The former Woodpine town hall's door stood tall in front of Helia and I. The place was really living up to its title of 'abandoned' because I'd expected a simple old building, maybe very dusty from standing alone and unused for however long. But what I was looking at right then was something dilapidated, broken down like a damned soul. The roof was very obviously missing. The windows were all broken in and huge chunks of the walls were missing so the inside was exposed.
"Welcome, Hero, to the old town hall. Ahh, it's been some fond memories in this place." I looked at her questioningly. "You were around when it was still being used?"
"Yes." She replied simply. Damn, I thought. How old was she? "Come on." And with a light flick of her wrist, the old door creaked back a few centimeters, then slammed all the way open. My jaw dropped because: one, I didn't expect it, and two, she was supposed to be a simple potionsmaster. I didn't think what she did just now was exactly… in the skill field of potionsmaking. Helia noticed my expression and giggled, "That's an advanced move. You'll learn it if you pay attention to my classes."
"Classes my ass. I haven't learned anything yet so remind me again why we're here. Aren't we supposed to be mixing funny smelling concoctions?" I grumbled as we walked in.
The interior of the building, while illuminated almost beautifully by the rays of sunlight that escaped into the room, was covered in thick layers of dust and cobwebs. I found myself coughing from it and squinting my eyes a bit. The main area had an open space with floorboards that was covered by an ancient-looking, ratty rug. The wall opposite from where we stood had a large table that probably used to occupy the middle of the room pushed against it, and apart from a huge, broken chandelier that hung from the ceiling with several parts missing, there was nothing else of note in the area.
"Well." Helia said. "What do you suggest we do?"
"Check the next floor, obviously. There's staircases to our left and right. Since there's nothing here, we can find something up there." Helia agreed and we went to the stairs on the left. "So what's the story behind the closure of this place? I'm guessing it's common knowledge among the townsfolk."
"Mysterious deaths." Helia replied, lowering her voice to a low, husky tone in an effort to give her answer a horror effect. "It was very bloody. Town hall meetings in Woodpine have always been held monthly and on the day of one of those meetings, July if I remember correctly, the first person who arrived at the steps of the entrance was met with a dead body."
"What the fuck."
"Yep. What the freak indeed."
We'd arrived on the floor. In front of us stretched a long hallway that turned to the right at the end of it. About midway down the hall was a door to the left. "Let's check that place out." Helia said.
"So, what happened next?" I prompted Helia as we walked, eager to hear the rest of the story.
"That death was just the first of four. The next month, another dead body was dropped at the same place, found by a different person this time. And the next, and the next. Finally, the town chief at the time decided the meetings couldn't go on any longer and halted them temporarily, using the time to initiate an investigation of the town hall and its surroundings."
As we arrived at the door, Helia turned to me. "They never found the culprit." Almost immediately, the sound of the door downstairs slamming shut shook through the entire building, and like a complete wuss, I jumped in fright and let out a small yelp.
"You didn't close the door?!" I asked, bright red from the embarrassing way I reacted. Helia had barely flinched making it even worse.
"I did."
"Huh? Then what the hell was that?"
The hairs on my skin stood up on end and shivers ran down my back. "Hey… Are there any rumors about this place being haunted? I think we should turn back around."
"It was probably just the breeze."
"You're missing the point. How is a door that you closed slamming shut? Don't you- Hey- Hey! Don't leave me here!" Helia ignored me and stepped into the room she had opened. I followed immediately, not wanting to be left alone in the hallway.
On first look, this was obviously some sort of records room. There was a massive hole in the wall beside the destroyed window that let copious amounts of light in, so it was easy to see the content of the room. An old, weathered desk was set in the middle standing strong and unmoved over the years. There was nothing on it.
Stuffed around the room so the singular table looked suffocated and overwhelmed were several wooden crates stacked upon each other, all with evenly spaced holes in them so I could easily see their content. They were full of papers.
"So a records office. Nothing here, then."
"Have you never done an investigation before?" Helia asked me with a raise in her eyebrows. "We need to check these papers. It's a great place to start."
"No, we don't. Look Helia, I've gone along with your every whim but I'm not about to throw myself into unpaid paperwork for the sake of some stupid investigation."
"It—"
" No, not even if it helps me learn a spell that could wipe out a god."
Helia sighed. "There's probably another room somewhere. Let's see what else we can find."
We stepped outside the room and kept walking expectantly till we rounded the corner and found another door. This time when we entered, it was filled with all sorts of things that at least weren't paper work. Among these was a lectern, a huge ball of what looked like several decorative draperies rolled into one, and lanterns. Obviously, this was a storage room because everything in here looked like things that were once being used in the main hall downstairs.
"Now, this I would like to search through." I rolled up my sleeves and went past Helia, picking up one of the several huge paintings that leaned against each other on the wall and flipped it. On the front was a portrait of someone, some man.
"Hero, be careful." I glanced up at Helia who remained skittishly at the door. "I sense a strange energy emanating from in here…"
I scoffed. "Oh, now you want to be freaked out. There's nothing to be scared of, it's just a bunch of dusty items."
Immediately those words left my mouth, the sound of a door clicking shut hit my ears. I shouldn't have been able to hear it but despite my now relaxed state, I was still a little bit on edge and my hearing was razor sharp.
I set the painting down and turned to face Helia, my face probably white as sheet. "You heard that this time, didn't you? I know you did, is it the breeze too this time?"
"Hero…" Helia whispered and looked off to her side where she still stood in the hallway. What she was looking at, I had no idea, but something was coming. I could hear its steady footsteps walking down the adjacent hallway, closer and closer.
"Um, I think now would be a good time to teach me how to craft a nice explosive potion that would probably kill us both as well but at least I'd be dying by my own hand instead of a stroke at the sight of whatever monstrosity is…"
My rambling was cut off when I took in the look on her face as she looked at whatever was approaching—pure terror.
Oh, we were fucked, weren't we?