Chapter Text
Abigail Brooks stood at about average height, decked out with minorly protective clothes, gloves, cargos, and steel toe boots, you know, the works. At least the works in a "I explore abandoned buildings in my free time" way. She gazed up at the looming building in front of her, pointing a video camera at it, and trying her best to capture the broken windows and dirty graffitied walls. It was 3 floors high, the first couple floors had windows evenly spaced every so often to let in light, and the top floor was almost entirely windows.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Adventures with Abby!" Abigail turned the camera to face her, making sure to try and keep it steady as well as keep herself in frame. She could easily see herself in the little LCD screen which made filming a whole lot easier. The sun was just starting to set, and she couldn't help but like the halo of light bouncing through her hair, though it made her feel a little vain to even be noticing. No one actually watched her videos. She recorded them just for fun anyway. "Today we're going to be exploring this old abandoned office building! This used to be a tech company called like S and P... or no! C and A!... or something. It shut down one day because some of the workers either disappeared or died! The story is told a few different ways by a bunch of different sources." Abby laughed a little stiffly, not liking that the convolution of the stories made her seem uninformed. Plus half the actual news articles called it something different. Again, she reminded herself that people don't watch her videos and even if they did she made these for herself.
She faced the camera back towards to building. "The building stayed open for as long as it could, but they ran out of money pretty quickly after the rumors started to fly and- Oh- I already see some graffiti I recognize!" Abby began walking towards the building, slowly panning her camera back and forth. She slowed on a specific moniker she's seen dozens of times before in other builds she's explored, "See that one! If you've watched my other videos you've probably seen it before." It was just simple purple rabbit with a pink bow but the style was very distinct. It wasn't here the last time she came. "I don't know who paints 'em but they're a local legend in my eyes."
The brunette didn't immediately go inside, instead she traced a pathway that lead around the side. She had scoped this place out with friends not that long ago. Normally, her friends would join her, but she had an itch to scratch that her companions might not necessarily want to scratch with her this time. The office itself was strangely located off a narrow winding road and the driveway is hard to see unless you already know about it . Also, not for nothing but her friends said it gave them "the creeps" when they had come during the day. The brunette couldn't fault them for that. Now that she was here all alone, it kind of gave her the creeps too.
Abby craved her little "adventures", a little itch for something, anything, exciting to happen, more often than she used to. Her main purpose while out was graffiti observing, peace finding, and ghost hunting. She would occasionally bring spray paint with her to add her own tag or she even had a cheap little EMF reader she got at her local electronics store that she liked to bring to the places people claimed were haunted. She wasn't sure she actually believed in ghosts, but it was still fun to ghost hunt with her friends. She wasn't that big on scary stuff otherwise, so this time she decided to just bring the spray paint. She briefly debated on leaving something next to the bunny moniker but ultimately decided to wait in case there was a space she liked better.
Having explored pretty thoroughly previously, Abby knew there was a side door already propped open with a big rock thanks to other explorers. The last time they shoved their way through a small broken window and one of her friends had to get a tetanus shot after the fact. Abby didn't want to risk that this time, and was grateful for the efforts of other thrill seekers. This entrance lead into an empty hallway, graffiti lined the walls and there was trash all over the floor. It seemed like it was an emergency exit at one point, not one people would typically use, but now it was the main one. There was no reception area or anything that looked "welcoming", just plenty of empty offices and meeting rooms, none that looked particularly interesting. Plus, she already knew of an area she wanted to give a better look to.
She showed her camera each of the rooms, pausing on graffiti she liked before moving on. Coming down the hall, she could start to see the reception area. It was an open room filled with corners of couches, a circular desk in the middle, and some broken snack machines lining the walls. Any food that lived there previously had already been stripped from it leaving behind the empty machine and broken glass. On her right was a staircase, and across the way were more offices and meeting rooms.
Abigail panned across the area, there wasn't really much to show. "This is the reception, I don't think I can really say much else about it." She faced the stairs, "To be honest there's only really one place on my mind in this building right now. I can show the rest of the place later, but I want to make sure we have at least a little daylight to appreciate some stuff upstairs." She opened the door and trekked her way up the staircase. She climbed three sets before stopping on the landing. It wasn't like she could climb much higher anyway, the stairs from there just lead to the roof. "This is the cafeteria!" Abby pushed the door open to a rather empty space. Most of the walls were windows, a peculiar design in her mind considering there wasn't really a view. Plenty of long empty tables lined the middle of the floor. They were scattered about half haphazardly as if people were moving them wherever they wanted, which was probably the case. There was a wall splitting off the dining area from the kitchen. It's regular commercial looking kitchen with multiple stoves, ovens, flat top grills, and plenty of expired canned goods. People must have just abandoned shop once the money ran out. After all, who needs eight pounds of canned green beans every night.
Camera held out, she zoomed in on the windows, one was completely shattered, but the rest covered in art. Giant murals people had no where else to paint, or perhaps right where they were meant to be displayed. "This one is a dog riding a motorcycle. Seems simple but I like how the typical family dog of a golden retriever is used here. Makes it seem like there is more than meets the eye for this dogs life. Maybe he had some bad news and uses the bike to let off steam? Maybe he used to be a bad boy before he became a family man." Abby laughed a little at her own assumptions, "No matter where he's going he looks pretty determined though, don't you think?" She panned her camera to the next one, "A set of teeth, they almost look toy like. You know those chattering teeth they always used to have in cartoons? Did anyone actually have any of those as a kid? I sure didn't. They still feel nostalgic though." She shrugged a little, camera showing the movement even if it didn't show her at the moment. "As nostalgic as teeth can be I... I guess." "Now this one, I think its my favorite of the bunch here!" It was a painting of a beautiful woman. Red hair flowed around her, covering half her face as she stood like Aphrodite in the "Birth of Venus' painting. Around her were words referencing femininity in a blocky tag like style. "I feel like this one challenges the way we think of femininity. Is it all the words around her, or is it just her and what she herself does?" She felt like she was giving an art tour through a museum. A dirty and otherwise boring museum but that didn't really matter. She tried to give each work of art equal attention, it felt wrong that most people would never get to see some of them. It also felt like a privilege. Art, in her eyes was entirely human, and meant to be shared. A way to say "I'm here! I was a person who was here. Please remember me!" Abigail would remember them. She would record it all and look back on them and appreciate them. If her normal day to day had to be so boring, she could live vicariously through others art.
She sighed, a soft sound that still seemed to echo off the walls around her. She wasn't great at editing her videos, and she didn't have a microphone, so there would probably be a lot of extra noise she was going to have to just deal with. There was a moment of stress as she worried her camera hadn't even actually been recording that whole time, but she reminded herself the red light meant that it was. It blinked slowly, casting an almost eerie light. The painting of the beautiful red head glowed with each flash. She stared, one blink, two blinks, three. Then it stopped. She scoffed in annoyance, it was literally full battery when she got here. Had she really spent that long describing the art or was her camera starting to get old? Her backpack slid off her shoulder and she rummaged around looking for a backup battery. Hopefully she had brought it along otherwise this whole video may be a bust! Her fingers dove past snacks and water before wrapping around something that felt like what she sought and she pulled it out. 'Thank God! Or me I guess for remembering to pack it.' She snuffed a laugh at her own thoughts, 'I'm so lame.' and clicked the fresh battery into place.
There came a shuffle from behind her.
Abigail jumped, spinning around in the process and flicked back on her camera. "Hel- Hello... Who's there!" Her voice shook for a second, adrenaline began to course through her veins as fear clouded her mind. She panned her camera over the whole cafeteria, hoping to catch whoever it was on video just in case. She didn't remember there being any rumors of this place being haunted. She doesn't like scary, she just liked the thrill. The pretending 'the EMF reader was actually beeping and not plain electronic device beeping' type thrill. She liked that. Not 'what if there is a stranger here that could kill me' thrill.
There was movement by the stairs. Of course it was the latter. She whipped her head. "Hey! I saw that!" One of the double doors slammed open and then quickly closed.
'Don't be a horror movie protagonist Abigail. Don't be a horror movie protagonist if its the last thing you do! Please.' She thought it as hard as she could, tried to convince her own feet to stop running towards the stairs. But there she was, still running. She needed to know who it was. Maybe one of her friends somehow followed her? Maybe she'd be that lucky.
Her camera swung at her side as she abandoned filming while she climbed the last set of steps and swung the roof door open. A breeze flittered against her face, the sun just about to dip below the horizon had little light to illuminate the space around her. She tossed her head left to right, whipping her camera back up into position .
"Where did you go! I heard you." She worried they maybe went down the stairs instead and now had her cornered on the roof. She walked out a little, jumping at another soft shuffling sound. Abby lurched around towards it. Her camera falling as she looked over something that confused her.
It was a purple bunny. It was a little large for a rabbit but otherwise looked normal. Well as normal as a purple bunny could look. A nervous laugh escaped her.
"How are you... purple?" She found herself asking no one, perhaps the bunny. Instead of answering, it instead ran, faster than a normal rabbit, past her and back down the stairs. Was this the bunny that moniker was referencing? She had to see it again! And see how it could open doors.
Abigail turned and chased after it. Maybe she could get some good video footage of it and she could show her friends! There was no way they'd believe her otherwise. The hunter threw the door open, she saw her prey darting down the stairs, seeming to stop and look back at her before continuing its flee. If she wasn't crazy, it almost seemed to have a big yellow smile warp its face.
She put her foot on the stairs, rather too hastily. She just needed to get down there and she could see it again! She needed to confirm what she saw. She put her other foot down on the stair below. Except it wasn't the stair below, it was two stairs down.
She slipped.
Abby tried to catch herself on the railing but failed miserably. Briefly she thought about how falling was a weightless feeling. She could almost say it was like floating before the landing. She could hear the bunny running down the stairs below her. Her head hit a concrete step and her world went black.