The Nightmare Killers

Chapter 4

Sophia and Terri walked into some sort of technological wonderland, a lab of sorts, covered in green, red and cream, in an octagonal shape. The marble flooring returned while the ceiling was stone, rough in edges, not entirely smoothed out, which in a house that was designed to be clean, felt out of place. Along some of the walls to the right were metal doors, presumably leading to other areas, one of them was open, leading to a corridor with other areas. Towards the centre of the room was a giant round sofa with a simple round table in the middle, the table had a few folders on them, though the folders were blank.

To the left of the room however, was the most imposing item, a massive computer set up, shaped to look like a cockpit in a futuristic plane. There were multiple monitors, six, eight, ten, they kept counting up, stacked on top of each other. Some of the screens had maps on them, some of them had text, one of them was showing an old episode of Open All Hours, which seemed odd, until they saw something else, a figure. They couldn't make out the figure clearly, in fact, all they saw was a giant office chair, black leather, but someone must have been there, watching the show. Next to them was a giant flask, along with some carrot sticks and a green dip which was hard to distinguish.

Sophia and Terri were mesmerised by the set up while Cynthia had followed them in, they all looked towards the monitors, waiting for something to happen, until Cynthia decided to speak up.

"Bex, darling, we have guests, say hello." The chair swung round. There sat cross-legged was a woman, mid 20s, short black hair, wearing a giant maroon hoodie, black leggings and scruffy trainers, holding a mug containing whatever beverage must have been in the flask. Sophia felt like she recognised the individual, until it twigged. Maria. The assistant at the museum. She was the same individual.

"Oh. Hiya. Nice to see ya." said Bex, waving at the pair. Terri hesitantly waved back, while Sophia was frozen in place.

"Didn't I tell you to properly dress yourself for our guests?"

"I am, it's better than-"

"ENOUGH!" Sophia roared, her voice echoing through the room. She had snapped. She had spent three months worrying about her partner, and now in one day, she had found him, lost him, found him again, watched him kill someone in a creepy courtyard, lost him again, been told to come to a house, met Cynthia who took her to a basement which turned out to house some secret room, before meeting up with the woman who called herself Maria earlier at the museum. Enough was enough, she wanted answers. She turned to Cynthia, veins pumping, the blood in her face clearly showing, she wanted answers, and she didn't care how she got them.

"I, have had, enough! All day, I have been thrown from room to room! I have witnessed things I never thought I would see! I-I-I-" She was throwing words around, all manner of cohesion had gone, but she was determined to get to the bottom of this. She took a giant breath and continued, "Where is he? Where is Jack, why was he in that courtyard and what are we doing here? Answer me!" Her voice shook Bex and Terri, while Cynthia stayed silent, her smile no longer there. She knew she had toyed with them long enough, now they deserved the truth.

"You want answers? Your answers are down there." She pointed towards the open corridor.

"You better not be lying." Sophia replied as she stormed towards the corridor, Terri following her in quick pursuit while Cynthia followed at a leisurely pace, Bex decided she wasn't needed for this, and turned back round to continue watching her show.

The corridor itself was the same aesthetic as the main room, marble, stone, more cream, green and red. The corridor led to two rooms, one on each side, there was glass so they could see into the rooms, they were black with green lines intersecting, and inside the left room was the one thing Sophia wanted to see, the one thing she cared about most, Jack. Still in his unusual clothing, he didn't notice Sophia, he was too busy fighting someone, a hologram of sorts, a figure made entirely out of green wires. This was a training room and the figure was a projection, Terri noticed the cameras built into the wall while Sophia was fixated on Jack. Jack was too busy duelling with the hologram, using his blades to parry, defend and attack at lightning speed, reacting to the hologram with precision, he had a face of determination, the sweat was flying off his forehead, he was in the zone, but Sophia was determined to get his attention.