The Mystic Gate: Spirits of the Dead

Chapter 4

Shorter chapter cuz the next scene... it's rough...

***

"Bro this place gives me the creeps," Colton stated as he and Corey made their way up to the theater. "I swear it shouldn't be this empty even if the only information on it was at a bus stop."

"Yeah," Corey agreed. "It wasn't this..." They glanced at a wall. "... Flaky before, either."

The two finally entered the theater and glanced around in both amazement and disgust at the large area, once magnificent, as it now appeared, run down and dusty. The seats were all torn and rotted, and immediately after Colton made the mistake of feeling one of the seats he gagged and aggressively wiped his hand on his shirt.

"It smells so stale in here," Corey remarked.

"Grandma must have had a blast here back in her day," Colton joked. Corey snorted. The two made their way to the dusty stage, glancing around. "This sounded a lot cooler than it is," he stated, disappointed.

"I- what'd you expect?" Corey asked as they attempted to crawl onto the stage, immediately giving up when they only succeeded in putting dust on their clothes.

"I dunno, for it to... not look like this?" Colton responded.

Corey shrugged. "Honestly same," they agreed, glancing up at the torn, dusty red curtains, although they could hardly even be called red anymore. Colton turned and stared into the sea of worn down seats ahead, most of which were the same faded and dusty red as the curtains, while the rest were a dull white, the red casings that used to cover them completely gone now.

Corey blinked as they noticed a fresh sheet of paper lying on the stage, untouched by dust, unlike the rest of everything. There was a faded set of footprints on the ground, the only break in the grime in the entire area. They raised a brow and looked around, before realizing there was a set of stairs on either side of the stage the entire time. They moved up them quietly, Colton following as he realized they had gone up on the stage.

Colton stared out at the seats once more as Corey slowly bent down and picked up the paper. "Imagine performing up here though," he said. "I'd pass out." When Corey didn't respond, he turned and glanced at them.

"You good?" He asked. They didn't respond again. Instead they turned around, paler than usual as they stared down at the paper. Colton opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, only for Corey to shakily show him the paper. He took it slowly and stared down at it, a thin layer of dust from the back of the paper sticking onto his fingers. He read the paper a few times over, fear settling into him as he looked back up at Corey. They just stared back.

Colton took a sharp breath in as they stared at each other in silence and disbelief. The two glanced around the theater in sudden paranoia, their senses heightened as they both stepped off the stage and made their way toward the theater's exit. Colton moved ahead of Corey and peeked around every corner as they tried to get to the staircase without incident. They just kept cautiously moving, trying to find everyone else while avoiding Scott.

They stuck together like glue as they tried to escape.

***

Firkle stood at the edge of the pool in silence, looking around as he waited for his significant other to finish delivering the notes around the hotel. He jumped and whipped around as he heard approaching footsteps, relieved to see that it was only Wyatt. The boy with the glasses moved quickly over him in silence, fear in his eyes.

Firkle looked back down into the pool, the water no longer the clear blue it used to be, but only about a foot was left of brown, murky water in the deep end that had been maintained for decades, although there was none in the shallower parts of it. The two stood in silence for about five minutes before Firkle looked suspiciously at Wyatt. The shorter was never this quiet for this long, even in terrifying situations. Wyatt always made sure other people were okay, and that was something he wasn't currently doing.