l i t t l e l i o n m a n | t h e u m b r e l l a a c a d e m y

2 . 6

marigold

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sebastian woke up with his face smushed into the bar and a jacket loosely placed over him. he rubbed his eyes and looked around.

a few hotel patrons were milling about and bright light streamed in from the tall windows. he stumbled up the stars and somehow found his room.

a note on the door told him five had gone looking for a monkey, which made no sense. he was halfway through showering when he realized he hadn't seen mr. pennycrumb.

he swore loudly- in his head at least- and got dressed. he doubted five had taken him on his adventure, klaus had vaguely mentioned going back to talk with his dad, luther was probably off boning a sparrow, and he didn't really trust allison and viktor.

that left diego.

he couldn't find him anywhere, and decided to see if stan had any idea where his father had gone. he figured the kid was in the white buffalo suite, eyeing that spear gun again.

instead, he found two very worried adults searching the room high and low, calling out to stan every few seconds.

he knocked on the doorframe and waved awkwardly when diego and lila looked up in sync.

"hey sebastian," diego nodded, before returning to searching.

is stan alright? sebastian signed, a bit worried.

lila frowned. "that's the thing, we can't find him."

he gave the room a once-over. nothing looked unusual, bar the rumpled bedsheets and-

is that a door...in the wall?

diego looked to where he was pointing. it seemed that there was an opening behind the pachinko machine.

he stepped towards it carefully, opening the door further. a long silver hallway extended behind it. "oh boy. that's some spooky shit."

sebastian brushed passed him and squatted down, retrieving a small silver object from the floor.

stan's lighter, he explained, passing it to diego. i've never seen him without it.

"d'you think he went in there?" lila asked, gesturing to the hallway.

"of course he did," diego snorted. "no warm-blooded 12-year-old can resist a mystery tunnel."

sebastian rubbed his temples. he was looking for a dog, not a kid. he was looking for a dog, not a kid. a dog, not a-

come on.

he swallowed and walked right into the mysterious hallway.

diego and lila shared a glance, then wordlessly followed him.

the hallway abruptly ended at a wall. sebastian shoved it a couple times before nearly falling over.

there was a hidden door, leading right into...the exact same room.