The Keefe Sencen Protection Program ✧ kotlc¹ [DISCONTINUED]

04 gisela's project

Aeyva clutched her pathfinder like a lifeline, hardly able to believe they'd stumbled so luckily upon the starstone that led directly to Nightfall.

But here they were.

Aeyva's arm was still healing from all the glass cuts. The elixir she'd taken had helped speed up the process. Faelyn's wound was pretty deep and was still wrapped in gauze and tape, although she had reported feeling significantly better than yesterday. Cloud had never explained her encounter with Ruy, which was likely the source of her bruises and the slash on her calf, but she was acting semi-normal again. Phoenix seemed perfectly fine.. And Kayleey... well, no one could ever tell if Kayleey was okay. She always looked rather drained.

The entrance was set inside a mountain, and it was completely caved in, as if someone had blown it up. The girls stepped inside. Everything was white-or rather, it looked like it had previously been white but was now coated with a thick layer of ash and dust, casting shadows over the place.

Aeyva handed everyone flashlights. "Look for any clues that Keefe was here. Anything related to the Neverseen is helpful as well." She looked around at the facility and sighed. "Don't get lost."

Kayleey clicked her flashlight on and ventured into Nightfall's expansive hallways. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself and, spotting a flight of stairs, went up to the second floor. There were claw marks and scorch marks on the wall, and several doors were open. Going into the first room, she looked arrowed. Tables, beakers, jars of unrecognizable things in storage. She opened a drawer. It was a mess; papers and files roughly shoved into it with no rhyme or rhythm. Now, that didn't sound very Gisela Sencen, did it?

She pulled out a pile of papers.

Just a bunch of jumbled numbers and words she didn't understand. Subject 54079. Weird. Criterion. Kayleey felt like she'd heard that before.

Kayleey rifled through the drawer, didn't see anything of interest, just notes and things, and moved on. The other rooms on this floor were very similar. Some of them had strange contraptions attached to walls. In one, there was a large bulletin board on the wall. Stapled and pinned to it were photos and pieces of paper with notes written in permanent marker, all attached by string. It looked like the bedroom of a serial killer. Maybe it was, or at least something like it. Kayleey's flashlight beamed on the floor.

Squinting, she knelt down.

She picked up something and held it between her fingertips, getting a good look at it.

A blond hair. A short one.

She pulled out one of the plastic bags she'd brought to keep important artifacts or evidence and slipped it in.

She stepped out of the serial killer room and started for the stairs nearby. A flash of dark hair and the sudden appearance of a figure made her scream.

"Kayleey!"

Kayleey put her hand to her chest, trying to stop hyperventilating. "Whoa, Faelyn, you scared me!"

Faelyn shuddered. "I don't blame you," she said. "This place gives me the creeps. Find anything?"

Kayleey held out the plastic bag. "Just this and a bunch of files and stuff. Gisela did some freaky experiments on humans."

"It's like they're trying to eliminate the way guilt affects the elven mind, right?" said Faelyn.

Kayleey nodded. "Yeah."

Faelyn pointed to the stairs. "There's a lot of blood upstairs. Like, a lot. And there's glass everywhere, so be careful where you step."

Kayleey grimaced and pocketed the blond hair. "Thanks for the tip," she said grimly, and she headed up the steps.