Chapter 18-
"Th-This is Rowan?" Samantha squeaks, pushing Lexi and Ellie in front of her like a shield. Ellie is not happy being pushed to the front, so she grabs Jonah and pulls him in front of her. Jonah just groans, looking at the dark building towering in front of them. Vines crawled all over the building to where you could just barely see broken windows. Beyond the broken windows, the darkness seems to seep out of the place like ink.
"Well, have fun dying!" The Tyler kid waves at them, smirking as he walked back to stand by the gate. "I'll be back in a few hours for my ice cream if you survive."
"That kid doesn't know how right he actually is..." Caralynn murmurs, looking a tad nervous herself. The others all squirmed nervously, looking this way and that. They don't want to admit it, but they're all extremely nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous when going into the heart of Darkness itself?
The only one without a hint of nerves was Sera, who strode towards the building with her head held high.
"Well? I'm not going to wait for you guys. If Nalin is inside, it doesn't matter." She continued walking without looking back. A second later, Josh followed. Then Jonah, then Samantha and Andy (their hands clasped together), then Ellie and Caralynn. Finally, only Luke and Lexi were left standing there.
"Coming?" Luke asked, trying to give her a reassuring smile as he held out his hand. For a split second, he swore he something about her just... Flicker? But then she was back, smiling and taking his hand. He just shook his head, saying it was his nerves. She was his normal Lexi.
"Let's go save them." She nodded as they followed the others.
No one noticed the shadows around the building starting to take form. No one noticed Lexi's little smile as they walked into the building. And not one of them noticed the doors lock behind them.
***
"It's so cold in here." Andy shivered, hugging close to Samantha as she raised her body temperature. Meanwhile, Sera, Jonah, Lexi, and Josh all lit their hands on fire, driving away the darkness. Now they could see how rundown the building truly looked from the inside. The floor was cracked, parts of it missing. The used-to-be white wallpaper was peeling off, revealing bricks beneath. Some graffiti decorated part of it. Strange symbols. Lexi turned, directing her fire ahead of her.
"Hey, guys! There's a staircase over here!" She called. The others walked over to her, looking to where the dark staircase led to the second floor.
"Yeah, guess we can't use the elevator," Jonah chuckled without humor. Without another word, they started up the staircase. It creaked loudly beneath their feet, threatening to collapse but holding steady. Sera, Josh, and Jonah led the way with their fire while Lexi lit up the back. No one noticed the shadows silently growing beneath the flame. And then, no one noticed when Luke disappeared in them. Lexi said nothing, just kept walking. The shadows followed after them, their long arms reaching out to brush the group's feet. One wrapped itself around Samantha's ankle. By the time she noticed, she had silently fallen through the shadows of the floor. And, of course, Lexi was the only one who noticed any of this, being at the back of the group.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they noticed, however.
"Wait. Where's Samantha?" Andy said, panic creeping into his voice as he looks around. The others glance around, too.
"Luke's gone, too." Sera points out.
"Weren't they just following us, though?" Josh asks, holding his hand up for more light.
"They were behind me, so I didn't see," Lexi smoothly lies.
"I'm gonna go look for them. You guys can keep going." Andy says, clenching his fists. He had let go of Samantha for one second...
"I don't kn-" Jonah started to say.
"Okay, come on guys. The sooner we find Nalin and the others, the better." Sera says quickly, hurrying down the cracked hallway. The others look after her with worry for a second before following. Andy walks back to the stairs, where the group doesn't see him disappear into the shadows.
The second floor is practically identical to the first- graffiti and all. They look in all of the rooms, but don't see anything but bed frames inside... And dark stains on the floor. From the windows, they can see it is now pitch black, however.
"This place is so creepy..." Caralynn whispers, rubbing her arms.
"Well, there's only two floors left to search. Let's keep going. Everyone stay close." Josh says, starting on the second staircase. This one is less stable than the first, and a step breaks beneath his foot. So the rest carefully make their way up. Again, the group doesn't notice when Caralynn falls through the shadows without a sound. When they get to the top of the staircase, they look around at their group, now reduced to five.
"Okay, where is everyone going?" Sera says in frustration. They look back towards the stairs but no one is there.
"Something really bad is going on here." Ellie says, looking around. The walls seem to have gotten closer as well as the shadows. No one else notices.
"And its so much more colder up here," Lexi says, showing how she can see her breath.
"Hey, guys..."
"There's got to be something up with this. Maybe we're just missing something." Josh points out.
"Hey, guys..."
"Maybe we should go back downstairs and look." Jonah suggests.
"Guys."
"What is it, Ellie?" Sera snaps.
"The shadows have eyes." Ellie whispers, her voice faltering. Everyone turns to look down the hallway where Ellie is stood. And the shadows don't just seem to be reaching out for them anymore. They actually are. And each one has a pair of glowing gold eyes.
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I'm back from being busy! So much has been going on that I didn't even think about writing. But now I should be wrapping up this story soon. Thank you to everyone who has been commenting and voting lately! It really makes my day whenever I see your comments! Also, the first story to this, Raven Academy for the Extraordinary, is at 97.7K reads! That's so many! I never imagined people would like this book so much! So thank you to everyone reading this! I love you all and will try to make the ending of this book spectacular for you!
