The Four

Chapter 2-Disaster

"I have a great idea" Antony spoke up.
They had all arrived at the park about five minutes ago unsure of what to do today.
Most summers went this way, just playing it out, day by day. Soon this would end though, due to school starting in a few days.
"No" Freddy said sternly, not even making eye contact with Antony.
"Come on" he groaned, "You guys never trust me." Ella walked forward towards him, "Yeah, because most of the time your ideas could get us arrested." Ella said smiling at him. Venus just laughed at him, Antony was like a five year old child. He had the most irrational ideas, yet he believed they were perfectly normal.
Finally Venus decided she would give him a chance this time, seeing as they didn't have anything to do today."What's the idea Ant?" Venus asked.

——

"We aren't going in there" Fred said staring at the large building.
Antony had taken them in the middle of the woods. There stood a large abandoned building. Large was an understatement. It was humongous, Very tall, and covered in vines. It was like something out of a movie.
"How did you even find this Ant?" Ella asked also unable to take her eyes off of the building.
"Well" Anthony began, "I was just strolling through the forest like I usually do. Taking my shortcut home, when I came across this building. I have never seen it here before, and I take this route almost every time." He explained carefully.
His tone of voice made Venus realize he was not joking.

Slowly they all took steps towards it. The glass doors were covered in plants and algae, and the inside was dark. The only light suppling it was through the windows.
Venus approached the doors slowly opening them, holding it for the rest of the group.
"No way." Freddy snapped, putting his arm out, "That could be dangerous, we don't know if it's collapsing." He said sternly.
They all looked inside in awe totally ignoring Freddy. None of them had ever seen something this cool before. This mysterious.
"Please Fred?" Antony begged, holding out his hands in a prayer. "I'll buy you lunch." He said smirking.
Venus eagerly watched Fred's face. They stood there for awhile awaiting his response.
Freddy rolled his eyes and sighed excepting his defeat. "Fine" he sighed, "But quickly." His response made the rest of the group smile of excitement.

One by one they all crept into the building. Venus took in how beautiful it was. Some how the overgrowth of it all made it all calming. The earth and the building were forged together.
"This is trippy." Antony muttered, as they looked around.
Freddy slowly started walking straight down one corridor. For a minute everyone stopped and looked at each other, than they hesitantly followed him.
As they walked you could hear noises of the building settling, and small animals crawling through the vines. The sun barely making its way through the glass.
Freddy looked around, coming to a stop when they made it to an open door on the side of the hallway.
He turned to Venus, and gave her a look. It was the should-we-go-in-there look.
She shrugged and then slowly walked past him into the room. When she got inside she stopped. It was like an office of some sorts. Except the floors covered in random papers, and the walls grimy.
Venus made room for the rest of the group as they slowly walked into it.
Antony slowly bent down and picked up one of the papers off of the ground. It appeared to be slightly wet and dirty.
"Granville industries?" He spoke, studying the paper. Freddy slowly headed to the desk.
"1941." Ella said peeking over Antonys shoulder. They both stayed in silence for awhile, trying to figure out what the paper was trying to say. It was no use. The paper had been damaged too much to fully read.
"Ah gross." Venus said from the other side of the room. Antony and Ella snapped their heads in her direction. She slowly held up something, it was a jar with murky water, but you could slightly see something inside. "Dead rat." She said looking at it.
"Ew Venus put it down then." Ella said scrunching up her nose. She moved away from Antony studying the room.
They looked through everything in silence for a couple of minutes. Nothing cool was found except the dead rat, and a few papers that said stuff like "Experiment" and "Testing".
"Guys." Freddy spoke up, he turned around, holding an open folder, filled with laminated papers.
Everyone walked towards him, all huddling behind the folder, trying to see what Freddy had found.
"Subject case number: 39." Antony read out loud. Everyone frowned at his words, as they all scanned the paper also.
"That's not even the craziest part." Freddy said flipping the page. Another laminated page was revealed, this time with a girls face on it, and a paragraph of words below.
"Daphne Stephen." Antony spoke frowning. They had all recognized that name. Daphne had gone missing, about ten years ago. It was the whole talk of the town, since nothing ever happens in Granville. It was said that she had gotten murdered, but the police closed the case after only one month of searching, and marked that something had happened to her. The court said that she ran away, but the town had much crazier conspiracies.
"Wait." Venus pointed at the bottom of the page, there sat a date.
6/12/83
Each one of the teenagers frowned, and went deep into thought.
"That's two years after she went missing." Ella said wearily. They all agreed in there own heads.
"No that's not possible." Antony went on, "They could've published it after she went missing." He explained.
His explanation was a perfectly good one. The kids could've just went on with their lives. Everything would have worked out fine, but that wouldn't be a story. Now would it?
"Report one:" Ella began, "It's been a week since Daphne went into our care. Several sedatives are needed to assure she doesn't get suspicious of why she's here. Vitals are normal, blood pressure is low. We give her the shot tomorrow. If all goes to plan, this will be history." Ella read, getting slower as she droned on.
Each one of their expressions fell.
"We need to get this to the police. Now." Freddy snapped closing the folder, a large lump had appeared in his throat as he walked back towards the door.
"Agreed" Venus swallowed the same lump she had developed. They all followed Freddy as he practically ran out of the room and back towards the hall. They started speed walking, all following Freddy. Antony wasn't scared at first, until he saw how jittery Freddy had gotten.
   Fred stopped running for a second and looked left to right. He had forgotten where they came from.
He cursed under his breath as he turned back to his friends. They all looked just as worried as he felt.
"Uhmmm." Ella hummed worriedly, "Try right." She said shrugging. He nodded slowly turning back around towards the split hallway. None of the teenagers had remembered there being a split hallway, but all of them shrugged it off as they began to follow Freddy again.
Soon they came to an opening, more or less, a room of sorts. There was a huge skylight, shining in the middle, and when you looked up, you could see balcony's of all the other floors.
"What, is that?" Antony said as he walked to the middle of the room. Venus peeked over towards where he was headed.
There, in the middle of the skylight, was a large rock laying on the ground. Only The rock was pulsing. Certain parts of it glowed a fluorescent blue, catching each one of their eyes. The rock had obviously made a dent in the ground, leaving the concrete around it all messed up.
Antony kept walking towards it, curious of what the thing was.
"Antony!" Freddy yelled, rushing to him. "Don't get close to it. We don't know what it is." He grabbed Antonys shoulder making him stop moving.
Ella and Venus walked next to Freddy, so they were all staring at the pulsing thing.
"This is straight out of a Sci-fi movie." Ella said quietly as they all looked at it.
Venus bent down to the floor and picked up a small pebble, tossing it at the thing. At first it did nothing, the pulses stayed the same. The rock hummed ever once and awhile. Then the pulse stopped for a brief moment, making Venus tilt her head.
"You broke it!" Antony sighed not taking his eyes off of it still.
"Sorry I didn't try to-"
Venus went to defend herself, when all of the sudden the rock started pulsing again. This time it was not a rhythm of pulses, this time it was one constant hum. Making the ground shake beneath them.
They all backed up from the rock but it was to late. It lifted itself off of the ground and started to shake profusely. They all watched in awe, almost unable to move away from it.
Then it exploded. A huge energy surge sent each one of them flying against something. The windows shook from the blast.
The rock had exploded, yet no shrapnel had been sent their way. Instead it was simply gone.
Venus flew against the wall, and was put into a sitting position from the blast. The rest of her friends landed somewhere else, she couldn't tell. All she did know was that she was in a lot of pain. Her whole body ached as she tried to sit away from the wall.
"Guys?!" Antonys voice rung through the room, "Guys?!" He said again. Making Venus groan.
She slowly stood up, feeling kind of light headed.
"Is everyone okay?" Freddy asked Antony, as he stood up as well.
"Im okay!" Ellas voice called.
"I could be better." Venus said slowly walking towards a the group of them all.
They all looked slightly dirty and shell shocked. Their clothes wrinkled and faces cut.
"What was that?" Ella asked wiping off her clothes.
"I have absolutely no idea." Freddy said wide eyed. Venus turned and looked around them, hoping to see a door nearby.
"Wait. Freddy?" Antony asked suddenly.
His tone of voice shifted.
"The folder." Antony continued, "What happened to the folder?" He looked around them scanning the floor.
"I- I was just holding it." Freddy said. Venus turned around and started walking. She looked around the floor, even slightly down the hallway. No folder.
They all regrouped.
"Nothing." Venus sighed crossing her arms.
"Let's get out of here." Freddy mumbled before walking away from the group. They all followed him down another hallway. This time they actually came across a door. Only if they had found this same door before.
Freddy and Ella both out there hands on the door and grunted trying to get it to open. Due to the overgrowth, it had taken a bit of a push, to get the vines unstuck.
Then they hiked back.

Venus opened the front door, and went straight to her room. Her heart was still pounding, and her brain was swimming. Trying to find out what all had just happened.
   The group had decided to not talk on the way home, instead they each separated, leaving them to think for themselves.
  Venus lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Heart pounding as she thought of what happened. Somehow she felt different, like something in her changed.
When she closed her eyes pictures of the building flooded her vision. She thought of the girl. How something happened to her there. They had stolen her from her home, to bring her there.

Little did Venus know, she wasn't alone. Each one of the kids also laid in there beds, and stressed about the days events.

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