The Sundrop & The Moondrop

- Chapter 38, Sunset -

- MoonStar's perspective -

I sprinted towards the ladder as fast and as silently as I could, upon reaching the old ladder I began to climb it carefully. After I reached the top I looked around and saw it, the vent that me and Sundrop went through that lead to the other hallway's wooden platform area. I crawled quietly through the dark, rusty vent and then the one in front of it. After I reached the hallway I nearly slipped yet I managed to hang on to the edge just in time, Sundrop and that strange being must've heard me slip as I heard footsteps walking towards me. I quickly pulled myself up so they wouldn't see anything then watched as they walked by. "Moony? you okay?.. where are you?" Sundrop said, he looked back as his look-alike continued forward, he winked at me and then continued walking as if nothing happened. Once the footsteps were un-hearable I carefully but swiftly made my way towards the vent the strange being was guarding, after I reached it I looked back ..there's no turning back now..  I thought, then I began to crawl...

I crawled forward and forward, the vent split off to many dead ends but one.. one of them must have something there. I didn't go for the most straight forward path that went opposite me, that's way too obvious. I reached a point where I had to choose, forward or right. I chose to crawl right and immediately when I turned right there was another turn right so I followed the vent for what seemed like 10 minutes before I placed my hand upon charred, burnt wood. This must be it, this is what they were guarding.. I exited the vent and was met with a strange yet familiar room, the room looked nearly exactly like the daycare back where me and Sundrop came from. There was a beautiful velvety curtain ahead of where the vent was yet something was off... it was all burnt and torn up. The floor, the curtain, the walls.. even the ceiling. I guess this explains their burnt look, they must've been in this room when there was a fire here..  I took a further step into the small room and looked around. The door was blocked off by rubble on the outside and there was another old, broken ladder going down to the rest of the room. There was another vent in the room beside a desk that looked broken beyond repair, some pieces of the desk remained attached to the wall and seemed to hold up fine. There was several burnt pieces of paper on the floor and a chair that seemed to be missing its legs and several pieces of its cushion cloth. The walls were lined with scratches and burn marks, a few pieces of paper had been torn down and torn up aswell.

There was a lonely storage chest within the room that seemed to be one of the only things not too badly damaged in this tiny room, I still haven't even explored the area beyond the curtain yet.. I looked inside the wooden box and began scrambling through layers and layers of paper. A few of the torn papers that were on the wall were in here, I found the lower half to several of the old drawings that were lining the walls now painted with despair. There was one paper in the chest that stood out amongst the old drawings books and the other bits and pieces they had stored inside.. it was a drawing of a sun. The sun in this old picture seemed to be setting as there was an arrow pointing to the bottom right corner, well, where the bottom right corner was. The bottom right corner was burnt and so were the rest of the edges. In the drawing there was also a stick figure with the head of a sun, above it there was the word Sunset. Beside the sunny stick figure there was a small child-like stick figure and above it, it said a child's name... the name however was crossed out, scribbled upon and scratched. The picture seemed to be taped back together as it was once torn into pieces, shreds of the beautiful art it once was.

So this is their name..?  I put the drawing back and carefully closed the storage unit, I then turned around to climb the ladder so I could go back up to the curtain and the vent. It seems that if I want to explore the rest of this area I have to go through the curtain.. the door's blocked off from the outside so that's not an option..  I then pulled the curtain back and was horrified by what I saw... the whole room was wrecked, scratched up and sealed off. It was horribly burnt and what I assume used to be play structures was now a mess of melted plastic that had solidified again and burnt rubble. The place was filthy, messy and decaying. Then.. I heard a noise behind me...

I turned around and saw the strange being with Sundrop behind them. They pointed at me and then at the room, they were probably asking why I was here but I had no words for them.. all I could do is get the small white marble out my pocket and begin to fiddle with it while looking at the charred and ashy floor. Sundrop was also looking down at the floor "..S-sorry, I couldn't stop them from trying to f-find you.." he said, all the strange figure seemed to be doing is staring at me with their glowing, vibrant eyes..

- Chapter 38 End -

(Just wanted to say hi! also, the strange figure's name is Sunset.. I'm pretty sure most of you have already guessed this by the time you're reading my side note, anyways! hope you enjoyed this chapter! and remember, hydration is important and reality is an illusion! Bye!)