There was another clatter in the hallway that made all the bones in Charlotte rattle, but she kept the scream to herself since Lucia was still accidentally making a ruckus in the hallway to rise her ire which wouldn't work on her if she didn't let it the anger get to her. Her main focus was finding Vincent and making it to the next day for goodness sake.
Charlotte sent her a fake smile to let Lucia know that she was having so much fun with her and started to nod her head when Lucia started droning on about how people in the world were only after their own needs and liked to use people. Charlotte covered her yawn with her hand, and Lucia sent her a glare.
Lucia rolled her eyes. "Are you two actually friends?"
Charlotte sighed. "As if I would come here for no reason."
"I don't know. If it was someone you knew and cared about I would tell them to run the other direction."
"It's different."
"Hm, I'm sure," Lucia said sweetly. "I'll leave you to your delusions."
"Are you trying to help or not?"
"I swear I am."
Charlotte motioned for Lucia to follow after her. "Why don't you lead the way, Miss Helper?"
"You're just as capable as I am, darling."
"I'll take it as a compliment."
"As you should."
"But seriously, you should lead the way."
"Why? It didn't bother you much to carry the phone by yourself anyways."
"Let's try a brilliant idea and walk forward together?"
Lucia clapped her hands lightly together. "Way to be a genius."
"I'm flattered you think so."
There was a loud thump upstairs, and they both froze to look at each other comically blinking at each other. It could either be Vincent or something else that could possibly put them in danger. In the end, it was a no-brainer choice that Charlotte took off in that direction, her body going on autopilot.
Charlotte turned back and reached for Lucia's arm. "Hurry! We need to get up there!"
Lucia cringed. "Normally when you hear those things, you would run in the opposite direction, but here we are running straight to it!"
"You don't have time to complain," Charlotte said as they took off down the hallway still being careful not to make any loud noises despite not having to do so at this point.
Someone was getting really antsy above from the upper floor levels with all the dull crashes and sounds. The sound of shattering glass made Charlotte pause for a second from the shock that was vibrating through her body. Clenching her fists, she forced her feet to continue moving forward.
Sprinting over to the doorway opening, Charlotte yanked the door open and looked inside the crusty and dark stairwell. Looking up from the center up, there were a lot of floors to climb, but they had no choice at this point.
Taking the stairs two to three at a time, Lucia threatened to fall over, but Charlotte didn't bother to slow her roll. Her legs were burning, and soon they passed up three floors in a blink of an eye.
Charlotte didn't bother checking the first floors above the ground level since the sound had to come from far up. After they hit the fifth floor, Charlotte began slamming the entry doors open to see if there was anyone.
The fifth floor was empty with only the wind draft seeping in due to the cracked condition of the windows after they swept it for a second because they both stuck their heads into the worker room to check, but there was nothing to see except old chairs and desks with unfinished materials still waiting for their person to return to their duties.
After roaming the sixth floor for a moment, Charlotte was beginning to sweat since they had already been nearing the top of the building. They might as well go all the way to the top and finish at the missed floor.
Charlotte rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck still waiting for Lucia to finish up the other half when Lucia came back through the entry door and into the staircase hall.
"Jesus, where is that man?" Lucia muttered.
"Let's just go to the top floor," Charlotte spoke after a moment. "We can go to the seventh floor later."
Lucia nodded. "Are you sure that we didn't skip anything on the floors lower?"
"I don't think so. We should go to the eighth floor first."
Charlotte tuck another step up, and Lucia leaned her body onto her back. "I'm tired. Why are we even taking the stairs?"
Looking back at her, Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Do you have any other bright ideas to fly up the rest of the floors, genius?"
"Why did I even agree to go with you?" Lucia whined.
Charlotte slung an arm around Lucia. "Don't be a baby now. Okay, here's a step. One, two, there you go. Three, four."