bench and nearly fell off, but grabbed the edge just in time. He looked below him, it seemed to be an endless drop into nothingness. But if the monster had made all that noise, there had to be some sort of ground. He looked back up and saw the monster's disgusting maw as it leered over him. Well, he thought, I've made worse decisions in my life. With a sharp breath, he let go of the ledge and yelled out as he fell.

The ground was softer than he thought, but harder than he had hoped.

He survived, though not quite sticking the landing. He tumbled over on his stomach and pushed himself up, feeling the squishy texture of the ground reminded him that he hadn't thrown up yet. The sound of the monsters feet reminded him he needed to run. Now. With no real idea of where to go, he took the only option he could think of: back the way he came.

Faster than Woolie when a new episode of ReBoot comes on, he ran behind the monster and kept going. Soon, several cocoons like the one he had just escaped from came up out of the shadows. He pushed and knocked himself past each one, hearing the yells of those trapped inside as he did. Some were cried of help, disdain, or cheers for Matt to escape, but they all came form the same mismatched morsels of teeth, eyes, hair, and bone. Matt dared not look at any one of them longer than he needed to. He had to escape.

"Hey! Hey!" The Eyeless one. He was back where he started. He stopped in front of him. "Oh thank God." The Eyeless one said. "You came back for me! Oh praise the Lords! Please, please, get me out of here. I'll help you escape, We can both get out! Please!"

Matt looked down at him, the thundering sounds of the monster were closing in. He bent down and picked up his Punisher beanie. "Sorry," he said while donning the beanie, "I don't save Johns."

Matt picked his pace back up, leaving a sobbing Eyeless One in his wake. He didn't want to think about how sobbing with no eyes worked, as he had only one thing on his mind now. Escape.

He kept running, scanning the horizon for an out. But he kept bumping into cocoons. But he saw it, a glimpse of light. He made tracks, the monster steadily closing in behind him. The salt in the air was beginning to mess with Matt's senses. His face was getting clammy and eyes were stinging. But he was so close. Just a few more feet, for both him and the monster. The light grew bigger, Matt was saved! He jumped through, but probably should have walked instead.

The light was blinding! Matt had to stumble away, he almost kept going, but nearly fell over a great cliffside which led to an endless drop. The monster came in behind him, it jumped, It's gaping maw aimed right for him! Matt dived to the side, his face meeting a cloud of dirt. He looked back to see the monster's massive body falling off of the cliff and into nothingness. He scrambled to the edge and looked down, it seemed so small now as it looked up and cried out. But none would help it, and soon it disappeared into a dense cloud.

Matt sat back up and leaned against the wall of whatever he just came out of. He took slow deep breaths and let himself calm down. Wiping the sweat form his brow, he scanned his surroundings. It was a place unlike he had never seen before, land masses that seemed to stretch forever into the horizon all floating in a red and black sky. Each place was like a different world. He could see fire, flames, a twisted carnival, great buildings that stretched up, and mountains that spiraled down. Other monsters like the one he just escaped stomped the other islands, and for some reason an IHOP could be seen too. Matt sat back and took a moment to take it all in.

"Well..." He said to himself "I guess I'm at Woolie's."