You find yourself sitting in a booth at the local IHOP with your friends, holding a warm mug in your hands as you stare out the window. Now that you've escaped the House, your exhaustion has caught up with you, and you're barely listening to the conversation the others are having. Bonnie sits next to you, her head resting on your shoulder as she plays some rhythm game on her phone. Luke's on her other side, poking at their pancakes, and Leon and Issac are seated across from the three of you.
LEON
...No, dude, I'm serious. There's, like, 700 Pokémon now.
LUKE
You're lying to me!
LEON
As soon as we get back home, I'm turning on my 3DS and showing you my boxes in Y. You're going to flip your shit, guaranteed.
LUKE
3DS...???
ISSAC
Babe, keep your voice down. We're getting frowned at by that family over there.
Leon snickers and Luke shakes their head, taking a bite of their pancakes.
KLAIR
Hey, how are we going to explain Luke, by the way? As far as anyone knows, Lucius Bai disappeared, like, thirty years ago or something.
ISSAC
We can't really say the truth, can we?
BONNIE
Um, Luke? Is there any power the House has that'd make nobody question that kind of thing, or...?
LUKE
Afraid not. But it's no issue. The only person who would've noticed my disappearance would've been my grandma.
LEON
Sounds good for us, but we'll still have to explain you to the government or some shit, right?
BONNIE
We can cross that bridge when we get there.
You shake your head with a sigh, looking back out the window. You've faced a lot over the last six hours... but, by some miracle, you managed to make it out alive.
Emmie's comments about who the House is truly for keep circling in your brain, however. The fact that it's still out there, still luring in people to kill, makes you feel a deep discomfort in your stomach. And the fact that there's other Houses out there like that, too... how many people are dying and disappearing due to this? How many spirits are trapped in those places, hurt and mourning like Emmie? What's anyone done about that? Should you do something about that?
You glance at your friends, who are laughing and chattering with big smiles on their faces. But, under there, you get the sense that the same thoughts are on their minds, too.
KLAIR
...It's still out there.
ISSAC
Yeah. I was trying not to think too hard about it.
KLAIR
And there's more like it.
BONNIE
...There are.
KLAIR
Someone... should do something about that. We should?
LEON
Hold on. We just managed to get out of there by the skin of our freakin' teeth. And you want to, what... hunt it down? Hunt down Houses like it?
KLAIR
Not immediately, but, like... for all we know, we're the only people who know about this at all. So we're the only people who can do anything about it at all, right?
LUKE
You've got a great advantage with me here. I know how these things work inside and out. Mostly. I'm down to do that, if you all are.
BONNIE
It- It was pretty dangerous in there. But... if we could do something to prevent more victims like Lydia, or Nick, or... W-Well, I'm in.
ISSAC
Shit, if you three are doing this, you're going to need some brawn to go with those brains.
LEON
You guys are suicidal.
KLAIR
You're not joining us?
LEON
If your friends all jumped, right?
You all laugh at that, and there's relief to it. The relief of doing something about what you know now about the world - the relief of planning to prevent any more Jasons, any more Nicks or Lydias, or Rochelles, or Emmies or Bais, ever again.
Time to do some House hunting.