S a l e t é I I

XV - Côtes - Neuf

The room was a mess.

Cabinets that had once lined the walls on two adjoining sides of the room had been tipped over, broken or smashed, the metal that they were made of practically beaten out of shape and left to collect an assortment of dust, webs and rust.

A few papers were left here and there, scattered on the ground in slim numbers, the scene giving the impression that the place had been overturned in the process of a thorough ransacking, with absolutely no care given to anything whatsoever.

A cork board was mounted on one of the walls, albeit barely. Two of the nails keeping it there had come loose, leaving it hanging weakly, not that many things were even left attached to it in the first place.

Two desks were present in the room, situated across from each other on either side of the door that the girls had come in from. The drawers built into these desks were all open and barren - adding further credence to the idea that the place had been searched - whilst a computer was present behind one of them, tossed into that corner of the room, its monitor thoroughly smashed and its tower gutted, leaving little more than an empty husk of useless plastic and gnarled metal.

Something else that Cassia hadn't seen for what felt like an eternity was actually visible in this former office, fixed to one of the walls - a clock. It was basic in design, round and white, the sight of it making her heart skip a beat. Such a feeling was short lived, because of course it had stopped, the plastic casing protecting its frozen hands rendered ugly and cracked.

"We don't really use these rooms for anything, so we just sort of left them as they were." Sleeves explained as she too scanned the contents between the four walls, her own gaze suggesting that her curiosity was indeed on the up again.

They stepped further inside, making sure that the door stayed open first, Uliana positioning herself in the middle of the room so that her candle would illuminate as much as possible - which wasn't much at all. Sleeves began to look through the desk to the left, making sure that it really was empty, whilst Cassia crouched down for a moment so that she could pick up one of the papers that had been left behind.

It was somewhat withered, its once clean white colour now a light, creased brown, and she gave it a gentle shake to get any grit off of it. She moved to stand beside Uliana so that they could glance over it together.

"LMDA? What does that mean?" Uliana asked as she viewed the logo printed on the top right of the page. The letters surrounded a small, solid black silhouette of what looked like a few high-rise buildings, part of a cityscape.

Reading ahead, Cassia found the answer.

"Lower Merveille Development Agency...? Was that what this place was called?" She asked in turn, looking over to Sleeves, the younger girl shrugging.

"Not a clue."

The paper looked like some sort of notice, featuring nothing that might have been useful - no other names, no addresses, no contact details. Half of the text was completely faded - almost as if something had been spilled on it at one point - meaning that she couldn't read much. From what was there, she gathered that it was to do with safety.

It has come to our attention... In the past four weeks... Inspection... Funding will be... Expecting the best from...

An inspection? Had something gone wrong, and led to the factory's closure? The name of the company behind it was niggling away in her head now - Lower Merveille Development Agency. This place had a development agency? That actually sounded professional, and yet nothing she'd seen out there - apart from warehouses and smaller factory style buildings - looked remotely professional.