CLOCK TOWER: THE FIRST FEAR

III: DRIP

The silence was tantalizing, mocking her fear and daring her to move.

Jennifer's brown eyes skimmed the now empty room, hoping to find solid evidence that this was some sort of sick joke pulled on by her friends. If it was, hopefully it was, they did a good job keeping themselves hidden; even the luggage was gone.

"Girls?" She called out timidly and, again, was rewarded with silence. "C-come on! This isn't funny!" She stepped into the room, trying to keep her stuttering to a minimum. Her footsteps echoed through the main hall and it was then that she realized how empty this room really was. A sudden urge of panic flowed through her veins, but she tried to remain calm, as she walked over to the front door.

She tugged and pulled gently at the knob but it simply jiggled in her hands. The door wouldn't budge even in the slightest of circumstances, such as this one.

"Locked..." Jennifer mumbled as she backed away from the door, her dark bangs falling in her field of vision. She brushed them back in annoyance and walked back over to the small table and three chairs her friends were at just a minute ago. She stared out the window, her eyes darting around for any signs of them as she gripped the pink satin curtains in her sweaty hands. All she saw was the dark green forest set against a pitch black background.

The girl sighed and backed away from the window, running her hands over her face. Good god, was she tired.

Relax Jen, she thought to herself, this can all be a prank. You know how Anne is. They could be hiding anywhere in this house...yeah, yeah that's it...

Eyeing the white spiral staircase, she slowly started up, jumping a little bit at just how loud her footsteps were on the wood. She took her time, allowing herself to calm down as she reached the second floor of the hall. There were no doors and few windows or paintings, all set to the same amber wallpaper and plush rosy carpet as the floor below it.

Jennifer's hopes fell short and she was about to give up when she saw a singular door, light brown oak with a shiny gold knob, all the way on the left side of the hall. Her hopes began to rise and she couldn't contain her excitement as she dashed towards it, not caring of her hair flying in her face this time around.

However, just before she could reach it, one area of the floor she lightly stepped on was soft and feeble. Before she knew it, the floor caved in and she watched as it tumbled down the first story, herself just a few millimeters from falling into the gaping hole it had left behind. Jennifer stared down the hole with complete shock, nervously gripping the thick, white railing for dear life. Had she had come any closer, she would've fallen down with the debris and the thought of possibly being trapped under that mess of thick wood and possible concrete shook her to the very core. Her hopes dashed when she noticed just how big the hole was; it was way too wide to ether step over or go around. She'd have to find another route.

She trudged down the steps and past the table and chairs, shuddering at the huge pile of the second floor the sat next to them. There were no other doors to go through except for the one she opened first; that was her new route.

She wasn't too terribly happy upon seeing the sight of the dark wooden floor, a single rectangular window with pink curtains, a single light latched onto the wall, a single shut oak door with a rusty knob, and a small, pitch black, doorless room across from her. It was hard to picture this sight without hearing the terrified screams of her friends. Jennifer tried not to think about it as she walked through the doorless room first.

To say there wasn't much was an understatement. It had the same color palette as the hall that had led to it; dark, possibly rotting floor, dark blue green peeling wallpaper, a row of shut windows peering out into the darkness of the night with no curtains and smaller windows that resembled a circle cut in half horizontally, with the bottom half missing, resting overhead of them. The only remarkable thing about the room was the large pile of trash and rocks that blocked any possible route passed it. Jennifer pressed her hand against one of the windows, not surprised at how much dust and grime collected on her palm, to open it, but the only thing she felt was the smoothness of the glass.