Wrapped in Bandages

Over the Water

 Seeing his friend hold such a look in her eyes unsettled him. Chance could tell that it wasn't just his room, but what lay beyond as well. He couldn't see what Dez was viewing; he couldn't feel what she was experiencing. How he wished he could understand better what Dez was going through, yet he had grown numb to this place. Sure, it had its horrors when he was a child and first introduced to this place, but now he had grown accustomed to it. Dez's eyes, though, slowly began to rekindle some of that fear.

Over the years, his mind had accepted this place as his room. The halls were just hallways with faded paint, while the white doors just led to more rooms like his. This illusion had consumed his entire perspective. To him this was normal. As for Dez, this was far from ordinary; she saw the truth of this place and experienced its full impact.

"Like I said before, Dez, we'll get out of here," Chance reassured her, trying to keep his own mind off the true appearance of the sublevel, which was resurfacing from the depths of his mind.

"I guess that you're right," she replied, pulling the screwdriver out of her inner jacket pocket and handing it over to Chance.

Sending another smile her way, he approached the air vent, which was about three feet above the metal desk. Getting on top of the desk, he reached up and began removing the screws. When all four were out, he placed the screws in his pants pocket, set the vent on the desk and stepped aside for Dez. Surprisingly, the ventilation was roomier than she would've expected. Climbing into the space, she moved forward and saw it branch into paths up ahead. Frankly, though, she was glad to have worn her jacket, for it was cold inside the vents.

When she reached the split in the paths, she turned around to see Chance crawling in backwards. At first she was puzzled by this, and she could just barely see around his form. He was putting the vent back in place. Moreover, he somehow managed to get it to stay without putting the screws back in. Besides, he couldn't place the screws back from the inside of the vent anyway. Once he reached where she was at, she moved aside, so he could position himself to face the correct direction.

"Which way should we go?" Dez inquired, glancing between the paths.

"I'm not sure. Either way, we're bound to discover something new. I'd say let's go with our gut feeling."

"Then let's take the path going straight," Dez suggested, and Chance nodded in response.

Taking the lead, Chance moved forward and became slightly annoyed with the constant cold metal against his fingers. He was used to his room maintaining a low temperature, but this was worse. Obviously, it was because they were inside the vents. Regardless, he pushed it aside as best he could and kept his ears open to any sounds.

So far, they had seen rooms similar to his on the other side of the vents. While others had disturbing conditions with regards to the furniture in them. Some mattresses were torn up, while pillows were ripped to shreds. Whatever individuals lived in the rooms, previously, were not content guests. Likewise, some pieces of furniture like the desk or dresser were tipped over and looked to be bashed in at certain points along the wood and metal.

Passing by them, Dez could only assume that there would be scratches on the outside of the doors. What had happened, though, for such chaos to take over the rooms? It made the already alarming atmosphere even worse. The shivers going up her spine weren't only from the air conditioning but also from what her eyes witnessed. All along she had been living atop a place like this. While she was drawing in her room, some monstrosity could've been occurring down here. Any optimism that she had before was now dissipating.