"If Monet let us out more often without all of her rules to think about, we'd probably find a bunch more stuff. I don't get it. Well, I do get it, but I'd take a few risks if it meant we could get more of what we need. Besides, it's not even as risky as she makes it out to be. Trust me, I know."
Uliana was rationalising her decision to go outside from the moment they had actually stepped through the hole, quietly moving the metal sheet away from the entrance so that they didn't get Zisel's attention, such a discreet exit doing very little to reassure Cassia.
All it would take for them to be found out would be the girl leaving her backroom to come and talk to them, if she ended up getting her fill of alone time.
Cassie had agreed to leave the warehouse with Uliana, if only out of a desire to keep an eye out for her, and she'd insisted upon a few conditions.
"Fine, but only if I really do stick close by. I mean so that I can see the way back in, okay?" She'd said to her persistent friend after being all but dragged to her feet.
"Okay, okay, fine."
"And if you go a little further, you keep talking, so I know where you are! Okay?"
"Fine! I'm starting to think that Monet would actually let me go out more if you were with me, if you're gonna be like this."
Asking Uliana to keep talking? She might have well have asked the underground to keep being dark whilst she was at it.
"What exactly are you looking for?" Cassia asked as she watched her go, heading right when they came to the turn at the end of their path, taking the route opposite to the one they would have taken if they'd been aiming for the old street.
Even now, early into their stint outside, she had to glance up the usual path, just in case Monet was somehow coming back already. She wasn't, of course, and Cassie was going to make sure that they were back indoors before the older girl and her companions had even reached the alleyways.
"Anything! There's got to be something around here that's new."
Part of her was beginning to suspect that Uliana had wanted to get out of the warehouse simply for the sake of a change of scenery. She was hardly going to call her out for such reasoning, as she would have liked to do the same herself on a more regular basis - preferably with Monet's blessing.
Was Monet really that serious about staying inside all the time? Yes, the warehouse was a haven, but it was a haven that grew more than a tad tiring after a few hours, as she had repeatedly learned on many occasions.
If not for the other girls, it would have been quite maddening.
Cassia perched herself on one of the old barrels just to the left of the first turn leading away from their hideaway as she continued to watch her friend, who was now going over each and every inch of the direction she'd chosen for herself. The alleys were again under a mostly quiet grip, the tall walls of the other warehouses around them serving to block a great deal of sound from whatever other districts they obscured with their cold forms, only the irregular echoes of work from those unseen places reaching their stretch of the maze.
It was an unbalanced assortment of sounds that she had actually come to know fairly well. Metal striking metal, a raised voice calling out from time to time, the sound of powered tools indicating that someone, somewhere, was still making some kind of effort with something... Perhaps they could expect to hear other, similar noises added to the underground orchestra over the coming days, now that the so called new industrial sector was in the works.
YOU ARE READING
S a l e t é I I
HorrorThat is to say, downhill. Ever beneath. Time fades. Hop, skip, jump. Hide and seek. Scatter, like mice. Things were planted here, and soon they'll grow. No tears, little one. Red doesn't always mean danger. They've all had their tumbles, and learn...