Locked Away

Chapter 14

Cory's POV

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I was astonished to see that the right wing's doors didn't require bar codes to open. This wing held so many fancy things in it, you would think that you stumbled into an actual mansion and not a mansion-turned-prison. There were stained glass windows within marble walls. The windows were barred from the outside, unfortunately, but that didn't derive from their beauty too much. Anthony sat down at one of the fluffy chairs by the fireplace, commenting that this was the first time he's been on a chair that soft and a fireplace so warm. Delirious chuckled.

"Is the homeless thing just a joke between you two, or is Anthony actually homeless?" I asked, not really getting the joke. Anthony looked at me.

"Well, It's a joke with some truth behind it," Anthony replied, getting up off the seat, "I wonder what else this wing holds." We went up the stairs, hoping to find more. The stairs ended with a hall with multiple doors on both sides. The hall ended with a huge navy blue room. This room was filled with future predicting; crystal balls, tarot cards, and books about fortune telling.

"This must be the ghost's room or something," I joked. Both of my partners bust in laughter, and I laughed a bit at the joke. I looked through a few books, and went to pull one out, but it stuck to the shelf. A rumble sounded, and a bookshelf next to the one I was at lowered into the ground, revealing a secret room with a desk and small bookshelf. I went in and looked at the shelf and desk. The desk was simple, like the ones that could be found in our dorms, and the shelf was mostly empty with only a single book sitting there. I grab the book and skimmed through it. Looking at it, I recognized the handwriting. This journal belonged to the ghost. I read through it, more thorough this time. He wrote a lot, sometimes taking up more than one page. He wrote about who died that day, what wing of the building he explored, and some personal notes.  What was written near the end of the book caught my eye the most.

He wrote, "If you find this journal, check the desk near it. It contains a thorough, detailed map of this mansion. Use it to get out, and please, keep this journal with you. Even when you get out of here, keep this. I trust it better in your hands. Take care. -Dar." I went to the desk and opened up the drawers. I found the map in the second drawer. I folded up the map, stuffed it under my shoulder pad, and ran to leave the room, but I smacked into some invisible wall. I banged on the wall, hoping to get my partners' attentions to my situation. Anthony and Delirious noticed and ran to me.

"Dude, how the actual f*ck did you get in there?" Delirious asked. I pointed to the shelf next to the room, at the book that was oddly still pulled out.

"It must've been a trap or something. Don't worry, man, we'll find something to get you out," Anthony said. Anthony ran and grabbed the fire extinguisher that way by the tarot cards. But, when he returned to smash the wall, he froze up. Delirious grabbed the thing from Anthony's hands and hit the wall a few times. It cracked but didn't break. He looked in the direction Anthony was, and freaked out.

"C-Cory, Th-The thing's behind you..." Delirious stammered. I didn't want to turn around, mainly because Ian did that, and the cat attacked him the minute he did. The Cat growled, staring at me when I shot it only a glance. It snickered.

"This is too easy. I want a challenge! Masters, give me a challenge!" It shouted. The glass wall rose swiftly, and I ran out without a second thought, getting by my partners. The cat walked out of the room, growling loudly. It looked right at me.

"You're mine. Added bonus if those bozos interfere," The cat said. It charged and pinned me fairly quickly. Delirious shouted my name and hit the cat on the shoulder with the fire extinguisher. It took its eyes off of me, and swiped at Delirious. It smacked the "weapon" away from him, and struck Delirious. It hit him in the face, breaking his mask into pieces, and still getting him deep with the attack. Delirious gasped in horror, grasping his face with his hand and trying not to scream in pain. The cat swung its tail, hitting Delirious and throwing him into a bookshelf. Books fell on top of him, one of them smacking him dead on in the head. Delirious slumped down, not moving after that hit, but still bleeding like crazy through his face. It looked at me again, and headbutted me in the head. I heard only ringing, and my vision filled with black dots. I knew that there was no denying it, but I didn't want it to end now, like this. But, my conscious faded to black, and I couldn't stop it any longer.

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Anthony's POV

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This had to be dream, I thought. This can't be real, there was no way for this to be real. The cat took out Delirious like he was nothing, and it knocked out and hauled Cory with its teeth to the secret room. Before it closed the room, it dropped Cory and pointed to the top of a bookshelf, where a first aid kit sat.

"You would need that, to patch up your little friend there. He looks like he'll die of blood loss if you don't do something soon." It said. It picked up Cory again and closed the secret room behind it, leaving me scared sh*tless. I grabbed the kit and found it had hydrogen peroxide and rolls of gauze. I wasn't an expert in medicine, but I did my best to treat and cover the wounds Delirious sustained during his attempted attack. I picked up the knocked out body of Delirious, and carried him, along with the kit, all the way back to the main room. I would've grabbed the mask, but that thing's broken beyond repair. I couldn't help but wonder what will happen now. When I entered the main room, I saw that Mark, Jack, Max, Pink, Blue, and Red were all here, but that was it. Max was crying about something, the dinos were talking, And Mark and Jack were looking through some books they brought back.

"Uh, Guys? I need some assistance here," I said, hoping to get some of their attention. I'll be honest, Delirious is kinda heavy.

"Here, let me help," Mark said. I carefully moved Delirious onto Mark's shoulder, where he managed to get a big fat look at Delirious's bandaged face. "Woah, uh, what the f*ck happened here? And where's Cory?" Mark asked. I couldn't really answer at the time. Delirious moaned, trying to feel his face. Mark set him down onto a chair.

"Ugh...What the? Where am I? Am I dead?" Delirious asked. He looked around the room.

"You're not dead, thank Jesus," I said, "And to answer your question, Mark, uh, we had a bad encounter with the cat." Mark looked at me in shock.

"Can you please elaborate off of that?" Jack asked. I gulped, not really wanting to describe the terrible scenery. I tried my best to elaborate on the statement, but not to the point that every detail was described. Jack's eyes widened at the part when Delirious almost died to the cat and when Cory got taken in almost the same way Ian did. After I finished, Delirious suddenly slammed his fists into the table. He put his hand over his bandaged face, and muttered something about failing to stop that monster.

Everyone decided to call it a day and head to their dorms. Once I got in mine and shut the door, I just sat at the desk for a while. I couldn't stop thinking about the Cory and Ian scene, and how oddly similar they were. But, there were differences with the scenes: with Ian, no tried to help him, but with Cory, Delirious tried to stop it, only to get seriously injured. The other major difference was their state of being when the cat dragged them away: Ian was completely conscious, but Cory was knocked out. I tried to comprehend what the f*ck was going on with this place. But, I had no luck: It was all over the place, a giant mess of events that lined up only on a chronological order timeline. My only questions about that cat was why did he drag away Ian and Cory, of all people it could've taken? Just, why them? Did it have some connections with those two, or is there something I'm missing? I really wished that I had an answer to those questions, but something told me that I wasn't going to get one easily...