"Shad. Shad! Wake up!"
"Ugh." Shad's eyes fluttered open. He was apparently lying on the floor of his designated room. Green and Epsilon hovered over him, their concern evident on their faces, while Leap concentrated on bandaging his left forearm. "What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," came a voice behind him.
Shad tried to sit up to see who was talking, only to be pushed back into his original position.
"I'm not done checking you for wounds. This was the most apparent, but there may be others," Leap said calmly. "Besides, with the amount of blood you lost, standing up may not be the best idea. It will most likely end with you fainting."
"Okay…"Shad replied.
At this moment, Widum walked into the room holding some old looking books. "Shad! You're up! Good. We have some matters to discuss."
"Well, as long as we can discuss them while I'm lying down…"
"Do you wanna faint or not? Because fainting in front of people who respect you and look to you as a leader would totally not be embarrassing."
"Woah! Chill! I get it!"
"Leap, he'll be fine," spoke up the voice behind Shad. Nitrox came into Shad's field of vision behind Leap. "Don't mind her. It was kind of…well, shocking to everyone to see you…"
"We all thought you were dead," explained M2, who had made himself comfortable on Shad's bed.
"Well then," Widum began, "Aside from the darkness and doom, I found these books in the library. It seems that one of the previous owners of this place had a love of history and researched this mansion's previous owners and articles about the mansion itself. These books are the remainders of his years of research."
"Where the hell did you find a library?" asked Forever.
"There's a hidden doorway behind that tapestry of a rose on the fourth floor."
"That's bulls***," said M2.
"I can show you if you want."
"Widum, I'd love to see it sometime," said a curious Leap. "However, these books seem very interesting. Mind if I look at one?"
"Not at all."
Leap opened the top book and let out a short exclamation. "The symbol! It's the same symbol!"
"What symbol? What are you guys talking about?" Shad questioned anxiously. "What's happened?"
"First, look at the wall behind you," began Nitrox. Shad glanced behind him and uttered an oath. On the wall behind him the words 'LEAVE' were written in red. "That, my dear friend, is in fact written with your own blood. Secondly, you see the bandage covering almost your entire left forearm?" Shad nodded. How could he miss it? "That is covering a symbol that was engraved in your arm. What Leap is saying is that the symbol cut into your arm is on the first page of that book. Thus, a connection has been made and we are closer to finding the son of a b**** who did this to you."
"That makes a lot more sense. What does this symbol look like?"
"This," Leap said, handing Shad the book.
"That's cut into my arm?!"
"Yes, however, could we focus on reading for a little bit?" Widum asked, handing Shad and Nitrox each a book.
Leap continued flipping through hers, this time with Green looking over her shoulder. "Wow. It appears that a lot of people have either died or have been attacked in this house," Green commented.
"Okay. The way you said that, Green, you make it sound normal," Forever said shivering. "And I can guarantee you that it is not normal."