AN: Hi all, I hope folks are still enjoying this fic, and I appreciate the comments and feedback. To the few folks still following, I'll be going on a work-related hiatus sometime in the next couple of weeks, and I'm not sure how long it will last as I'll be busy for the next several months. My posting schedule may get a bit funky from now on, but when I do update, I'll still try for Wednesday/Thursday like normal. I'll still reply to comments/feedback. Thanks.
~The Wandering Piney
1:36 PM
Thorn paced back and forth across the lobby, glancing at her phone every few seconds. She regretted hanging up on Luna, even though Thorn knew Dusk and Luna were on their way to the lobby. Her heart was racing. Did something happen to them? Are they hurt? These thoughts haunted her mind, and with each one that passed, she caught herself gripping the sigil tighter. Where are you two?
"Thorn!"
She never felt such joy in hearing Luna call her name. She turned around, full of excitement. But that enthusiasm quickly drained from her face when she saw them enter the lobby. Their clothes were dirty and soaked with sweat. Dusk held a bloody paper towel to her head while still armed with her dagger. Luna rubbed her bruised throat with one hand and held a can of pepper spray with the other.
"What happened to you two? Are you both okay?" Thorn asked, running over to her friends. She immediately turned to Dusk, and gently pulled the blonde girl's arm away from her head so she could assess the wound.
"We've been better," Dusk answered. She winced from the change in pressure on her wound.
"Jeez Dusk, any worse and you'd need stitches," Thorn gasped. She tossed aside the bloody towel and took out some supplies from her purse, including a small jar of Manuka honey, some alcohol gauze pads, and several bandages.
"Wicked," Dusk said with a grin. "I got a battle scar."
"How'd this happen?" Thorn said with an agitated frown. She dabbed Dusk's wound with the gauze pad, causing the blonde girl to wince.
"We got attacked," Luna sighed, trembling as she spoke.
Someone hurt my friends. She could feel her magic boiling within her, ready to erupt in a vengeful fury. Someone. Hurt. My friends. The jar of honey felt hot, and the clatter of hairline cracks forming unfazed her.
"Who did this?" Thorn muttered, the heat growing hotter and the magic stronger.
"Thorn...chill out, you're gonna break that jar," Dusk said.
Thorn shuddered, glancing at the cracked jar and the hot honey that was leaking onto her hand. No. Control yourself. No magic. The jar cooled, and her magic became inactive. Thorn placed the jar on the ground and grabbed some gauze pads before she resumed treating Dusk's wound.
"Sorry…" Thorn said. "Um...I just need to dress the wound and you'll be fine."
She finished treating Dusk's injury without further issues, though she'd have to get more honey at a later point since the jar broke. She then turned her attention to Luna. "Your neck, it's…"
"It's fine," Luna interjected, rubbing her neck. "Just some bruises. I was more worried about Dusk since she had a head injury."
Thorn let out a sigh of relief and teared up as she hugged her friends. "Ugh, I shouldn't have left you two alone. We should've stayed together. I should've…"
"It's not your fault," Luna replied.
"You did nothing wrong," Dusk added.
The three girls remained as they were, their embrace growing tighter. Thorn held Dusk and Luna as tight as she could. I can't let them go. It's too dangerous. Someone will hurt them. She winced. Someone hurt them. Someone. Hurt. Them. Her hands clenched into fists. "Who attacked you?"
Thorn shook her head and quietly gasped at how hostile she sounded. Dusk and Luna must've noticed her anger and hostility as they left the group embrace.
"I don't know," Luna answered with a worried sigh. "I don't know if it was even human."
Thorn raised an eyebrow, her anger replaced with confusion. "You mean...like someone was in a costume? Right?" she asked.
"I don't know," Luna said, shaking her head. "If it was a costume, it was the best damn one I've seen."
"It's a fucking monster," Dusk grunted. "I stabbed it in the back, and it survived." She showed Thorn her dagger, and the sticky, green material reminiscent of blood that covered it. "And there was this centipede thing too."
Thorn shook her head. "That...that can't be. Maybe it's a robot or something."
Both Dusk and Luna shook their heads.
Luna sighed. "Thorn… you're the last person to be doubting this after all we've been through."
"Yeah," Dusk exclaimed. "Considering you're a wit-"
Thorn quickly covered Dusk's mouth as Brian entered the lobby. Dusk grimaced and pulled Thorn's hand away from her.
"Glad to see you two made it back alright," Brian said.
"Hmph, and where exactly have you been?" Luna said, crossing her arms and glaring at Brian.
"Um, I was trying to get into the security room cause there's a camera pointing down the hall," he replied.
"And why were you doing that?"
"Thorn didn't tell you about Mr. Kurtz?"
"Mr. Kurtz?" Dusk asked.
"The foreman," Thorn clarified.
"What happened to the foreman?" Luna asked.
Thorn sighed. "It's better if I show you."
"Oh, God!" Luna exclaimed, covering her mouth at the sight of the room.
"Yeah…" Thorn sighed, her head hung low. She'd rather not be here, but her friends needed to know what happened.
"There's like, nothing left of him," Dusk said with a bit too much curiosity. She walked into the room and proceeded to poke a bone with her dagger.
"Don't touch any of it!" Thorn cried, and she pulled Dusk out of the room.
"I was just making sure it was real," Dusk groaned.
Luna shook her head before turning to Thorn. "Tell me you've called the police."
"Er...no," Thorn confessed. She conceded that she should've, but at the time she was more concerned about the safety of her friends than the legal system.
"I tried," Brian stated. "But the call won't go through."
Luna crossed her arms. "Bullshit."
"Go ahead and call them," he said with a shrug. "It's not going to work."
Luna scowled as she called the police. But as the seconds ticked by, Thorn grew worried as Luna's annoyed glare morphed into a concerned gasp.
"What's wrong," Thorn asked, though she already knew the answer.
"It just keeps ringing," Luna answered, before lowering the phone and ending the call.
"That doesn't make sense," Thorn said, checking her phone to see if the service was bad. It wasn't. "I called you a few minutes ago."
"I know!" Luna exclaimed, before glaring at Brian.
Thorn also glanced at the paranormal investigator. He was trying to get into a room across from the foreman's office. Looking closer, Thorn noticed that the door had a sign labeled "SECURITY."
"What the hell are you doing?" Luna shouted.
"There's a camera that might have seen the killer," Brian said, pointing at the end of the hall closest to the entrance of the building.
Looking up, Thorn spotted a small camera tucked in the corner of the ceiling, a small, blinking red light signifying that the device was on. A long, black wire, held up by strips of duct tape, ran along the length of the ceiling before sliding between the top space of the security office's door.
"By any chance, does anyone know how to pick locks?" Brian asked.
Dusk's face lit up, and she rubbed her hands together with glee. But before she could do anything, Luna stepped in front of her.
"We found a keyring while looking for those documents," Luna said, taking the keyring from her purse and handing it to Brian. "Recognize it?"
"Nope," he replied. He tried several keys before one of them fit into the lock. One satisfying click later, the door was open.
The room was small and cramped while the single flickering ceiling light did little to illuminate the room. A dozen monitors lined the wall, though only three were on. One camera pointed down the hall they came from, a second monitored the back exit, and a third watched the front door.
"The computer is still on," Luna said.
"Perfect," Brian said.
There was a large computer nestled on a desk in front of the monitors, its screen on with many icons listed. The trash from leftover fast food meals cluttered the desk, and there was an ashtray filled with cigarette butts.
Brian pulled over a chair and took a seat in front of the computer.
"Guess someone was in a rush," Brian said, pulling up some program. "They forgot to log off."
"What were they trying to do?" Thorn asked.
"Not sure," Brian replied, opening another window Thorn didn't recognize.
"Looks like they were trying to delete footage," Luna said.
Brian nodded in agreement. "I think you're right." He opened another window. "Yeah, a bunch of footage got erased."
"I bet they're trying to cover their tracks," Dusk exclaimed.
"Can you recover them?" Thorn asked.
"Maybe," he said, lacking his usual confidence. He began typing something, but after a few moments, he shook his head in defeat.
"Move," Luna said, causing Brian to leave the seat. She took his seat and began typing, which caused several new windows to pop up.
"Since when did you know how to do...this?" Thorn said, leaning over Luna's shoulder so she could see the computer.
"I had to teach my dad how to use the new security system he had installed at his practice," Luna answered. "It was the only reason he discovered the fraud when his office got repaired."
Luna continued typing, and more windows opened, though Thorn lost track of what was happening after a minute or so; computers were never her strong suit, and she couldn't imagine what Luna was doing.
"Got it!" Luna cheered a few minutes later. "The system was keeping temporary backups of the footage. Whoever was in here didn't delete the backups."
"Wicked," Thorn said with a smile.
Luna clicked on a file with the current date. A black-and-white image of the hallway opened up with a timestamp in the top right corner indicating that it was midnight. She set the video to full screen and hit the play button. The timer moved forward, but nothing was changing on-screen.
"Fast-forward it," Brian said.
Luna tripled the video speed, and the timer raced forward, with little change in the video. But at 04:30, a figure entered the hallway from the direction of the entrance, and Luna paused the video.
"Who's that?" Dusk asked.
"I don't recognize him," Brian said.
Thorn leaned closer to get a better look at the grainy image. Their mystery figure was a mammoth of a man, easily over six feet in height and almost as wide as the door. He was wearing what looked like a basic jacket and jeans and was carrying something beneath a cloth.
"Continue the video," Thorn said.
Luna unpaused the video, playing it at normal speed.
The man stopped at the security room and turned to unlock the door. While grainy, Thorn could make out a goatee on the man's face. He then entered the room and closed the door behind him. About ten minutes passed before he emerged, still carrying whatever he brought with him. He locked the door behind him before heading down the hall and disappearing into the lobby.
"Well, that was weird," Luna said, pausing the video.
"You think this guy's the killer?" Thorn asked.
"Dude looks like he could tear someone apart," Dusk joked, though, given the condition of Mr. Kurtz, Thorn frowned at her joke.
"I don't know, he's bigger than whoever attacked us," Luna said. "Well, assuming it was someone in a costume that attacked us."
"Let's keep watching and see if he returns," Brian added.
With not much else to do, Luna resumed the video. They played it at normal speed, but it quickly became evident that the man wasn't coming back. Luna fast-forwarded the footage, and they zoomed through ninety minutes of nothing before the foreman arrived around 07:45 and entered his office. He emerged a few minutes later carrying a clipboard and greeted the first workers to arrive. By 08:00, dozens of workers had passed through the hallway to start their day.
The next couple hours went by with nothing out of the ordinary; various workers would walk by or the foreman would enter his office or the security room. There was no sign of the suspicious man. But then at 11:05, a group of workers gathered around the foreman's office and knocked on his door. Mr. Kurtz emerged, and an argument broke out between the men.
"What are they arguing about?" Dusk asked as Luna slowed the video to normal speed.
"Probably the ghost," Luna reasoned. "This is just before we got here."
Unfortunately, the camera didn't record audio, so there was no way to confirm it, but based on many of the workers' expressions, it seemed like a good guess.
The altercation worsened, and Thorn was certain fists were about to fly, but cooler heads prevailed. The workers stormed off toward the exit, and less than a minute later, everyone had left the building. The foreman returned a few minutes later talking on his phone before entering his office.
"Hey isn't this when we showed up?" Dusk asked.
"Should be," Luna said, speeding up the video.
Sure enough, they came into view ten minutes later. Thorn couldn't help but snicker at her and her bandmates' pitiful attempt to be stealthy given the camera caught them the instant they stepped foot on the property.
"Did...you three seriously eavesdrop on Mr. Kurtz?" Brian asked as the footage showed them crouching by the office door and listening in on the foreman.
"Yeah," Thorn admitted, "we thought he was the ghost."
Brian shook his head and they turned their attention back to the video.
Thorn sighed and her face reddened as she watched herself yell at Dusk, alerting the foreman to their presence. Not her best moment as that stupid mistake led to everything spiraling out of control. If only I didn't get into that argument, then maybe we'd be in a better situation.
Thorn looked away from the screen as Dusk knocked the two-by-fours over. She didn't need to see the foreman chase them with a hammer.
"Wow," Brian exclaimed, "you three know how to greet people."
Thorn smirked, hiding the embarrassment she felt. "We're trying not to make a habit of it."
Briain chuckled to himself before turning his attention back to the computer. As Thorn did the same, she heard Luna mutter something under her breath. She glanced at Luna, and she could've sworn her friend was glaring at her. But Luna adjusted herself in the seat, turning away from Thorn, and pointed at the screen.
"The foreman's back," Luna stated, her words sharper than usual.
Thorn stared at Luna for a moment, certain there was more hostility, but her friend remained fixated on the computer screen. Thorn knew something was bothering Luna, but confronting her on it didn't seem appropriate at the moment. She sighed and turned her attention to the computer.
The foreman walked down the hallway, rambling into the phone while still wielding the hammer with the other hand. Thorn guessed he was talking with the police, or at least trying to get a hold of them considering they couldn't reach the authorities themselves. The foreman reached the security office and then entered the room.
"What do you think he's doing?" Thorn asked.
"What do you think? He's probably doing what we're doing," Luna grumbled without looking up from the screen. "Reviewing the security footage."
Thorn crossed her arms and struggled to keep her mouth shut lest she said something she'd regret. She didn't understand why Luna was behaving like this only that she did something to piss her off, and she didn't want to argue with her friend.
Regardless of Luna's sudden hostility, her idea was likely correct as the foreman remained in the security room for quite some time. Luna sped up the video, and thirty minutes passed without the man leaving the building.
"Stop the video!" Dusk barked.
Luna did. "What did you see?" she asked.
"There's something on the roof," Dusk answered, pointing to a dark portion of the ceiling.
Thorn leaned forward, but all she could see was grainy nothingness.
"There's nothing there," Luna said.
"Unpause it," Dusk said.
Luna did, but whatever Dusk saw remained elusive. The video continued, and Thorn noticed nothing new.
"Hold up, she's right," Brian said, and he pointed to the upper right corner of the screen.
"Yes! It's right there!" Dusk cheered.
Luna paused the video. "I'm still not seeing it."
"Keep playing the video," Thorn said, making out a vague, dark shape on the ceiling.
Luna hit play, and slowly but surely, a humanoid figure became recognizable as it crawled into view. First, an arm and a head appeared, followed by a cloaked body. It calculated each painstakingly slow move it made as it crept toward the security office. Thorn shivered as she watched the video, the scene reminding her of clips of lions or tigers stalking and hunting their prey.
Thorn heard a subtle tap, like fingernails tapping on plastic. She glanced at the source of the noise. Luna's hand was shaking, her grasp on the computer mouse tenuous, and she rubbed her bruised neck.
Thorn looked back at the screen and unknowingly clenched her fists as the figure crawled forward. Even though it was just footage, she wanted to punch the screen. Or more accurately, blast the monitor with a beam of magical energy. She would've too if a fly didn't land on the camera lens and obstruct the view of the creature. More insects joined the fly, which was now an out-of-focus blur, making it even more difficult to see what was happening.
But through the scurrying insects, Thorn caught a few glimpses of what had unfolded in the hallway. The entity stopped by the security office and knocked on the door. Mr. Kurtz opened the door, and the creature dropped down. While the flies blocked the immediate aftermath, Thorn watched an injured Mr. Kurtz stumble into his office. The creature followed, and they were then out of frame.
"Damn," Dusk sighed
"It killed him," Thorn stammered. While the two figures didn't return onscreen, she didn't need to see them. She knew that the cloaked figure killed Mr. Kurtz. Thorn turned away from the screen, feeling sick. Deep down, she felt a pang of guilt, like she was responsible for the man's death. Like if she hadn't come here, he'd still be alive. She turned to Dusk and Luna. They were still watching the footage, waiting for the figure to reappear, both shaken. She knew whatever killed Mr. Kurtz had attacked them. She felt worse like she was rotting away with each decision she made. How close were Luna and Dusk to death? The footage suggested they were at death's doorstep. I should've stayed with them. I could've protected them.
"Where the hell did it go?" Dusk grunted. "It's been in there for like an hour."
Dusk's loud comment shook Thorn from her thoughts. Indeed, the time on the video was now 12:35, the only thing different was that the flies were gone.
"I don't know," Brian said with a shrug. "Maybe it went out the window, or the bugs blocked it."
Thorn noticed Luna rolled her eyes, but the redhead remained silent.
"We need to stop this bastard before anyone else gets killed," Brian stated.
"Fuck yeah!" Dusk shouted, taking out her dagger. She began wiping the blade off with a paper towel.
Before Thorn could respond, Luna stood up and grimaced. She grabbed both Thorn and Dusk's arm. "Both of you over here."
Thorn raised an eyebrow before Luna dragged her and Dusk into the hallway with more aggression than she expected.
"What the hell was that about?" Thorn demanded as she crossed her arms.
Luna grimaced. "This is getting too out of hand! We need to get the fuck out of here!"
"But what about the Broken? You said our best option was seeing this thing through the end," Thorn replied.
"Screw the Broken!" Luna shouted.
"Is everything alright out there?" Brian asked, poking his head out the doorway.
"Yeah, we're fine. We're just going over some stuff," Thorn quickly replied as Luna pulled her and Dusk farther down the hall. "Give us a minute."
Brian nodded, though Thorn could've sworn she saw a hint of agitation in his eyes before he returned the computer monitors.
"Luna, what's wrong?" Thorn asked in a hushed but concerned tone.
"What's wrong!? A man got ripped apart less than twenty feet from where we're standing, and the thing that did that to him almost killed me!" Luna snapped, pointing at the foreman's office. Luna glared at Thorn, her gaze sharp and painful.
"I know, that's why I agree with Brian that we need to stop it before someone else gets hurt," Thorn said.
Luna shook her head, letting out an angry and mocking laugh. "Unbelievable."
Thorn grimaced. "What?"
Luna kept shaking her head. "Oh my god…"
"Just say it!" Thorn barked.
Luna was silent for a moment, deliberately dragging out the tension. "I can't believe you still trust Brian."
"Why wouldn't I? He hasn't done anything wrong," Thorn replied.
"We already went over this," Luna said, her tone frustrated. "He's the one responsible for all this shit!"
"How? He's been with me the entire time since we split up, so he couldn't have attacked you, and we already established that he can't be the ghost," Thorn countered.
"He's working with them!" Luna retorted. "The ghost defends the treasure, the cloaked figure goes on the offense, and Brian acts as a spy, informing them about where we are. He then splits us up so we're easier to kill." Luna palmed her forehead. "I can't believe I didn't see it before," she gasped. "Brian's so-called 'crew' are behind this, and I bet they're cultists."
Thorn laughed. "That sounds like something from one of Dusk's conspiracy theories."
"Hey, I don't believe in that stuff," Dusk said. "I just think they're fun to read."
Thorn and Luna ignored Dusk's comment.
"A literal deity told you to come here," Luna stated. "How is a group of cultists with access to actual magic trying to stop us from finding the treasure more absurd?"
"He's not a warlock, he has a silver necklace," Thorn said, pouting as she turned away from Luna.
"So? He doesn't need to be one," Luna scolded. "And how the fuck do you know he has a silver necklace?"
"Well...um...why kill the foreman and scare the workers if they're defending the treasure from us?" Thorn replied with haste, though she refused to answer the second question.
"I don't know...maybe the workers got in the way or disturbed the treasure, and they killed the foreman because he was going to call the police," Luna answered. "The point is Brian is conspiring against us. I don't know what he said to you, but he's lying, and the only person who could corroborate his story is conveniently dead."
Thorn didn't reply. She stuck her hands in her pockets and lowered her head. She felt the sigil Brian gave her and removed it from her pocket, holding it so neither Luna nor Dusk could see it. She wanted him to just be an unlucky investigator who got wrapped up in their situation. She wanted to believe everything he said about himself. She wanted to believe that the sigil in her hand was protecting her.
But Luna gave her doubts. Was his story just a clever ploy to get closer to her, so he could harm her and her friends? Was he in league with the ghost and the cloaked killer? The cultists? The Fallen? Did he give her the sigil to help her, or were there sinister intentions behind it?
No.
She knew Luna wouldn't like her decision and that she was looking out for them, but she trusted Brian. Why? She couldn't say. It could've been that she saw the holes in Luna's argument, like how Brian had multiple opportunities to kill her but didn't take them. Or maybe it was part of her Wiccan upbringing to see the good in people. Or perhaps she tired of everyone they met not being who they said they were, and she wanted to believe in people again. Regardless of her reasoning, she made up her mind, and she stood by it.
Thorn took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, returning the sigil to her pocket as she did. She looked Luna right in the eye, not once flinching in her conviction. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know you don't trust him, but I do."
It was subtle, but Thorn saw a flash of sadness in her friend's eyes before frustration replaced it. She went to say something but didn't.
"And I agree that we need to stop whatever's going on here before others get hurt," Thorn concluded.
"So we're gonna fight these things," Dusk said, breaking the silence.
"We're going to do what we must," Thorn replied. "You're in?"
"Yeah," Dusk answered, though there was a hint of reluctance in her voice.
Luna sighed but otherwise remained quiet.
"I know I didn't do a good job at it, but I swear to both of you that I'll do everything in my power to keep you guys safe," Thorn said, never looking away from them. "We'll stay together and-
"What's the plan?" Luna groaned before Thorn could say anymore.
Thorn nodded. "The plan...right." She hadn't given the matter much thought, as outside of magic, she didn't know how to defeat a ghost, let alone whatever the cloaked figure was. "Let's get Brian and see if he has any idea how to stop them."
Luna groaned, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms in protest.
"If it's any comfort to you, I won't tell him why we're here or anything else about us," Thorn added.
Luna uncrossed her arms and sighed. "I'd appreciate that."
With that, they returned to the security room.
