Painting Paper Hearts | ✔

Chapter 10- Into the Darkness

I gulped, feeling eerie all of a sudden. "W-what story are you talking about?"

"Only the bravest of the brave come up to this building." Cedric started, not breaking our eye contact.

Fear crept in me when the corners of his mouth quirked upward. "And only the survivors come out with their spirit intact. They say that they hear faint cry in the girl's washroom, do you see the old clinic down the hall?" he pointed at the far end where the lights were dimmed out. "A student committed suicide there."

The thought of transparent ghosts sitting in one of the girl's cubicle and a hanging suicidal teenage girl bombarded my mind. "Don't scare me like that!" I yelled.

Cedric only laughed in delight. "Chill, I just made that one up."

"That's not cool!"

But the damage had been done. Creepy imagery of the dead had lingered in my brain.

"I, uh, I need to go the washroom for a bit. Just wait here," Cedric said, serious this time.

My eyes rounded in utter bewilderment. "You're leaving me here after you tell me those creepy stuff?"

"I'll be fast."

I was going to protest but then just like that, he walked away, leaving me unaccompanied—just me and my messed up mind.

I waited patiently anyway as I busied myself by watching the moonlight illuminate the lake not far from my sight. Pushing my brain to think for distracting thoughts, I sighed. Cedric was gone too long. Too long for a washroom break, at least.

I gathered the shoes I kicked off a while back to follow him downstairs.

The spooky feeling did not fade. Curse Cedric for making me an overthinking maniac. The left side of the brain—the most rational side was left defeated. I was an artist after all, thus, the vivid imageries from my right brain would dominate.

Cool down, Emerald. There's no such thing as ghost... there's no such thing as ghost! They don't exist. It's just a figment of your imagination.

Pushing the scary thoughts away, I walked on, minding each of my small strides. The stairs were not very far, but my being alone in an unknown abandoned building had rendered me nervous. Who knew what had happened here? What if what Cedric had said were actually true?

Oh God, help me.

I peered down the stairs, leaning half of my weight to the wall.

"Cedric?" I called, the sound of my voice bouncing through the empty hallways, echoing.

No answer.

"Cedric, I swear this is not funny at all!"

Okay, this was getting a little too bizarre and creepy by each passing moment.

"Ced—"

I paused when I caught a faint noise of footsteps clanked against the old wooden floors. It was from downstairs; I was sure of it. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth.

I leaned my back completely flat to the wall this time, waiting for him to reach me. The footsteps thudded louder as if he was in a hurry to come up.

Much to my surprise, the man was not who I expected to come up.

"Marcus," My mouth uttered his name in a soft tone, the uncontrolled shaking of my legs finally stabilized.

Did you look for me? I wanted to ask out loud but I was in utter shell shock. How did he find me here?