Chapter 2: Darkness Stirs

Red was riding a bus to her destination. It wasn’t too far but she needed a ride to get there, especially at night. It was a shame that she couldn’t use the money she had to buy a car or a motorcycle. That would make her everyday commute far easier. 

It also prevented perverts or assholes from harassing her. 

The bus was empty except for a few usual night residents. There was an unconscious drunk, an overworked white-collar worker, and a sweaty suburban athlete. This was the usual crowd that Red interacted with at times like these. The clients that went to her boss were not these types of people. 

Red leaned on the window as she watched city lights pass by. She felt cold, hungry, and tired. Cold because she forget her coat, hungry because she only had fare money, and tired because it was late at night. 

Anna Aspert.

As Red thought of what could have possibly happened to her boss, she thinks of the last case and what she did to help it progress.

While she was indeed trained by her boss, she was mostly tasked to do menial work. She was tasked with library work, gathering documents from government offices, and scouting out areas. When Dale was handling the Aspert case, Red was snooping around her campus and interviewing key people in her life just to see if they could find her. 

The bus stops and Red steps off it. 

Looking around, Red finds that the coast is clear. She walks towards the suburban alleyways. 

St. John’s isn’t too far from here. I just have to keep an eye out.

As Red goes deeper into the suburbs, the area becomes more and more decrepit as signs of decay and lack of maintenance show themselves through dirty buildings, cracked asphalt roads, and old graffiti. 

Ugh…

Walking through the poor suburban areas, Red was a bright beacon for people who had malicious intentions.

So… Anna Aspert, got into college but lives in a rundown place like this? I’ll have to see what that’s about… Maybe a scholar? 

Red frowned as she saw the telltale signs of people following her. Looking down, Red cursed her choice of clothes. Dale told her to wear dresses or other revealing clothes, something that lowered the guard of male clients. At first, she was against it because she thought business would be the same whether she was well-dressed or not. 

She was wrong. Men paid more or had more patience when she was around with good clothes. Proving his point, Dale brought up the topic of dresses and revealing clothes again. Red smartly chose to wear a dress. Unfortunately, dresses were not good for running or athletic events which is ironic since Dale gave Red a physical fitness test to see if he would hire her or not. 

Now, I’m gonna have to what, outrun these barbarians? At least, I’m not in heels. Goddamit Dale, you old-fashioned misogynist. I’m gonna grill him for a raise when I save his ass from whatever he got himself into this time.

Red pats the revolver in her clothes and pepper spray. She felt a bit safer knowing she had a way to protect herself.

After a bit more walking, Red sees two men from the distance, approaching her nonchalantly. Looking around, she sees an alleyway to her left. It would be common sense to go left to lose them but Red knows better.

If I go to the left, there will be people waiting for me at the end of the alley and I’ll be stuck in a tight narrow place with four men slowly bearing down on me. Yeah, that isn’t something I want.

Instead of failing for their bait, Red suddenly runs forward. The two men in front of her suddenly become still as their prey does something they’re not used to. Red smiles to herself.

Red raises her hand. The men manage to recover but they’re too late. Both men feel an extreme stinging pain assault their faces as Red fills their eyes and lungs with pure pain. 

They fall to the ground and scream in pain which causes their friends hiding in the alleyway to rush out. Instead of seeing a scuffle, they see their friends clutching their eyes, tearing up, and releasing snot everywhere. Looking around for the causer of the pain, the thugs can’t find any trace of Red anywhere. 

Red, on the other hand, was already far from the scene. She didn’t want to risk a physical fight, one that she knew she wouldn’t win. Tucking the bear spray in her pocket, Red walked away from the area. 

Ahh, bear spray, legal in every state

In case a few more of them manage to catch up with her, Red was a sharp shot with the revolver, as long as the target stayed still. 

_________________________________________________________________________

“What the fuck are we doing here man?”

Three rough-looking men were exploring an apartment filled with people. When they found out that it was abandoned, they called their boss, who got the information from breaking into an office. 

Instead of letting them off, the boss told them to check the place for anything suspicious. What suspicious meant, none of them knew. 

But they did get a name.

Anna Aspert.

“I don’t know man but if we go home empty-handed, the boss is gonna flip. Let’s first check all of the rooms.”

“All the rooms??? Do you know how many rooms are there in this building? Joe, can you imagine what Jin here is saying??”

Joe shakes his head in disappointment while Jin looks defensive.

“Hey hey hey, I just don’t want the boss on our ass again. Remember the last time you pissed him off Penti?”

Penti frowns.

“Bah, don’t remind me.”

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Jin offers a solution.

“Guys, how about this? Let’s split up. There are 3 floors and 3 of us, why don’t we split up so we can cover more ground?”

Joe and Penti look at the surroundings. The building didn’t have light or heat. Splitting up would be a miserable experience but none of them were particularly afraid of the dark. 

Penti scratches his neck, straining for an answer.

“Well… I’d love to man but… I prefer our company. The 3 compadres, right?”

Joe and Jin look at each other then they laugh.

“Hey hey, come on. I’m not afraid!”

Joe chuckles and mimics Penti.

“3 CoMPadReS.”

Jin laughs even harder. Eventually, Penti laughs as well. 

For a moment, the trio’s laughter managed to remove their stress regarding the situation. 

Their laughter echoed throughout the abandoned building. In a certain room, there was darkness.

And the darkness stirred. 

“Okay okay, let’s split up. Goddamn, you two, you just have to bust my ass every time I get a bit mushy.”

Jin slaps Penti’s back goodheartedly.

“Mushy my ass. You better be glad, we got your back. Now, let’s split up so we can get back home early, drink ourselves to sleep, and maybe bang our wives.”

Joe laughs.

“In that order?”

The trio laughs again. 

Jin then explains how they’ll split the job. Joe and Penti stop to listen. 

“Penti, you son of a bitch, you stay down here. Look for anything we can use. Check the admin’s office. Maybe there’s some money there. Joe, you go for the 2nd floor. The Anna Aspert broad isn’t there but check it out. There may be something we can get.”

Once Jin stops, Joe asks him what his plan is.

“What are you gonna do?”

Jin chuckles.

“Oh, me? I’m gonna relax and do nothing, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Receiving a glare from his buddies, Jin continues.

“Kidding, that’s what I would say if I was a complete asshole. Nah, I took the hardest job and go to the 3rd floor. Oooh… spooky, bet you wouldn’t go up there Penti.”

“You’re damn right I won’t.”

Jin laughs.

“Shit, I thought you’d take the bait.”

“No shit, you dumbass. I wouldn’t go up there even if my wife was chasing me.”

They chuckle a bit more but eventually, they split up.

Penti stays on the first floor. Joe goes up the 2nd floor with Jin but eventually is left alone when Jin climbs to the 3rd floor. 

Now alone, Penti frowns. He wasn’t afraid of being alone nor being in the dark but ever since he can remember, he’s always been sensitive to the things that normal people couldn’t see. When they approached this part of the suburbs, Penti’s sense started to go crazy. It told him that this place was bad news.

Penti follows a hallway. He opens the door to a rundown cafeteria. Sniffing the air, Penti didn’t smell anything bad. Going in, he closes the door behind him. He liked having an exit but he also didn’t like the idea of something following him in a place that was probably a dead end. 

He points his flashlight to the closed-down stalls. Looking around, Penti hears rustling nearby. He immediately points his gun and light at the source of the sound. He sees a slightly opened fridge door. Penti swallows the lump in his throat. He felt his senses scream at him again. 

With years of masculinity and culture imprinted into him, Penti walked forward despite his 6th sense telling him not to. 

With his next step, the fridge door suddenly moves which reveals a rat feasting on some rotten food. Ever the shy animal, the rat runs away with its spoils. 

Penti sighs as he rethinks his life decisions. 

What am I doing here?

While his 6th sense told him about the things that go bump in the night, none of the entities that he felt really endangered him so he didn’t mention it to his pals. And what would he tell them anyway? That he can sense ghosts? Nobody would believe him and he’d be ostracized as the weirdo who can see ghosts. 

Despite that, his sharp senses told him to run away and go home. He’s never felt this specific feeling. Sure, he’s felt cold and his skin hair stood up due to fear but he’s never felt the need to run away.

Then he heard the cafeteria door open.

_________________________________________________________________________

Red reached the building. It was abandoned, something that the file didn’t note. In fact, the file told her that Anna had many friends here.

What happened?

Contemplating if her travel here was wasted, Red sees a car parked nearby. The car was run down and old but it was functioning. Approaching it, Red uses a folded piece of cloth to touch the exhaust pipe. After a few seconds, she notices that the cloth was still warm.

Standing up, Red looks around. She was alone but she felt like she was being watched.

Someone stalking me?

Red’s hand was on her revolver. She was ready to pull it out the moment any danger reared its face. 

After a few seconds of silence, Red goes to the building’s front door. 

Opening it, the door creaks loudly, something she couldn’t really avoid. 

The air inside felt colder than the night air outside. Red had a weird feeling about the place but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

Once inside, Red opened her flashlight. She had her revolver in an easy-open holster. 

1st floor. Let’s check the admin office first. 

Red traverses the dark. As she got closer to the admin office, she felt something following her.

Looking behind, Red finds a dark hallway empty of people or animals. She shines her flashlight on a few obvious corners. There was nowhere to hide. 

Returning to her path, Red continues onward. 

The admin office would be the best place to start. It should have some papers pertaining to Anna. If not, I can just go to her room… Worst case scenario, I might have to interrogate the “visitors” here.

She frowned as she saw the front door of the admin office. It was almost caved in due to something large hitting it. Its glass pane was broken and its iron bars were bent. 

What happened here?

Flashing her light on the floor and corners, she notices dried blood. The blood was shaped like a hand. Whatever caused so much blood to go onto the floor, it was clearly trying to escape something. 

Kneeling down, she touches the blood.

Okay… the blood has been here for a while… what happened here? A guy got beaten to death?

The sound of rustling jolts Red from her thoughts. Turning around, she looks for the source. 

Nothing…

She returns her attention to the broken door. Grabbing the still intact doorknob, Red goes inside the office. She looks around for any signs of violence or blood but surprisingly, the room is clean. Wherever the blood came from, it didn’t reach the inside of the room. 

They probably tried to breach the room but they stopped. Whatever, it’s not my business.

The admin office was small. It contained a cot and a few rusty metal shelves. It was more of a room for whoever collected rent than an actual admin office. 

Red opens the metal shelves that weren’t rusted shut. Despite being a rundown building in a bad part of the city, the shelves contained the papers of the many tenants that lived there. 

Okay, Anna Aspert, what can I learn about you and what happened to you that scared even my boss?

After a bit of looking, Red finds nothing.

The other shelves were rusted shut and she couldn’t open them by just pulling them out. 

Bust… nothing here. 

Looking around, Red checks the computer but she knew it was already dead, there was no point in opening it. 

She looks at the board screwed to the wall. Remembering the data in Anna’s information, Red looks at the 32nd key.

Room 32. 

Taking the key, Red does a final check of the room.

Once she’s sure that there’s absolutely nothing left for her, Red goes to the door. 

Then she hears static. 

Red suddenly goes still.

Light seems to bounce off the walls as Red hears the sound of a computer booting up.

Slowly turning around, Red sees the computer turned on. Its screen was blank but its humming CPU told her, that despite the damage and lack of electricity, it was open. 

Red looked around but there was no sign of power anywhere else. A bit shaken, Red takes out her revolver. 

Then the screen turns on, revealing a white background that had a lot of static.

Red purses her lips.

“Red…”

She hears her name come from the computer. It was an unfamiliar voice.

“What… is happening?”

The computer releases a garbled sentence. Red could only pick up one word from the messy sounds. 

“... Stennex…”

Stennex?

Red didn’t know what Stennex was but she could look it up. She memorizes the word and swears to search for it later. 

Right now, she wanted to find out what was happening. Slowly, Red approaches the computer. 

In front of the computer, Red clicks some of the buttons on the old keyboard to see if something will happen. At first, nothing happens, then the screen flickers a bit, revealing a dark room with a dull light source by the corner. Red had a hard time making out what was happening so she squinted her eyes.

Studying the room, it seemed to be dark but the mess inside it was obvious. 

An office room.

The light inside the computer became a bit brighter which allowed Red to see the room a bit better. 

There’s someone there. 

As the video became clearer, Red could see a girl hunched up looking at the only light source in the room. 

The light slowly revealed the surroundings. It was a rundown office. The light bounced off some metals that were hanging off the walls.

Keys? Wait… is that me?

Red didn’t move. She was sure. The computer showed the room where she was in.

She gulped and saw something else. There was something behind her. It was taller than her but she couldn’t see it properly. The light didn’t reach it but Red knew that it was looking at her.

Then the computer suddenly turned off, blanketing the room in darkness. 

And the only thing that Red could see was the reflection of the thing standing behind her.