Fourteen Little Cephalopods (Splatoon fanfiction) [Cancelled]

Chapter 11

Fjord opened a drawer in the kitchen and rummaged through it, hoping to find something they could use. Rusty forks, broken dishes and glasses. Nothing. She sighed and looked around. Camo sat in a chair right next to her, staring into nothingness. She could see Misu in the next room, opening cabinets. "Find anything?" Fjord asked.

"Take a guess," Camo said and leaned back. Misu looked up and shrugged in defeat. "Nothing."

Fjord scratched her head. "We've searched the entire first floor. Are you sure we searched everywhere?"

Misu shrugged. "I think so, we didn't see any other rooms."

Fjord sighed. "Alright. Let's search the basement, maybe we have better luck there."

Misu nodded and made her way to where the basement door was. Fjord walked over to Camo and took his hand. "Come on Camo," she said. "We're going downstairs."

Camo stood up. Fjord stared into his eyes. The pale eyes looked like they were staring through her. It made chills crawl down her back. They made their way downstairs, Fjord making sure Camo didn't fall on his way down. When they'd made it down, Fjord made Camo sit down on a box and turned to Misu. "Alright, you take the left side, I'll the right. Just call out if something happens."

Misu nodded and walked down the left hallway. Fjord turned to Camo. "Camo, you can—"

"Oh don't worry about me, I'll just sit here and listen," he said and leaned up to the wall. Fjord smiled a bit and made her way down the corridor. The basement was large, larger than any normal basement. It looked like it was mainly for workrooms. Workshops, rooms for the purpose of cutting wood. Fjord looked through some of them. She looked through piles of hammers, nails, rusty knives and more. She walked from room to room, with no success. At last, she came into a room with a large heater. Piles of coal were piled up in the corner and shovels lay on the ground. A new train of thought crossed Fjord's mind. If she could get the heater to work, it might heat up the house a bit. Then they wouldn't have to sleep in this freezing cold.

Fjord pulled up her sleeves and examined the heater. Miraculously, it still looked like it worked. None of the pipes were broken, and all of the valves looked fine. The only problem was that there was something old and rotten inside the heater, which smelled horribly. But that shouldn't affect the heater that much. Fjord took up a shovel and threw piles of coal into the furnace. When she'd filled it up, she started to look around for something to light it up with. She found a small bottle of oil, and a box of dry matches. She poured the oil onto the coal and threw the match inside. After a few failed attempts, she was able to get the furnace going. She turned some valves and could hear water being pumped through the pipes. Now all they needed to do was to check on the furnace regularly and throw some more coal in every now and then.

Fjord was covered in soot and her eyes were watery. She sighed, pleased by how well everything had gone and made her way out of the room. She froze. There was something off. She backed up a few steps and looked at the room again. No, everything seemed in order. Fjord scratched her head and turned back. And then she saw it. The walls that surrounded the room had abnormally thick walls. It was weird. You could fit an entire person inside these walls. Fjord walked around, examining the other walls. Some of them were normal size, but some of them were abnormally thick. As Fjord continued to explore, she noticed something else that was out of place. Some areas of the house looked like they were walled off. Places that could have very easily been entire rooms were completely surrounded by walls. "It's a waste of space," Fjord muttered. She'd have to check other places in the house to see if they were the same.

Fjord didn't know how much time had passed when she'd finally finished all the rooms. She made her way back to where Camo sat. "I'm finished with my side of the basement. I'm gonna go check on Misu, do you know where she is?"

Camo pointed down a corridor. "I heard some shuffling coming from that direction," he said. "Might be her."

"Thanks," answered Fjord and made her way down the hallway. "Hey Misu," she said and checked inside the rooms. "I'm done looking, how much do you have left?"

No answer. "Misu?" Fjord called again. Where was she? She at the end of the corridor was a room filled with large crates. A dead end. Fjord looked around frantically for Misu, but couldn't find her anywhere. "Misu!" she called again, her heart racing. Was she okay? Had the murderer got her? "Oh cod, it's all my fault!" Fjord murmured and grabbed around her head. "I should've been more careful!"

Fjord ran room to room, making sure she'd not missed anything. "Misu!" she called at the top of her lungs.

"I'm here!" a voice came somewhere. Fjord sprinted towards the source of the voice. She came back into the room where Camo lay and looked around frantically. "Camo, do you know where she i—"

She froze. Misu came walking down the corridor to Fjord's left, a perplexed expression on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked. Fjord had a difficult time finding the words. "I thought you'd been caught!" Fjord was finally able to say. "Why didn't you answer me?"

Misu looked surprised. "I couldn't hear you at first. This basement is gigantic, it's hard to hear anything. I was just back there looking."

She pointed behind her. Fjord tried to say something, but the words all froze in her throat. She looked back down the corridor she'd just come from. Then what, or rather, who had Camo heard? Shivers crawled up Fjord's arms. She didn't dare to go back there. Fjord took a deep breath to calm herself. "Alright, I'm finished searching. What about you?"

Misu nodded. Fjord sighed. "Find anything?"

Misu shook her head. "Nothing useful, but I did find something really strange."

"What was it?" asked Fjord. Misu pointed back down the corridor she'd come from. There's this large room back there filled with food elevators. It took me a while to figure out, but I think there's a food elevator that leads up to every single bedroom."

Fjord raised an eyebrow. "There's a food elevator in every single room?" she asked. "Didn't see any in my room."

Misu nodded. "I think so at least. I think I heard Aima and Richie at the end of one of them. It was faint, but I think it was their voices. And they were assigned with searching the bedrooms, so I just thought that's where these elevators led."

Fjord nodded. She was right about that, Aima and Richie were the ones searching the bedrooms. Besides, food elevators usually led up to bedrooms. Maybe she should check around her room tonight. "Alright, thanks for letting me know," Fjord said. "I didn't find anything useful either, but I found a furnace and got it to work. It won't be as cold here anymore."

Misu smiled. "Oh, thank cod. It was freezing yesterday!"

Fjord nodded. "We'll just have to check on it regularly. Anyway, should we go upstairs?"

Misu nodded. Fjord took Camo's hand and together the three of them made their way back upstairs.