OddityVille: Ground Floor (Book One)

Chapter Four: Silky Laces

    
Lindsy's head swims as the girlish titters come from behind her. The beam from her flashlight fills the empty space between herself and conference room 239. The rays shift in small motions from side to side as her unsteady hands try to angle it. As the hinges grind against themselves, the opening widens. Lindsy steps inside and points her flashlight toward the ceiling. The child-like sounds had stopped as she walked in and the fumbling above started up once more. She keeps the light as close to the sounds as she can manage but the shaft makes this difficult, as both gratings on opposite sides of the room produce the same audio.

"Where are you?" Lindsy remains uncertain as to why she is still searching for the girl, but feels that she must and jerks her head in every which way as the thumping above is produced. The knocking sounds of bone on metal, as if there is no meat or skin to separate the girl's knees from her encasement. "Miss?" The thumping stops.

"I'm here!" The strumming of fingertips is heard from the furthest vent. Lindsy shines her light on it and sees little bursts of dust break away from the thin white bars with each run of the hidden fingers down them.

She musters what amount of bravery she can and steps nearer to the vent. The low, repetitive sound fills her ears as she keeps her light pointing at it. Once she is directly beneath it, she watches the dust fall. The fingers she clearly hears are nowhere to be seen, but the effects of their motions are. The dust trails down in wavy lengths, almost dancing as it heavily freefalls from above.

"Can you come down?" The strumming stops. The last bit of dust to break away spills onto the floor. "Sweety?" No reply follows. Nervously, Lindsy pulls a chair away from the central desk and places it beneath the vent. The room she stands in is identical to 339, so she had no need in her flashlight to find the chair. She stands on it and listens to the faint breeze that passes through the ventilation. She then closes her eyes and places her hands on the cold frame. With little to no effort, the cover slides off. Lindsy sets it on the desk and gazes hesitantly through the opening. Then, she places her fingers within and holds the flashlight in her mouth. She pulls herself up with ease and keeps her hands on the frame to avoid falling. Her fearful expression becomes less as she turns in both directions the shaft opens into. Unable to speak- due to the flashlight- she continues to scan the surroundings. A distant set of fan blades slowly rotates, pushing air away from her. She can hear the blades skim their encasement, making small metallic scratching sounds with each passing motion. She watches the fan for a moment before turning away. Clang! The flashlight drops against the base of the vent as dread flushes over her face. Where the shaft she is in meets another, a T shape is made. On the left side of the split is a hand, connected to an arm that is mostly out of sight. She can tell by the size of the nails that it is the girl, but she isn't moving. "Hey, are you alright? Tap your fingers if you're okay." The hand remains still. Lindsy remembers telling the girl to respond with three knocks and puts her knuckles out in front of herself. Clong, clong, clong. The sound reverberates around her for a moment. Cling, cling, cling.

Smaller knuckles repeat the motion. Lindsy's face goes white. The hand in front of her remains still as the response rings against the back of her head. Her heart and lungs stop and her chin meets with her shoulder. Her eyes widen as the left one meets with another that isn't her own, less than six inches away. The sphere pierces into hers, surrounded by lengthy black hair and pale skin. The whites of the eye make up most of it and their veins spill onto what bit of the sunken face she can see. It doesn't blink and the head remains perfectly still. Lindsy shrieks. Out of fear, her arms buckle, dropping her from the vent and sending her to the ground on her back. The impact knocks the wind out of her, forcing her to watch the opening as she tries to catch her breath and get back to her feet. The flashlight within the vent begins to roll around. Lindsy watches the beam shift directions and hears the metal on metal grinding. Then, painful shrieking erupts from above. Continuous, repetitive wailing of the child as the flashlight beats against the walls. Lindsy watches the outside of the ventilation dent and shake due to the distress, but cannot move to get away from it.