Chapter 1: Entering the Garten

Creeeeeak…

"Was the door always that loud?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, a door that hasn't been opened in months would be totally silent. Of course not, idiot." My friend, Laya, has been known to be a total scaredy cat.

"Sorry, sorry. This place is just so creepy."

She was right, though. The old place hasn't been open in a long time. Once a happy, bright daycare, now it's just a dark, empty building.

SLAM!

"Nonononono!" I cried. I ran back to the door. Locked. "Son of a-"

"Cinder, you have a way out, right?" Laya could be bright and hopeful sometimes too.

I frowned. "No. That door was our only way out."

"Crap."

"Well," I said hopefully, "We're already here. Let's just keep going."

I started looking around, when something caught my eye. A mural. Banban's Kindergarten. The place had a nice name. Sad to see- Wait.

"A keycard!" I picked it up and looked for a door. Across the room, there was a closet that I could get into. "Laya! We might be home free!"

Silence.

"L-Laya?"

No answer. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Great. Now I can't leave. I have to save her." I put down the keycard and looked around. I saw two buttons on the wall. Just high enough for me to touch them.

I pressed them both, and I heard a door open behind me. Proud of myself, I turned around-

And froze. A giant pink bird was staring right at me. My fur stood up.

I slowly started walking towards it. It turned the corner and disappeared. I started to give chase.

I wandered into a pitch-black room. I looked around frantically for a lightswitch. The lights flickered on, revealing a giant playplace.

I was smacked in the face with nostalgia. I remember playing in this room when I was four.

"Get it together, Cinder. That was 12 years ago." However, what snapped me out of my trance was not the noise of me smacking my face, but the sound of the door opening. The same one that I went into after chasing that bird.

I slammed off the lights and grabbed a plastic stick to defend myself. A figure started walking down the hallway. I held my stick, ready to deliver a strong blow.

The moment they entered the room, I swung my stick with all my might. The figure fell to the floor. I turned on the lights and gasped.

The person that I hit wasn't a worker, or a thief, and not Laya, thank god.

The person I hit was a girl who looked to be about my age. She had long blue hair and what looked like a headset on. She was wearing a gray tank top with a blue tie, and she had a tattoo on her shoulder that had the number 01 on it.

I freaked out. I held my fingers to her neck. A pulse. Faint, but a pulse. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had just knocked her out.

I carried her body back out to the lobby and laid her down on the couch. I pulled a blanket out of my knapsack and laid it on her.

All I have to do is sit here until she wakes up.