Henry Stein had a difficult time tearing his gaze from the dissected corpse. He felt a shiver run through his spine as he took a step away, and looked to the candles that were still lit. The man still had many questions left in his mind, but if he was to be honest, he was beginning to doubt that he'd find any answers.

'Someone had to have been here recently... but... why have only these things been touched...?' Henry gave a subconscious shake of his head and moved to take another step back. He didn't think he could stay in this room for very long. The vibe was- to say the least- tense. With a lingering shiver in his spine, he turned and moved to the side of that room, where a bare door was clearly seen. He stepped to it and, feeling hesitant, he jiggled the door knob and pushed open the door. The creak the door made brought an unpleasant sensation to his ears, but he himself was silent.

Through the door, there was a smaller room. The room itself was not interesting in any way. There were no visible words on the walls, and dust packed every crevice of each desk, making Henry mentally cringe. He wasn't a clean freak, but seeing the dust cover almost every surface brought sadness to his eyes.

Though the room appeared bare, he kept his eyes on a constant search for anything that surrounded him. 'God... why am I so paranoid...?' he thought to himself. Without thinking, his hand moved to the plush figure he had picked up only moments ago. He squeezed it, and sighed at the small deafened squeak it made. After another press and squeak, Henry smiled lightly. He couldn't help but feel glad that at least one thing here sounded alive. It was so tiny, about the size of his hand, and it also looked oddly adorable.  The man sighed and tucked it inside his pocket, before his gaze moved to some of the other halls around this place.

Henry would attempt to peek through the rooms, but whenever he opened any of the doors, a plume of dust puffed in his face. With a cough and watering eyes, he would step back.

After a few times of that happening, Henry stopped looking in every single room.

With the more hallways the man explored, the more worry there was to stack up. Every step Henry took caused a small squeak in the floorboards. He still wasn't too paranoid, though. The noises weren't all that was making him paranoid, but they were what made him feel unsettled.

Actually- scratch that. 

The noises made him feel very unsettled. But even with this feeling, Henry continued to walk. So far, he'd seen many little rooms. Henry had seen an area where many drawing desks and little light boxes that were plastered with an adorable little drawing of the devil darling that was creepily places all around the studio. Hell, he'd even been inside the pedestal room. It had a creepy, dusty feel to the air in that room. 

And one thing that he'd noticed was the fact that, of all the six stools there were, only five of them hosted an item. But one was missing. 

A plush.

A tiny, tiny plush was gone from the pedestal. Henry knew where it was though. It was in his pocket, and it was his little lucky charm that- well, surprisingly made him smile whenever it was squeaked. 

When Henry thought back to the plush, his hand instinctively moved to pick the plush out of his pocket and looked down to it. A squeak sounded again when he squeezed it. He sighed, put it back in his pocket, and kept moving on. 

While walking past the halls, there was a staircase that the man hadn't yet bothered to step down. Granted, the staircase wasn't a tall one, and it didn't host too many steps, but his knees ached at the thought of walking up and down the creaky boards. But after moving into most of the rooms, he decided to just go down to see what was there.

Creak, creak, creak, creak...

With a sigh, Henry made his way down into what seemed like a break room. There was a round, wobbly table in the far corner of the room, a door that appeared to have a closet, and even an old fashioned dart board. There were several other little things laying around the room, but he didn't pay them any mind.

In the far end of the room, near the rickety table, there was a tiny hallway that led to what seemed to be nothing. Henry's eyebrows arched in curiosity, so he moved towards it. He shivered a bit, and could see tiny speckles of airborne dust pluming the air. Waving a hand through the air, Henry squinted at the odd bits of wood chips that splayed near his shoes. He turned, and noticed what appeared to be some type of little room. 

'Now why was this little room boarded up...?'

Henry stepped over the boards, and his eyes widened a bit.

By his feet, there was now a trap door. 

But beneath the trap door, there was light. With an intrigued expression on his face, Henry eased himself closer to the door, and moved to swing the trap door open, his eyes still oddly transfixed by the light. He was nervous, of course, but he wasn't too worried about what could be down there. 

There was a loud creak like noise when the door was hefted backwards, leaving a small tunnel like area for Henry to now be able to see. 

It was swimming in a fuzzy light. Henry blinked and was now beginning to feel much more hesitant about this. But he shuffled himself to carefully climb into the small tunnel, and shivered lightly. It wasn't that the tunnel felt warm or cold, but he did feel as though something was unsettling. He could hear a faint whisper. To him, it sounded like a rustle of paper. 

'...maybe- this is another exit...?' he wondered, and took a step forward. The ground crunched like firm gravel beneath his feet. He sighed and felt a bit more at ease, and stepped down the short tunnel to where the light was even brighter. He thought there were lights in the ceiling that was making this tunnel appear so bright, but when he cautiously looked up, there was only floorboards. '...wait- so how-?' he looked towards the far end of the tunnel, and his expression changed. He felt confused.

At the end of this hallway, the light was fading.

And with the light, the man noticed something odd.

Now that the light was fading, he could clearly see the dark substance that dripped over a door. Henry's expression faltered, and he took a step back. 

'What the hell...?!'

The door in this hallway, now completely covered in ink, began to creak.

Henry stepped back once more- until a groan from the door snapped his attention. Ink was seeping behind it, before he stepped back more. 

The light was gone now, forcing Henry's eyes to try and look to the door. He flinched when a small gurgle sounded. 

One step back.

Then another.

CRACK.

The man quickly turned, and nearly stumbled on his feet when he heard the door break, causing ink to quickly pour down the small hall. Henry hitched his breath, the smell of ink putrid, before he scrambled to get out of the hallway. He felt ridges in the wall of this tunnel, and he basically clawed his way to get up and out. 

'Oh god, oh god, oh god...!'

His mind was reeling, but he felt adrenaline guide him to lift himself out of the ink pooling hallway. He felt his hand scrape against the ridged wood of the floorboards, causing a small rash, but he paid no mind to it. He lifted himself up, surprised with his own adrenaline forced strength, and kicked his foot to shut the hinged door. 

Henry was panting now. Because of the fumes of that substance, a headache was already beginning to form. He gasped lightly, and stepped towards the rickety table, before leaning himself on it, feeling pain and exhaustion from that simple escape.

Saying nothing, the man reached into his pocket and felt for the plushie to try and give it a comforting squeeze. 

But his hand met empty air. The plushie that he'd already found relaxing to keep, was gone.

End of chapter.

1435 words

(I wanted to get this out yesterday because of BATIM's 3rd anniversary but... I couldn't finish it until today. ^^; And- the ending was a bit rushed. Eh.

2-11-20