She Escapes Us All (BakugouXOC)

Onyx

There are many theories about how we vanished, but none of them I got to read were ever right. 

How did we disappear?

To put it bluntly, we were just plain foolish.

There were no enticing promises of puppies or sweets, no sinister kidnappings, and no luring us into that place. No, we willingly walked right into the building, giggling like the carefree girls we were.

It was pure idiocy, and I'll rue that moment every day when I remember how our feet crossed the threshold of 'Onyx'.

'Onyx' – what kind of name is that, anyway? The word loomed above the entrance to the imposing facility, and we mimicked it to each other as we explored its echoing halls. Our voices bounced off the walls, forcing more laughter from us.

The building was spotless, unnaturally so. We should've sensed something was off when our shoes failed to scuff up even a speck of dust or disturb an insect. 

This place definitely wasn't abandoned, and it wasn't going to become our secret spot any time soon, despite our plans.

We wandered down seemingly endless corridors with identical grey cement walls, ceilings, and floors. Left, right, left, then right again – they all looked the same.

Maya's laughter rang out as she pointed to a wooden stool that sat at the end of one corridor, the first with doors. I never understood what she found so funny about it, but I do now. 

The doors were all identical – plain, dark metal, bolted shut from the outside. Our laughter halted abruptly when a soft voice emanated from inside one of the doors.

"Hello?"

A chill spread through every fibre of my being. There were people in those rooms locked in. Maya giggled again as if hearing voices behind those doors was the most ordinary thing in the world. 

But Maya was always a little eccentric, and that's why I cherished our friendship, but this was just downright mad.

She had a habit of being odd, like how she used to choose to sit with me when no one else would at school. However, Maya had stopped attending school lately, and I found myself spending more and more days in a quiet corner with my books.

What truly stunned me was when Maya responded to the voice with familiarity, "Hey, Tsuki, it's just me! Maya!" Her smile contrasted starkly with my pale, frightened face.

Worried and bewildered, I fired off a barrage of questions. "Maya, I don't understand what's going on. Why are there people here? Who is she? How do you know her? Maya, what is happening?" Panic tinged my voice. My vision was beginning to blur, or perhaps something else was at play.

The world swayed, and a strange blue gas filled the corridor. "Maya?" I called out, but it was the last thing I remember before I fell to the floor in a heap.

Maya was a treacherous betraying bitch.

When I awoke, I was alone, confined in a small, cement-walled room. Trapped. Never before had I felt such intense hatred, overpowering all fear and rationality. I screamed and cursed Maya's name until my throat was raw, and I had exhausted my tears.

The only light seeped through a narrow window high up on the wall. The sun was setting, and as I took in my surroundings, my fury slowly gave way to resignation.

The room was minuscule, barely accommodating a single bed. To the right, there was a small desk with a simple wooden stool, reminiscent of the one I'd seen earlier. My anger flared again, as I realised what might've sparked Maya's laughter at the stool. 

I sat down on the bed and took in the room again.

There was a toilet and a sink, complete with a wrapped toothbrush and a bar of soap. It was unmistakably a prison cell, and I might as well have walked right into it willingly with how naive I was to trust somebody genuinely wanted to spend time with me without hidden ambitions.

I took deep, calming breaths to steady my racing heart. What did I know?

The building was named 'Onyx,' and Maya had led me here, like a fool. It was situated in the forest near our school and the building had an 'L' shape that reached high into the sky. Come to think of it, that was peculiar. The building was so tall, nestled in the middle of the forest, yet I'd never spotted it from the school rooftop. Did it possess some sort of masking ability?

My head throbbed with all the information and I still felt the reminiscing effects from the gas I'd inhaled, making it difficult to think straight. I lay down, and once again, the world dissolved into oblivion.