Young Writers Society

Clarice looked up at the ceiling before sighing. Whatever was up in the ceiling with Kaelynn, she doubted it was good. But she had other problems to worry about; this strange room, most notably. Holding her sickle at the ready, she followed Raiden inside. So much for being the first one. She looked around the room.

"What the—"

The room was big.

That was Gabriel's first thought when he stepped inside. It was bigger than he expected it to be. Not impossibly big, but big enough and bare enough to be startling. He was sure Taber, who had an already strong sense of smell, was bound to pick up what was just a little worrying - underneath that weird decomposing smell, there was a smell of blood.

Sebastian and Issac didn't take long to enter. Almost immediately, they covered their noses. Sebastian had always had a decent sense of smell, and Issac was like him to a degree.

"I think someone got murdered," Gabriel casually said. Death wasn't anything new to him, and humans didn't matter too much. (Expect Sebastian. And him, but he was gone because of his kind's stupid, stupid beliefs. Which, ironically enough, reinforced his already dark view of humans.)

"It smells like blood, doesn't it? And this room had to be hidden for a reason," he added, wandering around the room in search of the stench's source.

All of what Bo was overhearing did nothing to assure him of the competence of everyone who'd hopped into the mysterious room so willingly, nor did he feel safe in this hotel anymore. Not that he really did in the first place, but murder, werewolves (even painfully nice ones), and people with sickles as weapons and ghost hunting hobbies were not what he was used to. Common sense told him to leave before he became the inevitable first victim in this horror movie. But his protective instincts told him if he left these guys might not make it. Though he didn't know if that was an insult to them or not.

"If someone got murdered in there, and ghosts are really a thing, it might be a good idea to at least be careful," Bo advised, still looking up at the ceiling, trying to be ready for whenever Kaelynn found them. Or, hopefully catch her, if history was going to repeat itself.

Kaelynn was now on the landing when she realized the three doors reminded of her a creepier version of a game show. There were three shut doors with polished knobs. The signs of what could be behind each door were not helping Kaelynn as there were none. She was out of luck. Though, she did figure she could open every door once to figure out a way to get to everyone else.

She stepped around the hole in the floor and to the first door. Twisting the handle, there was immense fear that there would be spiders or something scary just lurking there, waiting. She didn't fear death as much as she used to as Kaelynn traveled on surprise, but this house was testing that. Like, it knew something. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

Well into the room, there was black blobs that moved slowly across the floor. The whole entire room smelled like death. It caused Kaelynn's stomach to turn inside out. As she tried to close the door, one of the black blobs attempted to grab her leg, as if pulling her into the black blob fest. Kaelynn screamed, knowing this would be the end of it.

Bo tensed at the sound of the scream. Kaelynn was in trouble. Rushing without thinking, he hurried out the door, ran to the pile of rubble, leapt up the hole and pulled himself up to the second floor. As he got to his feet, he heard the rickety creaks of the weak flooring below him. If this couldn't hold the girl, it wasn't likely to hold him for very long, so he stayed close to the walls where there was the most support.

"Kaelynn!" He shouted, hurrying down the sides of the hall, looking forward to a door that was open down the hall. With his heart racing, he pulled out his gun - hidden inside his jacket - and leapt into the doorway.

Kaelynn felt a tingling sensation in her leg as she finally got the black blob off her foot. Bo was now up here, firing at the blobs with his gun. The sounds of the bullets and the hissing of the black blobs caused Kaelynn to back away as far as she could. This was all too much for her. It seemed as though every time she got into trouble, someone had to save her. She should've just stayed with the group. She should've just went along with everyone. There were a whole bunch of should'ves that continued to rise as Kaelynn pulled her legs to her chest. There was a welling emotion that dug its nails into her skin. She didn't want Bo to see her cry so, quickly, she uncurled herself and hopped through the hole, without saying a thank you to the guy who saved her.

"W-wait! Don't -" Bo was still panicking after seeing the phatom blobs of whatever they were, and in that panic, he hurried after Kaelynn, right behind her. "Kaelynn! He ran up to her, and grabbed her shoulder. "Are you okay? Did those things hurt you?"

Kaelynn sniffled and cast her gaze downwards. "They didn't harm me. Almost ate me alive, though." She added a pitiful laugh afterward and looked up. "Thanks for bringing your gun and killing them." Without much of a thought, Kaelynn wrapped her arms around Bo and hugged him.

This being his second surprise hug of the day, Bo still felt unprepared for it. Blinking a few times, he quickly tucked his gun into his belt and - a little less awkwardly this time - returned the hug.

"Uhh, no problem, kid. How about you stay with us, this time." On second thought, she probably shouldn't stay too close to the others who ran so willingly into potential danger. "Or uh, just stay close to me. How bout that? We'll keep an eye out for each other, 'kay?"

Kaelynn nodded and hopped off the mound of rubble. The doors could wait for another time because who knows what was behind them. She looked at the wall again, where she previously was and noticed a door. That wasn't there before, Kaelynn thought. Stepping closer through the hole with Bo behind her, she realized this was where the gang had gone through. As they were making their way through, there was a sudden groan of wood. Before Kaelynn could realize what was happening, the door they had just entered through closed and now darkness swirled around the cavern.

The door slammed behind them. Bo pawed around for the doorknob and tried to open it. It wasn't budging. For a rickety old motel that door was sure secure. "Okay... so I know I said stick together but I didn't say let's walk into other scary parts of the hotel." He pulled his gun with one hand, and pulled out his phone with a flashlight in the other, illuminating what looked like a hall. "So let's maybe think about not doing this next time. But for now, we're just gonna find the exit to this guy."

While covering his nose, Raiden scrunched his face up.
"Ew. Was this room the body dump, or did they just not care to hide the body properly?" he asked, getting the hint of blood in his nostrils, as he shuffled around. He didn't want to touch any of the furniture either, lest there be some old blood left splattered on it.

Sebastian crossed his arms as he looked around the room, studying it for some sort of clue that would explain the smell of the blood and the decomposition. He was sure the two were connected, but the unknown smell had no resemblance to the smell of a body decomposing. He knew that smell. Issac and Gabriel did, too, certainly better than he did.

So that meant something else was going on.

He was about to mention that helpful little observation when he heard someone entering the room. Turning, he saw Bo and Kaelynn climbing through the hole. "Hi," he said to them, giving the two a smile.

"Hi there," Raiden replied, giving a wave to the two newcomers to the room.
"How was your exploration mission?"

Clarice heard the door open and close. She whipped around, raising her sickle slightly, only to breathe a sigh of relief when she realized that it was just Bo and Kaelynn. She muttered a quick apology and lowered her sickle, then turned back around and resumed looking around the room.

"There's something off about this smell..." She said. The smell of blood was strong, to the point where it almost masked the other, stranger smell. Almost. It was decomposition, sure, but not the right kind of decomposition. Something strange was going on.