CHAPTER 698 The Floor of Fatality

ONE MONTH LATER:

FEBRUARY 2,

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 2014

I lay in our tiny room, awake. I was lying in this state of languor since at least four in the morning. Eyeing the booklet in my small pack, I decided to break my lethargy and start looking at how much we had tackled. From the third floor to this floor, we had battled all the odds . . . and made it out alive. Of course, it was nothing short of a miracle. Shelving the thought of the hell and high water, I decided to reflect on my worries. The first thing on my list is Peater. He has become so cold and distant with me since the mutt bite that it worried me to no end. Will he get better? Will I be able to melt his heart, which had been hardened by venom from a bite? With a sigh, a crossed out the twelfth floor of The Scally, which left the next floor above us: Floor 13, otherwise known as The Floor of Fatality. As my eyes scanned whatever articles I could find about the thirteenth floor, I thought about a word I had heard more than enough: evil. Elias knew a lot about it, but heck, it was only five in the morning! I then decided to cut the Gordian knot and take the easy way out. I dug about in Elias' bag, until I found an ancient book titled Evil Effects. I opened the tome, and strangely enough, it flipped to a page that had exactly what I was looking for: evil and its effect on souls. After an hour or two of relentless reading, I found out that if one's body has been exposed to a lot of evil, the only way to dispel it was to kill them. Gently putting down the immense volume, I grabbed my pack, stuffed the booklet into bag, and went out the door, after giving the two plants a smile.

I slowly ascended the stairs, which were creaky and abundantly spattered with blood. What was different about this staircase, though, was that it was narrow, and spiralled around and around as it went up. Finally, after going round and round for God knows how long, I was greeted by something hitting my head hard with a thunk. I looked up, and saw a trap door with a small latch that had metal thorns on it. When I gripped the latch, I felt a sharp pain run through my arm, before I let out a scream. I then heard running; small pitter-patters from roots making contact with the ground. Next thing I knew, someone had slapped me.

"You . . . complete . . . fool!" the mysterious someone yelled between slaps.

I looked back, and saw Peater behind me, a look of loathing and slight worry in his eyes.

"Don't do that again! Do you hear me? Don't leave without me or my father's knowledge!" he screamed.

"Yes, I know . . ." I whimpered, before I gave the trap door a good tug, regardless of the spikes on the latch.

The trap door finally swung down so quickly that I was positive that it would fly off the hinges. Meanwhile, it was raining dust, blood, and occasionally bones as I heard more pitter-pattering behind me. With a yell, I scrambled through the gap, which left me on the thirteenth floor; the Floor of Fatality. Soon, Peater had scrambled up, and so had another plant that was so covered in dust that I didn't know whether they were undead or alive. Peater turned around and shook his head.

"The next time we agree to a mission like this, we'll have to remember to get some form of protection from all this muck." he muttered.

The 'unknown plant' dusted themselves off, which revealed them as Elias. With a sigh of relief, I looked at the surrounding area. In my honest point of view, the thirteenth floor of this dangerous building seemed more like an attic that happened to have exceedingly disconcerting portraits on the walls. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, and frequently got caught in my crystals. With a sigh of defeat, I looked at a painting of flowers to my right. But strangely enough, it made the petals fall and the stems droop.

"Uh, Elyssia . . . you might wanna be careful, because these paintings seem to have an aura of evil." Peater warned.

Ignoring the warning, I began to run along the hallway, which caused the eyes of the portraits to swing over, when finally, I heard moaning and groaning. I turned around, and saw that the canvasses of the portraits I passed had turned black, but that wasn't the worst part; no.

For right in front of my face, I saw an army of evil spirits, along with a crack load of mutts.

"Start shooting and using your knives, whatever! Just get rid of these things!" I yelled at Elias and Peater, who didn't need to be told twice, as I saw them begin shooting and slashing their knives at the unruly animals.

"Elyssia . . . you'll . . . never . . . listen!" Peater grunted as he divorced a bird mutt's head from its body.

Just then, out of nowhere, I felt fangs bite into my neck. Instead of running to help me, the way he usually did, Peater hung back, and pretended to be preoccupied with slashing at the spirits, which left Elias to run over and slash at whatever creature had bitten into my neck.

"Why that Peater just . . . just forgot about me!" I yelled.

"Proteger Nos Desdim Malis." Elias recited, which made the beings dissolve.

"Well, look at that. The girl's eradicated our last resort! Oh well . . . she'll pay."

I looked up, and saw Ash holding a knife that seemed to shine with the blackness of evil. He threw the knife at my head, and before I could do anything, the blade had impaled me. With a cackle, Ash opened a trapdoor on the roof and had climbed out, laughing all the way. I took out the knife, and let it fall to the floor. Then, I thought about the next destination. But there was only one way to get there.

No Man's Land.