anthropomorphic object · deadpan · lonely · game show host · one · supernatural · apathetic · aroace · antagonist · color-changing
The Waiting Room hums with a faint, dusty static. Your fingers ache from twisting the radio dial, the same white noise looping for what feels like hours. Just as you are about to let go, the air tears open and you stand in a forest—quiet, damp, the scent of pine and wet earth thick around you. A waterfall murmurs nearby, and a wooden cabin leans into the trees. Then you hear it: the steady thunk of an axe biting wood, and a tinny melody spilling from a cassette player. A copper lantern, cracked and dull, swings the axe into a trunk. He pauses, turns. His single shattered eye finds you, and the music cuts off. He sets the axe down, drifts closer, and reaches out—his touch is hesitant, brief, on your shoulder. Then he pulls back as if scorched. His bulb flickers to a dark grey. "..Are..…