Ash grips the hold of my hand firmly as he suddenly picks up the pace, dashing further into the hallway, pulling me along behind him. My foot almost tripped over one another, attempting to catch up with him. The loud pounding of our footsteps rumbled through the floorboards as I tried my best not to make too much noise.
"Ash, Could you slow down!" I abruptly said, giving it enough time to see if it caught his attention. Though he wasn't slowing down or looking back at me, I wasn't sure if the rumbling of our footsteps masked what I tried to say.
The wooden door that closed off room B3 slammed into the wall inwards with a shove of Ash's arms. I looked at him as I felt like demanding for him to talk, he only looked back at me— with the distressed look on his face matching his passive aggressive actions of tugging me behind. His hand held onto mine as he rushed me to step into the room before him, making sure the door was closed shut behind us before walking over to the center back of the classroom. I tensely unlatched my hand away from his as I slowed myself down to a halt. I stood to catch my breath, getting a short glance of a classroom with the corner of my eye before looking back at him.
"What is your problem— why are you in a rush?!" I threw my arms in the air in confusion. It had made me feel more frustrated and agitated than I already was, and I had still wanted to know why did he rush me to the next room suddenly. I wasn't aware of what could have happened with him that I didn't know of, let alone trying to find what made the sound. The loud singular bang that should have come from here had me pacing towards here in the first place. He said that he didn't even hear the sound, so what's with the sudden rush. I'm not a person who would push things to aggravate someone, though I was too unsure of what to do next. I paced back in forth in place, silently waiting to demand him for an answer.
He licked his lips, finding a moment before speaking, "Look, you need to keep your eyes and ears out for anything— okay?"
The asserting tone in his voice didn't match the distressed look on his face, his eyes blinking a bit faster than usual. It looked like he just ran 10 miles around the track field. I already knew that he could if he wanted to, but it looked like he was sweating.
"I already was?!— now I want to know what's up with you. Why are you in a rush?!" I said as if he didn't answer the question the first time, the second time would work.
"Don't worry about me. There is nothing for you to worry about," he said, reluctantly.
"Worry about what, Ash?!" I asked, genuinely wondering why he wouldn't answer the question directly.
"It's nothing. I didn't find any other clues in the first room, that's all," he repeated again, avoiding eye contact by slowly turning around to pace around.
His face told me that I shouldn't push it any further. There wasn't any reason for me to get worked up about it anyway. I was probably more awkward if I was to assume too much that I'd be wrong. Though, it's better to be concerned than not to. I dropped the subject and walked around him over to the desks. I shoved my words back down my throat and waited until he calms down.
My flashlight beamed from corner to corner of the room, scanning if there was anything for us to see from the back. This room looked the same as the two previous rooms we investigated. It wasn't much surprising, nor appealing, to that fact. Whatever thought that was.
The feeling of uneasiness still carried itself around my shoulder with every step I took. The darkness of the room still made me wary the same way the past two rooms did. I tried my best to look at everything my flashlight could illuminate. I turned my head facing the front, lighting up what was in front of me. That's when I noticed something. The only sight that was too noticeable of a difference was the scattering of the desks.
The scattering of the desks was enough to make this room more than abysmal, if not stranger than the other rooms. There were only a few desks that were the only ones who stood upright, still scattered around. The other rest of the desks are flipped around in different positions. The look of the desks was already something that led me to believe that something was troubling— something troubling that happened back when it was bustling with students. The only space that the light could show made it look more ominous, like something out of a horror show. It felt and looked miserable.
"Ash look..." I mindlessly called for Ash's attention. The sound of his shoes dragging against the wooden floor as he stood beside me while looking at the scattered mess of the desks.
"Woah. What the hell happened here?" he asked, also confusingly surprised at what was in front of him. He looked like he was trying to step closer but wanted to wait until I finished what I was saying.
"This happened," I shun the flashlight across the row of desks, "I suppose something bad happened here also then. I have to believe that the first room wasn't the only room that wasn't the only one who had that 'situation. Well, I was partially correct considering that every room had a thing of its own." I couldn't come up with anything convenient that would conveniently explain what we are seeing right now, with my mind seeming to have the same chain of questions as Ash.
"It just keeps getting more stranger. Anything now wouldn't beat close to the bloodied rods we found earlier, but I am now convinced by this that the whole school is just off." He wandered even closer to the stack of desks, tugging his arm gently on one of the legs.
The disarranged and jumbled desks made it look more in quantity than there actually is. If I were to count ten desks, it would look like there is thirty or twenty desks. That was only an example, of course. It wouldn't be a big deal to make about how messy the desks are but it felt like it was necessary to make it that way. This whole night of investigating is slowly making me mentally tired, but as I would like to find out the most I can, I have to do the best I can. I don't know if that goes the same way for Ash, who looked like he just wanted to give in and sleep on the spot, if he had felt the same time of motivation I had.
"What would have to happen for all these desks to get scrambled like this?" I slowly walked over to the left of the room as my eyes inspected the glossy rough surfaces of the desks. It took a few glances with the light gleaming over until one of the desks caught my attention. This desk buried itself underneath many others. I succeeded to push off some of the desks off the top to inspect the surface, making loud clashing sounds. The deep scratches and faint jab holes on top revealed themselves among the light.
"This one looks terrifying to look at," he remarked, looking over the broken up desk.
"I know. It's strangely terrifying just imagining the sort of things that would happen for it to end up to this," I said, sarcastically implying the strange occurrences that had happened before that left me unphased, "though, that saying goes for everything so far."
"I sorta can imagine it. I will learn a thing or two the more we look around this place. Let's see what this room has to offer, other than the rest of the words for the message," his nervous grin mixed with a slight chuckle, his eyes adverting back to the jumble of desks.
He couldn't hide a lot his nervousness right now, as it was obvious and different from a normal type of nervousness. It's the type of nervousness where it's awkward and seems close to keeping quiet. I would be nervous if I had to process the mess next by us right now— not to mention or primary goal of this investigation.
"Alright, how are we going to start this one?" I hinted at the ambivalent feeling of whether this room would be more unexpectedly strange to search like the other room. Again, I doubted that it would be any stranger than the bloodied rods. My shoulders relaxed more as I stepped away from the unstable tables and chairs.
"We'll start looking in the front desk first. Therefore, we can work our way to the back of the room," he suggested, almost sounding demanding.
"Yeah, we should start with that. I'll look if there's anything written on the chalkboard first," I added.
He slightly coughed out of nowhere, covering his mouth with his hands, "Alright, you should go on first. I'll follow behind you in a bit."
"You should keep a close distance behind me— since there wouldn't be light if you stayed behind, " I gently reminded him as I stumbled my way back to the path of the desks.
I slowly hovered over the row of furniture as I stepped widely over the blockade of chairs, making sure there was enough floor space for me to step in. The distance between me and the chalkboard wasn't far apart substantially. Still, it wasn't enough for the light to illuminate anything from that distance. I had attempted to view anything from the back of the room, but it's to no avail. I motioned for Ash to follow behind me just in case he might need the light too, but he was already close behind me. The metal legs and the wooden surfaces clashed against one another the more I attempted to tiptoe across the line of desks. It was only some of the desks that were in a jumbled mess like how it is, and it was unfortunate that those desks made up that blockade. The focusing on the shuffling of my feet kept my mind off my thoughts for a while, but I couldn't stop thinking of more possible reasons as to why all of this had happened.
Ash moves a few of the desks upright before rearranging them into a somewhat arrangement, "Here, I moved some of the desks out of your way. That should help you get though it faster."
"Uh... Thank you," I said in appreciation, flustering up a bit.
His eyes closed as he grinned slyly at me and his head nodded quickly. I nodded back as I blindly picked back up the flashlight.
I hurried myself faster to the front of the classroom, freely moving desks aside to get through. The rush of my adrenaline fasten itself the more I expected for anything, an awaiting clue, to be there for me to find.
"You should investigate the desks. I'll investigate the front desk along with the chalkboard," he said brusquely, in an asserting tone, from behind me.
I stood in a standstill in front of the teacher's desk, my mind caught onto what Ash had said. I curiously turned around to see an his inconsistent uncertain expression, but an assertion of his tone said different. His fingers gripped into loose fists and his eyes firmly stared into mines.
I quietly nodded and accepted of what he said right after, as his intimidating and asserting tone had left me bereft of anything to say back. I didn't pay much to mind since there wasn't anything wrong with spreading out to look, it would actually be faster to. His uneasiness mixed with an undertone of certainty had thrown off my worries I had about it. It was true that I should have felt worried about him since he's acting a bit different now.
I shoved my arms inside the compartments of every desk that stood upright first, a lot of times checking the surfaces closely for any details also. I had to make sure to check for any clue that could be hidden and found the same way it was discovered under the big desk in the last room. After a few of the first desks I checked, none of them had anything in it. It was weird considering that this school was abandoned, with a lot of papers being left behind in the first room. I had no idea what time it was said to be "abandoned" as I got it from Hayden but at least there had to be something hidden with the desks. The next few desks didn't provide anything more, and though it was the only halfway, it was already tiring to go through every one of them. On the other note, I had thought that his suggestion of splitting up more difficult the longer I realize we are sharing one flashlight.
"You need any light to see?" I asked, casually walking up to him. I only made it a couple steps towards him.
"Don't move closer— and no I'm fine." His head buried under the desk and his voice mumbled. This feels like it happened before. To make it more sudden, I was confused whether he had just shoved his head under there, the second I tried to ask him that question.
"You sure?" I asked him the second time, but this time there was just a hum from him. I was wondering how he's going to search with out any light to see over it. It was hard to brush it off but I manage to, hoping that he knew what he was doing.
"I'm going to keep looking with the desks. Tell me when you found anything or 'need any light to see," I awkwardly chuckled as I turned back around to the desks that waited for me to search through them.
"You too. I'll be over with you soon... just let me be alone on this," he said. I nodded it off and headed back to prepare my shoulders to lift the desks back up in place.
I awkwardly got back to focusing on the task at hand, searching for any clues inside the desks. I had to make sure that there weren't that many desks as I presumed it to be from standing at the back of the room. It was mostly quiet after that; the both of us were busy with our tasks at hand. I looked back at Ash, who was surprisingly still absorbed in his search since he had only moved fewer times than the sounds that sounded out of him. The only sound was the clicking of his tongue he had made every time he moved occasionally. Other than that, I would periodically look back at the desk to see if he was still working, or looking, at something under there.
A small grunt escaped through my teeth as I lifted the desk back up, "Nope, there's nothing in here." I slapped the desk in frustration and moved onto the last desk that was still lying on the floor.
It was desk after desk that I searched through and had found nothing within it. I felt disappointed and upset overall, but I couldn't complain about it since both of us had already expected the difficulty of finding any clues. The both of us had postulated that finding clues would be much harder from now on. Well, that's what I believe. I slowly spun around the desk in front of me, making sure that there went anything that I would be missing. The prime example of a pain in the ass is the word being carved under the front desk— that would be a pain in the ass if something were to be hidden under one of these wooden surfaces.
"This desk didn't give me any luck in finding anything, and it's disappointing that it's the last desk that was left to search too," I informed him as I swept my hand along the smooth and old wooden texture of the desk. I felt along the dust that collected on the wooden surface so I could warp up looking through the empty desks quickly. I looked over at Ash, wondering if he ever was lucky in finding something since he took a long time over there. I hope he did find the desk was able to hand us some kind of clue.
He took a while for a response until, finally, he stood back up from under, "Nothing? Damn." From the distance, it looked like he was making a face that reminded me of the same distressed look he had.
I quickly responded, "What? Did you find anything—?"
"No.. I didn't." He said
"Are you sure?! There has to be something hidden around there," I power walked over to him, ignoring his hand gesturing for me to calm down. The desk was my only hope and that hope diminished away TK.
He stood still behind me after I gently shoved him to get under the desk. I, almost desperately, felt my fingers around the top of the desk for another word to be carved. But there wasn't TK.
"What the hell. There's seriously nothing under here too?" I looked back at him, who was standing with a poker face. A chill ran through my spine when my questioning eyes met with his monotone like eyes. He only stood still for a couple of seconds before breaking his expression from the intimidating poker face.
"Nothing on the chalkboard too. Damn, this seems to be going no where." He slumped back onto the chalkboard as he crossed his arms. His head shook in the light from the flashlight that has shunned at him from below.
I sat myself around the desk checking every drawer, doing the same routine we did for the last room. Nothing. It was just an emptied out desk. I let out a tired sigh while closing the drawer with the tips of my fingers. This wasn't going to get any easier, my energy dried out from my laziness. Ash was pondering about something since his eyes stared thoughtlessly in front of him and his fingers felt around his jaw.
We sat still for a couple of seconds before we heard a trail of faint footsteps. The quiet yet clear steps that trailed off from outside of the room. Ash had to hear that— there was no chance that he could deny hearing that. I looked back at him to confirm that, but what I saw was his widened eyes. The eyes of distress. He stood there in shock and surprise as his pupils moved between me and the door.
I quickly picked myself up and prepped to dash to the door, "I'm going to see what that is." I rushed to the door as fast as I possible as I could that I wasn't able to ask if he wanted to come along. TK
"Wai—"
I hurriedly made past the desks that scattered itself around me. I pushed aside the desks that stood in my way while still watching for the door. TK
"Lianne, Wait—!" Ash shouted louder, this time I had noticed that he was calling for me.
Slam!
I fell forward in a jolt of speed as the tip of my shoes latched onto a floorboard as I was running over it. My left arm was able to firmly support on the ground while my right arm slammed into the ground. It was luck that I was able to hold my head up enough so it wouldn't end up like how my right arm was. My right elbow felt sore from the hard impact against the floor that caused me to help myself up slowly and in agony. The loud footsteps from behind me rang over me as two arms held onto my shoulders, lifting my off the ground to sit against a leg of a chair. TK
"Lianne! Are you okay?!" He shouted as he ran over to me. His breath panting while he kneeled down beside me.
"Yeah..." I grunted through my teeth, gripping my calf. "I'm okay— but you heard the sound coming from outside, right?" I asked him without any doubt in my mind.
He muttered a word under his breath before checking on my calf, "It's already gone. Lets just stay here—"
"What the hell do you mean 'stay here'?! It was footsteps that the both of us heard! I'm going to check up on what is is," I staggered myself with the help of a desk nearby to lift me up. He stood behind me in disbelief— I hope it was over himself. What's going on with him now?
"It's already gone." he said calmly, trying to keep his composure.
"Yeah, No shit! I'm going to catch up with it then! What the hell is going on with you?" I argued back, in a rush that I ignored what just happened seconds earlier.
He couldn't find anything else to mutter to it. I didn't want to take any more time waiting for him. I staggered over to the door as quick as I can.
His hand gripped around my ankle as fast as he could.
"No… It was just that loose floorboard that you tripped over," he pointed at the floorboard in front of my shoe. His response jumping from one conversation to another. Even with the light, it was obvious to my sight since it wasn't flushed with the other floorboards.
His eyes had a look as if he hid something that was seen TK. His eyes scattered over the floor restlessly, "There might be something under here."
That (of course) had caught my attention with my curiosity, seeing that we had found nothing in this room yet was enough for me to derive my attention to the 'already gone' footsteps to the loose floorboard. I'm impressed enough to want to question how Ash was able to spot that out with minimal light, though it was blocked out by the desperate need to search under there.
"What? There is?" I turned away from the door to kneel back onto the floor with Ash, cautiously with the leg that I have.
"You might need to pry open the floorboard first. Then, we'll be sure that there is something under there— but I'm sure my eyes isn't mistaking it," he said before pausing himself, "Sorry if there isn't actually anything under there."
His neutral expression was broken with as his exhaled with relief exhale. My eyes paid attention back to the halfway pried open board. I strummed my fingers along the lined texture of the floorboard. I compared the surrounding floorboards to this one, nothing that it felt distinguishable between the two types. This one that I tripped on had a fake feeling— it didn't feel real. Though, that made me question why it was the floorboard out of anything was out of place. It questioned how much luck I had tripping on it. I should find something to pry it open to test that luck.
"I need something to help pry it open with," I said as I looked around for anything in sight, and in reach, for me to use for it.
He also followed as he looked around the floor we sat on, "Nothing around here, and I'm pretty sure there isn't anything else around the room too."
"Well, that's disappointing," I sighed, looking back down near my feet to brainstorm. I couldn't think of anything else at that moment other than to try to pry it with my hands.
I wrapped my hand around the wood with the help of my other hand opening it. Then by a second, I reached my other hand around the wood and tugged. I was aware that it was wood so I didn't want to carelessly tug it open too hard. The board slowly angled itself away from the floor the more I shook it left to right slightly.
"A little... help here— Ash" I grunted out.
"Right."
We both tugged on it until the wood creaked open as the sound of snapping wood blended in with my grunts. I felt my tugging lightened with the force from Ash's exerting push against it. The board started to come off the concrete floor below before giving out and tugged itself with my arms. I flung back from the strong pull of my arms going with the ripped out board as gasped for air. Ash dropped his arms on his knees as he also was catching his breath. For a board that felt fake, it would have been difficult if Ash wasn't helping in.
"Well for the moment of truth," I panted out a remark as I held the board with my hands.
Ash quickly grasped the flashlight in anticipation for the reveal. I scooted over to Ash before flipping to the bottom of the board towards me. I looked at the concrete ground that connected with it and finally onto the board.
"Who..." Ash read the red painted words out loud. He let out a small hum before staring back at the empty slot on the floor.
"Now, the clue of this room is written on the floorboard?! Really? What would have led for the students to leave the next word in a piece like this?!" The questions came pouring out in disbelief. I'm starting to become mentally exhausted from knowing that if I wasn't to trip over this specific floorboard, we would have already given up looking in this room already. Again, the wood itself did feel fake compared to others so I can partially answer that question.
"This is a very odd place to hide this clue here. If the intention was still to give out a message," I sarcastically emphasized. "it would be 'Do you know who' but I still can't make anything out of—"
Two arms latched onto my shoulders from behind me; encasing around my neck. The startle that I felt through my whole body left me bewildered. I stood frozen in utter shock that I couldn't move anything else on my body. Arms had wrapped around me out of nowhere and that's what startled me. I didn't take less than 2 seconds to notice that it was Ash.
I slowly turned my head towards behind me and nervously asked, "What... are you... doing?"
He stood there with his chin buried into the center between my shoulder blades TK. The breathing from his nose exhaled onto my exposed skin.
He muttered beside my ear, "You're very lovely when you ask me questions."
It sent a chill down my spine. What. the. fuck. His voice didn't sound monotone or anything normal that he was speaking as before TK, it sounded like he was drunk or close to something like that (I've only seen him drunk once). Candice would call it as 'lovey-dovey' but it felt creepy considering that deep voice he had. I couldn't stop repeating "Holy shit" in my mind as I tried to process what had just happened.
"What!?" is all I could say.
"You know, I have this intense love for you. I'm sure you should know that," he mumbled lazily that I sounded half coherent.
He leaned in closer to my ear using my shoulders as leverage for his arms, "I love you," he whispered before dropping back onto my neck.
I couldn't find anything to say back. This wasn't a time for all that and I'm sure there wouldn't be any sooner. I lowered myself to the ground before sitting still in silence as my breathing became shallow as his arms was still tight around my neck. His nose buried itself in the skin of my back as the weight of his arms lightening and unlocked itself from around my neck TK.
After minutes of still movement of supporting him on my back, I rushed myself to nudge Ash rapidly with my shoulder. I would love to get out of this situation as much as I wanna move onto whatever we room we had to investigate next. I couldn't forget about scarily and strange it was. It still struck me as appalling the more I tried to let this process through my mind— the words that left out of his mouth as he hugged me from behind. It was something that I couldn't find out why myself and I wouldn't bother to.
His head lifted off my shoulders and his arms dropped. "I'm extremely sorry— I- I- don't what happened," he groaned, dazed and unaware of what happened before. Thought, it wasn't any more relieving that he woke up and remembered the whispering into my ears.
I didn't want to push it any further since he could have forgotten so I kept my mouth shut. I slapped his arm with my back hand and made my way beside him.
"Let's get out of here," I pulled Ash upwards with my arms. My legs seemed to be feeling better now so that was a joy. I kept the broken piece of floorboard in my hand while I walked the both of us to the door.
Ash stood himself up back on his feet and nudged behind me to continue leading the way, he held the flashlight over my shoulders. The quietness of the hallway echoed with a ghastly sound of the wind. I wasn't so sure how long we had left to investigate nor whether if the others are already done. We had taken more longer than we had though while being in each room. I mentally pushed myself forward to continue as much as I could, with the amount of time my guts could have given me.
My eyes lids closed for longer periods of seconds before opening back up because of how much it was strained from tiredness. I tried my best to keep myself busy to not fall asleep while looking around, and I envied Ash for falling asleep after you know what. We walked continuously without pausing for even a catch of breath, and occasionally, I had to look back to make sure Ash was still following behind me. The now dimly brightness of the light lit the a path that beamed from the cobwebs on the ceiling to the speck of dust flying in the air.
Seconds later when I was sure that there wasn't anything else ahead of us, we came across another door. This door was different from the other doors we laid our eyes on. With the help of the light, we were able to tell that all it took was planks of wood to build this door. White coats of paint was brushed along the small slivers of the wooden door, and it was more or less attempted without any sort of success as the paint didn't reach to the top. There were shallow and long marks in the door, the pattern of the mark looked familiar to the claw marks that was on Bailey's shirt. That's two seen details that made this looked out of place than anything else in this hallway. It looked horribly out of place for a building that called itself an institution. I wanted to see if there was any reactions or comments from Ash that could make standing by each other less awkward.
"That's sorta looks out of place, isn't it?. Out of anything that we had come across, this one is built out of what it looks like to be planks of wood," I spoke the thoughts in my mind, breaking free of the silence that had separated both of us from looking at one another.
He stood and observed the door in front of him— that's what he would usually do. I looked to the left of me where the hallway should continue on but it didn't continue any further. It was the end of the hallway, with a wall blocking its path that was close enough for the light to touch it.
"I'm honestly too scared to see what's behind this door," he said, nervously backing away from the door with an anxious grin on his face.
I chuckled knowing that he would be the type of person to keep something out of embarrassment and because he finally chose this time to admit it. It didn't have anything to disagree with, of course, the door that was built with wooden planks and white coats of paint made it unfitting and bizarre to my eyes. I had wondered if it was even a classroom in the first place. That answer should be obvious— it isn't designed for a classroom at all.
"I'm going to have to admit it too now. It already looks scary enough on the outside," I remarked again, peering up at him as I wondered if that loosened the tension up.
He chucked back at this, this time with more nervousness, "Do we have any other options rather than to open that door?" he pointed his finger back at the door.
"Not at all," I shook at my head and sighed before patting his shoulder, "It isn't going to do us any good standing out here than taking risks to check behind this door. Don't worry Ash, we're going to be okay."
"Right. Let's go in then," he lets out a mighty fist to the air and walked ahead of me. It was a motivation that worked.
He paused abruptly and faced me with his finger to the air, "With caution."
I nodded to his orders. No need to tell me that twice, as we both had instinctively had the routine engraved in our head with every time we gathered enough guts to enter a new classroom. Caution as we enter.
Normally, he would have opened the door already if he had taken the lead but he stood there with his fingers stumbling for a knob to hold on to. Another thing that I'm surprised I didn't notice earlier, the door didn't have a twistable kind of knob to open it. It had a long metal ring stemming from where the doorknob usually sits TK. I knew what type of door it is since I worked with my dad with the backyard when I was kid. Ash didn't, as to the expression on his face reminded me. I took the liberty and opened the door for him, gripping the wiring with my fingers and tugged it open.
"Weird door," he confusingly laughed at it. He headed in first as I followed behind.
The atmosphere of the room changed tremendously before the both of us audibly gasped for air as we stood in intense surprise and utter horror that is displayed in front of us. His started at the wall as his hand unwrapped the flashlight in his hands and drops it onto the hard floor with a loud clang. The sight in front of us was unpleasant enough to be horrifying but the reaction didn't feel greatly intense as to what we felt when we discovered Bailey's body. In surprise, my eyes widened as it twitched along under my eyelids. With my thoughts swirling my head and my vision spinning, I struggled to fixate my eyes at the stroke of thick lines this is painted on the wall. In what I presumed to be blood. The smell of it was realistic as it was heavy in an iron scent TK.
I was able to breath shallowly as I read out loud, "We- We- Are..." I stuttered, continuing the struggle of focusing on what the two blotted, red words had written.
"What the fu- fuck..." he also stuttered as he struggled to respond, the sight had left him reading the words in shock.
"We found.. the next two words..." I said. I felt lightheaded as my body felt it was going to topple over. TK
Below the two words that read 'We are' painted a huge question mark that was also drawn in blood. My now trembling eyes followed a trail of rods that traced the huge question mark to the end. It was the same rods we found in the drawer but there were more to the addition. I quickly spun to scan around the room— only to notice that this wasn't a classroom but a room with— nothing. There weren't anything else that covered over the walls and the floors, and no furniture consisted itself in the room. It was an empty concrete room only with the bloody words that completed the sentence that we held on to for the whole investigation.
By the time I finished looking around, the intense panic that expanded inside me had dissipated and left me with room to breathe. Ash was looking along with me I also spun Ash around the room to survey the bare nothing of this room. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded that he was deep in thought about something. It wasn't much to look around and think about so I focused on the matter at hand. What did the metal rods led to. I walked closer to the door but enough to observe at a distance. The concrete wall was impaled by every one of those rods as there was cracks and deep holes that surrounded the rods. The blood seems to be fresh and new since there were still drips of blood pouring out from those rods. So, it had to happen very recently— but how recent. It didn't make much sense.
"Ash, come over here and look at this," I motioned him to look closer, still keeping my eyes on the small river of blood that flowed from the cracks.
His eyes observed the same area my eyes were, "There must be a lot of blood for it to be dripping out of the cracks like that."
"And it looks fresh also. It's not dried up like how it was on the rods we found in B2," I added.
"So that would mean that somebody had recently done all this. The writing in blood and everything else," he said, having the same thought I had in my head.
"That would mean that it was during the time we spent in this hallway. It freaks me out ever more that we didn't even hear anything for that far down of the hallway," he said.
Although, there was a bang that I had heard from earlier. He was right. It was only a singular bang that I heard. Everyone in the building would have to hear every rod being impaled loudly into the wall.
"It's confusing how would this be to happen without making any sound. Then, who blood is it that was used to paint the words on the walls," he questioned it even more but with nothing to help him answer it.
We stood observingly in front of it as I tried to think any answers that could provide something for us to hold on to, like who the blood belonged to. The only piece of evidence we had uncovered fully is the sentence. I was ready for discussion but it might be best if I have saved it for the others to hear about it too. There just wasn't enough time for us to think longly about it.
I exhaled deeply as I backed away, "If we ever come across the others, we should tell them about what we had found so far."
He nodded understandingly, "I see that the rods are directing at something. Something at the end of the question mark."
Out of all the rods that was placed randomly, this one traced the big question mark below the words. It didn't take much but a turn of our necks to see that the rods had led to what seemed to be a door to something. A door that didn't flush well with the concrete of the ground but was obvious enough for us to know that it led to somewhere under ground.
"There's a door right here," I squatted down in front of it, "but theres a big lock on that's keeping it from opening fully," I tugged on the latch but it only budged slightly.
He glared as he thought of something, his fingers rubbing under his chin, "If I remembered right, I saw a big shack across of the entrance when everyone was taking a look of the place. I looked inside one of the stained windows and I might have seen something that looked like tools."
The lightbulb above my head lit up, "I think I know what you are talking about. I saw a building from the window in one of the rooms."
"Right, there might be a bolt cutter somewhere in that hack that we can use to cut the lock open. Or at least attempt to," he didn't want to make it seem that he was confident in that idea, but that idea was an idea nonetheless.
"Okay, we're going to quickly run down over there and grab it, and then come back to cut it open. That way, we can gather everyone else to look inside with us," I said with motivation rushing around my head.
He nodded as he tested the lock one more time.
We made our way for the door as I grabbed one of the rods that ended up on the floor. If any danger happens, we would have something to fight with. We exchanged looks of excitement as we ran down the hallway as quick as possible.