scraph

you don't have to but you're probably not gonna make a lot of headway just fucking around in this storeroom

Let's stick to the plan, hey? Keep on searching, keep on thinking. You've nothing to lose, after all. However...

run into the hallway, but go past that other lighted room, instead running as far as you can possibly go

...you have some misgivings about this situation. The corridor is unnaturally dark, and the light deliberately enticing - it feels almost staged. And you're not in the mindset for playing along. Instead, after a few tentative steps forward, you gather yourself up for a run, of sorts; it's of more a bumbling, stuttering jog to be honest, but mentally you've committed yourself to dashing straight past the light source so by that metric you're trying your best.

Well, until you trip up, anyway.

be careful don't trip up

OKAY MAYBE HURTLING DOWN A PITCH BLACK CORRIDOR WASN'T THE GREATEST IDEA

...it's okay, though; a successful spot of flailing keeps you mostly upright, so you only really stumble rather than fall. And even though it means turning to look back towards the very room you were trying to avoid, you would quite like to see what it was that broke your stride...

Huh - there's a bunch of cables spilling out into the hallway. They look pretty much identical, but each has its own coloured sleeve that starts at the threshold. Or, um, ends. Depends which way you look at it.

purple is the new green

You wonder which cable tripped you up - the purple-sleeved one seems to head off in the opposite direction to the others, so it can't have been that one. The blue-sleeved one is the most likely candidate; you bend down and fumble about for it and sure enough, it runs straight across the width of the corridor to the opposite wall... and then up? You put your hand on the cable as it lies on the floor and follow it along - when it reaches the wall, it does indeed climb upwards, way beyond the limit of your reach. Hmm...

...and now your curiosity compels you to try tracing the route of the green-sleeved cable... it appears to be headed in the direction you were going, so why not? It bends back and forth a little aaaaaand then straight up the wall again. Oh, but wait a sec...

This cable only goes up a bit, not all the way; you think there's some kind of box on this wall? And the cable's going into that? That's what it feels like, anyway. You're only getting a bit of light from that room back down the hall...

...

> DO IT

No, hold up - you gotta get to the end of this corridor first. You said you would. Can't call it quits after a mere misstep, right? Let's keep going.

You immediately trip over another bloody cable.

You do not stop to suss out the path it traces. The only path you should be thinking of now is your path forward, down this unlit hall. Thankfully it turns out that you were quite close to its end, since it's only a few more steps before you nearly smoosh your face into a door. A little investigation with your hands suggests that you're facing another set of double doors, but this time with windows! Do they look out onto anything interesting?

who knows you honestly can't make out shit

>just get it over with you weenie

...this wasn't a great idea. And unless you want to try traipsing your way down to the other end of this corridor you reckon you best suck it up and poke your nose into the room that's actually properly illuminated. You turn around and prepare to retrace your steps.

...you're pretty certain you know where the cables are now, roughly speaking. Just to make sure, though, you to take it nice and slow, keeping close to the wall, all the way back to the door. As tempted as you are to try bursting through it (you know, in keeping with your previous approach), it is kind of already ajar. Like, nearly completely open, actually. You could shut it and then barrel through, but the cables are in the way. You'll settle for gingerly stepping over them.

...

oh wow okay you weren't expecting to be staring straight at a light source when you swung round the door it's uhh kind of bright