Chapter Twenty-Three

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No More Death

3203 words

The aquarium was dark, their flashlights being the only source of light as they walked the halls. The old fish tanks were fogged over and green, you could see dead fish or other things through the glass. The ground had cool designs on it, sharks and fish, even an octopus. Aurora examined it as they walked. They made it to an old fish tank with a hole in the wall, anywhere else was a dead end, so Ellie climbed up slipping into the hole in the wall falling into a small pool of water that waited on the other side. Aurora then climbed through falling into the small pool of water, her ankles feeling warmer due to the heat of the water.

"What is all this stuff?" Ellie asked, looking around. "I don't know. I was never a big fan of things having to do with water. I'm not the best swimmer, drowning is a big fear." Ellie turned to Aurora seeing the exhausted look on her face as she spoke quietly looking over some of the machines. "Nice to know." Ellie ducked through another hole in the wall with Aurora following behind her. They entered an area filled with a fake scene from what you'd see underwater, "whoa." Was all Aurora could say looking around at the fake plants gliding her fingers along the plastic. "This is pretty cool huh?" Ellie said softly looking at her. "Yeah." Aurora smiled just a bit, they continued on wrapping around a corner coming to a ladder.

Aurora climbed up first going slower then she wanted but trying to keep her energy. They reached the top and jumped to the other side landing in a different room. They walked through a door entering another, much darker room. Ellie tried opening the door but it didn't budge. "Locked, fuck." "There's gotta be another way." Aurora replied looking around. "Vent." Ellie then said looking at an open vent. Ellie climbed up looking in the vent before pulling herself in. Aurora followed her climbing onto her stomach behind Ellie. They crawled along the vent ground, Aurora cringing at the stuff growing inside the vent. "Fuck!" The piece of vent in front of Ellie fell in causing her to fall through smacking her head on the ground.

"Ellie!" Aurora pushed herself out of the vent falling next to Ellie looking her over. "Aurora watch out!" Aurora didn't get to turn around when a dog tackled her to the floor barking and biting at her. Aurora struggled for a second but got her pocket knife out stabbing the dog in the neck then the stomach, she kicked it across the room and into a table as hard as she could causing a table to nearly fall. "Holy shit." They both breathed sitting on the ground looking at the dead dog. "I just killed a dog." Aurora put a hand over her mouth looking at the German Shepherd with sad eyes. "That dog tried killing you." Ellie growled standing up helping Aurora off the ground.

"That's the way they were trained though, it's not their fault." Aurora couldn't take her eyes away from the dog that laid bleeding out onto the ground and out to her shoes. "C'mon." Aurora ripped her eyes away from the dog continuing down the hallway to a room with a metal bed, bloody rags and gloves on a tray beside it. "The fuck happened here?" "That's a lot of blood." Aurora overlooked it examining the bloody rags and small puddle of blood on the metal bed. They walked away from the bed through a door into a hallway looking down the dark and quiet hall. "Holy shit look." They turned around to a room that had multiple make-shift beds in it. "There's more than just Abby here." "I said she probably wouldn't be alone. That's if she's still here." Aurora kicked a pillow over walking deeper into the room.

Ellie jogged forward to a duffle bag crouching down in front of it picking something up. "What's that?" Aurora asked, coming to her side. "Firefly pendant." Aurora looked at the name, "Owen Moore" she read out loud quietly to herself. "Owen was in those pictures. With Abby." Aurora looked over the firefly design on the pendant before Ellie set it down standing back up. She pulled out her journal scribbling something down then tucked it away. "C'mon, there's another door down the hallway." Ellie turned and walked out, Aurora followed her out walking down the dark hallway. Aurora and Ellie both paused when they heard muffled voices on the other side of the door turning to look at each other then back at the door.

𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐊- 𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐒Where stories live. Discover now