Locked Away

Chapter 15

Cory's POV 
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I groan awake, unsure what just happened or whenever or not I was dead. I was lying on some wooden bench, and the room was dark. I got off the bench, wincing at the pain that sprung up when I moved. I found a mirror with lights shining down on it and looked at myself. I was a mess: My hair was all over the place, my clothing was dirty, and there were cuts all over me. They were only minor ones, though. I had a terrible headache to go with all of this. I looked to see that the door in this dark room was open, letting in some light. I walked through the door as quickly as I could. The hall the greeted me was..ominous. There were test rooms left and right, and all of them held a sense of unwelcoming in them. As I was walking by one of them, a hand suddenly slammed against the glass window. I jumped, looking at the window. The hand lowered to show a face.

"Help me! Please, Cory! These people are doing weird things to me!" It cried. I looked at the face, shocked to see who it was.

It was Ian. But he changed since the last time I saw him. He had cat ears, fur all over his hands and face, and larger nails. He was crying, something I never saw Ian do until now. I raced to the door and tried to open it, But I heard a rev of a chainsaw. Ian and I whipped our heads in the direction of the noise. The lights flickered on, revealing the cat with a chainsaw in his hand..No, It couldn't have been the cat. The figure was too small, and stood on two legs without a problem. Then there was the voice. This figure's voice was higher pitched than the cat's.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you...I'm just saying, but back away from the subject," It said, holding the chainsaw as it roared. It charged at me, swinging the chainsaw over its head with the intent to cut me clean in half. I barely dodged his attack, causing the chainsaw to hit and dig into the floor. He stopped the chainsaw, cursing to himself as he wiggled the saw out of the ground. I went to try to open the door that held Ian in the room, but the cat figure had got his chainsaw out from in the floor and was turning it on, so I was working under a lot of pressure. I heard maniacal laughing and a chainsaw rev. I dodge the saw, but by the time I realized where it was aiming, Ian was already hit through the door.

"Run, Cory, I'm not worth it anymore..." Ian told me as he collapsed. The figure's eyes widened as he quickly pulled the chainsaw out from the door.

"Sh*t, they're not gonna like this..." The figure said, looking at the door. He turned his attention at me, holding the saw. "This is why I told you to back away from the subject." He suddenly started to snicker, as he readied the chainsaw.

"Well, looks like I'm gonna have to get a new one..I think you will do nicely." The figure slyly spoke. It charged at me, and I realized that couldn't dodge this thing forever. I sidestepped the figure, but he came so close to hitting me the I could feel the air make way to the chainsaw. His saw hit a wall, and I seized this opportunity to get away from him. I knew I was leaving Ian behind again by doing this, but he told me to. Plus, there's no way he lived through that. I felt my heart pounding as I whipped my way around the halls, trying to put as much distance between me and that thing as possible. The place was extremely maze-like, and I couldn't figure out where I was going. Every hall looked like the previous one, so there was no way to tell if I was running around in circles. However, one door didn't look like the others around one hall. I pushed through the door, and the hall that greeted me was much different compared to the maze: It was merrier, with music playing softly in the background. I slowed down, wanting to get a better look at the rooms. There were only four rooms in this hall. I checked the room where the merry music was the loudest.

I never thought such adorableness could exist in a place like this. The room looked like it was some form of nursery room, complete with colorful wallpaper, little toys, and music box music. I almost didn't want to leave it, it held a feeling of safety this place never provided up until now. But my curiosity called for me to check the other rooms, telling me that I could head back to this room later. I forced myself to leave the room and check the next one. It looked like a gym of some kind: It wasn't too big, but it was bigger than most rooms I've seen. It had hoops, chew toys, dummies, and a bunch of other fitness equipment. I moved on quickly to another room, which looked like a...classroom? Why would that be here, I thought to myself as I looked at the room. It had a bunch of desks, a projector, a whiteboard, and blackboards. It wasn't of much interest, so I looked into the last room, and that room was much different story.

I was a storage closet filled with filing cabinets. I opened a few of the drawers, and looked at the file sorting. The drawers were marked with game number, and within the drawer was divided even further into out, in, or it. The in sector had almost no files in the game drawers, but nor did the it. I opened a drawer labeled "Game #13," And found that there was a file in the "it" Sector. I grabbed the file and looked at it, gawking in shock at some of the information in the file. The person who was "it" became "it" willingly. He was blind and mute, and felt he had nothing to lose, especially when he was told he could get sight. His eyes were blue, though they were often covered up by a skin toned blindfold, which reminded him of his blindness. He was a player who became the cat for the game, and has been ever since. His name was...

My headache worsened at the information. He was ultimately responsible for that ghost's terrible condition, and for all the nightmares that happened here. No, I thought, He's not entirely responsible. It was the maniacal cat figure wielding a chainsaw; He had something to do with it. But what about the man of the speaker? There was too many question that needed answers. I decided to keep the file, and get back with the others. As I exited the room, I noticed someone standing at the end of the hall. I let out a sigh of relief when I noticed the light blue tint all around the figure: it was just the ghost. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He wasn't looking at me, and he seemed concerned about something.

"Um," I begin, "did..something bad happen?" I really couldn't think of words to say. He looked my way, a little startled to see me. He tried to sigh, got off of the wall, and waved his hand, trying to tell me to come with him. I followed him as he lead me to somewhere safe. I wanted to tell him about the file, but I wasn't sure if that would be a good idea. We wound around the maze-like halls in silence. After a while, the silence was getting on my nerves, and I decided to break it.

"I, uh, looked inside those rooms, back there...And I, uh, found something," I said nervously. The ghost glanced at me, interested but not to the point that he wanted to stop.

"I-i think I found the cat's origin story.." I finally put out. The ghost halted at that, looking at me in shock. I showed him the file I was carrying, and he snatched it from my arms to look closer at it. He quickly handed it back to me, and resumed his walk, though he was going a bit faster than he was before. I hurried up my pace to keep up, sometimes running. He stopped at some ladder and pointed up, as if he wanted me to ascend. I begin up, and was about to ask the ghost something, but when I looked down to see if he was following, he was gone.

I reach the end of the ladder and pushed against a trapdoor that was blocking the way. It opened with a woosh, and I climbed onto the floor, looking around to see if I knew this room. I recognized it as a middle wing room. I blocked the door open with a book, wanting to mark it just in case I wanted to come back to it or something. As I began the walk back towards the main room, my mind pulled the memories of Ian again, one with him being dragged away, and another of Ian getting hit by the chainsaw the maniac cat wielded. I also wondered how the others would feel if they saw me now. And then there were the questions. But as I pushed the door to the main room open, I let those worries slide away for The first few moments that I saw the others chatting amongst themselves, trying to solve the mystery of this place That even I couldn't even begin it comprehend...
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Oh. My. Lord. This book now has official half a thousand reads. I can't even comprehend this. AHHHHHH!!! I'm so happy! Thank You all a thousand!! Have a good night, too! ;)