A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on August 31 2018

I wish I could meet you there.

The suitcase was too heavy to pull. He tried, the beginnings of frustrated tears stinging in his eyes, but it would not budge. Until it became light, ridiculously light, and he saw the nomes carrying it off to the side. The little group, save for one, then scurried into the crack in the wall.

He went to hug the lonesome nome and it followed him through the crack. He carried it as he made his way around the area and he saw nomes scattered about, in front of something big.

He gazed upon the centerpiece in the center of the room and let the nome in his arms go. It stayed close to his side as he stared at the furnace.

It was not suffocating hot like the furnace he'd escaped from earlier. Both of these smelled of coal and heat but the first one roared and consumed. This one flickered and warmed him. His damp, dirty pajamas felt like they were drying, now.

He lifted his arms to dry the sleeves faster. His clothes smelled like the water he was stuck in, rancid, old fish and garbage. To say nothing of what lurked beneath the surface; he had a feeling that human corpses were a part of that monster's diet. He still remembered the smell of electricity and a monstrous corpse that twisted horribly as it fried.

And then he'd gotten captured by the Janitor and wrapped up tight, placed on a meat hook. He'd escaped, but just fallen hard onto wood and coal, the dust of it coating his pajamas. He'd found himself in danger again, the Janitor in a workshop, creaking and popping, and he had to be so careful to not let his escape alert the monster. He crawled along sawdust as he turned on the saw blade, and it mixed with the endless coal and grime.

It was coal that bit into his feet as he went to find another light bulb, coal that would catch the Janitor's attention, and the light bulb was a blessing as he made his way back through the darkness.

This was the only moment of comfort, warmth and devoid of monsters that wanted to drown him, eat him, or send him off to be eaten. He was surrounded by nomes, and the little things were no longer afraid of him.

There was a bookshelf that would take him out of this area, and to whatever awaited him in this quest to escape this horrible place. It called him, but the shelter of the furnace and the friends was too great a comfort right now.

He picked up the nome by his side and held it; maybe he could stay here a little longer.