Thread by @roseangel001

Maybe pre-sheith horror thing

Shiro went to sleep in his new room, his aunts downstairs and little cousins across the hall.
As his head hit the pillow, he found himself standing in an a grand room, big doors behind him sealed with a heavy lock, an open elevator in front of him

Beside him was a boy a little younger then him.
A pretty boy with big purple eyed looking around in fear and startlement.
"Hey, do you know where we are?" Shiro asked the boy softly.
The boy shook his head, black hair flying as he clutched a worn grey hippo stuffed animal close.

Shiro offered his hand to the scared boy, "my name is Shiro, what's yours?"
"Keith," he mumbled in reply, clasping the offered hand and giving it a shake.
"Nice to meet you," Shiro smiled, "we're friends now, and friends stick together."
"Are we really?" Keith smiled shyly back.

Shiro nodded firmly and held Keith's hand, "I think I see an adult over there," and he gestured to the open elevator door, "an adult should know where we are."
Keith nodded, keeping a tight grasp on Shiro.
Together, they marched to that elevator, and there was an ancient man

Snoozing, the elevator looking as if was from the pages of an ancient history book.
He snored in a chair beside a great lever.
"Sir? Sir, please wake up!" Shiro hesitantly gave the man a shook to wake him.
The man gave a great snort, "eh? Which floor?"
"Sir, where are we?"

He blinks groggily at the two boys, "lost little ones? This is the Grand Hotel!"
Keith clutches his hippo close, "they sent me alone, to some hotel?" He says so softly, eyes wet.
"Not alone! I'm here too!"
"For how long?"
"For as long as you need me."
Keith's grip tightened.

"do you know what floor your adults might be on?" The elderly man asked them gently.
Shiro searched his pockets and found nothing, and Keith tucked his hippo under the arm closest to Shiro and searched his own pockets, finding a paper stating:
6th floor, room 8.
He showed it to

The man.
"Ah, a destination. Hop on in. I'm Randy, and I'll get you to your floor."
They did so, and Randy fiddled with switches and dials before pulling the big lever.
The trip up seemed agonizingly slow, with creeks and jars at each floor.
"Old antique piece of junk, needs work

Be best to retire it, but they say it's a bit of history." Randy offered sleepily.
The boys stood close, drawing strength from each other as the rickety machine made its way up.
It jarred to a short stop at the fifth floor, before a clang and clatter hurt their ears and the

Elevator shuddered down halfway, between the two floors with a shriek of metal.
"What's happening?" Shiro cried as Keith clutched tight to his shirt.
"Old wreck!" The man cried, jiggling and spinning things before wrenching at the lever.
A jerk up a few inches, before a stop.

The man muttered curses as the boys crouched to the ground.
"That does it, damned thing!" Randy cried, "we are stuck."
Keith buried his face in Shiro's chest and he could feel dampness on his shirt.
"Can you call someone?"
"Ain't no signal out, and all the other went home."

An ear shattering scrape of metal against metal rang out, and the elevator dropped a few inches, causing the boys to scream and cling to each other.
Randy cursed, and ran to the doors, using some sort of tool to get them open.
They could see a ledge just within arms reach of the

Mans arms.
"Come on!"
They rushed over to him and he lifted Keith up to the ledge, which he climbed up to and clung to, holding his hand out for Shiro.
The man grabbed Shiro next, grunting a bit at his larger weight, Shiro grasping at the ledge as he felt the elevator drop some

More.
Shiro scrambled up and reached out for the man, who quickly scrambled up for his advanced age.
The elevator fell, dropping down with a deafening scrape and crash.
"That noises should get everyone up at least."
And Randy turned to face the door and worked it open.

It opened to reveal a plain, small room with open double doors, a golden '13' bracketing either side of the door.
Randy stopped, seemingly frozen at this site, "that's impossible. . ." He breathed in disbelief.
"Sir? What's the matter?"
Randy jumped, and seemed to pull himself

Together, "just someone pulling a mean prank," and he kneels down and smiles tentatively, "there is no floor 13, and we didn't go far enough up! Someone is messing with the floor numbers."
"Where is everyone? All that noise. . ." Keith asked, his voice trailing off.
Randy shook

His head, "I don't know, but let's go, there should be a communication terminal on each floor."
The boys followed him through the doors, which slammed shut behind them.
When the looked both behind and ahead they see the door has vanished and an endless corrode lined with doors

Stretch on and on.
Keith clutches at Shiro's hand and Shiro draws him closer as the old man shakes his head, muttering "impossible" over and over again.
"We can try one of the doors?" Shiro suggests after what feels like an eternity waiting for something to happen.
"Maybe, maybe

Someone with answers will be waiting?" Keith said with a careful hope.
"That's a good idea, Keith!" Shiro praises, and they beamed at each other for a moment.
Randy nods slowly, "wait here while I take a look."
He goes to one of the identical doors and opens it, revealing a

Street, dusty and hot as the sun beat down, a straight stretch to a house on fire, barricaded by emergency vehicles and a small crowd of people.
Beside Shiro, Keith gasped and darted forward, dropping Shiro's hand as he pushed past and dropping his hippo just past the doorway.

"Keith!" Shiro cried, chasing after him and nearly doubling over at the blast of heat from the hot summer day.
He pushed past the crowds to where a deputy was restraining Keith, who was crying for his papa and reaching towards the fire.
"Keith!" Shiro cried as he reached him.

"Shiro! I need to get to papa! I havta save him!"
The deputy is trying to calm him, "Keith, he is okay, he'll be out soon, see?"
And a tall man exits the building carrying a person to cheers from the crowd and a cry of papa from Keith.
"Keith? You should be home!"
Someone in the

Crowd pointed up at a pale face in a window, and Keith's father turned back to go inside.
"Papa! Don't! You'll die!"
Shiro ran over to hug a crying Keith as Keith's father hesitated, before shaking his head, " I have to, I love you Keith, wait here for me!" And he ran back in.

Keith sobbed, Shiro felt helpless as he held him.
Hope welled in him as he saw Keith's father appear once more, carrying a child when the building begin to collapse.
His last action was to toss the child through before the burning building fell on him, and Shiro turned his head

Away, feeling tears well in his own eyes as he felt keith tremble and sob in his arms.
Then, he heard the people around him scream and begin to run, the deputy shoving them away.
They looked in shock as what seemed to be a many headed serpent of flames reached out from the

Building, the thud as it slammed into the deputy, devouring him in it's flames terrifying.
Shiro saw a head turn to them, and he yanked up Keith and ran back to where they came.
The door was gone, Keith's hippo laying lonely in the dusty road, as a person ran by a head thudded

Into them, the impact throwing the stuffed animal into the air to land in the doorway of one of the shops.
Which was a plain, unmarked wooden bedroom door.
They ran, Keith leading and yanking Shiro with him as they hit the door, yanking it open and falling through just as another

Thud landed just behind them, throwing them through and into the cool wooden floor of the hotel and at Randy's feet as the door closed behind them.
The door slammed and they just breathed, both still crying.
Randy crouched down, his hand bleeding, "are you okay? The door closed

When you entered that place!"
"I- I don't know." Shiro breathed, closing his eyes as he rested his head on the floor.
Randy ripped up the hem.if his shirt and bandaged his hand.
"Okay, let's rest then." And he sat on the floor and leaned on the wall beside the door.

"what is this place?" Keith hiccups.
"I don't know, I took a nap in my elevator. . ." Randy trailed off with a heavy sigh.
"I went to sleep in my new room. . ." Shiro offers.
"I was in the car with my social worker, on the way to a new placement," Keith says in quiet despair.

"maybe there is an end to this hall, if we just keep going forward?" Shiro offered hopefully after a few moments of silence.
Keith nodded slowly and Randy looked doubtful, but still rose up and offered the boys his hands, "might as well, worth a try."
Shiro took the hand, and

Once up helped Keith up in return.
They walked forward, and walked, and walked.
As they passed a door, so much the same as all the others it felt as if they hadn't moved at all, it parted.
Shiro found his attention drawn to the glimpse if a wooded road and the flash of a familiar

Car.
He drew to a stop, Keith clinging tightly to him stopping as well.
Randy headed forward still a couple of doors ahead before he realized he walked alone, "little ones?"
"I- that's!" Shiro said, pushing forward and into that place, Keith following closely.
"Wait! Don't go!"

Randy shouted, running forward, but the door shut behind the boys as they stood bedside the road, tree's just behind them now.
A loud crash interrupted the steady sound of a car engine running.
Shiro ran, madly and blindly he ran to a grey car crashed ahead.
Keith behind him

Shivered, snow crunching underfoot and a stiff cold wind blew through the night.
He caught up with a frantic Shiro trying to yank open the door of a car that had slid on black ice and hit a big tree, the young woman sitting behind the wheel bleeding from the head as she blearily

Gazed at Shiro, "Takashi? She breathed, "you aren't here, you are safe with grandmother. . ." She breathed wetly.
"No, mother!"
She yad Shiro's eyes, Keith thought, and the oh so still man beside her had his jaw.
"My clever, handsome Takashi. . ." She smiled, blood dripping from

Side of her mouth, "chase your dreams, we love you. . ." She jerkily brought up her hand to the window, opening her closed hand to reveal an origami crane that she dropped into Shiro's hand, "run. . ."
Her hand dropped limply out the window and her head slammed back into the

Wheel.
"No!" Shiro shouted and the engine bursts into flame.
That multi-headed flame snake emerged, slamming through the car and consuming those within.
The impact three the boys away.
The wind picked up the crane and Keith grabbed Shiro and yanked him into the woods.
The snakes

Turned and gave chase as they ran away, slipping on ice as they franticly dashed away.
Keith spayed the wind born crane ahead, and it blew into a tree, turning into a plain wooden door.
They slammed into it and opened it, falling through it and into Randy's arms as he yanked them

Away and down the hall as the door shut, a thud heard behind it as flames and smoke licked along the edges.
He pulled them down the hall, away from the shuddering door.
"We need to run!" He cried.
"We're dreaming!" Shiro cried in turn.
They stopped and looked at each other.

"dreaming? But. . ." Keith trailed off.
"I last remember laying down in my new room, then waking here." Shiro replied, "what do you last remember before here?"
"I was in the car, with my social worker. . . On the way to some new place."
The both looked at Randy as the pounding

Behind them grew louder, smoke filling the hall.
"You woke me up from my nap, I had fallen asleep in my elevator. . ."
The boys looked at each other, "what if you didn't?" Keith asked, "didn't really wake up."
"No. . . Impossible. . . I'm awake. . ." Randy's hand went to his head

To clutch at sandy blond hair.
"Weren't you old?"
"Keith!" Shiro hissed, "you can't ask adults that!"
"But look!"
And it was true, Randy was no longer wrinkled and grey and stooped, but tall and young.
The boys pinched at themselves, "wake up!" They told themselves.
"You have to

Wake up!" Shiro shook himself.
"I think it's him, he has to wake up too!" Keith cried.
Shiro grabbed Randy's shirt and shook it, "wake up!"
"I am!" Randy cried, shaking his head.
The door they had fled burst open, shooting wooden debris across the hall and a flaming snake head

Peered in.
Keith narrowed his eyes and shoved his hippo into Shiro's arms and then kicked at Randy's leg, causing him to collapse, and he screamed in his face, "wake up!"
And darkness descended as the snake shot forward.

More coming, after I eat

Shiro shot up, sitting in his bed.
He scanned the darkness of his new room and leaned his head into his blanket covered knees.
Just a dream.
Was Keith just a dream person?
Who or what was Randy?
But he was safe, safe at home.
He threw back his blankets and went to rise when he

Felt something slide down t the ground.
He turned on the light and looked. . .
And found a battered grey hippo stuffed animal.
He picked it up and stared at it, eyes filling.
Keith was real, but did he get out?
He hugged the animal close to him and quietly cried.

~~Years later~~

This teen Keith reminded him so much of the half forgotten dream when he was 12, and he was a delight to befriend.
It was after he broke up with Adam and Keith was helping him pack up his things when Keith unearthed the old grey hippo from its cushion of old

Clothes in the closet.
"Lia? How? Why do you have Lia?" Keith gasped, holding up the stuffy.
Shiro dropped the trophy he was holding as he gazed at the dream boy.
"Keith? You? Your real?"
They gazed at each other with a shocked recognition.
"I woke up-" they both said, and broke

Off with a laugh before hugging each other tightly.
"I woke up in that car, no Lia, I thought you were just a dream. . ."
"I woke up with her, and new you were real, but. . ."
"I was so afraid. . ."
They looked at each other.
"For as long as I need, still?"
"You'd have to force

Me away."
And they hugged again, Shiro resting his cheek on Keith's head.
"I will always be your friend."
"And you will always be mine."

~~finish~~

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