Chapter Text
The walk around the bottom floor wasn't much. The bottom floor was large with a huge desk at the front of the messy building. Large rooms lined the hallways but most of them were locked so they hadn't bothered to force any of the rooms open.
Kyoshi made her way around the large front desk eyeing old papers and folders that sat upon it. The papers in Kyoshi's opinion were confusing they in her opinion weren't normal. She shifted the camera's weight to her right arm and reached out to flip open one of the many vanilla folders piled on the desk. The front of the folder tore when it was pulled open and all the papers slipped from the bundle it had been in and scattered to the floor. Kyoshi in a panic reached out to grab some of the papers that had fallen but in her attempt to clean up the mess she had made, she nudged the old desk sending the rest of the folders to the floor.
'Rangi's going to be mad when she sees this,' Kyoshi groaned in her head with a loud sigh.
She leaned down and began gathering papers into a small pile. The thing she noticed is that all of the papers she had picked up were blank? She turned the paper in her hand to look at the back but it was all the same, they were all blank. Kyoshi's green eyes scanned the floor for something that had writing but nothing.
"Weird." She mumbled.
"What's weird?"
Kyoshi stood up quickly and spun around to stare at the intruder. Her eyes locked with her shorter partner's bronze ones. She thickly swallowed with a nervous smile dancing across her freckled face. Somehow it felt hotter in the room than before but she wasn't going to complain about it.
"Ah, it's nothing!" She quickly turned the other woman around and began pushing her down the hall, "Nothing for you to worry about!"
Kyoshi was glad Rangi didn't comment on her odd behavior or even on the mess of blanks of sheets of paper on the floor. Kyoshi quickly made her way down the hall with Rangi to the shorter woman's protests, she hated this place and the sooner they explored and got all the information they needed they could finally leave. She stopped in front of a large grey door. Kyoshi glanced up at the sign by the door, it was slightly dirty but she could make out the image of the stairs. Slowly she swung open the door and held it open to the stairwell. The halls of the stairwell were far darker than the rest of the building but she had kept her small light on. The light of her headlamp penetrated the darkness allowing her to see the stairs leading up and surprisingly also down?
Kyoshi glanced down at her strangely quiet partner. Rangi would have usually said something by now. The only thing she had gotten was her shorter friend's insistent protests at being dragged away from her form of a 'Crime scene.' Her eyes scanned the small woman's stiff features. Her eyebrows were tightly knitted together and her eyes were trained to something beyond the dark stairwell that Kyoshi couldn't see. Kyoshi followed her sight into the dark uneasily but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes flicked back to Rangis face and she looked into her unfocused glassy eyes. As if on instinct like Rangi knew she had been watching the Womans Bronze eyes flicked up to meet green and Kyoshi noticed that they were no longer glassy like before, it almost made her uneasy at the sudden change.
"Rangi is something wrong?" She worriedly asked uncertainty laced her voice as she instinctively wrapped a cold clammy hand around her partner's well-defined bicep.
She felt cold against her hot skin.
Rangi looked strange.
"I'm fine Kyoshi don't worry," Rangi replied with a light airiness to her voice like she was enjoying this.
A chill ran down Kyoshi's spine.
Kyoshi shook the many intruding thoughts from her mind. The many thoughts that asked why it sounded like something was trying to mimic her partner's voice? Kyoshi mentally hit herself for thinking something so stupid. All it was is her imagination playing tricks on her. She was just paranoid.
"Is there something wrong?"
Kyoshi averted her eyes away fast with a nervous smile before training her eyes back to Rangis relaxed features. She studied her again for a moment before replying.
"I'm just nervous is all,' She trailed off glancing at something far in the dark, "This place is just creepy." She shifted her arm to better hold the weight of the door that began to strain against her arm. Holding something so heavy over time caused her muscles to cramp from the effort.
"Why don't we continue up and then explore the bottom?" Kyoshi muttered quickly ushering Rangi into the dark stairwell and letting the door slam shut loudly behind her with a creak. Kyoshi looked around her light punctured the darkness of the halls.
"You can go ahead." Rangis voice rung out followed with an odd short silence. Kyoshi stared wide-eyed at her, "I'll follow to protect you from behind." Rangi clarified pointedly.
Kyoshi swallowed the lump forming in her throat audibly and with jittery hands, she took the video camera hanging heavily but comfortably around her neck into her clammy hands and slowly advanced up the steps step by step.
Rangi lagged behind watching the form of the other woman descend up the stair. A large grin split her face as she followed silently behind the nervous woman. Sharp fangs gave way from her mouth and her eyes swirled black with hunger. Her prey looked so unsuspecting, She truly believed that she was her friend but that was a huge mistake and now she had turned her back to her.
'Rangi' lunged.
Kyoshi hearing the fast footsteps approaching caught 'Rangi' in her arms quickly. She stumbled herself and in her haste, to steady herself she didn't catch the abnormal features of her partner.
"Woah!" Kyoshi shouted in surprise, "Rangi you shouldn't run its dark and you almost fell." She scolded the woman safely cradled in her arms.
"Sorry." 'Rangi' apologized with a slight aloofness to her voice and a small smile, her Bronze eyes shone in the light of the headlamp. It was almost like the previous events had never happened.
Kyoshi blushed at the closeness of 'Rangi' before reluctantly putting her down and continuing her way up the stairs to the second floor.
'Rangi' followed without a word but her eyes carefully trailed over the larger figure. She was already thinking of a plain to catch her off guard.
....
The second floor was far messier than the first. The long halls were littered with overturned chairs. The window at the far end of the hall was boarded and glass littered the ground. A desk stood at the entrance and Kyoshi like previously gravitated to it. She flipped open one of the nearest documents and began reading.
Patient 00145
Haruki Naomi
female
Miss Haruki has been showing odd behavior. She refuses to eat and her health is starting to deteriorate. We have taken cautious precautions and have begun to feed her by hand. She isn't taken in food well and has been convulsing after every meal. The doctors are beginning to suspect she has some form of an unknown illness. She is starting to become thin quite fast it's almost like her body is eating itself from the inside we are going to call in a-
Kyoshi squinted at the paper desperately drawing to make out the faded words on the paper. She sighed and set it back down and began snooping around through the many drawers. She pried open one of the drawers with a piece of small metal from the floor. Kyoshi peaked in curiously having this one being the only one she couldn't force open with her strength alone. The other ones were filled with junk and black sheets of paper, shattered pens, and crumpled up sticky notes. In the large drawer, a small gold key sat. Kyoshi picked it up and turned it around in her fingers observing all the intricate markings. She looked around cautiously for 'Rangi' before quickly pocketing it. She moved from the desk and looked around to find where 'Rangi' had gone.
Something felt off.
Kyoshi took her camera back in her hands and adventured forward in search of Rangi. Kyoshi froze, a cold chill running down her spine. Her palms were sweaty as she fiddled with the video camera in her large hands. Now that she was alone she regretted coming here, even if it was her job. She was a Paranormal investigator, so dealing with this was her specialty, but yet she didn't feel safe at all.
"Kyoshi come on!"
Said woman whipped her head in the direction of the voice coming down the hall. she slowly advanced into the darkness and thickly swallowed the lump forming in her throat as she made her way toward the familiar voice of her partner 'Rangi'. She didn't understand how the other woman wasn't scared or even fazed by the chilling present in their midst. She had noticed her odd behavior but had chalked it up to her imagination. Maybe the dark was playing tricks on her mind?
Before she could get any further into the darkness, a hand sprang way from the darkness from behind the giant woman and wrapped around her wrist pulling her into darkness. She opened her mouth to scream, but was silenced by a warm clammy hand over her mouth.
"I heard it too."
A raspy whisper broke the silence between the two women. Kyoshi wanted to sigh in relief at the realization of who it was, but quickly dread set in as she remembered the voice from the hallway. Whatever had called to her hadn't been her friend. Kyoshi's eyes widened in another form of realization. If Rangi was here then the thing that she had been with hadn't been Rangi at all. Bile rose in her throat as she whipped her head around and stuttered in desperation.
"Rangi-you. That wasn't you?" She whispered taking in a shaky breath. She couldn't see the woman but she could sense she was shaking her head and it caused her stomach to churn.
"No."
Kyoshi could hear the uneasiness in the woman's voice. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought her friend was scared. Maybe she was? She was always good at not showing her fear but this situation was so unnerving she wouldn't have blamed her for being terrified too.
Kyoshi swallowed the thick lump rising in her throat and let out a nervous laugh. She fished for her inhaler in her pocket with shaking hands and pulled it out taking, a few deep puffs before putting it back safely in her pocket for later use. She would need it.
"We should get out of here." Rangi quickly but calmly uttered.
Kyoshi's fingers tightened around the strap on her large video camera. The cool leather against her cold clammy fingers calmed her slightly. All they had to do was get out of this room and get to the entrance without being caught by whatever was outside and they'd be free. She so wanted to quit after this. Her heart couldn't take it.
"Yeah, we should," Kyoshi mumbled in agreement.
She was slightly surprised but thankful Rangi understood her fear. Normally the woman wouldn't have left till the job was done. In Kyoshi's opinion, the job was done.
Kyoshi fiddled with the flashlight on her head and silently watched as Rangi tried to pull open the door.
It didn't budge.
She watched her try again, this time using more force. The door rattled but refused to open. She could tell Rangi was getting Frustrated by the second. She honestly thought the woman would kick down the door if this continued.
"It's stuck." Rangi huffed in annoyance and irritation.
Kyoshi's breathing quickened quickly as her headlamp died giving way to pure darkness. She reached up to turn it back on, but it wouldn't flicker back to life. She wondered if her batteries had died, but she knew she put in a fresh set before they entered.
"Kyoshi deep breathes." Rangi gently coaxed.
Kyoshi followed Rangi's instructions and took in deep calming breaths the other woman leading her in the calming exercise. She was happy Rangi was here with her right now. The beautiful woman was always there to calm her when she began to panic. She was always good at it, and that made her thankful. She would give anything to hug and kiss the woman before her right now.
She was rudely pulled from her thoughts as something cold and wet wrapped around her ankle. She froze and, her breath hitched in her throat causing Rangi to also freeze at the chilling atmosphere. She didn't know what compelled her, but she picked up her video camera and pointed it at her ankle. She waited as Rangi moved closer pressing into her side to peer down at the screen. The thing they saw was horrifying.
The first thing they identified is what was supposed to be its torso. The thing looked like it had been twisted, it resembled what it would look like when you wrung water out of a wet cloth. Its skin was an ashen grey, its skin could only be described as something emaciated, like a raisin left out in the sun to dry. Its skin looked like old paper and felt like leather against the exposed skin of Kyoshis's ankle. Its mouth was blown wide open black liquid pooling out of its mouth forming a puddle under its head. The eyes were hollowed out and in its place were two dark bloody holes.
Everything was silent till the thing? woman? let out a deafening shriek and her body twisted unnaturally. It let go of Kyoshi's leg and tried to scale her body.
Kyoshi dropped her camera causing it to jerk her neck forward. She let out a scream, grabbed Rangi without a thought, and flew out the newly opened door and down the dark hall in a wild frenzy.