⊹ ｡ ﾟ⁖✦ •𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘢 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘈𝘜⁖ °✦ ･ﾟ⋆

Chapter 6

"You knew him?" Adam and Jonah asked Mark. The latter just broke the news of his past with Cesar. "How long were you sitting on that story?" Adam teased. Mark just shrugged. "Well that's crazy!" Jonah said, "Was he much different back then?" "Not really," Mark replied.

They sat in silence for a moment. "Well...the staring is new. So is the mysteriousness. He never used to keep secrets." There was another moment of silence.
"I'm hungry!" Jonah declared. "Dude, breakfast was an hour ago." Adam replied. "Two hours." Mark corrected.

Adam glared at Mark and Jonah grinned at both of them. "I wanna go see if I can find SOMETHING quick," said Jonah, getting up from his chair "especially if this meeting isn't over." Adam followed, then Mark did the same after a minute.
The three were walking down the hall when Cesar caught them mid-conversation. "Hey guys!" Cesar beamed "I was hoping I'd catch you all before the evening!" "Oh yeah, we were just uh..." Mark tried thinking up a story to cover up their real intentions. He exchanged awkward glances with Jonah and Adam. "J-just..hanging out, I guess.." "Without me?" Cesar tilted his head. "Uh," Mark was at a loss again.

"I'm just kidding! I've been sort of busy myself. But if you three ever want to do something together, or just talk, anything, come and get me!" "O-okay," Mark responded weakly.

The trio then watched Cesar walk past them. "Damn, that guy scares me sometimes!" Jonah whispered. "Anyway, I'm still hungry. Let's go!" He then took lead of the group and walked towards the dining room. Mark looked over at Adam surprised.

"Don't be so shocked. You'll get used to it." Adam laughed and followed Jonah. Now in the dining room, Mark sat across from Adam and Jonah. Jonah was devouring a piece of chocolate cake. Mark broke the silence. "I have an idea," "'Kay. What is it?" Asked Adam. "Well...as much as I don't really want to, I think we should split up and investigate things separately. And then we can meet up in the library again later." "I don't want to go walk around alone. Especially if there are demons or something." Said Jonah, licking his fork clean.

"Jonah and I can go together." Adam said. "I want to go find that cellar first." "You would!" Jonah snickered. "Yeah okay, scaredy-cat." Adam teased. "I think I'll go down that hallway under the stairs." Mark said. They all got up and went their own ways. But before Adam and Jonah went beyond the doors, Mark had one last thing to say. "Hey wait," The other two guys turned their heads.

"When should we all meet back up in the library? Does an hour sound reasonable?"
"You think an hour would be enough for any of us to find anything important?" Adam scoffed.
"Don't listen to him, I think that'll work!" Jonah yelled across the room.

Mark nodded and watched the two walk off again.
Mark made a stop in his room to get a pen and notebook to write any discoveries in. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary in this hallway. It had bright sconces lining the walls, a decorative rug, small paintings of landscapes every now and then. Anything you could expect to see in the hallway of a hotel. Mark stopped at each door. He took note of its appearance and wether or not it opened. The first two were locked. Probably just storage closets or something. He would occasionally look behind his back out of habit.

When he got to the third door on the left, it opened and revealed a near empty room. The furniture that was in there was covered by sheets of plastic used to keep dust off. Mark found the light switch, but it didn't turn on. He stood by the door, wrote every detail he could make out, and made a rough sketch of what he saw. Then he left and closed the door behind him.

The last door on this side of the hallway was locked as well. Mark made a note of it, then went across the hallway to the next set of doors. The first opened up to another dark room. This one was empty. Mark made a note and moved on. The next door opened to what looked like a small study room. Better yet, the lights were on. It was cozy in there. There were bookshelves, a desk and chair, and a couple filing cabinets. Mark closed the door behind him so the open door wouldn't look suspicious. He eyed the bookshelves and desk, but focused his attention to the filing cabinet. All the while, he continued to make notes about everything he saw.