Laboratory

Leon pulled out a key and put it into the lock. Amora heard a clicking sound as he slowly turned the key. Amora stared at the door as it opened up and she only saw a dark hallway.

"Well, how do we see down this hallway? Is there a light switch?" Amora asked, feeling scared.

Leon pulled out two flashlights. "Andrew, take this one. Carly, you take this other one." Reyon said as she took them from Leon and handed it to them.

"Well, what about you and Leon?" Andrew questioned while looking into the dark hallway.

Leon then responded with, "Well Reyon's fire can light up her way, same with me but, Amora while you are walking, try to use your fire every once and a while to see if it can work like Reyon's to the point of being able to see in dark places."

Amora nodded her head and turned to walk down a hallway that was extremely trashed, Amora took steps forward and stepped on an old moldy box of cereal, Amora recognized the brand because Darkness had bought it many times. She smiled at the memory of eating it, this memory faded very quickly when she heard a crunch of glass ahead of her in the darkness. She looked ahead and saw a shadow of a person walk across the T-shaped hallway.

"Is that Andrew?" She whispered to herself and realized that the person came from the left side of the T-shaped hallway and not from the entrance.

She looked closer and her eyes adjusted a little and she saw the person wearing a mask with a smile on it. She turned on her flashlight and the person wasn't there.

One second it was there and once the light was on, it was gone. Amora was terrified and realized her hand was shaking so she straightened her back and arm and aimed the flashlight at a door with a rusted handle. The door was labeled: 'James Akermota'.

Amora used her sleeve to grab the doorknob and twisted and pulled but the doorknob only creaked and fell off of the door, it now creeks slowly open.

She walked in and saw a desk with old papers on its surface. Amora saw a cabinet that looked to be in almost perfect condition other than a huge dent in its center.

She ran her hand against the dent and she felt something crusted onto the dent. She noticed a dry brownish looking stain.

It took her a moment, but soon she realized that it was blood. She jumped back and dropped her flashlight, she heard it roll but couldn't see anything.

She lifted her hand while it was shaking and felt her hand burn softly for a second, then fire burst up from her palm and she could see.

She found a light switch but it didn't work so she looked around and found an unused candle.

She could feel the fire getting weaker, yet she didn't understand why the fire was going out, so once she got to the candle she lit it and picked the candle up.

She walked back to the cabinet and opened it up.

Inside were tiny glass boxes with labels on it. "RS-3, RS-7, RS-10?" Amora read the labels aloud and wondered where the rest were. She looked at the glass cases and saw crystals and a tiny vial of blood in each.

Inside of RS-3, however, wasn't a crystal. "Why is this one missing a crystal and what's all this for?" Amora asked herself as she walked to the desk and looked at papers, nothing important was on any of them until she looking the middle drawer of the desk and found a binder with sheets of paper reading:

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"RS-1 is an Elemental who died during testing on January 21st, 2017, subject RS-1 was subjected to enormous amounts of energy, in order to increase her energy limit, she started mutating from the amount of energy, she almost killed —— during this operation."

Amora's eyes squinted to see what the name was but unfortunately, it had been crossed out, as if to remove the person's identity. Amora looked further down the sheet.

"RS-1 had to be put down in fear of her escaping and revealing the laboratory's operations. She was age 15 at the time of this operation."

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Amora felt a wave of sadness overcome her. "That's only a year younger than me."

"I feel bad for her. She did nothing to deserve this. Did she volunteer?" Amora's mind was rushing with thoughts but she calmed herself and flipped the paper, she then noticed that the sheet wasn't doubled sided.

"What a waste of paper." Amora thought trying to lighten the mood for herself. She then lifted up the next paper and it read:

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"RS-2 was a man who was subjected to extreme use of his elements even after his energy was emptied. Even after he ran out he was forced to continue, he managed to get out small blasts before he collapsed dead. He died February 12th, 2017, age 24."

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Amora frowned realizing how fatal that could be. Sweat began on her forehead in beads.

"Wait then how did Leon fight so well? How did he not die from energy loss?" Amora asked herself as she picked up the paper labeled RS-1 again. She re-read it and realized that there was a way to increase her energy. "Oh, does it have to be injected though? Shouldn't there be another way?" Amora wondered as she picked up the next sheet.

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"RS-3 was a young boy who was murdered by another young boy before he could be tested on. The young boy loved-"

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Suddenly Amora's light flicked out completely as she felt a cool breeze like someone blowing air on her suddenly.

She almost screamed but covered her mouth. She tried using her fire but it didn't work, she felt depleted. She looked around even though she couldn't see anything, more and more panic began filling her body.

She felt tears well up in her eyes as she knew someone had blown out her candle. The candle suddenly lit back up and the paper for RS-3 was gone. Amora decided to stop reading and ran to the cabinet to see that RS-3 was also gone from inside the cabinet. Amora opened the door and closed the door and ran down the hallway and turned the corner, she felt the fear growing and she started crying, she ran until she ran into someone and realized it was Andrew, she stood up after falling and hugged him tightly. He seemed shocked but hugged her back.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked.

"Ye-Yeah," Amora said while still crying a little. Amora wiped her tears and asked where Leon and Reyon were.

"Oh, they just got what they were looking for and are coming this way."

Amora could see Leon and Reyon walking while carrying a wooden box with carvings on it. Amora looked away and wiped the rest of her tears away as to not seem scared.

"Carly, Andrew we found what we needed." They both nodded and Amora chirped in with a quick question: "Have you guys ever been in here before?" She has been wondering since everything looked untouched for a decade.

"Nope, we never needed to until now, Rat mainly needs something in here, and we agreed so that Leon could see this place again," Reyon said and then Leon replied,

"Well, I mean this place still scares me so it's not like I really wanted to." Reyon smiled and laughed.

Everyone left the building and started walking back to the house. Leon then started talking to Andrew, "So are you and Carly, uh dating?" Andrew turned to Leon and kind of smiled but it seemed fake, "I don't know?" He replied turning around again to navigate the hill.

"Well Reyon and I were your ages when we were dating," Leon said while laughing. Reyon looked away smiling. "Oh uh that's funny," Andrew said seeming a little annoyed. Amora wondered what his deal was since he didn't act like this after or before the whole bus incident.

When they passed by a cabin, they realized it was still standing. "Strange, Reyon isn't that the cabin we went to after the tornado?" Leon asked while he squinted his eyes, "I think so, we went another direction when we walked there but that place is where that Dark creature attacked you. Now that I think of it, it looked similar to Darkness but I doubt it was anything remotely related..." Reyon said while also squinting her eyes.

Leon headed towards the door and opened it.