The doors that should have stayed closed
Sophie took a deep breath as the doors opened slowly, she turned to her group and nodded curtly, giving her signal to get out.
She was the first, and with her trusty weapon in hand, she looked around, it was dark and you could feel the malice in the air as you wandered around the dark corridor.
The rest soon followed, the two men in their group, barely out of their teens, taking up positions on both the girls side, together they formed a half circle around the elevator and protected their teammates still inside.
Chelsy unclipped her whip from her belt and stepped outside, taking up the rear of the group.
Oha slinked outside and into the darkness of the halls, disappearing from view, Koha stepped outside last, taking out a light from her bag and flipping it on on the signal of her sister, a snap of her fingers that echoed slightly.
The halls around them lit up and they were greeted with a bloodbath, Sophie clicked her tongue led the way to the right, abandoning the left way for now.
"First things first, find the BOSS." She announced and the group walked forwards.
"Look into the rooms in groups of two, Koha and Oha, Moritz and Fritz, Me and Chelsy, get to it." She commanded and the split up, looking to find the BOSS in this maze like hall.
The walls were filled with doors, all leading into empty hotel rooms, but behind one of these doors was the BOSS that they needed to kill.
They all stepped inside the empty rooms, leaving the doors open to signal that they were searched.
"Empty." Came a male voice from the right.
"Empty." Called Chelsy.
"Empty." Answered Koha as she looked around the abandoned hotel room.
The rooms all looked the same, a bad, a bedside table, a table, chairs, a wardrobe, a tv and a closet, the only difference was how torn up they were and how chaotic the situation was inside, from bloody limbs to blood soaked floors, to hastily packed bags that were left behind in the end.
They met up in the hall, checking to make sure they were all still alive and then went for the next rooms.
"Empty.
"Empty."
"Empty."
____
"Empty."
"Empty."
"Empty."
"Alright, this way's a bust, let's double back, it needs to be here somewhere." The leader said, annoyance in her tone that was mirrored by the rest.
As a group they went back to the elevator and Sophie held up a hand to stop them.
She looked back, eyes tired and fatigued, "We're taking a five minute break, Koha, what do we have left?" She asked the groups porter, "And how does your mana look?" She added as an after thought.
"We can eat as much as we want, we packed for a week, and my mana's in the green, I can cast heal on all of us."
"Good, Oha, found anything?" She asked the thin air behind her and the assasin of the group appeared behind her, melting out of the shadows of the corner.
"Nothing useful, everything's either spoiled or broken." The woman grouched and sat down near the elevator, the light from inside lighting up the hallway.
"Got it." The leader nodded and sat down, taking the offered bottle of water from her sister.
The group sat down and Chelsy looked at her blood watch, "We've got a good hour and a half." She announced and got nods in return.
The porter set the bag she was carrying down and opened the flap, letting the group take what they needed after she sat it down in their middle.
Sophie yawned and took a biscuit, eating it in ripping bites.
Koha, meanwhile, used her skill on Chelsy.
[Healing touch]
[Heals wounds using mana.]
"This is shit, just our luck that we got a hidden Yellow stage ." Moritz said after eating his fill, his brother nodded and let his head fall back with a groan.
The other agreed in their own words as Koha healed them all the best she could, their wounds disappearing as they gave varying signs of relief.
"Jup."
"This better be worth it."
"Oh you bet 'cha!"
They ate in silence afterwards, and once the break that was more than five minutes ended- much to everyones relief, their leader spoke again, standing and dusting herself off while she did so.
"Let's get going people, we have a BOSS to kill."
"Got it." Said the group and stood, not bothered about their trash, and their porter just zipped the bag right up and hefted it on her shoulders.
"Empty!"
"Empty!"
"..."
Koha silently looked at the supply closet opposite of the elevator, "Guys? What about the storage closet?" She asked, turning her head but not letting her gaze leave the door.
"The what?" Oha spoke from behind her and Koha waved her hand at it.
"Ah... Yeah, that could do it." Moritz said as he stepped out of the empty room.
The group got together again and their leader opened the door.
"Well... it's not empty, that's for sure..." Moritz breathed, looking at the hanging corpse in front of them.
"Is that the boss? It looks... dead..." Chelsy commented, eyeing the swaying corpse up and down.
"There's no wind, how is it swaying?" Sophie muttered, her gaze fixed on the corpse, soon she spotted a pendant hanging from the womans neck, nearly hidden by the matt raven hair the woman possesed.
"It can't be that old, she's not bloated, not swollen and she still has all her hair... wonder what happened." Moritzes little brother spoke and his brother elbowed him, "Quiet about shit like that, how do you even know that?" He chided.
After a minute of thought, Sophie turned and waved Koha over, "Do you think that's an item, Sis?" She asked her porter, who looked closer at the swinging gem.
"I think so, you think the BOSS will wake if we take it?" She whispered, walking around the corpse to look for anything else.
"Is that even the BOSS?" Asked the younger boy of the group, glancing around warily at the dust covered closet.
"The rest of the rooms are all empty, so it has to be." Oha said, appearing out of nowhere, as always.
"Oha?! I told you to stick with the group!" Sophie barked at the lone assasin.
The woman just shrugged, "Someone had to keep our backs clear." She muttered, annoyed.
"Whatever, next time take someone with you! We don't want an imposter!" The leader waved the rule breaking assasin off with a wave of her hand, the other placed on the hilt of her weapon.
"Yeah, yeah." Oha breathed, uninterested in the scolding she received from her leader.
"So, I just take it?" Koha asked her sister.
"We don't really have another choice now do we? I don't want the timer to run out, and we need to wake the BOSS anyway." She shrugged.
"Alright..." Koha said uncertainly, standing before the corpse, gulping as she reached her hand out to take the necklace, she looked back at her sister and the rest of the group, all of whom were ready to fight to the death, serious gazes fixed on her and the corpse.
Koha squirmed under the attention but resolved herself to get the loot and jump back.
Seeing her sister nod, she tore the necklace of as quickly as she could, and just as they expected, the BOSS awoke, the former corpse opening her empty eyes to stare right at Koha with a look of deep hatred, the rope snapped and the woman fell to the ground, beginning to float mid air not soon after, her feet inches above the ground as she rose to her full height.
Koha flinched at her glare and curled up a bit, her hands gripping the gem tightly, afraid of losing it, the ghost, wraith, whatever it was, didn't like that, with a wave of her hand she sent Koha flying into a wall, the wall cracked and Koha spat out blood, colouring the blue gem red.
Koha bit back the blood and threw the gem to her sister, who, upon getting the item, waved to her friend and took out a yellow glowing stone.
"Return Crystals? You wanna leave us to die?" Moritz screamed, sword in hand and ready to fight, the ghost turned to him and let the cleaning supplies impale him, he dropped to the floor, with his last words being "Traitors, the lot of you!"
His brother soon followed as he charged at the BOSS in rage, the woman waved her hand and he got compressed into a shower of blood.
Oha looked at her, and at the corpses of their partners, before glancing at the yellow glow of the return stone being activated as she grimaced.
"I'm sorry." She murmured before she fled, not that Koha had the energy to blame her.
The ghost controlled a piece of rope and hung her on the beam she once did, grinning darkly at her as she watched her fight for air.
She kicked her legs and fought for breath as she failed to breathe.
Her hands clawed at the rope as the BOSS watched in glee as the life faded from her eyes.
Her sight blackened as the last of her breath was used up.
Her grip weakened.
And she faded to black, one last tear rolling down her cheek.
__
Somewhere in the distance, something cracked.
__
Koha woke and fought for breath, her hands on her neck, clawing for something that wasn't there, the phantom feeling of getting strangled still clinging to her skin, she clawed her neck red and raw, her nails scraping off skin in a blind panic.
She gasped for air, desperately trying to do what every human was born to do, but failed as she couldn't get a breath of air in.
There were tears stinging in her eyes as blood coated her hands red.
She couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak, she couldn't cry, no noise could leave her throat.
Her vision faded to black again as she passed out.