Blame: Book 2- Tick Tock (The Sequel to Book 1)

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"I dunno," I shrugged. "It's been a small obsession of mine ever since I had my first sip."

     "You sound like a drug addict...but with coffee," the coroner gave me an unimpressed look.

     "No!" I scoffed.

     "Prove it." She smirked. "I dare you to go one day without coffee."

     "Deal," I put on a competitive face. 'No no no no no, Charlie you idiot...'

      Alicia and I started walking down the long hallway once again, mourning the fact that we had to ditch this luxurious air conditioning. We lazily strolled down the dim hall, staying quiet and on our phones the whole time. However, when I looked up briefly to ensure I wasn't going to walk into a plant, I spotted a strange symbol written on the wall. It seemed like blood due to the colour, but once I got a closer look at the bizarre symbol, my heart dropped once I realized what the meaning was. A crescent moon was drawn in the background, with a broken heart in the crease. This was The Nightmare's logo.

"Call Dan." I instructed to my colleague, who gladly agreed to do so without hesitation.

     While Alicia called my partner, I decided to investigate further, searching around the area for any other signs of her presence. And I had to consider everything as evidence, we couldn't underestimate Hannah again. After the riddle she gave to us, and the unspecified time zone, I figured that she'd have more dirty tricks up her sleeve. But my question was: did The Nightmare have another sticky web planted for us to walk into, or was she going to reveal her location by killing someone? Hopefully not. Unfortunately, we had to be given one path to follow, and either one would end in death for an innocent person.

     "Hey, Charlie," the coroner mumbled as she held her phone. "Dan wants to talk to you."

     "Oh, alright," I took her iPhone, holding it up to my ear.

     "Charlie?"

     "Yeah, Dan?"

     "Have you found anything besides that symbol?"

     "No," I sighed. "The hallway's literally empty, there's only a couple potted plants.

     "Did you check those?"

     "Yeah, nothing," I disappointedly mumbled, then being snapped out of my trance when I spotted Alicia standing at the window by the front doors.

     "Hey, Dan? I gotta go...I think Alicia found something."

     "Okay, Crystal and I will be over soon," he answered, ending the call from his side.

"Right," I faced in Alicia's direction. "What did you find?"

"A rectangle," she frowned, pointing to the red lipstick outline on the window, barely noticeable.

"Okay..."

"But I feel like there's more to this rectangle."

"How?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe something's supposed to be inside it?"