Unexpected Turns

Difficult

Maka knew something was wrong the moment she stepped out of the office.

She had gotten off the phone will Soul an hour ago. Her flight was at six but she wanted to get back to her hotel and be ready to leave the moment it was time to go. Her meetings had all finished and she was good to go, but something felt off the moment she started to leave.

She was missing something. It was like there were souls here… Souls that were not here before and were not meant to be. Or simply soul's that couldn't have gotten here so quickly. No, that didn't make any sense. Maybe she was just feeling a little off since she missed Soul and the kids so much.

Maka shrugged but kept her guard up as she made her way to the elevator. It was empty when she stepped in and pressed the down button, excitement finally starting to flutter in her stomach. It had only been a couple of days but Maka never knew she could miss people so much. She leant back on the wall of the elevator as the doors closed and it began to descend.

That's when Maka felt it.

Witches.

About eight of them released their Soul Protect at exactly the right time, which was extremely disorientating. Maka tried desperately to get her wits about her but the moment she did, there was a long, almost inaudible high pitched frequency that got louder and louder before she heard a terrible, ear splitting bang.

The whole elevator shook. So hard that Maka feared the chords holding it in place might snap. She threw out her arms out to press on either side of the walls and hold herself up. Finally, the shaking and noise ceased and all she could hear was the whimpering and groaning of people around the building. That told her all she needed to know.

A bomb.

Maka pressed a hand to her mouth and crouched to the floor. The amount of souls in the building had gone down so much she couldn't help but release a tiny sob. All those people… What terrified her more is those who somehow survived the blast were being picked off one by one by the witches souls she'd felt.

Maka's eyes narrowed into slits and she stood straight and slowly. She couldn't give herself away now. She closed her eyes and zeroed in on the witches souls. Unsurprisingly, they were weak. That must have been why they used bombs, the only way they could have any hope of killing meister's and weapons was to weaken them first.

"Absolute cowards," Maka muttered, her voice barley audible. She shook her head and concentrated. It wouldn't be hard to get past them, the only issue was her retreating could result in them getting away.

Maka knew better than to use her phone right now. The witches were weak in soul but they would probably know if someone was trying to contact someone on the outside using a phone. Maka pulled a clutch mirror from her bag and clicked it open.

"42-42…" Maka mouthed the numbers as she drew them on the glass, only to fight a growl when nothing happened.

"So, they're not that stupid…" She muttered and quietly snapped the mirror shut and put it back. They had found a way to evade Death himself. She looked up to the flickering light on the ceiling and smiled when she saw a small hatch.

She jumped up with ease and pushed the hatch open with little difficultly. When she finally pulled herself up, she stood on top of the elevator and located the ladder to take her back to the upper floor.