The Neogene Project

Chapter 29 - It's Time

Chapter 29 - It's time

There was a familiar haunting air surrounding the hotel. As Trenton's car inched forwards slowly through the ungroomed driveway of trees, Aria glanced out the window. Some of the trees were still beautiful, reaching into the sky, showing off their beautiful green leaves to the rest of the world. But as they neared the hotel, the green leaves seemed to lose their color, the branches dipping down, the grass turning a dying brown. Suddenly, a wide gap appeared in the trees. A hole in the surrounding forest. Old and wet yellow police tape surrounded a stump. Trenton halted for a moment, looking at the spot with a guilty eye. A sharp pain erupted in Aria's mind as she looked at the stump. Something wasn't clicking. Gasping, Aria covered her mouth and barely held in the astonished sound. Trenton moved the car forward, but not fast enough for Aria to miss the figure that had been sitting upon the stump. Messy brown hair and piercings had covered his face. A mist of green had surrounded him and his eyes had looked directly into Aria's with a foreboding stare. A sinister stare that had Aria shaking with fear. Something wasn't right.

"Calm down," Trenton instructed, but he had felt it too. There was a sense of failure in the air. But, he didn't have time to think on it, and Aria's constant state of nerves was disturbing him.

"Did you see him too?" Aria's shaky voice whispered. Trenton ignored her crazy question as no one wandered around this area after the incident from last year. She wouldn't know that, though, as she had had a new life in California. One without the problems of finding a dead teenage girl washed up from a river. One without psychotic hotel security guards that worked for the government showing up at funerals. One without the troubles of Trenton Montgomery.

The hotel itself was a sad sight. The top story windows were all shuttered closed. The right side of the hotel was crumpling from where they had attempted their escape from last year. Trees surrounding the hotel were reaching in, holding up the weak building with their strong branches. Dying rose bushes sat outside, providing a perfect haunted house appearance. Cobwebs covered the pillars that held up the balcony above the front entrance steps. Trenton stepped out from the drivers side and walked over to Aria's side, never taking his eyes off of the building. Something was different.

Aria's eyes shifted from the unsturdy building in front of her to the woods on either side. Staring back at her from behind the trees was the boy from the stump. Her heart started to beat uncontrollably. Trenton opened her door and forced her eyes to his. Aria's breaths came out in pants as Trenton grabbed her face and started to say comforting things. Aria looked behind him at the woods once more but the boy had gone. It was just her and Trenton now. Everything would be alright.

"You good now?" Trenton asked, looking her in the eyes and seeing the panic slowly leak away.

"Yeah," Aria replied, voice stronger than she felt inside. Trenton nodded and took her hand in his. This action of his seemed to be becoming a habit, but neither one seemed to mind. Aria got out of the car and stretched. Leaning slightly onto Trenton they made their way towards the building that had been where both of their lives had changed forever.

"Just nerves?" Trenton questioned quietly as to not disturb the silence too much. Aria looked at him and contemplated telling him about the boy in the woods, but decided against it. After the way he had told her off on the drive here she didn't want to be told she was wrong once again. They boy had existed; Aria knew this for sure.

"What happened to this place?" Aria asked, looking up at the haunting hotel with weary eyes. Trenton shrugged a little.

"Government was forced to shut it down after our incident here last year. The place has just been deteriorating since. No business wants to buy this property as its name has a bad reputation now. The Powers Project has kept its secret offices below intact, but barely. Everything has just crumbled since last year," Trenton explained sadly.