keeper (d. Hale)

pest control.

"Derek?"

"Yeah," he answered before stopping suddenly to clear his throat and try again in a much deeper voice, but it did nothing to sound like the adult version Delilah was used to.

Delilah kept her hand held curled tightly in his as the darkness continued to creep in around them. It seemed to swallow them whole as they continued down the stairs and into the belly of the vault.

"I really don't like this," she whispered back as she kept her voice low and for his ears only. Something was listening. She knew that for certain as the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

Whatever it was, it didn't seem to alter Derek as he kept his focus forward and into the dark. That seemed to make Delilah even more uneasy as he was just a child, for all intents and purposes, and she shouldn't even think he was anywhere near capable of fighting like his adult self.

And she didn't want to test that, at least, not unless there was a dire need to do so.

They reached the bottom step, and the feeling of solid ground made Delilah relax, but only slightly. Her guard was still up, and she had already decided that she was going to refuse to let go of Derek's hand.  

"We will be quick, Delilah. Come on, I think it's this way," Derek said as he pulled Delilah slightly to the left. He paused for a moment to feel along the wall for a light switch. With a quiet snap, the room was suddenly illuminated in a soft glow.

"This looks like a bunker," Delilah blinked as her eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness with a series of fluttering blinks. 

Tall shelves lined the walls and were evenly spaced to stand in groups of three like the ones in the file room in the hospital. However, these did not merely hold the medical history of the residents of the town. No, each of them were filled with things both recognizable and utterly confounding. Delilah wasn't sure what to make of the collection of objects as Derek tugged her hand and pulled her past a row of large metal boxes and large safe before heading towards the far corner of the room.

As focussed as she was on the direction they were heading, she couldn't help but marvel at the cavernous arches of the ceiling above. The fact that this was all under the high school was still throwing her off. 

"Try not to breathe in too deeply," Derek said as he tried to let go of her handin order to pull out a small box tucked beneath a shelf. "The dust in here can get a little thick."

Delilah nodded without allowing her hold on him to lessen and used her free hand to scratch at her nose. The dust was already beginning to tickle the end.

Derek watched her with a soft smile as he adjusted his fingers with hers. He could move the box with only one, and he wasn't going to argue if she wanted to keep him close as he wanted to do the same. He just hoped she didn't take note of his thudding heartbeat or the slight bit of sweat building between their sandwiched palms.

She mad him nervous and excited all at the same time.

Delilah tried not to stir the air around as she watched Derek struggle to open the lid of the box as the latch seemed to be stuck. She offered to help, but he waved her away with a reassuring smile. 

With nothing much else to do but wait while he searched, she scanned her eyes over the thick coating of dust on the shelves closest to them and immediately noticed the faint silhouette of where an item of circular nature was stored before it was plucked from its place.

Delilah carefully surveyed the other shelves around her as she spun in a small circle and took note that nothing else was disturbed. It looked like nobody had been here in years, and she would have believed it, except for the one spot where a ring of some sort cut through the dust.