Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Seventy Three - Taiketsu [対決]

The sun had just begun to peak over the city horizon when Amaya opened the front door of the building, braced for an immediate ambush without any chance for retaliation.

And just a second later, she was plunged straight into inky darkness as the door slammed shut behind her.

But this time, she was ready.

Amaya immediately moved to retrieve Reiko's bugged phone from her breast pocket, switching on the flashlight function before she even dared to step away from that door. The weak beam of light was a far-cry from the tactical flashlights she had access to at the Satellite Campus, but sufficient enough that she could at least see a few meters ahead of her.

One red LED light blinking through the darkness ahead of her told her all she needed to know; There were working security cameras inside.

The teen tilted her head, straining her ears for any sign of movement around her.

The room that she found herself within was completely different to the empty cage-style elevator she'd stumbled into in the past. A clear front lobby with a front counter, several old computers with CRT monitors instead of the slim flatscreen monitors she was more accustomed to seeing. Filing cabinets, a coffee table with two couches for visitors, and a whole stack of old, tattered papers scattered across the carpeted floor. Two doors lead out of the front lobby; A door to the right labeled "Restroom", and a set of double-doors behind the counter.

The unpleasant gnawing of deja vu lessened its hold of her as she shifted to check her immediate surroundings for dangers.

Everything was silent, even her footsteps against the thick, musty carpet beneath her feet. Her vision was defined purely by the limitations of her flashlight.

However, her greatest asset, her sense of smell?

She was very much aware that at least for the moment, she was alone.

All she could detect was the scent of stale air and loads of dust and mildew.

She wasn't sure what she was going to encounter first, what she even could expect in the greater scheme of things... but at the forefront of her mind, she needed to find any sign of her siblings. Logically... they were being held somewhere with only one exit. Her gut feeling settled on a basement as the most likely answer. The polaroids that had been delivered ruthlessly to her doorstep painted a very featureless setting; grey brick walls, no natural light, something that felt very much like her okinawan nightmares. If it wasn't a basement, the next likely answer was a reinforced storage room.

Which didn't narrow things down all that much...

Carefully, Amaya armed herself with the kitchen knife she had stowed away in her duffel bag, tossing the sharpening sheath out into the darkness of the foyer without a thought. With every step forward she took towards the door, the more that foreboding feeling settled deep into her bones. Her fingers practically trembled from the tension as she managed to clip Reiko's phone to the front of her jacket, and worse once her hand was free.

It didn't just feel like she was being watched.

As she stepped through those double-doors into a long, empty corridor, she got the inexplicable feeling that she'd just stepped into someone's hunting grounds.

The cell phone flashlight picked up more dust motes and stray locks of hair in her peripheral view than particular detail in the corridors, however, she could make out the outlines of features in the corridors from a few meters away. Pinup boards with faded safety bulletins posted, heavy steel doors fitted with keycard locks and safety warnings, even the vague, distant glimpse of a staircase part-way down the corridor.