Kantai Collection: A New Force For Good

The Lives They Live

A/N: Despite all former, current, and future evidence, I am in fact not dead. Not that the world didn't take it's best shot, huh? What a world we live in this day and age? I hope you all are faring alright, this'll all end at some point.

As some of you might be taking to heart, this chapter's a fair bit longer than most. I told you almost a year ago that I wanted to do something special for 100 and I did. Just, a friend suggested that I split it into two, and in honesty, it was a good idea. Gives you more content and takes some of the pressure of making a deadline off of me.

This is Fifty Thousand words and just part one, second part following in the next month or so. So, please, enjoy. Let me know what you think, and I'll try to make our next meeting not so far off next time. See Ya!
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The creak of the wooden floorboards beneath her feet snapped her attention forwards, her eyes darting around wildly. Her orange eyes desperately searched the room, only lit dimly from the corner as a lamp sat on the corner table, the air stale with a metallic tang to it. Her gaze snapped around wildly for a moment before she finally realized something was off.

Bristol didn't know where she was.

She glanced around the room she was apparently standing in the middle of. She supposed it was some sort of bedroom, but it was barren for all but the corner table that held the lamp atop of it's surface. She watched the light flicker, threatening to plunge the room into darkness already. She watched it, the sound of the bulb within the lamp sounding as if it was going to go out at any second. She watched the light flicker against the wall a moment longer before turning her attention to the floorboards below her feet.

They were scratched and cracked, already threatening to splinter in someways as if they'd had constant foot traffic over some unknown length of time. She bent down and ran her fingers along them, only to pause when they encountered something wet.

But when she pulled her fingers back and look at them, rubbing another against them, her fingers were as dry as they had been before.

Bristol frowned.

Once again, she dragged her fingers along the floor, and once again, they felt as if they were being dragged through some sort of liquid. But once again, as she rubbed them together, they were as dry as they'd been the first time. The girl frowned as she did so before standing again, glancing around the room.

Just as laughter seemed to whisper by her.

The girl whirled around, the floorboards creaking underneath her as she did so. She didn't know where it had come from this time, but she knew the laughter, of that there was no doubt. She knew it well. It'd been haunting her dreams for days now, and this was only the newest happening. It'd caught her off guard in the first few, now, she wanted to know why.

Her gaze found the room once again, still bathed in the dim light before she turned for the wooden door. She paused a moment before going for the doorway, her hand coming to rest on the handle.

Once again, her hand felt something wet, she could feel it. She could feel something dripping from the door handle. But once again when she pulled her hand away and looked it over, still yet, it was dry. She frowned deeper as she took the handle and twisted it, pulling the door open and pushing it to the side as she poked her head out of the doorway.

She knew the hallway immediately. She'd seen it before.

The images of the two mystery figures flashed through her mind but she quickly dismissed it as she looked down the left of the hallway. And then took a cautionary glance down the right. When she saw no one, taking a few moments of silence to confirm she couldn't hear anyone either, she slowly but carefully stepped out into the hallway, the floorboards creaking as she did so.