Chapter three is here :3

Woot, more creepy shit that you guys seem to like. But then again, wtf should I know? I've not gotten any reviews yet… *sad face*

Alena leaned against the wall, shaking with the sudden realization; she had seen those things before! Lurking about in her nightmares, chasing her until she woke up, trembling in sheer terror and sometimes even screaming.

Edd looked up at her, "Was that one of the monsters in your nightmares?" he panted, attempting to catch his breath.

She could only nod, before remembering something. "Ed…" she caught his attention and handed him the picture she had retrieved from his bag. "I heard you say something about a picture… I'm not sure if we'll get back to the car… at least while those things are out there."

Ed nodded, "Thank you, Alena." He said and took the picture.

Edd was already tending to Eddy's wounds when Alena noticed a door down the hallway beside the stairs. The door had a window that seemed to go from Alena's waist, up, with a sheer white curtain covering it. While the other men were busy, she gripped her hunting knife and slowly walked down the hallway.

She gently moved the curtains away from the window and looked outside; it showed a completely empty courtyard. Great! We can get out! She tried the door knob, but it was locked. She cursed under her breath, wondering where the key could be. Usually, the manager has them…

"Alena?" she heard Edd's voice from the front of the building. She turned her head and walked back to the group.

"Do you know where the manager's suite is?" she asked with a slightly tilted head.

He thought for a minute, "In a typical apartment complex, they're either closest to the entrance, or in a building; on the first floor. Why?"

She'd not heard his question and went to check the map, "It's likely to be here." She pulled her gaze from the map and made her way to the last room on the right; 101.

"Dammit…" It too, was locked. Alena through her head back and groaned in frustration; she was not fond of the idea of staying inside the creepy building until the twitching and disturbing creatures went away. She shuddered when she heard one beat itself against the door. Jesus, you'd think they'd have given up by now!

"Wait…" she heard Ed's voice behind her. He pointed to a note attached to the door.

Alena smiled and turned to face him, "Nice eye." She complimented, causing him to blush. She pulled the note down and read it out loud, "Greg; had to leave early, so your key is in the usual spot. Sincerely, Cindy from 208."

"That's just great. Now we're on a fucking scavenger hunt…" Eddy muttered as he stood. He sighed and then motioned towards the stairs, "Let's go." He said, unenthusiastically.

"Uh, Eddy, although it is still daylight, shouldn't we find another source of light in case it gets dark…er?" Edd suggested.

Even Eddy saw that he had a point. He nodded, "Okay, so does anyone have a flashlight on them?" he asked, slight sarcastically. The likely hood of any of them having such wasn't too high.

Alena hopped over the desk counter, "Surely there's one here." She shrugged and scanned the counter. Nothing. She then checked the drawers, but had no such luck. All she found were batteries, stray papers and pens, and empty water bottles. Great, we've got batteries… Those certainly would come in handy when she found the flashlight. "Ah ha!" she smiled and picked up a black flashlight from the ground.

She stood upright, "Ready?"

Edd nodded nervously and clipped the first aid kit to his belt. Ed stood and grabbed a long metal object from the ground. It was a rusted crowbar. He wondered how it even got inside. Frankly, he didn't care all that much. He had something to protect himself and his friends with.

Eddy took the flashlight from Alena and led the group up the stairs. The light had already dimmed greatly by the time they reached the second floor. They had then decided to split into two groups: Ed and Alena; Edd and Eddy.

Edd handed Ed a roll of gauze, medical tape, and a small tube of antibiotic ointment. "Just in case." He said.

Ed and Alena took the left hallway; silent as they walked. "Do you think the apartment is here?" Alena looked up to the much taller man.

"It's a possibility…" his voice trailed off.

Alena sighed; This is gonna be a long night…

Eddy groaned, of course they would give the flashlight to Ed and Alena, and end up having the darker hallway. It was bad enough that they kept hearing strange noises from the floor above them, but several pipes were broken, causing water to leak. Eddy could feel the liquid (he didn't care to know what the liquid really was) being sucked up by the fabric of his jeans. Thank God he wore boots; otherwise his socks would be just as soaked. Edd didn't have such luck. He had chosen to wear tennis shoes since he thought they'd be actually on a search party.

As they approached the end of the hallway, the volume of the thumping raised.

"Okay, please tell me I'm not the only one hearing that." Eddy stopped walking.

Edd stopped and shook his head, "I hear it too..."

"What the hell is it?"

"I don't know, but- Hey… There's that woman's apartment." Edd pointed to the door further down the left side of the hallway.

Eddy looked up, "Hey, it is!" he attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Oh, he was not having that. Instead, he quickly smacked his hand against it and kicked with a steel toed boot.

"EDDY! That's breaking and entering!" Edd panicked.

Eddy turned to look at his friend with a risen eyebrow, "Really?"

Edd blushed, "I didn't think about that…"

Eddy turned back to see almost complete darkness. The only source of light was coming from a TV screen that showed nothing but static. At least we can see… Barely…

They entered the room, slowly and silently, wondering what could be inside.

"I think the thumping is coming from the apartment just above this one." Edd spoke quietly and looked towards the ceiling.

Eddy nodded, "Now; let's find that key."

They searched the apartment for anything that resembled a key. Neither Edd nor Eddy found one. Edd suddenly looked up, "Eddy, we never checked that room."

"There's a reason…" Eddy muttered, clearly not wanting to state the reason.

Edd couldn't blame him. The hallway was nothing but darkness. The light from the TV didn't reach that far, and there was no way that Eddy would go without being able to see.

"Maybe there's a flashlight here?" Edd suggested.

"I remember seeing one, but I'm not sure that it takes the batteries Alena found." Eddy sighed.

As he walked off, Edd looked back to the door. Something about it put him on edge. He didn't know if it was the crimson stains, or the fact that it looked old and deteriorated, but something made him nervous.

"Hey Edd,"

The second Edd heard his friend; he nearly jumped a mile in the air, emitting a slight squeak.

Eddy rolled his eyes, "Good news; the batteries work." He held up the flashlight and turned it on. "Ready to go find that key?"

Edd nodded with bravery, or… attempted to. Eddy rolled his eyes and led the way to the door.

Alena leaned against the wall of the hallway. Ed was trying to open a door, but it wouldn't budge. "I guess it makes sense that most of these apartments are locked…"

"It does?" Ed looked at her with a quizzical expression.

"Well, would you leave your apartment unlocked?"

"I suppose that does make sense…" Ed tilted his head slightly.

"So do you think they found the key by now?" Alena asked.

"Probably… Double D is very smart, I think he could find it easily."

Alena couldn't help but smile, "How come you call him Double D?"

"His name has two D's instead of one, like me and Eddy." He replied.

Alena jumped at the sudden banging from behind the door. She looked at her companion, "Can we please go now?" she asked in a light, frightened voice.

Ed nodded and took her hand, "Let's go…" he whispered. Quickly and quietly, they went back towards the entrance and went down the path that Edd and Eddy took.

As they walked, they were silent, in hopes that they wouldn't bring any unneeded attention.

By the time they had reached 208, they knew something was wrong. It was completely silent. Ed was worried. Usually, Eddy was being a loud mouth, and they would have heard Edd's complaining about the sanitary conditions.

"Hey…" he heard Alena's voice.

She picked a shiny object up from a plant pot, "This is the key."

Ed was about to speak when they heard a struggle come from the apartment.

"Jesus!"

"Eddy! LOOK OUT!"

It wasn't three seconds later that the two rushed inside the apartment to locate the struggle. When they entered the room, which they discovered to be a storage closet of some sort, they saw quite an eerie sight.

It was a mannequin… sort of. It gracefully moved on its feet, but had no full torso. Instead, it was the bottom half of yet another mannequin, but with the feet sawed off.

Eddy dodged a swing and slashed with his knife. It did no good. The mannequin swung its upper leg around and connected with Eddy's head. He fell to the side, but stumbled back to his feet.

Ed pushed Alena back and swung the crowbar at the mannequin. It connected to its midsection, causing it to fall back. As if he'd never touched it, it jumped back up and swung its legs at them again.

Alena looked around, frantic to find something that could help. She placed her hands on the floor, and felt a familiar object. A handgun.

She checked it; it had only been shot once since it was reloaded. She stood, wondering if any of the men knew how to shoot. She vaguely knew, since her father went to the shooting ranges every Saturday afternoon. On those days, if her friends weren't home, she'd go with him and learn a thing or two.

I don't even know if I remember how to do this…

She turned the safety off and aimed at its midsection.

POP!

The men looked at her with a surprised expression, and then to the mannequin, which was doubled over. It stood upright and swung again, causing Alena to fire.

POP!

The mannequin fell to the ground, lifeless.

Edd looked at Alena, "Thank you."

She nodded, "Its fine. By the way, we found the key." She pulled it out of the vest pocket and showed it to them.

Eddy frowned, "Where in the hell did you find it?"

"In the flower pot."

Edd looked at them, disbelief shown on his face. "The… flower… pot…?" Beside him, Eddy face palmed, feeling utterly stupid. They didn't even have to go inside. All they had to do was look a little more carefully.

"We got an extra flashlight out of it…" Edd tried to convince himself that it wasn't as bad as he thought.

"And a gun." Alena voiced in, hoping to make it sound a little better than it actually did.

Eddy nodded, "All this for a fucking key? You know what- no… Let's just go…" he waved his arm to express exhaustion, disbelief, and frustration.

They left the apartment in a hurry, not wanting to deal with any more of those things. But they stopped when they heard the sound that had stopped for only a moment. The thumping from above.

"What is that?" Alena asked.

"We don't know. Come to think of it… it's probably coming from directly above 208. If I am correct, the placement of the map shows that it would be apartment 308." Edd responded.

"It could be someone who needs our help…" Alena suggested.

Ed pointed to the hallway they had searched, "What if whatever it is, is what was in that room? Or what we just killed… well… I think we killed it…"

Eddy sighed, "Monobrow has a point."

Edd looked at Alena, "I think we should still check. We can probably grab some extra bullets for Alena, and the batteries we have won't supply these flashlights forever."

Eddy groaned, "Fine, dammit."

Ed rested the crowbar on his shoulder, "Should we split up again?"

Edd shook his head furiously, "No. I think it would be better if we stayed together."

Eddy looked at him, "But we'd be covering less ground in a certain period of time if we stick together."

Alena rolled her eyes, "Before this turns into an argument, one: there's strength in numbers. Two: We'll only be checking that one apartment. There isn't a need to really check the whole floor." She shrugged.

The second tallest boy nodded, "She has a point. Are we ready?" he asked.

Eddy sighed, "Hmm, creepy monsters, smelly pipes, broken infrastructure, and small chance of survival… What are we waiting for?"

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Woot. Chapter three is up and running. I'm sorry it took a little longer to post this than usual, but I've been suffering the weight of school and writer's block. I'll be honest, I had a lot of fun writing this (especially the parts when Edd is a smartypants) and I hope to have chapter four up soon. Please review, PLEASE. I've only received one review, and I desperately love them 3

Well, this is PhilosophicalZombie, signing off.