I LOVE THIS SKI LODGE SO MUCHHHH

I'm so invested in this story, thank you so much Peri for keeping up with it. Great work! 

Satom <333 

Got bored and decided to make pictures of my fave ski lodge hosts as I imagine them!

(Rose up first) 

Atom'

Aaaand Echo (& alters)

Day 10, Part 19

 

“We’re lost.”

 

Writing groaned and slid down the wall, where they’d been leaning, to the ground. “We are totally lost.” 

 

“Well, maybe we can get back if we just… Which way had we turned?” Rose began muttering to herself, trying to replay their path in her head. 

 

“We shouldn’t be trying to go back,” Silver Crystal said. “If we’re this far in by now, I say we keep pushing forward.”

 

“She has a point,” Writing said, smoothing the wrinkles in his t-shirt as they rose from the ground. “If we’ve gotten this far without hitting a dead end, then maybe we are on the right path. But man, it’s a confusing one…”

 

He was right about that. In the twenty minutes Rose, Writing, and Silver Crystal had been walking, they’d made so many turns they no longer had any idea where they were. 

 

“Yeah, it’s confusing. If only Eugene were-” Rose stopped herself short.

 

“Who’s Eugene?” Silver Crystal questioned.

 

“He was - Um - ”

 

“GUYS! LOOK WHAT I FOUND!” 

 

Writing had wandered off, and after turning the corner ahead of Rose and Silver Crystal, they had discovered a door. 

 

“Is this the exit?” Writing asked. “Oh, please let it be the exit.” 

 

“I’m not sure,” Rose said. “I guess we’d better see though.” She turned the knob and, with a very loud creak, the door opened.

 

The room beyond it was not an exit.

 

It might not have even counted as a room. It was big, and blank. Like they’d stepped in an empty canvas. A whole lot of nothing. 

 

“That’s weird.” 

 

That was what Rose had to say about that. But this was a terrible mistake, because saying those words split the ground apart.

 

***

 

“Which memory are we going to start with?” Sonder asked nervously.

 

“I’m looking,” Dusk answered. “Let’s see. We’ve got a few years we need to look back on… Eighth grade, and I think sophomore year of high school? I don’t know, it’s a little confusing. We’re younger than Echo, but everyone thinks we are Echo, in our memories, so…” 

“You’re younger than Echo?” Atom asked. He’d never known how old Echo was, or Sonder, or, come to think of it, really any of the alters. 

 

“Uh-huh,” Sonder said. “She’s twenty-one, and I’m seventeen.” 

“Huh.” Well, that made sense. Echo would’ve had to be an adult to own the Somewhere Hotel, and she’d owned it since they’d begun their journey two years ago. And Sonder was, apparently, a year older than him, Atom realized. 

 

“Wait, so, that means that when you were a sophomore, you were actually twelve?!”

 

“Uh-huh,” Sonder laughed. “Math class was rough.” 

 

“Fourteen was a good year, though,” Dusk pointed out. “Like, look.” 

 

The room around them changed, and suddenly they were on stage, looking out at what seemed to be a park on a summer night. “I’m up,” Dusk said, heading to the front of the stage, where a microphone stand (with a microphone attached to it, naturally) was under the glow of a spotlight.

 

The moment Dusk grabbed a hold of the microphone, tipping it over dramatically, everything changed. His hair, which had previously been in a ponytail, was now in two braids, and he was wearing a tuxedo. There was an audience watching him, too, a big one, filled with kids and adults alike, sprawled out on blankets and towels. 

 

Behind Dusk there was a band of teenagers - a blonde-haired boy who had the expression of someone that hadn’t slept in seven years played keyboard, a tall, dark-skinned girl was playing the drums, and two boys who must’ve been twins were playing guitar and bass. 

“What’s this?” Atom asked.

 

“Well, when I was fourteen but also kind of eighteen, I started a band, and we were really good and we ended up playing music at a city festival. It was really cool. That exhausted looking boy is Allan - we usually called him Decaf, though, as a joke. He really isn’t as tired as he seems. He was the most lively of us. And the girl on the drums is Ruby. She was a brilliant musician, and she actually ended up getting a scholarship. And the twins over there are Jay and Patrick. Jay was cool, but Patrick was kind of a know-it-all. Great bass player, though, I’ll give him that. 

“Huh.” 

 

The memory faded, and Dusk walked back towards them, looking a little disappointed as his tuxedo turned back into a t-shirt and jeans. “The tuxedo was cool,” he said. “Ooh, here’s an interesting one.” 

 

Again, the room changed. This memory seemed to be from eighth grade, because, like in the memory Dusk had shown them before of eighth grade, Sonder appeared with short (but still blue) hair and a school uniform- a white polo shirt and a red skirt, with long socks and loafers. 

 

“The skirt sucked,” Sonder sighed. “Everyone thought I was Echo, and I had to play along. But doing things like wearing skirts because I had to because everyone saw me as a girl, when I knew I was a boy, was terrible. I’d asked if I could wear the shorts the boys were wearing, but I was already pushing it with the hair dye, which the school wasn’t very into. The pixie cut was nice, though. Everyone thought I was such a tomboy.” He laughed a little on the last sentence, but he looked kind of sad. “Sometimes, I really do wish I had my own body. I know that DID, and all the other alters are part of who I am, but… I don’t know. It’s complicated.” 

 

“Yeah, the skirt sucked,” Dusk agreed. “But that’s not what this memory is about.” 

 

Eighth-Grade Sonder was sitting in a bedroom, doing homework.

 

“Seven to the ninth power…” he murmured. “… Multiply by eight… Divide the fractions… Ugh, this is so confusing.” 

 

No, it’s not, a voice said. It’s actually pretty simple.

 

“Who are you?” Sonder asked. 

 

Call me… Metanoia. 

 

“Where are you?” He looked around, confused.

 

I’m… Actually not quite sure. It looks big. And kind of dark. 

 

“Huh.” 

 

Want some help with that homework? 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

Okay. Start by turning the fraction into a decimal, then… 

 

The memory faded.

 

“That was one of the first times any of the voices in our head made sense,” Dusk said.

 

“Metanoia’s always been a good friend,” Sonder said. “And so much better at math than me.” 

 

Dusk looked through memories. “Oh,” he said, face filling with fear.

 

“What?” 

 

“This memory… I…” Dusk covered his mouth, and his eyes welled up with tears.

 

“No,” Sonder said. “Is it…”

 

Dusk nodded. The room began to spiral.

 

“I can’t do this,” one voice said. “I can’t do this I can’t do this I can’t do this I can’t do this…” 

 

“All alone,” another sobbed. “All alone all alone all alone all alone…”

 

The room filled with voices of fear, worry, sadness, grief. Sonder and Dusk seemed to be frozen.

“Hey!” Atom snapped. “No way I’m losing you that easy.” 

 

And like that, the voices stopped. The spiraling stopped. Everything was white again. 

“Hello?” A small, timid voice said as a little boy came out from the shadows.

“I’m Atom,” he said, giving a shy grin. “What’re your names?” 

 

***

Here's the next part! I hope you enjoyed it. @Silver Crystal, I love those pictures of Echo, Rose, and Atom! They look great :D

 

This part was sort of confusing, sorry, but I'll clear some stuff up in the next one! Thanks for reading <333