When Darkness Falls

Chapter 52

*video tapes*

The camera flickers a good bit before finally making some reassuring noises along with a tiny red light flashing. This assured the girls that the camera they'd taken from one of their parents was now filming.

"Jewels it's working! I can't believe it. Dad said it stopped working months ago." The blonde girl named Donna exclaims. With her hair done almost exactly like, as some would say, the Marilyn Monroe do and her bright yellow dress with white knee high boots, you could say she was your average girl. Though, the way her body is filled out, she had a way of catching everyone's eyes.

Somehow, Donna thought that the most exciting thing she and her friend could do on a Saturday night was go to some old abandoned hotel where there have been reports of screams and cries over the last few weeks.

The other girl, Jewels, was anything but excited to go here. Unlike her oblivious friend, she'd been listening to the news. She heard about all of the younger people their age that have been coming up missing every other day, and while most people would view her as edgy with her Janis Joplin hair cut and clothing style, Jewels was actually an extremely anxious girl who would never usually be talked into something this crazy.

Jewels sighs and brushes her frizzy chestnut colored hair from her eyes. "I still think this stupid, Donna. Probably the dumbest thing you've ever talked me into."

Donna rolls her eyes as she begins to walk into the back side of the hotel towards the open window she's scoped out earlier that day. "You really need to lighten up, Jewels. You're never going to learn to have fun if you don't break out of your sell."

After Donna hands the large video camera to Jewels, she gives her a big smile and winks at her friend before turning towards the window and climbs through.

While climbing in, her dress slides up enough to reveal her underwear to Jewels who blushes and looks away. "Being fun won't matter if I somehow come up missing from getting into the wrong thing, Donna." Her lips quiver as she looks around at the dead weeds surrounding the ancient building. Fallen leaves fly in the air around her along with a cold breeze that sends even more chills through the poor girl's body.

Not long after, Donna holds her hands through the window to reach for her camera, which Jewels hands over quickly so that she can at least not be outside alone anymore.

Once they're both inside the ginormous building, Jewels finds herself grabbing onto Donna's arm since her hands were occupied with the camera that's currently recording.

"This is Donna and Jewels reporting live from the Harlem Hotel where there have been various reports of screaming coming from these old halls for a few weeks now." Donna starts walking out of the tiny room and out into the dark hallway littered with dust and old furniture to match. The whole building stinks as if there are rotten animal carcasses hidden in the ceiling and under the floor.

"Jesus Donna it smells like a morgue in here." Jewels covers her nose with her free hand but then suddenly stops when she hears something crash onto the ground down the hall.

Now Donna is also finally quiet. She holds the camera in the direction of the noise and looks over to jewels. "It's probably just a squirrel or something that got in here. Don't be so jumpy."

Even with the snide remark, Donna was definitely shaken to know they weren't completely alone anymore, though she keeps putting one foot in front of the other. She was determined to convince Jewels that she wasn't a little wuss like all of the other girls. She wanted the other girl with the Janice Joplin hair cut to finally give her the right kind of recognition.

Suddenly there's another loud bang followed by the laughter of two men. Maybe three. Jewels and Donna can't really put a finger on where the laughter is coming from. They both exchange terrified glances and turn to run away at the same time.