Chapter 2
"Oh for chimera's sakes! This isn't funny; now open this freaking door Nero!" Teto yelled.
There was no answer.
"Nero, I'm warning you, you don't want to make a chimera angry..." She added through gritted teeth.
There was still no answer. Teto, finally believing that they weren't playing a trick on her, let out a frustrated groan, but then had a happy thought,
"Might as well do some exploring while I'm stuck here!" She exclaimed to herself.
Teto was known as the girl who sticks her nose in everyone else's business. She then started out with trying to open any door she could find, only that each of them were locked,
"Dang it! This is not fun at all! All the doors are locked!" She said in frustration, suddenly the temperature dropped to what felt like -30 degrees.
Teto shivered as she hugged herself for warmth,
"Wh-Why d-d-did it get s-so c-c-cold?" She asked no one as her teeth chattered.
She did not like this feeling, not one bit. Especially when the coldness suddenly made her feel despair. She heard something.
'Thump, thump, thump...' She stopped,
"Footsteps? I think it came from here..." She thought as she got to a corner, she gasped.
Right in front of a door was a thing that had sickly gray skin and a head that looked too big for its body. It was also naked, but Teto was too shocked to get a nosebleed. The thing looked like it didn't see her as it disappeared behind the door. She then sighed in relief, surprised she was holding her breath in the first place,
"It's gone!" She thought,
"Wh-what was that just now-?" Teto continued asking herself, still not believing her eyes.
She rubbed them,
"I-Maybe I'm getting tired...?" She concluded, "Yeah, that's right, I'm j-just tired! There's no such thing as ghosts or demons! That's practically the reason why I volunteered to investigate!" She nervously chuckled, trying to convince herself that her eyes are playing tricks on her.
Though part of her was disagreeing. She then went up to the door, getting her katana ready, and twisted the doorknob, only to find it was locked. She sighed for the 100th time that day and decided to explore some more to get that incident off her mind.
"Well, no one's on the first floor, so let's try the second!" She concluded.
While being so caught up in what had happened, Teto didn't notice the cold atmosphere had disappeared along with the monster.
xxxxxXxxxxx
"Argh! Another locked door! There seems to be a lot of them here!" Teto yelled in frustration.
That was probably the 15th so far though she wasn't exactly sure. Who keeps track of locked doors anyways? She then looked at the door next to it,
"I swear it this door is locked, I'm going to slice it down..." She mumbled as she twisted the knob, to her surprise and delight, it opened!
"Aw man! It's just an empty room! But I guess I should be glad there are at least some doors unlocked..." The chimera said, disappointed.
Though she eyed the curtains suspiciously before she left. She went to the door next to the room she just went in. It was also unlocked.
"Finally things are going my way for once in this house!" Teto said triumphantly.
As she looked around, she saw something on the bed,
"This is... Neru's whip? What is it doing in a place like this?" She thought, it looked worn from use.
She then got perverted images in her mind as she blushed furiously before slapping herself.
"No Teto! This is no time for lemons! Bad Teto, bad! You're supposed to be a lemon fan girl!" She scolded herself as she quickly rushed out with the whip and went back to the previous room.
The curtains caught her attention again,
"I swear there is something up with those curtains...mostly since they don't shake like that..." She mumbled walking towards them and as quick as lightning, shoved them to the side.
She stumbled backwards as something shot out of the little closet behind them,
"Neru?" She asked shocked.
Neru said nothing but hug her knees and shudder furiously. The magenta head smirked,
"Hey, I thought the great Neru was fearless. Never expected her to be shivering like a coward in Antarctica hiding from man eating polar bears!" She teased expecting Neru to make a comeback.
Neru still said nothing but shivered uncontrollably causing Teto's eyes to widen,
"Wh-What? You're not even going to make a comeback? What the hell got you to act like this?" Teto asked before looking around,
"...Neru, where are the others?" She asked.
As expected, Neru didn't say anything,
"You look shaken." Teto remarked stating the obvious,
"And out of character..." She added in a mumble.
Her eyes lit up,
"I know! I'll go get you something to drink! Maybe that will calm you down!" She exclaimed walking out of the room with a glass she randomly found on the table.
When she got to the kitchen, she found a faucet, only to see it was twisted in a gruesome way. She was speechless,
"Wh-What the hell? Guess I'll have to find another source..." She muttered and walked to the bathroom.
She saw water in the toilet bowl and sweat dropped,
"Well...this is also water too..." She said hesitantly before fishing for a coin in her skirt pocket,
"Okay, heads, I go find another source of water, tails, I get it from this toilet bowl." She said and flipped the coin...only for it to land inside the toilet bowl,
"Well, I'm not getting that...I'll just go find another source. I shouldn't be too hasty after all, only an idiot does that." She concluded, going out.
She then stopped,
"Crud, I forgot the cup!" She said going back into the bathroom, only to be greeted by a surprise,
"What...the...hell...?" She asked with a weird expression on her face.
The bathroom was now filled with food like rice balls, peppers, beer, and others.
"Well, Neru can't drink beer yet so that's out of the question..." She said looking at the beer.
Not trusting toilet food, she left with the glass.
Later...
"Here Neru, I got you some water." Teto said handing her a glass of water she had gotten from a working faucet.
She purposely left out the fact it was unfiltered. Neru gratefully took it and drank the whole thing before making a face,
"Is this...really water?" She questioned.
"Judging by its color...maybe." Teto said, shrugging.
"I see anyway, sorry for falling apart like that. I feel much better now, thanks to you." Neru said.
Teto chuckled,
"No problem! So where are the others?" She asked.
Neru looked down, her eyes glazed,
"I'm not sure..." She mumbled and looked at Teto in the eyes,
"At any rate, we ran for our lives and those two went in different directions I think." She explained.
Teto nodded, understanding.
"Alright then, I'll go look for them. You should just rest for now." She said.
Neru scratched the back of her head,
"Sorry. Oh, by the way, I found this while I was running. Maybe it can be of some use to you." Neru advised, tossing a silver key to the chimera.
She caught it and noticed there were some letters carved in it,
'Library'
"Library key...I guess it's worth a try..." She mentally said to herself before leaving the room in search of the library.
xxxxXxxxx
After testing almost every door with the key, Teto finally found the right one that led to the library. Only to be blasted with the same cold and despairing aura.
"Wh-Where have I felt this before?" She asked herself as she entered.
When she did the chimera could've sworn she saw a flash of grey. As Teto rounded a corner she was surprised to see so many books despite the fact it was a library,
"So this is the library? There are so many books!" She said in amazement.
"It doesn't look like Len or Nero is in here. Still, I should look for some clues." The UTAULOID added, looking around as she got to a table,
"Hm? What is this?" She asked herself again, picking up a white blob.
"Oh, it's an ordinary rice ball. Wait, how did a rice ball even get here?" She asked her brain.
"Oh well, I should look for more clues..." The drill tailed girl sighed as she began to look what else was on the table, her eyes widened,
"Th-These are the Japanese seals Gakupo gave me for my birthday! Why are they here?" She asked looking at Gakupo's familiar handwriting.
It was then she noticed a shadow looming over her and felt even colder and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. Something was behind her. Hesitantly, she turned around only to be greeted by the Thing's pitch black eyes.
"Holy...mother...fucking...chimera..." Teto squeaked and barely managed to dodge the monster's claws.
The Thing lashed out at her again. Frantically, Teto took out her katana and blocked it. She then slashed at it and made a beeline towards the door,
"Damn it! What is that thing? I have to get out of here fast!" She thought as she got to the door,
"Now the key..." She said sticking her hand into her pockets, only to find all of them empty,
"Oh shit, shit, shit, shit!" She cursed repeatedly as the demon came closer to her.
She was trapped. By instinct, she went into a fighting stance with her katana. Letting out a battle cry, she lunged at it and made a direct hit, but the Thing looked unaffected much to her surprise. She then went on to plan B,
"Curse!" She cried sending never-ending slashes at the monster.
One particular one hit its forehead and it roared with pain,
"Now's my chance!" Teto exclaimed as she ran around the wounded alien.
"What now? Where is the key?" She frantically looked around.
Behind the bookshelves, she saw a faint glimmer.
"There it is!" She thought, relieved and ran up to retrieve it.
She then pressed her back against the bookshelves and peered from the side to see the Thing looking for her,
"3...2...1...Go!" She said spreading her chimera wings and shot towards the door with the Thing not far behind her.
The door came closer, the Thing extended an arm, Teto jammed the key into the lock and gave a forceful turn before shooting out and closing it with her back now pressed against the door. She breathed heavily and sweat came down her face and her eyes were squeezed shut. Her heart felt like it was going to fly out of her chest.
"Man...that thing won't give up!" She thought.
"...es...Cape..." A voice came from the other side.
Teto's eyes shot opened,
"Wh-What?" She mumbled
"..You...won't...es...cape..." The voice repeated again.
More sweat poured down her face as the girl's heart thumped wildly,
"What the hell's going on?"