Luckily for everyone, about three days later, a message was broadcast to every TV screen down in the Doctor’s system. Crystal appeared on the screen, choppy animation as always. “Hey, everyone! Really sorry about keeping you down there so long, but things are finally getting better up here! We’re sending down a few people to come and pick you up, like family members and friends and stuff. If you’re devastatingly lonely, Doctor will bring you back up once everyone else has been cleared out. See you in a bit!” Sebastian rolled his eyes at that last comment. At the time of the broadcast, he was in the cafeteria eating breakfast with Purple, Chance, and Mark. The excitement in the group instantly skyrocketed. “We get to go home,” Purple said, brightly. “I’m excited,” Mark responded. “To see the surface, I mean.” “You should be,” Chance took a bite of his scrambled eggs. “Hope not too much happened while we were gone.” Sebastian stayed silent, just listening to the others talk. He knew he was going to be one of the select few to stay behind until everyone else was back home. The only one who could come pick him up was Painter, and last he checked, Painter couldn’t exactly walk. But he was happy for the others, at least. “Seb, what about you?” Chance asked. “Hm?” “Got anyone special back up there?” “Ehh, not really. And, hey, it’s not so bad down here. I’ll stay a little longer any day.” Purple frowned. “I wish you could come with us,” she said. “It’s gonna take forever to get to the last group.” “I don’t mind,” Sebastian responded. Though he definitely did. “And I’ve got Mark to keep me company. We’ll be fine.” “I did not give consent,” Mark joked. That got a laugh out of everyone. Another thirty minutes passed before the first group came to pick a few characters up. Sebastian and the others were in the middle of a riveting conversation about Minecraft when they got interrupted. “Chance,” someone said from the doorway to the cafeteria. He gave a slight nod to the group when they turned to face him. He had long golden hair with a fancy blue top and green jeans. Chance smiled and gave him a wave. “My ride’s here,” he said to the others. They shared a few goodbyes before Chance ran over to his friend, proceeded to get into an argument, and then left the cafeteria. The conversation slowed to a stop. Mark got up to grab his fourth cup of coffee. “I might go back to my room,” Purple said. “I wanna grab a few things before we go.” Sebastian nodded. “You can get there by yourself?” “Mhm!” “Alright. Don’t you walk off on me without saying bye,” Sebastian said. Purple smiled. “Of course I won’t.” Mark walked back over a moment later with a steaming cup of coffee. “...What happened to Purple?” he asked. “Went back to her room to grab some things,” Sebastian responded. He stacked up a few plates from the table to bring to the sink. “I might follow in her footsteps,” Mark said. “Sounds majestic.” Mark chuckled. “You gonna come with?” “I’ll clean up some things out here first. I can meet you in the hall later.” “Gotcha.” Mark took a sip of his coffee, then turned and left the cafeteria. Sebastian made a few trips between the sink and the table, stacking up plates and collecting utensils to clean. Once he was done, he took a second to stretch before coming out into the hallway. This was the most lively he’d ever seen the halls since being down here. Almost everyone’s curtains were open, and there were characters everywhere, talking, hugging, or just walking around. Sebastian pulled his tail over to one side of the hall to make room for others. He passed by Purple’s room on the way to his. Her curtain was half open. He glanced at her through the gap before coming inside. “Hey,” he said. “Hi,” she responded. “You alright?” “Mhm!” “Good.” Sebastian pulled his tail fully into the room, sitting down on the floor next to Purple’s bed. He glanced down at the sketchbook in her hands. “What’re you drawing?” “Minecraft stuff. The conversation we had earlier was hilarious.” “Tell me about it.” The two of them sat in silence for a minute or two. Then Sebastian heard a conversation start just outside the room. Purple snapped her head up from her art at the sound of the voices, staring at her half-open curtain. She closed her sketchbook and set it down next to her in one swift motion. “...You okay-?” Sebastian started. “That’s- that’s my-” Purple said, quietly. Then someone pushed past the fabric and stepped into the room. He was a tall, orange stick figure, with longer hair and a plaid shirt. He and Purple stared at each other for a few seconds.
Then he jumped onto her bed and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She returned the gesture, pressing her face into his shoulder. “Cursors, you’re okay…” he whispered. “You’re okay…” Tears pricked the edges of Purple’s eyes. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. At that moment, nothing else in the world mattered. They needed some time between the two of them. Sebastian quietly stood up and left the room, closing the curtain fully behind him. He ran into Mark in the hallway. “Hey,” Mark said. “Did Purple leave yet?” “Not quite,” Sebastian responded. “But her ride’s here.” “Makes sense.” An awkward silence fell between the two of them. “So… What should we do until Doc takes us up?” Mark asked. Sebastian shrugged. “Just chill, I guess.” “I’m up for that.” And chill they did for almost a full hour. Mark came into Sebastian’s room, and they listened to music together, sharing different artists they liked and creating playlists for each other. Then Mark left to go take pictures of something, and Sebastian read a few pages of a book he’d picked up. One of the Doctor’s bodies finally came into his room, after the noise in the hall had died down to the gentle hum he was so used to. “Are you ready to go?” The Doctor asked. “Heck yeah I am.” Sebastian got up from his bed, tucked his book into his bag, and stood there for a second before leaving the room. The Doctor brought him back down the hall and through the warehouse the same way they’d first come in. Back through the square door and down the tunnel and out into the massive chamber of the cave. Then they traveled over to a cutout in the rocks that led to a large elevator. “After you,” the Doctor said. Sebastian rolled his eyes. The two of them stepped on to the elevator, the large, barbed-wire door closing in front of them. “...I would like to apologize for something,” the Doctor said after a few seconds of silence. “Oh? What’s that?” Sebastian asked. “You were actually the last one to leave the caves. I figured since you were so open to helping other characters, you would be willing to help me when things got oh-so-incredibly disorganized. I realize I should have told you in advance. Again, I apologize.” Sebastian hadn’t even realized. “It’s no big deal,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. He glanced at the walls of rock around them. “...And, to be honest, I actually didn’t hate it down there.” “Really?” “Really.” “How thoughtful.” Sebastian scoffed. But then he smiled. “You did good down there. Really made it feel kinda homey.” The Doctor seemed to smile, as well. “I appreciate your honesty.” “You appreciate my appreciation.” “You could say that.” The rest of the ride went by in silence. They were back on the surface around two minutes later. Sebastian stepped off of the elevator first, coming out into a long tunnel of metal walls. He saw sunlight shining through a large doorway at the end. He glanced back at the Doctor. “Go ahead,” the Doctor said. “Do not let me stop you.” Sebastian immediately grabbed both walls with his hands, pushing himself forward down the tunnel. He burst through the other side, nearly tumbling over himself, but was able to keep his balance. He tilted his head up to face a bright, blue sky. The sun was shining. He breathed in deeply, smelling the fresh air, and feeling the warm sun on his face. Yeah, it might have sucked. Yeah, Headspace was in ruins for over a month. But in the end, he’d come out of that experience with a huge load of new friends and good memories. So he decided the whole thing was worth it. ~~~ Previous: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1294448047/ First: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1291039472/ +Crystal+ "That officially brings the Caves series to a close! :D And to think I wasn't even planning on posting this in the first place- XD I'm really happy I was able to see it through to the end <3 Had a lot of fun making this, and I hope you guys had just as much fun reading!" +Sebastian*+ {wave} "See you around. :]" (Yaaay one of my stories finally has a happy endiiingggg XD No seriously though, I did *not* think Caves would get this far when I first started writing it at the beginning of the month XD Thanks so much for the support! I really do appreciate your appreciation <3 XD)
