The Affected Fantasy

Chapter 4

"Sophie...?" whispered Josh, looking around.

The door slammed shut , making them all jump.

"Sophie!" called out Nathaniel.

The trio looked around trying to make out the shapes in the dark. They all walked through the halls of the library. Leaves creaking at every step they took, hinting that nobody cleaned this place in a long time.

"SOPHIE!" screamed Kitty. Another scream followed, but this time, it was none of them.

"Sophie, is that you?" called out Nathaniel.

No reply.

"SOPHIE...IS THAT YOU?" screamed Kitty.

"Yeah!" echoed a voice.

"Sophie! Sophie! Are you okay?" Josh

"Room number B-75!" echoed the voice.

"Room number..." trailed off the voice.

"Come on." said Kitty pulling Josh by his hand, but ended up tripping over a fallen book.

"Ow!" Kitty let out a small scream.

"Guys, we can't just go on stumbling in the dark. Get out your flashlights." said Nathaniel blindly moving his hands over the walls in search of a light switch, but was unable to find any.

"Why didn't we think of that earlier" muttered Kitty to herself , "at least I wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Guys! My flashlight isn't working, you have any extra one?."

"Yeah, here you go"

"Thanks Josh" replied Kitty taking the Flashlight.

"Thanks for what?"  wondered aloud Josh.

"For the Flashlight duh."

"But I didn't give you any" said Josh confused.

"Yes you did." said Kitty holding up her hand but it was empty, " Wait what!? That-that was just in my hand."

Saying so she started looking around in case she had dropped it somewhere.

"How can this be possible! Josh, you just gave it to me and I took it!"

"But I didn't give you any!"  protested Josh.

"Josh! This is not the time for playing around!"

"Umm, guys. I think we should concentrate on finding Sophie.  Kat, you are probably worried about Sophie, or your mind is playing tricks on you-"

"But I'm not lying!" interrupted Kitty.

"And neither am I!"  put in Josh.

"Guys, Finding Sophie is our main priority now. We can think about this later."

"But-" started Kitty but was cut short when Nathaniel ushered them both ahead.

"Later" said Nathaniel firmly.

They walked on for a while, stumbling and bumping into invisible things. Until all of them had some bruises or other due to the falls, Nathaniel reminded Josh of the night vision glasses which he had packed before leaving.

"Why didn't we think of this earlier, it would've saved a lot time." muttered Josh to himself, rummaging in his backpack for the glasses.

"Where. Did. They. Go" said Josh taking out things from his backpack

"What are you doing Josh? We're running out of time." said Nathaniel looking around for some signs of Sophie's presence.

"I can't find them! I remember clearly, I had packed them. We had gone through our things at Sophie's place before leaving." said Josh panicking slightly.

"Yeah we'd seen you pack it, did you check in every pocket? In every compartment?"  asked Kitty.

"Yes everywhere." answered Josh as he emptied his backpack and turning it up side down so that a couple of chocolate wrappers fell out.

" I'll throw these wrappers away." offered Nathaniel
 
He bent down to pick them up and was about to throw them
"No wait, there's something written here." said Nathaniel handing Kitty his flashlight so he could read the note.

On the underside of the cover were some words scrawled on the wrapper.

'It was a mistake for you to regret now. Pay the price or change it twice.'

"Pay the price? Change it twice? Change what?" , wondered aloud Kitty who was reading the peering in above Nathaniel's shoulder.

"Josh? You've got anything to say?" asked Kitty looking up at him.

"That wasn't written by me nor was it there when I opened the wrapper to eat the candy which was just last week."  replied Josh looking confused.

"I'm getting really weird vibes here." said Nathaniel looking around shivering slightly.

"Oh come on! This makes it way more interesting then we thought it would be." said Kathleen looking at the other two excitedly.

"Oh, I do think it was a good a idea to come here. I'm starting to think Sophie was right."  confessed Nathaniel.

"Yeah, but we can't leave now. We need to find Sophie and explore this place."  said Kitty taking the note from Nathaniel's hand and slipping it into her back pocket when she felt something in it and pulled it out which turned out to be her cell phone.

"Hey, why don't we try calling Sophie? I'm sure she has her phone with her." said Kitty turning on her phone and her face was lit by the brightness of the screen. She squinted a bit to let her eyes get adjusted to the sudden brightness.

"Oh. There's no signal." said Kitty frowning and holding her phone and moving it around in search of signal. "Nope, we won't be able to call her unless you both have signal on your phones which is unlikely."

The other two checked their cell phones but gave the same reaction.

"We should better find Room B-75." said Josh.

They walked on calling out Sophie's name. Until they reached Room number B-35.

"Okay, B-35, B-36"  muttered Nathaniel under his breath, " Ah yes! B-37." 

"Okay guys, I hope Sophie is in here. Let's go."

The other two nodded in the dark. Nathaniel pushed the door but it wouldn't budge. The others volunteered to help and the three of them tried pushing the door but we're unable to.

"Uh oh. The door's locked it seems." said Kitty still trying to push the door.

"Sophie! Sophie! Sophie are you in there?" called out Nathaniel.

"Ye-"  came a reply but was cut short by a loud crash on the other side of the door.