Running With the Devil (SCP Fanfic)

Chapter 28: Runaround

Malo laid in bed with her eyes closed or what would be described as such. She didn't have eyelids, but the soft white glow of her eyes was out.

A deep breath entered her lack of a nose and into her lungs as she woke up from her rest. She didn't want to be awake just yet and stirred from side to side underneath the blankets to find a comfortable position that would take her back into her slumber. And as she tossed her body once more to find that spot, her senses alerted her to something that was wrong.

She had to wake up now, so she stretched out her arms up towards the heavens and opened her eyes after a long yawn. Her eyes were like an old television turning on. She looked over to the other side of the bed, and sure enough her senses were right. James wasn't there and this was strange because, for a reason she didn't know, she would wake up as soon as James did. This time, she didn't.

"Hmm? Where did he go," she thought, the words resounding across the empty room.

She pulled off the covers and got up off the bed, the claws of her feet clacking against the wood floor. Her head scanned the room from one side to the other. James wasn't in the room.

She huffed out, "Guess I'll have to go find him. Maybe he's packing up his stuff in the dining room, we do have to get going."

She walked towards the door and opened it, entering into the hallway. Walking further she reached the staircase and walked half way down it before stopping. The house was completely still and the dust hung in the air like no one had gone this way for a while. She heard no noise from anywhere, not even the settling of the house. Yet nothing seemed too off as golden rays of sunlight still filled the room with warm light.

She continued down the stairs a little off put and walked through the entryway of the dining room. The big, long wooden table still sat there. The dust that had been cleared off the table the day before had already coated the spots they cleared off and Jame's backpack and other belongings were missing.

"He's already packed everything. That's good," she wiped a finger across the table, leaving a line in the dust.

She walked back out into the main entrance and looked around the tall room. It was an exceptionally lonely morning, like one where you wake up earlier than anyone else, when no one's day has begun just yet and everyone is asleep.

"He must be doing something right now, he gotta be around here somewhere. If I don't find him, he'll come around to get me," she said deciding to search the house.

As she did a walk through the first level of the building, then the second, and then quickly poking her head into the attic, she found that James was nowhere to be found on those floors. She once again walked down the staircase and decided to walk the first level again.

Walking around the staircase and through an arched entryway, she found herself in a library behind the staircase. Red and yellow carpets dawned the floor, slightly fuzy and muted from the plethora of dust in the building. Dark green wall paper lined the walls with book shelves stacked neatly with many books. A couple of couches sat in the center next to wood side tables with tarnished gold and green banker's lamps on top of them. At the back of the room was a large solid oak desk with papers and a leather chair. And lining the back wall were tall windows made in a grid pattern with red shades peeled to each side.

"This will eat up some time," she happily made her way over to a bookshelf.

With a smile on her face and a clawed finger tapping on the books, she read the titles and author's names on each one. Maybe she would find one that would peek her interest.

She dragged her finger as she skimmed across the books and tapped a claw on the ones she found interesting.

One book she found was called 'Dreamtelling'. It had a strange but interesting green and orange cover with the initials S.B. She pulled out the book and read its description.