mantra ✓

035

chapter triggers for blood +
mentions of death, stay safe!

———

ALEX'S FLASHLIGHT SWEEPS THE FIELD IN AN ARC as the two of them - her and Tom - walk in the darkness. The ground is muddy and acts almost like quicksand as they head towards the looming building in the distance.

It didn't take them all that long to figure out the warehouse being referred to by MANTRA - an old explosives factory from World War II wasn't too far, and from looking at the background of the video and pictures from Google, it seems like a match.

"Are you OK?" Madelaine asks through the voice-chat as Alex and Tom make their way forwards, slowly getting closer and closer to the short, squat mound of bricks.

"Yeah, not there yet though." Tom replies in a whisper, hoping the microphone will pick up his low tone of voice. "So we'll see how we go. Hopefully we'll be right, because if not..."

Alex inhales sharply as her foot hits something wetter than the mud, and tilts her flashlight towards it.

The blood is bright red and neon against the darkness of the ground: it's a surprise that neither of them saw it before. What looks suspiciously like drag marks - from feet or another body part - distorts the otherwise perfect pool, pulling it in the direction of the warehouse.

Alex doesn't move, despite Tom shouting and the fear gripping her tightly - all she does is crouch downwards and stare intensely at it.

"Is that Awsten's?" He asks in a whisper, directing his phone screen towards the blood and allowing the members of the Skype call to see it.

"I don't know." She replies grimly, before standing up and aiming the torch straight ahead again and screaming.

A slumped corpse is just caught in the left side of the beam: it's folded over unnaturally far--

"Almost as if the spine was broken." Alex says, the words sending a violent shiver straight down her own spinal cord. Tom reacts the same way, exhaling sharply and then sighing.

"You're nearly there now." comes a voice, presumably Noah, and Alex breathes in and nods.

"Yeah, we should carry on. Almost there, to save our friend and maybe fight a creepy cultist, it'll all be good..."

Neither Tom nor Alex want to walk in silence, but every conversation topic they can think of seems too out of place for such a tense situation.

Finally, after what seems like infinity, the ground starts to slope, leading them straight to a slightly ajar door. The whole thing seems too like a horror movie to be real, but Alex swallows her fear and waits for a second.

"Shall we?"