Chapter 2




"Get off me."


"You can't leave," he stated with this sternness.



I pushed him away. I pushed him as hard as I could. He stumbled to the other side of the room. The only thing that I could think of at that moment was run. Run as fast as I could. Get away.



I immediately ran towards the staircase. As soon as I closed the door behind me I noticed there was a lock behind the door.



BANG!



He banged hard against the door as soon as I locked it.



"Open the door Michael Vorhees," Raphael stated, "Open the door...now..."


I took a few steps away from him and the door.



"Who are you...who are you?"


It was useless.



"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!"



There was this desperation in his voice. It scared the fuck out of me. I turned immediately and started to descending the steps. I took them two steps at a time. I knew the door locked but I still almost felt like he was chasing me. I almost felt like hew as right behind me.



I kept running feeling the wind behind me. The fear was all that I could feel. It numbed me. What the fuck was Raphael trying to do? Why the fuck was he acting so fucking desperate.



I kept going and then all of a sudden I heard footsteps.



I didn't hear it until it was too late!



"Michael?"


I realized who it was. There were two people walking up the stairs. What the fuck was going on?


"Uri..."



It was Uri and Gabby. What the fuck were they doing here? I looked at them at that moment. It was at that moment when I saw that they were here that I knew something was wrong here. This wasn't normal. Something was definitely up and I wasn't going to wait around to find out about it.



I struggled to get past them but I didn't get far. A hand grabbed me.


"You aren't going anywhere..." the voice said.



This time it came from Gabby. Gabby held onto my arm. I was shocked at that moment. I tried to pull away from her but I couldn't! She was holding me there! Her strength something that I had never experienced in my world. She had used the same tone that Raphael had used. Something was wrong here. something was definitely wrong. She held onto me so tight that when I looked down my skin was turning blue around the area that she clutched me.



Her strength was...inhuman!



"You're hurting him..." Uri stated.



Gabby didn't loosen her grip, "Come with me..."



"Get the fuck off of me you crazy bitch."



At this point I was panicking. I was wailing both arms trying to get her off of me. I struck her hard as I could in her face. Gabby stood there for a minute after I struck her still holding onto my arm. Nothing seemed to face her. I had hit her as hard as I fucking could and it didn't fucking mean anything to her.



The roared something horrible at that moment and she threw me. She tossed me backwards up a few steps. My back hit the steps and I felt it crack a little bit.



Pain raced through my spine.



"Come with me," she repeated, "You have to come with me..."



There was a horror that I had felt at that moment. It seemed everything was confirmed. The way she had tossed me wasn't something that humans could do. I knew at that moment that Gabby was something else and I was so scared to find out exactly what it was.



She took a few steps towards me. One step. Two steps. Her kinky hair stiff as her arm was. There was something behidn those eyes. There was something dark, deep and mysterious that I didn't understand.



"NO!"



I didn't know what happened. It was Uri that had screamed that. After that things just got confusing. There was a bright red flame that flashed across the staircase. I watched in disbelief as it spread across my eyes. It got brighter and brighter. It distracted Gabby but it distracted me as well. The flame became so light in the air that it blinded me causing me immediately to shut my eyes. Even with my eyes closed the flame burned.



I could feel an arm.



It wasn't Gabby. No. It was something...less. An arm.



"C`mon..."



It was Uri.



I didn't see where I was going but I knew I was being guided quickly away. I was descending the stairs. it wasn't until we had gotten down to the bottom floor that I was able to see again fully. Somehow Uri had guided me safely down the stairs even with the glaring light.



How come the light didn't effect him? How come he could see in it? What had caused the light? By the time we were at the bottom of the steps I was looking at Uri now with a side eye.


Was he the one who caused the red flame?




"What the hell happened?" he asked me, "What the hell is going on?"


I hesitated. I should have been asking him. He had stopped Gabby on that staircase. Still the look in his eyes was shock. It was an honest shock. He was surprised. I didn't talk to Uri a lot but I knew him. Gabby and Raphael were strangers.


"I'm not going to wait around to find out."


I ran into the staircase on the main floor. I looked at that moment. The first floor looked different from when I ran in there. It was almost like a nightmare. I wanted to pinch myself. I felt like this couldn't be real. When I had entered the building the exit was right in front of the staircase. I hadn't imagined it.



Right now there was nothing. A blank wall.



"No exit," Uri stated, "Michael...what the fuck is going on! What the fuck is going on!"


"I'm going to need to shut the fuck up. I need to think."


The wall was just there. For some reason something was off though. My eyes saw that wall but my eyes felt like that door still had to be there somehow. That door still had to be there. I looked staring hard at the door.



"She's coming. We need to find another way out!" Uri was saying.



​He wasn't helping. I wanted to tell him to shut up again but I had a feeling that wouldn't help much. Uri had reason to panic. There was a power in this building. There was a force that was making me see things that weren't there. It had to be. There were footsteps coming from the staircase. I had no doubt that it was Gabby. I had no doubt she was chasing after us. In just another minute and a half she would be there. In just another minute and a half she would be over us.



All of a sudden something clicked in me.



"Close your eyes," I told Uri, "And take my hand."


He did as I told him. He took my hand. At that moment in the darkness of my mind I could see the door even with my eyes closed and when I opened my eyes the door was back to where it was. Whatever mystique that had surrounded the door was now gone. Uri looked over at me. He looked like he was about to ask me something I wouldn't know how to answer.



Before he got the words out I stopped him, "Come on..."


"STOP!" I heard Gabby scream.



It was too late. We had ran outside of the building. We ran into the parking lot. Gabby didn't follow us. She didn't follow us. What the fuck was that about?



"What are you doing here?" I asked Uri.



"Probably the same thing you are doing here---"


"You were having sex with Gabby?"


He paused at that moment, "Wait...what. No I wasn't having sex with Gabby. She said that there was a job opportunity. A job fair. I figured I'd check it out with her. Isn't that why you are here."


"Right."


I felt like the biggest whore but that wasn't what I was worried about now. There was this evil presence in the air. I didn't understand why Gabby hadn't followed us outside. Now that we were outside though it felt like the darkness was all over us. The darkness had surrounded us completely.



"It's pitch dark out here," Uri stated.



"So?"


"It's 1 pm in the afternoon..."


Uri was right. It looked like it was completely dark outside. I had seen things like this before but not to this level. It looked like it was midnight. The sun had been completely blotted out. The darkness had stained the sky. I looked back at the building wondering if Gabby was going to come out.



She didn't.



I turned back to the parking lot. My car was still there but something else had caused me to stop. There were figures in the darkness there. They were dark figures and shadows. They moved from across the street. At first there were only three or four but then there were more. There were so many more. Among the dark figures I saw that woman in red. She stood with her red hood over her head. The red peacoat fluttered in the wind...even though there was none.



Uri was right by my side. I could hear his heart racing. He had to see what I was seeing. The figures were moving slow. They stalked the night. There were no cars on the street. It seemed as though we had left that building and walked into something else. Something so sinister.



My heart raced. Sweat droplets formed on my forehead.



"We should go back inside," Uri stated.



His voice was low. It was so low that he was almost whispering into the night at me. The dark figures moved closer. They ignored the lady in red and paced entering the parking lot. The closer they got the more I realized that these things weren't human. No. Maybe they were human once. Maybe one time they had lived like me but no more. Their mouths were wrinkled. There were black crevices where there should have been eyes. There was a wailing that had formed in the air.



Dark deformed faces.



Malice.



Darkness.



At that moment I saw evil and I felt like this was evil in it's purest form.



I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jerked forward feeling my heart in my hands only to realize that it was Uri standing behind me with the same look on his face that I probably had.



"We need to get out of here."


"Why the fuck are you telling me this? I don't care. Where is your car?" I asked him.



"Gabby drove."


"We need to make a run for it."



I didn't wait for him to confirm. I just ran. I ran as fast as I could towards my car. I ran to my car and opened it. I literally jumped into the car and fumbled with my keys.


I hadn't even notice Uri climb into the car. I fumbled with teh keys.



"GO! Go! GO!" Uri was screaming.



I was fumbling with the keys. The dark figures were close. They were so close to the car. I could feel them pass my truck. I could see them in my rear view mirror as I started my car! My heart raced as I finally started my car.



As I pulled off I felt a hand. A hand pound on my glass. It slapped my glass hard.



Before I knew it we were on the road driving away from that place and I could feel this heavy weight get lifted from my hand. I turned to my right to look at Uri. He was looking at me.



"What?"


"Look."


No. Uri wasn't looking at me. He was looking past me. His finger pointed at a black hand print stapled on my side window.



==================================================================================================




The ride back to our side of town was quiet. Uri hadn't spoken and neither had I. I knew where he lived. I didn't care about seeming like a stalker when I pulled up to his house. I was breathing heavy. I had been telling Uri to calm down and acting like he needed to grow some balls but I felt the same way as him.



When I stopped the car I just stared at the wheel of my car trying to understand what I had just seen. It didn't make any sense. None of it made sense. My heart was still beating as if I was still there. I remembered the faces. I remembered the dark faces as hell and at that moment I knew my life would be changed forever somehow. Something had become clear to me.



The monsters under my bed were real.



"Should we go to the cops?" Uri asked.



I paused. He looked scared. It could have been so easy to comfort him. It would have been so easy to bond with him over what we had just seen. I couldn't though. Something about bonding with Uri over this would make this real. I didn't want to admit just yet that anything I had seen earlier had been real.



"Tell them what? Can you explain what we saw?" I asked them.


"We can report Gabby and Raphael," he explained.



"And tell them what?" I asked, "I already have enough issues in my life. I don't need another. You want to go to the cops and look like a fuckin' lunatic go ahead."


"Yo you are literally the biggest DICKHEAD I've ever met," Uri replied, "Why are you acting like that?"



I could see the look in his face. He wanted me to confirm what had happened. He wanted to perhaps sit in this car with me and figure out what we had just seen. He wanted to bond. And I could just feel myself drifting back into myself. There were no comforts in this world. I had learned that a long time ago and maybe Uri would be learning that lesson that day. I unlocked the door and stared at the steering wheel.



After a minute or two of awkward silence Uri finally got up out of the car. He slammed the car door behind him. A part of me felt like I should have talked to him about what we saw. A part of me felt like I should have been more concerned. Instead I was just afraid and I was going to leave it at that.



========================================================================================================




That night I didn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. It felt as though if I had fallen asleep those things would be there waiting for me. I stayed up the entire night and my alarm went off telling me it was time to get ready for work before I knew it.



I thought about calling off. I couldn't. I didn't have anymore days.



And somehow I had convinced myself within those 8 hours of staring into the darkness that I was alone in the darkness and maybe it had all been my imagination. Maybe those things weren't real.



There was only one problem however. Uri. He had seen them as well.



"MA!"



It was morning.



My mother walked into my room. The light flickered into my room. I had noticed something and I couldn't help but to call her.



"What is it?"


"Do you see that?" I asked.



She looked outside of my window at what I was pointing at. Cats. There were a group of cats that were forming outside of my window. My mother looked over at me and then looked back down at the cats. She laughed. The bitch actually laughed. It was almost like she thought it was a joke or something.



"Of course I see them. Why wouldn't I be able to see them?"


I thought I was imagining it. I had been standing at that window for 10 minutes now. At first it was just one or two cats but now there were ten. They were meowing. The awful chorus found it's way to my window sill. I looked down at the cats watching from the street. It was almost as though they were watching me. Their eyes stared back at me. There was one cat in particular that sent shivers up my spine. It was one of those Persian cats. It had a black face and dark gray eyes. It stared back at me with the rest of it's cast.



It was almost as though the cats were mocking me. Watching me. Just watching me. Spying on me almost. Didn't she see it! Didn't she understand what was going on!



"Well why the fuck are they out there!" I screamed.



I hadn't meant to raise my voice like that. I just stared down though outside my window. My mother looked at me and laughed a little bit. She really seemed amused by this and the more she stood there the more I realized how useless it was to have called her over here in the first place.



"There's probably some food out there..."


"There's no food out there!"



"Michael!" she stated at that moment, "Relax. They are just cats. Is there something going on?"


She gave me that look. It was the look that I knew so well. It was that look of my mother saying, 'Michael is so troubled. Michael needs help. Why don't we get Michael some help? He was raped after all when he was a child. He was never the same after that. He had never recovered from it.'



"Nevermind."



"Michael. Michael!"



It was too late. I had walked out of the room. Before I knew it I had a broom in my hand and I was chasing the cats with the broom outside of my window. They ran. I felt so powerful after that too. It was a silly thing to feel powerful about but I couldn't take it. I felt like I was losing touch with reality. I had to come back to reality. They were just cats. That's all they were and when chased...cats ran. That's what they did.


I looked up at my bedroom window. My mother was watching me curiously. She had watched me chase away the cats and even in my crazed nonsense I felt at ease.



=============================





I went to work later that day. It was the same thing. I got my coffee. I sat down in my cube. Nina peaked over the cube and cheered at me with her extremely loud, "GOOD MORNING!"



"Morning Nina."


Except something was different today. I watched as Nina looked down over at me. She cuffed her mouth as though she had some super secret to tell me.



"Looks like you got a secret admirer..."


I looked over at her. There was a note on my desk. It was folded up several times. I picked up the note and looked at it.



COME OVER TO MY DESK WHEN YOU GET IN. WE HAVE TO TALK AND YOU KNOW IT.


-URI



I rolled up the letter and threw it in the garbage. I thought about it for a second. I knew what he wanted to talk about. He wanted to talk about what happened yesterday.



I had no choice. I ignored him. I didn't want to talk about yesterday. Yesterday never happened. I had to just let yesterday go. I had to just let everything that happen go.



So I did. I ignored him.



The day went by fast and for a moment I was convinced that things had started to finally turn back to normal. There were no cats staring at me. There was no super strong woman chasing me out of no where. I hadn't seen Gabby at all as a matter of fact. I hadn't seen Raphael either. I didn't want to see them either. I wanted to do my 9-5 and get the fuck out of here. I wanted to live a normal life. I would do whatever it took to live that normal life. There was nothing wrong with me. I was troubled. I had been through a lot in my life but a lot of people had. I was completely normal and my life was completely normal.



Completely normal. Completely normal.



"URI! MICHAEL! MY OFFICE! NOW!"



Almost normal. I watched as Nina gave me that look. The voice had boomed down the hall from Mr. Troy. Half the floor probably heard him and he seemed like he was mad. I had been screamed at by him before. I didn't take it serious. It wasn't Mr. Troy that made me nervous. It was seeing Uri again after yesterday.



I went first and Uri was close behind me as we walked into the conference room. I could feel Uri's eyes on the back of my head. It was almost like he expected something of me. It was something that I just couldn't give him though. As we walked into the room the first thing I noticed was Mr. Troy's expression. He was pissed. There was no doubt about the fact that Mr. Troy was upset.



His voice rumbled when he spoke, "I gave the two of you a simple job. A simple job..."


I held my composure and shot Uri a look. I didn't want to look crazy today. Please Uri. Please don't go making us look crazy.



Uri looked over at us though, "It wasn't our fault. We were...we were attacked by them."


Mr. Troy looked over at us at that moment.



"Come again?"


I stopped at that moment, "I don't know what he's talking about Mr. Troy."


Uri looked over at me. He was giving me this look like he was betrayed or something. His thick eyebrows frowned up a little bit. I had to admit I did feel bad but I would feel worse if I had more people looking at me like I had issues. Enough people thought that I needed to be in counseling for all of the things in my past. The last thing I needed was for people to believe that I was crazy as well.



Uri shook his head, "Mr. Troy. Please. Gabby and Raphael took us to a building. They attacked us..."


Mr. Troy paused.



"Whose Gabby and Raphael?"



My heart stopped. Mr. Troy was serious. He wasn't joking.



My hairs started to stand on end.


Uri and I looked at each other at that moment. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong here.



"The mentees."


"The mentees names are April and Ashley. Two blond haired girls. They were waiting in the front lobby for you guys for an hour and a half. They said you guys never showed. You had one job. ONE JOB! Keep it up you two. You'll be looking for another job soon."


With that Mr. Troy got up off of his chair. He walked out of the conference room slamming the door. Impossible. Impossible! Gabby and Raphael weren't the mentees in the first place? If they weren't the mentees then who the fuck were they? Who the hell were they to begin with?



Uri was staring at me. His eyes were piercing me. It was almost as though he was saying. What now? What now, Michael? I didn't know for sure what he was thinking when he looked at me but his eyes just seemed to want something from me. They just seemed to want me to acknowledge what was going on but I still couldn't. This was too strange for me. Things were too strange for me.



I tried to get off of my chair but Uri stopped me. He pulled me closer to him.



"We need to talk, g'dam it," he stated, "Did you just hear what Mr. Troy stated?"


"There was a mixup. That explains it Somehow we met two weirdos that wanted to play a trick on us or something," I explained, "That's all it was. Local idiots. That's all it was."


I tried to convince myself of that. I was trying to convince myself of what I was saying even more than i was trying to convince Uri of it. The problem with convincing yourself however is it only works if you believe the words that are coming out of your mouth. The problem with the words I was saying was that if I didn't believe it, Uri definitely wouldn't believe it.



"Bullshit," he replied.



"I don't want to talk about this."


"Look fam. You don't have to like me. I don't have to like you. But something happened to us yesterday. It happened to the both of us and unless we talk about it who knows if it won't happen again."


I paused. My heart was speeding up a little bit again. I felt so much anxiety.



"Has anything...weird...happened to you since then?"


He nodded, "The flames. The flames came back again."


"What flames?"


"Let me show you..."


Uri rolled his office chair closer to me. I hesitated to even stick around and watch this. Why the fuck was I communicating with this guy? I should have left. I should have walked out of the room right then and there. Uri was really freaking me out. Uri all of a sudden pulled out his lighter.



The light flickered for a moment and Uri stared at the flame. Just at that moment something began to happen! The flame from the lighter started to grow. At first I thought it was a normal thing. Maybe he had a control on the flame. Maybe it was the wind. However the flame grew and grew. It had grown so big that it was about the size of my middle finger. The flame flickered wildly around. It was a different color though. It a brighter more fluorescent red.



"How'd you do that?" I asked him



Uri shook his head, "I don't know. It just...happened. Has anything happened with you?"


The cats. The cats.



I shook my head, "Nothing. Sorry fam. I'm not joining your freak show today."


I got up at that moment and Uri grabbed my arm. I jerked back realizing my arm was still sore from where Gabby had grabbed me the day before. My wrist was still bruised actually.



"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." Uri apologized, "But that mark is proof. It is proof something weird is happening. I feel like something is...following me. Like I'm being watched. Do you feel that way?"


"No."


Uri shook his head, "I don't believe you."


"I don't give two fucks what you believe. I've learned the hard way. Talking about your issues don't make them go away. You know why. Because no one believes you. No one comes to help. Just ignore them and maybe it won't last forever. Just ignore them."


"I'm going back."


"Back where?"


"Back to the building. After school," Uri stated.



I laughed at that moment. I couldn't help but to laugh. I was laughing loudly actually. This was ridiculous. The fact that he was saying this was amusing to me. I expected Uri to break out and laugh with me at that moment. I expected him to say that he was just joking. I expected him to flash me that beautiful white smile of his and tell me something funny. There was no laugh though. Uri stared back at me intently. He was looking at me with those frowned up thick eyebrows and that model-like glare.



My mouth stuttered, "Wait you're serious..."


"I'm going back and I'd like you to come with me," Uri stated bluntly, "I need answers. For some reason I think you have something to do with this. And you know what? I think you know deep inside that you have something to do with this as well."



He paused staring at me. He was waiting for me to agree. My heart was skipping. Every inch of my skin was crawling with nerves.



I got up off the stairs, "I don't feel any kind of way about this."


"I'll wait for you outside the building at 6:30. I think you remember how to get there."



I took steps away from him. I turned my back towards him. I could feel the anxiety coming up again.



"I don't like you. And I'd prefer if you stay away from me."



With that I walked out of the room.



I couldn't get Uri out of my head though. the day started going by quickly and before I knew it, it was almost 6. The fact that I hadn't slept the entire day slowly started to catch up to me. I didn't know what it was but I found myself back at my desk day dreaming.



I was just sitting there thinking about Uri. I kept thinking about Gabby. I thought about Raphael. I wondered how it was they had infiltrated my company and made us actually believe they were people they weren't. More than how they had done it I wondered why they had done it. Uri was right. There was this urge I had. Half of me wanted to fight the urge to find out who these people were but the other half of me wanted to find out. The mystery was eating at me and it was scary as fuck.


I remembered the figures that had surrounded that building. No way I could go back there. I could feel my eyes drifting at that moment and all of a sudden I felt like I was being transported somewhere else.



A dream.



I was standing at the top of a mountain and I looked down over a city. It was DC. My DC. And the sky had turned the color of a blood red. In the middle of street there was a woman in red. And she stretched her hands out. And from her hands came all of the vices of the world.



And the humans could not see what the womans vices were calling. But from the sea there was a sign. One destructive sign of the time to come: an enormous with seven crowns and ten horns and seven crowns on it's head.



​Behold. The darkness had come and I stood there with fear. I shivered with horror.



The end was here and I knew it with all my heart.



Something was happening now. From the heavens men started to fall. They looked like they had once been beautiful but no longer. They fell from the heavens at the sight of the dragon. Leagues of them fell to the earth until the streets were spoiled with their bodies.



All had fallen but 7. 7 did not fall but walked above the earth and they approached the dragon. And they wrestled with the dragon. A great battle had began to break out into the heavens. The clouds dispersed.



Trumpets began to sound. 7 trumpets.



Another beast appears, but from the earth, having two horns like a lamb and speaking like a dragon. He directs people to make an image of the beast, breathing life into it, and forcing all people to bear "the mark of the Beast," "666".




666. 666. 666.




I jumped up at that moment. It was after 6. I had fallen asleep on my desk. I was covered in sweat. All of a sudden I was standing there and I saw Nina staring at my face.



Inches away from my face!



Her eyes just glared at me silently. It was freaky how she just...stared. She didn't say a word. She just watched me sleeping. I go up and took a few steps away from her.



"Sorry Nina. I fell asleep. I just had no sleep last night and I just---"


Nina was staring at me with this serious look that scared the fuck out of me. She just continued to stare at me with that look. Her eyes were darker than I remembered them to be. She gave me this look on her face at that moment. She just continued to stare at me.


She didn't speak. It was unlike her not to speak.



"Nina are you ok?" I asked.



Nothing.



I realized at that moment that it was 6:30. I looked at the clock on my computer screen. Everyone had gone by now. The lights were still on but we were alone. It was just Nina and I.



And all of a sudden I started to get scared all over again.



She didn't move.



She...she wasn't breathing!


"Nina you're fucking scaring me."



"The words..." she stated and then repeated in a hypnotizing base, "The words?"



The voice that she was speaking was so much deeper than the words that I knew Nina to use. Nina's voice was usually bright and bubbly. The words that were coming out of her right now were hoarse. It sounded almost like she had something stuck in her throat and she was forcing it to come out. The words rumbled from her esophagus.



I took a few steps back.



I didn't have anywhere to go. I was in an aisle. The only way to get past her would be to go past her.



"What?"


"You whispered words in your sleep. Numbers..."


I realized the voice now. No. This wasn't Nina's voice at all! When she opened her mouth dark tones came from them. Almost as if a man had been speaking from her instead.



She took steps towards me. two steps

"Were they six...six..----"


"Are you coming or not?" a voice stated at that moment.



I looked to see Uri standing behind Nina. I hadn't been so happy to see him in my life.


"Yeah coming..." I stated.



I walked past Nina quickly and joined Uri. I quickly led him to the elevator.



"What was that about?" Uri asked me once we were in the elevator.



As he asked me that I realized from looking outside of the elevator Nina was standing there. She was staring at me. Something was wrong with her. Something was off.



She started running now. She was running towards the elevator as fast as she could.



"Close...the...door..."



Uri seemed to notice her running too and he started slamming on the close button in the elevator.



"The numbers! THE NUMBERS!"



Uri and I had backed up against the opposite wall of the elevator as she ran towards the elevator! Nina's voice had completely transformed. Not only was it not Nina's voice anymore. The voice that was coming out of her mouth right now didn't even seem like it was fucking human!



"666!" I screamed.



All of a sudden she stopped running. She was about to get in the elevator if she had kept running. The door finally started to close but I realized something. There was something happening to Nina. Her face started to change. Her figure was slowly changing as the door of the elevator started to close.



And on her forehead there was a burn that appeared.



The numbers.



666.



Uri must have noticed it as well. The elevator door shut at that moment luckily and he turned to me slowly. His eyes settled on mine and mine settled on his.



"So much for nothing else happening," Uri told me.



I didn't reply. I just swallowed my spit. I swallowed my spit hard. Uri was right. I had to find out what was going on. Whatever was happening wasn't just happening with strangers now. It was happening with people that I had known.



====================================================================================================




We were back at the building. I looked around.



"You can stay close to me if you're scared," Uri stated.



I looked over at him, "Fuck you. Let's get this over with."


Uri actually laughed at that moment, "I think I just got reminded why you didn't win Mr. Popular back in high school."


"No that was you're thing."


Uri laughed. I rolled my eyes at him at that moment. I couldn't believe he dragged me back at this building. I looked around trying to see if I would see those figures that we saw the day before. There were none around me however luckily.


"Well I'll stay close to you," Uri said, "I'm not too anti-social to admit I'm scared as fuck."


"So why are we doing this again?"


"Because it's getting worse..." Uri replied.



He was right. Whatever was happening was getting worse. It was slowly getting worse since yesterday. We had to figure out what was happening and for some reason Uri felt like this was the place to do it. I had to admit I had that feeling as well.



We walked over to the building and walked into the old office building.



We ascended the steps until we got to the top floor.



By the time we were on the top floor I had to admit I was so close to Uri that our arms were touching. I was scared as fuck. My heart was racing. I looked over at Uri. He looked back at me. We both took deep breaths as we walked into the hallway with no doors except one.



On the opposite door there was that red door.


It was the door that was in one of my dreams.



"It's ok to be afraid," he told me, "I'm here... I'm here..."


I wanted to say something rude to him. I wanted to tell him that I didn't give a fuck. I wanted to tell him that I didn't need him but I was afraid. I was so afraid that I swallowed the wall that I had up even if it was just temporarily. I let that huge wall down and I let him in. I let him in so much that I allowed Uri to put his arm on my shoulder.



And we walked...slowly...so slowly to the red door at the back hall.



Uri looked at me.



I knocked on the door.



Silence. No sounds except Uri's breathing hard. At least Uri was breathing. I was holding my breath.



I had stopped breathing all together. Then I heard it. I heard the crack of the door. It wasn't only that either. There was music. I recognized the song from my piano class. Chopin: Funeral march.



Just at that moment the door opened and I was expecting the worse.



It was Gabby.



"We've been expecting the two of you..."



To read the next chapter go to www.crushedcrown.com