The Many Place

The Blolesens family has come to North Queensland, Australia to enjoy their summer vacation. They are staying at a star hotel called Ashgrove. However, they are welcomed by heavy rainfall because of the place's tropical climate. As the parents complain about the weather, the receptionist tells them about all the different activities they can do in the hotel without having to go outdoors. The eldest daughter of the family, Nita locks eyes with a teenage boy in the lobby. They exchange numbers and decide to meet at the swimming pool later. The youngest of the family, Max runs inside the elevator and presses all the buttons just for the fun of it. She is stopped by the hotel's boiler man. He has worked in the hotel for several years and knows all its secrets. The man warns Max against pressing all the buttons, claiming that bad things happen to kids who do so. He also mentions someone named Qinkin but before he can elaborate, the hotel clerk approaches them. She reminds him that the elevator is only for guests and he isn't allowed to use it. The boiler man curses her and walks away, leaving Max speechless after the encounter. The clerk uses her keys to reset the buttons on the elevator and brings the family to their room. They are staying in a single room, hence the kids fight about who gets to use the bathroom first. Nita accidentally scrapes Max's favourite black sandals in the process. The sisters used to be best friends but now that Nita is growing into a teenager, they have grown apart. Max asks her father if she will also grow up to become like her sister. The father understands that she is hurt by Nita's behaviour and consoles her. The parents want some time free from the children so they send them off to the hotel's pool. Nita had planned to meet the guy from earlier and doesn't want to take her siblings. But at her parent's request, she reluctantly brings them along.

The middle child, Jett, loves to play video games. He walks through the hallways while wearing a Virtual reality headset and accidentally bumps into a table, dropping a framed picture. He puts it back upside down before entering the elevator with his sisters. As usual, Max presses all the buttons in the elevator, saying that the lights look pretty. This time, they do not have a key to reset it. All of a sudden, the elevator shakes aggressively and starts moving. When it stops, Nita tries to press other buttons but none of them works. They blame Max for being careless and decide to take the stairs. The hallways look different to them but the kids do not think much of it. Jett also notices that the floor feels cold, in contrast to how it was some moments ago. They go around the hallways looking for stairs but cannot find any. The elevator that they came through is lost and they have no way to return to their parents. Even the rooms have no numbers which Max thinks is weird. Nita tries calling her parents but her phone has no signal. They knock on one of the doors to ask for help and see that it is already open. Inside the door lies another hallway that is identical to the one they are in right now. They check other doors and find out that they are stuck in a maze-like place where every door leads to a different identical hallway. The younger siblings start to panic but Nita calms them down. She claims that all they have to do is find the elevator again and return to their parents. Suddenly, they hear a loud growl from behind a door. Max claims that the noise is coming from Quinkin who the boiler man warned her about. As the growling gets louder, she starts to panic and hyperventilates. Nita asks her to breathe and plays their favourite bo-bo-ski game to calm her down. But trouble arises when they hear a faint snarling getting closer. On looking under a door, they see a pair of monsters' feet on the other side. They screech in fear and run away through random doors, getting further away from their original elevator in the process. Max runs faster than the other two and gets lost. Nita and Jatt try calling her but she has run down several hallways and cannot hear them. When Matt stops running, she calls for her siblings and realizes that she has lost them. While looking for her, Jett and Nita hear an elevator door ding followed by melodic music. They follow the sound and finally reach the elevator. Nita doesn't want to leave without Max but Jett claims that if they inform their parents, they will find her quicker. They get on the elevator and Jett notices the red interior when he clearly remembers it being a neutral colour before. The elevator shakes as it did earlier, making them think that they will end up back in the maze. However, this time, they reach back to their floor in the hotel. When they pass the hallway, we notice that the framed picture that was upside down earlier is now in its correct position. Nita uses the keys to open the door to their room.

However, they are met with a surprise when they see two strangers inside. When asked what they are doing there, the strangers claim that they have been in the room for a week. The kids then go to the reception and inquire about their parents. The clerk who checked them in only a few hours ago claims that no one of the names is staying at the hotel. The boiler man overhears their conversation and seems to know the truth about the maze. Back in the hallways, Max is trying to look for her siblings. She hears a roar and curls up on the floor crying in fear. Suddenly, someone runs towards her. On looking at the person's face, Max freezes in shock. Somewhere else, Nita and Jett are confused out of their minds. Nita googles her mother's name and finds out her number. The mother picks up the call from her workplace in the other part of the world. When Nita tries to explain what happened, she stops her and asks her who she is. It turns out that the mother is living an entirely different life and has a boyfriend who is not their father. She insists that she isn't married and has no kids, and cuts the phone call. The siblings are left speechless at their mother's indifference. As they brainstorm ideas to get out of the situation, the boiler man approaches them. He asks them if they pressed all the buttons in the elevator and calls them out for being idiots. He also explains that the hallway they reach after pressing the buttons is called the Many Place. It is a cluster of pathways to alternate universes, a place where all the realities meet. When the kids look at him in confusion, he further explains that their universe is one of many universes that exist in space. Each universe gives birth to the same people but with different realities. Like their mother who is married and has children in one reality, is a working woman with a boyfriend in another. The Many Place looks like a maze at first glance but the doors aren't as random as they seem. Each door leads them closer to an elevator that is the path to an alternate reality. There are a billion of them and hence, to find the one they came from will need a lot of work. He suggests they retrace their steps through the doors and find the original elevator that they came from. At last, he also warns them that looking for the original elevator is not that easy as he has never met someone who found their way back after getting lost. Jett looks outside the window and sees flying cars that are considered usual in this reality. The brother and sister go back to the elevator when the boiler man stops them. He adds that the Many Place was built as a way to punish the humans who have committed unfathomable crimes. The place they are going to has a cruel creature who eats the lost people. Hence, the children should be careful if they want to safely reach their original elevator. Following the encounter, they press all the buttons and end up back in the Many Place. After looking around for more than an hour, they finally find another lift. However, on reaching the hotel, they immediately find out that they are not in their original reality. The place is filled with smoke and the sound of missiles launching can be heard from outside. It is clear that in this reality, the world is at war. They return to the Many places and start looking for another elevator. After a few more hours they finally find another one but it is filled with water, denoting that the world is underwater in that reality. On their third elevator ride, they reach an abandoned hotel and lose hope of finding their original reality. Nita breaks down crying, realizing that she will never meet her parents and her sister. When Jett tries to comfort her, she tells him that they cannot go down billions of different elevators. Jett, on the other hand, asks her to get it together because she is supposed to be an adult. With renewed motivation, they collect things they might need to navigate through the maze. They decide that finding Max is more important than finding their original reality because she might be scared and lonely. Nita gets a horn, some pencils, and a stick to fight the creature they had seen earlier. Following that, they enter the Many places and mark all the doors that they walk through.

They call Max using the horn and quickly cross many hallways. But even after hours of searching, they do not find her. All of a sudden, they hear Max's voice calling them. She is just around the corner but she asks them to not come near her. When the siblings throw several questions at her, she asks them to just trust her. She also urges them to keep their eyes closed at all costs because she has someone else with her who is helping her navigate. When they are finally facing to face, Max reveals that the creature behind her is Quinkin, the monster that Boiler had warned them about. Quinkin cannot help but eat the eyes of people who look at him, hence they should keep their eyes closed. Apart from that, he is a gentle creature who has lived in Many places his entire life. He knows every corner of the place and wants to help them get back to their original reality. Max and Nita hug while still keeping their eyes closed. They trust Quinkin and hold his hand. After that, they slowly make their way to the elevator and start it. As the doors close, they open their eyes and get a glimpse of Quinkin's gruesome face. Thankfully, the doors shut before he can attack and the kids are brought back to their original reality. They see that the framed picture is upside down and finally sigh of relief. While walking back to the room, Nita asks Max how she found out that they should close their eyes. Max mentions the boiler man and says that he is blind. Nita stops her and inquires what that means. Then, she notices that Max isn't wearing her favourite black sandals that she was wearing when they first entered the elevator. Max also mentions their grandmother and claims that she is dead. Soon, Nita realizes that they picked up Max from a different reality who was lost in the maze as them. She is not the girl they grew up with but is from a parallel universe. When they reach their room, the group is beyond surprised to see that the real Max is already there. She is trying to explain everything to her parents who clearly don't believe her. That is until they get a look at their daughter's doppelganger and freeze in shock. The story ends as the real Max begs her parents to keep the other Max as their fourth daughter.