The Immortals

THREE - The Old Building

The old building on the outskirts of the small town, which had been abandoned for years, was hardly noticeable with its mouse-grey facade. More conspicuous were the green fir trees that surrounded this building and beautified the area.

Almost all windows were either broken or extremely dirty and dusty. The entrance doors were also missing, instead there was only a large square opening, that led inside. And it was this one that the woman entered with the briefcase and thereby disappeared into the building.

"What the hell does she want in there?" Celine asked confused after the three teenagers followed the woman around town for over 40 minutes.

Eliott just said with a shrug, "Who knows? But I feel like I don't want to know."

"Well, let's go inside," Celine said firmly.

"Are you crazy?" Eliott hissed, looking at the old building for a few seconds. "I'm not going in there. It could be haunted!"

The blue-haired grinned broadly. "Scaredy Cat. Now, I'll go in there. Tom?"

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. On the one hand he wasn't too comfortable with the building either, on the other hand he didn't want to let Celine go in there alone.

Besides, he knew there was no way to dissuade her from entering the building. When she made a decision, she always stuck to it. So he made his decision.

"I'm coming with you."

While Celine grinned at him triumphantly, Eliott let out a desperate moan. Tom started walking towards the entrance with Celine, Eliott hesitated for a second, but then hurried after them anyway.

The inside of the old building looked exactly like the outer facade. Old, depressing, dirty and dusty.

Celine looked around in disgust. "Someone should clean up here."

"Very funny," Tom mumbled dryly.

The longer the three walked away from the entrance, the darker became the hallway that stretched through the building.

"What do you think this was, like before it got so - you know - old and abandoned?" Eliott asked in a low voice.

When Celine pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and activated the flashlight, she answered in an equally quiet tone: "As far as I know, this used to be a hospital or a sanatorium. I'm not sure."

"Guys, over there!" Tom interrupted the conversation, pointing to the end of the long hallway.

A faint light shone through the bottom crack of a door into the hallway. The three friends slowly made their way to the door and Celine deactivated her flashlight. The closer they got to the door, the slower and more nervous they became.

"So, shall we knock?" the blue-haired whispered softly, visibly nervous.

The two boys looked at each other for a moment and then back at her.

Eliott whispered, "Could we just eavesdrop first? Not that we're interrupting anything private. A private conversation or something more private?"

"In that run-down building?" Celine asked skeptically, to which Eliott shrugged and replied, "Well, why else would she walk into a building like that? Certainly not for a conference or something."

While the two discussed, Tom knelt by the door, put his head on the floor and put his ear to the crack at the bottom.

Tom hissed a sharp "Pssst" at the two, to which both fell silent until Celine whispered down to Tom, "Why are you kneeling and putting your head on that dirty floor?"