CHAPTER 15
We walked further inside, and there was... a hot cup of coffee? It was still warm, which indicated someone was here—or is here. But as we all approached the bedroom, we saw a piece of jewelry that definitely belonged to Ruby. She wore it all the time. And as we progressed, we saw her... t-shirt..?
We all approached the shirt, but something was off. There was blood on it, like before. Is it a coincidence? Or was I imagining the blood? Either way, we still had to search around just to make sure. It took a while, but we searched all around the apartment, and no sign of any living being except that shirt and warm cup of coffee that has now gone cold.
We all sighed, as Christian and Nicole sat on the oddly long sofa. I was sitting in a black swivel chair.
"How are we going to find her? She obviously isn't going to be that easy to find," Nicole sulked.
"True... but we did find some clues, like her bracelet. It's a good start," Christian added, trying to lighten Nicole's mood a bit.
"Don't worry, Nicole. We'll find her," I said, spinning around slightly in my chair.
"We should get to searching the other floors now, though," Christian said, which was pretty true if we wanted to make progress.
I nodded. "Yeah, we should get moving." Although Nicole seemed a bit against it at first, he agreed.
"Let's move then," Nicole said. I jumped out of the swivel chair and grabbed the metal bar that was leaning on a wall beside me. The other two did the same and grabbed their weapons. I hadn't lowered my guard and cautiously stepped out of the apartment, which was still open since we didn't close it.
I started up the stairs, with both of them following my lead.
Once we got to the other floor, we heard footsteps coming closer and closer, coming from the stairs. We all quickly but quietly hid in an apartment next to us, listening attentively to the footsteps, which slowly faded away going downstairs. I sighed in relief. I turned around, only to be met with a tall, almost 7-foot murk. I reached for someone's shoulder beside me—the murk watching me, but I didn't make direct eye contact with it. It happened to be Christian's shoulder. He turned around and just stared in pure fear. Nicole turned around as well.
"Hey guys, shouldn't we—" he cut himself off and grabbed me by my shirt.
"Don't. Move," he said, and let go. Its eyes were creepy as hell, so I didn't look at it, and judging from where the other two were looking, I don't think they made direct eye contact with it either.
We just stayed frozen as Nicole kept saying, "Don't move, don't move, don't move." I don't know why, but I stayed silent and obeyed him. It slowly reached its hand out and touched... my hair?! I stood still, but by now I bet it heard my heartbeat, but I still stayed frozen in place. It let go and slowly walked away from us with a low, deep growl. I instantly let out a deep breath I didn't know I had been holding in for a while. I stepped in front, peeking around the corner of the door, to see if it had gone fully. It was nowhere in sight, but you could hear loud and heavy footsteps above, which I think was pretty obvious who it was.
I quietly closed and locked the door, but knowing it could seemingly break in anytime it wanted to, it had me on edge. But, I took a deep breath and looked around, still with my guard up and cautiously walking to another room. I peeked my head around the corner while I could hear Nicole's footsteps approaching, while I heard the other plop comfortably on the couch.
"These apartments are pretty fancy, and they even have a PS5! Why don't we settle here—"
Nicole cut Christian off, irritated slightly.
"No, we can't. We need to save and/or find Ruby. Chillaxing isn't a choice, Chris."
I could hear them in the living room, but I was much too focused and cautiously busy with my mission.
I walked into a fancy-looking bedroom. It had a bunk bed, two desks on each side of the room, and a big TV covering probably one fifth of the wall. One of the desks had a few books on it, while the other was neatly arranged, with a lamp which was turned on but out of battery/charge. But it was pretty prestigious considering I'm a pretty messy person. I walked a bit closer to the bed, which was messy, and I saw a broken-in-half polaroid film picture.
It was one little girl and a teenage, about-my-age-looking boy and two parents or grandparents.
I put the picture together, and it was... pretty admirable and cute. I looked around and approached the messy desk. There was tape on the table, and I took some and fixed the photo, and left it back on the bed where I found it. I sat on the bed, observing the room a bit more. There was a big closet on the left near the bathroom, and I stood up walking up to the closet. I opened it, and it was a bunch of clothes. They all were... old-styled clothes. As in jumpsuits, olden-day dresses and skirts, and a lot more.
While I was so distracted by the room, I heard my name being called by a familiar voice.
"PERRYYY!!" called out probably Christian in a very him voice. I sighed and rolled my eyes. I walked to the doorframe of the bedroom and leaned on it.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow, looking at the both of them. I saw that Nicole held an iPhone and from what I could make out on the screen, it said 'breaking news'. I walked over and leaned over the sofa, my shadow covering them. I looked at the screen.
"You need to see this," Nicole replied. I raised an eyebrow again, and Nicole played the video showing it to me.
"Recently, there was an experiment gone wrong in the lab and brought destruction to almost more than half the world. And to the few survivors in Korea, or anyone watching this, please keep in mind that some mysterious dark purple creatures have been popping up and baiting humans. They are smart and not like zombies. They are almost fully conscious as the creature and are pretty intelligent creatures. And an important note is do NOT, whatever you do, stare into their eyes. They could claim you their target if you do. A glance is fine, but do not stare for more than 5 seconds."
The woman on the news was very specific with this, so murks were not something to take lightly at all.
"This... they're not something to be messed with so lightly," I said, taking the phone from Nicole.
"When was this anyway?" I asked, looking everywhere for the date.
"This was only around one and a half weeks ago..." Nicole replied.
"Really? That recent?... Damn..." I sighed, sitting on a nearby bean bag that was on the ground.
"Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment but continue our mission to find Ruby," Nicole added, standing up. He walked in a relaxed way to the kitchen and approached the fridge silently. I turned my gaze away to Christian, who was laying on the sofa.
I observed him, but realized I was staring for longer than needed, and looked away, slightly embarrassed.
I looked around the area, as it was pretty big and spacious. I noticed a lot of things. It was pretty modernized, but yet old-looking. I stood up, and as I did, I felt a long-lasting vibration. It was the house—it lasted at the most 5 seconds, which is pretty long if you ask me. I instinctively looked at the front door and forgot I had locked it.
"What the hell was that?" Christian asked, walking up to the both of us.
I walked closer to the front door and pressed my ear against it.
"Let's go check it out, no?" Nicole said, and I nodded, and Christian seemed to agree too.
I silently unlocked then opened the front door and looked around, the metal bat in my hands. I firmly gripped it as we walked down the stairs and held it beside my face, holding it with both my hands. As we went down, I almost tripped and fell, but luckily Christian was in front of me, so I held onto his shoulder to prevent my fall. He gave me a sus look but brushed it off.
I managed to make it all the way down without tripping again, and as we made it down—Christian taking the lead now—he peeked in the lounge room only to see Ruby with another murk next to her.