Ascendit

7

An hour later I gain the courage to try to stand on my feet. I help Matt up then hobble to the door, Amazingly my backpack survived and my water bottle was still there. I take a small sip, conserving as much as possible. I hand it to Matt,

"Small sips, this needs to last a while." I wiped tears away from my face. I'm 14, he's 15, we are almost dead and no one is coming to help us.

I open the door to a bright hallway, It was simple, normal, like nothing had ever happened. In front of us was the elevator. I closed the door then opened it again, the room was just a normal hotel room, No blood, no red, no opened restraints. We found the stairs and climbed down to the 12th floor, where I am staying. I take out the key and open the door. I see Joseph, he is watching the football game on the Tv.

"Joe, can you call an ambulance...we were attacked." no response. His eyes were glued to the television. I walk over to him and reach out to grab his shoulder. My hand goes through. Are we dead? If so how did we die? In the elevator or from the wounds? I look at Matt and we walk down to the lobby. Everything is normal except us. My parents were signing out of the hotel and the boys were packing up in their rooms. I head back up to see Joe again, He was packing up my stuff for me. Once he got everything he carried it downstairs with his stuff. He pulled out his phone and texted me,

"Sis, where are you check out is in 20 minutes?"

I looked at my phone, nothing. We go to Matthew and Sam's room, Sam packed up Matt's stuff and sent the same kind of text to Matt. Sam walked over to Joe and asked,

"Yo, have you seen Matt? He went looking for your lunatic hot sister hours ago."

"Sam what the Hell, Ivy is not attractive! Anyways no, but Ivy went out before I woke up. They are probably making out somewhere. Matt has always been an undercover freak like her." Joe replied. Matt blushed. I snickered. I almost fell a few times more and just had Matt help me. I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck and his hand held my waist as I limped down the hallway. We followed them out to the lobby where everyone was waiting for us. I hunched over a few times from the gashes down my back and the blisters on my feet. I looked around a bit and made sure no one else went missing.

"Maybe it's like those ghost shows where the ghost can't touch the people but can interact with the environment." Said Matt.

"Maybe, Try knocking over that vase," I said pointing to a thin rectangular shaped vase with Iris flowers in it. It stood on a small table next to a couch, Matt walked over to it and batted at the vase, His hand went through completely. He sighed and turned to me,

"It's like we're on Spectate mode in a video game." he went down to his knees and dramatically said, "Just send me back to spawn already!" I laughed a bit and then I saw one of the scratches on my arm go away. That's it! Positive emotions heal us. Matt walked over and sat down on the couch, I followed. He frowned and looked at me,

"Ivy, For what it's worth, I am so sorry for getting us stuck in this...Parallel Universe, or whatever. I was wrong, you were right." He then grabbed his side and groaned from pain. I needed to keep him from dying,

"I forgive you," I said with a smile, that was a white lie but I have to tell it.

"Really? Thank you. And, I'm also sorry about all the hateful things my teammates and I had said to you." Some of the aches in my head and back eased, it was working, we were healing each other. We noticed everyone was running around frantically looking for us and the other team was searching for Kat. My mother asked the front desk lady again if she had seen me or Matt, going into lots of detail about our appearance. The lady thought about it a bit then nodded her head and told my mom,

"Both of them were looking for a girl named...Katrina? Kathy? Something like that. Then they were talking in the lobby and the boy told her to go in the elevator and they did. I heard a creaking from the shaft as it went up but that's all I know, Sorry ma'am"

"Thank you," she said. Then my mother went up the stairs to look for us. I turned to face Matt,

"So, If Kat ended up in the same place as us then she must be around here too. We should look for her, Let's go back to the 13th floor. By stairs of course..." Matt nodded and we walked up those tedious flights. I felt pain in every step. My back knotted up and I felt claws ripping my wrists apart. We reached the door at the top of the stairs and opened it. It was locked when we were still alive. Am I dead? Con we only open our room doors and the ones on the 13th? Nevermind.

Suddenly it got really cold, I zipped up my jacket and walked a little closer to Matt. We walked up to the room that was once red, opened the door and it was the same regular hotel room. Then we started trying other rooms, the same thing. We peeked inside all the rooms on the floor except one. The janitor's closet at the end of the hall. We slowly walked towards it, anticipating every breath like we were under attack. It got colder the closer we got. Step by step in unison. We were about 10 feet away when the lights started getting dimmer, the pain was returning as a way of saying turn back. Our greeters then appeared in front of us. The well-dressed couple with eternal frowns.

"If you wish to meet the Shadow Men, go ahead, but come with something to offer and something to gamble on." The lights flickered and they were gone. It was too late to turn back. We had to get out, we had to find Kat. I stepped forward and turned the ice-cold silver handle. I pushed the door open and inside was darkness. Pure and endless. I met gazes with Matt. He nodded and we stepped into the thick black nothing.

I could feel my breath, my heartbeat, I could hear Matt right next to me. We walked at a steady pace, step by step, beat by beat, I could sense nothing. No one yet everyone watching. See nothing and seeing everything. Neither of us dared to break the infinite silence with the exception being the rhythmic ups and downs of our breathing and hearts. Time passed, everything was aching the cold was unbearable, I started to shiver a bit. My mind started wandering. I started imagining the Shadow Men, what they looked like, what they would say, I imagined them as shadows like in Disney's Princess And The Frog or something. Then I got to thinking about when we would see them or even if we would. Are we seeing them now? Are they seeing us? On that note...What else is here possibly stalking us? They could be behind us right now. I darted my eyes to one side attempting to look behind me, I was too afraid to turn my head. I saw nothing. My hand met Matt's. We kept hold firmly as we continued to walk. I was still mad at him but I started to realize that if we die here he will be the last human I'll ever talk to. I was starting to feel compassion towards him, like we could be friends.