Black Rose

Chapter 25

Kate

I rushed up the rope ladder just as Bethany was climbing down. We collided and fell roughly on the floor. Caitlin scanned the dark room, but no one was in sight.

"What happened?" I asked breathlessly. In the darkness of the room, I could barely see Bethany's pale, spooked face.

Bethany just shook her head. She was shaking uncontrollably. Caitlin started up the rope ladder to see for herself, but I was quick enough to pull her back down. I gave her a small shake of my head. It was a risk that I believed was not worth taking.

"I need to see what's up there," Caitlin insisted. She began climbing up the ladder again. Using my better judgement, I stayed on the first floor with Bethany. I could not refrain Caitlin from searching for clues, no matter how gruesome or disturbing they were.

By this point, Bethany was in a calmer state. I decided to ask her what happened, but she shook her head.

Caitlin emerged a second later, a look of regret and fear plastered across her delicate features. "Bodies," she whispered, almost inaudibly.

"What?" I asked gently. If she was going to stop talking, too, I was never going to get an answer.

"There are bodies..." Caitlin repeated. "They are everywhere."

I shuddered in disgust. No wonder Caitlin and Bethany were so shaken up. Although I would do anything not to go up there, I had to do it for my friends.

I cautiously climbed the ladder. Every step I took made me more apprehensive. I was terrified, but I continued on.

Once I reached the top, I paused. Should I really go up there? I might come back down like my two friends: frightened and scarred for life. But, as I thought more about it, I might also emerge feeling brave and strong.

There was only one way to find out.

I hoisted myself up into the room, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The first thing that hit me was the smell. The room reeked of dead bodies. It was suffocating.

When my eyes adjusted, I wanted to scream as well, but held it in. There was no use panicking.

The ground was covered in dead bodies. I resisted the urge to vomit as I took in the gruesome sight. The bodies were arranged in perfectly straight lines across the floor. And, painted in large red lettering across the left wall, were two chilling words.

Rule breakers.

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"Everything is going to be okay. We'll figure out who did this. After all, that's kind of our job," I attempted to comfort my friends. We were all sitting against a wall outside of the abandoned warehouse. I shuddered at the word 'abandoned.' That warehouse was sure as heck not abandoned by any means.

After I witnessed that terrifying scene, my friends and I immediately called for backup. We explained our situation, and within ten minutes, Susan and her elite group of policemen and detectives were there.

That was an advantage of working at Black Rose. Backup was always available when you needed them, whenever and wherever you were.

Susan ushered us into a police car. She told us that we needed to rest and continue the mission tomorrow. I knew I wasn't going to sleep much tonight. The police officer was told to escort us straight back to the headquarters.

On our way back to Black Rose, the officer's radio kept crackling. The radio was so muffled that only pieces of sentences were heard. Words such as bodies, rules, and warehouse were heard coming from the radio.

Two words in particular drew my attention.

New recruit.

Did SLF recruit someone new? I shrugged away the thought. It was probably the police officers who recruited a new member to their squad. Heck, it might even have been Black Rose. We were constantly recruiting new members.

We pulled up to the headquarters and headed to our rooms. The minute I entered my room, I plopped onto the plush, white bed.

Contrary to my previous thought, I quickly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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Author's Note

Hey guys. Sorry for the short chapter. It was just a filler for the next chapter, which is going to have a lot of information and plot twists. Although this was just a filler, it has a key clue about what's going to happen next.