It was a clear evening, not many clouds in the sky, the bluish hue was drawing to darkness, and the moon was climbing up the dim lights.
The road was still wet, and the tires were crushing the fallen leaves after a light shower.
Mariya was driving and Daniel was in the front seat, both silent, where Daniel had anticipation on top of nervousness.
Mariya was just looking down on the road, waiting for it to end. She can't wait to see this end; for now, she must reach there.
"So? What's there?" Daniel tried to break the ice, but Mariya shut him down.
"Might keep that mouth shut until we reach there; I can't promise I'll tell the truth every time."
Thus the journey continued for half an hour, and as the darkness completely took over, they reached their destination.
Screech!
The car stopped on an old driveway.
Both of them got out of the car; as Daniel was stepping out, he took a good look at the building.
"Gosenji Apartm-"
A broken signboard upon a tattered corridor without doors, with police tape sealing the entrance and a satellite surveillance camera on the corner.
The building was in ruins; the span of 18 years without any work on the building turned it into a den of insects and reptiles.
No window was still intact, and most of the wall was covered in moss and algae.
Every inch of the building was crying in horror, warning anyone who got too close.
"Afraid?" Mariya opened the trunk of her car and pulled out a duffel bag.
"Yes, very—" If only Daniel could speak the truth, he would've said, "No, of course not!" But for him, this is now his reality.
"Too much honesty sucks, I guess." She opened the duffle bag and pulled out two large torches and then a wire cutter.
She walked up to the surveillance camera and cut the wire.
"Well then, now no one will know you were here." Mariya put the wire cutter aside and pulled out the gun.
"But—they definitely know someone is here right now."
Daniel stuttered.
"You really think they give a fuck?" She chuckled.
She threw a torch to him, saying, "Take this and follow me."
She walked under the tapes and entered the building while Daniel was getting his heart ready.
"Alright, it's too late to go back." Daniel turned the torch on and followed.
As they walked into the corridor, the echoes of water dripping from the ceiling were getting louder.
There were insects all around, and many were flying right into the torch, but the more they came, the more it felt like they were guiding him.
The building wasn't that high; it only had three floors, but they were going up.
"We'll take the left from the corridor and climb down the stairs." Mariya pointed forward with her finger.
Daniel gulped his spit and followed her in silence. The eerie silence was stinging him right in the chest, but all he could do was walk.
Both walked down and finally reached a black door.
The moment Daniel saw the door, his whole body screamed in fear; it asked him to run, but a strange pull was inviting him.
"You see this door? This is where it all started." She hovered the torch on the door, the keep-out tapes on top of nailed planks, if there was anything that yelled, 'You shouldn't go in.'
It was this door.
Mariya dropped the duffle bag and pulled out a crowbar and threw it at Daniel.
"Open it."
"Who? Me?" The cold sweat covered Daniel's face.
"I am already tired of driving… And you want me to do everything?" Mariya glared at him.
***
After spending a few minutes pulling the planks out, it was time to go inside.
Mariya wore latex gloves and threw a pair at Daniel, then walked to the knob and turned to him.
"This might be a little disturbing for you, I warned you, but you need to know what we are dealing with. As we walk into the door, I'll tell you what happened here." Mariya opened the door and walked in.
Daniel followed him, slowly walked in, and stopped. She faced Daniel, lit up a cigarette, and then spoke.
"It was March 11th, 2000. We got a call from the complex manager, we reached him, and we came down to the basement."
Daniel looked around the basement; it was an empty space, completely empty with no sign of life anywhere.
It irked him.
"When we opened the door, the sight churned our stomach; this case was nothing like we saw—" as she narrated, Daniel was tired of looking around.
There was nothing.
"Um—sorry for interrupting, but I can't see anything here, like—it's empty; there is nothing here." Daniel was a bit happy. 'I was worried for nothing."
"Oh, sorry, they cleaned the floor after some time." She picked up the torch again. ,
"Like there was anything important there," she turned the torch up.
Daniel followed the light, and the moment he saw the ceiling, his throat dried up.
There were 12 meat hooks hanging from the ceiling, and along with that, there was blood and words written in blood on top of it.
With that, there was a strange circle, like a diagram drawn for a ritual; there were red strings all around the chains, like it was made from the flesh.
The etchings of the one drawn between the circle at first glance were hard to understand.
"What are the hooks you're thinking of? When we came in here, the 12 bodies were hanging from it. The hook pierced the tongue and came out from the neck.
But the strange thing was that not a single blood drop was on the floor; all of it was on the ceiling, and when we calculated the blood used for etching, it was precisely the amount of 6 people."
Daniel immediately moved the light down; it was like he saw something Mariya didn't.
Daniel ran outside the room, and suddenly the tattoo under his tongue started bleeding.
Mariya followed Daniel and patted his back and saw his mouth covered in blood.
"I don't know what it was.? I can't understand, but
What does it have to do with me?"
He spoke, he panted, and blood poured out.
"The better question is where the blood of the remaining 6 people went…"
With this, Mariya started walking and climbed up to the terrace; Daniel slowly followed her silently.
She opened the door of the terrace and pointed at the rooftop.
"Here is the remaining blood of 6 people."
It was the same symbol under Daniel's tongue, drawn with blood.