This is my first story so I hope you all enjoy. Please excuse or notify me of any typos you spot, because I am without a Beta to edit it.
Hanna had no freaking clue why she did it. Ok, it was because it was a dare, but so what? You can't honestly expect three teenagers to walk past an abandoned warehouse and not investigate.
It didn't make her any happier about being the one who had to investigate, though.
The building was a rotting structure, far closer to the verge of collapse than Hanna was comfortable with. Every window was either smashed in or out, and the doors were rusted so far of the hinges that the padlock keeping them together didn't block anything out anymore. It would be easy to slip through, especially for someone of Hanna's diminutive size.
The warehouse sat alone on the street, just across from Lake Michigan. Close, but not close enough to worry about any serious damage from the lake. Most of the other buildings around it had rotted down to nothing but frames and wasted materials, but this one sat defiantly among its friends, refusing to give in just yet to the bitter elements of downtown Chicago. Hanna hoped it would stay that way until she had cleared it again.
"You gonna do it or what?" Tamm, Hanna's blonde friend asked. At a height of 5'11" Tamm was pretty intimidating. She had sharp, crystalline features, eyes like an artic fox, and an attitude like an ice princess, Tamm scared everyone. Everyone except Hanna and Buzz that is.
"Come on, just get it over with," Buzz, the other member of their trio, jeered. His real name was Nick, but nobody but Hanna and Tamm seemed to remember that anymore. He had gotten his nickname when some of the upper classmen cornered him in the locker rooms and shaved half his head before fifth hour. In an act of defiance and in a true Buzz fashion, he had owned the nickname until it lost all meaning. Now he insisted the girls call him that, like a battle wound or something.
Buzz had regrown his hair back into its usual brown mess. He had light grey eyes, and a soft, baby face, in direct opposition with Tamm's angular features. He wasn't a dark broody character like some of the boys had Hanna's high school; the ones made her feel self-conscious and weak at the knees if they so much as looked at her. Buzz wasn't like that, he had a much more approachable air around him, but there was still something about him that made Hanna's heart flutter when he smiled at her.
"Why do I have to do this again," Hanna asked.
"Because you lost paper, rock, scissors," Tamm supplied, tone suggesting she thought Hanna was being a baby.
Hanna looked to Buzz, silently pleading with him to save her. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, not willing to risk his life in an argument with Tamm. Traitor, Hanna thought to him. She knew he couldn't hear her, but she was pretty sure her eyes were getting the message across.
Hanna sighed, and hiked her backpack up higher on her shoulder. It was a Saturday, but Hanna carried her backpack everywhere with her. It was a nice olive green hiking pack, and had been one of the few presents Hanna's mom had given to her personally, instead of through their house keeper, June Mae, like the rest.
The backpack had been originally packed with hiking supplies from when her mom thought she was goin through an "Outdoors Phase." Much to her mother's disappointment, it had not been a phase. Hanna loved the outdoors, and the backpack had been the perfect present. Hanna had since removed or eaten most of the original supplies (the dehydrated stroganoff had lasted less than 24 hours) and refilled it with supplies she found more useful on a day to day basis.
"Fine," Hanna said, pulling a small LED flashlight from her backpack.
She turned back to face the building, squaring her shoulders and standing at her small, unimposing height. She could do this; it was just an old building after all. What's the worst that could happen?
You could get crushed when the building inevitably collapses. You could contract tetanus, or fall and break a leg, or an arm, or cut yourself on some rusty metal, or get bitten but I disease infested rat, or- Stop That! she told herself firmly.
It was starting to get dark, the lowering sun casting long shadows across Hanna and her friends, like dark fingers reaching out to grab them. She shuddered, both from the growing cold and her over active, overzealous imagination. Her friends where egging her on from behind, but not daring to come any closer.
Hanna pulled her jacket closer for warmer. It was the second week of April, but in Chicago, that meant it was still pretty damn cold. Most of the snow had melted, leaving everything a big sloppy mess that froze at night when the breeze blew off of Lake Michigan. Spring may be around the corner in every other place, but not in the Midwest.
Hanna walked cautiously across the cracked pavement to the doors. The left door was hanging half sideways, the padlock and bottom hinge the only thing keeping it semi-upright. Hanna got down on all fours, and crawled under.
The inside reeked of must and mildew and something else Hanna didn't want to think about. There was even less light inside the building, despite the numerous holes in the wall and the broken windows. Hana hastily flicked on her flashlight.
The far corners of the building lit up under the flashlights surprisingly bright glow. It was only a one room building that was about the same size as a two story house. The peaked roof towered over Hanna's head, with most of the windows being just under where the roof and wall met. As she stood there, Hanna had a premonition of the shadows rising up and swallowing her whole. Suddenly, her flashlight seemed to offer less comfort.
A shiver having nothing to do with the cold racked her frame, and Hanna pulled her jacket tighter again. There wasn't much to look at inside, just a lot of empty space. Any area not directly in the flashlights way was quickly plunged into shadow again, raising the building's creep factor by about forty percent. Hanna waved the beamed back and forth across the floor, looking to see if there was anything still here. The far wall was dominated by a giant sliding door, and one corner was filled almost to the ceiling with tall stacks of empty crates, a tarp draped over half of them. Hanna's fear was ousted by her overwhelming curiosity as she crept over to investigate.
The cement under her feet was cracked and chipped, and in some places it was covered in the dark stains of mold. She looked around the boxes and peeked into a few but didn't see anything worthy of more attention. Just as she peeked into one of the last crates on the floor, a mouse scurried up and over the edge and almost purposely over her foot.
Hanna squealed, her flashlight beam arcing widely as she hopped around like an idiot, before it suddenly caught something bright and shiny buried under the boxes.
Hanna's fear was momentarily forgotten as her curiosity took hold again. She approached the boxes more warily this time, on the lookout for any other surprise critters. She shined the light between two small stacks of boxes. Something silver and shiny was behind them, covered in mud and dirt. It looked like some kind of metal, maybe a piece of factory equipment?
Hanna shrugged out of her backpack, placing it on the floor against one of the crates. She set the flashlight down next to it, pointing strait at the space between the boxes, and whatever was back there seemed to wink tauntingly at her. She knelt down on the floor and went to push the closest box out of the way. It didn't budge. She braised herself and tried again, pushing with all her might, but it still didn't move.
Hanna retrieved her flashlight and shined it down into the box. It was empty, just like she thought it had been. There were no bolts on the bottom, and it wasn't catching on anything she could see. Then why won't it move? She wondered. She tried one last time to move the box, pushing with all her weight, (which wasn't much) before finally giving up with a huff.
A part of Hanna said to just forget about it at this point, but she couldn't do that. She needed to find another way to move the boxes, because trying to push them out of the way had worked so well. She couldn't lift it by herself, especially if she couldn't even push it by herself.
Maybe I can get Tamm and Buzz to help me, she thought.
Hanna strode quickly for the door, pausing only a minute to get down and duck under it. "Hey guys, I think I found something, but there are these boxes in the-."
There was no one there.
Hanna looked around a little, but she didn't see them standing around the street or sitting on the curb like she had expected. There was nobody else around either, just her and some seagulls calling noisily overhead.
"Buzz? Tamm?" she called. Then a little louder, "Buzz! Tamm!" but she still didn't hear anything. She waited a few minutes, but when nobody appeared, Hanna started getting worried. Where could they have gone?
She ran to the side of the building and checked around the corner, then for good measure she walked the whole perimeter. By the time she had made it back around front, her friends still hadn't made an appearance. Hanna looked up and down the street, not seeing anyone. Hanna's worry started to evaporate as it dawned on her
"God damn it you idiots!" she yelled. Her friends had ditched her. It was there idea of a joke, leaving her behind to find her own way home. Oh, she knew her friends didn't do it to be vicious; they were just stupid and thought it would be funny. Knowing this didn't make her any less pissed though.
Hanna thought about waiting till dark to see if she could give them a heart attack for leaving her here. After a moment of thinking about it though, she decided she didn't really want to be alone on an abandoned street until after dark. It was unlikely they'd think to come back for her now, which was probably good, because she was pretty sure she would kill them the next time she saw them.
Hanna plopped down on the sidewalk and simmered, weighing her options on what to do. She could call June Mae, but that would lead to questions about where her friends were. Her answer would inevitably get back to her mother and then she'd be royally screwed because there were no expectable answers for where she was and why she was there that late, especially not for her mother.
She couldn't take a cab, because she was pretty sure this was private property, and the last thing she needed was cops getting involved. The media would have a field day and her mom would bury her alive for the scandal of it.
The more Hanna sat there and realized she would probably have to walk, the darker her mood got. She was beyond mad now, she was furious. She hadn't been this mad in a long time. Now that she thought about it, the last time she was this mad was their fault too.
Hanna took a deep breathe to try and calm down. Maybe mom was right? Maybe they aren't good company for me. She immediately felt guilty about even thinking that. She loved them to bits, they were her best friends, had been for years. It had always been the three of them, ever since middle school. Tamm and Buzz had known each other longer than that because they lived right next door to each other, but they had seemed more than willing to welcome another misfit into their mist when Hanna transferred to their school at the end of elementary.
Hanna reached into her front pocket. No phone.
She quickly patted down all her remaining pockets but came up empty. With a groan she remembered where she had put it; in her backpack. Which was currently inside the creepy warehouse building that was growing creepier every second the sun went down.
Those idiots! She thought again. She prayed that somehow they could hear her cursing them to Hell and back.
Hanna ducked back under the ruined doors and went back to the corner to grab the flashlight, her backpack, and subsequently, her phone. She grabbed her backpack and threw it over one shoulder, and then grabbed the flashlight that was still on. The beam sliced through the ever growing dark of the warehouse and reflected off something.
The discovery of her missing friends had pushed the discovery of the thing behind the crates to the back of her mind. She was still incessantly curious about what it could be, but now she had no one to help her find out. She supposed she could always come back with her friends and have them help her move the boxes, they defiantly owed her after this little stunt. Even if they agreed to come back, though, what was to stop them from getting arrested for trespassing?
Maybe if she was careful, she could look over the boxes. The stack in front of the strange-shiny-object-thing wasn't that big, maybe seven or eight feet, she could climb that easy. There was an overturned, wooden crate just a little to her left that should work for a stepping stool. It would boost her up probably close to two feet, which should be enough for her to get a peek of what was back there.
Hanna dumped her backpack up against the wall, before carefully climbing up onto her improvised step. It felt much more solid than she would have thought, it didn't creak either like she had expected. She went as high on her toes as she could go and peered over the stack, sweeping the flashlight back and forth until she caught a glint of metal in the dark.
It looked like a large, round top platform, as long as Hanna was tall and at least twice as wide. There was a large piece of gray metal, with layers of delicate silver pieces underneath. Dozens and dozens of crisscrossing wires and tubes wound around underneath, connecting smaller parts and machines. The whole thing was covered in a layer of muck and dust. What'd they do, fish it out of the lake, Hanna thought.
Hanna tried to stretch up higher on her toes, leaning forward onto the boxes for a better look. She tumbled forward with a crash, landing right on top of the metal platform. There was a resounding dong! from where the metal of the flashlight struck. The flashlight rolled away and hit the ground somewhere Hanna couldn't see, the light going out and plunging her into the dark.
Hanna stood up, her elbows and knees ached from the impact, and she could feel a cut on her finger starting to bleed.
What. The. Hell. She thought.
Hanna turned to look over her shoulder at where the boxes should be, but they weren't there anymore. She stuck her hand out and waved it through where she thought they should be, but found nothing but air. She looked and felt around as best she could in the darkness, searching for her flashlight. She needed to confirm this with her other senses, needed to confirm that it was just her imagination, and she had not just tumbled through a solid stack of immovable crates.
There was a loud click, and then the sound of a machine humming to life as the platform beneath her started to shift a little. Hanna spread her feet for balance, arms wide as she tried to steady herself. The hum of machines echoed and bounced around inside the building, doubling the noise until it drowned out all other sounds. Two bright spotlights flickered weakly on up by the ceiling and with a shriek of protesting metal, focused down on Hanna. She shielded her eyes form the sudden brightness of them, trying to blink the spots from her eyes.
There was a series of clicks and whirs, before a deep, rattling voice said:
"Where am I?"
For a second, everything was absolutely still. Then Hanna screamed. She must have startled the thing, because it jumped slightly, making a sound like radio feedback. She tried to back away from it, but one of her feet slipped out from under and she tumbled backwards onto the floor, her head connecting with the concrete with a sickening Crack! She black out almost instantly.
Hey Y'all, I really like some feedback on this. It will help inspire my muse :) Thanks!
-Morgageb
