Chapter:2
Both of the girls had run far and fast enough from the hotel that they reached an urban part of the city in little to no time.
Tired the girls decided to sit down for a few and that is when Coraline noticed the bump next to her in the dirt.
Coraline nudged Lorraine, getting her attention, she pointed to the bump, and with both of them digging they saw, buried under the ground, an intricate black box with gold detailing.
It took them a few minutes to figure out how to open it and when they did they found two decayed, yellowed and small folded sheets of parchment.
Each one of them delicately opened their respective pieces of fragile parchment and in an instant, a mix of shock and confusion made its home on their faces.
"Coraline, should we find a suitable roof to jump off of instead?"
"Tempting but no, let's put our clues side to side and see if we can connect our two shared brain cells to figure out what we need to do. "
Coraline said as she put her piece next to Lorraine's clue.
Coraline's clue read as such:
'Book born in darkness, Feed by the sword and madness, Herded by the shadowless assassins.'
Lorraine's clue started making a lot more sense to her now, her clue states:
'Feed the pages of darkness what they desire with promise,
Bringing back the memories of the sword's sharpness.'
"Ah fuck me. " Lorraine said, Coraline gave a curt nod, the only thing these clues managed to clear up is that they have to finesse some book out from literal assassins.
Then perform a blood transfusion with the book i.e committing big-time blasphemy.
However, the location of the book or even the assassins is unknown.
"We need to get back to explore the hotel, maybe we will find a library or the assassins if we're unlucky enough."
Coraline said as she looked up at the darkening sky.
She jumped up, not forgetting to pick both of the clues up and shove them in her pocket.
"We'll lick our wounds later, we should head back first, and fast we are running out of time," Coraline said.
"Or we could-"
"No, no roofs."
"Darn."
Lorraine's shoulders sag as Coraline brutally shut her down, she gets up anyway in a defeated manner but she still sprints after her braided friend.
As the sun slowly sets, the two girls burst into the hotel by the same backdoor they came through.
Lorraine fell to the floor and Coraline slumped on the wall as they both struggled to breathe as their faces turned red as a beet.
Bang!
The door behind them slammed shut on it catching the attention of everyone in the lobby.
Coraline and Lorraine, the two closest to the door had the clearest view of the many people banging at the door in a hopeless attempt to get in.
The clearest view as the people all suddenly stopped, their bloodshot eyes rolling back into their heads, soon the blood gushed out as the people fell apart, split in half.
The glass door was now covered in blood, staring at the door with horror, Coraline and Lorraine's faces turned green.
Lorraine mustered up enough strength to limp her way toward a trash can collapsing on it and hurling.
Coraline fell to the floor her hand on her mouth trying her best to not hurl, they got in at the last minute if they were a bit slower they would have-.
She shut her eyes trying to clear her head, the reactions of the others that made it through were not any better.
The same man once again entered the room from nowhere, his hands now free from any object as he was slowly clapping as he walked in front of the middle stairway.
"well-done darlings~ you're still alive," he said, then out of thin air, a chair materializes next to him.
"Now dears if you want to leave this magnificent hotel you'd have to find the treasure with the help of the clues you have collected, the hotel's floors are all free for you to explore for as long as you please," he said, sitting elegantly on the chair his legs crossed.
" but beware and be amazed at our glorious hotel and maybe you'll live to see another day! "he ended his speech with a maniacal laugh as he wondrously disappeared right in front of their eyes.
Coraline at this point had calmed down, she made her way towards Lorraine, comforting the upset girl and lifting her, even though the man said there was no time limit it was best, for their mental stability, to get out of here as fast as possible.
Their first goal was to find a library first, hopefully, they wouldn't have to deal with the possibly bloodthirsty assassins, however, the black magic part was something they couldn't avoid, best they commit and repent.
Both Lorraine and Coraline went up using the middle stairway, of course, there had to be a reason why the strange man kept standing before it, and their suspicions were confirmed when they reached the supposed end of the long staircase.
In front of them was another set of stairs, Lorraine silently cursed, they were already tired from all the running and now all the stairs they have to climb.
By the fourth set of stairs, Lorraine dropped face first to the floor, Coraline giggled at the humorous sight as she went to sit down on a step.
Coraline gasped grabbing Lorraine's attention.
"What's wrong ?"Lorraine asked.
"The staircase that we just climbed, they're gone." Replied Coraline.
At that Lorraine shuffled herself around but the shocking sight made her back up till she reached Coraline.
They weren't back at the starting point that's for sure but all the stairs that lead up to the fourth set had disappeared and this terrified the Acrophobic Lorraine to her core, she was shaking and sweating at the discovery.
Coraline grabbed Lorraine's shoulders prompting her up and leading her up the fourth set however this time what awaited them was not another stairway but a truly gigantic library.