Coronasona Writings

GhOsTs pt. 3 (finale)

It only took a few hours to travel to Colorado, and only another hour or so to Ft. Collins.

The city was nice enough, but they weren't here for sightseeing. They pulled up to the courthouse and parked their (stolen) car. Grey stepped out and stared up at the building. It wasn't in ruins, but it was abandoned. If they were to look further down the street, they would've spied the path of destruction brought on by the massive tornados of the 2020 weather crisis, but the courthouse remained miraculously untouched.

The state of the courthouse wasn't what worried Grey, however, they were far more worried for themself.

"Here we are," Jackson announced, slamming the car door shut behind him.

Grey pulled at the sleeves of their coat, staring up at the building. It seemed to loom over them, threatening them with the knowledge that the building knew something they didn't. Even worse, something they might not be ready to hear.

Jackson opened the door and held it open. "After you," he said, gesturing inside. Grey took a hesitant step in and was immediately hit by the smell of bureaucratic red tape.

The courthouse looked quite similar to Area 51, minus the destruction. It had a desk and waiting chairs and god awful wallpaper. Unlike Area 51, the innocent appearance remained in the rest of the rooms.

Jackson and Grey walked into the back and entered a room filled with filing cabinets.

"This is wildly ineffective!" Grey exclaimed, gesturing out at the lines of metal towers. "How are we supposed to find anything in here?"

Jackson shrugged and walked to the first cabinet, wiping his hand over it to take off the dust. "Looks like they sort things alphabetically, so like that."

"Look at you Mr. Lawyer Man," Grey said, punching his arm as he passed Jackson to investigate more of the cabinets.

"My parents wish," Jackson mumbled, following Grey into the maze of filing cabinets.

Grey marched through the rows until they came across the R section. They yanked open the first filing cabinet and started flipping through dusty manilla folders. Jackson followed suit a few cabinets down.

As they flipped through, Grey spotted something move out of the corner of their bottom eye. They turned to look, but saw nothing there. They took a few steps away from their cabinet and craned their neck, but still couldn't see anything.

They walked to the end of the cabinets and looked just in time to see something dart into the other room.

"Hey!" they shouted, chasing after. They followed the blur of motion through what felt like a literal maze of metaphoric red tape.

Eventually, they came to a stop in a small room filled with cardboard boxes filled with papers. Standing there was a tall, lanky person, hunched over with long, black hair hanging over their face.

Grey pulled out their deck of cards and pulled a few out, holding them at the ready.

"Who are you?" they asked, taking a step forward.

The person turned around to reveal a huge, gaping mouth filled with gleaming teeth covering the entirety of his face.

"Grey! Vhat are you doink 'ere?" he asked, waving with one of their hands. The eye embedded in his hand winked at Grey. Or maybe it just blinked. It was hard to tell while only seeing one eye.

"Bob?" Grey asked, raising their card hand a little higher.

"Yes zhat is my name! Don't vear it out, ya?" Bob said, smiling from ear to ear, literally.