Red Wine

11: Adventure of New Found Friends

Starting off in a new school with entirely new people, Nari, Ophelia, Paruz, and Quentin immediately became a new found group of friends for their journey as college freshmen. They studied in a public university where most of the facilities were old, but it was sufficient to maintain a learning environment for everyone.

The four friends came from different backgrounds and personal interests, but what made them click together as friends were their drives for an adventure. Their course was introverted by nature, but who said that indoorsy college students weren't allowed to explore? For the first several weeks of their college life, a lot of times there weren't any professors attending in their class, so there was literally nothing else to do. Staying inside the classroom would be the safest option just in case the professor struts into the classroom more than an hour late, but for the four friends, waiting and sitting still was no fun.

They've noticed for quite some time now that there's an abandoned building behind their current building. It was the same age as the building that everyone uses, but the other one has already crumbled down to a certain degree - most likely because it was never used, and it just withered from old age and lack of maintenance thereof. As a matter of fact, even the path to get there has been blocked by huge chunks of fallen debris, or has reduced into a more sand-like texture.

Adventurous as they are, the group of friends all of a sudden decided to explore this abandoned building - except for Nari, who was hesitant with the idea.

Nari then opened up with the group that he was hypersensitive to the supernatural, meaning that he could both see and feel what others could not normally perceive. He said that even their current building has a lot of ghosts walking by every day; some are even just standing still in their classrooms. They mean no harm most of the time according to him, but he doesn't say the same for the building behind theirs. "A lot of the souls there seem restless," Nari stated in concern. Regardless, he still agreed to come with the group, just hoping in his mind that nothing bad happens to all of them.

Thus the group began their adventure around three in the afternoon - the weather was cloudy and a bit dark, a sign that the rain could pour anytime. However, for the friends, it was the perfect weather to go and explore the abandoned building; it wasn't too hot to charge into a building made of concrete, and people wouldn't be able to see them immediately in case someone snitched on them to the staff. They even took a picture in front of the building before truly beginning their adventure.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. It was just a sight of the broken down foundation and walls of the building. The entire ground floor was filled with these pieces of concrete that it was hard to walk on it, as if they were going on a mountain hike. They eventually reached the other side of the building where a staircase, still intact with the handrails and all, greets them to ascend to the second floor. Of course, the friends took their chances, despite the risk that the flooring of the higher floors might collapse on them anytime.

This was the part where Nari felt uncomfortable. He was the last one to walk up the stairs, as he was frozen in shock upon seeing a lady in all white standing at the top of the stairs. His friends seem to have not noticed anything as they just casually passed through her semi-transparent body. The ghost doesn't seem to be pleased with their presence in the building. Nari's first instinct was to turn back and save himself, but he didn't have the heart to leave his new found friends like that.

Nari went up the stairs anyway, and spoke to the ghost "I'm sorry. I'll tell the others to leave." The ghost didn't respond and let the boy be as he walked faster to catch up on his friends.

"Oh, there you are, Nari!" Paruz happily greets the guy, clinging his arms to Nari's neck. "And here we are thinking that you backed out without our knowledge!"

"I was going to. But I think the ghost wanted me to at least let you know that we're disturbing them and they want us out of here." Nari nervously replied, turning his head around back to the direction of the stairs; the lady ghost was still there, her body facing the stairs, but her head turned completely at a 180 degree looking at Nari and the others.

Quentin also clinged his arm to Nari's arm to give him better access to nudge his sides. "You should've asked permission from the ghost to let us explore!"

"Yeah, well, I don't think she was pleased." Nari flinches from the nudge and sighs afterwards. "So... yeah, let's get moving."

"Nope I'm not leaving!" Ophelia stubbornly refuses, but it was this very open form of stubbornness that got her as soon as she finished her sentence. As she chose to keep on moving to further explore the second floor, the skies outside became even darker, a loud thunder grumbling and echoed within the building. Along with it, as if it was in the movies, a big part of the third floor crumbled, crushing the lone Ophelia without another word.

Nari, Paruz, and Quentin screamed in horror. Unable to save their friend from her sudden demise, the three were frozen in fear. Nari managed to snap out of it and grabbed Paruz and Quentin by one wrist each to take the same stairs back down. Quentin was in such a state that his limbs suddenly felt non-existent, and his ability to run down the stairs magically disappeared, leaving his lower half some grazes from the concrete stairs. Nari and Paruz carried Quentin on both ends by the time they got back down on the lower floor. As they neared getting out of there, Paruz was also met with an accident, stepping on his shoelace and tripping himself face down along with Quentin's lower half yet again. Nari was nowhere capable of carrying two big men with him, so he had no choice but to carry Quentin on his back, while Paruz had to keep going on with a bloody face, guided by Nari holding his wrist.

Only Nari was able to get out of there unscathed. Paruz's entire pair of legs were needed to be wrapped in bandages. Quentin broke his nose and a few of his front teeth, and may have to go through surgery. Ophelia's body was soon recovered in the building upon the three men admitting that they were indeed trespassing in the abandoned building, which was then followed by a one month suspension and an entire semester of community service that starts soon for Nari; Paruz and Quentin's will begin once their respective injuries have healed.

The abandoned building has also been decided to be fully abolished to avoid the other curious students from repeating the same mistake again - but who knows how many unknown cases have fallen into their demise there already? And even with the building and its remnants finally cleaned up and out of sight, the souls of the faithful departed all stand in that area of land still.

Hence, the story of the new found friends ended there as well. Nari transferred to another university upon completing his community service, Paruz found his new set of friends, and Quentin dropped out of college entirely after his community service due to the heavy amount of bullying he had received. As for the late Ophelia, Nari has seen her soul in the classroom, sitting at her favorite spot, but remained harmless.