Opening the door for a second time felt as it did the first. I couldn't remember opening it before, I could only assume I had. Upon opening, the air mixed in with the air of the tunnel. I could smell something, like a chemical mixture. Maybe something for cleaning. As I entered, the smell faded quickly. Perhaps the door being opened acted like some kind of quite ventilation, indicating the stairwell was sealed in all areas.

"Ok, for that plan I mentioned, I just want to have Brooke first, then the clones, then me," I said.

"May we ask why?" Hanako said.

"Well, Brooke isn't able to die, I already experienced something here, as far as we know, and you two are both able to record video without a video camera, meaning it's better for you to go in front of me."

"Not the type of plan I was expecting, but sure, I'll bite," Hamako said.

"Wait, how do you know that expression?" I asked.

"I actually just Googled old expressions," she smiled.

"I could tell, you used it wrong," I said.

"I did? Oh, how are you supposed to say it?"

"No, you said it right, you just didn't use it in the right place. Had you said it before I explained it, then it would've made sense. 'I'll bite' is, or was, used as a way to say, 'Ok, I'll hear what you want to say,' or, 'I'll let you explain.' But nice try on the language. Makes me feel just a little bit more at home," I said.

Brooke walked up to the stairs, passing me, while the clones followed behind her.

"Should we just go?" Brooke asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'll keep my distance; it's part of the plan," I said.

"Ok," she replied, heading up. I made sure to keep a good flight and a half between us at least. I needed to feel that whoever saw them from above would definitely miss me. To keep with that, I stuck to the walls more than anything, making sure to keep what was in front and behind me watched.

Eventually, I reached a window. Seeing that the others had passed it, I made sure to take a look before heading to the next flight. The room was large and dark. There didn't appear to be anything in it worth my time or attention, so I continued on my way.

Walking back to the next staircase, I listened to hear if they had been or still were talking, only to hear nothing. I listened closely while stepping up slowly to make sure I wasn't overpowering the sound if they were too far away, but I still couldn't hear anything.

Going up faster now, I craned my next towards the middle to see if they'd left the stairwell. There were three flights left as far as I could see, and that was it. Given that my window detour had probably taken a good few seconds, it probably gave them a flight or two of extra altitude, meaning they very well could've found a door at the top.

"Hanako, Hamako?" I said quietly, knowing my voice would reverberate to them if they still were there.

I received no response.

Getting to the top of the stairs, I did see a door, labelled 'Custodians.'

I knew this was most likely a ploy to stop people from entering by means of making them think they'd reached a dead-end. However, my cunning mind allowed me to see past that, questioning why 'Custodian' would ever be written on a door atop a stairwell that connected to an abandoned trainline.

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm sharper than most around me.

Grabbing the door handle, I opened it to find the three in a rundown, quite dirty, room. It looked almost like a breakroom, given that it had a couch and fridge, however, it also had cleaning equipment which would coincide with the room label.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"Not really; this is the end of the trail it seems," Hanako said.

"I guess it explains that weird chemical smell from when we first came in," Hamako said.

"Good observation," I said, looking around. The room had definitely been out of use for several years. "One issue with that; there isn't any smell here besides dust," I said.

"Oh, I guess that is quite odd," Brooke said.

"Can you smell anything, Brooke?" I asked.

"Nope, my only senses are auditory and visual, that's it. Audio is much more predominant, though."

"I thought so, I was just making sure."

"Maybe this really was a false lead," Hamako suggested.

"You think so? I still feel like this is another thing to lead people off the trail," I said.

"I mean, that's always possible, but there aren't any doors. It's kind hard to look for a door when you can't actually see any," Hanako said.

"Again, maybe that's how they want it," I said, trying to convince them.

"Of course. But, I think we're actually going to head out," Hamako said, Hanako nodding.

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, we actually have to get to work in like half an hour, so we need to get to the train station, and since it takes like ten minutes to walk down the trainline to get out of the subway, it's better if we start walking now," Hanako explained.

"We'll probably come back, just not tonight or anything," Hamako added.

"Oh, well, bye then. Hope you have fun at work," I said as they walked by me to the door.

"Where do you work?" Brooke asked.

"Oh, we work at the I—"

"NN. It's a new name for the department store we work at," Hanako said, cutting Hamako off. I assumed it was a clone thing. Twins often did things like that when talking.

"They changed it to an acronym because Internet Neo-fashion Network was too long to say," Hamako continued. "Since the acronym is 'INN,' people have grown accustomed to call it 'the inn.'"

"Makes sense. I'd think inns would be gone by now," I said.

"Oh they're definitely a thing of the past, they just think the word inn is retro-sounding now."

"Understandable, have a nice day," I said.

"Bye," they waved together, letting the door close.

We stayed to look around the room some more, Brooke lighting most of it, given that she was bright enough to appear in the sunlight during the day, she was more than bright enough to light up the room.

After a few minutes, I came to the same conclusion they had. The room seemed empty in terms of doors or secret entrances. I eventually decided it was a dead end, but only after moving everything that was against the wall to make sure no hidden doors were there.

"Maybe we're looking in the wrong place," I pondered.

"Maybe," Brooke said.

"Maybe we should try going further down the line, but not today, we'll try later on," I said.

"Ok," Brooke replied.

Going down the stairs, we got to the tunnel door. The chemical smell had definitely vanished by then. I pushed it open, looking down the way we came. As Brooke came out, I noticed something a little odd.

"Brooke, if you zoom, can you see the clones at all?" I asked.

"No, there aren't any other people in the tunnel from what I can see."

"How long ago did they leave?" I asked.

"About seven minutes ago," she replied.

"Ok, then how did they walk a tunnel they said took ten minutes it only seven? I mean, we should see them, right?"

"They could've ran. After all, they did specify the nature of their early departure as work, meaning it's not unlikely they had to leave the tunnel sooner than we thought," Brooke explained.

"And that's why I like you, Brooke, you think of things I don't. Together we can form proper conclusions. I guess I'm probably a little on edge, too, because of what we're doing. I think the speculations have caused me to see normal things as suspicious."

Walking back to the entrance, we discussed other possible ways of getting in, as thinking of new ideas could lead us down certain rabbit holes of information we might not have tried or found otherwise.

"Are we sure they don't fly over?" I asked.

"It makes no sense to, unless they're invisible. No one has ever seen anything fly into or out of that building," Brooke replied.

"What about an actual train? What if there's a destination on the Skytrain that takes you to the ITA factory as long as no unregistered people are on the train when it goes there? That's a stretch."

"I don't think so. The train needs the tube to run, and no tubes appear to go near the factory."

"Maybe we ought to give up, at least for now..." I suggested.

"Why's that?"

"Well, Brooke, we've uh... sorta run out of options, now haven't we?"

"We haven't tried going farther down the train line to see if there are any other doors. Statistically speaking, it's unlikely it'd ever be the first door anyway."

"Yeah, but that's just it. What if it really is the first door and they've hidden it so well that we can't actually see a way in? What if it's statistically impossible for us to find on our own?" I said. Brooke didn't seem to have an answer to that one.

"Well, we can still try more—"

"Brooke," I cut her off, "just leave it."

Talking to her like that felt weird. While I knew she wasn't capable of emotion, I certainly was, letting my anger out just a little on a device that couldn't comprehend what anger was.

Was I mad at her, or myself? I suppose both of us, though, often enough we blame others for our own mistakes. It was my mistake to think that Brooke could truly replicate a human.

In theory, that says more about me than the technology I was dealing with. Was I so hyperfixated on having a logical friend that I couldn't see the emotional danger I was in by seeking it through an android? Brooke wasn't the same. She'd been so changed by interaction, her A.I. was probably loving it.

Still, she looked at me with an unchanged expression of vacant content. Context would not change for her, no matter how long her relationships lasted. I felt almost sorry for her, which I didn't like. I was still thinking of her as human. That was my blunder.