Things Forgotten Chapter 9
Link to last chapter
Nick and Barry go exploring in places they shouldn’t, Friends get made, and danger approaches.
“Well good to see someone has been keeping this place tidy,” Barry joked as he and Nick wandered through the building. On the outside it was still surprisingly intact but the inside was a different story. The main floor was enough to hold both of them and the upstairs seemed to be intact… but the majority of the floor seemed to be broken, dust was everywhere as well as a few cobwebs that had Nick on edge… and a large broken staircase to a lower level was one of the biggest things that caught their attention.
“Let’s just… investigate then get out…” Nick shuddered as he glanced at some of the cobwebs.
“Should we brave the basement or go upstairs first?” Barry asked, pointing out the two options they had. Nick took a moment, looking between the stair cases as he thought.
There seemed to be more damage to the lower area then the higher one… so by that logic.
“Basement… we’re probably gonna find our answers down there,” Nick commented, even though he already felt on edge with the amount of cobwebs on the main floor alone… nearly six years being abandoned really did a number on this place.
“Want me to grab the rope from my trunk?” Barry questioned causing Nick to pause for a moment and look to his pink haired friend for a moment with a confused look.
“Why do you have rope in your trunk?”
“Uh…. Story for a different time, my friend,” Barry laughed nervously before he rushed out of there to grab the rope. Nick stood there quietly questioning his friend. He waited for a bit and when his eyes settled on one of the cobwebs Nick began to feel his skin crawl and his heart rate begin to rise as fear crept in.
Dear God I made a mistake! Nick thought as he thought of all the insects that might even be in this place. He felt like a panic attack was going to come as his thoughts drifted to the bugs crawling up to him and-
“Got the ro-” Barry was announcing but was cut off by Nick screaming. Barry flinched but hurried over to his friend and started calming him down. It was a slow process… after all Nick did struggle and try to run away at least once during the panic attack, but Barry held him tight and rode out the attack. Barry’s seen this happen more than once during their friendship, he knew how to deal with it by this point.
“Did ya see a spider, bud?” Barry asked once Nick calmed down. The black haired teen looked away from his friend in embarrassment. Barry just sighed, knowing what that meant and lightly punched Nick’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry bout it! We see any kind of bug and I’ll kill it for you,” Barry grinned before handing one part of the surprisingly long rope to Nick. “Now let’s get to that basement!”
….
Nick didn’t know what to expect when they finally reached something that seemed like a bottom. It had taken them a little while but when they found at least some solid flooring both Nick and Barry noticed how… odd everything seemed to be. Sure it took them a little more than two hours to get down to the basement… but everything seemed to still kinda be unstable with the broken floor leading to depths below. They had to use the lights from their phones to even see anything down there but all it lead to was… confusion.
Before them stood what looked to be a broken window frame, faint traces of colored glass was seen on the floor going towards them and leaving an opening that was almost completely closed off by some fallen rubble. Nick moved the phone’s light around the opening, looking for the weaker points to exploit and move out of the way to continue moving.
“What the hell is something like this doing in a basement anyways?” Barry quietly asked as he carefully picked up one of the glass shards and looked it over completely.
“Maybe a demon wanted to repent or something,” Nick offered, his face completely straight and his voice actually sounding sarcastic. Barry paused as he tried to hold back a laugh.
“Oh my god Nick, that was bad.”
“So was the demon.” Barry couldn’t hold back his laugh at that line, he was just happy that Nick was actually starting to feel better if he could make deadpan jokes like these. Then again when both boys nearly wanted to throw rocks at each other from practically digging their way through the rubble for two hours, it was much more appreciated.
….
Rachel couldn’t help but worry the entire time she was at work. Even when she was cleaning the store ideas of everything going bad back at home kept flooding her mind and made everything she was doing seem like it was going in slow motion. The minute she was able to leave for home Rachel felt like she couldn’t get out the door fast enough
The blond rushed to get home, saying only quick goodbyes to her coworkers, rushing through the alleyway short cuts and even rushing up the stairs instead of taking the elevator to get to her apartment. The minute she got into the apartment she heard Katie AND Zack shouting angrily about something in the brunette’s room.
Rachel quickly closed the front door and hurried to the room… where she heard something that actually surprised her.
“YOU WERE SO FUCKING CLOSE THAT TIME!”
“THIS GAME IS BULLSHIT!!”
Rachel blinked in surprise while standing outside her best friend’s door… they were… getting along? And, from the sound of things, playing video games?
They’re getting along better than I thought… Rachel thought in relief a soft sigh escaping her as she heard the two angrily shouting about whatever game Katie was introducing Zack to…. Probably some indie Horror game from the sound of things.
“FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING RABBIT!!”
Definitely an indie horror game.
Rachel knocked on Katie’s door before entering… a habit she made since rooming with her best friend. The blond doubted the brunette heard it from the ranting she heard in the room, mostly from Zack but entered anyways and found the two sitting in front of the computer monitor where Zack seemed to be at the controls while Katie seemed to be egging him on.
“You got this, just don’t- SHIT CHANGE CAMERA, CHANGE CAMERA!”
“WOULD YOU STOP YELL- FUCK!!”
From what Rachel could see the screen had a kinda creepy yellow bear face on it before the screen brought them back to the game menu. Zack seemed like he was about to pick up the keyboard and throw it at the computer monitor but was stopped by Katie putting her hands on it herself and held it in place.
“... I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Rachel stated, deciding to make her presence known now before Zack decided to break anything expensive. The reactions were immediate with Zack turning completely to face her, a look of surprise clear on his bandaged face, and Katie looking surprised for a moment before giving her signature grin.
“Eh, not much. Just the Reaper shit here getting killed by children mascots, and kicking my ass in Kombat,” Katie shrugged, trying to seem aloof but looked more like she was trying to hold back some laugher as Zack glared at her.
“I swear you fucking set me up on most of that shit ya sadistic ass!”
“Only once I swear.”
Rachel couldn’t help but smile at how the two seemed to get along.
“Wanna join us Rachel? Maybe help Zack avoid another Bunny mauling,” Katie grinned, despite the glare she got from Zack.
“Maybe if you shut the fuck up!”
“Why not?” The blond responded around the same time Zack did leaving Katie to be quiet for a moment as she processed both’s words, before standing up and letting the blond take her seat.
“Alright, alright I’ll keep quiet. Don’t go blaming me if you get killed again,” Katie sarcastically said as she left the room to grab another chair for herself, leaving Zack and Rachel alone once again for a short amount of time.
Wonder what Barry and Nick are up to? Katie thought to herself as she picked the chair up.
….
“You know, I’m starting to think this was a snake worshiping church…” Barry winced as he found more decomposed bodies of the serpents underneath some of the rubble inside the underground church.
“Could have been, but Rachel never was positive for venom in her system…” Nick muttered as he tried to find anything that could give him answers, aside from the snake skeletons.
“Look Nick… I think we’re not gonna get anymore information here,” Barry sighed as he checked through a little more rubble. Before Nick could argue with him Barry’s eyes widened a bit at what he found under it. “Never mind.”
Underneath the rubble was dried blood that looked like it was part of a long trail. Nick himself had widened eyes as he hurried over and examined it. It was to much to be any of the snakes… and looked more like it had to have been from something either being dragged or… walking maybe?
“... Where’s the rest of the trail?” Nick muttered to himself as he began to move more rubble trying to find a definite path, while Barry winced and tried to stop his black haired friend.
“Dude, we should leave!” Barry practically begged, his mind having already gone to an idea of it belonging to a corpse that remained down here… along with the idea that there was a spirit not to far from it either. Barry however was ignored as Nick seemed to be lost in his own mind and was following after the trail. “NICK!!”
“One minute Barry…” Nick responded absentmindedly as he picked up the trail and began following it at a quick pace, climbing over rubble and keeping an eye out for the blood trail.
“Nick seriously! What if there’s a body?!”
“Then we have evidence for police to do a more thorough investigation.” And like that Barry knew Nick was once again in the mode where it would take a pissed off Barry to get him to back down… to bad Barry really didn’t want to break his number one personal rule of hurting his friends… nor did he want to get mad at him again. Barry already felt bad enough from earlier after all.
“Jesus Christ Nick… Wait up!” Barry began to follow after the black haired boy as quick as he could, slipping on some rubble only once as he followed after his shorter friend.
Thankfully for Barry, they didn’t have to go too far in… after all a large amount of the rubble blocked their way to go any further. Barry sighed in relief while Nick cursed his luck.
Damn it… now what am I going to do? Nick thought with a scowl on his face, before turning around to his pink haired friend with his shoulders slumped. A defeated look soon made its way onto Nick’s face and instantly Barry went to his side.
“Hey, can’t win them all buddy…” Barry trailed off, thinking about what to say next to try and raise his friend’s spirits at least a little bit. “... Like how the demon lost his church.”
“... And his pets,” Nick smirked a little as Barry smiled. The two were about to go back when Nick took notice of something poking out of the rubble. “... Does… does that look like an elevator?”
“Huh?” Barry turned to Nick with the most confused look he could muster. Nick gave an agitated sigh before pointing to what he was talking about. Barry followed that line of sight and saw a busted and definitely bent up door to an elevator partially poking out through the corner of the rubble.
From what little they both could see it was part of a rather large, older style one from the design and the rust on the metal frame.
“Do you remember seeing an elevator on the main floor?” Nick asked as he tried to push a bit of the rubble out of the way to get a better look at the door corner.
“No… there were only stairs.” Barry rubbed at one of his arms with a look of concern crossing his face.
“... Then there’s more floors beyond this one. And by process of elimination… I’d say there’s more underground floors.”
“Okay Nick, I’m gonna stop you right there buddy.” Barry grabbed Nick’s arm and made the smaller boy look him dead in the eyes. “There’s no way we can even get those doors cleared with just the two of us, let alone even descend with the only rope I brought being our main way out. Plus!... We uh… we might need to book it now if you wanna get home before curfew.”
Nick paused in his obsessive curiosity before cursing loudly as he pulled out his phone to check the time… only to see that they barely had an hour left before he would be considered late.
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?!”
“Dude I was trying to get you to leave wasn’t I?!”
And at that the two were booking it to the exit, neither one noticing the sound of extra footsteps stepping out to where the elevator once was… nor even the smallest sadistic sounding giggle as green eyes watched after the two sinners that entered the fallen play area.
….
“Aaand that’s how a pro clears a stage~” Katie proudly stated with a large grin, as she passed the controller over to the other two residents of the apartment.
“... Katie that was a tutorial stage…” Ray pointed out as the official “Stage one” Screen popped up onto the menu asking if they would like to continue.
“I barely know shit about these and even I could have cleared that easy!” Zack exclaimed with slight annoyance that only grew when Katie waved him off.
“Details, details. It was still S ranked, and by God that is the best rank to get in hard mode my friends~”
“.... This is the game where you broke down crying once when you failed a boss battle multiple times isn’t it?” Rachel questioned as she took over the controls herself as Katie flinched a little from Zack’s laugh and the question.
“N-No, it wasn’t crying Ray… It was frustration I swear!”
It’s been at least two days now since Zack was clearly now staying with the girls and Katie seemed to warm up to him… while he seemed to have started tolerating her after their less then pleasant meeting.
Then again... Katie was always someone who warmed up to people quickly. Rachel thought to herself as she began to play the first stage after paying attention to how her friend played. After all… the day she and I became friends, she would hang around and talk to me like we’ve been friends for years.
Rachel didn’t remember it to clearly still and some moments were still hazy from her blackouts, but that was one that could easily come to the blonde even before she stopped taking her medicine. Katie made it rather hard to forget as she would always come up to her with determination to make her feel comfortable, and to be her friend.
She remembered being brought into the middle school kinda late into the school year. There weren’t many people that wanted to talk to her or seemed to just completely pity the blonde. What with her lifeless eyes and quiet demeanor… along with having to have an adult with her to gently guide her where she needed to go or help provide some notes to help her along.
Rachel had only been there a few days but already people were passing her off as a weird kid and some seemed to avoid her… until someone came walking right up to her on the third day from a small group of girls and held a hand out to her during lunch.
“Hey! Why don’t you sit with us today?” the tanned skinned girl had given her the biggest grin Rachel had ever seen directed at her… and something in the blonde’s mind clicked and almost replaced the kind, rounded face with someone older… someone she couldn’t quite place at the time but it was enough to bring a little bit of life back into her blue eyes.
“... Okay.” Rachel had slowly raised her hand to take the brunette's hand only to flinch back when the other girls started talking around the same time.
“Katie what the heck?” One of the other girls asked in an annoyed tone.
“She’s so… weird.” The other one piped up making Rachel’s gaze lower and almost completely retract her hand… till Katie took her hand.
“Guys, she’s new and a little weird so what? Maybe she’s a secret agent or something cool, you never know!” Katie exclaimed as she put her free hand onto her hip when addressing the other two girls before turning back to Rachel with a big smile. “We can sit at a different table from them if you want!”
The other girls seemed to object a little to Katie’s decision to hang out with the new girl but she didn’t seem to pay them any attention. Rachel didn’t know what to say as the brunette brought her over to the lunch line and they started to grab some food.
“... You… Don’t have to do this…” Ray muttered catching Katie’s attention pretty quick as she grabbed a pudding cup for the last thing on her tray.
“Do what?”
“... Argue with friends… and sit with me…”
“Who those girls? Hardly know them actually.” Rachel looked up to Katie in surprise from the relaxed tone.
“But…”
“Nah, we do a few projects together in class and sit together in lunch is all. Their nice but they don’t like manga and are too cool for ‘Kid’s shows’. Fullmetal Alchemist isn’t a kid’s show, it’s played at night you dummies.”
Rachel barely understood what half those things Katie said were but was still a little surprised as the two went to find a lunch table together. The brunette doing most of the talking but also getting Rachel to talk here and there… and half way through their lunch Rachel couldn’t help but feel herself smile a little for the first time in a long while as Katie seemed to get so excited when asked about “Fullmetal Alchemist”.
After that day it seemed to be set in stone for the two girls. Katie would always group up with her in the classes they had and would always sit and talk with her at lunch… hell after the first week Katie even invited Rachel over to her home and it became a nearly everyday thing for them even through High School.
“Ray are you even paying attention right now?” Zack’s voice seemed to bring the blonde out of her thoughts and taking notice that she had been barely paying attention to the game and was now close to dying in game… and that Katie wasn’t in the room anymore.
“.... Sorry… I spaced out…”
“I’ll fucking say… you were smiling when those demons jumped out and tried killing ya. Like what the fuck Ray? I know you wanna die and shit but I don’t think that’s how this game works.”
“Sorry… did… Katie leave to get ready?”
“Bitch Queen left in general a while ago…. How fucking spaced out were you?”
“Oh… sorry, I got lost in some memories.”
“As long as they ain’t about the eye creep I’m good.” Zack’s shudder didn’t go unnoticed at all when mentioning the old doctor… but at the mention of him Rachel lost her grip on the controller and fear entered her eyes as she remembered the most important thing she forgot to mention to Zack.
“Zack…”
“Eh?”
“Doctor Danny is…”
“GOD FUCKING DAMN IT! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TRY TO KILL THAT FUCKER BEFORE HE STAYS DEAD?!” Zack roared in rage, thinking she was going to say “Still alive” and was about to go out to find the deranged doctor… only to be stopped by the blonde shaking her head and shuddering a bit.
“... He’s dead… but like you… He came back.”
….
Barry had been having an uneasy feeling since leaving the ruined building with Nick… and it wasn’t from the fact he had a Date with Katie tomorrow, nor the fact of the text she sent him saying that the ghost that tried to kill her was now “Cool”... or even the fact he couldn’t contact Nick due to the black haired kid having his phone taken from him by his parents for three days… no it was more like… someone was keeping tabs on him. Watching him. Stalking him.
If he could and wasn’t feeling as serious about it, the pink haired boy would have played “Somebody’s Watching Me” at full blast and probably made jokes about it somehow… but right now he felt like he was some kind of prey being stalked by a predator.
N-Nothing’s happened since the feelings began Barry… let’s just go visit one of the girls at work! Yeah then the feeling will go away for sure! Barry thought with a more confident smile crossing his face as he grabbed his coat for the cold winds going on outside today as well as grabbing the keys to his car.
Besides… Rachel did say the Bakery she worked at was hiring… Maybe I should see if I’m not to late on that.
With a destination in mind Barry nodded to himself with a smile crossing his face, despite the feeling of still being watched making him feel like the hairs on the back of his neck were rising.
It was about an hour drive and thankfully he felt a bit more relaxed while driving… well aside from trying to find a parking space in order to walk the rest of the way to the Bakery. The one thing Barry hated the most about the city… parking ramps in general. Thankfully once he did find a spot he parked and immediately went out to navigate his way to Rachel’s place of employment… and if his timing was right he would probably also get there just as Rachel did or even a little after she does.
Maybe I should ask her in person about that ghost in her apartment… After getting a job application of course! Oh and making sure she’s doing well of course… Haven’t really seen her since…
“Shit stop thinking about it Barry… Nick’s obsession’s bad enough, don’t go freaking out over ghosts and churches…” the pink haired boy muttered to himself as he ran a hand through his hair, the roots now looking more orange with his natural color coming through again. Taking a deep breath the boy slapped himself across the face for good measure… before letting out a pained noise as he accidently went a little to hard with the slap.
“Note to self… Restraint! Ahh!”The pink haired young man rubbed at the spot gingerly as he made his way to his destination. As he left he didn’t notice a woman that had been watching him scoff and seem to follow him a little more before she paused and turned her attention down an alley on the other side of the street… where she saw a hooded figure smashing things up… and looks like he had recently killed someone as evident by the body partially hidden by a broken box and trash that had been thrown around.
The woman’s one hand, covered by a red silk glove, clutched at the seemingly eternally dripping stump that was her missing arm… and crossed over the more large fatal wound that was carved deep onto her torso through her black suit and staining the once white blouse with her own blood, and making the once red tie even darker in some spots.
Green eyes narrowed in anger at recognition of the hooded figure but still she kept her distance… after all they were both in the same boat now.
Shame it wasn’t me who killed you Zack… I would have loved to see how you squirmed till the end. That bitch on the other hand… With her black heels making no sound on the pavement as she chose to follow after Barry just until she could confirm the boy wouldn’t dig any deeper like his friend was clearly doing if what she heard was true. A sadistic smile crossed her face, red stained lips quirked and well done eyes flashing with nothing but pure hatred framed by blond hair with pink tips as the image of a young Rachel came to the front of her mind.
I’ll kill her to my heart's content!