What Is This Place?

Chapter 1

Saras POV

I was walking through the streets with my friends Zari, Amaya, Nora, Charlie, and my girlfriend Ava. We had just got back from school and were going to Nora's house to study for a test we had coming up. The boys Ray, Nate, Behrad, and Mick are going to Nate's house for a "bros night" as they put it. Spooner and Astra are out on a date.

All of a sudden Zari stopped. When we noticed she was not walking with us we turned around. She was pointing at something. I walked to her to get a better look at what she was looking at. It was a building judging by the fact that it looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment it was most likely old. We don't see a lot of old buildings now because they are all being destroyed by the government or at least that is what my friends and I think. 

"We should go in!" I jumped a little because I didn't know that someone was by me. It was Charlie that spoke. I'm not surprised they are the one that want to go into a creepy old building. "No way I'm going into that. We could walk in the door and it may collapse on our heads!" I think that it was Amaya that spoke she is probably the most reasonable person in the group. "Come one sis it will be fun you need to live a little!" Charlie and Amaya are twins and complete opposites. They really couldn't be any more different. 

"I mean if you're in babe then I'm in too," Zari says. She and Charlie just started dating recently but they have had a kind of will they won't they thing, for a long time now. This time I speak "I mean I'm all for it." "Same" Nora says after me.

I look over at Ava because she is the only one that hasn't spoken yet. She looks conflicted like she kind of wants to but she's not sure. Ava has never really done anything dangerous or really ever broken any rules. Not really because she doesn't want to. I am almost sure that she has thought about breaking the rules but it is her parents that stop her. 

Ava's parents are really strict and if she did anything outside of what is considered perfect for this community I don't even know what they would do or think, nothing good I would imagine. 

That also means Ava has to keep a lot from her parents, like that she's gay they are huge homophobes. As a result though she shuts people out and does not let many people get close to her. It took her forever to even fully trust our friends.

¨"Ava what do you think we should go in?" I asked her in a soft voice. I don't want her to think she needs to go only if she wants to. "Yeah let's go, I mean what if the worst that could happen?" I'm a little shocked that she agreed to go but I'm also kinda happy that she is doing something different. "Ok, let's go guys!" Charlie yells and drags Amaya by the arm. We all follow them into the building.

When we get inside it is pretty dark, the only light coming from the windows. It looked dusty and it had definitely not been used in a long time. There was a giant tree in the middle of the room and what looked like books or at least I think that is what they are. 

Everything is online now and the only time I had ever seen a real book had been in history when we learned about how life used to be. Even then though we didn't learn a lot. They just tell you that the world used to be a terrible place to live and that we should never go back to the way things used to be. They keep it simple not wanting to give you too many ideas and they only tell the bad but there had to be some good back then even if it was only a little.

Charlie reaches into their messenger bag and searches until she finds what they're looking for. They pull out their arm cuff. An arm cuff is the newest variant of what the company that makes them said used to be a phone. It does a lot but what Charlie is using it for is the flashlight. They turn it on and we finally have a good view of everything.

Now that I can truly see I notice it looks nothing like what I have seen before. Everything is worn and old and rusty but also somehow has a calm vibe. You can tell the place has not been used in years. The books I mentioned before are lining the walls for as far as I can see and winding staircases are leading to more floors. 

"Wow this is AMAZING!" Zari speaks up. "I know right!" I say still taking in everything. "How about we split up into groups and go explore everything?" Amays suggests. "That way we can fully explore this place before we have dinner because by then Nora's mom will be expecting us." Charlie pipes up and says, "That's a good idea. I mean we can always come back to this place and we can see everything.¨

"I have an idea" Nora says, waving her hands in the air like she's possessed by a demon or something. "This should be are new group hang-out spot. I mean it looks like it has not been used in ages and this place is cool." Ava speaks up for the first time and says "Yeah that's a good idea I mean the restaurant we go to is fine and all but this place is amazing, and what looks to be one of the last buildings left from the 21 century." "I agree with Aves and Nora," I say and everyone else said their different versions of agreement.

"Ok guys to make this thing official..." Zari starts putting a dramatic pause between her words, "We need to do are secret legends handshake. We can get the boys and Astra and Spooner on board later." Then she puts her hand in the middle to start the handshake off. I can see Charlie roll her eyes at having to do the handshake they deemed ridiculous a long time ago, but put their hand in the middle because they would do pretty much anything Zari asked them to. 

They are whipped but when it comes to Ava I am too. I mean I would die multiple times for Ava if that is what I had to do. 

We all follow Charlie and put our hands in the middle. Our handshake is just us putting our hands in the middle then lifting them yelling legends, spinning in a circle, then doing finger guns. Nate and Ray made the handshake saying that we could not have a group name and logo (they also came up with both of those I still don't know why) without a group handshake.

After the secret legends handshake we break off into groups. Zari and Charlie are going to the basement, Amaya and Nora are going to the floor right above us, and Ava and I are going to the top floor. By 4:30 we are going to meet back here on the main floor and then go to Nora's house. With that, we break off and go to our floors.