Esoteric

Chapter 6: Encountering

Mary continued to run. She could only think of what would happen if Sylvia caught up to her, and that motivated her to run faster. Mary didn't dare to look behind her, in fear of Sylvia getting even closer. She pumped her arms and sprinted along the stretch of hallway, quickly running out of stamina. Mary suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed to the ground, holding out her hands and falling on her knees. She quickly looked behind her and noticed Sylvia was actually farther than she expected, but was still running at her nonetheless.

Mary put her hands on the ground, slowly crawling away. She felt weak and tired. After a few moments of crawling and barely getting any farther than she already was, Mary turned around again. Molly was now in view, and she was chasing after Sylvia. Molly suddenly caught up to Sylvia and knocked her down. Mary looked away as Sylvia fell to the ground and Molly began punching her repeatedly. She heard shouting and swearing, and kept her eyes at the ground as she began to feel weary.

Mary felt like the room was spinning as she listened to the two fighting from across the hall. It felt like hours passed before the noise finally stopped. She stayed on the ground and ran her hands through her hair and let out a sigh of relief. Mary heard the soft footsteps of someone walking over to her, but she was too tired to be bothered to see who it was.

When she looked up again, Molly was standing in front of her. She looked down at Mary with a curious look in her eyes. Mary shifted her position and laid on her side, noticing that Molly had a few small bruises scattering her cheeks.

"What happened?" Molly asked.

"I-I...she chased me, and I fell over. I feel sick." Mary gasped, holding her stomach.

"We haven't eaten in who knows how long. But it's been more than a day. Let's see what we can find," Molly suggested.

"Okay. Hold on." Mary sat up and Molly wasted no time. She grabbed her arm and helped Mary to her feet. She sighed and rubbed her forehead as she stood.

"Are you good to walk?" Molly had already started walking, but she turned around and gave Mary a concerned look.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Mary caught up to her and they started walking in the direction that Sylvia was leading them to earlier.

They approached her body and Mary looked down. She didn't appear to be dead, but she looked like she was unconscious. There were a few bruises and scratches on her arms and face, and her stomach was slowly rising and falling.

"Come on," Molly said, noticing that she was looking at Sylvia.

They continued walking, but Mary couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. Even though Sylvia tried to hurt them, or worse, kill them, she still felt pity for her. She lowered her gaze and realized Molly was carrying the knife by her side.

"H-how did you do it?" Mary asked, slurring her words.

"I punched her a few times and I got the knife. I didn't use it on her though. I'm guessing she passed out or something." Molly explained while slightly turning her head to eye Mary.

Mary nodded, and continued walking a few steps behind Molly, feeling exhausted. They reached the bend in the hallway that they were supposed to travel through earlier.

"Interesting that there aren't any windows in this place. From what I've see, any doors that have windows on them have shades covering them." Molly broke the short silence they had been in.

Mary didn't have the energy to respond, so she just shrugged at Molly's pondering. They picked up the pace a little bit,and Mary ran her hand along the cool, smooth wall as they walked. Touching it gave her goosebumps on her arms and she started feeling dizzy again.

"W-wait...Molly" she stuttered.

"Hm?" She turned around and got a few steps closer to Mary.

"The phone..." Mary said, rubbing her arm.

"What about it?"

"Where is it? Did we...pass it?" Mary asked, starting to feel panic rising in her.

"No. I don't think so." Molly answered, eyeing Mary with concern and curiosity.

"We should try to find it." Mary suggested.

"I'm sure Sylvia was making that up. She was insane. It was probably part of her plan to "catch" us or whatever." Molly conspired.

"What if it exists? We could try to figure out a way to use it."

"I'll keep an eye out for it. But we need to find food and water. That's the most important thing." Molly said. Mary noticed that she looked a little shaky and her eyes were dull.

They walked together, their quiet footsteps not even echoing through the seemingly endless hallway. Mary noticed that she hadn't encountered any doors so far throughout this stretch of hall. It only made the hallway look more bland and unwelcoming than it already was. Her eyes were drooping so she pressed her hand against the wall while they silently trudged along, for balance and in hopes of finding the phone.

Feeling the cold concrete against her hand as she dragged it across the plain walls, Mary stumbled and longed for food. As almost as if her prayers had been answered, Molly finally spoke up after yet another long silence they had fallen into.

"There's another bend up there!" Molly pointed, enthusiasm in her voice.

"This building is...huge...and it's shaped weirdly." Mary pointed out, letting out an exhale as the words came out.

"Amazing architecture. It really has that modern touch while keeping it classy. It also has no furniture in order to provide maximum space for all the guests that enter it."

Mary let out a dry laugh, making her stomach burn. She brought a hand to her mouth, startled that she had just laughed at one of Molly's jokes. Although they were sometimes funny, it also got annoying.

Molly scoffed at her reaction and shrugged. They turned the bend and the first thing there was a door. It looked like the doors Mary had seen when she first got here, except the windows that were perfectly aligned together didn't have shades covering them. Filled with excitement bubbling in her, Mary pressed her hand to the cold metal handle.