Awakening (Lim)

~Interior, 11:39 PM~

Different from the outside cold chilly breeze, the insides of the building was surprisingly warm and humid that I stopped hugging my body altogether.

Aside from our labored breathing and the rotting floorboards creaking beneath, it was eeriely quiet. Too quiet for my own liking. And none of us, not even Kirana, dared to comment about the faint disgusting smell of *something dead* that's decomposing. I inched even closer to Kirana.

"I feel bad right now. Let's just forget about this and the stupid scholarship."

"Shh. Find something interesting that Vince can take shot. Then we leave." I cursed silently. But I proceeded to do as she says.

I have to stay calm. Eyes on the prize.

Using the flashlight, I shone light around the room. The most interesting thing we could find in a decrepit building would be decades old ancient furnitures' remains. After all, papers examiners loves to read about detailed 'ancient' things. But I couldn't find anything interesting.

Because all that was left on the floor was scattered debris and moss. Any remains of furnitures were long gone. They've either rotted to death or the termites had destroyed them. Only a broken piece of a wooden chair sits on one corner of the room showed any signs that the building was occupied before. And even then, it's too insignificant because it looked ordinary. Like a chair would be.

The next options would be paintings or wall decorations that were left behind.

And once again, I had no such luck. The walls were barren with faded and scraped off tapestries with Sakura motifs looking like they'd come off from the wall at any moment. It was abandoned like a proper abandoned building would be. I should be glad there was nothing to be found, ghost nor wild beast.

But all I felt was mounting fear. I moved to Vincent, who was also scouting the room from behind.

"Vince, can you just please take photo of the walls? And the surrounding? That should be enough, even for Kirana." I whispered to him.

I was uneasy. If Vincent was scared, he wasn't showing it but he fumbled for the camera strapped to his neck either way. The last thing I want was to explore the building deeper.

"No flashes or sound. I'd help light the part you're snapping."

He nodded. And we did our job as quiet as we could. Click, click, click was the only sound that the camera made when Vincent does his work.

"Hey, you guys. Come here." Kirana whispered as loud as she could from upfront, "I think I found it. Our perfect shot."

Me and Vincent hurried up and catched up with Kirana as we moved deeper, to the winding corridor. It was even darker and dusty with only the light from our flashlights piercing through the darkness.

There were two closed patio doors, one on each side but that wasn't the 'perfect shot' Kirana meant. What she meant was a scraggly lines of scratch marks on the wall. It was two lines of sentences written in Kanji.

"Well, Lim? What does it says? You're the genius."

The letters upfront was easy to read. So I did, "It says here Property of... Ji... I dunno. I can't make out the last part or the 2nd line. The letters are overlapping and scratched off. But just snap it, Vince. We don't need to stay more longer than necessary.'

We stood aside while Vincent stepped forward and snapped it. Click, click, came the sound and I was finally glad we were done. He strapped the camera to his neck then he traced the lettering. He stayed like that for a moment.

And I watch the colors disappeared from his face. He re-adjust his glasses and traced the letter again and then again. The uneasiness I had before crept back.

"W-We got what we want. Let's go." I said, shaking my head.

"Y-yeah." Kirana said. She sensed it too. I tugged Vincent's hand as we make for the entrance. Whatever the last part meant, it didn't mean anything well because he was trembling under my grasp.

We were almost out when the patio door slid shut infront of our faces. My fear turned to panic.

"Let's break this thing." I reared back and kicked the patio door as hard as I could. The sound of the impact was deafening that anybody in the vicinity would've heard it. But I didn't care. All that mattered was getting out.

It's already rotting for God-knows-how-long and should've break when I kicked it and we would have been running for our lives shortly after. But it stayed solid. It didn't shatter to pieces.

I reared back a little more and this time, rammed the doors with my shoulder. It shuddered and yet, didn't break. Pain shot up through my arm.

"H-how's that happening?" Kirana stuttered. My breathing quickened and I started to sweat.

I didn't have say anything because soon after, came the sound of a woman crying. A sad and sorrowful sobbing penetrating through the silence. It was nearby. The rotting smell increased tenfold.

Our flashlights flickered as the crying grew ever closer.

"I told you, Kirana. We shouldn've been here."

And then it went out. Kirana shrieked.

"Vincent. Flash on and snap snap. Quick."

He took some shots and the flash whirred loud as flashes of white filled the room in quick burst. We inched closer together.

It was empty like the first time I've seen the room.

"Don't stop." I whispered. Vincent swallowed and kept taking shots upon shots.

Two things happened. The first was Kirana making a gurgling choking sound and the second was I threw myself backward.

There, standing infront of her was a striking woman dressed in white, and long black hair that reached her waist. It had its arm on Kirana's neck, lifting her up mid-air. Choking her to death.

Her sobbing turned to cackles of deranged laughter.

I stared at her. Vincent stopped flashing. Kirana extended her arm at me, desperate for help.

I fumbled for anything around me to throw or distract whatever it is that was killing Kirana. And I snagged a metallic object right beside me.

I was preparing to throw it at the thing when it slipped through my grip and dropped to the floor with a loud clang.

And click.

A brilliant flash of white light covered the whole living room. The thing lets out a deafening wail of agony before darkness swallowed us whole again.

But this time, the thing started to glow, its figure shifting and distorting.

And its head sharply turned to face me.

Its face was rotten with worms wiggling out of her eye socket. I swallowed. Hard.

It forcefully dropped Kirana down. And everything went slow motion. My heartbeat echoed. The rotting wood gave way beneath her. She fell and went through the floor until she disappeared from sight. I screamed.

The thing laughed, her attention fully fixated on me and I stared at the thing that I threw and took it. And so I did what seemed to hurt it before.

I shot the thing's image with it. My whole hand trembled as flashes upon flashes covered the room. It recoiled and wailed everytime I snapped its image.

I took five shots of it and it gave a last shriek before dispersing into a burst of white light. I kept snapping eitherway. The decomposing smell disappeared and everything goes silent except the whir of the camera's flashing. I only stopped when the flashlights at our feet turned on by itself. And then everything snapped back in place.

I dropped the thing I was holding and panted, stumbling backward until my back hits the wall.

What did we saw? It was surreal. Impossible Like a bad dream. I slapped myself. Hard. It stung. I pinched my arm, then my leg. This was no dream.

I took a flashlight before rushing to the gap where Kirana has fallen through. And I was relieved to see her splayed on a stair that seems to lead below. It wasn't a far drop but she could've died. Or broke something.

"Kirana! Wake up!" I screamed. She didn't rouse. I shone the flashlight on her face and still got nothing. So I focused on her chest. I nearly jumped with joy when I saw she was still breathing, "Vincent, come here."

He was at hugging his knees at the corner but nodded and inched forward slowly. "We can lower ourselves down there. We brought her back up and then we think of a way out quickly."

He gave a nod.

Both of us jumped back in surprise. Splinters of wood started to grow from the broken edges, slowly closing the gap until the floor had no gap at all. Until I could no longer see Kirana below. I stared at the floor blankly. The hole was there and then it wasn't.

"No!" I gave the floor a punch and withdrew. It was rock solid. Like it wasn't rotting at all.

"I..." Vincent finally whispered from behind, "We should have never stepped inside this place at all."

"That writing that made you scared. What was it?"

"That's what I'm getting to. The last part of that sentence was Jisho. It was scratched off over and over that's why you couldn't read it."

"Jisho as in 'Death'?"

He nodded, "And guess what the second line says."

I shook my head, too scared to make a guess.

"It was Get Out, written over and over on the same spot."

Property of Death.

GET OUT.

It was a warning that warned us a little too late.

The feeling of dread returned tenfold.