Hercules ✖ styles

three

Macie

      "Beautiful name," he said, that smile I've grown used to seeing now returning. Thankfully he didn't mention the whole incident afterwards as we just continued on our way.

      I assume that he was taking me to my seat, but, then again, I'm not exactly sure what Niall was up to. All I know is that I managed to lose him after turning around for a few moments. Then I was standing all alone in the middle of a dimly lit corridor.

      "Niall? Where'd you go?" I called out, looking around. The couple of doors that stretched down the hallway remained closed and I didn't even receive an answer. I officially lost him.

      I probably could have just gone back the way we came and then asked for further directions from someone else, but the journalist in me wanted to keep investigating. Maybe I could find something useful for my story down this hall.

      Swallowing any fears that I had, I walked straight down the hall, trying my best to silence my footsteps as much as humanly possible. This was the tricky part about being a journalist - sometimes you have to snoop around in places you're not supposed to be and report things that you were never supposed to see. Getting caught is the worst thing that can happen in a journalist's entire career; it can tarnish your reputation and quite possibly cause major lawsuits with your workplace, so you have to prevent it by taking every single precaution necessary.

      I hugged my bag closer to my body to prevent it from slapping against my thigh, as I tested the various doors. There seemed to be an overabundance of closets and not enough rooms as I made it down the hall.

      There was one door left. I drew in a breath as my hand found the door handle, pushing on the heavy door.

      This isn't a closet.

      I released the breath I was holding as I entered the room, my eyes adjusting to the funny lighting. The room I stepped in to wasn't much of a secluded room at all but rather a locker room. There were lockers going around the perimeter avoiding the double doors on the other side of the room, their molten red color giving off an 'in-your-face' feeling, along with a few rows jutting out here and there in misshapen rows. Wooden benches sat between the rows of lockers, most of them containing nothing at all.

      The locker room was deserted, which is why I let the door slam shut behind me, releasing my death grip on my bag.

      "Just great," I grumbled, starting towards the doors on the other side of the room. I practically wasted my time looking around and lost the one decent person in this place while I was at it.

      My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a loud clang followed by a low rattling noise. I turned toward the direction the noise seemed to come from, a knot forming in my stomach.

      "Niall? Is that you?" I called out, quite pathetically might I add. Fear must have had a good grip on my vocal chords because the words I meant to shout actually came out in a hushed whisper, barely audible to my own ears. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I started down one of the rows of lockers.