12:30 PM
"I think we lost him," Thorn panted as she, Luna, and Dusk waited at the top of the stairwell, all tired from their sprint. Several minutes had passed since they ran up the stairs and the ghost never appeared, giving them precious time to rest. While Thorn was thankful for this much-needed respite, she knew they weren't without their problems; the ghost's presence on the ground floor showed that it wasn't confined to the basement and that they were at risk anywhere in the hotel. Then to throw more salt on the wound, they were still nowhere closer to finding the treasure and were running out of time before they had to get back to Gus.
But worse, for Thorn anyway, was that there was almost certainly magic in the vicinity and it had affected her; it clouded her judgment and she put her friends in danger, despite promising Dusk she wouldn't let harm come to them. The guilt was chewing her up to the point where it made her physically ill and she could barely look at Dusk and Luna; she was letting her friends down and that was worse than any ghost.
"Shit!" Luna suddenly grunted, shaking Thorn from her thoughts. Luna dug into her purse and Thorn heard Luna's phone going off. "It's Gus. We forgot to call him."
"Oh," Thorn managed to say. Just what we need, another problem.
Luna answered her phone. "Hey Gus," she said, doing her best to sound cheery. "Sorry about not calling you, we were caught up with all the exhibits." Luna paused and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yeah, we're all here and I'll put you on speaker."
"How hard is it to send a single text once an hour?" Gus angrily asked over the phone. "Cause that's all I expected, but you three couldn't even do that."
"Sorry," Dusk muttered. "We were so caught up at the museu—"
"Oh save it, I doubt you're actually at a museum," Gus interrupted. There was an uncomfortable silence before he resumed. "Have any of you looked at the questions I gave you?"
None of the girls answered. Thorn still had the folded papers nestled at the bottom of her purse, untouched since she received them.
"Of course," Gus groaned.
"We still have plenty of time to look them over," Luna said.
"I want half of your interview questions answered by the time you three get back," Gus stated. "No excuses.
Having to take precious time and answer a bunch of questions like it was a test wasn't ideal, but Thorn knew their punishment for not calling Gus could've been worse.
"Fine," Thorn said, crossing her arms and frowning. "We'll have half of them answered when we get back."
"Good, and remember to check in with me in another hour," Gus said before ending the call.
Thorn grunted as Luna put her phone away.
"Now what?" Dusk asked.
"I don't know," Thorn groaned. She glanced at Luna, hoping her friend would come up with a course of action.
Luna sighed. "We don't have a lot of options right now other than going back downstairs, which of course means running into the ghost."
With an exasperated sigh, Thorn turned around. There was a small chair positioned next to a window. Thorn sat down, looking out the rain-battered window at the grey city, and the pitter-patter of the rain somewhat calmed her. What do we do? Other than going back to the basement —and likely confronting the ghost, which meant she risked using magic and hurting someone—she couldn't think of another course of action. Ugh, what am I doing? This was a mistake. All I've done was let everyone down. Gus. The Broken. Dusk and Luna. She failed every one of them. If she couldn't remember to make a single phone call, how was she supposed to find a hidden treasure? More importantly, how was she going to keep her friends safe from the ghost, the potential cultist, and whatever else was lurking in the shadows?
"Thorn, what's wrong?"
Thorn turned and saw Luna and Dusk standing by her. Don't lie to them. Thorn sighed. "I'm overwhelmed by everything going on. There's so much pressure on me to find this treasure and I don't know if I can."
Thorn felt more at ease as Luna placed a hand on her shoulder and Dusk sat on the arm of the chair
"We still have time to find it," Dusk said.
"Barely," Thorn replied with a frown. "We still have no idea how we're getting the treasure."
"I beg to differ," Luna said. Luna withdrew her hand and Thorn watched in despondent curiosity as Luna dug out the interview questions and a pen from her purse. Then to Thorn's surprise, Luna handed her the pen and paper.
"What? Are we actually answering these things?" Thorn asked, briefly glancing at the questions.
"Flip it over," Luna replied.
Thorn turned the page to the blank backside. "Okay?"
"Do I really need to walk you through this?" Luna said with a slight chuckle. "Just write down what you know about the treasure. Organize your thoughts."
With an uncertain shrug, Thorn penned the first thought that came to her: 'In the basement?'
"Keep going," Luna goaded.
'Guarded by a ghost.' 'Necessary to stop something bad?' 'Tied to the cult.'
Thorn grunted as she dropped the pen and paper on her lap. "This isn't helping. How am I supposed to come up with a plan with this?"
Luna sighed. "We have a bit more information than that. Keep writing."
"Yeah," Dusk added. "Like those Xs on the ground. Or how you detected something magic down there."
Thorn winced at the mention of magic. She shifted in her seat, trying to shake the discomfort she felt. Magic was ruining everything. It led her into danger and caused her attempt at protecting her friends from the ghost to fail. Surely, magic would cause more misery and disruption.
"Dusk's right," Luna said, breaking Thorn from her thoughts. "As much as you don't like it, you sensed something magical in the basement and that's a very important detail. Write it down."
Thorn grimaced as she scrawled that distasteful detail onto the paper, the words appearing more like indecipherable scribbles than her normally elegant script.
"I still don't see how this helps," Thorn muttered.
Luna sighed and rubbed her head. "Thorn, I know your magic is bothering you, but you can't agonize over it; right now, we need to focus on developing a plan and executing it." She paused and looked Thorn in the eyes, the seriousness Thorn saw caught her off guard. "You need to calm down, for all our sakes."
Thorn went to reply but was left speechless. She turned away from Luna and back at the sheet of paper. I've screwed up if I pissed off Luna. She leaned back in the chair and sighed. But she's right. If we're going to survive this, I need to get a grip on myself. Thorn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. Calm down and focus on the task at hand. You can do this. She opened her eyes. "Okay."
Luna and Dusk smiled, as Thorn looked back down at the paper. She wrote a few more phrases. 'Ghost pursues anyone who goes in the basement.' 'Ghost is intangible.' 'Search near yellow Xs.'
"We need to lure the ghost away," Thorn said. She swallowed as what she was about to say was the last thing she wanted to admit. "Then I go down and follow the magic."
Luna gave a slow nod. "Yeah," she quietly said. "That's what I figured we'd have to do."
"So, does that mean one of us has to go back down and have the ghost chase them?" Dusk asked.
Thorn and Luna nodded as Dusk hopped off the chair and frowned in response. There was a long silence, as it was clear to Thorn that neither Dusk nor Luna wanted to be the bait and none of them wanted to tell someone to go down. But someone had to do it and the longer it took to decide, the less time they had to pull it off.
"I guess," Thorn began, before turning her gaze toward the ceiling. There were soft thuds like someone was walking directly above them on the upper floor. Whoever was walking, seemed to be moving farther away until Thorn could no longer hear them.
"Um, didn't all the workers leave?" Dusk asked. "Like, nobody's supposed up there."
"There's the foreman," Luna said.
"That guy was pretty terrified when he ran off," Thorn said as she got up from the chair. "I doubt he'd leave his office."
"Unless he has the cops with him," Dusk added.
"Shit," Thorn muttered, as she remembered the foreman mentioning he would call the cops. Getting caught by the police and facing trespassing charges was the last thing they needed.
"Ugh, we need to go upstairs and make sure it's nothing dangerous," Luna groaned.
Thorn nodded in agreement. It was a risky move, especially if whoever was up there caught them. At best, they were escorted off the property by the police, and at worst, well, Thorn's imagination wandered from ghosts to cultists; either way, it wasn't good. But if they confirmed who was walking around upstairs, they could plan around them.
Looking around, Thorn saw another set of stairs leading to the third story.
"I guess we're going up," Thorn said before she, Luna, and Dusk made their way over to the stairwell.
In stark contrast to the clean, furnished first and second floors, the third floor was a disaster. The floors and walls were charred and in several spots, plastic tarps and thin plywood boards were all that separated the interior from the elements. Even then, the howling wind violently pounded the tarps and most of the plywood had water damage. Holes in the ceiling were numerous, and one particular location in the hallway where the ceiling had collapsed allowed one to view the rainy sky. And bar a single room by the stairwell, many doors were torn down, their scorched rooms devoid of contents, and many were blocked with yellow construction tape. Altogether, it was an unsafe place and Thorn wished to return to the relative safety of the lower floors as soon as possible.
"Damn, the fire did a number of this place," Dusk said as they continued down the hall.
As they neared the area where they heard the footsteps, Thorn could hear plastic flapping in the wind. Upon reaching the spot where they heard the footsteps, there was a tear in the tarp that was large enough for a person to fit through. The floor in front of the tear was wet from the rain.
"I'm surprised the workers didn't patch this up," Thorn said.
Luna approached the tear, careful to avoid getting wet, and examined it. The cut wasn't clean as it looked like something had clawed its way through the tarp rather than someone cutting through it with a knife.
After a few moments, Luna knelt and looked over the floor.
"This is recent," Luna said without looking away from the floor. "As in the past hour or so."
"How could you tell?" Thorn asked.
"Floor isn't nearly as wet as it would be if it'd been like this for hours," Luna said. She then pointed past the wet spot on the floor. "But it looks like someone was just here."
Turning to where Luna was pointing, Thorn saw a distinct set of footprints heading farther down the hall. Well, at least Thorn initially thought they were standard footprints. While they resembled a human footprint in size and general shape, instead of five toes, there were only three, pointed digits that appeared to be clawed.
"Or something was here," Thorn said, her voice uneasy.
"Could just be a costume," Luna quickly stated, a clear attempt to reassure the group that what made the tracks wasn't dangerous.
"I don't know about that," Thorn replied. She couldn't quite describe it, but the tracks looked too natural to be some kind of footwear. Of course, with how common fake monsters were, she couldn't rule out an elaborate hoax.
"The tracks keep going," Dusk said as she passed Thorn and followed the tracks.
Not wanting to lose sight of Dusk, as well as being a bit curious herself, Thorn went to catch up with Dusk.
"Is just following the tracks a good idea?" Luna nervously asked.
Thorn briefly paused and turned to Luna. "You said it yourself, we need to see what's up here before we deal with the ghost."
Luna sighed. "But is blindly following the tracks the right way of going about that?"
Thorn conceded that just following the footprints wasn't the safest idea, given their recent exploits. But looking down the hall, Thorn saw that Dusk had stopped and was examining something on the wall.
"You two gotta check this out," Dusk called out to them.
Luna groaned but ultimately followed Thorn to where Dusk was standing.
"What do you think made this?" Dusk asked.
Thorn shivered upon seeing a set of three claw marks, easily a quarter-inch deep, scratched onto the wall at about chest height. Dusk raised her hand to the scratches and Thorn winced upon seeing that the marks were wider than Dusk's fingers; the thought of being on the receiving end of the claws of whatever made the marks was enough to reconsider going back downstairs.
"Okay, maybe we shouldn't be up here," Thorn said as she glanced down the hall and the steps leading back to the lower floor.
"Yeah, this was a poor decision," Luna said as she backed away from the wall.
"Wait, you were the one that said we needed to figure out what was up here," Dusk said, turning to face Thorn and Luna.
"We've confirmed that this isn't the police and we have enough on our plate with the ghost," Luna said, not hiding the agitation she felt. "I'm not about to deal with whatever horror is up here."
There was an uneasy silence between the three girls, and it was clear to Thorn that none of them knew what to do next. There was an unknown entity somewhere in the burnt husk of the upper levels, and no one knew if it would interfere with their pitiful plan to reach the presumed treasure in the basement. Thorn sighed. Their best option was to go downstairs and pray that whatever was up here would not venture to the first floor; not exactly the best position to be in.
"I guess we're going back to the basement," Thorn said.
Dusk and Luna slowly nodded. As the three started walking back to the stairwell, Thorn stopped. She felt uneasy as if someone or something was watching them. She scanned the hallway, looking for something out of place or unusual. It took a moment, but she saw that the door of the room closest to the stairwell, about six rooms down, was opened a bit.
"Was that door open when we came up here?" Thorn asked as she pointed at the door in question.
Thud!
The door slammed shut and the girls gasped.
"We're not going past that room," Luna said, visibly shaking.
"Is...there another way downstairs?" Thorn asked without taking her eyes off the door, lest it open and some monster emerged.
"Um…" Luna began as she fumbled through her purse before finding her phone. "Yeah, there's another stairwell on the other side of the floor."
"Then let's get going," Dusk said, tugging on Thorn and Luna's sleeves to get them to leave.
The three girls cautiously backtracked, passing the scratch marks and the mysterious footprints, which made Thorn attentive to their surroundings yet paranoid. Every shadow became a ghost and each creak of the floorboards was a deranged cultist coming to attack them. She'd look over her shoulder every few seconds, certain that something was still watching them and that no matter where they went, they'd never escape its unseen gaze.
"Shit!" Dusk exclaimed as they rounded the corner of the hall. "I guess we're not going this way."
Blocked by a single safety cone and construction tape, a pile of burnt rubble, caused by the floor above collapsing, lay before them. Twisted steel, glass shards, and broken boards of wood poked out from the rubble, their jagged and spiky ends made climbing over the pile impassable unless they wanted to risk tetanus. Worse, looking over the giant pile of rubble revealed several smaller piles and numerous spots on the floor that looked like they could collapse under the slightest bit of weight, rendering the hallway unsafe.
"Great," Thorn groaned as she lowered her head in frustration. "Now we have to go past the creepy fuck behind the door."
"If that creep wants to try something, he's got another thing coming," Dusk said as she drew her dagger.
Despite Dusk's bravado, Thorn felt little assurance.
"You know," Dusk said. "This would be a good time to use your mag-". She stopped and grimaced, the anger and frustration in her eyes were clear. "Magnificent knife that I gave you. We need all the defense we can get."
Thorn bit her lip, repressing an agitated groan, and turned away from Dusk. Even with a looming threat, she still refused to use magic, the fear of accidentally hurting her friends outweighed her fear of the ghost or whatever was upstairs with them. Her desire to protect her friends was there, but as she tried to remind herself of their present predicament, she'd recall in vivid detail how easy it was to kill Cyrus at the temple and how the knife almost impaled the foreman, and then her fear overcame her.
"Do you still have the knife?" Dusk asked, breaking Thorn from her thoughts.
"Um," Thorn muttered as she rummaged through her purse and frowned when she couldn't find it. "Shit, I think I dropped it in the basement."
Dusk grunted and shook her head. "Of course you did."
"It's not like I lost it on purpose," Thorn said, slightly raising her voice.
"Then use magic," Dusk said, her voice also raised.
"No," Thorn bluntly said, her position on the matter firm.
"Can you two quick bickering for five minutes!" Luna scolded. "It's not only very distracting but could be putting our lives at risk!"
Thorn and Dusk turned to Luna, who the former had completely forgotten wasn't a part of the argument. Dusk went to say something but was quickly cut off by Luna.
"You both need to start acting like adults," Luna continued. "We need to focus on surviving this ordeal and that can't happen if literally every time I leave both of you together you argue. So can you both cut it out until we find this stupid treasure?"
Thorn and Dusk both glanced at each other. It was tiring to continue arguing with Dusk and as Luna had shown, their petty back-and-forth was annoying to others. After a few moments, both girls nodded, agreeing to disagree.
"Good," Luna said in a much calmer tone. "I think there's a way around this debris pile."
Thorn raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"Look at the footprints," Luna said.
Thorn glanced at the strange tracks. "What about them?"
"They stop here," Luna explained. "Whatever made them didn't turn around as we'd see another set of tracks heading back the way we came. So there has to be a way around the debris pile."
Looking around, it was clear to Thorn that other than a closed hotel room, there wasn't anywhere obvious to go.
"What? Did it go through the room?" Thorn asked.
Luna nodded.
"So you're saying whatever we're following is in there?" Dusk reasoned.
"If my hunch is right, not necessarily," Luna said as she approached the door.
"Not necessarily," Thorn gasped, alarmed by Luna's uncertainty over the matter.
Thorn tensed up as she watched Luna reach for the doorknob, the keyboardist's hand visibly shaking as she gripped the doorknob. Dusk stepped aside and braced herself, dagger ready and Thorn moved behind her. For several anxious seconds, Thorn could only watch as the door creaked open, unsure if something would lunge from behind the door and attack Luna. But instead of crying or screaming, Luna sighed and Dusk lowered her dagger. Thorn felt a sense of relief wash over her as the room was empty.
"Looks like I was right," Luna said as she entered the room.
Thorn and Dusk followed her, and to Thorn's surprise, the room was emptier than she anticipated as it was just one empty, square room. But more interestingly, the walls perpendicular to the door were gone leaving behind a wooden frame that allowed her to look into the neighboring room. In fact, she could peer all the way down to the room at the end of the hall as all rooms were lacking the same pair of walls, forming a makeshift hallway.
"The construction workers probably removed the old walls damaged in the fire," Luna explained as she pointed to the miscellaneous tools and equipment scattered in some of the other rooms.
Regardless of why the walls were gone, it provided a path to get around the collapsed ceiling, which Thorn realized was where whatever left the footprints went. With that knowledge, Thorn scanned the floor for the tracks
"Um Luna," Thorn said. "Where are the footprints?"
"That's a good question," Luna replied, scratching her head.
There should've been footprints. The tracks just outside the doorway in the hall were quite wet, even after walking at least couple hundred feet from their source. And if the person or creature came this way, there would be tracks in the room. Yet there was nothing.
On the floor anyway.
How she managed to spot it, she didn't know, but caught upon an exposed nail on one of the frames located well over their heads was a piece of black cloth. Thorn walked over to the cloth and standing on her toes, managed to pluck it from the nail.
What the hell? A chill went down her spine as she held the dark cloth and she was tempted to drop it. It was cold, far colder than it should be. Unnaturally even. And this made her uneasy. At the same time, the cloth felt brittle and damp, and there was a subtle unsavory scent to it that resembled rotten eggs.
"What'd you find?" Luna asked as she and Dusk approached Thorn.
"Some kind of cloth," Thorn answered, handing the fabric to Luna. Much to her relief, the chilliness and the uneasiness she felt vanished. But her relief was fleeting; Luna nearly jumped back as the cloth disintegrated in her hands
"Luna, what did you do to it?" Dusk asked in a half-serious, half-joking tone.
"Nothing!" Luna shouted. "It just turned to dust!"
"Um, did it feel...cold to you?" Thorn nervously interjected.
"No," Luna said. "But it did stink."
Shit! That all but confirmed that there was something unnatural about the piece of cloth. She shuddered. But why was it only cold when I held it? She flinched at the sudden realization. Does this have something to do with me being a wit… Thorn shook her head.
"You okay Thorn?" Luna asked.
"Hmm? Oh um, yeah. I'm fine," Thorn hastily replied. "I was just thinking about, er nevermind. Let's just get out of here before whatever came through here comes back."
She squeezed through an opening in the wooden frames and entered the neighboring room with Luna and Dusk following her. She made it across the empty room before stopping at the next framework. She winced upon smelling the same rotten egg odor that lingered on the cloth, though it was a bit stronger.
"Damn, that's nasty!" Dusk grunted as she pinched her nose.
"Must be a gas leak somewhere," Luna said with a grimace.
They continued onward, moving between the bare rooms, and with every room, the smell worsened.
"Ugh, Thorn do you have any incense on you?" Dusk groaned.
"Yeah, I think so," Thorn said, looking through her purse. While unusual to others, Thorn often carried sage, claiming it was for religious purposes. In actuality, she liked the scent of sage and it reminded her of her mother as she would burn it when Thorn was little. As a result, Thorn would burn sage wherever she could get away with it.
After a few moments, Thorn removed a bundle of white leaves and sticks, as well as a lighter, from her purse. She lit the sage, the orange glow of the ember a welcoming sight in the sea gray and black, and soon the fragrant aroma filled the room, dispelling the unpleasant odor.
I should've done this sooner, Thorn thought, a small smile spreading across her face. For the first time in quite a while, she felt calm and relaxed. She had her friends and the familiar scent of sage with her. Perhaps things would get better and after going through several rooms without incident, Thorn believed it. But then they reached the sixth room, the midway point.
The small glow of the ember faded upon entering the room, and the scent of sage was smothered by the rotten egg smell, which returned with a vengeance. But as Dusk and Luna gagged on the overwhelming smell, Thorn wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, dropping the bundle of sage.
"Uh, it's not that cold in here," Dusk said.
"W-Well, I'm fr-freezing," Thorn said through clattering teeth.
"No kidding," Dusk replied. "Guess the crop top wasn't the best decision." She removed her jacket and handed it to Thorn.
Without hesitation, Thorn took Dusk's jacket, thanked her, and put it on. While it was a bit tight, Thorn gladly accepted anything to reduce the coldness. But even with two jackets, the extra layer did little to stop the shivering.
"Okay, something is definitely wrong if you're still cold," Luna said. "Maybe we should just go back, especially if the cold and smell are going to get worse."
"Y-yeah let's g-get out..." Thorn paused as the coldness suddenly vanished, along with the unpleasant smell.
"Um, okay," Thorn mumbled as she returned the jacket to Dusk. The three girls stood there, dumbstruck over the abrupt disappearance of the smell and coldness.
"Should we keep going?" Luna asked.
"I guess," Thorn replied as Dusk just shrugged.
They cautiously continued through the remaining rooms without incident, much to Thorn's relief, and eventually reached the corner room. They exited the room and were at the intersection of two hallways.
"There's the stairwell," Luna said as she pointed at a nearby metal door.
"Great, now let's get the hell out of here," Dusk said as she made her way to the door.
But as Dusk reached for the door handle, Thorn couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was the charred metal frame that made the door look more foreboding than it really was or perhaps it was the few flies buzzing around the tiny window, but for whatever reason, Thorn felt that if Dusk opened the stairwell door, something terrible would happen.
"Don't," Thorn said, grabbing Dusk's arm before she could open the door.
"Why not?" Dusk grunted as she pulled her arm away from Thorn.
"Something bad will happen if you do," Thorn answered.
"What exactly will happen?" Luna asked.
"I don't know," Thorn said as she looked over the door, hoping to spot something to justify her wariness for opening the door. But other than a couple of bugs, there was nothing.
Both Luna and Dusk sighed, both undoubtedly frustrated with her peculiar behavior. First running off in the basement after she "sensed" something, then again a few minutes ago with suddenly getting cold. She didn't blame them for it. She was annoyed with herself as well, as she had no explanation for them other than being a witch, which didn't bode well for her. And now it was happening again with her irrational fear of opening this particular door.
"I think you're just paranoid," Dusk said.
"I'm not," Thorn defended. "I just know we shouldn't open that door."
"I have to agree with Dusk on this one, I think you're a little too on edge right now with everything that's happened," Luna said, much to Thorn's chagrin.
"Look, I know I've been acting weird and I'm just as confused about it as you guys, but you need to trust me on this," Thorn said.
Dusk and Luna glanced at each other, both of them shaking their heads.
"Sorry Thorn, but we're wasting time up here," Dusk said and she reached for the door.
"Dusk, please don't!" Thorn begged.
Dusk groaned as she backed away from the door. "What now, and don't say 'I don't know'."
"Well," Thorn began. "I think we should, um..." I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. Thorn looked away from her friends, pretending to formulate some grand plan, even though they likely saw through her facade. Ugh, why am I acting so weird? Why can't I just walk down the stairs like a normal person?
"Ugh, this is taking too long," Dusk said, interrupting Thorn from her thoughts.
Thorn turned around and watched in fear as Dusk approached the door.
"Wait Jane, don-" Thorn's attention quickly shifted from Dusk to the end of the hall. Hovering about four to five feet off the ground, was a pulsating, blue-gray ball of light, somewhat resembling a flame, roughly the size of a basketball. The light swirled around in the air, growing in brightness when it neared the ceiling and dimming as it approached the floor yet never hitting either surface.
"Are you guys seeing this?" Thorn asked without looking away from the light.
"Uh, no," Dusk said, pulling her hand from the door.
"What are we supposed to be seeing?" Luna asked.
"There's a light," Thorn said, only somewhat recognizing that her friends couldn't see it.
"What kind of light?" Luna asked.
Thorn didn't answer, she was mesmerized by the spectacle before her. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Thorn felt oddly at peace. She wasn't afraid, a stark contrast to the previous unexplained occurrences that happened to her, and there was a sense of comfort she felt in the presence of the light. She wanted to be closer to the light, to feel safe. She knew there was a risk, tales of will-o'-the-wisps and other spook lights leading folks astray came to mind, but that sense of safety and comfort was so tantalizing that she disregarded those thoughts and approached the light.
Thorn only took a few steps before the light became still and its brightness fixed. It then flickered three times, as if winking at her to get her attention, before moving farther down the hall.
Is...is it trying to tell me something? Thorn quickened her pace, eager to catch up to the light and see if her hunch was right.
"Where the hell are you going!" Dusk shouted from behind before she and Luna ran to catch up with Thorn.
"The light's getting away!" Thorn hastened her pace into a run as the light sped up.
But upon reaching the end of the hall, the light stopped. It flickered three more times before darting into a room. Thorn quickly arrived at the room the light entered and looked inside. The light was hovering in the center of an otherwise empty room.
"What are you? What did you lead me here?" Thorn asked the light.
The flickering light flew around in a circle before darting into the ground and disappearing.
"No!" Thorn shouted as she ran to where the light vanished. She dropped to her knees and ran her hands over the spot the light went through, desperate to find a loose floorboard, a marking, or anything to indicate the importance of the spot. But there was nothing.
"Jeez Thorn, you can't keep running off like that," Luna scolded from the doorway.
"Sorry, but there was a light and I think it wanted me to follow it," Thorn said, still searching the floor.
"There was no light," Luna said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, I didn't see it either," Dusk added.
"Yes, there was," Thorn said, raising her voice and standing up. "I saw it. It was a flickering blue light and it flew down the hallway before going into this room."
Luna shook her head. "Even if what you said was true, what made you think it was a good idea to run after it?"
"Well, I felt safe around it," Thorn said, crossing her arms.
"Oh okay, glad you felt safe Thorn," Luna said, glaring at the Wiccan. "But what about Dusk and I? I sure as hell didn't feel safe when you ran off and left us by some door that you were convinced if we opened, something bad would happen."
Thorn tried to respond but ended up saying nothing. She bit her lip and glanced away from her angered friend, too ashamed to look at her. Luna's right. I left them in danger. Again. Ugh, what the fuck is wrong with me!? Why do I keep making the most selfish choices? She sighed before finally mustering the courage to respond to Luna.
"You're right Luna. I left you guys behind. It was a shitty thing for me to do and I'm truly sorry," Thorn said, her head hung low. She sighed. What she was about to say probably wasn't going to go over well with Luna, but she needed to say it. "But I know what I saw. There was a light and it wanted me to follow it. Does it excuse my actions? No, of course not, but you need to believe me."
Luna sighed as she entered the room and approached Thorn. "Honestly, you probably did see a light but that's irrelevant." Her voice was calmer but still irate. "You left us in a potentially dangerous situation for the second time today. I can't overlook that. Not after supporting you when you were at your lowest." There was a brief silence before Luna spoke. "I know it's been a rough few days, but this isn't like you at all and that worries me. "
Thorn didn't bother to respond. How could she? She broke Luna's trust and hurt her in a way no ghost or cultist ever could. To say she felt guilty was an understatement; knowing she hurt Luna made her physically ill. And that was just with Luna. Dusk's uncharacteristic silence regarding the matter was unnerving. I fucked up. Those words kept repeating in her mind like a broken record. I fucked up. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes. No. She shut her eyes and clenched her fists. I can fix this. Somehow I will.
"I think you're being too tough on her."
The sudden comment from Dusk broke Thorn from her thoughts. Thorn opened her eyes and turned to Dusk. She was standing in the doorway, not really looking at either of them as she twirled her hair.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked, seemingly just as confused as Thorn was.
"You're blaming her for stuff she can't control," Dusk said, turning to face Luna.
"Like what?"
"Her being a witch."
Thorn felt a bit of tenseness upon hearing that word. "What does that have to do with me being a selfish prick?"
"Oh ditching us was still a prick move, but it's not entirely your fault. You're clearly sensitive to the supernatural due to being a witch, so you're seeing and feeling all this weird shit. Since you're not used to this and you refuse to use your magic, you don't know how to react, so you panic and make stupid decisions."
"Wait, are you really blaming the supernatural for her actions? Two minutes ago you said she was being paranoid," Luna said.
"I know, but after this, I think that's what's happening," Dusk said, finally stepping into the room. "And Thorn needs to get over not using her magic so we can survive this."
It wasn't a notion Thorn wanted to accept—the less of her magical side the better—but it made sense. Bar the smell and seeing the ghost, all the supernatural events were happening only to her. But Thorn winced as she entertained a new thought: it was an easy way to excuse her behavior. She shook her head. No excuses. I'm not blaming my mistakes on outside forces.
Unfortunately, the time for self-reflection came to an abrupt end when the door slammed shut with enough force to rattle the room.
"What the fuck!" Dusk shouted as the three of them jumped back in surprise.
Luna ran over to the door. "It's stuck!" She couldn't even turn the doorknob, let alone open the door.
"No, no, no, no," Thorn said, as she rushed over to the door. She grabbed the doorknob and tried opening the door. It didn't open, it was as if something was forcing the door shut.
"We're fucking dead!" Dusk said pacing back and forth in the room.
Thorn trembled as she tried in vain to open the door again but they were trapped. "This can't be happening!"
Bang!
The girls flinched upon hearing the sound of metal crashing coming from down the hall. Thorn's eyes widened and her heart was pounding as she realized what she heard: the stairwell door being broken down.
"You were right," Luna whispered, though it sounded more like a fearful whimper.
"Then there's som-AGHHH!" Thorn screamed, clutching her shoulder, as a searing pain originating from the mark rapidly spread across her body. She collapsed to the floor, writhing and screaming as the pain worsened. Every cell in her body was in agony, burning, not unlike when the Fallen burnt her on a wooden stake.
"What hell is happening!?" Dusk shouted as she and Luna ran to Thorn.
"I don't know!" Luna cried, pulling her hair in panic. "It happened earlier but it wasn't this bad," She moved Thorn away from the door and walls so she wouldn't hit them and injure herself.
"AGHHH! MAKE IT STOP!" Thorn shrieked.
And as if on cue, the pain subsided. Thorn whimpered as she lay on the floor, tears streaming down her face. Luna and Dusk helped her up, though they had to hold her up as Thorn was shaking and her body still ached.
"You alright?" Luna softly said.
Thorn nodded as she wiped her eyes between sniffles. "Thanks...I'm okay. I think I can stand on my own." Her friends let her go, and she wobbled for a moment before catching her balance.
Creak.
Thorn froze. Despite being on the other side of the hall, she could hear floorboards creaking under an intense weight, far heavier than a person.
Creak.
It can't be.
Creeaak.
"Footsteps," Thorn gasped.
Creeaak.
Thorn winced as the rotten egg smell returned. The three girls unknowingly backed away from the door.
Creeaak.
"We're fucked!" Dusk cried.
"There's gotta be a way out," Thorn said. She stumbled over to a window on the far side of the room, but quickly realized it was a non-opening one.
Creeaak.
Thorn scoured the walls, hoping to find a hidden passageway or anything that could lead to their escape. But there was nothing but blackened walls.
"There's no way out," Luna said, stressfully pulling her hair.
"No, there has to be," Thorn said, panting. But it was clear that there was no other way out and Thorn hit the wall in resignation.
Creeeaaak!
It was close. Perhaps outside the neighboring room. The smell had become so unbearable that Thorn felt nauseated, and her friends didn't appear to be handling it much better as they covered their mouths and noses with their arms.
Creeeaaak!
The girls were silent, none daring to even breathe loudly. Thorn's heart pounded against her chest and sweat beaded on her forehead. She couldn't move. All she could do was watch the door and wait in dreadful silence for the next footfall.
Creeeaaaaak!
A cold chill crept up her spine. Thorn wanted to run. Or cry. But she felt paralyzed, like a deer trapped in headlights, unable to move and evade the incoming threat. She trembled as the slit between the door and the floor darkened.
