Novels2Search

2.6

April finds the Monas Hieroglyphica symbol drawn on the wall, just as Kyle found it. She takes the photo he took out of her bag and compares it. It looks the same, except it’s currently the dead of night and there’s no sunlight to help her see one bit. She quickly puts it away and goes down the passage, following the arrow. A chain-linked fence blocks the way, but she’s no stranger to some light trespassing for the spooks and the occasional urban exploration. Grabbing onto the fence, she jumps up and over, gaining a few scratches. She clumsily drops to the ground, landing on her arms to absorb the fall. April dusts herself after getting up and grabs her flashlight. With a flick, it brightens up a portion of her vision.

She slowly creeps along the alley, making sure her steps are silent so as not to alert anyone. Carefully waving her flashlight around, she steps over the trash and looks for the next symbol—the pentacle. Not long after, she finds the wall with it. She takes out the photo again, confirming the position. She nods her head, maybe Kyle did stumble across these on his own. It wasn’t hard to find them after finding the first one, the arrows pointing in the right direction lead the way. Though it was suspicious, why did someone do this? The night breeze picks up, causing bits of paper to lift off the ground. The gentle swishing alarms April and she quickly illuminates the ground. She lets out a sigh when she realises nothing is there, thankfully.

She sneaks forward, flashlight in front of her, and comes to a halt. The ground looks darker here, as if… something burned it. Could this be the dumpster fire he was talking about? She squints and wafts the air after an unpleasant smell reaches her. Slowly, she raises her flashlight to see farther, and the light barely hits a figure, splayed out on the ground. April gasps and nearly drops her flashlight in shock. Confused, she calls out to the figure.

“Hello? A-Are you okay? What…” As she gets closer to help the person, the realization dawns on her once the light reveals the truth. This person is dead. Her hand, reaching out to them just before, covers her mouth instead. She trembles and is taken aback at the sight. A woman, wearing a sooty hoodie and melted flesh on her bones. Her face is unrecognizable, skin cracked and eyes sunken in. The few strands of hair left on her head are tangled and dry. April’s breaths get shakier as if her brain was short-circuiting. What. How. Why. When. Who. Her eyes dart around to find answers to the gory scene. A blackened metal dumpster, bullet holes, an empty cartridge, gun. A fight, probably. Some altercation, between Kyle and this person? Then somebody shot at the dumpster, prompting a fire to start. But… why? She slows her breathing in an attempt to calm her beating heart. April remembers something. In the pictures that Kyle took, there was a triangle symbol along with another arrow, but there was no other image afterwards to show what the arrow could have been pointing towards. She’d been wondering why there wasn’t another photo after that. It must have something to do with this person’s death. After biting her lip, she carefully steps over the body and goes on.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

She warily scans the walls as she gets further down the alley, noticing more bullet holes. One, two… counting the one in the dumpster, the total amount would be sixteen. Scrawled onto the side, she also finds the triangle. Sooner or later, April would find the missing piece to this puzzle. As she approaches the passage's end, her hand begins to tighten around her flashlight. The circle of light drags across the darkness before finally hitting the edge of the wall. She raises her arm and illuminates the message. Her eyes flicker from left to right over and over again, following the crude letters and trying to look for a reason or meaning. Why should someone be dead? Who is this message referring to? The dead body, or… Kyle? It just doesn’t make sense. But it needs to make sense. Otherwise, the danger is unknown, and if she doesn’t know, how can she protect herself and everyone else? She can’t steady her breathing here anymore. April needs to leave. She turns almost exactly a hundred-eighty degrees and starts sprinting out of the alley, being light on her feet. Just what is Kyle hiding?