A Weird Reality

Chapter 10: An office of animals

Axavia woke up, with Jovial in her arms, in what seemed to be a big office building. She's somewhere new again and it's still not home. The sky was dark and cloudy, making the dimly lit building feel darker. Looking out the window, Axavia could see an outdoor section in the middle of the building. The office surrounded the section on all sides, but with no ceiling above the outside section.

Axavia stood up and carried, the now awoken, Jovial in her arms as the pair explored the office building. Axavia noticed that the halls and rooms would be made of different materials every now and then. Sometimes it would be made of wallpaper and have laminated wooden slats. Then after a bit of walking it would have concrete walls and flooring. Other times it would have brick walls or carpet floors. What's more the halls look like they were oddly constructed. Like in a game where they would clip into each other. It looked very unnatural.

The office was silent, save for the slight sound from the flickering lights, as they explored the building. Lighting from outside gave off a green hue. The light that poured in from outside outlined everything with a green hue, including Axavia and Jovial. Axavia noticed something out of the corner of her eye as she walked past a window. She stopped in her tracks and walked back towards the window. She peered outside and noticed the shadow of a horse in a window across the way.

Axavia was puzzled as to why a horse may be in the building. She could hear the faint sound of neighing echoing through the halls, presumably coming from the horse. She wondered how a horse could've gotten into the building. She turned away from the window, continuing her exploration of the building. As she strolled through the building, Axavia would occasionally hear the sounds of other animals ringing through the building. At one point she heard the sound of a whale call close by. The room in which it came from was filled with what seemed to be almond water. She could see through the room's window, a collection of sea creatures.

Axavia watched the sea animals swim around in awe and confusion. The room looked surprisingly huge from what Axavia could tell. She wondered how they got in there and where they could've come from. She decided to go to the room next door to take a break and document everything she's come across since last time. She sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall, as she took the small notebook out and filled it with her experiences. Doodles of what she has seen decorated the sides of the pages. Axavia made notes of the unusual creatures she saw before as well. She decided to also make a page about Jovial as she still wasn't sure what to make of it. For now she slightly trusted Jovial, it has been her companion this whole time after all. There was no one else with her but the peculiar creature. She wrote down "not hostile" with a question mark next to it.

Axavia closed the journal once she was done, putting the items back into her bag. She realized she was feeling quite dehydrated and pulled a bottle of almond water out of the pocket broach, downing the whole bottle. It was refreshing having something to drink. She rested in the room for a little while more before exiting and continuing their journey.

The pair heard a faint mumbling sound coming from around the corner at the end of the hall. It sounded like a person talking though the words weren't clear. Axavia cautiously crept down the hallway, hiding Jovial behind her. She peered around the corner and saw a faintly humanoid figure standing in the middle of the hallway. Axavia slowly pulled her pocket knife out of her skirt pocket, just in case she would need it. The figure turned around, noticing her. It started running towards her fiercely. Axavia jumped, startled by the action, and turned to run away from it. Eventually the humanoid figure caught up with her and grabbed her left arm. It started tearing at her flesh. Axavia screamed out in pain while quickly slashing deep into the creature's weird flesh. The creature jumped back, letting go of her arm, allowing Axavia to run away while it was stunned.

With Jovial following closely behind, the two hid in a bathroom that Axavia found. She slammed the door shut behind her, sliding down the door and sitting on the tiled floor. Her breaths were quick and shallow as she panted. The sound of her quickened heartbeat filled her ears. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to catch her breath, adrenaline still pumping through her. She rolled up the sleeve on her left arm to look at the damage. The top two layers of skin had been peeled away leaving the tissue structure exposed. The back of her hand and most of her arm, up to her elbow, was missing flesh. The wound was bleeding quite a bit. She made sure to clean up the blood that had dripped onto the floor.

Axavia slowly got up from the floor, her body shaking still from the fear and adrenaline rush. She walked over to the sinks, turning the faucet on, the sound of water pouring out filled the room. She could hear the slight buzz coming from the lights overhead as she washed the large wound. Her tears dripped down into the sink as she winced at the stinging sensation the soap caused. Axavia powered through the pain, her focus solely on taking care of the exposed wound before it could become infected. She could see Jovial looking at her out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't tell what its expression was as it's hard for it to express much with just its eyeball body. If she were to guess though, she assumed Jovial was worried about her.

Jovial watched her intently as she took care of the wound. She let it air dry once she was finished washing it. Once dry she took a small container of petroleum jelly that her mother had given her before and applied it to the exposed wound carefully. She took out some gauze and medical tape from her bag and started dressing the skin tear. She laid down the gauze all along the exposed tissue and carefully wrapped it with self adhesive medical tape. She made sure the bandages were wrapped tightly enough around her arm and hand.

Axavia took some time to calm down in the bathroom, wiping away her tears as they fell. She sniffled quietly as she gently hugged her arm in an attempt to comfort herself. She could hear the figure mumbling outside in the hall so she decided to hide away in the bathroom until it passed. Jovial nuzzled her face, trying to comfort her. She sniffled and smiled softly at Jovial. She brought Jovial into a soft hug, snuggling into her embrace.

Half an hour passed and Axavia could no longer hear the mumbling from the figure. She carefully peeked out into the hall. There were no signs of the hostile creature being around nearby. The two exited the bathroom and pressed on, trying to find the exit to this place. They looked around many empty office rooms and came upon a few random animals as they continued on. One of the doors they opened didn't lead to an office room however. The door led to what looked like a pool room. Axavia stepped through the door with Jovial in her arms, wondering what they would find in the next area.